All the works on this week's playlist are available as scores with parts in the UWM Music Collection! While they're all chamber works, they vary widely in ensemble make-up and musical style. One of the pieces, Barvni Krog (Colour Circle) by Lojze Lebič is part of our collection of contemporary classical music by Slovenian composers. Chen Yi's Septet for erhu, pipa, percussion, and saxophone quartet blends Chinese and Western sounds, while Martin Bresnick's Fantasia on a Theme by Willie Dixon combines classical chamber music with inspiration from blues and rock. Anthony Plog's Music for Brass Octet explores the sounds available to an ensemble of trumpets and trombones, while the work by Pierre Boulez foregrounds the flute against a small mixed ensemble.
Using the catalog to find chamber music for a range of ensemble sizes is tricky. In library catalogs, music is categorized in ways that aren't always intuitive. The ensemble or genre of a work is usually listed under "Subject," but there's no one term for chamber music for 7-12 players.
A better option for this purpose is to use the "Virtual Browse" feature of Search@UW. In the Library of Congress call number system used at UWM, all septets will be located together (M700-799), as will octets (M800-899) and larger chamber ensembles (M900-999). "Virtual Browse" to see what would be located on the shelves around the piece you're interested in.
Once I identified scores in the library, it turned out to be harder to locate contemporary chamber music recordings on Spotify. For a longer playlist from library streaming services, see the "More listening" box.
Composition in the digital world : conversations with 21st-century American composers by 
