# Works that need more attention



## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)




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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

It's less neglected than you think -- especially among violin students. It's been on and off the classical hit parade for decades.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

A well-roasted chestnut of the literature, -- known both as an extract in its original vocal setting and as 'arranged' for violin -- and in wide circulation, needs more attention? 

Where have you been?


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Well its not something you hear everyday...

It needs more attention...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> A well-roasted chestnut of the literature...


Burned to a friggin' crisp I'd say! Now Les Preludes... :lol:


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2013)

Alwyn and Gliere harp concertos plz


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Musician said:


> Well its not something you hear everyday...
> 
> It needs more attention...


Seriously, where have you been? It is everywhere, all the time.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Musician said:


> Well its not something you hear everyday...
> 
> It needs more attention...


If it makes the Classical FM top 200, it definitely _does not_ need more attention.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Everywhere where?...............


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Collectied short pretty recital recordings of professional violinists, served up as a bon-bon for an encore, "best / most popular" in both the violin and vocal potpourri programs and recordings, student recitals, radio playing any of those above mentioned professional recordings. Its a classical pops number, as in wildly popular, spread around everywhere and more often than many would care about.

That everywhere. I'm happy for you if you just discovered it, and thought it obscure, but it is, truly, endemic on the popular / light classical scene.\

Half jokingly, half not, that you did not know this makes me ask, "Where have you been keeping yourself."


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

PetrB said:


> served up as a bon-bon as an encore


That made my day. :lol:
I wish I had PetrB's witty and classy sense of humor...


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Collectied short pretty recital recordings of professional violinists, served up as a bon-bon for an encore, "best / most popular" in both the violin and vocal potpourri programs and recordings, student recitals, radio playing any of those above mentioned professional recordings. Its a classical pops number, as in wildly popular, spread around everywhere and more often than many would care about.
> 
> That everywhere. I'm happy for you if you just discovered it, and thought it obscure, but it is, truly, endemic on the popular / light classical scene.\
> 
> Half jokingly, half not, that you did not know this makes me ask, "Where have you been keeping yourself."


You clearly are out of line, and acting as a troll.

Of course. Knew of the work before, I just thought that it needed more attention, that's all...

You got to chill down a little


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I think this piece not only quite beautiful, but perhaps in the scale of things, also an "important" piece which I wholeheartedly believe deserves more attention, exposure, play.

Robert Moran ~ Requiem: Chant du Cygne





Another, less recent, known, but not nearly enough....
Lucia Dlugoszewski ~ Fire Fragile Flight





ADDED: A composer worthy of far greater attention than generally given.
Lukas Foss:
_Song of Songs_;









_Measure for Measure_; music of Renaissance composer Solomon Rossi, arranged and re-worked, with texts of Shakespeare




_

Baroque Variations_;





_Night Music for John Lennon_;









His _Time Cycle_, a song cycle, in its original full orchestral setting, is remarkable and mighty fine.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Musician said:


> You clearly are out of line, and acting as a troll.
> 
> Of course. Knew of the work before, I just thought that it needed more attention, that's all...
> 
> You got to chill down a little


I truly thought it more than a little surprising that you were not aware the piece is already wildly well-known. Something deserving more attention usually implies oversight or downright neglect: This extracted aria / violin arrangement suffers from neither. Was it you being disingenuous or coy in trying to post it as a piece which was neglected?

My reaction was utterly sincere, genuine, and whatever other words might be plucked from a thesaurus as synonyms for "genuine or sincere."

At any rate, as per the thread's intent, I've listed several pieces and included links to them, of works I sincerely think deserve to be better known.

Best regards.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

I believe this piece doesn't have as much attention that it truly deserves, that's all.
I believe that is a legitimate observation, though yes debatable but not a reason to get upset about...not for you or me, or anyone else for that matter...

Cheers...


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Neglect-- I'll go with Uuno Klami (1900 - 1961), probably the only composer who has participated in five armed conflicts (two wars in Karelia, the Finnish Civil War, the Winter War of 1939-40 and the Continuation War of 1941-44).

