Works least typical of a composer

[karlhenning]

Siegfried-Idyll: it's so short, and quite listenable  0:)

[Keemun]

Care to share?

Hmmmm.....  Well, I guess it's the only work I've heard by Elgar that I actually enjoy listening to.  Not that I think the rest of Elgar's music sucks (and I'm not trying to start another debate/argument like the one going on in the Mahler/Bruckner thread).  The cello concerto just sounds different (to me) from his other works.  Obviously others disagree, which is fine.  I don't claim to be an Elgar expert, or to have heard all of his works.   It's the one work that came to mind when I read the topic of this thread.  I don't think I can explain it any more clearly than that (which admittedly is about as clear as mud).   

[lukeottevanger]

not only that, it's the only thing he ever wrote that includes a harp

Hadn't considered that before, Greg.

That's because it isn't true - op 17, 4 Gesange for female chorus, 2 horns and harp. Yummy

[MishaK]

Large-scale sacred choral work.

By that logic Fidelio, Verdi's String Quartet and Franck's Symphony in D are all atypical. Basically any work of which type a composer has produced only one example would then be fair game for inclusion here. I don't think that was the question, really.

[karlhenning]

That's because it isn't true - op 17, 4 Gesange for female chorus, 2 horns and harp. Yummy

Thank you for furnishing the occasion, Luke, for me to be pleased to have expressed myself with caution  

[BachQ]

- op 17, 4 Gesange for female chorus, 2 horns and harp. Yummy

....... what a lovely combination ........

[bhodges]

....... what a lovely combination ........

Those four are some of the most beautiful songs ever written, and that reminds me that I haven't heard them in quite a long time.  0:)

--Bruce

[lukeottevanger]

Those four are some of the most beautiful songs ever written, and that reminds me that I haven't heard them in quite a long time.  0:)

--Bruce

Just took the liberty of taking a small sample of the first song from Amazon. How delicious is this:

[bhodges]

Just took the liberty of taking a small sample of the first song from Amazon. How delicious is this:

That's my favorite of the four!  Too bad the sample ends just a few seconds before the melodic arch is complete, but yes, that is some heavenly music.

--Bruce

[mahlertitan]

if you buy that album with the compete piano work by Bizet, you will be shocked how similar he is to Chopin.

[marvinbrown]

Siegfried-Idyll: it's so short, and quite listenable  0:)

That piece was meant for Cosima.....I don't think Wagner intended for anybody but Cosima to take it seriously.


  marvin

[Solitary Wanderer]

That peice was meant for Cosima.....I don't think Wagner intended for anybody but Cosima to take it seriously.


  marvin

I think Wagners Paino sonata's are more atypical of his style than Siegfrieds Idyll 

[Holden]

LvB: Choral Fantasy, Ecossaises
Prokofiev: Classical symphony
Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Schoenberg: Verklate Nacht

[Bonehelm]

LvB - Rage over a lost penny

Not the music itself, just the title. I normally think LvB as a serious person. Why write music in memory of a lost coin?

[12tone.]

A work that's least typical of a composer would have to be Henning's Symphony for Vibrato.  You know, I never saw that coming.  Hearing the works before that, one might think Henning would go in another direction, especially with his Symphony #18 and SQ #34.  Both are great but they don't have that...certain drive that the Vibrato did.  Henning seemed to put all he knew into that great symphony. 

It's great, but never saw it coming 

[Mozart]

LvB - Rage over a lost penny

Not the music itself, just the title. I normally think LvB as a serious person. Why write music in memory of a lost coin?

I'm sure Beethoven didn't write this name. Now its stuck in my head, thanks alot!

[mahlertitan]

Giuseppe Verdi's E minor String Quartet.

[greg]

That's because it isn't true - op 17, 4 Gesange for female chorus, 2 horns and harp. Yummy

no one listens to his song cycles so it only halfway counts 

[marvinbrown]

I think Wagners Paino sonata's are more atypical of his style than Siegfrieds Idyll 

   Solitary Wanderer,  I would like to say that Wagner's early piano compositions (the sonata, the transcriptions from various popular operas (those of Halevy etc.) were in no way part of Wagner's artistic output.  Wagner viewed these piano works as "slave work" and resented those operas (of Halevy etc.) that he felt inclined to do piano transcriptions for in order to earn a living.  Wagner saw himself as a prince of German Art- his true artistic contribution are his music operas.  If we are going to address this thread's query of WORKS LEAST TYPICAL OF A COMPOSER, I would like to argue (Notwithstanding Wagner's first two experimental operas (The Fairies, and the Ban on Love))  that DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG is the ideal candidate for a work far removed from Wagner's other works.  It is the only "romantic comedy" he wrote, that does not deal with death and redemption, that is not set in mythical times and has a general feel good light heartedness about it- least typical of him.


  PS: I believe the same can be said of Verdi's Falstaff!
 
  marvin   

[MishaK]

LvB: Choral Fantasy

That is a very typical work. In fact it's a sketch for the finale for the 9th. The main theme is almost an inversion of the Ode to Joy. The Choral Fantasy is in essence an early exercise for the idea that would later gestate in full in the 9th.

Prokofiev: Classical symphony

Very typical of SP's lyrical, neoclassicist phase (see also Sinfonietta and VC 1).

Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor

How so?

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht

Again, very typical of his early post-romantic/impressionist phase, just like Pelleas und Melisande and Gurrelieder.