# need some listening advice



## tdaish1989 (May 24, 2010)

I'm a music student hoping to eventually specialize in composition. My central influence in terms of 'style' at the moment is that of the early 20th century english pastoral scene, which my lecturer suggests is fair enough but that I should try my best to move on from listening to too much music by R.V.Williams, Finzi, Holst etc, instead trying to find material of the same sort of style but presented in a more contemporary/up-to-date context... Problem is, I'm still finding my feet on the subject and I don't really know of any such composers other than those associated in film music in the modern day context. I was wondering if anyone on here would be kind enough to make a few suggestions?

Many thanks,

Tom


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

So your lecturer didn't have any suggestions. Times haven't changed much I see -- though I studied art, not music.

I don't know if he would count as a modern day Vaughan-Williams, especially since he is American, but I find some of Tobias Picker's works to have a slight flavor of the great early c20 English composers. Maybe it is his wide string sonorities. (Is that the right term?) Also his _Encantadas_ remind me ever so slightly of VW's _Sinfonia Antartica_, as it also tries to depict a naturalist subject with narration.

http://www.amazon.com/Picker-Old-Lo...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1274678959&sr=1-4


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## tdaish1989 (May 24, 2010)

Hello there, thanks for your reply! I'll have a listen this afternoon.

If you (or anyone else reading this) can think of further listening suggestions, please let me know, it would really help me out!

Thanks again,

Tom


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

A few more ideas. They are based on intuition, not by any real intellectual analysis, a sort of "felt" similarity to some of the more accessible music of the kind you mentioned:

_Toru Takemitsu_ can often be felt as some sort up of up-dated impressionism, an atmosphere of stasis with mild, soft breezes and a nature-describing sound world that might could be an option; for instance such orchestral as "How Slow The Wind", "Riverrun" (with a concertante piano part; preferrably the BIS/Otaka recording), the Viola Concerto "A String Around Autumn" (quite subdued) and the "Quotation from Dream", based on some Debussy notes. The music is more fragmented than that of the British composers you mentioned, but has lots of attractive and melodious content.

A simpler, easily accessible option could be _Aron Copland_´s Clarinet Concerto (1948), which is also quite "pastoral", I think. Perhaps it is even too simple and not a "progression" if compared to the composers you mention, such as Finzi for instance, but at least it is geographically different and the same probably applies to its structuring/content (some jazz at least).

Among the Scandinavians, you might find _Fartein Valen_´s few softer works interesting; the music can sometimes be very beautiful, but he _was_ mostly inspired by the Neue Wiener Schule. The Violin Concerto and especially the small, captivating symphonic poem "Sonetto di Michelangelo" comes to my mind; they have some melodious content and only a few outbursts, if any, but are very far from predictable or banal. His other works, however, are tormented and difficult to get into. _Allan Pettersson_´s style is usually very aggressive, but his 8th Symphony is different from the others, with more transparent orchestration and almost bolero-like in its persistent rhythmic simplicity and long-drawn string singing, somehow suggesting a vast, if less pastoral and quite bleak, landscape. The Sanderling or the Comissiona recordings are far superior to the bis-recording.
_Einar Englund_´s 2.Symphony, "The Blackbird", is delightful and very much on the lyrical side right from the opening, but not very experimental. _Joonas Kokkonen_´s "Durch Ein Spiegel" for Harpsichord and Strings, mostly more motoric, is attractive with its massive, "Tallis-Fantasia"-string sounds mixed, quite unusually, with a harpsichord. There´s a fine BIS-recording.

As regards the French, _Tristan Murail_´s "L´Eprit des Dunes" for Orchestra and Electronics, though quite sophisticated, often borders to cinematic landscape-and-sky-suggesting effects in its relative calmness.

Among more well-established works, the _Shostakovich_ 6th Symphony - with its broadly meditating 1st movement - his 1st Cello Concerto - with much more satirical bite, but nevertheless immediately captivating and a fine slow section - or perhaps _Rochberg´s_ 5.Symphony - more related to the drama of, say, Vaughan Williams´ 4.Symphony - could be among the interesting options to study. Anyway, if you have any more specific demands, other suggestions will probably turn up. Perhaps you can return later and tell us what you finally decided for ... 

PS: Just did some googling; there is an interesting text about the Murail piece on tristanmurail.com, and likewise some thoughts about the other works mentioned can be found in various places.


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## tdaish1989 (May 24, 2010)

ah this sounds great! Thankyou both very much! I've got a good list of names to start off with now, just need to find some time after this weeks exams to do some listening! Of course, I'll get back and let you know what took my fancy! Thanks once again,

Tom


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