Norman Demuth: Piano concerto (1941)

[violinconcerto]

I own the autograph manuscript of the first 118 bars of a piano concerto by Norman Demuth. The autograph says the work dates from 1941, but most sources give 1943 for the first piano concerto by Demuth. I could not find a location of other manuscripts by Demuth that one can compare my version with other compositions. Therefore I am not sure if my version is a very first piano concerto (later withdrawn) or an early version of the final concerto from 1943. So if anyone can shed some light on this I would be delighted!

You can find the pdf-score here:

http://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/non-violin-manuscripts/

Best,
Tobias

[Alan Howe]

I'm assuming that this music is fully romantic in style, Tobias...

[violinconcerto]

I am not that sure. I also read at some sources that his music is characterised as Romantic, but from the score I have a different impression. But I am not good at score-reading, so I might get it wrong. But on the other hand I also read (in the Harvard Consice Dictionary) that Norman Demuth founded the "New Music Society" at the Royal Academy in 1936. But maybe someone here with better score-readin abilities could give his opinion.

Best,
Tobias

[Alan Howe]

Just a gentle reminder: if friends are uncertain about the suitability of a piece of music for discussion here, we would be grateful if a message could be sent to one of the moderators first, i.e. before posting. This is clearly stated in our guidelines here:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html

Thanks!

[violinconcerto]

Hello Alan,

yes, I know and knew your guidelines and thought for a while if I should post the Demuth thread here or not. The reason why I decided to do so, wasn't that fact that I think the music in my manuscript is romantic, but the fact that I read several times that the Demuth piano concerts are romantic. Therefore I thought it would be interesting for all romantic music loving people to see if Demuth is really romantic (which has to be proved by someone professional or with at least better score-reading abilities than mine). I think a topic with the starting point "romantic?" and the result "not romantic" could also fit into a "romantic" forum. If I was wrong with that, please accept my apologies. I will take better care in the future.

Best,
Tobias

[Alan Howe]

I think it'd be a good idea to message the moderators first in future, Tobias. In this case, we'll simply see whether anyone who cares to consult your score can come up with an opinion.

Thanks for your understanding.

[violinconcerto]

For those interested in the piano music of Demuth: I just contacted the Library of the Royal Academy because they hold the archive of papers of Demuth. I asked to compare my concerto with the works archived there and from that dialogue I received the information that Demuth composed these works for piano and orchestraas well:

Concertino for p+o
Episode for p+o
Sinfonietta concertante for p+o
Symphonic elegy for p+o
Prelude, nocturne and scherzo for p+o

None of these match with my manuscript btw. Curiously the two piano concertos, which are commonly mentioned in encyclopedias, are not part of that archive. Does anyone know where they are or what happened to them?

Best,
Tobias

[Gareth Vaughan]

Did RAM confirm that all the works you list in your last post are in their archive, or merely that Demuth wrote them? I ask because I can find only the Concertino and Episode listed in the RAM library catalogue.

[violinconcerto]

Yes, they confirmed that. I also found the Concertino and Episode, but there is a rest of the archive stored in another building and not yet catalogued. The librarian was so kind to take the walk and check the boxes.

Best,
Tobias

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you, Tobias. I wonder where the PCs are?