# Pick Just One Composer or...



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I actually happened upon this though or question last night, but was too tied up to post... but I thought I'd build off Violadude's title. 

What I am asking is for you to tell me about one body of music (be it by a single composer or an entire period) that you wish you had access to... but don't because it hasn't been more fully explored as of this moment. For example, when I first began to explore classical music with a real passion there was very little available by Handel beyond the obvious: the Messiah, the Concerti Grossi 3 and 6, the Royal Fireworks and water Music, and a few others. So much more has been unveiled over the last 20 years that it is astounding. So who do you find yourself wishing you could hear more by... but currently can't?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I was actually thinking about this exact subject earlier today. I thought back almost 30 years when I was first getting into classical music and how I quickly fell in love with a number of romantic works. Since then I've moved into more modern music and never continued to explore any older music.

I was thinking that there are surely many other great works and beautiful melodies I'd probably really enjoy, but I just don't know what pieces to explore. There's so much music.


Oh right, I was supposed to mention a composer. I actually had Tchaikovsky on my mind for some reason. But it could be a number of others I'm missing out on concerning their more obscure works.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

I'd like to hear some other SQs by Lutyens. This is the only recorded one I am aware of:


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

*Sorabji* still has a great number of works that are yet to be recorded or even performed. The reason, I guess, is not only because they're extremely difficult and demanding, but a lot of them are also quite monstrous in terms of duration. Only the most insane pianists would accept the challenge of playing the insane music that Sorabji wrote.

On the other hand, *Charles-Valentin Alkan*, whose music _is_ being championed by more and more people nowadays, apparently wrote a symphony for full orchestra in B minor. But it's lost now (at least that's what I've read). Though, there was this story a few years ago, in the '90s, where a "new" piece by Alkan was discovered (not the symphony, something else); so, maybe there's still some hope for this one as well.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Ethel Smyth! Opera was her passion and specialty, but only one of her operas (The Wreckers, which is terrific) has been recorded. Her opera Der Wald is the only opera by a woman ever to have been performed at the Met.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Definitely Nikolai Roslavets. This guy was a very interesting composer who came up with a system of composing in atonality in the late 1910s/early 20s that in my opinion is superior to Schoenberg's and offers more opportunity for expression and flexibility. He has written several orchestral works that have not been recorded yet.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Interesting thread, from which we are sure to get many interesting answers with lesser known composers.

I would like to explore Italian opera written by German composers from the Baroque to mid-Classical periods. Italian opera here does not necessarily mean set in the Italian language but definitely following the Italian _opera seria_ tradition. Two composers come to my mind. *Carl Heinrich Graun* (1704-1759). His _Cesare e Cleopatra_ inaugurated the Berlin opera house opening under Frederick the Great in 1742, who was keen to have "the best" opera house around. Another name includes *Johann Adolph Hasse* (1699-1783) who often collaborated with the great poet/librettist Metastasio. These folks wrote music that were clearly vocal in idiom and no doubt shaped the progress of Italian _opera seria_ in their own ways in Baroque and Classical Germany. There is just a massive amount of music in this rich period - the 18th century - that remains really untapped beyond the usual great names.

*Jan Disma Zelenka* (1679-1745) is another name who seemed to write "good' music judging by the pieces that I have of him.

Many more ...


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I'm going for a bold one.

Maximilian Steinberg. Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov thought he was going to be the next great Russian composer, but he's literally forgotten except for his role as a teacher (for ex. of Shostakovich). Pretty much none of his music is performed or recorded. That's a curious fancy I have: if Glazunov really considered Steinberg his spiritual heir (Even more so than Shostakovich), what was his music like?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Steinberg


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I asked this question for the simple reason that there is body of music I have been exploring quite a bit recently... with a great deal of resulting joy and wonder... and yet I find myself equally wondering at how much more I am missing out on simply because so much work simply hasn't been recorded yet.

