The British Composers Thread

Started by Mark, October 25, 2007, 12:26:56 PM

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vandermolen

Quote from: Irons on March 12, 2020, 04:41:59 AM
Dorothy Howell: Violin Sonata, Rosalind for Violin & Piano, Sonata for Piano, Humoresque for Piano, Five Studies for Piano, The Moorings for Violin & Piano and Phantasy for Violin & Piano.

An outstanding in every way CD that I enjoyed immensely. The Violin Sonata, a strong work of flowing lines with a whimsical middle movement (something Howell is good at). Works with violin are a personal interest but the strongest work here is undoubtedly the Piano Sonata - what a piece! Howell never married and although she didn't have any she loved children. The second movement is in the form of a gentle cradle song with a rhythmic pattern - I found this music deeply moving. Jeffrey alerted me to this CD (and composer) through The Moorings, again a whimsical piece with an evocation of water. Yet another Cobbet prize winner, Phantasy is in contrast to The Moorings a more assertive piece. But it is Howell in a melancholy mood I like best.
A fabulous CD which will be back in the tray this evening - can't wait!   
Have just been listening to the CD. A great find!
"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).

Irons

Quote from: vandermolen on March 16, 2020, 11:22:53 AM
Have just been listening to the CD. A great find!


Listened to the whole CD a great deal over the last week or so. The main works, Violin Sonata and Piano sonata are a given. The Moorings, a most attractive piece, is ideally programmed after works for solo piano. The Humoresque, although short is a brilliant keyboard piece which I am growing to appreciate greatly. The Five Studies are worth getting to know too. The one duff work happens to be the shortest (2.51), Rosalind for piano and violin, comes over as a salon piece.
Ravel lurks in the background and breaks cover in the finale of the Piano Sonata.
You must have a very good opinion of yourself to write a symphony - John Ireland.

I opened the door people rushed through and I was left holding the knob - Bo Diddley.

vandermolen

Quote from: Irons on March 17, 2020, 12:52:00 AM
Listened to the whole CD a great deal over the last week or so. The main works, Violin Sonata and Piano sonata are a given. The Moorings, a most attractive piece, is ideally programmed after works for solo piano. The Humoresque, although short is a brilliant keyboard piece which I am growing to appreciate greatly. The Five Studies are worth getting to know too. The one duff work happens to be the shortest (2.51), Rosalind for piano and violin, comes over as a salon piece.
Ravel lurks in the background and breaks cover in the finale of the Piano Sonata.
Thanks Lol. The Sonata for Violin and Piano was the other work (apart from The Moorings) which really impressed me very much but I enjoy the whole CD.
"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).

Roy Bland


André

Quote from: Roy Bland on March 18, 2020, 08:06:31 PM
Recent release


Wow! Very interesting, thanks.

This seems to be a new recording, not a reissue. I like the cellist's name, very appropriate!

calyptorhynchus

Nigel Stringfellow!

New Scientist in their back page humorous column has many years of discussions of what they call nominative determinism, ie your career is determined by your name, like a medical practitioner I heard of called Dr D'Ath.

;D
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

Roy Bland

IMHO this prokofievan ballet is delightful

vandermolen

Quote from: Roy Bland on March 22, 2020, 06:58:36 PM
IMHO this prokofievan ballet is delightful

Interesting! Thanks for posting it.
"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).

Papy Oli

William Wordsworth is trending 6th in my area's daily trends on twitter  ???

...I nearly got excited  8) 

but it's not the right one...  :-[

they're all raving about that poet bloke...  >:D

Olivier

Irons

Quote from: Papy Oli on April 07, 2020, 12:29:12 AM
William Wordsworth is trending 6th in my area's daily trends on twitter  ???

...I nearly got excited  8) 

but it's not the right one...  :-[

they're all raving about that poet bloke...  >:D

They are related, Oliver.
You must have a very good opinion of yourself to write a symphony - John Ireland.

I opened the door people rushed through and I was left holding the knob - Bo Diddley.

steve ridgway

Quote from: Papy Oli on April 07, 2020, 12:29:12 AM
William Wordsworth is trending 6th in my area's daily trends on twitter  ???

