Music by Little Known Classical Composers

[Art Rock]

Robert, you are probably aware that "little known" will eventually (as in right now, in this post!) raise the question, "little known to whom?"

So I'm asking, to whom are Sullivan, Scarlatti, Cimarosa, Berwald, Stenhammer, and Tallis "little known"?

Otherwise, I'd suppose that most music of the past hundred years or so is little known to most people who call themselves classical listeners.

If anyone here, for instance, knows the music of any of these very prominent composers, I would be very surprised and vastly pleased:

Ashley
Bruemmer
Childs
Dumizio
eRikm
Ferrari
Gobeil
Huber
Karkowski
Lachenmann
Mumma
Normandeau
Ostertag
Paik
Rowe
Smalley
Tone
Uitti
Yoshihide
Zanesi

Lachenmann and Ostertag are in my collection. And although I had heard of all composers posted so far in this thread by Robert Newman, and many are in my collection, I think that the ones selected still are mostly interesting choices and can help people look beyond the established grandmasters.

 

[some guy]

Aloha some guy,

I have heard quite a few works of Ferrari, Huber, and Ostertag.

Cheerio,

CD

That's Luc Ferrari, Klaus Huber, and Bob Ostertag. I should have specified, as there's Benedetto Ferrari, and Wolf-Ferrari, and Hans Huber, and Martin Ostertag. Sorry for the (possible?) misunderstanding.

(It was your "quite a few" that tipped me off to what I'd thoughtlessly done. No one has heard more than a few pieces by Klaus Huber, except maybe Klaus and a few of his friends.)

One the other hand, if you HAVE heard quite a few works by Luc and Klaus and Bob, together, then "Woo Hoo!!"

Here's the list again, with all first names, just to be safe!!

Robert Ashley
Ludger Brümmer (I gave him his ü)
Barney Childs
Thomas Dimuzio (I had dsylexically mispelled this one, sheesh.)
eRikm (aka Erik M)
Luc Ferrari
Gilles Gobeil
Klaus Huber
Zbigniew Karkowski
Helmut Lachenmann
Gordon Mumma
Robert Normandeau
Bob Ostertag
Nam June Paik
Keith Rowe
Dennis Smalley
Yasunao Tone
Frances-Marie Uitti
Otomo Yoshihide
Christian Zanési (I gave him his é this time.)

 

[Robert Newman]

Thanks for these comments. I suppose commercialism means today that no composer can be well known unless he has a business manager and is prepared to sacrifice almost everything to become famous.

Of course most composers in the history of music were not 'well known'. But I note great composers care little about fame while others think it's the most important thing of all !

The solution is quite simple - if you ever become President or Prime Minister transfer the defence/military budgets of your nation on your first day at the office to the artists, orchestras and musicians of your country and retire from office on the same day. LOL !

Robert

 

[some guy]

Lachenmann and Ostertag are in my collection.

Good to hear it!

And although I had heard of all composers posted so far in this thread by Robert Newman, and many are in my collection, I think that the ones selected still are mostly interesting choices and can help people look beyond the established grandmasters.

No argument here. That is a noble and worthy task, to which I added some delightful suggestions of my own!

 

[Robert Newman]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !!!!

Yes, and thanks for the great suggestions here Someguy ! Before I forget, my good wishes to everyone on the forum for this coming New Year of 2009. Let's hope it's a good one. And here to celebrate its arrival from over the horizon is a little music by somebody very well known, J.S Bach. Played by the wonderfully gifted Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Partita No. 1 in B Flat for Solo Keyboard
BWV 825/6
Gigue
Soloist - Dinu Lipatti (1950)

http://www.mediafire.com/?mwz4mmn3iz2

(For those unable to get the above see) -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=btUl75FwR24


Robert

 

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha some guy,

Of those whom I named and their oeuvre is the *quite a few works*.

Cheerio,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

 

[some guy]

Hey Corno, don't be coy now. Name 'em! Which pieces have you heard, even (if you have the time), what did you think of them?

 

[Tûrwethiel]

The solution is quite simple - if you ever become President or Prime Minister transfer the defence/military budgets of your nation on your first day at the office to the artists, orchestras and musicians of your country and retire from office on the same day. LOL !

Hear hear, Robert! And half the money that's spent on sport as well!

 

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha some guy,

So, I'm being coy now, eh? :grin::grin::grin:

Of Klaus Huber's oeuvre I am quite moved by his more recent works like:

Quod est Pax?

Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen.

Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi.


Of Bob Ostertag's oeuvre:

Sooner or Later (1991) Quite difficult for me to listen to...


Of Luc Ferrari's oeuvre:

Comedia dell'amore 224



I don't very often listen to these discs but I can always surprise my circle of friends with them.

Cheers,

CD

 

[some guy]

Well, Corno, I'm not sure I'd translate five pieces as "quite a few," but there's no doubt that I'm very pleased that you know even these.

For tomorrow, or the next day, give "Getting A Head" a try. That's still my favorite Ostertag. And Ferrari? Well, everything. Try everything. (Not because it's all good, per se, but because he did so many different things.)

That Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen is a fine piece (it's on my stereo as I type this). That must mean either you've heard it live (lucky!) or that you have the three disc Donaueschinger set it's on. That means you also have Julio Estrada's Hum and Helmut Oehring's ER.eine She (aus: 5ÜNF/Haare Opfer) and Chaya Czernowin's maim zarim, maim gnuvim and several other delightful things.

 

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha some guy,

I could have listed more, especially of Klaus Huber, but since I had been listening to those specific pieces quite recently, I felt it enough what I had listed.

Cheerio,

CD

 

[rojo]

Robert, you are probably aware that "little known" will eventually (as in right now, in this post!) raise the question, "little known to whom?"

