The Unsung/Sung Composers Unwritten Work Wish List

[EarlyRomantic]

I believe we've all  lamented that our favorite composers never composed in a certain medium. Me, I'll go to my grave wishing that Hummel had not been intimidated by Beethoven from essaying symphonies. His composition for orchestra epitomizes "Early Romantic" to me.It's classically-based, but there are new colors that weren't conceived before. Brahms never wrote an Opera. Wagner never penned a (mature) symphony in his characteristic orchestral style. In the era of Field and Hummel, Schubert never created a piano concerto. If you really fantasize, you can envision exotic,really novel  effects like a concerto for oboe & harp, or  bassoon and cello which noone ever composed. Does anyone have a fantasy such as this, a haunting, "What If"? A "What would  a _____ by _______ sound like? Do any members have stories of works which were written but lost, e.g. Beethovens Oboe Concerto? Or works projected by a composer, but never completed, or even started.( Again, Beethoven long contemplated a "Faust" Opera.) With the vivid creativity, learning, and adventurousness pervading this forum, this seemed as if it could be a very enjoyable & educational exercise, causing a little baring of the soul and sharing of knowledge. With so many of these attributes, maybe one of you can find a Hummel symphony in a church belltower for me! ( I know there aren't any, but  "What if.....?!"

[eschiss1]

...
there's a lot of music for oboe, harp and orchestra, including a concerto by Lutoslawski. He was neither unsung- by the time he wrote the concerto, anyway - nor a Romantic by our lights - but he existed and should be acknowledged...

[TerraEpon]

As far as lost goes, check out http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,854.0.html

As far as "wish they had written"....well a bass clarinet concerto by anyone for starters
Honestly I could imagine many composers writing many things they didn't. I couldn't even get started because it'd be pretty much "x type from these 20 composers" and "y  type from these 19".

One interesting work I would have loved to hear would be an "auxiliary woodwind" piece, be it a chamber piece or concertante type.
And as far as bassoon and cello? I would be shocked if there's no baroque one or possibly a Sinfonia Concertante.

[eschiss1]

thought there was a bass-clarinet concerto before the 20th century, but I am not at all sure. several in the latter half of the 20th century though. anyhow. carry on, carry on...

[alberto]

About "works projected, but never completed or started" (and sung composers too are  indicated) my dreams would surely concern Ravel. If I remember correctly he embarked on an opera "La Cloche engloutie" and wrote (in letters to friends) about projects concerning Jeanne d'Arc and St.Francois of Assisi (a work by him should have been much shorter and I dare say much more appealing than Messiaen's one). And there is the (by Ravel quoted) "Zakpiak-bat", divertimento on basque themes for piano and orchesta (apparently partially composed, and in fragments transmigrated into the piano Trio or later into the Concerto in G).
Other fancy: a fully completed Symphony by Elgar "dedicated to General Gordon" (sketches transmigrated into the Second?).
A different case should be Sibelius Eight Symphony; it seems to have been completed and destroyed.
A King Lear by Verdi? It was projected.
And concerning complete freedom of fancy, I am allowed to think about a Dukas piano concerto or a second symphony ......and much else by many others.

[EarlyRomantic]

Gentlemen, Thank you for taking the interest and replying. To clarify, which I didn't fully, I  was, loosely, thinking of the Romantic Era. eschiss, thanks for  recognizing Lutoslawski. Even though 20th Century music is mostly out of my orbit, I had heard of his double concerto. I would go out of my way to hear the soundscape of his work.He gets a smile from me just for doing  something different. This topic does overlap an often visited one on this forum, in which we've wished for 19th Century concerti that were for instruments other than piano, violin, or cello. When I said, "oboe & harp", I meant that it's hard to imagine a Romantic double concerto that is not for, say, violin and cello. I agre completely that there very likely is a bassoon & cello work, originating from the Baroque or Classical Era. Possibility for that being written in the Romantic Age evaporates, but my question is who would you like to have taken that chance? For example, despite the piano being central to his output( lieder, solo, four hands...) why didn't Schubert write a piano concerto? What could it have sounded like? Does anyone wish he had? Despite the accomplished efforts of Weber, Crusell and Spohr, Schubert wasn't enticed to pen a Clarinet Concerto, either. The oboe was obviously of personal, profound import to Wagner, so I wish he had written a concerto for it, even if a little "recreationally", for exercise, or his own satisfaction.  Brahms was so rigorously guided by classical principles, that it's almost funny to imagine him writing a Harp Concerto. And he surely would have sneered at any contemporary who did. Yet, in his Op. 17 songs the harp has  a beautiful presence insongs for Womens Chorus. If he had invested a concerto with his usual seriousness of intent, it could have been beautiful! I just envisioned this topic eliciting some very creative suggestions from members, who also would have a flair for uniting a composer with a work that was  an excellent "fit" for  them, so much so that you would think, " How natural!"--until you realized they , of course, never did. As eschiss said, carry on & have fun!