The music I am speaking of is opera from the Baroque until Mozart. Vivaldi's name pops up frequently on LitNet and he unfortunately seems to be the poor whipping boy of the Baroque. Repeatedly, others turn up their noses at the idea that he should even stand alongside Bach and Handel as part of a Baroque triumvirate while singing the praises of Biber or Scarlatti jr. In almost every instance one discovers that their slight opinion of Vivaldi has been based almost solely upon his concertos. And yet Vivaldi composed a wealth of vocal music. This includes a great deal of choral music as well as some 90 operas (according to Vivaldi) of which we now have identified 50 although the scores of only 20 or so survive. Most of these have yet to have recorded... and recorded well. I just listened to the recent-released recording of _Ercole su'l Termodonte_ performed by a stellar cast. The work was quite stunning. Vivaldi is clearly like Handel 20 years ago... someone whose work is just now coming into view.

But what of the other operatic composers of the period whose works were acclaimed and revered by the audiences of the time? Right now there are a slew of top-notch recordings of arias from operas by composers whose operas are all but forgotten:














































These are but a few. There's also Karina Gauvin's "Porpora Arias" in which she performs 6 world premier recordings out of 14 arias by Nicolo Popora. Vivica Genaux has recorded a disc of Handel and Hasse arias and well as another disc of "Arias for Farinelli" featuring arias by many of the composers of the era. Among the composers whose operatic oeuvres are nearly forgotten we discover names including: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Nicolo Popora, Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, Johann Adolf Hasse, Baldassare Galuppi, Gerolamo Giacomeli, Riccardo Broschi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Carl Heinrich Graun, Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Battista Bononcini, etc... Music history potrays a picture of the history of opera an running from Monteverdi to Handel to Gluck to Mozart... and yet what I have sampled of so many of these "forgotten voices" suggests a great wealth waiting to be further discovered.

I am personally quite interested in what happened after Handel up 'til Mozart. Other members here have conveyed surprise at how highly I have rated Gluck... but the situation is not unlike that of Vivaldi. I have a good many of Gluck's opera in recordings. I set about listening to number of them once again last week... and found my opinion of them reinforced: they do not find far behind the finest of Mozart's operas. But who else was writing operas at the time? Philippe Jaroussky has recorded an absolutely stunning disc of J.C Bach's arias which absolutely blew me away. And then there's the name of Josef Myslivecek that repeatedly pops up as a leading operatic composer at the time of Mozart... and yet I am limited to but two or 3 arias performed by Magdalena Kozena. I can name a slew of Mozart's peers when it comes to the symphony and concerto... but did any of them also write operas?

I really feel this period is ripe for rediscovery... and as many younger singers face the reality that the classical music world simply doesn't need yet one more recording of the well-worn arias of Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, Rossini, etc... I cannot help but believe that the exploration of music of real merit that has for quite some time been woefully ignored or forgotten will become a necessity to any soloist and singer wishing to build a career.

I suspect Harpsichord Concerto will have an interest in some of these same composers. Any thoughts? Any leads to recordings I might have missed.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> The music I am speaking of is opera from the Baroque until Mozart. Vivaldi's name pops up frequently on LitNet and he unfortunately seems to be the poor whipping boy of the Baroque. Repeatedly, others turn up their noses at the idea that he should even stand alongside Bach and Handel as part of a Baroque triumvirate while singing the praises of Biber or Scarlatti jr. In almost every instance one discovers that their slight opinion of Vivaldi has been based almost solely upon his concertos. And yet Vivaldi composed a wealth of vocal music. This includes a great deal of choral music as well as some 90 operas (according to Vivaldi) of which we now have identified 50 although the scores of only 20 or so survive. Most of these have yet to have recorded... and recorded well. I just listened to the recent-released recording of _Ercole su'l Termodonte_ performed by a stellar cast. The work was quite stunning. Vivaldi is clearly like Handel 20 years ago... someone whose work is just now coming into view.


Yeah, I always get a little annoyed when people bash Vivaldi. Vivaldi is terrific, including the concertos. I sometimes suspect that all the nose-thumbing might have something to do with the popularity he enjoys (well, his best-known works, anyway) among people who don't know much classical (/baroque) music.


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2011)

Music from 1945 to the present.

There's been a lot recorded. And recently there's been a lot reissued from decades past. But since I have spent a lot of time hanging out with composers, I know that there are tons of things that never got onto CDs or LPs or anything. Lots of stuff that's never even been performed maybe aside from that one time!