So I'm asking, to whom are Sullivan, Scarlatti, Cimarosa, Berwald, Stenhammer, and Tallis "little known"?

Otherwise, I'd suppose that most music of the past hundred years or so is little known to most people who call themselves classical listeners.

If anyone here, for instance, knows the music of any of these very prominent composers, I would be very surprised and vastly pleased:

Ashley
Bruemmer
Childs
Dumizio
eRikm
Ferrari
Gobeil
Huber
Karkowski
Lachenmann
Mumma
Normandeau
Ostertag
Paik
Rowe
Smalley
Tone
Uitti
Yoshihide
Zanesi

I'm sorry, I can't help but ask; is there a reason you chose one composer per letter of the alphabet, and where are the composers whose names start with I, J, Q, V, W and X?

:lol:

 

[some guy]

It sort of just happened. And when I got to each of the blank letters, I couldn't think of anyone who fit the prominent but not well-known category I'd set up. Or not anyone without doing research. This is pretty much a top of my head kind of list.

I guess I'm saying that these are people who are important enough to be generally well-known (and not just to aficionados) but they're probably not. For the blank letters, there could be Ichiyanagi, Jentzch, Quellet, Verrando, Werner, and Xolotl, but I think none of those people are important enough to be generally known. (I have music by all of them but Xolotl, and like them very much, by the way. Xolotl worked with a lot of prominent people, including Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, and LaMonte Young.)

Nothing would please me more than to hear that all of these people were known to the members of this forum. I'm already happy that Art Rock and Corno have weighed in. Anyway, the most important point is that it's not too late to get to know them, eh?

 

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha some guy,

May God bless you richly for you indefatigable promotion of music outside the mainstream of consciousness.

Cheerio,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

 

[Robert Newman]

8/12

G.B. Viotti (1755-1824)
Violin Concerto No. 23 (c. 1793)
1st Movement
Soloist - Franco Mezzena
CD Dynamic Italy

Great Italian virtuoso violinist and composer.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5iw2d4zkdnn

 

[rojo]

It sort of just happened. And when I got to each of the blank letters, I couldn't think of anyone who fit the prominent but not well-known category I'd set up. Or not anyone without doing research. This is pretty much a top of my head kind of list.

I guess I'm saying that these are people who are important enough to be generally well-known (and not just to aficionados) but they're probably not. For the blank letters, there could be Ichiyanagi, Jentzch, Quellet, Verrando, Werner, and Xolotl, but I think none of those people are important enough to be generally known. (I have music by all of them but Xolotl, and like them very much, by the way. Xolotl worked with a lot of prominent people, including Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, and LaMonte Young.)

Nothing would please me more than to hear that all of these people were known to the members of this forum. I'm already happy that Art Rock and Corno have weighed in. Anyway, the most important point is that it's not too late to get to know them, eh?

Well, that's pretty cool that the top of your head works alphabetically then. At least, list-making-wise. :grin:

I have heard some works by some of these composers (perhaps mostly thanks to you, some guy,) but I don't think I've heard enough of any of their music to be able to say I "know" it. My main problems are 1. don't have the $, and 2. haven't been listening to much of anything (except what I play) these days for lack of time. Hope to get back into listening soon.

Can I suggest that Frederic Rzewski be added to the list?

 

[some guy]

Well, that list has little credibility as anything but a small sampling of good people out there. Rzewski belongs on any list of good people out there, though, I agree!!

 

[rojo]

Now don't go selling your list short; personally I have no doubt that all your lists are chock-full of credibility. :up:

And yay! I got the Rzewski approval! :grin:

 

[Robert Newman]

Ah, yes, Someguy and Rojo, you are surely refering to Frederic (Anthony) Rzewski (b.1938) Jesuit educated composer from Harvard and Princeton Universities (based for years in Rome) of such musical hits as 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated' ? (Wasn't that a hit for the revolution in Chile years before Rzewski was associated with it, during the days of so-called 'Liberation Theology' - banned by the papacy ?). Isn't it based on a Chilean song 'El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido' by S. Ortega and Quilapayun ? Rzewski's version received its world premiere in 1976 at the J.F Kennedy Centre of the Performing Arts, didn't it ? At least, so says Wikipedia.

We should tell readers this same work by Rzewski contains allusions to other leftist struggles of the same and immediately preceding time. It quotes for example from the Italian socialist song 'Bandiera Rossa' and the 'Solidarity Song' by Bertold Brecht/Hanns Eilser, doesn't it ?

Which sort of reminds me that the world's great dictators included Jesuit educated Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and others.

The Jesuit Order, having already infested the governments and institutions of many nations such as the USA and the UK (all the time speaking vaguely about a 'New World Order') now have their own composers to stir up the masses. These Jesuits play it from both sides, as usual. I hope the American people peacefully reject mass movements by voting for their own Constitution to be fully restored and not for anything else.

You see how Rzewski is not on my list of great composers !

With respect

Robert

 

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha Mr. Newman,

May I respectfully share with you that Josef Stalin had spent two years studying at a Russian Orthodox Seminary to become a priest? His mother had always wanted him to be a priest - his father? Well, an absentee one at best who physically abused both Josef and his mother. Josef had a tragic childhood that never got any help to come to terms with the hurt. That hurt manifested itself in the cruel, heartless, criminally insane psychopathic tyranny that Josef visited on Russians and others.

One of the latest insults to Christians and Russians everywhere was a priest who had written an icon with Stalin: http://frmilovan.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/svstaljin.jpg

The Metropolitanate of St. Petersburg castigated the priest for presenting such blasphemy. The priest then resigned from the priesthood and took the icon back to his home.