[EarlyRomantic]

Alberto, A Dukas piano concerto! That's my boy! That's what I meant. Sadly, he may have written one--he was so self-critical he may have destroyed it. Actually,  I'm sure we would have had some clue to go by, if he had. All the same, that is what I meant: take a favorite composer, a genre you have a deep love for, an empty space, a shrewd estimate of what your composer was proficient at, and....what do you see?

[dafrieze]

I've always been amazed, given his personality and experience, that Mahler never wrote an opera - although I do have a friend who maintains that the Mahler Eighth is an opera in disguise.

[jerfilm]

Perhaps a violin or cello concerto from Amy Beach.  A cello concerto by Moszkowski.  A couple more piano concertos each from Rachmaninoff and Xaver Scharwenka.  Or really far out, how about an organ concerto by Bruckner - now that really stretchs the imagination......And almost anything from George Gershwin.  For starters.

Jerry

[Norbit]

Beethoven cello concerto. The story (that he offers to write one for Romberg but Romberg turns him down) never fails to leave a pang in my chest when I think of it.

[TerraEpon]

Re: Ravel

There's apparently sketches for La Cloche engloutie, as well as Olympia (part of what was written was reused in L'Heure Espagnole)

The Piano Concerto on Basque Themes 'Zaspiak-Bat' also has sketches apparently. There's also apparently an 'oratotio ballet' called Morgiane.

[jimmattt]

I wish Dame Ethel Smyth had written a piano concerto, that Faure and Ravel had each written flute concertos, that horses could fly...
I remember being excited to find the trombone concerto by Ferdinand David, as per the dearth mentioned above of Romantic concertos for less usual instruments. I have heard some modern bass clarinet concertos, but somehow their composers seem to think that squawk sounds better than a beautiful bass heart-wrenching sound. Anyway, this is a fun thread. Jim

[eschiss1]

the mention of women's chorus reminds me by the way that I was listening to John Fernstrom's concertino for flute, women's chorus and orchestra yesterday. 10 minutes of loveliness. had heard a little by him before but that was ...erm... gah, I'm good at digressing.
haven't heard the one that does yet, but I wish more than one of the supposedly-once-8 youthful Ysaÿe violin concertos survived. Or Samuel Barber's early missing violin sonata. but yes, that's another thread... missing actual works or not-so-missing but not yet "realized" manuscripts (like Stanford's 2nd violin concerto whose orchestral accompaniment may be all that lacks, but otherwise exists in copies in one or even two places - in libraries in NY State (Pierpont Morgan) and England (RCM, I believe.))
closer to topic... I'll think about it; too many possibilities on the one hand... and a difficult question really on the other - Hummel didn't leave symphonies (or they haven't been found ) but he did leave numerous works in the large and serious forms - sonatas, concertos, trios, 3 quartets... JL Dussek likewise (including 3 very good string quartets indeed, his opus 60 of 1807). Then there are composers that so far as one knows only attempted small forms and did them very well- and this is no easy thing and not to be deprecated. Yet sometimes I think maybe some of them might have been able to combine songfulness with the long view of a sustained large structure to produce something really compelling - I find this in Stenhammar, say, whose songs show the same qualities as his string quartets and other excellent (I think!) larger works in small, as it were, who did indeed do as well in both the miniature and the extended and brought both skills to each - ... anyway.  Some should not have tried; some never did and maybe should have; some did and certainly succeeded to our benefit. I ramble - again

[TerraEpon]

I remember being excited to find the trombone concerto by Ferdinand David, as per the dearth mentioned above of Romantic concertos for less usual instruments.

Interesting, isn't it, that the most well known concerto from the whole century for the instrument was from a violin virtuoso!

[JimL]

Um, it's actually a concertino.  For the record.