Internet stalkers without out lives?

[Thatfabulousalien]

You know who you are

[Wendell_E]

A Mahler opera.

[Spineur]

Mahler chamber music did  exist, but most of it has been destroyed during WWII bombing.  For now the only thing left is a one movement SQ, Mahler composed as a student.
I am secretely  hopping that his music will surface back from some Autrian attic.   
Maybe after all, there is a draft of a Mahler opera somewhere.

[Jo498]

Didn't Mahler attempt an opera "Der Trompeter von Säckingen" in his youth? The chamber fragment is one movement of a piano quartet.
I guess it is hard to tell what Mahler would have tried if he had been a full time composer...

Some not very original ideas:

Haydn had planned a third oratorio on the Last Judgement or similar topic (or at least I think I have read this somewhere)

Mozart cello concerto (there is a fragment of a violin/viola/cello concertante), a late/mature violin concerto

Beethoven cello concerto (the triple comes close, favoring the cello a little but...) Also, the 9th symphony was a fusion of two symphonic projects, there was a plan for even more choral participation (already in the slow movement). Anyway, another late symphony would be so cool; he also had plans for oratorios as well as operas (Faust, Macbeth), these might have failed anyway but maybe not.

Some concerto by Schubert. Sure, the broad Schubertian style is maybe not ideal for a concerto and he did not play any instrument well enough to perform as a virtuoso. But Liszt found the Wandererfantasie sufficiently brilliant to turn it into a concerto and stuff like the trout quintet also features almost concerto-like passages. Of course I'd prefer a clarinet or cello concerto.

Some mature purely instrumental music (symphonic poem or sth. like that, more dramatic than the Siegfried Idyll, please) by Wagner - obvious with the popularity of "bleeding chunks"

a woodwind or mixed woodwind/strings (piano) quintet (or sextet, septet...) by Brahms. There were chamber versions of the early serenades but I'd prefer something more serious, rather like the clarinet quintet. Of course again a cello concerto would be nice and I would also love a viola, horn or clarinet concerto. And a late piano sonata.

[Spineur]

Didn't Mahler attempt an opera "Der Trompeter von Säckingen" in his youth? The chamber fragment is one movement of a piano quartet.
I guess it is hard to tell what Mahler would have tried if he had been a full time composer...

"with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he began work on an opera, Herzog Ernst von Schwaben ("Duke Ernest of Swabia") as a memorial to his lost brother. Neither the music nor the libretto of this work has survived"

[Bogey]

Xenakis and  Ligeti:  Film scores.  They would have been outstanding in the field had they directly composed for film. 

[James]

I'll start: Because I've been listening to quite a bit of Varese lately, the idea of an Edgard Varese string quartet has crossed my mind. Seeing as he was opening doors to new timbre/sonic/technical pallets, it would be interesting to see what he would have done with his acquired knowledge. But I don't say this ignorantly, I am very aware of Varese's choice to distance himself from stringed instruments, though I think it would've been interesting to see. Another thing from Varese I would've loved to have heard would be opera, yes opera. His various voices that utilize voice are very great. He was composed several operas during his life, which where lost, including: L'astronome ...

Stockhausen is the composer whose work did most to realizing Varese's vision of an electronic future. Even straying away from strings himself, and preferring winds & percussion like the Frenchman. When I listen to his much of his work, his grand LICHT operas or even the Helicopter SQ, blending the ancient with science & modern technology, echoes of Varese can easily come to mind.

[Ken B]

Hey! Talk about a hijacking. This thread is for glass half empty types! You glass half full buggers start your own thread!

[Mahlerian]

It would be amazing if sometime in the near future it was uncovered, like what happened with that Stravinsky piece last year (don't remember the name) 

I think it was "Funeral Music," which he wrote for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.  I'm still interested in hearing it, even though Stravinsky's music from the pre-Firebird era isn't all that characteristic.

[Mirror Image]

I would like to hear what a Bartok mass would be like (maybe something like the Cantata Profana?)

