# Obscure early British composers contemporaries of Bach and Beethoven recordings



## Pmartel63 (Dec 9, 2020)

Hi all;

Not sure if this goes here, so feel free to move this

I am exploring early music of British composers particularly trio sonatas and early chamber music

Familiar wuth Charles Alison, Thomas Arne and William Byrd

Looking for recommendations of recordings by composers who are Britishc ontemporaries of Bach and Beethoven as well as earlier composers 

My library is based around the obscure, forgotten composers hat deserve to be heard

As always, advice always appreciated


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Chandos' "contemporaries of Mozart" series, cond. by Mathias Bamert, might have some British composers, although the only one I recall is Herschel (who was from Germany and migrated to Britain). 
There was the "british Mozart", Thomas Linley jr. who died at a very young age. There are a few recordings of his music.

For some reason, after Purcell and Blow in the late 17th century, Britain relied heavily for almost a century on imported composers, Italians, Handel, later Clementi, Pleyel etc.


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

John Stanley (1712-1768) wrote some sonatas (opus 1 & 4) I only know of two on a CD which contains works by Handel and Sammartini, Flute and Theorbo, if it's any help they are on youtube.


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## Jen L (Sep 1, 2021)

There’s also John Garth, a pupil of Charles Avison, whose Cello Concertos rose to prominence in a recording by Richard Tunnicliffe with the Avison Ensemble a decade or so ago.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Don't forget the Scots especially James Oswald - James Oswald 1710-1769


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## Pmartel63 (Dec 9, 2020)

Jen L said:


> There's also John Garth, a pupil of Charles Avison, whose Cello Concertos rose to prominence in a recording by Richard Tunnicliffe with the Avison Ensemble a decade or so ago.


Thanks for this.

I just went to Presto Music who I buy from regularly and found his keyboard sonatas for Fortepiano a 2 CD set and ordered it

Looking forward to getting this


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

You might also try the _Six Overtures in Seven Parts_ by Maurice Greene (1696-1755), recorded by a small chamber ensemble on Cedille. With their exceptionally airy, transparent textures, they sound to me closer to chamber music than orchestral music. And as in all Greene's music, there's a sense of a lively and intelligent mind constantly at work.









Isn't it about time that one of the numerous British record companies embarked on more comprehensive surveys of some of these composers? (Herschel may be the greatest loser of all. His towering reputation in another field has given the impression that he was a professional scientist and an amateur musician--whereas the truth, I believe, was very much the reverse.)


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

William Boyce wrote some very fine, and enjoyable music, worth mentioning...

^^^ not sure why the scientific work of Herschel deserves to be dismissed as that of an amateur. He might have been lucky in his discovery of Uranus, but he was also quite the pioneer in the world of Astronomy.....

I do like the symphonies (Bamert) of his that I have heard.


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## Pmartel63 (Dec 9, 2020)

gvn said:


> You might also try the _Six Overtures in Seven Parts_ by Maurice Greene (1696-1755), recorded by a small chamber ensemble on Cedille. With their exceptionally airy, transparent textures, they sound to me closer to chamber music than orchestral music. And as in all Greene's music, there's a sense of a lively and intelligent mind constantly at work.
> 
> View attachment 158852
> 
> ...


Added to my wish list at Presto Music

Yes, agreed, some British label should do a full series with full works by forgotten early composers


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## gvn (Dec 14, 2019)

CnC Bartok said:


> ^^^ not sure why the scientific work of Herschel deserves to be dismissed as that of an amateur. He might have been lucky in his discovery of Uranus, but he was also quite the pioneer in the world of Astronomy.....


Very glad that you pointed this out. I didn't at all mean to _dismiss_ Herschel's (or anyone else's) amateur work--though I now see that the wording of my previous post would naturally have been read that way!

My point was simply that Herschel was a solid professional musician but an amateur astronomer... whereas people tend to imagine the opposite.

And I absolutely agree with you about Herschel's importance as astronomer. (I'm a keen amateur astronomer myself--have been looking through telescopes at the stars for 61 years--never discovered anything, of course!) Indeed I'm not even sure that Herschel discovered Uranus by luck. He had developed the very best astronomy equipment in the world, way ahead of anyone else's, and he worked at astronomy much harder & in a more scientifically disciplined way than anyone else in the world at that time. So, if one were to pick anyone of that generation as likely to make a really enormous discovery in that field, one would certainly choose Herschel. And then, quite apart from his discovery of Uranus, his systematic catalogues of celestial objects are the foundation of those still in use today. In many ways he was the Linnaeus of astronomy.

