Quiz: Mystery scores

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Do you know Legend? Astonishingly potent piece. Ireland is one of the great piano composers of the last century - not a huge output, but everything is very high quality, and his personal style is very strong. Sarnia, the Sonata and Sonatina, Greenways and Decorations....superb music.

I have the Hyperion CD with the Delius and Ireland Piano concertos. And Legend. The Delius I have listened to, but not the Ireland. Yet... I know what to do!

[Guido]

I don't know the Legend, no. I have a naxos CD of a lot of his miniatures which didn't really grab me - all a bit quaint and dull, but I am more than williang to believe that the larger works are more impressive knowing the piano concerto.

P.S. Where is Larry?

[lukeottevanger]

Larry who?

[Guido]

Why, the corrugated one of course!

[lukeottevanger]

Oh, Larry Crinkle or whatever he was called....

...miniatures which didn't really grab me - all a bit quaint dull...

There's this rugged quality (sorry, no other word) to his harmony, which is enriched and encrusted with a lot of dissonances - as in the sample I posted. I suppose it is most obvious in slow movements - the cello sonata is another one - but it means he build up really biting march-like music too (again, the cello sonata has typical examples). Later on, he stripped down his style rather like Ravel - the Sonatina is very lean and yet harmonically very pungent (big aggregates of piled up thirds, again, like the Ravel of Valses N+S, but bitonally mutated) and a powerful, haunting slow movement built out of only a couple of very slender but potent ideas, developed in a very restrained way. These later pieces - Legend, the Sonatina, also the Fantasy Sonata - give the best idea of Ireland, I suppose, though the Cello Sonata too seems to me very typical.

There is a touch of quaintness in some of his smaller piano pieces, I suppose, but even there there is usually more going on - in the Preludes, for instance, with its searching 5/8 movement The Undertone, built a little like a chaconne, or in Decorations, all movements of which are inspired, and whose central movement is again polytonally coloured in an extremely sensitive way. This last set is quite close to the Debussy of the piano Images - and it (especially the first movement) is an early example of the Impressionist aesthetic in British piano music.

[Mark G. Simon]

John Ireland once said  "The clarinet is by far the finest wood instrument..."
It's hard to dislike a guy who says that.

[lukeottevanger]

Do you know the Fantasy Sonata, Mark? If not, add it to your repertoire!

[Guido]

Oh, Larry Crinkle or whatever he was called....

There's this rugged quality (sorry, no other word) to his harmony, which is enriched and encrusted with a lot of dissonances - as in the sample I posted. I suppose it is most obvious in slow movements - the cello sonata is another one - but it means he build up really biting march-like music too (again, the cello sonata has typical examples). Later on, he stripped down his style rather like Ravel - the Sonatina is very lean and yet harmonically very pungent (big aggregates of piled up thirds, again, like the Ravel of Valses N+S, but bitonally mutated) and a powerful, haunting slow movement built out of only a couple of very slender but potent ideas, developed in a very restrained way. These later pieces - Legend, the Sonatina, also the Fantasy Sonata - give the best idea of Ireland, I suppose, though the Cello Sonata too seems to me very typical.

There is a touch of quaintness in some of his smaller piano pieces, I suppose, but even there there is usually more going on - in the Preludes, for instance, with its searching 5/8 movement The Undertone, built a little like a chaconne, or in Decorations, all movements of which are inspired, and whose central movement is again polytonally coloured in an extremely sensitive way. This last set is quite close to the Debussy of the piano Images - and it (especially the first movement) is an early example of the Impressionist aesthetic in British piano music.

Interesting as always. I can see that he is a composer of quality, but I just don't respond to it that well. Even the cello sonata, which I have heard described as being amongst his best chamber works doesn't grab me, though I can hear that it's very well written and thought out. I find the highly chromatic harmony just leads to a sense of aimlessness, or perhaps that is not what I mean - maybe that it could go anywhere. There also seems to be somewhat of a lack of contrast in terms of mood and feel. I am well aware that this could or is likely to be a result of my own shallowness than anything else. No doubt my opinions will change in the future (I hope the same thing will happen with a few other even more famous composers too!)

[lukeottevanger]

I'll be a bit busy for the next week or so, so might not be able to look in on this thread much. Don't take that as lack of interest....

[(poco) Sforzando]

This is why this thread is so great - this kind of detective work. Because both your guesses as to composer are correct!

The Rossini is the overture to La Cenerentola. I had to listen to 18 Rossini overtures to pin it down! The kicker is that while the fast section is very familiar, this slower introductory music is harder for me to retain in memory.

[lukeottevanger]

Yes, that's the one. As I said - I'm quite busy at the moment, so sorry for not confirming earlier!

[lukeottevanger]

OK, just to keep things orderly, let me reveal the last remaining scores of mine:

168 - from Janacek - Otce Nas. One of Janacek's loveliest works, a rather rustic setting of the Lord's Prayer for chorus, organ and harp.

185 - Ligeti - String Quartet no 1. Closely linked to a nearby score, I said. No. 186 is Ligeti's SQ 2

193 - Vaughan Williams - The Lake in the Mountains. One of RVW's relatively small number of solo piano works, but quite an attractive miniature with a rather refined, exalted world of its own.

201 - an improvisation by Thelonius Monk. I left in Monk's trademark signature - the high trill with which he wolud end many of his improvisations. Seems no one recognised it!

203 - Hoddinott - The Sun, the Great Luminary of the Universe. Topical because I posted it shortly after he died. Note the Bach (and by implication Berg) quotation.

204 - Zimmermann - Stille und Umkehr. Topical because we'd just been discussing it on the Zimmermann thread.

[karlhenning]

168 - from Janacek - Otce Nas. One of Janacek's loveliest works, a rather rustic setting of the Lord's Prayer for chorus, organ and harp.

Hmm . . . wonder if we might use this at St Paul's . . . .

[lukeottevanger]

Well, you know what I would say! Do you know it, Karl? If not, I'll have to see about pushing a copy in your direction....

[karlhenning]

. . . Do you know it, Karl? If not, I'll have to see about pushing a copy in your direction....

I don't yet know it, and should be most glad of having a copy pushed hither 

Separately, Luke, Ed has not forgotten your piano piece;  we shall see . . . I just wish I could say that Ed was more organized than he is (and organized is not quite le mot juste).

[lukeottevanger]

Just happy to have it considered, Karl! And interested to hear how it might turn out.

[Symphonien]

Haven't looked at this thread for ages, but it seems about the right time for me to post some of my own scores and bump it up again. My apologies if any of these have been posted before, since I haven't been keeping track around here.

#1

Fascinating notation - I love the little hands which appear here and there .

[Symphonien]

#2

This one should be fairly easy, with its unique instrumentation.

[Symphonien]

#3

Once again, quite straightforward here.

[Symphonien]

#4

This one might be a bit harder: a lesser known composer in general, but quite well-known in this particular type of composition. A very beautiful score.