I lived in Redlands, CA for 23 years, so knew Barney Childs, who would never promote himself or his music. Shortly after he died, many of his colleagues and former students put on a Childs' festival at Redlands University, where he had taught English and music. It was a great revelation to all of us. Even those who had known him for most of his career were surprised at all the stuff being played that weekend that they had never heard before. Had never even heard of.

Clarence Barlow is another non-self-promoter, with a correspondingly small discography. (A recent article called him "Southern California's best kept new music secret," so who knows? Now that the secret's out!)

There are many many more, all over the world. eRikm has been working on several projects of Luc Ferrari's music, but he's only one guy, and he's got his own very active career to deal with.

And what about all that wonderful Fluxus stuff? Did no one ever film any of those events? Incroyable. I want videos, and I want them now!!


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I suspect Harpsichord Concerto will have an interest in some of these same composers. Any thoughts? Any leads to recordings I might have missed.


One or two outstanding names that you mentioned included Johann Christian Bach and Alessandro Scarlatti, but both of them seem better represented overall than Graun, Hasse and Zelenka that I mentioned.

JC Bach wrote absolutely delightful galante music, both instrumental and vocal pieces. The recording industry has a curious practice of recording more of his religious church music than his operas and other large scale dramatic works. This is a mere selling point following the "Bach" surname, which doesn't really do JC any justice today judging by the Jaroussky CD (I have all three you listed). JC was certainly talented enough to have impressed the Mozarts and became family friends (father & son Mozart, and those of you familiar with their history, would know the Mozarts were no easy folks to impress when it came to musical tastes). Two recordings below, one is an aria compilation and another is a serenata.

Solamente Naturali (on period instruments)









_Endimione_, Cappella Coloniensis (on period instruments) / Bruno Weil









A. Scarlatti is quite well represented and his vocal works had a sense of sincerity about it that you don't often hear with other Baroque Italians - he quite consistently scored his oratorios for strings and voice only, for example.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

some guy said:


> Music from 1945 to the present.
> 
> There's been a lot recorded. And recently there's been a lot reissued from decades past. But since I have spent a lot of time hanging out with composers, I know that there are tons of things that never got onto CDs or LPs or anything. Lots of stuff that's never even been performed maybe aside from that one time!
> 
> ...


Well, you know me. I actually did bother to look up some of these names and take the effort to post my discoveries. I found some. I won't judge. I'll be nice (it's Christmas time, you see).

Merry Christmas, folks! Enjoy!


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Is it me or am I hearing something different?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

some guy said:


> Music from 1945 to the present.
> 
> There's been a lot recorded. And recently there's been a lot reissued from decades past. But since I have spent a lot of time hanging out with composers, I know that there are tons of things that never got onto CDs or LPs or anything. Lots of stuff that's never even been performed maybe aside from that one time...


Problem is, as is evidenced by some calcified Jurassic beliefs of the hard conservative classical listeners, they don't care about new music. The market for it is small. I do go to new music performances here, there is an audience here, and it's got a good age range, from younger to older people. Definitely more representative of the wider classical listening public than the clientele of our flagship/mainstream groups, which is mainly retirees and the corporate guys. I'm not bashing these guys, but are they really representative of the wider society?

A highlight this year was a concert of Xenakis music, which was quite well attended and at the end it was a standing ovation. This was real music alright, just as good as any of the older stuff. It had visceral impact on me and would most or all of the audience there. Xenakis is dead of course but it seems that some people still close themselves off to this kind of thing, for reasons of ideology and judgement. By extension, LIVING composers don't get a chance with such people. This is quite sad.

Anyway, I have blocked certain individuals here but with regards to new music, forget it. I'm not very optimistic in my darker moments. Look around here, these obsessions with raising virtual monuments to dead composers, conductors, etc. It's become almost like a graveyard of the sacred cows. I mean I like dead composers a lot, but I'd like to think my mind is in 2011, not 1911 or even 1611. Sorry for the rant but letting it out a bit. Now on with the motley, as dear old Pagliaccio sang...


