The British Composers Thread

[foxandpeng]

Thank you. Do you have specific pieces from these folks that you would recommend? No need for every single one maybe just top 5.

Maybe a couple of personal favourites to get you going?

Simpson 9
Matthews 5 or 9
Any Arnell symphonies
Rubbra 3
Maconchy SQs 1 - 4
Havergal Brian 8
George Lloyd 4 - 8
Hans Gal 2
Tippett Rose Lake
Any Gavin Bryars SQs

Lots of great stuff in there, but others are probably equally as good?

[lordlance]

Ah thank you. I have the video of Rattle and LSO performing The Rose Lake.

[Luke]

Bryars is one of my very favourite composers, believe me - I have pretty much everything he's ever put out on CD and the stunning Electric Guitar/2 violas/cello quartet After the Requiem is one of my very favourite pieces of music - but virtually every bar he has written is slow and languid, so I'm not sure he'll be up lordlance's street. There is a chugging-along bit in one of the quartets that is virtually the only thing of its sort in his output, though. There's another in The Four Elements, which is also for a larger ensemble than he often writes for (there are a few concertos and other orchestral pieces, but not many).

[Pohjolas Daughter]

My experience with British composers so far:
1. Macmillan - Love The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
2. Parry - Symphony #5 seems worth a second listen
3. Maxwell Davies - a tough nut to crack and one I've not heard in a long time
4. Elgar - his symphonies are incredibly dull and academic; I do enjoy In The South and Cockaigne though
5. Vaughan Williams - Symphony #4 piqued my interest and #5 was boring
6. Stanford - not great based on Symphony #3.I - have to get around to finishing the piece - and first half of Concert Piece for Organ and Orchestra
7. Malcolm Arnold - love his music except notably Symphony No. 9)
8. Turnage - I used to like his music when I first started hearing contemporary music not so much anymore. Too dissonant. I might revisit the Rattle disc to see if I feel differently as that is what got me into the composer.
9. Bax - Heard a lot of his orchestral music and even though his style is unmistakable so much of it can just become a mush of excellent atmospheric background music rather than masterpieces that stick with you. I have to revisit Symphony #6 and Russian Suite. I remember enjoying Festival Overture.
10. Walton - I've not revisited his First Symphony but remember liking it.

I want to try more British composers. Looking for orchestral music that is generally more busy or vigorous and not calm/contemplative or sounds like like En Saga (I recently tried rehearing it.)

A couple of suggestions regarding Vaughan Williams:  You might enjoy his symphony No. 6 and also his Symphony No. 9 (particularly with the Boult recording of No. 9 on Everest) which was recorded very shortly after the composer's death...quite intense to say the least.

Happy exploring!

PD

[foxandpeng]

Good list - but who's Easley Blackwood?!

You know. Easley Blackwood. That American composer who slips unnoticed into lists of British composers when they're listed off the top of a poster's head without checking. THAT Easley Blackwood.

*facepalms*

Responsible for these fine American symphonies.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Aug01/Blackwood.htm

[Pohjolas Daughter]

You know. Easley Blackwood. That American composer who slips unnoticed into lists of British composers when they're listed off the top of a poster's head without checking. THAT Easley Blackwood.

*facepalms*

Responsible for these fine American symphonies.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Aug01/Blackwood.htm

Ah, you've caught us infiltrating....   

PD

[Roasted Swan]

Ah, you've caught us infiltrating....   

PD

Bar the gates, man the battlements - the Americans are COMING!!!!!!!!!

[Roasted Swan]

Further digging into the byways of forgotten British music for string orchestra has produced two scores by the composer Alfred M. Wall.  Here's the Wiki entry on Wall;

"Alfred Michael Wall (29 September 1875 - 8 October 1936) was a British violinist and composer who was for a long time associated with the Newcastle Conservatoire.

Career
Wall was born at 1 St Paul's Crescent, Camden in London, where his father William Wall was "a professor of music". In 1886, aged 11, he won a scholarship to study violin at the Royal College of Music.[1] By the mid-1890s he had established himself as orchestral and chamber player in London and had begun composing. His String Quartet in G and the Violin Sonata in E were first performed in 1897 and 1898 at the Queen's Hall.[2][3]

From the 1900s to the 1920s he was professor of violin at the Newcastle Conservatoire where he worked closely with Edgar Bainton and became friendly with William Gillies Whittaker.[4][5][6] While there he was mostly associated with chamber music, becoming Director of the Municipal Chamber Concerts.[7] He formed the Alfred Wall Quartet and played in the Bainton-Fuchs-Wall Trio with Bainton (piano) and cellist Carl Fuchs.[8] He performed as a soloist and led (sometimes conducting) the Newcastle-on-Tyne Philharmonic Orchestra.[9] As a soloist Wall played in the first broadcast performance of the Legende for violin and orchestra by Delius, on 5 November 1924.[10] He was also one of the founders of the North of England Musical Tournament in 1919.[11]

