Quiz: Mystery scores

[Maciek]

MM29 - guessed by Luke

Russian composer! This piece comes from a set of... 24. The composer was very prominent in the genre of children's music. He had also written operas, one of the more notable ones was based on a book by a French writer who was also a musicologist and had written a small but quite well known (I should think) booklet about Beethoven.

[Maciek]

MM30 - guessed by Luke

surprise!: Polish composer

Largely unknown composer, most of his works have been lost. This very fun set of 6 pieces remains one of his most popular compositions, though one of his operas enjoyed some success for a while. He studied, among others, with Anton Rubinstein, and himself was teacher to such composers as Maklakiewicz, Perkowski, Szabelski.

[Maciek]

MM31 - guessed by Luke

[Maciek]

MM32 - guessed by Luke

Polish contemporary composer (alive), featured on this thread more than once before. Very early set of three very "light" pieces, only quite recently rediscovered (and published). The composer has written a real lot of film music!

[Maciek]

MM33 - guessed by Luke

Polish composer. One of the first European representatives of a very important 20th century idiom. (An idiom much admired by Sean, let me add. )
OK, I'll spell it out: one of the first European minimalists (though not really a repetitivist).

[Maciek]

MM34 - guessed by Greg

what do you know... Polish composer again!

Greg, you don't know this?!

The composer's op. 1!!!

[Maciek]

MM35 - guessed by Luke

I'll surprise you here: this is not from Tansman's three 'Preludes en forme de Blues' (ha, I actually forgot that existed - thanks for reminding me, I'll put it on - I mean the recording - in a sec! ). In fact, it isn't even by Tansman. In fact, it's not even by a Polish composer! Nor by a Polish-French composer!! Nor even by a French-only composer!!!

It is... by a Lithuanian!!!!!!! Epitome of Lithuanian music, in fact.

A youngish Stravinsky owned and admired a work by the author of this piece but in later years he somehow misplaced it (sold it? it was stolen??)... The composer in question knew Polish very well (studied in Poland, in fact - among other places) but learned Lithuanian only as a grown man (from his wife to be). Which, of course, was a pretty standard scenario in those times (at least the first part of it: I'm not sure about the proportion of Lithuanians who eventually did learn Lithuanian), as Poles had completely polonized the Lithuanian gentry.

[Maciek]

MM36 - guessed by Luke

heh, heh, you guessed it: Polish composer! 0:) Contemporary, alive, and very consequently experimental - even in this day and age of "neo-tonalism"...

He wrote a Passion setting (in Polish) a short while ago, and it has been committed to disc.

[Maciek]

MM37 - guessed by Luke

ha ha! caught you there! NO, it's not a Polish composer! this is by another Lithuanian! 0:) Little recorded but has a small group of avid admirers on GMG (I'm not really one of them - for instance I find this set of piano pieces eminently uninteresting... 0:))

Born 1928.

[Maciek]

MM38 - guessed by Luke



That's all for now. But "I'll be back".

[lukeottevanger]

The first one I played a lot when I was younger - Szymanowski's op 1 Preludes. Now to look at the others....

[lukeottevanger]

31 is the Prelude Ravel wrote as a competition piece - won by a youngster IIRC.

Are they all Preludes? 

[lukeottevanger]

Maybe they are - the last one is the F# minor from the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues.

Those are the ones I know well.....now the others are going to be harder, I think!

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, I know no 28 too - another Prelude, no 1 of Messiaen's early set, called La colombe.

[lukeottevanger]

Total guess, but is no 35 by any chance one of Tansman's three 'Preludes en forme de Blues'?

Whilst I'm at it, I'm pretty sure these are both wrong, but this is you, so I might as well: Meyer's 24 Preludes? Serocki's Suite of Preludes? I can't see any pieces that look quite right, but it's worth a punt. 

[Maciek]

Szymanowski, Ravel, Shostakovich, Messiaen - yes, yes, yes, yes.

The last three guesses (Tansman, Meyer, Serocki) - no, no and no. But I have to say I really loved them anyway!

(Perhaps wrong guesses are more fun for the person posting the scores because they are always unexpected...)

As a special reward I'm posting another set. Preparing these was a lot of fun - I hope it will be as much fun to guess them!

[Maciek]

The first 5 should be especially enjoyable:

Luke has already guessed the motif connecting all 5 ("spinning").

MM39 - guessed by Luke

A work for piano and voice (duh). Extremely popular in Poland, or rather: the melody is extremely popular. I suspect 43 might be in part responsible for this popularity, though obviously it is also an effect of it. Besides, 39 functions in many arrangements. Probably the most popular is one played by the "crossover" piano duo Marek & Vacek (the duo has loooong ceased to exist but its recordings still find a market) - I feel that their arrangement was inspired by both 39 and 43.

The composer is the most important Polish opera and song composer.



MM40 - guessed by Luke


MM41 - guessed by Luke


MM42 - guessed by Luke


MM43 - guessed by Luke

A solo piano paraphrase of 39 - therefore: see also clues for 39.

This is by far the most famous take on 39. By a composer whose Piano Concerto I once advertised on GMG (in fact, I posted a recording of it twice!).

[Maciek]

The next 5 too, I should think:

MM44 - guessed by Luke
This song doesn't really have a title but because of the first few words it is usually called the same as 47.


MM45 - guessed by Luke
This is by one of the greatest of the great composers. He lived at the end of the 18th c. and begginning of the 19th.


MM46 - guessed by Luke
Great romantic composer who went mad at the end of his life.


MM47 - guessed by Luke
One of the few great Polish composers of the 19th century.


MM48 - guessed by Luke
One of the greatest songwriters in history. If, indeed, not the greatest.

[Maciek]

Then they come in pairs:

MM49 - guessed by Luke


MM50 - guessed by Luke
I'll reiterate what I've said elsewhere: the connection with 49 is very strong here. In fact, you can say that there is some sort of "overlap" between the pieces............

[Maciek]

MM51 - guessed by Luke
Not Schubert!
The conncetion between 51 and 52 is similar (nay, same!) as the one between 49 and 50........


MM52 - guessed by Luke