Most Memorable Unsung Tune.

[Amphissa]

I love the opening melody of Myaskovsky's 5th -- light, lyrical, utterly charming.

[TerraEpon]

I just thought of one more.... Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, 1st Movement 2nd theme. lovely melody and the way this theme is treated just before the close of the movement.

Well if you consider his #4 also unsung, I'd say the big theme in the last movement (it's kinda a single movement in two parts, like in the Organ Symphony, so it really starts in the middle) is one of the most memorable themes ever written. But I'm not so sure it's quite unsung enough...


But something that IS pretty unsung by a not unsung composer would be the 'Concerto-Rondo' by Jacques Offenbach (with apologies to the confusion on just what said piece actually is). The main theme is a very jaunty and catchy tune.

[FBerwald]

Well if you consider his #4 also unsung, I'd say the big theme in the last movement (it's kinda a single movement in two parts....

The 4th is definitely unsung [This represents Saint-Saens best!!!!] I know the tune you are talking about. The one in 3/4 time, right? I love this. Bortkiewicz's Piano Concertos No. 2 in C minor [to my knowledge it is a 2 movement concerto]. The 2nd movement Allegro vivo, has a very catchy 3/4 tune written in the same vein.

[JimL]

That theme in Saint-Saëns' 4th Piano Concerto of which you speak is a transformation of the chorale theme from the 2nd (or 2nd half of the 1st) movement (which recurs in the brief Andante bridge between the "scherzo" and the "finale" in the 2nd part.

[eschiss1]

One more nomination (ouch), but by someone even more unsung than Berwald, etc.- the opening to the slow movement of Antonio Scontrino's string quartet in G minor (composed December 1899, premiered 1901, recorded on a rare 1960 LP?? (2017 edit, sorries)). Lovely hymnic thing, that... (if I'm remembering right. May be thinking of the wrong thing in the movement; I'd nominate the whole movement if I could, of course, but I'm like that. Unfortunately. Eh. Hush now )

[JimL]

The 4th is definitely unsung [This represents Saint-Saens best!!!!] I know the tune you are talking about. The one in 3/4 time, right? I love this. Bortkiewicz's Piano Concertos No. 2 in C minor [to my knowledge it is a 2 movement concerto]. The 2nd movement Allegro vivo, has a very catchy 3/4 tune written in the same vein.

Time it was in the days of my youth, when the 2nd and 4th PCs of Saint-Saëns were the only piano concertos of his in the repertoire.  Now everybody plays the Egyptian!

[eschiss1]

I think I hear those three fairly often on the radio. (Though some online radio searching doesn't show much near-future or recent-past performance of Saint-Saëns piano concertos- the finale of the first soon, the 2nd concerto on Sveriges Radio P2 (rebroadcast from BBC) back in May, etc.) If anything, have been hearing his chamber music more often- not complaining about -that-... I'd like to wake up to a classical station (if there were one sufficiently nearby, if I still had a radio not on my computer- classical TV is pretty good, though)- and "accidentally" happen on the middle of one of his chamber works; or Enescu's octet... (I woke up one morning, turned on WCNY, and almost jumped (happily, but from surprise) when I heard Draeseke's lovely viola alta sonata in F major greeting me from my radio speakers.  It's no coincidence that WCNY is a Syracuse radio station; Alan Krueck had dropped off a copy of the disc when visiting his old home town, and they played it...) (And if the opening of -that- work hasn't been nominated for one of the most memorable unsung tunes, I've nominated too many (and am admittedly regretting that), but it should be...) - though in this it's in competition with, as noted, several of his others. (Usually the opening themes moreso than the secondary themes; as Dr. Krueck mentioned in an essay I think, reversing a fairly common though not universal practice, Draeseke usually went from lyrical opening theme to a more rhythmic, martial (or at least marked! ) secondary group (or at least introduction to secondary theme group) rather than the other way 'bout...) in these duo works.

[JollyRoger]

There are so many good ones to choose from, but one that definitely stands out to me is the theme from the epilogue of Joly Braga Santos' 4th symphony.

outstanding selection!!

[leonagy]

My greatest tune by unsungs is the second movement of Symphony no2 of Ludolf Nielsen

[Ilja]

There are so many good ones to choose from, but one that definitely stands out to me is the theme from the epilogue of Joly Braga Santos' 4th symphony.

outstanding selection!!

First one that sprang to mind for me, too.

[TerraEpon]

Allow me to put forth another Raff example: The 3rd movement (Gavotte and Minuet) of the Suite for Piano and Orchestra.

[sdtom]

I love the opening melody of Myaskovsky's 5th -- light, lyrical, utterly charming.

One of my favorites also!
Tom

[Stamford]

Sir Malcolm Arnold - Scottish Dances Op.59, No.3.

A lush melody which is marked "allegretto," but to my ears always is played moderato.

Anyway to me it's memorable and also unsung.

[LateRomantic75]

In definite concordance with those who mentioned the chorale theme of the finale of Braga Santos 4-a terribly moving moment IMHO.

I also find myself humming the swaggering "big tune" in the finale of Rott's Symphony a lot.

[chill319]

Along the general lines of Elgar's Nimrod, the main tune in Bax's 1916 tone poem In Memoriam is my idea of about as memorable as a tune can get.