# Anthony Phillip Heinrich



## BuddhaBandit

An American composer by trade, but not birth. Heinrich was born in Bohemia, but immigrated to the US and isolated himself in a log cabin to write a series of tone poems that foreshadowed the work of Ives. His works use sprightly, "light-classical" melodies in subtly disquieting ways, much like Ives uses traditional folk tunes to create extreme dissonance and cacophony and Ravel transforms the Viennese waltz into a psychedelic, swirling dream in his La Valse. He also used original and eccentric forms in his music, often stringing together sections of completely unrelated material (like Roy Orbison's "In Dreams").

I recently discovered Heinrich through a recording of his tone poem called "The Ornithological Combat of Kings"- apparently, this kind of bizarre title was the norm for his works.

And, to close, a grain of trivium: he was the first conductor to conduct a Beethoven symphony within the United States.


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## yohji_nap

I remember reading about Heinrich and being very impressed with his biography. The log cabin thing, the "I am not appreciated today, but perhaps future generations will like my music" attitude, the eccentric work titles, and everything. But when I tried to find recordings of his music, I was only able to locate a recording of "The Ornithological Combat of Kings" (probably the one you have - with Syracuse Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Keene - hmm?), but unfortunately I was not too impressed by it. Maybe my expectations were a tad too high after reading about his life. Still, the music is rather interesting, unusual structures, melodies and all. Pity its not performed/recorded more frequently.


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