The British Composers Thread

[Peregrine]

I listened to Vaughan Williams today (Tallis Fantasia etc on Naxos). I don't know what I am missing in his music but I find it boring. Nothing seems to happen. It's all white snow to me.

Try and get hold of the Barbirolli/English String music disc, then you'll know what you've been missing...

[Keemun]

I went looking through my CDs and there are only two English Composers in my whole Collection  :

Gee, I don't feel so bad now.   I have music by Bantock, Bax, Elgar, Handel, Holst and Vaughan Williams.  I might even include those on the Stile Antico - Music for Compline album. 

Isn't all snow white as it comes down?

Generally, yes, but once it's been on the ground for a while it could turn yellow. 

[Mark]

I'll go Delius, VW, Britten, Bridge and Butterworth. In that order...

Knew I'd missed someone on my shelves.

I also missed off Thomas Morley.

[Mark]

Keemun, thanks. I missed Sheppard, too.

[vandermolen]

No mention of Havergal Brian so far. symphonies 1,3,6,8,10 are all masterpieces of sorts.Look out for the Lyrita reissue of nos 6 and 16 in Feb 2008.

Patrick Hadley's "The Trees so High" is one of my favourite works by a British composer (Lyrita and Chandos). It should be much better known. I have seen it (incorrectly) described as "Vaughan Williams with water"...infact it is a much more personal work than anything Vaughan Williams wrote (with the possible exception of Symphony 9). Vaughan Williams's music, for all its great beauty has a strangely impersonal quality to it.

Also, Phillip Sainton's "Nadir" (a masterpiece in 13 minutes), The  Island and Moby Dick film score are all favourites as are Lennox Berkeley's First Symphony and double piano concerto.  Arthur Benjamin's Symphony is like the VW No 6 (Benjamin was actually an Australian). Cyril Scott is having something of a CD revivival. John Gardner's 1st Symphony on Naxos is also worthwhile as is Edgar Bainton's movingly valedictory Third Symphony (Dutton).

[Mark]

No mention of Havergal Brian so far. symphonies 1,3,6,8,10 are all masterpieces of sorts.Look out for the Lyrita reissue of nos 6 and 16 in Feb 2008.

Patrick Hadley's "The Trees so High" is one of my favourite works by a British composer (Lyrita and Chandos). It should be much better known. I have seen it (incorrectly) described as "Vaughan Williams with water"...infact it is a much more personal work than anything Vaughan Williams wrote (with the possible exception of Symphony 9). Vaughan Williams's music, for all its great beauty has a strangely impersonal quality to it.

Also, Phillip Sainton's "Nadir" (a masterpiece in 13 minutes), The  Island and Moby Dick film score are all favourites as are Lennox Berkeley's First Symphony and double piano concerto.  Arthur Benjamin's Symphony is like the VW No 6 (Benjamin was actually an Australian). Cyril Scott is having something of a CD revivival. John Gardner's 1st Symphony on Naxos is also worthwhile as is Edgar Bainton's movingly valedictory Third Symphony (Dutton).

Knew you'd show up soon with a list of composers (save Berkeley and Scott) whom I hadn't even considered.

And of course, we shouldn't neglect Ferneyhough, Birtwistle, Turnage, Ades and Maxwell Davis.

[Mark]

You picked the strongest era

See, I said in the GMG associations thread that you're a renaissance girl, and I was right.

[Mark]

I listened to Vaughan Williams today (Tallis Fantasia etc on Naxos). I don't know what I am missing in his music but I find it boring. Nothing seems to happen.

Just heart-breaking.

Firstly, you're starting off with a good but not excellent recording of the Tallis Fantasia (or, to give it its full name, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis ), and second, to conclude that nothing seems to happen strikes me as incredible, using that word literally. Were you not moved at all by it? That piece is in my very veins since I first heard it ten years ago (on the day Diana, Princess of Wales died, actually). It's so tragically beautiful, and so very, very English. If you love Elgar, then I fail to understand why this piece in particular doesn't speak to you.

Like I said, heart-breaking.

[vandermolen]

Knew you'd show up soon with a list of composers (save Berkeley and Scott) whom I hadn't even considered.

And of course, we shouldn't neglect Ferneyhough, Birtwistle, Turnage, Ades and Maxwell Davis.

Can't get on with Maxwell Davies and don't know much of Ades, Ferneyhough and the others. I think that I am more conservative in my taste but will investigate. I have time for Fricker and really like the First Symphony by the Scotsman Robin Orr (EMI British Composers). If you are into the British pastoral school, give yourself a treat and get hold of Hadley's The Trees So High; a heartbreakingly sad and deeply moving work. I forgot to mention Howells's "Hymnus Paradisi" one of the most moving works I have ever heard.