His Kalevala Suite and Sea Pictures are known -ish, but his rousing Suomenlinna - overture Op. 30 (1940) can't be found on YouTube. It kicks off with what could be the theme to a big western movie a la Elmer Bernstein's Magnificent Seven (1960 or so), then turns introspective: it seems to take in all the moods of an essentially martial situation (Suomenlinna is a maritime fortress on Helsinki's harbour).

It's a crowd pleaser that should be at work pleasing crowds, like Dvořák's Humoresque, which it somewhat resembles with its catchy tune + aching loveliness.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> If it makes the Classical FM top 200, it definitely _does not_ need more attention.


Next thing, you'll try to convince us that this is not a neglected masterpiece:






:devil:


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Scattered musical pieces, 'small works' & Mozartean fragments, definitely need a lot more attention. 

The fact of being 'small' -whatever this means- does not make this fantastic oeuvre -as a whole- less worthy of listening. 

OK, it looks like a kind of musical workshop but it is like looking at the core of the inventive instinct of a musician or, using a parallel, the 'hidden' notebook of a brilliant scientist where de development of her/his equations, formulas or chemical reactions are perfectly depicted and are the support of his discoveries. It's the case for Mozart.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Performed many times*

Musician, no one is trolling you.

This is a very popular work. I have performed in an orchestra with a solo violinist many times. I have also performed a band arrangement of it on a few occasions.

I am sorry about the reaction but your OP really caught us off guard.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Trolling? My dad used to play the piece on a pedal organ a half century ago. It was the only piece he knew!


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Michael Haydn's Requiem in C minor would need more attention.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)




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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

Carl Maria von Weber





Ernest Bloch





Johann Nepomuk Hummel





Max Reger


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*What the.....*

Some of the choices here are really freaking me out.

I have played in community orchestras for over forty years. I have not played the solo parts, I have played in the orchestra that accompanied the soloist.

I have performed the both Weber _Clarinet Concertos_ and the Bloch _Schelomo_ on multiple occasions.

Edit: As a follow-up I checked bachtrack.com and found that there will be a least two performances of the Bloch over the next few months and at least six performances of the Weber.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> Some of the choices here are really freaking me out.
> 
> I have played in community orchestras for over forty years. I have not played the solo parts, I have played in the orchestra that accompanied the soloist.
> 
> ...


There are two things I think need taking into account. Not everyone has anywhere near the familiarity and years of exposure and additional exploration of the repertoire as do you, I, or those more directly immersed in classical music. So Bloch's Schlomo might actually be an "exotic" piece to someone else, and they may well be unaware of how popular it has been -- since its premiere decades ago 
The OP sets an unfortunate tone or precedent in posting what is truly a very well known and extremely oft-played piece.

"Needs / should be given more attention" is _always_ used in a context of something being too little known or neglected. It seems that, like so many other words and conventionally understood phrases, people feel free to change standard usage to their individual take, i.e. "To me, _______ is." Of course, as effective communication, those personal definitions are nonsense, and they waste a lot of peoples time.

Hummel, Weber, Bloch -- all well known and in play, with multiple recordings and played often enough. If other participants add to this thread in the same way, it will be an embarrassment to the site.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Musician said:


> You clearly are out of line, and acting as a troll.
> 
> Of course. Knew of the work before, I just thought that it needed more attention, that's all...
> 
> You got to chill down a little


Absolutely not and that is a serious accusation. It has become one of those tunes that everyone knows even when they don't know what it is.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

brianvds said:


> Next thing, you'll try to convince us that this is not a neglected masterpiece:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's a well-known song about soccer,everyone knows that !!!


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## kelseythepterodactyl (Sep 5, 2013)

This is all relative here. The average Joe that only goes to one or two classical music performances per year will likely go see Beethoven's 9th or the Nutcracker, not Hummel, Weber, or Bloch. So in this way, they are lacking attention. For avid classical listeners and performers, that stuff is almost old hat. There is no wrong answer here, and it is certainly not an "embarrassment to the site." Being pretentious about what other people post is embarrassing.

