Quiz: Mystery scores

[lukeottevanger]

Naturally! There couldn't be a more obvious page of Shostakovich, could there - peppered with DSCHes and with one of his most famous tunes thrown in too!

[lukeottevanger]

I should emphasize that all of that last set are by very well-known composers, as indeed are the two remaining from a couple of days ago.

[lukeottevanger]

Here's another one I rediscovered whilst score-reading today...

LO 286

[Mark G. Simon]

LO 285 is Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini. The clarinet solo gave it away.

[Mark G. Simon]

LO 286 is the slow movement of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in his own hand.

[lukeottevanger]

Correct on both, Mark. To clarify my clue, the Tchaikovsky - such a great tune, one of his finest, and so typical in scoring! - shares a Francesca da Rimini theme with my example from the central portion of the first movement of Liszt Dante Symphony, way back on my no 19.

[karlhenning]

LO 281

Really easy, and I'm not just saying that only to infuriate you.

Shostakovich Opus 110

(Good to see that Greg got there first!)

[lukeottevanger]

Ha! You expect me to believe that you knew that one? Pull the other one! 




(just kidding, of course  )

[Greta]

Goodness where do you guys get all these scores?! Some of these must be terribly difficult to find.

I am hopeless at this game as I am not familiar with a lot of the works that are posted...and also by the time I get around to checking most of these have already been snapped up!

But I have a few things laying around, maybe I will try to set some for fun soon.. 

[lukeottevanger]

Goodness where do you guys get all these scores?! Some of these must be terribly difficult to find.

A lifetime of searching! I have plenty more ready to go, but I'm holding off from inflicting them just yet. My 7 year old daughter just saw me looking at this thread and got all excited by the whole process of choosing, scanning, uploading, guessing - she trooped me into the music room and ordered me to make scans of various scores for your delectation, and I had to persuade her that I shouldn't put them up just yet. But they're sitting there, scanned in and waiting... 

I am hopeless at this game as I am not familiar with a lot of the works that are posted...and also by the time I get around to checking most of these have already been snapped up!

Actually, Greta, based on posts of yours I've read in the past, I would not be in the least surprised if you knew some of my last set at the very least.

But I have a few things laying around, maybe I will try to set some for fun soon.. 

Yes, please do! The more the better (and I have none to guess at at the moment) 

[M forever]

LO 279

by the same composer as 278. There are quotations from a very famous piece here, clear as day.

Schostakovich 15?

[lukeottevanger]

I thought someone might say that, especially if I pushed attention towards the William Tell quotation in the brass   No, it isn't that, though a composer of the same generation and of a similar sometimes parodistic bent, as is the case here. There's another feature of the music, a few staves up, which (especially in conjunction with the William Tell idea that you spotted) gives more of a clue as to precisely where the composer is aiming his arrow.

[M forever]

It's been a long time since I heard Schostakovich 15 and I only vaguely remembered that it as some quotes from Tell. I looked at the score again but if it's not that piece, I don't know what it is.

[lukeottevanger]

No, you are correct, the Shostakovich 15 does quote the Rossini, among other things; but this work is a different piece entirely.

The piece this comes from started out as a rather arch work for a small chamber grouping plus vocals (making a slightly sarcastic reference to Pierrot Lunaire as it does so). It was very much a work of its time, and shocking in its own way, a suits the character of its composer, who was still very young when he wrote it. Later, an established figure, he made a series of rather more 'ordinary' arrangements from the original work, shedding the vocals and rescoring for full orchestra. That's the score from which my sample comes.

[lukeottevanger]

OK, you've had long enough    I'm going to reveal the answers to my remaining ones up to and including no 264. Here they are, alongside the clues:

219 - ? - - you know it's by a great pianist who was the protege of a great violinist-composer. I may not have mentioned this before, but it also shares a characteristic with a score of Bartok than Guido tested us with a week or two back.. NEW CLUES - the violinist-composer was also this composer's godfather; this composer died young, of Hodgkin's disease; he was taught by Nadia Boulanger, Charles Munch and Dukas. And - to emphasize - he's very famous (as a pianist). What more do you need?

