Philip Spratley

[John H White]

I've just been listening to some clips from the works of Philip Spratley taken from a recently issued CD from Toccata Classics. This includes his 3rd symphony and a selection of other orchestral pieces. I find all this music very much to my somewhat conservative taste and, in my opinion, he is well suited to be numbered amongst our late romantic unsung composers. The good news is that he is still very much alive and composing, having been born in Nottinghamshire in 1942, making him 11 years younger than myself.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the tip, John. I'll look forward to investigating Spratley.

[Alan Howe]

Spratley's not really a late-romantic - he'd be categorised as 'modern tonal', so he's not quite within our remit, I think. But I agree that his music is worthy of attention.

[Mark Thomas]

I'm listening now to Spratley's Symphony and Alan's analysis is quite correct. It's an impressive and approachable piece, but not UC territory.

[John H White]

I'm surprised at your verdict, Mark and Alan. I find his music a lot more listenable than some of the stuff written 100 years before. Maybe someone can furnish us with a thorough going definition of what does and does not constitute late romantic music. As a learner amateur composer who prefers what I call the classico-romantic style of, say, Kallivoda and the Lachner brothers, I certainly don't feel qualified for that task.

[Alan Howe]

I find his music a lot more listenable than some of the stuff written 100 years before

So do I. More listenable than, say, the Schoenberg, Stravinsky or Bartok of a century ago. But so are Walton, Barber, Maw and a host of other composers. But they're beyond UC's remit too. As I said, Spratley's a composer writing in an approachable, modern tonal style like the composers I've mentioned. But he's not a modern-day, fully-fledged romantic like Schmidt-Kowalski. Or J. Joe Townley, for that matter.

[JimL]

I would imagine his music, then is more like that of, say, Lee Holdridge, then?

[Alan Howe]

Lee Holdridge

Who? Please explain...

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, please do, Jim.

I would imagine his music

The generous audio extracts at Toccata's site give a very fair impression of Spratley's sound world.

[TerraEpon]

Lee Holdridge is mainly known as a film composer, though he also has written some concert music, including a couple of violin concerti. He tends to write very melodic and lush music, his classical stuff is very neo-romantic (unlike, say, John Williams who is quite modern in his non-festive concert music)
As far as I know the only CD of his concert music is "Holdridge Conducts Holdridge". Here's a good 10 of minutes culled from it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxdfLK5BCpk