The British Composers Thread

[Roy Bland]

Just got to thinking about Carlo Martelli (born 1935). His Symphony was recorded on Dutton in 2011 and it's very good, and a few of his pieces, including film music, are also available. There is a disc of his String Quartets, but it seems to be OOP, and I have ordered a 2nd hand copy.

If you read his Wikipedia page you'll see he suffered a terrible loss of his manuscripts at one point that makes various other composers (Howells, Brian, Madetoja) who lost MSs of single works seem lucky.

However my question was, is he still alive? If so he must be 90! I'd like to write appreciatively to him if I could find an address.

Here seems alives (89)  should not be exchanged with Henri Martelli (french)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Martelli
 

[kyjo]

To be released on 7 November:

Works for chamber orchestra



The only works I know by her are the string quartets and they are incredible pieces. Contemporary music with real purpose.

Agreed about her string quartets! I played No. 2 recently and it's a brilliant work which packs a ton of incident into about 15 minutes. Alberga's infectious, syncopated way of handling rhythm often reflects her Jamaican heritage. There's also plenty of soulful lyricism present in her music, along with an occasional "folksy aggression" a la Bartók or Ginastera. Along with those by Carl Vine and Aaron Jay Kernis, Alberga's are some of the most compelling contemporary SQs I know! Must check out her orchestral music next.

[Symphonic Addict]

A movement from one of her string quartets has as the musical direction 'Swing it man'!

Yes, it is the 1st movement (which is hectic, full of ongoing action) of her 1st SQ.

[Roy Bland]

[calyptorhynchus]

I have just discovered that it now seems impossible for me to access Radio 3 from Australia. Via BBC.com I can listen to Radio 3 live but I can't seem to access schedules to listen to programming from a few days before.
This is a shame as for the last ten years or so I have been recording various pieces that were being broadcast that were either quality new pieces, or pieces from shamefully neglected composers. And I have shared these here and elsewhere.
I don't know if anyone can confirm these changes, which just seem to be part of the general enshittification of things.
I hope people in the UK can keep a look out for pieces that deserve to be shared and continue to do it here.

[Roasted Swan]

I have just discovered that it now seems impossible for me to access Radio 3 from Australia. Via BBC.com I can listen to Radio 3 live but I can't seem to access schedules to listen to programming from a few days before.
This is a shame as for the last ten years or so I have been recording various pieces that were being broadcast that were either quality new pieces, or pieces from shamefully neglected composers. And I have shared these here and elsewhere.
I don't know if anyone can confirm these changes, which just seem to be part of the general enshittification of things.
I hope people in the UK can keep a look out for pieces that deserve to be shared and continue to do it here.

I had a quick look.  I expect you were using "BBC Sounds" as the portal for accessing their content including archived performances.  It says online that from July 21st this has been "closed for international listeners".  Sadly I suspect this is another of those insidious little budget cuts forced onto the BBC by the freezing of the licence and the general politicisation of the broadcast industry.  But this is a good example of a (possibly) peripheral service the BBC has been offering for years - BBC World Service / The Good Food Guide (my favourite!) and much else - that has fallen foul of the budget shortfalls.  I think you can still access it using a VPN and setting your location as "UK" but they might know how to spot that now too

[calyptorhynchus]

I had a quick look.  I expect you were using "BBC Sounds" as the portal for accessing their content including archived performances.  It says online that from July 21st this has been "closed for international listeners".  Sadly I suspect this is another of those insidious little budget cuts forced onto the BBC by the freezing of the licence and the general politicisation of the broadcast industry.  But this is a good example of a (possibly) peripheral service the BBC has been offering for years - BBC World Service / The Good Food Guide (my favourite!) and much else - that has fallen foul of the budget shortfalls.  I think you can still access it using a VPN and setting your location as "UK" but they might know how to spot that now too

It's unlikely to be budget cuts, as they are still producing BBC Sounds for UK listeners and making it available world-wide costs nothing extra.

More likely their lawyers have told them that something to do with licence agreements with the artists mean that the programming can only be heard live outside the UK...or something. (I spent many years in the Australian Public Service and a constant theme was our lawyers preventing us from doing anything useful because of various nugatory fears like this (oh and bastard politicians not wanting us to do anything useful).)

[Roasted Swan]

An interesting and attractive collection in this latest release from EM Records;



Everything is getting its premiere recording and all is very good.  Personally the highlights for me were the unexpectedly dynamic and concise Piano Quartet by Tobias Matthay (who really gave up composing to focus on piano pedagogy - Bax was one pupil amongst MANY!) and another really appealing quartet by J B McEwen - "Nugae".  This is a set of 7 miniatures - think Lyric Pieces for String Quartet but really well composed - concise, effective, attractive.  We need his quartet cycle to be completed.  It might not be the profoundest work in the quartet repertoire but it is lovely I think!

