Five Favorite Composers You Hadn't Heard About In the Beggining

[kyjo]

No surprises here:

Volkmar Andreae
Kurt Atterberg
Joly Braga Santos
Alfredo Casella
George Lloyd

The next 5 would probably be: Malcolm Arnold, Jean-Michel Damase, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Erkki Melartin, Joachim Raff

I starting discovering so many "unknown" composers years ago (before joining GMG) when I happened upon the Wikipedia page "List of symphony composers": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_symphony_composers

Naturally, this was like opening Pandora's Box for me!

[Irons]

Forgive me from straying off topic but five works rather then composers. All of the following were unknown to me say five years ago and each I love with a passion. But not necessarily other works from each composer's output hit the spot.

Patrick Hadley: The Trees so High.

Andrei Eshpai : Songs of the Mountain and Meadow Mari.

Jacques Ibert: Symphonie Marine.

Wilfred Josephs: 5th Symphony "Pastoral".

William Wordsworth: Three Wordsworth Songs for High Voice and String Quartet.

[vandermolen]

Forgive me from straying off topic but five works rather then composers. All of the following were unknown to me say five years ago and each I love with a passion. But not necessarily other works from each composer's output hit the spot.

Patrick Hadley: The Trees so High.

Andrei Eshpai : Songs of the Mountain and Meadow Mari.

Jacques Ibert: Symphonie Marine.

Wilfred Josephs: 5th Symphony "Pastoral".

William Wordsworth: Three Wordsworth Songs for High Voice and String Quartet.

Totally agree with you about the top three Lol, although Eshpai's 5th Symphony is excellent IMO and I suspect that you would enjoy it. Must listen to the Josephs again as I have the CD. Howells's 'Hymnus Paradisi' also comes into that category for me.

[Irons]

Totally agree with you about the top three Lol, although Eshpai's 5th Symphony is excellent IMO and I suspect that you would enjoy it. Must listen to the Josephs again as I have the CD. Howells's 'Hymnus Paradisi' also comes into that category for me.

As you know but too modest to say, the first two on the list are down to your encouragement and guidance, Jeffrey.

[Mirror Image]

Interesting thread idea, Andrei. This could be a bit tricky as I think many of us haven't heard a lot of the names we're familiar with now outside of the more well-known names.

Let's see...(in no particular order):

Martinů
Falla
Enescu
Roussel
Villa-Lobos

Honorable mentions: Zemlinsky, Koechlin, Ginastera, Revueltas, Chávez, Britten, K. A. Hartmann

I'll add Frank Martin to the "Honorable mention" list --- Milhaud and Honegger, too.

[Karl Henning]

When I went to Wooster almost all classical music was new to me. I'll consider my graduation  from Wooster my "beginning," at which time I had heard about a hundred composers of whose work I had heard none (Zemlinsky, Sorabji, Martinů, Couperin, e.g.) So to reply with five favorite composers I had heard nothing of at that watershed: Langgaard, Schnittke, Mompou, Tansman & Flagello.

[Xenophanes]

That takes me back several decades.  I had heard of most major composers but that doesn't mean I knew much of their music.  I had heard Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony, Franck's Symphony in d, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, some singers such as Caruso, Gigli, Flagstad, Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures.  Lots of stuff I did not hear or did not notice much.

Beethoven.  I really had not heard his symphonies, maybe the beginning of the Fifth, until university, and I knew nothing of the string quartets and little of the sonatas or concertos.

Handel.  When I was in university, we did Messiah, which I had never heard before.

Bach.  Well, everyone has heard the Toccata and Fugue in d, but I had heard little else, not even the Brandenburg Concertos.

Haydn.  The only symphony I knew was the Surprise Symphony.

Mozart. As a teenager, I latched on to the Requiem, not having known the  symphonies, chamber music, and operas.

[71 dB]

Bach.  Well, everyone has heard the Toccata and Fugue in d, but I had heard little else, not even the Brandenburg Concertos.

Before getting into classical music in my late 20's I had only heard like 30 seconds of the beginning of BWV 565, because that is what people do when they use this music in say tv programs. The toccata part of BWV 565 is in my opinion lesser Bach. As a fan of counterpoint the Fugue part is the meat for me. In general the works of classical music are far too long to be experienced properly passively. Hearing 16 bars of a pop song can get us hooked, but for classical music that rarely is enough. Combine this to my ignorant and naive thoughts about classical music being "too old" for modern ears and it is not a mystery why I was 25 when I started to get interested of classical music and actually tried out if I liked any of it. If my best friend hadn't hyped Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet I could still be without classical music in my life... 

Before getting into classical music I had no means to even place classical music passively heard into any context such as time period or country. If I heard Pachelbel's Canon & Gigue for example, I didn't know if that music was composed 50, 100, 300 or 500 years ago. I didn't know why Haydn sounds different from Sibelius and most of the time I didn't even know who was the composer. If Brahms is played in an episode of the Simpsons or in an action movie it is not stated anywhere (in the end credits maybe, but who reads those especially if the music doesn't hit you?)