ANSWER - Lipatti, of course; his Sonatina for the Left Hand

232 - you know the composer (Feldman). And also that it's a  piano solo. And that, strangely enough,  it isn't one of those listed by Sforzando, which were:

Two Intermissions
Intermission 5
Intermission 6
Piano Piece 1952
Extensions 3
Three Pieces For Piano
Piano Piece 1955
Piano Piece 1956 A
Piano Piece 1956 B
Last Piece
Vertical Thoughts 4
Piano Piece (To Philip Guston)
Piano Piece (1964)
Nature Pieces For Piano
Variations
Intermission 3
Intermission 4
Intersection 2
Intersection 3
Intermission 6

but that this list contains the title of this piece several times over.

THE ANSWER being, simply, Piano. It dates from the early 80s

234 As stated earlier, the composer was much better known as a prodigiously gifted, prematurely deceased pianist with an impressive repertoire ranging from the classics to Boulez and Sorabji. As revealed above, either this one or no 219 is by John Ogdon. NEW CLUE and as should be obvious from the new clues to 219, that one isn't by Ogdon....   

SO THIS ONE IS - his Sonatina

238  Not a composer associated with the piano, which instrument isn't very well suited to the technical concerns he developed later in life. This piece, slightly earlier, isn't quite there yet. It refers to the music and culture of an Asian country often bypassed by western composers looking for an Eastern fix. That country is Tibet; this composer visited Tibet and Nepal, I believe, and was greatly influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. There have only been one or two composers directly influenced by Tibet, and this piece is this composer's most obviously Tibetan work. And it's not Glass; nor is it one of my favourites, Jonathan Harvey. NEW CLUE - surprised you need it. This composer is better-known as one of the finalists in the Champion's League this season. 

ANSWER - That's right, Scelsi lost the Champion's League final on penalities this year. This is his Bot-Ba Suite, Bot-Ba being the Tibetan name for.....Tibet.


245 The one with the repeated letter (R ) beginning each constituent title, and whose collective title reflects this. Shall I spell it out for you? R, then R, then R, then R...... 

SPELLS RRRRRR - by Kagel. Your collective spelling is atrocious...

257 The one by the composer who is obvious from the context of the discussion, which is an earlier work than his more famous pieces in the genre, but equally inventive and ground-breaking. NEW CLUES The composer, obviously, is Alkan - I hope you all got that far, though no one said so. It's hard to do more than emphasize that this is a (relatively) early piece in a genre in which he later wrote his greatest masterpieces

ANSWER - Alkan, Trois Etudes de Bravoure, op 16 (no 2 - an incredible effect here - I may have to post a sample)

264 Look in detail at the score; the composer is possibly the best-known of the early experimenters with this sort of thing. NEW CLUE Well, honestly, has anyone looked? 'This sort of thing' = micro tonality. 

ANSWER - Haba, Fantasie no 2


Clues to my newer ones later...

[lukeottevanger]

Hi Guido! How are the exams going? Or have you finished now?

[Guido]

Hi Luke... Exams still not finished. 4 down, 6 to go. I have 1 tomorrow which I should be revising for, 1 on Wednesday, 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday, then all finished for the summer!

I'm glad that I didn't know any of the pieces you revealed. I've never even heard of Haba or Lipatti, and have never heard a piece by Alkan...

[lukeottevanger]

Hi Luke... Exams still not finished. 4 down, 6 to go. I have 1 tomorrow which I should be revising for, 1 on Wednesday, 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday, then all finished for the summer!

I'm glad that I didn't know any of the pieces you revealed. I've never even heard of Haba or Lipatti, and have never heard a piece by Alkan...

Not knowing Haba and Lipatti: 

Never having heard a piece by Alkan:  We shall have to do something about that.....

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks, Luke. Apart from Ogdon, and perhaps Alkan (if I had looked and thought some more), I wouldn't have known the answers to the other ones. Well, Lipatti, too, perhaps...

[lukeottevanger]

What about the Lipatti? - the clues point strongly to him (particularly via Enescu); and the left-hand nature of the score makes it the only possibility from his works.