Your favorite lesser known composers

Started by USMC1960s, November 24, 2020, 06:54:08 AM

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vandermolen

Quote from: kyjo on November 27, 2020, 10:05:09 AM
These ones have meant the most to me over the years:

Volkmar Andreae
Malcolm Arnold
Kurt Atterberg
Arnold Bax
Joly Braga Santos
Alfredo Casella
Jean-Michel Damase
Gerald Finzi
Howard Hanson
Dmitri Kabalevsky
George Lloyd
Erkki Melartin
EJ Moeran
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
Joachim Raff
Wilhelm Stenhammar
Josef Suk
Sergei Taneyev
Eduard Tubin


All these composers are, of course, well-known to most of us, but not to the general public.
I relate to this list as well.
I'd add Stanley Bate, Richard Arnell and Erik Chisholm.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 27, 2020, 10:16:58 AM
Sounds like you've got some some exploring to do, PD. ;) :)
Oh, yes!  There's always more to explore, but must also make time to visit ones favorites!  ;D

PD

p.s. And yes, I'd second Gerald Finzi and Josef Suk too!  :)
Pohjolas Daughter

Mirror Image

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on November 27, 2020, 12:53:18 PM
Oh, yes!  There's always more to explore, but must also make time to visit ones favorites!  ;D

PD

p.s. And yes, I'd second Gerald Finzi and Josef Suk too!  :)

If you need any help with Honegger or Lutoslawski, let me know! :)

Pohjolas Daughter

Pohjolas Daughter

amw

#44
I've tried to only include composers whose music has personal significance to me, so you can see where my biases lie. Could potentially cut this list down a bit.

Medieval/Renaissance - I'm never sure who the well known composers here are, but will assume most people will have heard of Hildegard, Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Tallis etc
John Dunstaple
Philippe de Vitry
Matteo da Perugia
Alexander Agricola
Nicolas Gombert
John Browne
Robert Fayrfax
Luca Marenzio
Cristóbal de Morales
Francisco Guerrero
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Thomas Tomkins

Baroque - i.e. Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Rameau, etc
Louis Couperin
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Johann Jakob Froberger
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (possibly not that obscure anymore)
Biagio Marini
Marin Marais (also possibly not that obscure, if only due to the movie)
Jean de Sainte-Colombe (Sr.)
Robert de Visée
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Barbara Strozzi
Jan Dismas Zelenka
Jean-Marie Leclair

Classical - i.e. Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Boccherini, Gluck
Antonio Soler
Leopold Koželuh [Kozeluch]
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (slightly too well-known to qualify)
Jan Ladislav Dussek
Maria Szymanowska
Ferdinand Ries
Antonín [Anton, Antoine] Rejcha [Reicha] (not obscure if you're a woodwind player)
Ignaz Pleyel
Václav Jan Tomašek
Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek (borderline Romantic)

Early Romantic - i.e. Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Rossini, etc
Theodor Kirchner
Clara Schumann (increasingly less obscure)
Stephen Heller
Louis [Ludwig] Spohr (in moderation)
Fanny Hensel
Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda [Kalliwoda]
George Onslow
Franz Berwald
Louise Farrenc
Niels Wilhelm Gade

Mid & Late Romantic - i.e. Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Dvořák, Sibelius, etc.
Vitězslav Novák
Ernő [Ernst] Dohnányi
Josef Suk
Cécile Chaminade
Mel Bonis
Emmanuel Chabrier (not obscure to opera fans)
(also, the non-operatic music of Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet, who are otherwise too well-known to qualify)
Friedrich Gernsheim
Robert Fuchs
Max Reger (not obscure in Germany)
Karl Goldmark
Eduard Franck
Paul Juon
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Emilie Mayer
Wilhelm Berger
Ferruccio Busoni (not obscure to pianists)
Ethel Smyth
Julius Röntgen
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl
Wilhelm Stenhammar
Anton Arensky
Nikolay Medtner (increasingly less obscure)
Sergei Taneyev
Vasily Kalinnikov
Anatoly Lyadov

