# Lesser-known "Innovative" Composers



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Reichardt, a contemporary of Mozart— I think the proto-Wagnerian continuity and the proto-Schubertian modulations and lied-style in his opera can be seen as innovative (in a different way from Mozart's).

"Mendelssohn regarded Reichardt as a major figure in developing the lied, valuing him over his teacher Zelter, and even above Schubert, because he had written, after all, some 1,500 songs over his sixty-two years." (according to Page 143 from "Beyond Fingal's Cave: Ossian in the Musical Imagination" by James Porter)

His use of accompagnatos: Best recitatives?,
and use of motifs for dramatic continuity: Use of Motifs in Opera Before Wagner.
His use of modulations for dramatic expression: Arias with a similar dramatic intensity to this?


> the measures inside the box: by the shift, [Cb, Ab, Eb]—[B, G#, E], the altered, A flat minor triad, i6 (G sharp minor, enharmonically) leads to V64 of A minor, acting as a transition between the section in A flat and the one in A minor-


His other works-


> Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

It was ok ,I looked up some other stuff on him on YT ,didn't think it was much to write home about ,just my opinion ,maybe he's better than I recognize.


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I'm not sure about "innovative" but Carl Ruggles qualifies here. This composer, a lifelong perfectionist, only has a handful of works to his credit, but these works are some of the most miraculous of the 20th Century. The musical language is unlike that of any other composer I have heard. He was a part of that New England group of American composers in the early 20th Century, which included Ives, Crawford Seeger and Cowell. He may not be to your taste, but check him out!


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

bagpipers said:


> It was ok ,I looked up some other stuff on him on YT ,didn't think it was much to write home about ,just my opinion ,maybe he's better than I recognize.


Well, it's the thing about lesser-known composers; people listen to them only once in small portions, and then make judgement, and that's it. For the first time I listened to his music, I didn't find anything that could be seen as "merits". Then I went onto listening multiple times, (simply driven by eagerness to discover things). I think it's unfair people tend to give Mozart (for example) multiple chances, but not to lesser-known composers.


----------



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

hammeredklavier said:


> ..I think it's unfair people tend to give Mozart (for example) multiple chances..


Maybe with Mozart, they don’t have to.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Part of the problem I have responding is that I don’t know enough about music to be sure if a composer was innovative. So let me ask, were Jean Paul von Westhoff and Johann Josef Vilsmayr innovators? Both writers of solo violin music which may or may not have influenced J S Bach. And Josef Marie Clement dall’Abaco, whose solo cello music is, IMO, very satisfying, but as I said, I can’t comment on innovation.

Wilhelm Killmayer is I think almost completely unknown outside of German speaking counties, yet he was in a way the trailblazer of the so called “new simplicity” of Rihm and Skempton - a major musical area of exploration of the past 50 years. He’s good!


----------



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> Well, it's the thing about lesser-known composers; people listen to them only once in small portions, and then make judgement, and that's it. For the first time I listened to his music, I didn't find anything that could be seen as "merits". Then I went onto listening multiple times, (simply driven by eagerness to discover things). I think it's unfair people tend to give Mozart (for example) multiple chances, but not to lesser-known composers.


As a lesser known composer myself I surely can appreciate that.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Die Hochzeit auf der Alm (1768) and The Theme of Marital...


(Teatro Barocco 2013) Polidor, the son of a farmer and a poacher, seeks refuge for the night in Galatea's alpine hut. When he is discovered the next morning, he spins Galatea a tale about his origins and Phyllis, her daughter, takes a fancy to the young man. She asks him to sing a song...




www.talkclassical.com




"[...] According to contemporary reports, instead of the usual Baroque scenery, in the subsidiary piece the theatre was made up in the manner of an alpine hut. On one side there was a waterfall, on the other a high mountain cliff. In the morning and evening sunlight [...] one could see the cattle up on the Alpine pastures. Haydn's Wedding on the Alpine Pasture was no doubt a* pioneering work *for the Salzburg Theatre. [...]"
-Johanna Senigl (Translation: Janet & Michael Berridge )


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

DaveM said:


> Maybe with Mozart, they don’t have to.