[Mark]

Can't get on with Maxwell Davies and don't know much of Ades, Ferneyhough and the others. I think that I am more conservative in my taste but will investigate. I have time for Fricker and really like the First Symphony by the Scotsman Robin Orr (EMI British Composers). If you are into the British pastoral school, give yourself a treat and get hold of Hadley's The Trees So High; a heartbreakingly sad and deeply moving work. I forgot to mention Howells's "Hymnus Paradisi" one of the most moving works I have ever heard.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Have you tried Howells' chamber works? Or those of Bliss, for that matter? Check them out on Naxos - thoroughly recommended.

[vandermolen]

Thanks for the recommendation.

Have you tried Howells' chamber works? Or those of Bliss, for that matter? Check them out on Naxos - thoroughly recommended.

The Oboe Quintet by Bliss is a wonderful score.

[Mark]

The Oboe Quintet by Bliss is a wonderful score.

Agreed. Which leads me to strongly recommend this:

Bax, Bliss & Britten - Oboe Quintets

Worth it for Britten's Phantasy Quartet alone.

[marvinbrown]

Traditional-costumed staging of Peter Grimes, stat...

 Thanks Lethe for the recommendation and Bruce for insisting that the lack of any Britten operas needs to be  addressed immediately.  I think thats where I will go to next -> Britten's operas as I have been buying opera DVDs at an alarming fast rate (3 per week)  . I'll also have to pick up Holst's' Planets- I can't believe I don't have that  !!  

 marvin  

[Dundonnell]

Supplemental consolidated 20th century list-

Richard Arnell
Sir Lennox Berkeley
York Bowen
Havergal Brian
Alan Bush
Geoffrey Bush
Arnold Cooke
Frederick Cowen
Benjamin Frankel
Peter Racine Fricker
John Gardner
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Patrick Hadley
Iain Hamilton
Alun Hoddinott
Joseph Holbrooke
Gordon Jacob
Daniel Jones
George Lloyd
William Mathias
Colin Matthews
David Matthews
John McCabe
Anthony Milner
Cyril Rootham
Cyril Scott
Humphrey Searle
Robert Simpson
Bernard Stevens
Robert Still
Egon Wellesz(all his symphonies were written in Britain)
Hugh Wood
William Wordsworth

apologies to those still missing!!

[Mark]

I'll also have to pick up Holst's' Planets- I can't believe I don't have that  !!  

PM Greta - she has over 50 recordings and can almost certainly recommend one (or 12) to get you started.

Just don't make this your first:



It's good, but it's not great.

[Peregrine]

PM Greta - she has over 50 recordings and can almost certainly recommend one (or 12) to get you started.

Bloody hell! OCD alert!

[Mark]

Supplemental consolidated 20th century list-

Richard Arnell
Sir Lennox Berkeley
York Bowen
Havergal Brian
Alan Bush
Geoffrey Bush
Arnold Cooke
Frederick Cowen
Benjamin Frankel
Peter Racine Fricker
John Gardner
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Patrick Hadley
Iain Hamilton
Alun Hoddinott
Joseph Holbrooke
Gordon Jacob
Daniel Jones
George Lloyd
William Mathias
Colin Matthews
David Matthews
John McCabe
Anthony Milner
Cyril Rootham
Cyril Scott
Humphrey Searle
Robert Simpson
Bernard Stevens
Robert Still
Egon Wellesz(all his symphonies were written in Britain)
Hugh Wood
William Wordsworth

apologies to those still missing!!

Impressive, sir.

I'm embarrassed to have missed off Bowen and (Colin) Matthews.

[Mark]

Bloody hell! OCD alert!

No different to me and my 22 recordings of Rachmaninov's All-night Vigil (aka Vespers). But let's not wreck the integrity of this thread by getting into that.

[karlhenning]

Try and get hold of the Barbirolli/English String music disc, then you'll know what you've been missing...

No, no, Poju will never twig Vaughan Williams.

[Dundonnell]

......and-

Frederic Austin
Arthur Butterworth
George Butterworth
Frederic Cliffe
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Cecil Coles
Gordon Crosse
Sir George Dyson
Ernest Farrar
Howard Ferguson
John Foulds
Sir Edward German
Sir Euge Goossens
Edward Gregson
Constant Lambert
Walter Leigh
Kenneth Leighton
Dame Elizabeth Lutyens
Dame Elizabeth Maconchy
Hamish McCunn
Sir John McEwan
Thomas Pitfield
Gerard Schurmann
Dame Ethel Smuth
Sir Donald Tovey
Harold Truscott
Sir Henry Walford Davies
William Wallace
Graham Whettam
Grace Williams

from my own(pretty conservative) collection.

That's enough from me!