Modern - i.e. Stravinsky, Bartók, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, etc.
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Leo Ornstein
Alberto Ginastera
Edgard Varèse (not that obscure, I guess)
Ernst Krenek
Bohuslav Martinů
Vítězslava Kápralová
Erwin Schulhoff (increasingly less obscure)
Karol Szymanowski (increasingly less obscure)
Sándor Veress
Florent Schmitt
Frank Martin
Jacques Ibert
Egon Wellesz
Artur Schnabel (yes, he also composed)
Boris Blacher
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Franz Schreker
Federico Mompou
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Roberto Gerhard
Nikos Skalkottas
Erik Chisholm
George Enescu (yes, he too also composed)
Rebecca Clarke
Ahmed Adnan Saygun
Goffredo Petrassi
Matthijs Vermeulen
Nikolay Roslavets
Nikolay Myaskovsky
Grażyna Bacewicz
Vytautas Bacevičius
Ivan Vyshnegradsky [Wyschnegradsky]
Nikolay Obukhov [Obouhow]
Vagn Holmboe (not obscure in Denmark)
Rued Langgaard (increasingly less obscure)
Fartein Valen
Hilding Rosenberg

Post-1945 avantgarde - i.e. Cage, Feldman, Xenakis, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Boulez, Nono etc
Earle Brown
Christian Wolff
James Tenney
George Perle
Pauline Oliveros
Robert Ashley
Cornelius Cardew
Elisabeth Lutyens
Harrison Birtwistle
Michael Finnissy
György Kurtág
Emmanuel Nunes
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Vinko Globokar
Hans Werner Henze
Mauricio Kagel
Henri Pousseur
Heinz Holliger
Jean Barraqué
Franco Donatoni
Maurice Ohana
Hugues Dufourt
Tristan Murail
Gérard Grisey
Aldo Clementi
Salvatore Sciarrino
Cristóbal Halffter
Isang Yun
Hermann Meier
Galina Ustvolskaya
Arne Nordheim
James Dillon
Bryn Harrison
Franck Bedrossian
Iancu Dumitrescu
Ana-Maria Avram
Malin Bång
Ole-Henrik Moe
Milica Djordjević
Adriana Hölszky
Enno Poppe
Chaya Czernowin
Brian Ferneyhough
Liza Lim
Chris Dench
Brice Pauset
Michaël Lévinas
Junghae Lee
Mathias Spahlinger
Dmitri Kourliandski
Clara Iannotta
Johannes Schöllhorn
Rebecca Saunders
Richard Barrett
Alwynne Pritchard
Luca Francesconi
François-Bernard Mâche
Rolf Riehm
Åke Parmerud
Maja S. K. Ratkje
Simon Steen-Andersen
Natasha Barrett
Roland Kayn

Post-1945 traditionalist - i.e. Britten, Copland, Shostakovich, Messiaen, Górecki, Pärt, Adams, Glass, etc
George Rochberg
William Bolcom
Minna Keal
Kenneth Leighton
Edmund Rubbra
Robert Simpson
Witold Lutosławski
Krzysztof Penderecki (maybe not that obscure)
Miloslav Kabeláč
Xavier Montsalvatge
Mieczysław [Moishe, Moses] Weinberg [Vainberg, Vaynberg, Vajnberg] (increasingly less obscure in spite of the ten or twelve different potential name transliterations)
Per Nørgård
Allan Pettersson
Linda Buckley
Bent Sørensen
Poul Ruders
Aaron Kernis
Valentin Silvestrov
Hans Abrahamsen
Lowell Liebermann
Robin Holloway
Gerald Barry
Anders Eliasson