How about another Bartok opera? This time written in more of his folkish style with all of those eerie dissonances and jagged angularities. Real earthy, rootsy stuff I imagine. Move over Le sacre. This would be the ultimate barbaric work of the early part of the 20th Century.

[Ken B]

Wow, that's never thought of that! 

Considering the intensity of the string quartets and how heavy his music got around the late 1920s especially, an opera would've been so intense and dissonant 

Sometimes I wonder what he would've done if he lived on into the 50s/60s, he would do some wild stuff with the innovation of that decade, definitely

A turn to dissonance is what his last composition suggests to you?

[Mirror Image]

Wow, that's never thought of that! 

Considering the intensity of the string quartets and how heavy his music got around the late 1920s especially, an opera would've been so intense and dissonant 

Sometimes I wonder what he would've done if he lived on into the 50s/60s, he would do some wild stuff with the innovation of that decade, definitely

I personally don't believe Bartok would have abandoned tonality had he lived another say 15 years, but he sure would be doing some interesting things in terms of dissonances and fooling around with rhythmic meters and so forth.

[Mahlerian]

I personally don't believe Bartok would have abandoned tonality had he lived another say 15 years, but he sure would be doing some interesting things in terms of dissonances and fooling around rhythmic meters and so forth.

Well, it's not as if anyone else ever abandoned tonality either, critics to the contrary.  So-called atonal music is just another way of connecting harmonies, and is not marked by the abandonment of anything.

[Jo498]

The "wildest" Bartok is late 20s or so, third string quartet etc. No idea why the late works (Concerto for orchestra, 3rd piano, viola concerto) are far milder and sometimes more simply "folksy". Could simply be age and exile. In the case of the Concerto for orchestra this might have to do with the commission. OTOH he wrote earlier sometimes similarly, e.g. Dance Suite and Divertimento.

[Mahlerian]

I wish that we had an oboe sonata from Debussy.  That would have been something.

[Gaspard de la nuit]

The "wildest" Bartok is late 20s or so, third string quartet etc. No idea why the late works (Concerto for orchestra, 3rd piano, viola concerto) are far milder and sometimes more simply "folksy". Could simply be age and exile. In the case of the Concerto for orchestra this might have to do with the commission. OTOH he wrote earlier sometimes similarly, e.g. Dance Suite and Divertimento.

He's said to have written his later works as "insurance" for his family, providing a solid income for them after his death. In fact, I don't think he particularly liked the concerto for orchestra or third piano concerto.

[Ken B]

The "wildest" Bartok is late 20s or so, third string quartet etc. No idea why the late works (Concerto for orchestra, 3rd piano, viola concerto) are far milder and sometimes more simply "folksy". Could simply be age and exile. In the case of the Concerto for orchestra this might have to do with the commission. OTOH he wrote earlier sometimes similarly, e.g. Dance Suite and Divertimento.

Bartok's own answer was artistic development. He likened his career not to cycles but to spirals. 

[Gaspard de la nuit]

I always wished Lutoslawski wrote more chamber music or a substantial piano work. Especially in his middle-to-late period. Maybe something with unusual instrumentation like Bartok's sonata for two pianos & percussion or a wind quintet.

[arpeggio]

Peter Mennin composed only one concert band work: The []Canzona[/i].

From checking out the website that I am familiar with it appears to be more frequently performed that all of his orchestral works put together.

There are many composers who composed only a single or a few works for concert band.  Between the high school, college and community concert band movement in the United States (It appears to be growing in Europe and Asia as well).  If composers had taken the time to master the genre those works would be frequently performed.

Persichetti is one composer who composed many works for concert band and they are frequently performed.  One of the groups that I perform with is the National Concert Band of America.  Last season we performed his Symphony for Band and the Divertimento for Band.  This season we will be performing his Masquerade Variations, Psalm and we just did a repeat performance of the Divertimento.

Hindemith just composed one work for band, the Symphony in Bb.  I have performed it three times in my life.  I know the Capital Winds just performed is last season and I have heard the Marine Band perform it twice and I also heard a performance by the Army Band last season.

[Mirror Image]

I wished Mahler would have written for a brass ensemble or at least a 'symphony for winds'.