[Symphonic Addict]

In my beggar beginning: 

Ernst Toch, Joseph Marx, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Malcolm Arnold and Joly Braga Santos.

I have to say that Brahms was love at first hearing.

[Mirror Image]

I have to say that Brahms was love at first hearing.

I still struggle with Brahms. I don't know what it is. I'm just not allured by much of his music the same way I am his "enemies" like Liszt, Wagner or Bruckner.

[Symphonic Addict]

I still struggle with Brahms. I don't know what it is. I'm just not allured by much of his music the same way I am his "enemies" like Liszt, Wagner or Bruckner.

Brahms is to craftsmanship and fine counterpoint, what Wagner and Liszt are to paint atmospheres with motifs and a more daring harmony (above all Wagner).

His melodies are so unique too, with a certain rustic touch to it. A compose whom I admire and enjoy a lot his creations.

Brahms is extremely elegant and fastidious, his self-critical opinion definitely hit strongly on him.

[Florestan]

I still struggle with Brahms. I don't know what it is. I'm just not allured by much of his music the same way I am his "enemies" like Liszt, Wagner or Bruckner.

How about his enemy Tchaikovsky, John?

I love Brahms' chamber music (some of the best ever written), solo piano, concertos and vocal music but I'm less fond of his symphonies. I like the Third best, followed by the Second and Fourth in this order. The First doesn't do anything at all for me. Anyway Brahms was love at first hearing for me as well.

[Iota]

I have to say that Brahms was love at first hearing.

For a long time I was passionate about Brahms in the beginning. Then just I went off him for a decade or so. I think I found it all a bit clogged up and self-pitying. I've since come back to him again with a possibly deeper appreciation for his unique expressive powers, and he's once again a very important composer for me. Hope you get there in the end, MI, it's worth it I think.

[San Antone]

These five for sure - but there are lot more.

Othmar Schoeck
Alphonse Diepenbrock
Franz Schreker
Mieczyslaw Weinberg
Federico Mompou

[kyjo]

I still struggle with Brahms. I don't know what it is. I'm just not allured by much of his music the same way I am his "enemies" like Liszt, Wagner or Bruckner.

I can completely understand someone struggling with Brahms. Though I usually list him in my top 10-15 composers, I have to be in the right mood to enjoy some of his works. His style is often quite intellectual, dense, and in the wrong performance his music can sound "clogged/stuffy/etc". Typically, ultra-famous composers like Brahms are not considered an "acquired taste", but I think any composer can be considered an "acquired taste" since everyone's tastes are different.

[Sergeant Rock]

Havergal Brian
Mahler
Bruckner
Arnold
Lloyd

[vers la flamme]

I can completely understand someone struggling with Brahms. Though I usually list him in my top 10-15 composers, I have to be in the right mood to enjoy some of his works. His style is often quite intellectual, dense, and in the wrong performance his music can sound "clogged/stuffy/etc". Typically, ultra-famous composers like Brahms are not considered an "acquired taste", but I think any composer can be considered an "acquired taste" since everyone's tastes are different.

Brahms was absolutely an acquired taste for me. He's one of my favorite composers now but his music didn't make much sense at first.

[Karl Henning]

For a long time I was passionate about Brahms in the beginning. Then just I went off him for a decade or so. I think I found it all a bit clogged up and self-pitying. I've since come back to him again with a possibly deeper appreciation for his unique expressive powers, and he's once again a very important composer for me. Hope you get there in the end, MI, it's worth it I think.

Britten did a complete 180 degrees with Brahms, bitterly remarking late in his life how alphabetically proximate the two would be.

[Iota]

Britten did a complete 180 degrees with Brahms, bitterly remarking late in his life how alphabetically proximate the two would be.

Indeed I often think of that uncomfortable juxtaposition when putting their cd's next to each other on my shelves. The other two comments that often spring to mind, are Britten saying he played through his music every few years to remind himself how bad it was – and usually found it was worse, and Tchaikovsky calling him a 'talentless bastard'.

It actually makes sense to me that T. would have thought that way, he himself is so nimble and athletic with an orchestra, throwing his ideas around with such abandon and natural flair, and Brahms can seem pedestrian and over worked-out by comparison. But they were very different people with different expressive goals, which needed achieving in very different ways. A right old rough-and tumble out there sometimes, but such a fertile one!

[Karl Henning]

Fortunately, I file my Brahms where it actually belongs, under the 'Js'. Britten can safely remain amongst the 'Bs', however, no matter whether you catalogue by first or last name (and 'Edward' doesn't count in his case!!).
Net result: no alphabetical proximity at all! 

Ben would be ... relieved.