Post-1945 other - i.e. electronic music, polystylists, experimentalists, sound artists & "miscellaneous"
Lou Harrison
Frederic Rzewski
Henry Brant
Terry Riley
Laurence Crane
Howard Skempton
Zygmunt Krauze
Włodzimierz Kotoński
Jo Kondo
Horațiu Rădulescu
Alfred Schnittke
Claude Vivier
Fausto Romitelli
Frank Denyer
Stuart Saunders Smith
Catherine Lamb
Chiyoko Szlavnics
Klaus Lang
Gérard Pesson
Jennifer Walshe
Yannis Kyriakides
Calliope Tsoupaki
James Weeks
Walter Zimmermann
Christopher Fox
José Maceda
Kate Soper
Olivia Block
Éliane Radigue
Evan Johnson
Annea Lockwood
Francisco López
Ikue Mori
Luc Ferrari
Vanessa Rossetto
Mirjam Tally
Julius Eastman
Linda Catlin Smith
John Luther Adams (increasingly less obscure)

kyjo

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 27, 2020, 12:21:58 PM
We must bear in mind that the general public doesn't really know who a lot of classical composers are to begin with. I mean they know a few of them like Beethoven and Mozart, but that's the basic extent of their knowledge. Of course, I'm speaking from my own experience when I ask people about classical music.

Instead of "general public" I should've said "general classical music enthusiasts".
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on November 27, 2020, 05:07:22 PM
Instead of "general public" I should've said "general classical music enthusiasts".

Ah yes, that makes more sense. ;)

Jo498

Quote from: kyjo on November 27, 2020, 05:07:22 PM
Instead of "general public" I should've said "general classical music enthusiasts".
I have been an enthusiast for more than 30 years but of the three composers added by Vandermolen I have never even heard/read the names! Of the longer list, I have heard most of the names (except Damase) but have heard music only from ca. 12/19. So I'd say that Bate or Arnell or Andreae can be taken as rather obscure without exaggeration.

"(Kyjo)

    Volkmar Andreae
    Malcolm Arnold
    Kurt Atterberg
    Arnold Bax
    Joly Braga Santos
    Alfredo Casella
    Jean-Michel Damase
    Gerald Finzi
    Howard Hanson
    Dmitri Kabalevsky
    George Lloyd
    Erkki Melartin
    EJ Moeran
    Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
    Joachim Raff
    Wilhelm Stenhammar
    Josef Suk
    Sergei Taneyev
    Eduard Tubin


    All these composers are, of course, well-known to most of us, but not to the general public.
Vandermolen:
I relate to this list as well.
I'd add Stanley Bate, Richard Arnell and Erik Chisholm."


Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

MusicTurner

I think there are 51 composers on the lists here so far, that I haven't heard of, the contemporary ones listed by AMW being by far the main source ...

pjme

#49
Mamma mia, what an overpowering avalanche  ???

I do like the idea of "charming little towns and villages in Europe ". Here are three examples from Flanders.

Tongeren , Belgian Limburg. Possibly the oldest Belgian city. Arthur Meulemans' early symphonic poem "Plinius 'fountain"(1913) evokes a natural spring and parc, near Tongeren. Late -impressionism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongeren
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliniusbron

https://youtu.be/72TRfI6U9a0
https://youtu.be/E_9C-fUVhnk
https://youtu.be/p8j6CKMKfjE

Brugge / Bruges: Daniel Sternefeld - Song and Dance at the Court of Queen Mary of Burgundy (1976). A symphonic suite, based on renaissance songs and dances. Sternefeld was a great conductor. He had a superb knowledge of the orchestra and orchestration. He knew the scores of Respighi, Ravel, Debussy Stravinsky....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Burgundy
https://youtu.be/FZi0nnJCzmQ

Lier : "Pallieter", a symphonic poem by Flor Alpaerts (another conductor/composer who loved Richard Strauss...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lier,_Belgium
Pallieter (1916) is the principal character of a (once...) famous and loved (regional/nationalistic) novel by Felix Timmermans. Pallieter is a "bon vivant",an epicurean who mocks the world, but has deep love for his native city and the river Nete...During a feast he meets Marieke, they fall in love and marry. Pallieter fathers triplets  ;), and when he discovers that his beloved Nete will be canalised (brr, modern times!) , the young family walks out into the wide world.