Still, there are things in the contemporaries that can be seen as "strengths" unique from Mozart, and some of them, unlike Mozart, don't do Alberti bass patterns, Buffa-style phrase repeats, secco recitatives in opera, etc, which some people find undesirable. Those people could be more exposed to the contemporaries and diversify their choices. (I'm not trying to criticize anything as "overrated" here, btw.)


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Henry Brant was an innovator. Brant wrote 1) music for unorthodox ensembles (a concerto for 10 flutes, an opus for 80 trombones, cathedral organ & sopranino voice, etc.), 2) spatial compositions - some requiring multiple conductors - with musicians spread outdoors on balconies, on a deck of a sailing ship or throughout the canals of Amsterdam, etc. or 3) works juxtaposing disparate ethnic instruments such as a blend of West African percussion with Javanese gamelan.
These types of acoustic experiments receive scant attention and Henry B. continues to remain 'lesser-known'.

Henry Brant Oral History -- (Regional Oral History Office) (berkeley.edu)

Another example (out of hundreds of others, no doubt) is Dieter Schnebel who was a professor of experimental music in Berlin and wrote a concert for trumpet, synthesizer and ... 9 motorcycles (!) The shadows of Stockhausen & Nono continue to obscure other similar kindred spirits, though, and Schnebel remains lesser-known.


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Harry Partch was arguably the most radically innovative of all American composers. He developed a theory of music vastly different from that upon which Western music of the last 500 years is based. He designed his own musical scale, which consisted of 43 tones instead of the 12 used by traditional Western music. He invented over 20 unique musical instruments capable of playing the music he composed, and produced and distributed recordings of his music on his own record label. Partch rejected most trends in twentieth century classical music, such as serialism and chance as used by John Cage, and he had a difficult, uneasy relationship with academia. In fact, despite the avant-garde character of his work, Partch saw his work as stretching back to ancient sources, in particular the music of the Greeks. He was moving backward to sources of music that to him were more authentic than anything being created by modern composers.


----------



## sAmUiLc (9 mo ago)

Alla Pavlova


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

sAmUiLc said:


> Alla Pavlova


Would you describe her as particularly innovative, besides being productive? Her style is rather conservative, with a bit of eclectic traits ...


----------



## Artran (Sep 16, 2016)

Josef Matthias Hauer


----------



## sAmUiLc (9 mo ago)

joen_cph said:


> Would you describe her as particularly innovative, besides being productive? Her style is rather conservative, with a bit of eclectic traits ...


Not just 'rather' conservative but ultra conservative. When everyone is striving for something innovative she remains such, therefore is quite unusual. It was a tongue-in-cheek smartass statement which perhaps I shouldn't have made. 🤓 Good day!


----------



## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Julián Carrillo
Alois Hába
Ben Johnston


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

sAmUiLc said:


> Not just 'rather' conservative but ultra conservative. When everyone is striving for something innovative she remains such, therefore is quite unusual. It was a tongue-in-cheek smartass statement which perhaps I shouldn't have made. 🤓 Good day!


I get your point, according to which, one could also mention other examples from our times as well: George Lloyd (who got a lot of attention in his days for his conservative views), Alma Deutscher, Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour, Joan Towers, John Williams, Georgs Pelecis, Harald Genzmer, Michel Dalbavie, Rozsa, Korngold, to some extent Malcolm Arnold ... plus for example many Chinese composers, or now largely forgotten composers from the former Eastern Block, who wrote in a largely classicist or Shostakovich-influenced style, approved by the regimes, or a lot of the Naxos American music series composers, etc.

Personally I tend to be more interested in those exploring a more challengingly-archaic or juxtaposingly-eclectic style. And those expanding the language of the old 'Symphony' genre with new or very individual inputs, in spite of that genre pronounced 'dead', by some people ... Here in DK, Holmboe in particular also received some criticism for repeating so much the old forms of symphony, concerto and string quartet, but at least he had added a good deal of personal touch to them, also innovative, formal ideas at times ...


----------

