If YOU Could Be the World's Acknowledged Expert on a Composer...

Started by Stürmisch Bewegt, May 01, 2021, 03:53:14 AM

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Stürmisch Bewegt

Quote from: vandermolen on May 02, 2021, 08:22:49 AM
Klaus Egge

I know of him, but my middle ear ossicles are innocent, regrettably, of his work.  :(  Do you have a recommend or two of his?
Leben heißt nicht zu warten, bis der Sturm vorbeizieht, sondern lernen, im Regen zu tanzen.

SimonNZ

Being the world authority would mean being an expert on the time and place, the wider context, as much as the "mere" person and their music, expert in all other influences including historical, political, philosophical, legal and religious.

With that in mind the world I'd most want to immerse myself in might be that of someone like Peter Abelard. or possibly that of Machaut.

Florestan

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 06, 2021, 04:08:09 PM
Being the world authority would mean being an expert on the time and place, the wider context, as much as the "mere" person and their music, expert in all other influences including historical, political, philosophical, legal and religious.

With that in mind the world I'd most want to immerse myself in might be that of someone like Peter Abelard. or possibly that of Machaut.

Blimey, I'd have never thought that a world fully informed by the Christian faith would have your interest.

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

SimonNZ

Quote from: Florestan on May 06, 2021, 04:21:16 PM
Blimey, I'd have never thought that a world fully informed by the Christian faith would have your interest.

Then you'd have thought wrong. I'd be particularly interested in religious understanding and practices that were specific to the time, those that have fallen away and seem most odd to us now.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on May 06, 2021, 03:15:17 PM
Worthy subjects all; just FYI, Anthony Beaumont brought out a well-reviewed biography of Zemlinksky in 2000 - nothing less than a passion of his.  That doesn't mean you can't better it!

Ah yes, I've ran across that book before on Amazon, but I'd like to see a release on Phaidon Press as these books are more laid out to my liking.

Florestan

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 06, 2021, 04:27:16 PM
Then you'd have thought wrong. I'd be particularly interested in religious understanding and practices that were specific to the time, those that have fallen away and seem most odd to us now.

I see. Well, Abelard's music is certainly an oddity. Has it ever been recorded or published?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Stürmisch Bewegt

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 06, 2021, 07:34:00 PM
Ah yes, I've ran across that book before on Amazon, but I'd like to see a release on Phaidon Press as these books are more laid out to my liking.

I like their books, too, though lately they seem to have taken a page outta Taschen's book (sic).  ;D
Leben heißt nicht zu warten, bis der Sturm vorbeizieht, sondern lernen, im Regen zu tanzen.

Stürmisch Bewegt

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 06, 2021, 04:08:09 PM
Being the world authority would mean being an expert on the time and place, the wider context, as much as the "mere" person and their music, expert in all other influences including historical, political, philosophical, legal and religious.

With that in mind the world I'd most want to immerse myself in might be that of someone like Peter Abelard. or possibly that of Machaut.

Can you imagine being the world's authority, say, on Pierre de la Rue, like Prof. Honey Meconi at the Eastman School? Note that - as you describe the contextual ideal - she is well immersed in the medieval and renaissance worlds. Serendipitously, she also conducts a mentoring series we need:  "Failure is Impossible," for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members at different stages of their careers; yes, I did notice she doesn't mention classical music forum members... :(  https://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/meconi_honey/
Leben heißt nicht zu warten, bis der Sturm vorbeizieht, sondern lernen, im Regen zu tanzen.

Stürmisch Bewegt

#28
Speaking of the Eastman, Howard Hanson might be another worthy subject for our acknowledged expert.  And I don't think there's a biography per se (something of an autobiography was published, haven't seen it, based on a draft of Hanson's own).  It'd be fun to retell the story about how he could have prevented WWII, that's how he described it at any rate.  He was in Berlin, I think, in the thirties and happened to share a revolving door with Hitler and could have prevented much suffering and grief right then and there.  (And then there are those who say he himself behaved dictatorially at the Eastman School).
Leben heißt nicht zu warten, bis der Sturm vorbeizieht, sondern lernen, im Regen zu tanzen.

ritter

Wait a minute...does the thread title somehow imply that I am not acknowledged as the world's expert on Pierre Boulez??? ::) >:( :(     ;D ;D ;D ;D

SimonNZ

Quote from: Florestan on May 07, 2021, 03:18:37 AM
I see. Well, Abelard's music is certainly an oddity. Has it ever been recorded or published?

Scattered recordings have turned up on anthologies of medieval music over the years. And there's also this:



I could just have easily chosen Leonin or Perotin, if they seem more reasonable, but there would be way more source material for Abelard to work with and triangulate from.


SimonNZ

Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on May 07, 2021, 03:42:37 AM
Can you imagine being the world's authority, say, on Pierre de la Rue, like Prof. Honey Meconi at the Eastman School? Note that - as you describe the contextual ideal - she is well immersed in the medieval and renaissance worlds. Serendipitously, she also conducts a mentoring series we need:  "Failure is Impossible," for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members at different stages of their careers; yes, I did notice she doesn't mention classical music forum members... :(  https://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/meconi_honey/

Very interesting. Thanks.

Her book on Hildegard would be something I'd like to find.

Mandryka

Quote from: SimonNZ on May 07, 2021, 01:41:17 PM
Scattered recordings have turned up on anthologies of medieval music over the years. And there's also this:



I could just have easily chosen Leonin or Perotin, if they seem more reasonable, but there would be way more source material for Abelard to work with and triangulate from.

This  maybe worth you hearing too



Paul Hillier also recorded Planctus David - there's an old post of mine somewhere where I looked at all the Planctus David recordings I could find.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

SimonNZ

Quote from: Mandryka on May 07, 2021, 01:48:24 PM
This  maybe worth you hearing too



Paul Hillier also recorded Planctus David - there's an old post of mine somewhere where I looked at all the Planctus David recordings I could find.

Thanks for that. I've got the Hillier recording, but I don't think I've heard the one you pictured.

Lisztianwagner

Nice question.

There are so many composers deserving to be studied, but my first choice would definitely be Richard Wagner, not only for the great beauty and the evocative power of his operas, but also for the extremely interesting style of composition and conception of the role of music and artwork; his full-rounded figure of artist embracing music, literature, poetry and philosophy makes him absolutely intriguing to study and explore. As Alexander Zemlinsky has already been mentioned, then my second choice would be Gustav Holst, he composed so much brilliant, stunning non-Planets music that is worth knowing and here in Italy he is unfairly little famous.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

(poco) Sforzando

You mean I'm not already?

But it would have to be: Beethoven, Chopin, Mahler.
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

vandermolen

Quote from: Stürmisch Bewegt on May 06, 2021, 03:21:11 PM
I know of him, but my middle ear ossicles are innocent, regrettably, of his work.  :(  Do you have a recommend or two of his?

Only replying to this 1.5 years late  ::)

Re: Klaus Egge

Yes, Symphony No.1 dedicated to the Norwegian merchant seamen of World War Two - it has echoes of the sea and reminds me a bit of Walton's 1st Symphony.
String Quartet (on a Norwegian SQs CD on Naxos - even my wife enjoyed it). Piano Concerto No.2, Symphony No.2

"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).