Unsung American composers

[John H White]

My favourite 20th Century American composer has to be Don Gillis. I find his music both entertaining and inspiring. The trouble with many modern composers is that they take life and themselves much too seriously. I am deeply grateful to the Albany Record company for putting Gillis on the discological map.
   Cheers,
        John.

[giles.enders]

I am surprised that with so many rich patrons in the US no one there has set up an organisation to print and publish early American music scores. They can't all endow galleries!

[jerfilm]

Hell, no one would play them anyway.  Why bother?  We can't even keep our orchestras alive.  The Minnesota has been locked out this entire season with financial difficultys with no end in sight.  They are spending $50M to renovate Orchestra Hall but at the moment have no orchestra to play in it.  Strange priorities.  Very sad......

End of rant.

Jerry

[Gauk]

My favourite 20th Century American composer has to be Don Gillis. I find his music both entertaining and inspiring. The trouble with many modern composers is that they take life and themselves much too seriously. I am deeply grateful to the Albany Record company for putting Gillis on the discological map.

Dutton also released a Gillis CD recently. His music is hugely entertaining. And who else would write a march called the "January February March"?

[eschiss1]

It had to be written very dulcetly, quickly, for a harmonica, you know, toot sweet... (I fortunately gave up on the idea,  back in my composing days years ago, of a whole, well, suite of such punnishly titled pieces. Not because puns are bad, but... eh, anyway!)

[eschiss1]

Another I mentioned in another thread: Olga v. Radecki, pianist/conductor/composer (Raff among her teachers- not to the extent he taught Urspruch, but he did teach her, as Clara Schumann also did, according to what sparse biographical information I have)- born in Riga in Latvia, died there, but spent a lot of the intervening time in Boston associated with Harvard. (1853-1933.) Her published music seems to be piano works (including a fun-looking... to me... Tarantelle) and songs, but there was a piano trio performed according to one biography, I think, that may be in ms. still somewhere... ?

(She sometimes in the early 1900s performed wiith the Boston Symphony (conducted by Karl Muck), and with the Kneisel Quartet.)

(Dates 1853-1933 from a Google Snippet view of obituary, so may be wrong. Will have to check original source. Also see http://books.google.com/books?id=JM1RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA191 , an earlier (during lifetime) bio.

[Ken P]

David,

This is in response to your posting on: Sunday 03 March 2013, 16:42.
Being new to Unsung Composers I couldn't reply when I was supposed to...

I cannot make any statements regarding Zitterbart's string quartets but I surely can regarding his piano trios as I have copies of all of them...even the hacked up 'Scotch Suite' that was published.  All of the published material from the 1930s (some 15 years) after his demise was butchered.  The "original" manuscript version of the Scotch Suite is a delightful 5 movement romp that appears easy to the eye but is in fact rather tricky to play, this is especially true of the fugue in the last movement.  The published version is reduced to 4 movements, changed keys, removed measures and phrases and in places rescored.  The original manuscript has rich harmonies, delightfully flowing themes (some are quite Scotch in fact) that paint visual pictures to the listener.  His C.E.D. piano trio written for his grandson "CEDric" is probably the closest to a Kindertrio written by an American, at least from that time period.  The CED is equal in difficult to the more advanced  kindertrios by M. Klengel.  The "Pastoral Trio" is again a visually provoking composition.  In the third movement, "The Mill" one cannot help but see water pouring down the sluice and merrily slapping its way over the spinning water wheel in order to grind the wheat. 

In fact, these trios (including the first four which are truly Grand in nature) are wonderful compositions which run the gamut in difficulty.  Some are listed as "amateur;" although way I haven't a clue since the musical language is quite complex.  Zitterbart was unusually fond of 9ths and 10ths (piano score) and in many cases almost cruel to the pianist with awkward chords, runs etc.  However, from everything I have read and in one case heard (from a now deceased family member), F. Zitterbart was also a virtuoso on the piano, not just the violin.  In short, his trios (there are about 28) are well written, playable, flowing, compositions with rich and at times strange harmonies.  It would be interesting to revive more of his music.  Heaven knows there is enough to select from...well over 1500.