https://youtu.be/nl_cCbmazBk
https://youtu.be/YkeEMqzeEMc
https://youtu.be/rD-JhCt1Bwg



pjme

#50
To round off, three French villages / regions (and music) I know and like:

Saint Valéry sur Somme:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Valery-sur-Somme
Symphonic poem "A Saint Valéry" (1930) by Louis Fourestier (conductor/composer).
https://youtu.be/QmlBA_qhWNI

Vézelay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9zelay

Vézelay, Evocation symphonique for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1952) by Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht (conductor / composer)
https://youtu.be/cddmE3y8xbE
https://youtu.be/FOWUjAAYuQc
https://youtu.be/hSjRYXk0EIE
https://youtu.be/CCLOicqtfiw
https://youtu.be/zLvtlqzS2cI

La Brière region (with villages like Trignac, Herbignac etc.)

Paul Ladmirault: La Brière. Scènes cinématographiques, after the score for a (silent) film by Léon Poirier (1927).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bri%C3%A8re_Regional_Natural_Park
https://youtu.be/M02acXm7m3I
https://youtu.be/z2xk-Pzk0j8

"In 1925 at the end of the silent era of films Ladmirault wrote the music for a Poirier film, La Brière. The next year he used the material to put together a symphonic poem. Although successfully performed he had doubts and considered that maybe his work sounded too rustic when compared with the more strident compositions of Ravel and Stravinsky. The 2nd movement, La Foire d'Herbignac wakes the tranquil setting of the first movement (Paysage triste) with its jocular folk tune rhythm. The 4th movement, the Idylle was encored at the first performance and gave Ladmirault much needed reassurance that his composition was worthy after all. It contains a languid melody with dreamy tenderness and is similar in character to the opening movement."

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Nov01/Ladmirault.htm#ixzz6fBCwpfKt









Mirror Image

#51
Quote from: amw on November 27, 2020, 04:05:12 PM
I've tried to only include composers whose music has personal significance to me, so you can see where my biases lie. Could potentially cut this list down a bit.

....Insert....
....really....
....long....
....list....
....that....
....never....
....ends....

I admire your restraint. :-\

pjme


relm1

#53
Ragnar Søderlind (b. 1945)
Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)
Kjell Mork Karlsen (b. 1947)
Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014)

So little of Kjell Mork Karlsen's orchestral works are available but here is an excerpt of his Symphony No. 2 so you can get the feel.  It's dramatic and full of intensity with large orchestra, chorus, and organ.  He has composed 12 symphonies so far with many never having been performed and I think only No. 3 is available.  :(
https://clyp.it/kwij2xff

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: relm1 on December 02, 2020, 05:42:42 AM
Ragnar Søderlind (b. 1945)
Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)
Kjell Mork Karlsen (b. 1947)
Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014)

So little of Kjell Mork Karlsen's orchestral works are available but here is an excerpt of his Symphony No. 2 so you can get the feel.  It's dramatic and full of intensity with large orchestra, chorus, and organ.  He has composed 12 symphonies so far with many never having been performed and I think only No. 3 is available.  :(
https://clyp.it/kwij2xff
Don't know Arthur Butterworth...any relationship to George (which I recommend to our original poster); his "On the Banks of Banks of Green Willow" and "A Shropshire Lad" are wonderful!  Alas, he died way too young (during WWI).

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

relm1

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on December 02, 2020, 09:16:25 AM
Don't know Arthur Butterworth...any relationship to George (which I recommend to our original poster); his "On the Banks of Banks of Green Willow" and "A Shropshire Lad" are wonderful!  Alas, he died way too young (during WWI).

PD

No relation other than being English and enamored with Ralph Vaughan Williams and saving served in a World War.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: relm1 on December 03, 2020, 06:25:33 AM
No relation other than being English and enamored with Ralph Vaughan Williams and saving served in a World War.
Thanks!  :)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter