American Music

[fr8nks]

What other lists are there for downloads? I know one exists for Czech music.

[Dundonnell]

What other lists are there for downloads? I know one exists for Czech music.

Well, British and Irish obviously-the master Catalogue and Archive maintained by Albion   And Czech, as you say, and now American....but that's it, I think....until or unless I try my hand at any more

[suffolkcoastal]

I entirely agree about Naxos American Classics but the same thing seems to be happening to Albany I used to rush to their website every month in the hope and expectation that there would be some new releases of real interest but now their catalogue has been taken over by not so much 'unsung' composers but completely unknown composers. I have nothing against the music of these composers being given some exposure but not in preference to the fine people we have been talking about in this thread.

I was just looking at Albany and I must admit to feeling as depressed as I do with Naxos. The US seems to currently be producing total composing mediocrities which seem to be being lapped up by the likes of Albany and Naxos and I just don't understand why. Listening to some of their works and comparing them to my own compositions makes me feel like a composing genius (which I certainly aren't!).

[Latvian]

Thank you, Colin, for your magnificent index of American downloads! This is very helpful in many ways, and also clearly shows the depth and breadth of content on our site.

[Amphissa]

Ditto on the kudos for the index of American music. It's gratifying to see so many American composers recognized by our site.

Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein are played regularly in concerts these days, Korngold occasionally. But unfortunately, rather than playing more of the excellent music by lesser-known romantics, instead we get lots of Adams, punctuated by a seemingly endless stream of unmemorable, boring and sometimes irritating doodling by living composers with little to say musically. It would be wonderful to hear Diamond, Foote, Hanson and Paine in our concert halls instead.

But at least we have them here. The contributions of our notable collectors enrich our musical lives. Thanks to you all!

[suffolkcoastal]

Certainly here in the UK, even the Copland and Bernstein played and broadcast are now increasingly confined to a handful of 'popular' works. You no longer get Copland works such as Inscape, Music for a Great City, Statements, the Piano Variations and Fantasy or even Dance Panels or Bernstein works such as the Jeremiah Symphony, Dybbuk or Songfest. Even Barber has been reduced largely to a handful of songs, the Violin Concerto, Knoxville... and of course the Adagio. Adams is one of the few 'in composers' but he hasn't produced anything of interest to me for almost 15 years and has become a cliche of himself. Of the younger generation of American composers only Michael Hersch has made much of an impression on me (although Stephen Albert's untimely early death robbed us potentially of another composer of great interest), the rest seem largely to be, as I said above, mass produced mediocrities.

When I play works by Harris, Schuman, Hanson, Piston, Diamond and the like to friends and colleagues, the immediate recation is 'wow why do we never here works like this in concerts or on the radio these days'. Interestingly too these types of works and composers, as do Copland, Barber etc, seem to be more greatly appreciated by pop music loving friends than do the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.

If classical music is to survive, a greater variety of music needs to be heard on the radio and in our concert halls.

[Dundonnell]

Thanks to the generosity of Tapiola in making this available to me to digitise 

the major missing orchestral work by William Schuman- American Hymn: Orchestral Variations on an Original Melody(1981) has been uploaded. The LP recording appears to have been made two days after the first performance on 24th September 1982 by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin.
A shortened version for wind band is on an Albany cd but this is the full orchestral version.

[Paulp]

Schuman's American Hymn has been one of my favourites since I nabbed a copy of the LP back in the mid-80s when I was on a big Americana binge, and I fear I'll be waiting till the end of eternity before I see this marvellous recording issued on CD (Nonesuch has a tremendous recorded catalogue of American music, but it looks like it wants to keep it incarcerated in vinyl limbo: ever since the mid-90s that label has overdosed on Adams or Glass or Reich!). Many thanks and then some for making this available! 

[chill319]

Thanks for all the Riegger, shamokin88. My first audition of Symphony 3 was one of the more memorable listening experiences I've had. Likewise the Study in Sonority. Today I've had the unexpected pleasure of listening repeatedly to the two string quartets, thanks to your generosity.

[Dundonnell]

Yes, thanks from me too for the Riegger.

I cannot say that he is my favourite American composer but the more works we hear by any composer the fuller and rounder picture we can build up.

[Dundonnell]

Once again, a substantial batch of recordings from shamokin: this time of music by the eminently accessible composer Douglas Moore. I knew his Symphony No.2 in its two commercial recordings(CRI and Albany) but it is splendid to now have the Symphony No.1 "A Symphony of Autumn"

[atterberg 1974]

Thanks, fra8nks, for posting that wonderful group of pieces by Mark Lehman.  Some of these works are haunting and beautiful, and none of the other pieces is anything less than interesting and rather gripping.  Molte grazie!

[Dundonnell]

Thanks to shamokin for the two Hovhaness uploads

I was particularly happy to get the Symphony No.29 since, along with Nos. 17 and 34, it was one of the few recorded Hovhaness symphonies I had not acquired

[TerraEpon]

Interesting to see a bartione paired with an orchestra rather than a band.

[eschiss1]

In general or in specific? I seem not to be tracking very well but there's also Delius, Stenhammar (Florez och Blanzeflor), Sibelius' Ferryman's Bride op33 (also for mezzo and orchestra), Reznicek's Chamisso-variations (for bass-baritone), Bloch's 1914 Psalm 22, etc.