I think most operetta is under-performed.

Like Künneke's Liselott:


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

pjang23 said:


> Carl Maria von Weber
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The Hummel Concerto is a hidden Gem...


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I must confess that ususally when an announcer describes a piece as a 'neglected masterpiece' when I hear it I usually realise why it is neglected!


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

You don't like the piece David?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Musician said:


> You don't like the piece David?


I was speaking generally not specifically.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

DavidA said:


> I must confess that ususally when an announcer describes a piece as a 'neglected masterpiece' when I hear it I usually realise why it is neglected!


I find this is an observation mainly relevant for 19th-century stuff in a heavy style, as well as baroque or classical trifles. Recently heard Hans Huber´s "Böcklin"-symphony, for instance. But overall, the whole concept of Towering Masterpieces tends to play down their dependence of the conventions of their days, and the works might not be of so isolated status and value as their merry-go-round presence at concert programmes would indicate. There´s no qualitative reason for the popularity of Pärt´s "Cantus IM Britten" at the cost of say Sumera´s contemporary symphonies or works by Denisov, for instance.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

DavidA said:


> I was speaking generally not specifically.


Well don't be so sure about it, many times I have discovered gems that I asked myself why have I not listened to this one before. There are many great pieces of classical music that need to be discovered...you still might get surprised...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

kelseythepterodactyl said:


> This is all relative here. The average Joe that only goes to one or two classical music performances per year will likely go see Beethoven's 9th or the Nutcracker, not Hummel, Weber, or Bloch. So in this way, they are lacking attention. For avid classical listeners and performers, that stuff is almost old hat. There is no wrong answer here, and it is certainly not an "embarrassment to the site." Being pretentious about what other people post is embarrassing.
> 
> I think most operetta is under-performed.
> 
> Like Künneke's Liselott:


O.k. that "embarrassment" bit was more than seriously pretentious. Perhaps better to say that the thread is then revealing how many on TC are about as near to almost complete beginners in their musical explorations or general awareness of repertoire.

I await the upcoming postings of Fur Elise and the first movement of the "moonlight" sonata with the most sober of expressions.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Musician said:


> Well don't be so sure about it, many times I have discovered gems that I asked myself why have I not listened to this one before. There are many great pieces of classical music that need to be discovered...you still might get surprised...


The current listening thread is wonderful for that, being at large what members are listening to, and all over the map.

Though it is not the place for a TC member to share their own work, it is where any and all simply list what they are listening to, provide recorded performance data, or a youtube link.

I love the variety of it, and have learned of a number of old to new works which were completely unknown to me.

I like the happenstance of it, too.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Hopefully no one will laugh at me for posting this, but I'll try:

Rubinstein's piano concerti, all 5 of them. 

I think they are "neglected" because I only know of one set of recordings of them, on the Marco Polo label. I think they "need" more attention because I would rank some of them up there on the list of piano concerti. No Rachmaninov or Prokofiev, sure. But they are excellent works and it'd be great if they got more recognition than they do.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

joen_cph said:


> I find this is an observation mainly relevant for 19th-century stuff in a heavy style, as well as baroque or classical trifles. Recently heard Hans Huber´s "Böcklin"-symphony, for instance. But overall, the whole concept of Towering Masterpieces tends to play down their dependence of the conventions of their days, and the works might not be of so isolated status and value as their round-about presence at concert programmes would indicate. *There´s no qualitative reason for the popularity of Pärt´s "Cantus IM Britten" at the cost of say Sumera´s contemporary symphonies or works by Denisov, for instance.*


Bravo. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I actually thought this thread would be something completely different than another neglected works thread, maybe I'll have to start my own thread on what I thought this thread would be about.