...I nearly got excited  8) 

but it's not the right one...  :-[

they're all raving about that poet bloke...  >:D

Now they have no shopping malls to wander through have people noticed those daffodil thingies?

Roasted Swan

Quote from: steve ridgway on April 07, 2020, 07:25:50 AM
Now they have no shopping malls to wander through have people noticed those daffodil thingies?

"self isolating like a cloud"..... how prophetic!

Papy Oli

Quote from: Papy Oli on January 30, 2020, 01:58:50 PM
Just to bring back on topic after derailing it  0:) I am 100 pages in this one and this is very detailed and informative. Yet to get to the bulk of composers covered but the build up from land ohne musik onwards and its wrong prejudice/real struggle is well analysed.

[asin]2970065479[/asin]

Took that book piecemeal and eventually finished it last night.

This book is nothing short of fantastic. Timing did help to its appreciation as I started it after my first proper thorough foray into British composers. Knowing the names of the composers beforehand and some of their works already was a distinct advantage.

That book felt thorough and objective in its assessment of the British music while offering a running constructive context, covering for instance :Land ohne musik, oratorios, Music halls, Gilbert & Sullivan, Royal college of Music, all composers and relations thereof (teachers and pupils thereof), artistic evolution through their works, operas, burgeoning orchestras, the conductors (Groves, Boult, Wood, etc), the folk songs influence, the WW1 composers, the role of the BBC, Post-WW2 cultural changes, technical revolutions, advent of the LP and Rock'n'roll, "modern" composers, etc etc...

Think of any British name from the Lyrita or Dutton catalogues and it will most probably in this book, be it as a short mention, a paragraph, a few or a full chapter. I only really felt short changed on Havergal Brian and George Lloyd with only passing mentions but that would be the biased influence of this forum   ;D ...

To name a few beyond the big ones, Alice Mary Smith, Howells, Stanford, Gordon Jacob, Butterworth, Cooke, Berkeley, Worsdworth, Bridge, Foulds, Sainton, Hadley, Moeran are covered here in good chunks... Luytens, Maconchy and Grace Williams get a few pages to themselves as well.

Classical-wise, the book stops with larger sections of Britten and Arnold/Tippett. The writer made the editorial choice to only mention more modern composers like Rawsthorne, Simpson and a few living ones at the end, due to the fact we do not have yet full hindsight on their works and influence, if any, on British classical music as a whole in the future

Tiny complaint : some spelling and grammatical mistakes are scattered in the last 100 pages or so. Something went amiss in the proof-reading.

Overall, a highly recommended read. Even if you are already a very-seasoned listener of Lyrita and the likes, i think you would still find this book of interest in the way it structures and intertwines it all, with bucket loads of anecdotes along the way. I am sure i will plunge again in particular sections now and then when I focus on a particular composer.
Olivier

vandermolen

Quote from: Papy Oli on April 16, 2020, 05:54:51 AM
Took that book piecemeal and eventually finished it last night.

This book is nothing short of fantastic. Timing did help to its appreciation as I started it after my first proper thorough foray into British composers. Knowing the names of the composers beforehand and some of their works already was a distinct advantage.

That book felt thorough and objective in its assessment of the British music while offering a running constructive context, covering for instance :Land ohne musik, oratorios, Music halls, Gilbert & Sullivan, Royal college of Music, all composers and relations thereof (teachers and pupils thereof), artistic evolution through their works, operas, burgeoning orchestras, the conductors (Groves, Boult, Wood, etc), the folk songs influence, the WW1 composers, the role of the BBC, Post-WW2 cultural changes, technical revolutions, advent of the LP and Rock'n'roll, "modern" composers, etc etc...

Think of any British name from the Lyrita or Dutton catalogues and it will most probably in this book, be it as a short mention, a paragraph, a few or a full chapter. I only really felt short changed on Havergal Brian and George Lloyd with only passing mentions but that would be the biased influence of this forum   ;D ...

To name a few beyond the big ones, Alice Mary Smith, Howells, Stanford, Gordon Jacob, Butterworth, Cooke, Berkeley, Worsdworth, Bridge, Foulds, Sainton, Hadley, Moeran are covered here in good chunks... Luytens, Maconchy and Grace Williams get a few pages to themselves as well.

