# Favorite Neoclassical Works



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

What are your favorite neoclassical works/CD's? I know Stravinsky, Martinu, Respighi, and Hovhaness are some of the names for this style but not sure what is the best choice for me.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

My favourite goes like this:

(brass)

DA-DA-DA-DA DAAAAA DA-DA-DA-DA DAAA DA DA DA DA DAAA DAAA DAAA etc. 

My other favourite goes like this:

(full orchestra)

Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dummmm, Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum-dee diddle diddleum dum dum dum dum-dee diddle diddleum dum dum dum dum dum, diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle dum etc.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> My favourite goes like this:
> 
> (brass)
> 
> ...


Not exactly the answer I was looking for.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

neoshredder said:


> Not exactly the answer I was looking for.


How's this?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> Not exactly the answer I was looking for.


But 'we' have learned to expect this sort of answer from this source from time to time - teen, ya know.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Aaron Copland, Ravel, Shostakovitch if they could be called Neo-Classical at all!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Hovhaness - neoclassical? Remember please that Wikipedia is also Whackopedia - and all too often.

Amid the profusion of your questions, many of what comes in the responses is an overlap of repertoire. In your Q about 'dissonant mixed with consonant' - I gave you a good chunk of neoclassical, and it leads me to wonder if you are receiving chunks and lots of information and links you are not really 'digesting.' On that are some other neoclassical pieces. Here are but a few more, not of the Stravinsky / Martinu variety.

Germaine Tailleferre ~ Piano Concerto No. 1 - pleasant and delightful









Joaquin Rodrigo ~ Other than his widely known Concierto d'Aranajuaz, for guitar and orchestra (a very nice piece) There is this, which I find perhaps even more likeable...
Concierto Serenata, for harp and orchestra













Manuel de Falla ~ Concerto for harpsichord, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and 'cello

Francis Poulenc:
Concert champêtre, for harpsichord and orchestra
Les Biches ~ Concert suite from his ballet of the same name









Darius Milhaud:
Six chamber symphonies (each Very Brief 
Suite Provencale





Gerald Finzi ~ Eclogue, for piano and orchestra





America checking in...
Lukas Foss ~ Capriccio for 'cello and piano




& these readily found on youtube
Three American Pieces ~ violin and piano
Song of songs, for Soprano and Orchestra

Harold Shapero ~ Four-Hand Sonata for piano
1 of 2




2 of 2





Arthur Berger ~ Serenade Concertante, for orchestra


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Arsakes said:


> Aaron Copland, Ravel, Shostakovitch if they could be called Neo-Classical at all!


well, no -- not really. Ravel DID composer Le Tombeau de Couperin, which is of that nature, but a one-off hommage genre piece.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Shostakovich Symphony 9 is a great Neo-Classical work, and a great musical raspberry to Stalin.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Olias said:


> Shostakovich Symphony 9 is a great Neo-Classical work, and a great musical raspberry to Stalin.


Part a - neoclassical? Bzzzz Wrong! 
Part b - great musical raspberry to Stalin. Ding - Correct!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

This:











Isn't it adorable???  <3 <3 <3

The piece besides the instrumentation as being a modernized trio sonata, it uses baroque musical forms. Ex. Rigadoun, Sicilliene, Gigue, etc.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Here's the playlist of all the videos suggested in this thread. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2D44886BDED87C1B


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 "Classical"


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)




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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Taking a kind of broad definition of _neo-classical _-

*Bartok* _Divertimento for Strings ; Music for strings, percussion and celesta_

*Schoenberg* _Serenade, for seven players, Op. 24 _(1920/23) ; _Suite in G major for string orchestra ("In the Old Style")_ (1934)

*Tippett* _Concerto for Double String Orchestra ; Fantasia Concerante on a Theme of Corelli_

*Britten* _Simple Symphony_

*R. Strauss *_Concerto for oboe & small orch_.

*Villa-Lobos* - a fair deal of works like this, eg series of 9 _Bachianas Brasileiras_

*Castelnuovo-Tedesco* _Guitar Concerto #1 ; Quintet for Guitar and strings_ ; _Guitar Sonata 'Homage to Boccherini'_

*Eugen Suchon* _Serenade for String Orchestra_

*Hovhaness* _Prelude and Quadruple Fugue ; Celestial Fantasy ; Guitar Concerto #2_

*Bloch* _Concerto Grosso #1_

*Arvo Part* _Collage uber BACH_

Australians *Margaret Sutherland*_ Concertante for Oboe and Strings _;* Peter Sculthorpe *_Little Suite for string orch._ (these have a fair dose of English pastoralism...speaking of which, Vaughan Williams and Holst did concertos like this, but I'm not very familiar with them).