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

arpeggio said:


> Some of the choices here are really freaking me out.
> 
> I have played in community orchestras for over forty years. I have not played the solo parts, I have played in the orchestra that accompanied the soloist.
> 
> ...


Well, could've been Hummel & Bloch's Piano Quintets No.1 or Weber & Reger's Clarinet Quintets for that matter. These composers hardly get a mention here and I've never personally seen them programmed in concert or on radio, so I thought they were worth a post.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)




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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Reger and Hummel*



pjang23 said:


> Well, could've been Hummel & Bloch's Piano Quintets No.1 or Weber & Reger's Clarinet Quintets for that matter. These composers hardly get a mention here and I've never personally seen them programmed in concert or on radio, so I thought they were worth a post.


I was addressing the inclusion of the Weber and the Bloch. Both of these works are part of the standard repertoire, especially the Weber.

I car pool to orchestra rehearsal with our clarinetist. We happen to hear a performance of the Weber Clarinet Concerto on the radio on our way home from rehearsal last week. He has performed the Weber many times. While listening to the Weber we were discussing underperformed wind concertos. The one composer we thought was unfairly neglected was Franz Danzi.

I agree with your assessment of the Hummel _Piano Concerto_ and the Reger _Mozart Variations_.

The major work of Hummel that is remembered is the _Trumpet Concerto_. The rest of his oeuvre is very rarely recorded or performed.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Each of the following has a number of available commercial recordings that can be counted on two hands (or one), rather than dozens or hundreds. In order of increasing remove from accessibility, I suppose (although people who are interested may start at the bottom if they want!).

We'll start off with Schoenberg's lovely arrangement of the Christmas hymn "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" for small chamber ensemble. *Why I think it's neglected:* because Schoenberg's name frightens people, even when it shouldn't. Really, there's every reason why this should be played at the holiday season and Pachelbel's Canon in D should not.





I've spent a lot of time plugging Stravinsky's late masterpiece _Threni_, so I won't link to it again here. Instead, here's the short a capella anthem he wrote on a text by TS Eliot. *Why I think it's neglected:* the music is on the austere side, and presents some difficulties for any choir attempting it.





Takemitsu's music for solo flute is well-represented in the catalogue and repertoire, but his 1960 composition _Masque_ for two flutes, which plays with quarter tones and extended technique in imitation of traditional Noh accompaniment, is far less well-known. *Why I think it's neglected:* outside of a few late pieces, Takemitsu's entire ouevre is neglected outside of his native Japan.





And then this wonderful resonant piece of _musique concrète_ by the late Jonathan Harvey, mixing the sounds of bells and boy soprano. The texture is not unlike Stockhausen's _Gesang der Jünglinge_. *Why I think it's neglected:* few people outside of "new music" circles have even heard of the composer, and the majority of people aren't interested in the genre as a whole, which developed out of the Western tradition, but lacks the vital element of interpretation.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Hyperion have done a very enterprising series on the romantic piano Concerto. Mostly these are neglected works which are worth an occasional hearing. Some of them would also be worth playing in an occasional concerts and all the umpteen time of, for example, the Grieg or Rachmaninov 2 (both of which I love btw). Whether they would bring in the punters is another thing. I believe that Brilliant Classics have also got a set of the romantic piano concertos out. They are much cheaper than Hyperion although they are much older recordings.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> [...] And then this wonderful resonant piece of _musique concrète_ by the late Jonathan Harvey, mixing the sounds of bells and boy soprano. The texture is not unlike Stockhausen's _Gesang der Jünglinge_. *Why I think it's neglected:* few people outside of "new music" circles have even heard of the composer, and the majority of people aren't interested in the genre as a whole, which developed out of the Western tradition, but lacks the vital element of interpretation.