Towards the end of his life Wall made his home at Tirril Moor, Penrith. There he founded and led the Tirril Moor Quartette, which included his daughters Rosina (viola) and Dulcie (cello).[12] He died at a nursing home in Carlisle following a relapse after an operation in October 1936.[11][13]

His two daughters, Rosina Wall and Dulcie Salder (who married the Truro-based musical director Jean Salder, previously front man for The Serenaders[14][15] and later director of the Cornwall Symphony Orchestra),[16] both remained musically active, mostly in Cornwall. They founded the Linden Players, which later became the Newton Abbot Orchestra.[17]

Composer
Alfred Wall's compositions included the Quartet for Piano & Strings in C minor, composed in 1920 and first performed on 17 October 1922 at the Hall of the Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen's Square, Bloomsbury in London[18] by the McCullagh Quartet with Joseph Holbrooke as the pianist.[19] It was published as part of the Carnegie Collection of British Music. The work, some 35 minutes in length, was recorded for the first time by the Tippett Quartet with soloist Lynn Arnold in 2022.[20]

The London premiere of his Thanet Overture took place at the BBC Proms, Queen's Hall, on 26 September 1922.[21] It had been previously heard at the Bournemouth Easter Festival. His Idyll was performed by the Catterall Quartet in 1925 at concerts in Dublin and Manchester.[22] There is also a Trio in Bb (1921),[23] a Violin Sonata in A (1922),[24] and four songs to texts by Israel Zangwill (1922).[25]

Later works include Recreations, a five movement suite for strings "in the old style". It was published in 1925[26] and received its first broadcast the same year with several repeat performances over the next seven years.[27] Pastorale and Bourree for string orchestra was published by Oxford University Press in 1927. The Three Intermezzi for string quartet (aka Three Sketches) were broadcast in 1932, performed by the Unity Quartet and published by OUP.[28] The orchestral Cavatina and Caprice was broadcast by the BBC Dance Orchestra on 26 April 1935.[7] A Ballade for viola and string orchestra was performed several times in 1934 and 1935 by soloist Lena Wood with the Birmingham Philharmonic String Orchestra, to whom the piece is dedicated,[29] and again (posthumously) in Banbury in 1937.[30]

In style, Alfred Wall's music (as described in the Radio Times) was "modern in outlook", but showing "no traces of extreme modern influences".[7]

Checking the Proms archive Wall has one entry - his Overture "Thanet" (note to Luke to check out!!) which can be viewed in manuscript on IMSLP from the RCM archive.  This overture dates from 1916 and to quote the composer's own description on the title page; "This Overture is intended to capture something of the gay holiday spirit... which pervades that favourite summer resort of the Cockney..." [perhaps similar to Ketelbey's 'Appy 'Ampstead from his Cockney Suite - another piece which would bear a modern recording I think]

The two string works are later; "Pastorale & Bouree" from 1927 and "Recreations - A Suite in Olden Style".  Both were part of the Oxford Orchestral Series edited by W G Whittaker (a colleague from his time in Newcastle).  This series was primarily aimed at the amateur/student market but it has to be said both works are too good to be completely forgotten/lost

[Luke]

Looking at Thanet right now...  Looks like a lot of fun!   (not that I've got a word to spare - trying to cut cut cut at the moment!!)

I love reading about these discoveries of yours!

[Albion]

A splendid disc of music by a casualty of World War I, Cecil Coles (1888-1918). This is just such wonderful stuff that, as with George Butterworth, you wonder where British music might have gone if they hadn't been obliterated. "Fra Giacomo" is a stunning melodramatic scena with shades of Zemlinsky and shows that Coles could have been a major operatic force, and everything else on the disc is superb...

[vandermolen]

A plug here for David Bedford's Symphony No.1 (although I don't think that he wrote any more symphonies). It has a very catchy last movement. I heard it live.