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Hindemith's seven Kammermusik works for various soloists and small(ish) ensemble, also his one sonata for solo cello, two sonatas for solo violin, four sonatas for solo viola and the Ludus Tonalis for solo piano (which consists of a praeludium and a postludium in between which are twelve fugues and eleven interludes).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Sid James said:


> Taking a kind of broad definition of _neo-classical _


That is not a broad definition, that is just making things up!


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Stravinsky - Pulcinella

Respighi - Ancient Airs and Dances

Those both count, right?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Persichetti's Piano Sonatas #2-9.

If Haydn wasn't Persichetti's model, I will eat my dissonance.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Arthur Honegger ~ Concertino for piano and orchestra


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Stravinsky: Symphony in C
de Falla: Master Peter's Puppet Show
To be added to the two I already mentioned here.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Part a - neoclassical? Bzzzz Wrong!


Well, if the Shostakovich no. 9 isn't neoclassical, then what one earth IS neoclassical?



> Part b - great musical raspberry to Stalin. Ding - Correct!


He can be glad his symphony no. 10 wasn't subtitled "The Gulag."


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Olias said:


> Shostakovich Symphony 9 is a great Neo-Classical work, and a great musical raspberry to Stalin.


Well, #9 seems kind of neoclassical to me, the first movement anyway. And a very big mistake as it turned out! It was even criticized in the West: "The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner." (from a New York newspaper, 1946). It was banned in the USSR from 1948 until 1955.

But DSCH never really took on Stalin until he was safely dead -- in the 10th (or so it is said).

BTW, re neoclassical, Wiki says, "The symphony is a playful and vivid musical work, with a neoclassical air that has led to comparisons to Haydn's symphonies and to Prokofiev's Classical Symphony."


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Difficult to Pick*

I really do not know that answer to this question. There are many composers who would dabble in neoclassicism. Some more than others.

There is Shostakovich's _Ninth_.
Prokofiev's _First_.
I am surprised not one has mentioned Barber's _Capricorn Concerto_.
Of course their are the many works of Persichetti and Stravinsky.

I have performed Stravinsky _Symphony of Psalms_ twice. I hesitate to select this work because it has a great contrabassoon part since PetrB will go on with you can not trust the insight of a instrumentalist (Note: The music is awesome for all the musicians, chorus and orchestra.)

The only composers I can think of who were neoclassical through the bulk of their careers were Peter Mennin, Walter Piston and Frank Martin. (I am sure that there are many others.)

OK. For whatever its worth if someone threatened me with waterboarding I would pick the Barber _Capricorn Concerto_.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> I really do not know that answer to this question. There are many composers who would dabble in neoclassicism. Some more than others.
> 
> There is Shostakovich's _Ninth_.
> Prokofiev's _First_.
> ...


I'm big on people becoming better acquainted with Barber's _Capricorn Concerto._ His only essay into the more clearly neoclassical style. Very nice and snappy piece. The Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms is one of those highly monumental pieces, fully neoclassical from the composer whose Pulcinella was the first dubbed _neoclassical_ by a writer / critic.

You are right, too, a number of composers wrote one or two pieces essaying the style, or found the style best for the idea they had while not staying within it for long.

Prokofiev's first symphony is often cited, but really, this was a gentle modernist essay in writing a symphony with Haydn as a direct model _(ergo, Haydn-like)_, which is not representational of the harmonic approach which is part of what defines the neoclassical style. Neoclassical harmony is approached from the angle of being relatively 'atonal,' i.e. no longer dependent upon common practice chord function _while still using a vocabulary of triadic harmonies _ (extended, bi and polytonal, but 'triadic' and 'tonal.')


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Luciano Berio, in his early twenties, was essaying neoclassical style:
_Petite suite_, for piano solo (1947)




From one year later, another _Suite for piano_

Concertino (1949, revised 1970) I'm fairly certain this is serial, or damned near, while still having some of that air and the mannerisms of neoclassical. _Charming piece_ imo.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A couple of my favorite Stravinsky-influenced neoclassical works: Falla's Harpsichord Concerto and Poulenc's Concert Champetre. Both were written for Wanda Landowska, I believe.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

*Alfredo Casella*

Alfredo Casella:
Suite in C major, for orchestra, Op. 13





Partita for piano and small orchestra, Op.42





Concerto for strings, piano, timpani at percussion Op. 69


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> A couple of my favorite Stravinsky-influenced neoclassical works: Falla's Harpsichord Concerto and Poulenc's Concert Champetre. Both were written for Wanda Landowska, I believe.