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Well, you know me. I actually did bother to look up some of these names and take the effort to post my discoveries. I found some. I won't judge. I'll be nice (it's Christmas time, you see).
> 
> Merry Christmas, folks! Enjoy!


wow, i hope that he has composed something better than this. Because even someone tuning his guitar is more interesting than this.


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

Any chamber works by Mikhail Nosyrev - especially his three string quartets if they are anything as spiky as his four symphonies. Olympia released five discs of orchestral works before going belly up (and these discs are now expensive as no other label has, to my knowledge, took up the re-release option on them) and as far as I'm aware nothing else from Nosyrev's output has ever been widely available since, if at all. Still, I'm grateful for the fact that I managed to buy four of these five recordings at normal price before Olympia went under. I was also embarking on collecting Vissarion Shebalin's quartets and symphonies on Olympia before the same fate befell him after buying just one disc.


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2011)

norman bates said:


> wow, i hope that he has composed something better than this. Because even someone tuning his guitar is more interesting than this.


And there's this, too. That contemporary music is automatically (and universally) considered fair game.

Yer off my Christmas list, norman.:devil:

(Besides, couldn't you even tell anything about the performance? Wow, I hope you listen to older music better than you listened to this. Because even a deaf person (named Evelyn, for choice) could tell that this wasn't a stellar performance.:lol

((By the way, HC, I don't suppose you really think that anyone is fooled by your "I won't judge."

Can you say "disingenuous" boys and girls? Good. I knew you could.:tiphat)


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

some guy said:


> And there's this, too. That contemporary music is automatically (and universally) considered fair game.


is not a question of contemporary music, yesterday i was listening again and again to Humprey Searle's Labirynth and i was thinking that it's a great piece





and then to Ed Bland's Piece for chamber orchestra
http://www.edblandmusic.com/Soundlibrary.htm

not a question of contemporary or not contemporary, just the fact that i don't see the minimum reason of interest in those exercises on the snare drum.



some guy said:


> (Besides, couldn't you even tell anything about the performance? Wow, I hope you listen to older music better than you listened to this. Because even a deaf person (named Evelyn, for choice) could tell that this wasn't a stellar performance.:lol


How can i say that? I've never heard before that piece!


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Joseph Wölfl

I wish the piano concertos would have been recorded by more artists including my favorites.


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2011)

norman bates said:


> How can i say that? I've never heard before that piece!


Hmmm. Maybe it's because my youngest son is a drummer. The guy in the clip was playing very dully, no expression, no nuance, no delicacy (or variety for that matter) of touch. Sure, he did get a little softer near the end, but his touch was still the same.

I'd never heard that piece before, either, but the blandness of the performance seemed pretty obvious to me.

(I'm considering putting you back on my Christmas card list for maybe 2012. On the strength of the Searle remark. Humphrey's a favorite of mine.)


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

kv466 said:


> Joseph Wölfl
> 
> I wish the piano concertos would have been recorded by more artists including my favorites.


This recording of his opus 4 string quartets has HarpsichordConcerto's stamp of approval.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'd like to get a CD recording of Stockhausen's "Licht," but I can't find any. Also it might be nice to find good recordings of the music of Heinrich Biber (other than the Mystery Sonatas or Battalia.)


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## Sequentia (Nov 23, 2011)

Sorabji and Zelenka come immediately to mind. I also like Hába and Kabeláč, both of whom are pretty ignored.



Dodecaplex said:


> *Sorabji* still has a great number of works that are yet to be recorded or even performed. The reason, I guess, is not only because they're extremely difficult and demanding, but a lot of them are also quite monstrous in terms of duration. Only the most insane pianists would accept the challenge of playing the insane music that Sorabji wrote.


Indeed. But some of them _are_ willing, so let's hope more record companies will take interest in his repertoire. 

My list has 4 composers, 3 of whom were Czech. Everybody has probably already guessed my nationality.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm guessing ......... Slovakian!

Or maybe not...


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## Sequentia (Nov 23, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm guessing ......... Slovakian!
> 
> Or maybe not...


I'm Czech, but was born in Czechoslovakia (which no longer exists).


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## flylooper (Dec 6, 2011)

This discussion begs an important question: Does atonal music have legs? If people aren't buying the music it isn't going to be recorded or given in a lot of concert halls (unless it's bracketed by more commonly accepted music).