[lordlance]

Having a really good time with Parry. Already like Symphony No. 5 but the last two works on the disc are good too - From Death to Life and Elegy for Brahms:

[Albion]

Having a really good time with Parry. Already like Symphony No. 5 but the last two works on the disc are good too - From Death to Life and Elegy for Brahms:

You'll always have a good time with Parry. Beware of the Bamert performance - the second flute is missing for some unaccountable reason in No.5. Otherwise it's a great cycle (supplement it with the original version of No.4 under Gamba). Stand-out choral works are "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Soul's Ransom" on Chandos, and "Ode on the Nativity" on Lyrita. Brian Rayner Cook does his very best to wreck  the gorgeous "Invocation to Music" with ridiculous over-emoting and Jarvi mangles the 1897 Magnificat to accommodate a frankly clapped-out soprano and "Judith" will bore you to tears. The Hyperion recording of "Job" is truly bloody dismal, here's Boult doing it in 1967 to greater effect (I had to do a lot of editing to the original audio file)...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xhv5cfga3s0k2bw/Parry_-_Job_%25281892%2529.mp3/file

[vandermolen]

Having a really good time with Parry. Already like Symphony No. 5 but the last two works on the disc are good too - From Death to Life and Elegy for Brahms:

The Symphonic Variations are excellent.

[Albion]

Two alternative performances of Parry's 5th which actually include the second flute...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/l99xdke9yei50g4/Parry_-_Symphony_No.5_%25281912%2529_-_Sinaisky_%25282010%2529.mp3/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/cqpxiq0kr31b3s7/Parry_-_Symphony_No._5_%25281912%2529_-_Brabbins_%25282018%2529.mp3/file

 

[Roasted Swan]

You'll always have a good time with Parry. Beware of the Bamert performance - the second flute is missing for some unaccountable reason in No.5. Otherwise it's a great cycle (supplement it with the original version of No.4 under Gamba). Stand-out choral works are "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Soul's Ransom" on Chandos, and "Ode on the Nativity" on Lyrita. Brian Rayner Cook does his very best to wreck  the gorgeous "Invocation to Music" with ridiculous over-emoting and Jarvi mangles the 1897 Magnificat to accommodate a frankly clapped-out soprano and "Judith" will bore you to tears. The Hyperion recording of "Job" is truly bloody dismal, here's Boult doing it in 1967 to greater effect (I had to do a lot of editing to the original audio file)...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xhv5cfga3s0k2bw/Parry_-_Job_%25281892%2529.mp3/file

Why would Chandos miss out the 2nd flute?  In a score that includes a cor anglais, bass clarinet and contra bassoon why ditch the 2nd flute???

[Luke]

Why would Chandos miss out the 2nd flute?  In a score that includes a cor anglais, bass clarinet and contra bassoon why ditch the 2nd flute???

It is a weird decision, but, having looked through the score, it shouldn't have a huge impact on the sound. There are long stretches of the symphony where its part is almost redundant. In the second movement it either doesn't play or doubles the first flute line, with the except of a single, one-beat F which it plays in a lower octave. Not quite as drastic in the other movements, but a similar story - actually in the third movement it's exactly the same sort of either silent-or-doubling texture except for a bit of parallelism in the last couple of pages. Still odd, though!

[Albion]

It is a weird decision, but, having looked through the score, it shouldn't have a huge impact on the sound. There are long stretches of the symphony where its part is almost redundant. In the second movement it either doesn't play or doubles the first flute line, with the except of a single, one-beat F which it plays in a lower octave. Not quite as drastic in the other movements, but a similar story - actually in the third movement it's exactly the same sort of either silent-or-doubling texture except for a bit of parallelism in the last couple of pages. Still odd, though!

It DOES have a significant effect in the downward WW arpeggios in the first movement. I have no idea what the hell was going on here, perhaps the second flute was busy getting pissed at the pub. Boult, Sinaisky and Brabbins are all good...

[Luke]

Yes, I can see that it would affect that particular passage pretty fatally. Just trying to work out what the rationale could be   

[lordlance]

You'll always have a good time with Parry. Beware of the Bamert performance - the second flute is missing for some unaccountable reason in No.5. Otherwise it's a great cycle (supplement it with the original version of No.4 under Gamba). Stand-out choral works are "The Lotos-Eaters" and "The Soul's Ransom" on Chandos, and "Ode on the Nativity" on Lyrita. Brian Rayner Cook does his very best to wreck  the gorgeous "Invocation to Music" with ridiculous over-emoting and Jarvi mangles the 1897 Magnificat to accommodate a frankly clapped-out soprano and "Judith" will bore you to tears. The Hyperion recording of "Job" is truly bloody dismal, here's Boult doing it in 1967 to greater effect (I had to do a lot of editing to the original audio file)...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xhv5cfga3s0k2bw/Parry_-_Job_%25281892%2529.mp3/file

No choral music for me;  I stick to orchestral music. I heard the Boult Fifth as well actually. I might try the Fourth next.