The British Composers Thread

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

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snyprrr

I'm thinking Lutyens and Maconchy should be mentioned along with Rawsthorne. There's a whole gaggle of similar sounding Brits. Who else do we have on the Thorn-o-Meter? Who is the thorniest of the thornmeisters?

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: snyprrr on December 22, 2009, 11:25:59 AM
I'm thinking Lutyens and Maconchy should be mentioned along with Rawsthorne. There's a whole gaggle of similar sounding Brits. Who else do we have on the Thorn-o-Meter? Who is the thorniest of the thornmeisters?


Walton has his prickly side, too, but his language is more overtly romantic. I have listened to Lutyens and Maconchy, and can hear the similarity, but Rawsthorne 'rules'.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning


vandermolen

Quote from: snyprrr on December 22, 2009, 11:25:59 AM
I'm thinking Lutyens and Maconchy should be mentioned along with Rawsthorne. There's a whole gaggle of similar sounding Brits. Who else do we have on the Thorn-o-Meter? Who is the thorniest of the thornmeisters?

How about P Racine Fricker?
"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).

Guido

#264
Grace Williams - now there's a classy lassy. I cannot get enough of Fairest of Stars, her Milton (Paradise Lost) setting - ecstatic, soaring, refulgent.

http://www.amazon.com/Williams-Dancers-etc-John-Heley/dp/B00000IM78/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261958025&sr=8-2

Anyone know where I can get the above CD of her other vocal and choral works for a reasonable price?
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Guido on December 27, 2009, 03:13:43 PM
Grace Williams - now there's a classy lassy. I cannot get enough of Fairest of Stars, her Wordsworth setting - ecstatic, soaring, refulgent.

http://www.amazon.com/Williams-Dancers-etc-John-Heley/dp/B00000IM78/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261958025&sr=8-2

Anyone know where I can get the above CD of her other vocal and choral works for a reasonable price?


Interesting CD! I'm a great admirer of Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetry, so her settings (for alto and string sextet) sound fascinating...


Can't help you, though.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Guido

It does sound interesting doesn't it!

Ad sorry above - Fairest of Stars is of course from Milton, not Wordsworth (I've correct it now)
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

SonicMan46

Over the last few days, I've been reviewing the Jan-Feb 2010 issue of the American Record Guide - there is a 50-page overview on British Orchestral Music, i.e. the non-symphonic music (which was done by them in 2000); the composers are listed alphabetically w/ discussions of their orchestral compositions (mainly concertos, poems, and other non-symphonic type music), along w/ past & current recommendations.  :D


Lethevich

Quote from: vandermolen on December 23, 2009, 01:31:13 AM
How about P Racine Fricker?
I second this, listening to this 2nd symphony atm - sounds kind of like Walton being attacked by Bartók or something...
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Lethe on February 23, 2010, 07:27:38 AM
I second this, listening to this 2nd symphony atm - sounds kind of like Walton being attacked by Bartók or something...


;D
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Lethevich

Now that it's finished, I feel that it's quite an unusual "European" style. Where several British composers of this tough tonal style relied on restless impact and motoring themes, Fricker is more laid back, dissonant and impactful climaxes, but he has the same sense of space that there is in, say, Hindemith's Mathis der Maler Symphony, replete with much tonal unease. Can't think of any other British composer the style is related to, as it has no real neoclassical influences either.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Lethevich

Any opinion on Geoffrey Burgon? I ran into an EMI LP of his music conducted by Hickox, which as so often I thought "I wish I used vinyl" when I saw. I hadn't heard of him before this, but it seems that he wrote reams of stuff, based on the Wikipedia page.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Luke

At his best, he's really fine. He died not that long ago, and I started an RIP thread on which I posted a couple of thoughts and a couple of recommended CDs. Lunar Beauty, with the gorgeous Canciones del Alma, is the one to try first.

Lethevich

Danke! The disc included those two - I guess his "hits"?
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Luke

#274
Well, I'd say his 'hits' would be his film scores - specifically the Brideshead Revisited one and the Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy one (the Nunc Dimitis, which is on the disc I was talking about) (maybe that was a TV series, not a film). Both of these are very well known - I'm sure you'd recognise them if you heard them. They are pleasant, and perhaps I shouldn't discount them, but I'm afraid I do, as there seems to me to much more substance in his 'concert' works. There is a sparse, almost expressionist setting of the Lyke Wake Dirge on that disc which I find extremely compelling, and the Lunar Beauty song cycle itself (with guitar not piano) is a tender thing indeed. Both these works show real imagination, and in the Canciones del Alma - two countertenors and strings IIRC - this imagination is at its richest. They are very attractive, ellusive works, dense and yet light, floating, scurrying, and yet full of substance and clinging beauty. I can't really think of anything else at all like them.

Lethevich

I don't want to start a thread on a composer who I have only heard one piece by (although his solo piano music I have only just resisted buying the whole lot of), but his Dante Pictures is a really super piece, and makes me excited about this inbound release:

Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Lethevich on March 01, 2012, 08:16:20 PM
I don't want to start a thread on a composer who I have only heard one piece by (although his solo piano music I have only just resisted buying the whole lot of), but his Dante Pictures is a really super piece, and makes me excited about this inbound release:



I've just read about this composer on the Hyperion site and what an interesting composer! He led a fascinating life. The samples for this new upcoming Hyperion release sounded great as well. Thanks for sharing this, Lethe.

vandermolen

Wonderful discovery for me:

W Denis Browne (1885-1915, killed at Gallipoli in World War One).

Song:  'To Gratiana dancing and singing' a most lovely song which I heard on BBC Radio 3 last week. It brought tears to my eyes from the start. More moving than any song by VW in my view and VW is one of my very favourites. It features on several CDs.
"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).

kyjo

Quote from: vandermolen on September 29, 2013, 10:30:41 AM
Wonderful discovery for me:

W Denis Browne (1885-1915, killed at Gallipoli in World War One).

Song:  'To Gratiana dancing and singing' a most lovely song which I heard on BBC Radio 3 last week. It brought tears to my eyes from the start. More moving than any song by VW in my view and VW is one of my very favourites. It features on several CDs.

Thanks for sharing, Jeffrey! Never heard of this composer before. Is that song a capella or does it have some kind of accompaniment? I'm not much for a capella choral music, but even if that song is a capella, I'll still give it a listen! :)

vandermolen

#279
Here it is!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FuONgkBDBPc

Juxtaposed with a great painting by Caspar David Friedrich - one of my favourite artists.
"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).