Personal favorites, and imo pretty marvelous highly enjoyable pieces.


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestions, I've never heard of some of these composers


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

KenOC said:


> A couple of my favorite Stravinsky-influenced neoclassical works: Falla's Harpsichord Concerto and Poulenc's Concert Champetre. Both were written for Wanda Landowska, I believe.


Along those lines is Henry Cowell's Quartet for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord which I've mentioned at every opportunity on this forum, but no harm in doing so again, I hope.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Sid James said:


> Along those lines is Henry Cowell's Quartet for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord which I've mentioned at every opportunity on this forum, but no harm in doing so again, I hope.


Fun piece, more in the spirit of a kind of tongue in cheek parody _à la manière de_ (but since it _is_ Henry Cowell, after all -- without there being a specific subject of that _à la manière de_ mode  I can see why one might think this 'neoclassical,' because it _somewhat / slighly partially_ is -- it is also at times wobbling on the edge of (good) pastiche.

But the same sort of misunderstanding is common, say about all those gavottes, minuets and 18th century dance forms in Prokofiev's Cinderalla: the 'sound' of earlier classical or baroque is there in form and spirit -- what is absent is that diatonic-based but no longer common practice real unhinging and re-purposing of harmonic language, 'chord function' which is the most distinct element of neoclassical.

I think if one listened back to back to the Cowell, then Vittorio Rieti's _Serenata for concertante violin and small orchestra,_ or his _Concerto for harpsichord an orchestra_ the distinct difference in general approach to harmonic usage would become more clear.

(I'm sure the inclusion of those somewhat arbitrary listings in Wikipedia of various composers who composed something _classical-like_ does not at all help clarify 'the neoclassical style.')


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> (Note: The music is awesome for all the musicians, chorus and orchestra.)


Except for violinists and violists. 

Best regards, Dr


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

DrKilroy said:


> Except for violinists and violists.
> 
> Best regards, Dr


Yeah, I know. I kept wondering where they were during the rehearsals and the performance. The clarinets where also missing. It still sounded great without them. :devil:


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## Whistler Fred (Feb 6, 2014)

Many cite Stravinsky's "Octet" as the first "neoclassical" work. Perhaps, but whether or not, I like it a lot.

In addition to many of the works mentioned here, I would add as personal favorites both Samuel Barber's "Summer Music" and Irving Fine's "Partita for Wind Quintet."


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Whistler Fred said:


> Many cite Stravinsky's "Octet" as the first "neoclassical" work. Perhaps, but whether or not, I like it a lot.
> 
> In addition to many of the works mentioned here, I would add as personal favorites both Samuel Barber's "Summer Music" and Irving Fine's "Partita for Wind Quintet."


I love the Octet, as well as Summer Music. I have a feeling that Stravinsky's Pulcinella was his first N-C piece. I read that Diaghilev wanted him to do an arrangement and gave him some Pergolesi scores to look at. That was Igor's "eureka moment" which propelled him fully into the Neo-Classical direction, and he said it came quite by coincidence. No wonder he had a lot of respect for Diaghilev, their was one of those great partnerships in music.

But it was either the pivotal moment or the first work, but whatever. I quite like how he mixes new and old in these works, in the Octet there's Latin rhythms, and in Pulcinella, I sense a hint of jazz with the brass passages, if my memory is right. I haven't listened to it a great deal, but I do have a recording of it, the one by Hermann Scherchen.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Pulcinella was based on the music of Pergolesi (and as later determined, composer whose works had been 'attributed to' -- some of those attributions due to publishers passing other music of that period off as by Pergolesi, who had quite a good repute and who died at age 26.)

Diaghilev, according to Stravinsky, least extremely surprised if not a little horrified when he first heard some of what Stravinsky had written. (Stravinsky said it seemed that Diaghilev had expected only straight-ahead stylish orchestrations.)

Stravinsky said he looked at the music, "Fell in love," and began to write directly on the copies of the music he had been given, "as if I were revising my own work."

The end result is the Pulcinella we know (_please_, the complete version only, with three singers and its interpolated songs, or you are missing at least 50% of what this delightful piece is about.) It was a writer / or writer critic who a little after the premiere came up with the term 'neoclassical.'

Most tomes have Pulcinella as the milestone work which was and became known as 'neoclassical.' Stravinsky would work in this vein until 'capping' his neoclassical period with his masterly opera _A Rake's Progress._


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