Just to add a quick comment or two (and a word of thanks to Mahlerian for mentioning the *Harvey* piece _Mortuous Plango, Vivos Voco_). 
I tend to shy away from the term _musique concrète_ as I've always taken it to apply to a quite specific period around Pierre Schaeffer (40s, 50s...) and using fairly rudimentary recording and tape technique. The Harvey piece is very far from rudimentary as its transformations of the Winchester cathedral's tenor bell show, and is more usually described as being electroacoustic. But I don't want to get bogged down in terminology, what counts is that this sort of music is in need of far more attention. 
The words 'sung' by the boy soprano are in fact the words engraved on the Winchester bell and are sung by the composer's own 9-year old son (at the time of composition). As to the vital element of interpretation, it is true that being digitally fixed (or even fixed on magnetic tape) there isn't perhaps much margin, but the performance venue and spatialization/sound diffusion systems do provide an element of this. 
That is in part why I tend to prefer electroacoustic compositions that are combined with live instruments or voice. Some fine examples of this approach would be *Denis Smalley* _Piano Nets_ (for piano and tape), *Javier Alvarez* _On Going On_ (sax and tape) and *Alejandro Vinao* _Chant d'Ailleurs_ (soprano and computer). There are many many more such works out there of this genre waiting to be explored and enjoyed.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

TalkingHead said:


> I tend to shy away from the term _musique concrète_ as I've always taken it to apply to a quite specific period around Pierre Schaeffer (40s, 50s...) and using fairly rudimentary recording and tape technique. The Harvey piece is very far from rudimentary as its transformations of the Winchester cathedral's tenor bell show, and is more usually described as being electroacoustic. But I don't want to get bogged down in terminology, what counts is that this sort of music is in need of far more attention.


Yes, it was an IRCAM piece, right? I think that one of the reasons composers aren't as interested in "pure" electroacoustic music as they were a few decades ago is because all of the technology that was so difficult to work with even in the 80s, requiring complicated setups and extensive technical knowledge, is available on everyone's home desktop today.



TalkingHead said:


> The words 'sung' by the boy soprano are in fact the words engraved on the Winchester bell and are sung by the composer's own 9-year old son (at the time of composition). As to the vital element of interpretation, it is true that being digitally fixed (or even fixed on magnetic tape) there isn't perhaps much margin, but the performance venue and spatialization/sound diffusion systems do provide an element of this.
> That is in part why I tend to prefer electroacoustic compositions that are combined with live instruments or voice. Some fine examples of this approach would be *Denis Smalley* _Piano Nets_ (for piano and tape), *Javier Alvarez* _On Going On_ (sax and tape) and *Alejandro Vinao* _Chant d'Ailleurs_ (soprano and computer). There are many many more such works out there of this genre waiting to be explored and enjoyed.


In general I agree, and much electroacoustic/musique concrete interests me more historically than anything else, but examples like this one and some of Stockhausen's work have proven quite durable. Music that combines prerecorded sound with live performance is of course a very diverse field, and one that has seeped into the compositional mainstream via the avant-garde (pieces by famous minimalist and post-minimalist composers, including one that won a Pulitzer).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Yes, it was an IRCAM piece, right? I think that one of the reasons composers aren't as interested in "pure" electroacoustic music as they were a few decades ago is because all of the technology that was so difficult to work with even in the 80s, requiring complicated setups and extensive technical knowledge, is available on everyone's home desktop today.


When one realizes what was actually involved and the labor intensive level of working in those earlier environs, especially thinking upon those still substantial pieces of music and especially those works of some length like Stockhausen's _Gesang der Jünglinge_ or Berio's _Visage_, one can only marvel at the drive and perseverance those composers had to bring those works to completion, and to us.

ADD: P.s. Musique Concrete, original definition, used _only acoustic sounds as the source audio material_, which were then treated by manipulation of the electronics available at the time, including filtering, speeding the tape up or down, etc. but the sound sources were purely acoustic. (It is almost certain, over time, "officially" or otherwise, that definition morphed


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Berio's _Visage_


About a year after Berio died (in 2003) I attended a tribute concert where Visage was diffused live over maybe 50 speakers surrounding the audiences and the performer, it was actually the first time I heard something electro acoustic performed live and it was a hoot having Cathy Berberian swivelling in and out of Your head! 
They also played several of Berio's other "Tape pieces" but it was Visage that attached itself to my memory!