Bernstein, in his Harvard lectures, suggests that there is a growing movement back toward tonality. He stated that triadic music is hardwired into human beings, just as is the acquisition of spoken language. 

It is reasonable, to me at least, that atonalism is not popular simply because it is, in many ways, unable to be understood. In my own musical journey, I can get about as far (generally speaking) as Bela Bartok/Shoenberg/Webern went. Try as I might, I still have trouble understanding some of the acknowledged moderns out there. 

On the other hand....that no one "gets" James Joyce's "Ulysses" doesn't mean he was a lousy writer. Or Jackson Pollock, for that matter, was a lousy painter.


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## Sequentia (Nov 23, 2011)

flylooper said:


> On the other hand....that no one "gets" James Joyce's "Ulysses" doesn't mean he was a lousy writer. Or Jackson Pollock, for that matter, was a lousy painter.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/28/alex-ross-modern-classical-music


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

flylooper said:


> This discussion begs an important question: Does atonal music have legs? If people aren't buying the music it isn't going to be recorded or given in a lot of concert halls (unless it's bracketed by more commonly accepted music).
> 
> Bernstein, in his Harvard lectures, suggests that there is a growing movement back toward tonality. He stated that triadic music is hardwired into human beings, just as is the acquisition of spoken language.
> 
> ...


Atonalism can be understood just as much as Beethoven given that you give it the time it needs to reveal itself.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

flylooper said:


> In my own musical journey....


Here's the answer to your question.

It's nothing about humans being hardwired for triadic music. (There's so much wrong with that, it's not even funny!) It's nothing about ability to be understood.

There are people who can enjoy and understand non-tonal musics perfectly fine, thank you very much. (Is the effort to prove hardwiring for tonality really just a concealed other way to call the people who do enjoy contemporary musics freaks?)

There are lots of reasons why there are a lot of people today who think they don't like non-tonal musics, reasons going back to the beginning of the 19th century, if not before. In any event, a hundred years or more _before_ Schoenberg came along. A hundred years of audiences turning away from certain _tonal_ musics, yes. (In the broader picture, tonality has nothing to do with the situation we're in today. It's too bad that Bernstein didn't have a very firm grasp of history or, if he did, chose merely to push his personal agenda.)

Edit: I was writing this while Sequentia and violadude were posting their responses. Now I've read Ross's splendid article. Loved this remark: "What must fall away is the notion of classical music as a reliable conduit for consoling beauty - a kind of spa treatment for tired souls." Boy howdy!

I work a couple of hours a month in my corner record store. (I know, huh? Who still has those? (There are two of them within just a couple of blocks of my house.)) One day a woman came in spouting the usual "consoling beauty" line. After a bit of browsing and some more conversation she came out with the startling opinion that conductor X had blown a certain performance, because his reading was too mellow for that piece. (_American in Paris,_ as I recall, but no matter.) "That's supposed to be loud and fast and brash," she said, completely unaware that she had contradicted her fixed idea about the universally soothing qualities of "classical music."


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## flylooper (Dec 6, 2011)

violadude said:


> Atonalism can be understood just as much as Beethoven given that you give it the time it needs to reveal itself.


Perhaps. I'm still working on it. I'm a work in progress I guess. Also, a bit of a skeptic.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

flylooper said:


> Perhaps. I'm still working on it. I'm a work in progress I guess. Also, a bit of a skeptic.


what's there to be skeptical about?


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## flylooper (Dec 6, 2011)

some guy said:


> Here's the answer to your question.
> 
> It's nothing about humans being hardwired for triadic music. (There's so much wrong with that, it's not even funny!) It's nothing about ability to be understood.
> 
> There are people who can enjoy and understand non-tonal musics perfectly fine, thank you very much. (Is the effort to prove hardwiring for tonality really just a concealed other way to call the people who do enjoy contemporary musics freaks?)


Well, I'm happy that you "get" atonal music in all its variations.



