Your Top 10 Favorite Obscure Composers

[listener]

and don't overlook Penderecki's score to The Saragossa Manuscript, the "Polish Tristam Shandy'

some composers I have in my collection that I would like to hear more of, may be neither great nor favourites but on my "more of" list
Armen TIGRANIAN (David-Beg, Anush)
Joby TALBOT  (Path of Miracles)
Jakov GOTOVAC  (Ero the Joker, Morana)
Enrico CHAPELA   (Inguesu)
Michael Conway BAKER  (Washington Square, Flute Concerto)
Fran LHOTKA (Davo u selu )

[Maestro267]

Re. Penderecki: I still count him as obscure because he hardly ever gets programmed in the concert hall here in the UK, and even then it's only the short "concert openers" that get an outing. Of course there are exceptions, but they are exactly that. I mean, there are 7 symphonies and a swathe of great choral works that could be programmed as post-interval, main-item fare.

I'm glad most people agree with most of my list though. I usually expect a battering when I list neglected composers.

[mc ukrneal]

Re. Penderecki: I still count him as obscure because he hardly ever gets programmed in the concert hall here in the UK, and even then it's only the short "concert openers" that get an outing. Of course there are exceptions, but they are exactly that. I mean, there are 7 symphonies and a swathe of great choral works that could be programmed as post-interval, main-item fare.

I'm glad most people agree with most of my list though. I usually expect a battering when I list neglected composers.

Obscure is a matter of perspective. I think you have it right. No worries...

[Jo498]

Above I kind of nominated Spohr. Another fairly obscure composer I found worthwhile is Joseph Martin Kraus, sometimes called "the Swedish Mozart" which is misleading because he was born and raised in Germany but for most of his professional life employed at the Swedish court by the King Gustav III. whose assassination was the inspiration for Verdi's Ballon in maschera. Kraus shares Mozart's birth year and only lived a little longer, dying from tuberculosis in late 1792.
While I have also a disc with string quartets, I mainly recommend his symphonies. They might be best described as mixing the Gluckian opera style with the classical symphony. That is they are often rather serious and dramatic.

[cilgwyn]

I love Spohr's music!

[hpowders]

I can't name 10, but Franz Schmidt would qualify as one.

[Andante]

Perhaps the question is why are certain composers still in obscurity.

[hpowders]

Some deserve the obscurity but others like Schmidt and Schuman deserve better, in my opinion.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Some deserve the obscurity but others like Schmidt and Schuman deserve better, in my opinion.

And Pejacevic deserves to be rather more well known imo

[arpeggio]

The idea of obscurity is a bit of a conundrum for me since I am a band junkie.

Schuman, Mennin and Persichetti may be obscure composer to the general classical music population but to bank junkies there band works are frequently performed.

For example, I frequently perform the band versions that Schuman prepared for the New England Tryptic.  One of the bands I play with performs the Chester Overture every year at July 4th Celebration at Mount Vernon.

[hpowders]

And Pejacevic deserves to be rather more well known imo

I asked around in some Tampa bars. Sure enough nobody ever heard of Pejacevic.

[Karl Henning]

Do you drink in the right bars?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I asked around in some Tampa bars. Sure enough nobody ever heard of Pejacevic.

I guess she qualifies then!

[Andante]

I asked around in some Tampa bars. Sure enough nobody ever heard of Pejacevic.

I have never heard of Pejacevic either so I went to YT and found a few works.
This is : Symphony in F sharp minor, Op. 41   I only listened to about 2-3 min but it seemed OK to me annd I will follow up.

https://www.youtube.com/v/940dNX5zHEU

[nathanb]

Some deserve the obscurity but others like Schmidt and Schuman deserve better, in my opinion.

I would not call Schuman or Schmidt obscure at all.

This thread needs a reasonable metric. How about:

Composers must have no more than 5 available monographic recordings.

[Monsieur Croche]

I would not call Schuman or Schmidt obscure at all.

This thread needs a reasonable metric. How about:

Composers must have no more than 5 available monographic recordings.

Indeed, Mr. B.  Indeed

I would add one other criterion: 
If a commercial recording of any of their work is up on Youtube, even despite the fact that composer was, say, a Croatian female of mixed African-Asian-Slavic descent who had a wooden leg, was at least bisexual (i.e. five ways a minority), and who wrote generic and forgettable late romantic works, for example, that composer is not obscure.

[Monsieur Croche]

I asked around in some Tampa bars. Sure enough nobody ever heard of Pejacevic.

Not a largish Croatian immigrant community in Tampa? 

Pity, because that means you're missing out on experiencing a Dora Pejacevic cocktail at your local watering hole!  For only three bucks each during happy hour, you can afford to belt down several while you listen to her Symphony, Piano Concerto and chamber music being played through the ceiling speakers as background music.

[hpowders]

Not a largish Croatian immigrant community in Tampa? 

Pity, because that means you're missing out on experiencing a Dora Pejacevic cocktail at your local watering hole!  For only three bucks each during happy hour, you can afford to belt down several while you listen to her Symphony, Piano Concerto and chamber music being played through the ceiling speakers as background music.

One guy thought Pejacevic was playing in the US Open Tennis final match.

[Andante]

Re Dora Pejacevic, I listened to the F# Sym and the P Trio in C also the e min Cello son (on YT) and quite frankly found them very ordinary nothing I heard made me want to hear more, they were IMO "Bland" I will add the chamber works were slightly better than the symphony.

[Monsieur Croche]

Re Dora Pejacevic, I listened to the F# Sym and the P Trio in C also the e min Cello son (on YT) and quite frankly found them very ordinary nothing I heard made me want to hear more, they were IMO "Bland" I will add the chamber works were slightly better than the symphony.

That's what I found, generic, with a touch of 'bourgeois salon music flavor' in the lightness of some ideas, and imminently forgettable. "Listenable," I suppose, but so much second and third tier music is that, i.e. listenable, lol.