I have just discovered on the web the programs between 1813 and 1912 of the Royal Philharmonic Society (they will be well known to many members of the forum: www.ebooksread.com/authors.eng. .....storyof.the-philharmonic-society-of-london-1813-1912).
I am focusing on years 1880-1900. My interest was taken by some orchestral works with literary associations.
The first is "Pippa passes", after Browning, by Fredrick Corder (London first performance 1898), defined "orchestral dramatic scene". As the Browning work doesn't appear to me the most likely subject/source for a merely orchestral work (but anyway much more likely than, say, "Also sprach Zarathustra"), there's anybody who can give further information about Corder's piece?
For instance, is the piece inspired to/by some particular verses/lines prefacing the score?
Corder's idiom I may roughly imagine through the concert overture "Prospero" (Hyperion CDA66515).
(By the way, Corder's work will be worlds apart from Charles Ives' "Robert Browning" overture (1911, according to Ives himself; later according to others), which, anyway, had still late romantic hints in the slow sections).
Other wish-list listenings with literary associations:
Alexander Mackenzie: orchestral ballad "La Belle Dame sans merci", after Keats (1899)
Arthur Somervell: orchestral ballad "Helen of Kirckannel",
after Walter Scott (1893) .
Sorry, mistype. "Helen of Kirkconnel".
You may like to Know that Cameo Classics has recorded Mackenzie's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. I've heard the takes and can state that this is a fine performance by an enthusiastic group of players. Their conductor, Michael Laus, is married to the opera singer Miriam Gauci and, besides being an inspiring orchestral maestro, is an accomplished harpsichordist. He is the soloist in Cyril Scott's Harpsichord Concerto which was recorded at the same time.
Gareth, do you know of a link to the Cameo recordings of the Mackenzie and Scott pieces you mentioned. I didn't find them on the Cameo Classics website. Thanks.
I thank Gareth V. for the useful information. It seems to me that the Mackenzie/Scott CD has to be released yet.
another link gives a specific date for what I presume was the premiere of the Corder, fwiw - April 29 1898.
a skimmish Worldcat search reveals among published, and library-held-archive manuscript, Pippa passes-related material, very little that isn't individual songs or song cycles - I expect the Corder is an unpublished manuscript perhaps with his estate. (The one exception I find - though I haven't looked entirely though the admittedly brief list - is Wilhelm Rettich's (1892-1988) incidental music in vocal score reduction, published by Astoria Verlag Berlin as recently as 1981.)
Eric
The Cameo disk hasn't been released yet - and probably won't be until the autumn. Cameo is recording quite a lot this summer with the MPO: Brull's Violin Concerto; Somervell's Symphony in D minor "Thalassa"; Bantock's "Macbeth"; Kenneth Leighton's 1st PC; the PC by Ruth Gipps; Walter Gaze Cooper's Oboe concertino; Jadassohn's Serenade for Flute and Strings - and other delights. So there'll be a lot of editing to be done before these works appear - and, as you folks probably know, Cameo is a one-man band.
I'll keep everyone posted.
Returning to the subject of this thread, I'd really like to find the MS of Corder's "Pippa Passes". It definitely wasn't published. Does anyone know its whereabouts? - and before you say anything it's not where one might expect - the RAM.
For interest, and given the complete inadequacy of the list in Grove, here* are Corder's principal works (some opus numbers vary between sources) -
*moved to Composer Reference board.
Absolutely fascinating. Thank you, John. No chamber music at all, then?
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Monday 06 June 2011, 22:17
No chamber music at all, then?
Not as far as I'm aware - although even if there were, I'd trade it all in for a taste of
The Nabob's Pickle! ;)
Op.11 sort of counts, sort of doesn't (mostly doesn't, I guess.)(as chamber music.) I see it was published (or republished) (as Rumänische Weisen : für Klavier und Violine) by Breitkopf...
Thank you Albion for the Corder list, the operettas sound a hoot. Possibly so dated they could be fun.
The thread title as presented here does look almost as though it is intended to convey the notion of someone called Pippa ignoring Mr Corder by passing by him...
Quote from: ahinton on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 10:34
The thread title as presented here does look almost as though it is intended to convey the notion of someone called Pippa ignoring Mr Corder by passing by him...
Perhaps she didn't like the look of him! :o
Quote from: Lionel Harrsion on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 16:48
Quote from: ahinton on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 10:34
The thread title as presented here does look almost as though it is intended to convey the notion of someone called Pippa ignoring Mr Corder by passing by him...
Perhaps she didn't like the look of him! :o
(http://apollo.ram.ac.uk/emuweb/php5/media.php?irn=13865)
Not really every girl's dream, I suppose! ;)
Quote from: Albion on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 17:04
Quote from: Lionel Harrsion on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 16:48
Quote from: ahinton on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 10:34
The thread title as presented here does look almost as though it is intended to convey the notion of someone called Pippa ignoring Mr Corder by passing by him...