/ptr


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2013)

*@ Mahlerian in response to post #46:*

Yes that's right, realized at the IRCAM centre (a veritable electroacoustic _mecca_ at the time!). And you're right, the 80s were very much tape based (and cumbersome) but as computers came to the fore a lot of gadgetry became obsolete.
At the end of September I'll be attending a concert by _concrètist_ (!) *Pierre Henry* who has remixed two of his former works _Une tour de Babel_ (orig. 1998) and _Fantaisie Messe pour le Temps présents_ (orig. 1998). I'll report back to you about that after the event.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2013)

Deleted because of duplication.


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2013)

But back to *Harvey* (RIP) for a moment: he wrote a superb collection of analyses of about a dozen of Stockhausen's works (The Music of Stockhausen: An Introduction, University of California Press, 1975). I have never read anything that matches this. Then again, I suppose you could argue it takes a composer to pick apart another composer.
A little confession: I borrowed this book from a library in London many years ago, consequently left the country and never returned it. The book then has a sort of 'double value' for me!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Why not check if the library has been able to replace it, via their website - otherwise make a copy and send it back anonymously. Or the circumstances will haunt you forever. Just a suggestion.

_EDIT_: and staff will have an amusing story to tell at their coffee table...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

For Musician's #41 -- Always happy to hear Alkan!


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

PetrB : Pardon my ignorance, but I had no idea the _Meditation_ was written for voice originally. I've heard the violin version a million times, but never a vocal version. It has even been transcribed for cello (I see little point for that, given that the cello repertoire is pretty large).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

spradlig said:


> PetrB : Pardon my ignorance, but I had no idea the _Meditation_ was written for voice originally. I've heard the violin version a million times, but never a vocal version. It has even been transcribed for cello (I see little point for that, given that the cello repertoire is pretty large).


_I am sitting here with a tremendously painful red face -- it is FROM an opera, but an orchestral interlude,_* I went blahblahblah without checking a misremembered fact from decades ago*
*Apologies for the blahblahblah and that it was not at all the correct blahblahblah.*

-- Ergo, the transcription not so far away as if it had been a vocal _the first violin has the material_.

Most embarrassing, but corrected now.

BUT -- LOL. The violin and piano rep is also pretty large, excluding transliterations / arrangements.

Here ya go, the interlude





Orchestral or transcription for violin and piano, it is a very well-known thoroughly well-roasted chestnut


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I'd like to revive this thread, because it's a good topic.

In recognition of the birthday of a composer with whom I have a mixed relationship, here are *Shostakovich's* _Five Fragments for orchestra, Op. 42_. One of the last pieces of his early high modernist phase, this epigrammatic work seems like the composer's own set of "Orchesterstucke" in the mold of the Second Viennese School. The style is not unlike that of the Fourth Symphony which followed immediately, and the fifth of these pieces shares material with that work's finale. _Why I think it's not better known:_ although it's fully within Shostakovich's style, it lacks the more extroverted character that attracts people to the big symphonic works.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

I think Haydn's piano trios deserve more attention - granted, they're definitely not 'neglected', but some of the older ones are. I've recently purchased a complete set and I find every disc excellent.


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

Samuil Feinberg's sonatas


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I liked those so much I added them to my Amazon wish list so I will remember to buy them.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2013)

TalkingHead said:


> *@ Mahlerian in response to post #46:*
> 
> Yes that's right, realized at the IRCAM centre (a veritable electroacoustic _mecca_ at the time!). And you're right, the 80s were very much tape based (and cumbersome) but as computers came to the fore a lot of gadgetry became obsolete.
> At the end of September I'll be attending a concert by _concrètist_ (!) *Pierre Henry* who has remixed two of his former works _Une tour de Babel_ (orig. 1998) and _Fantaisie Messe pour le Temps présents_ (orig. 1998). I'll report back to you about that after the event.