All this is way off topic, of course... except that the products of such a mind, when applied in the field for which he had originally been trained, ought to be worth hearing!


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Thomas Arne is worth exploring.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

There is a nice anthology with Pinnock (there was also a CD with an even better cover closer to the original LP? below). Stanley, Arne, Boyce, Avison, Hellendaal.


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

This page on Wiki lists British composers by periods from Medieval to contempory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_list_of_English_classical_composers


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## Pmartel63 (Dec 9, 2020)

CnC Bartok said:


> William Boyce wrote some very fine, and enjoyable music, worth mentioning...
> 
> ^^^ not sure why the scientific work of Herschel deserves to be dismissed as that of an amateur. He might have been lucky in his discovery of Uranus, but he was also quite the pioneer in the world of Astronomy.....
> 
> I do like the symphonies (Bamert) of his that I have heard.


I have his Trio Sonatas which are lovely and should be heard more often and yes the symphonies on Naxos with the Toronto Chamber Orchestra as close to a period performance as you can get and a local group


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## Pmartel63 (Dec 9, 2020)

So in my quest for the obscure early British composers, I recently found this on https://www.amazon.ca/images/I/61drNgX1kBL._AC_.jpg


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

CnC Bartok said:


> William Boyce wrote some very fine, and enjoyable music, worth mentioning....


Boyce Synphony No 1 Opus 2


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

I most admire the British composers of the earlier period, such as John Dunstable or Dunstaple (who strongly influenced the Burgundian Court composers on the continent, such as Dufay & Binchois), Leonel Power & the Old Hall manuscript, John Plummer, Walter Frye, the Eton Choirbooks,, Nicholas Ludford, Robert Fayrfax, John Taverner, Thoms Ashewell or Ashwell, Christopher Tye, John Browne, Robert Carver, Thomas Morley, William Mundy, John Bull, Robert White, Hugh Aston, William Cornysh Jr. & Sr, John Sheppard, and, of course Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, John Dowland, and Glenn Gould's favorite composer, Orlando Gibbons.

Of the generation or two later, I've most liked the music of John Coprario (or Cooper), Thomas Tomkins (whose music is especially underrated, in my view), Henry Purcell, Charles Avison, John Blow, William Boyce, Thomas Arne, & John Jenkins, but also Matthew Locke, William & Henry Lawes, Nicholas Lanier, John Ward, and Christopher Simpson. But I have by no means heard it all. Are the following composers of the late Elizabethan & Stuart eras too early for you?

--John Coprario: 




--Thomas Tomkins: 




A favorite Tomkins disc: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7923109--thomas-tomkins-music-divine#tracklist
This is another one of my favorite discs from the period: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8000997--mr-tomkins-his-lessons-of-worthe
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8028285--english-royal-funeral-music
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7936013--thomas-tomkins-the-great-service
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7926703--tomkins-music-for-viols-organ-harpsichord

--John Jenkins:




https://music.apple.com/au/album/john-jenkins-fantazia/307219291

--Matthew Locke:








[

--John Ward: 
Fantasies: 



Consort Music for 5 & 6 viols: 




Christopher Simpson:
"The Seasons, The Months & other divisions of Time": 




Here too are some of Henry Purcell's lesser known songs & chamber music, performed by La Rêveuse: https://www.amazon.com/Purcell-Anxious-Chansons-Musique-Chambre/dp/B0015DM4KK

& the following enjoyable recording from Le Caravansérail, who are likewise led by Bertrand Cuiller: 




Brandywine Baroque has also made several recordings of music from the English Baroque:

--Michael Christian Festing, Violin Sonatas: 




--Oh! The Sweet Delights of Love: 




--The Lass with the Delicate Air:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Dorsetmike said:


> Boyce Synphony No 1 Opus 2


Ah. The Brits with their wigs. What an extraordinary affectation.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

William Russell (1777 - 1813)

His voluntaries for organ (two sets of 12 pieces, published in 1805 and 1812) are interesting "missing links" between English baroque/classicism and early Romantic style.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=william+russell+organ


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