Perhaps she didn't like the look of him! :o
And you could hardly blame her, really!
Nevertheless, one would still like to locate Mr Corder's manuscripts.
no argument...
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Tuesday 07 June 2011, 17:34
Nevertheless, one would still like to locate Mr Corder's manuscripts.
Two further orchestral scores by Corder are a
Tragic Overture and
Scene d'Amour, both conducted by the composer at Bournemouth in January 1902. It is unclear as to whether or not these were in fact first performances, but the same concert also included his
Roumanian Suite (1887).
These two works have been added to the list earlier in the thread.
:)
Frederic Corder's son Paul (1879-1942) would potentially be another composer worth investigation, if only his manuscripts survive and can be located. A pupil of his father at the RAM, Paul Corder was himself appointed a Professor of Composition and Harmony in 1907. A fellow-student of Bax, Holbrooke, Dale and Bowen, he was the dedicatee of Bax's Symphony No.4.
(http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb393/albion22/media-1.jpg?t=1317969880)
According to a listing by Rob Barnett he composed a number of substantial scores -
Opera: Rapunzel and Grettir the Strong (one act), both in manuscript;
Ballet: several including The Dryad, a pantomime ballet;
Choral: A Song of Battle for chorus and orchestra; A Song of the Ford for male voice chorus and orchestra;
Vocal: Four Sea Songs for baritone and orchestra (Hell's Pavement; The Turn of the Tide; The Emigrant; Captain Stratton's Fancy); The Moonslave, a terpsichorean fantasy; A Song of the Bottle; Spanish Waters;
Orchestra: Two Sketches: Sunset and Sunrise; Tone Poem, Pelleas and Melisande; Overture, Cyrano de Bergerac; Gaelic Fantasy, Morar (also for two pianos; 1908, RAM Patron's Fund concert); Dross, a music drama without words (Anglo-French Music); Preludes to Acts I and II, Rapunzel (Proms, 14 Sept 1915); Violin Concerto; Five Orchestral Tone Pictures: Along the Seashore: 1. The Ebbing Tide; 2. The Sea Cavern; 3. Seagull's Rock; 4. The still hour of dusk; 5. The Call of the Sea;
Chamber: String Quartet; Fountains for viola and piano;
Piano: Transmutations of an Original Theme; Nine Preludes (RAM Patron's Fund concert, Aeolian Hall, 6.12.1904); Three Studies; Passacaglia; Romantic Study; Heroic Elegy; Spanish Waters; An Autumn Memory
but according to Graham Partlett -
(Jessica Morton) knew the Corders when she was very young and told me the distressing news that Paul's sister, Dolly, with whom Paul lived, was so distraught when he died that she destroyed his musical manuscripts. I've certainly made occasional attempts to trace some of the orchestral pieces but without success, and I fear it may be true, which means that only the few published works survive. Paul and Dolly moved in 1921 to Looe Island, Cornwall, which they had bought from the proceeds of the sale of Frederick Corder's collection of first editions. In 1932 they moved to White Cottage, Netley Heath, Surrey. After his death in 1942, Dolly moved in 1957 to Littlecot, Jefferies Rd. W. Horsley, Surrey, and she celebrated her 90th birthday on 30 June 1968 (but I'm not sure when she died).
:'(
Here is a selection from Paul Corder's set of Nine Preludes (1904), played by Phillip Sear -
No.3 (F minor) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU7oFwB2SkY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU7oFwB2SkY)
No.6 (E minor) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bHUR7arirg&feature=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bHUR7arirg&feature=relmfu)
No.8 (C major) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isouDoOo3rw&feature=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isouDoOo3rw&feature=relmfu)
The full set was recorded in 1990 by Alan Cuckston -
(http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Apr01/hounds.jpg)
SWINSTY FEW 118CDr
:)
Quote from: Albion on Friday 07 October 2011, 12:08Here is a selection from Paul Corder's set of Nine Preludes (1904), played by Phillip Sear
All nine of Paul Corder's Preludes are now in the archive, performed by David Owen Norris, courtesy of
mikehopf.
:)
QuotePaul's sister, Dolly, with whom Paul lived, was so distraught when he died that she destroyed his musical manuscripts
What a phenomenally stupid and self-centred woman, indulging her grief in that wholly selfish and destructive way. Really, I have no time for such people.
The full score of Corder's Elegy for Twenty-four Violins and Organ (1910) has made it to IMSLP - http://imslp.org/wiki/Elegy_for_24_Violins_and_Organ_%28Corder,_Frederick%29#IMSLP234308 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Elegy_for_24_Violins_and_Organ_%28Corder,_Frederick%29#IMSLP234308).
This extraordinary work is certainly an impressive achievement and it would be fascinating to bring it to life in performance.
:)
Corder was also that rare thing: an opera composer who wrote libretti for other composers (especially for Mackenzie). The only other example I can think of is Menotti, who wrote the libretto for Barber's 'Vanessa'
There is also Arrigo Boito (even if composing was not his priority).