Classical-wise, the book stops with larger sections of Britten and Arnold/Tippett. The writer made the editorial choice to only mention more modern composers like Rawsthorne, Simpson and a few living ones at the end, due to the fact we do not have yet full hindsight on their works and influence, if any, on British classical music as a whole in the future

Tiny complaint : some spelling and grammatical mistakes are scattered in the last 100 pages or so. Something went amiss in the proof-reading.

Overall, a highly recommended read. Even if you are already a very-seasoned listener of Lyrita and the likes, i think you would still find this book of interest in the way it structures and intertwines it all, with bucket loads of anecdotes along the way. I am sure i will plunge again in particular sections now and then when I focus on a particular composer.
What does it say about Sainton Olivier?
"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).

Papy Oli

Quote from: vandermolen on April 16, 2020, 07:31:46 AM
What does it say about Sainton Olivier?

Page 354, just one paragraph:

" Philip Sainton (1891-1967), another largely forgotten composer of essentially romantic works, was the grandson of the violinist Prosper Sainton, who taught Mackenzie at the RAM and led Michael Costa's at Covent Garden in the 1840's. Philip Sainton became principal viola in Henry Wood's Queen's hall Orchestra after the first World War and some of his early works - Sea pictures (1923) and Harlequin and Colombine (1925) - were taken up not only by Henry Wood but also by Hamilton Harty and the Hallé. If remembered at all today, it is for his fine romantic tone poem, The Island (1944), which seems to hark back to McEwen's Galloway-inspired works or for the rich evocation of the sea in his score for John Houston's 1956 film of Moby Dick. "
Olivier

vandermolen

Quote from: Papy Oli on April 16, 2020, 07:51:39 AM
Page 354, just one paragraph:

" Philip Sainton (1891-1967), another largely forgotten composer of essentially romantic works, was the grandson of the violinist Prosper Sainton, who taught Mackenzie at the RAM and led Michael Costa's at Covent Garden in the 1840's. Philip Sainton became principal viola in Henry Wood's Queen's hall Orchestra after the first World War and some of his early works - Sea pictures (1923) and Harlequin and Colombine (1925) - were taken up not only by Henry Wood but also by Hamilton Harty and the Hallé. If remembered at all today, it is for his fine romantic tone poem, The Island (1944), which seems to hark back to McEwen's Galloway-inspired works or for the rich evocation of the sea in his score for John Houston's 1956 film of Moby Dick. "
Thanks so much Olivier. I can understand the comparison with McEwen. I wonder if the 'Sea Pictures' still exists. I certainly agree about 'the rich evocation of the sea' in 'Moby Dick'.
"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).


Roasted Swan

Quote from: Roy Bland on April 26, 2020, 05:21:57 PM
Discovery
https://slippedisc.com/2020/04/found-a-lost-buddhist-opera-by-famed-british-composer/

got all excited and thought it might be by John Foulds or Holst.  Personally can't get quite as ecstatic over Taverner - and something written in 2005 (albeit still in manuscript) has not exactly been "lost".  I have to say - and its probably simply through ignorance - I've always thought that opera/drama and minimalism are kind of counter intuitive; the former is about a narrative line and "events" and minimalism is about stasis and incremental change.  Nixon in China is about as far as I've managed to get........

Maestro267

That's why people need to post a brief explainer or context, rather than just "Discovery". You're fueling the clickbait mentality of the worst parts of the internet, and that's not healthy.

relm1

#619
This looks interesting and I enjoyed his other releases.


From the site: This second volume of orchestral music by the English composer Steve Elcock (b. 1957), long since resident in France, brings three powerful works all with their origins in earlier pieces. Incubus examines the terrors of nightmare-riven sleep in a vigorous symphonic essay based on a movement from Elcock's string quartet Night after Night. The impulse behind Haven, an expansive and surprisingly muscular fantasy, is the Sarabanda theme from Bach's First Partita for solo violin. And Elcock's Fifth Symphony takes its cue from the most famous of all Fifth Symphonies, re-examining Beethoven's structural logic in Elcock's own musical language to produce a volcanic new Fifth, its charge of wild energy husbanded to maximum dramatic effect.

https://toccataclassics.com/product/steve-elcock-orchestral-music-volume-two/