> There are lots of reasons why there are a lot of people today who think they don't like non-tonal musics, reasons going back to the beginning of the 19th century, if not before. In any event, a hundred years or more _before_ Schoenberg came along. A hundred years of audiences turning away from certain _tonal_ musics, yes. (In the broader picture, tonality has nothing to do with the situation we're in today. It's too bad that Bernstein didn't have a very firm grasp of history or, if he did, chose merely to push his personal agenda.)


Here you make my argument for me. Look at the evolution of music from simple plainchant to serial music and to see a constant addition of what formally was rejected to acceptance. Bernstein's (and Noam Chomsky's) argument is that certain intervals and even vowel sounds are basic to every born person. (As an example, the open, "ah" sound - as in "Mama," a word which is common to almost every language and usually the first word a baby utters)

It's the same with the open 5th interval. In plainchant it parallels the melody. From that point on, intervals were gradually added which were closer, adding tension and release to music. In Mozart's time a stressed 7th chord was disallowed in common part writing. The aug 4th/dim 5th was "the devils interval." Jazz added the flatted 3rd and 7th to the lexicon of music. Music has evolved like every art form does.

But, as I originally ask, does atonalism have "legs"? Will John Cage, Steve Reich or John Adams be performed 200 years from now in concert halls, as Beethoven and Schubert, and Bach still are? I just don't know, at this point. (And probably may never.) IOW, atonal music may be art, but it may not be "great art" which, IMHO, only time and generations bestow on it.



> Edit: I was writing this while Sequentia and violadude were posting their responses. Now I've read Ross's splendid article. Loved this remark: "What must fall away is the notion of classical music as a reliable conduit for consoling beauty - a kind of spa treatment for tired souls." Boy howdy!


I don't contend that classical is the only conduit. It is a conduit.



> I work a couple of hours a month in my corner record store. (I know, huh? Who still has those? (There are two of them within just a couple of blocks of my house.)) One day a woman came in spouting the usual "consoling beauty" line. After a bit of browsing and some more conversation she came out with the startling opinion that conductor X had blown a certain performance, because his reading was too mellow for that piece. (_American in Paris,_ as I recall, but no matter.) "That's supposed to be loud and fast and brash," she said, completely unaware that she had contradicted her fixed idea about the universally soothing qualities of "classical music."


I guess that what makes chocolate and vanilla, as my mother used to say.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Why does everyone care so much whether atonalism will be played in concert halls 200 years from now.....it's here now so just enjoy it if you do or don't if you don't.


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

Great idea for a thread btw.

The answer is loads of stuff.

I'm currently exploring a bit more of Johannes Ciconia.

There are many giants of Renaissance music who remain heavily under recorded -it'd be pointless to mention them all. Agricola was one of the most outstanding in this respect but the recent capilla Flamenca disc has helped to ease the pain. Heinrich Isaac is someone I really do wish there were more quality recordings of -it's a major hole in the catalogue. Gilles de Binchois is another who is absurdly under-recorded. Rather more obscure guys who I'd like to hear and know more about would be Hugh Aston and Nicholas Parsons.

Salamone Rossi is someone who I'm planning to get a good deal more familiar with and am certainly curious about. There are a reasonable number of CDs devoted to him, but all I have at present are a few selections on 'mixed bag' records.

Antoine Boesset and Tarquinio Merula are others I particularly enjoy and I'd really like to hear more of.

Maurizio Cazzati is someone I'm keen to learn more about. I'd also like to hear more of Legrenzi's vocal music. Of significant German baroque composers Johann Theile is probably the most under represented in my collection -it's something I'd like to rectify though he's not a particular favourite as yet.

Padre Giovanni Battista Martini is someone who I definitely need to hear more of.

In the heavily under-recorded bracket I'd say that Giovanni Valentini, Alessandro Cesti, Johann Caspar Kerll, and Agostino Steffani are in major need of attention. In a later period Johann Stamitz (Jan Stamic if you must...) is also a key figure surely deserving of far more recordings than are currently devoted to him.

Thalberg is someone I'm keen to hear. Having enjoyed quite a lot of Spohr's music I'd certainly like to hear more by another 'forgotten' star.

*Harpsichord Concerto wrote:*



> Jan Disma Zelenka (1679-1745) is another name who seemed to write "good' music judging by the pieces that I have of him.