[Roasted Swan]

On a whim listening to this symphony this morning;



What a lovely piece!  Big bold sweeping melodies, rich full orchestration given the classic Chandos/Ulster Hall treatment.  Vintage stuff all round.

[relm1]

This looks like an interesting release.  I think it gets released tomorrow.

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574620

[Symphonic Addict]

On a whim listening to this symphony this morning;



What a lovely piece!  Big bold sweeping melodies, rich full orchestration given the classic Chandos/Ulster Hall treatment.  Vintage stuff all round.

One of his best symphonies along with Nos. 5 and 6 IMO. I prefer these Chandos recordings over the Naxos ones.

[DavidUK]

This looks like an interesting release.  I think it gets released tomorrow.

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574620

That's good news. Her Cello Concerto (Dance) is a masterpiece in my opinion.

[Roasted Swan]

I've mentioned in the past on this thread my interest in the original compositions of W H ('Billy') Reed - leader of the original LSO, firend biographer and advisor to Elgar when he was writing his Violin Cocnerto and late chamber works.

The ever-helpful Royal College of Music Library has put some high res scans of his manuscripts on IMLSP from which I've spent quite a bit of time creating playable scores and parts.  Latest is his 2-movement "Somerset Idylls" of 1926.  This lasts about 11 minutes and are two extended settings of Somerset Folksongs; "The Crystal Spring" and "Seventeen Come Sunday".  The latter much better known in Vaughan Williams' version included in his Folk-Song Suite.  The former was one of the tunes chosen by the even-more-forgotten Eric Thiman as the opening movement of his "A Folk-Song Suite" for String Quartet.

The Reed is written for a small orchestra: 1.1.2.1 2.1.0.0 timps perc. strings & harp.  Hardly revolutionary (actually not at all - sitting closer to attractive 'light' music perhaps) but actually very appealing.  Quite funnily Reed - a fellow non-transposing string player - gets quite a few of the transposing parts (clarinets in B flat and A as well as trumpet in 2 keys and horns in F) wrong so there's been more correcting of notes than usual alongside the more predictable process of making sure dynamics and expression marks are consistent across the score.  This is clearly his original composing manuscript not a "fair copy" so its unclear if sets of parts were ever written out let alone performed.  But they are now!  Minor detail of trying to get it played now.....

Here's a link for a rough midi file generated by Sibelius.  I use this output mainly just to note check so the sound samples are pretty crude and the dynamics etc rough and ready too but its good enough to give folk a reasonable idea............

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qz1SVvGrLxCrYUnIQmCvf-RcvCBVo4rr/view?usp=sharing

[Irons]

I've mentioned in the past on this thread my interest in the original compositions of W H ('Billy') Reed - leader of the original LSO, firend biographer and advisor to Elgar when he was writing his Violin Cocnerto and late chamber works.

The ever-helpful Royal College of Music Library has put some high res scans of his manuscripts on IMLSP from which I've spent quite a bit of time creating playable scores and parts.  Latest is his 2-movement "Somerset Idylls" of 1926.  This lasts about 11 minutes and are two extended settings of Somerset Folksongs; "The Crystal Spring" and "Seventeen Come Sunday".  The latter much better known in Vaughan Williams' version included in his Folk-Song Suite.  The former was one of the tunes chosen by the even-more-forgotten Eric Thiman as the opening movement of his "A Folk-Song Suite" for String Quartet.

The Reed is written for a small orchestra: 1.1.2.1 2.1.0.0 timps perc. strings.  Hardly revolutionary (actually not at all - sitting closer to attractive 'light' music perhaps) but actually very appealing.  Quite funnily Reed - a fellow non-transposing string player - gets quite a few of the transposing parts (clarinets in B flat and A as well as trumpet in 2 keys and horns in F) wrong so there's been more correcting of notes than usual alongside the more predictable process of making sure dynamics and expression marks are consistent across the score.  This is clearly his original composing manuscript not a "fair copy" so its unclear if sets of parts were ever written out let alone performed.  But they are now!  Minor detail of trying to get it played now.....

Here's a link for a rough midi file generated by Sibelius.  I use this output mainly just to note check so the sound samples are pretty crude and the dynamics etc rough and ready too but its good enough to give folk a reasonable idea............

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qz1SVvGrLxCrYUnIQmCvf-RcvCBVo4rr/view?usp=sharing

Uplifting piece which I enjoyed. Thanks for link.