Well, I was at that *Pierre Henry* (hereafter PH) concert last night. I am very glad I attended, for a variety of reasons, musical and personal.

It was a 4-hour (!) concert, the first part being the 63-minute _Une tour de Babel_ that PH originally composed in 1998 (to celebrate the 50th anniversary of _musique concrète_) and remixed especially for last night's concert. What a _tour de force_! I'll admit that before it started I was wondering if I was going to maintain close attention for that duration but it was magisterial. The 800-seat concert space was at full capacity (with a very wide cross-section in terms of age) and dimmed for the piece, with just spotlights on the main banks of speakers (there were in excess of 50 speakers of all sizes around the hall) and the mixing/diffusion desk (with PH at the controls!).

The work is divided into 7 sections, each with its title (Prologue, Briques et bitumes, Mouvance, Elévation, Transe, La faille, Démolition) and 'describes' the erection and eventual throwing down of the biblical Tower of Babel. PH himself wrote (my rough translation): "_The myth of the Tower of Babel has always fascinated me. Is the Tower there to let men reach heaven or for the Gods to use it to come down from heaven? (...) The idea of a single and universal language that is transparent and unambiguous, whether verbal or musical, is something that I find terrifying. I prefer to see the demolition of the Tower, which represents in a way the advent of plurality, as a stroke of luck_."

Well, there was certainly a plurality of musical material that was overwhelming at times, but the sheer narrative power swept away any doubts that may have lingered (and I hadn't really eaten much before going). I had one bizarre idea enter my head: Bruckner would have written something like this had the technology been around in his time! If I had one negative point to raise, it would be for the use of a weak cliché in the 'Transe' section where PH resorted to extracts from "Romantic sounding orchestra and choir" to suggest the meeting of Man and God(s) / Earth & Heaven. That was one bit of direct mimesis that broke the spell for a moment. But the closing minutes provided one of the most moving 'codas' I have ever imagined in an electroacoustic (that's _concrète_ ++) work.

(I'll continue my post about this concert hereafter.)


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2013)

Following the _Une tour de Babel_ there was a break (phew!) then a 52-minute film titled *Pierre Henry ou l'art des sons* (Eric Darmon, Franck Mallet, 2006). That was OK, it gave us a bit of background into PH's genesis as a composer, but for me it had a serious lack in not addressing his studio technique and aesthetic. Still, he came across as a very droll and likeable fellow, a bit like Satie, perhaps (minus the booze).

Now to the third (and last) part of the concert where I must report my great disappointment. The closing piece was PH's _Fantaisie Messe pour le Temps présent_ [45"] (originally composed in 1991, again revised especially for last night's concert). I gave it a good 15" of my time, but I finally became weary of this _pastiche-techo avant la lettre_ and walked out of the concert hall. A shame, because I had enormously appreciated the first piece.

On the personal, extra musical level, what was great was that I was having a quick beer and a (too-small) sandwich before the concert started in the reception area near the entrance when in rolled (wheelchair, he's very old now, can just about walk) Pierre Henry himself! If it wasn't for the fact that I was simultaneously chewing on a ham sandwich and glugging down a swill of beer I would have gone and shook his hand. Anyway, there was a standing ovation when he mounted the podium where the sound diffusion system was, and an even longer and louder standing ovation after Tower of Babel piece.

That's all folks. Just a reminder to show that this is the sort of music that deserves more attention, that shows that contemporary music is alive and kicking (very much alive, as it should be), that concert-goers of all ages attend such concerts, and that as far as France is concerned there is a bright future for the genre. The festival continues up to 5 October, I've been to a few already and more are scheduled. Maybe I'll post a few comments later about these other concerts. All I can say is that for me this festival is a massive breath of fresh air. And it won't detract for one instance from my love of Pérotin, Machaut, Bach, Beethoven (list continues over the centuries ...) whatsoever.


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