Considering the kind of music that you're most interested in it's crazy that you're not more familiar with him. By the standards of 'Early Music' (excluding the more established big three) he's fairly well represented in the catalogue these days. I'd recommend any of the recordings by Ensemble Inegal to start with. Musica Florea, Collegeium 1704 and Frieder Bernius's various recordings are also excellent.

PS: I completely agree about the whole Vivaldi thing -it's the worst kind of snobbery just because the Four Seasons has become the weapon of choice for crowd control. I whacked the Hickox recording of Gloria on yesterday. Emma Kirkby singing Ostro Picta and duetting with Tessa Bonner on Laudaumus Te (as God intended)...it's basically bottled happiness and ought to be mandatory!


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I asked this question for the simple reason that there is body of music I have been exploring quite a bit recently... with a great deal of resulting joy and wonder... and yet I find myself equally wondering at how much more I am missing out on simply because so much work simply hasn't been recorded yet.
> 
> The music I am speaking of is opera from the Baroque until Mozart.
> ... Any thoughts? Any leads to recordings I might have missed.


You made no mention of the Neapolitan composers in the period after Pergolesi so that might be an avenue of exploration for you. Jomelli, Piccinni, Sacchetti, Paisiello and of course Cimarosa were some of the most successful opera composers of the eighteenth century and there are some recordings of them about. I recently got ahold of Atene Edificata, some vocal music by Cimarosa for Catherine the Great of Russia. I wasn't expecting much as an Amazon review written by someone obviously knowledgeable was rather dismissive. I enjoyed it immensely -a performance of enthusiasm and wit that you could really sense.

Hope that's helpful.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

hocket said:


> Considering the kind of music that you're most interested in it's crazy that you're not more familiar with him. By the standards of 'Early Music' (excluding the more established big three) he's fairly well represented in the catalogue these days. I'd recommend any of the recordings by Ensemble Inegal to start with. Musica Florea, Collegeium 1704 and Frieder Bernius's various recordings are also excellent.


Regarding Zelenka. In the context of this thread, I meant to say I wish more of his music, especially the vocal pieces are recorded. Indeed, I already have his complete surviving orchestral music (nicely played by Das Neu-Eroeffnete Orchestre/Jurgen Sonnetheil from CPO, 3 CD set), and several other vocal music, mainly religious pieces, all of which have been reasonably quality stuff. I think this is a name that deserves to be up amongst the ranks of Telemann, Vivaldi, the Scarlatti's and others (though not Bach and Handel  ).


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## tannhaeuser (Nov 7, 2011)

Oh, I need more Mahler. 9.5 symphonies ain't enough!


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## hocket (Feb 21, 2010)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Regarding Zelenka. In the context of this thread, I meant to say I wish more of his music, especially the vocal pieces are recorded.


I had a feeling that your remarks might might have given me an exaggerated impression of your unfamiliarity with him.

Still, recordings of his work are coming pretty thick and fast these days. I've already got half of his twenty known masses and all of his extant dramatic vocal music. Ten years ago the situation would've been very different with only a handful of recordings of his masses available and a number of those of fairly dubious quality. Some of the Czech groups aren't that easily available on things like Amazon so maybe that's an issue for you?


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## woodwind_fan (Sep 9, 2008)

tannhaeuser said:


> Oh, I need more Mahler. 9.5 symphonies ain't enough!


Seconded. And some bits and pieces of Lieder. But still not enough!


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## humanbean (Mar 5, 2011)

I'd like to hear more music composed during the Ars subtilior:



> Ars subtilior (more subtle art) is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered around Paris, Avignon in southern France, also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century.


Here's a great example from a composer named Solage. It's surprisingly lyrical for a piece written in the 1300s, and the harmony is quite chilling:


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I wish I had access to Mahler's 10th (as in...an actual complete version by Mahler himself! lol). 

In terms of music that actually exists (or, existed), it's a tough choice but I'd probably say...Monteverdi's lost operas. I'm not very big into opera for the most part but his 3 surviving operas are all at the top of my lists.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I wish I had access to all Wagner operas on DVD with ultra-traditional mise-en-scene.


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