Unsung Composers

This is a general thread for choral music of any nationality.

Quote from: mikehopf on Thursday 10 November 2011, 19:42George Upton's book The Standard Concert Guide ( 1908) features yummy descriptions of some long forgotten oratorios that I would give ( almost) anything to hear. Here's hoping for:

BENEDICT: Saint Cecilia
BENNETT: The Woman of Samaria; The May Queen
BUCK: Don Munio; The Golden Legend; The Voyage of Columbus; The Light of Asia
CORDER: The Bridal of Triermain
COSTA: Eli
COWEN: The Sleeping Beauty
FOOTE: Haiwatha
HATTON: Robin Hood
HOFMANN: Melusina
LESLIE: Holyrood
MACFARREN: St John the Baptist; Christmas
MACKENZIE: The Story of Sayid; The Rose of Sharon;Bethlehem
PAINE: The Realm of Fancy; Phoebus Arise
HW PARKER: King Trojan
JCD PARKER: Redemption
RANDEGGER: Fridolin
RHEINBERGER: Toggenburg
RUBINSTEIN: The Tower of Babel
SMART: The Daughter of Dunkeron; King Rene's Daughter

Of these, only the following are strictly oratorios:

Michael Costa (1808-1884) - Eli (1855)
George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) - St John the Baptist (1873)
Alexander Mackenzie (1847-1935) - The Rose of Sharon (1884)

Mackenzie attempted to expand the oratorio genre, describing The Rose of Sharon as a 'Dramatic Oratorio'. Bethlehem (composed 1892, performed 1894) sets a text by Joseph Bennett and is a peculiar oratorio-cantata hybrid, described as a 'Mystery'.

Rheinberger's Toggenburg (1874) is a song-cycle, Rubinstein's The Tower of Babel (1869) is styled a 'sacred opera' and the rest, including A Redemption Hymn (1877) by James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916) are either sacred or secular cantatas.

If you enjoy reading about obscure oratorios (and, let's face it, who doesn't  ;)) I would recommend the excellent A History of the Oratorio IV - The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (North Carolina University Press, 2000) by Howard Smither. If you hunt around there are reasonably priced copies available both new and second-hand.

;D

Thanks for the information, Albion.

The Smithers book is one of my very favourites.

I can also recommend The World of the Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen ( Amadeus Press) and of course the wonderful Upton books - all available from Amazon.

We are fortunate in Melbourne to have an annual Oratorio Competition... mostly Handel & Mendelssohn but a few rarities now and again.

Of unrecorded works by composers active during the peak years of large-scale British choral composition (roughly 1850-1914, aka the choral conveyor-belt), the following are perhaps more deserving of professional exploration than most:

George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) – May Day (1856); St John the Baptist (1873); The Lady of the Lake (1877)

Henry Hugo Pierson (1815-1873) - Jerusalem (1852)

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) – On Shore and Sea (1871)*; The Martyr of Antioch (1880)*

Alexander Mackenzie (1847-1935) – The Bride (1881); The Rose of Sharon (1884); The Dream of Jubal (1889); The Cotter's Saturday Night (1889); Veni, Creator Spiritus (1891); The Sun-God's Return (1910)

Hubert Parry (1848-1918) – Prometheus Unbound (1880)*; L'Allegro ed il Penseroso (1890); Magnificat (1897); Ode to Music (1901); The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905)

Frederic Cowen (1852-1935) – The Sleeping Beauty (1885); The Water-Lily (1892); Ode to the Passions (1898); The Veil (1910)

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) – Elegiac Ode (1884); The Voyage of Maeldune (1889); Eden (1891); Phaudrig Crohoore (1896)*; Te Deum (1898)*; Merlin and the Gleam (1919)

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) - Sleepless Dreams (1910); Hey Nonny No (1910); The Prison (1930)

Granville Bantock (1868-1946) – The Time Spirit (1904); Sea-Wanderers (1907)*; The Great God Pan (1914-15)

Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) - The Song of St Francis (1912)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) – Meg Blane (1902)*; A Tale of Old Japan (1911)

Havergal Brian (1876-1972) – By the Waters of Babylon (1905-09); The Vision of Cleopatra (1908)

Unfortunately, the full scores of both Brian works are lost, but sympathetic and idiomatic re-orchestration from the vocal scores could be attempted.

Joseph Holbrooke (1878-1958) – Queen Mab (1902, p.1904); The Bells (1903, p.1906)*; Apollo and the Seaman (1907, p.1908)

Queen Mab and Apollo and the Seaman are principally orchestral works with extended choral epilogues.

Cyril Scott (1879-1970) – Nativity Hymn (1913-14)


* works either recorded semi-professionally or existing in broadcast performances

Great list. I would really love to hear Smyth's 'The Prison', but I expect it will be low on this list. Getting hopeful for some of the Holbrooke, though.

QuoteHavergal Brian (1876-1972) – By the Waters of Babylon (1905-09); The Vision of Cleopatra (1908)

Unfortunately, the full scores of both Brian works are lost, but sympathetic and idiomatic re-orchestration from the vocal scores could be attempted.

I may as well come clean and admit I've done some work on this matter myself. Ten years ago, I created a new performing edition of By the Waters of Babylon, with the cooperation and approval of the Brian Society, and conducted the premiere of this version (see http://www.havergalbrian.org/bywaters.htm (http://www.havergalbrian.org/bywaters.htm)).

It's a marvelous and fascinating work, and I very much enjoyed discovering it. There is a lengthy tale as to how this all came about, which I don't have time to recount just now, but if there's interest I can divulge it at some point. As for the music, it's prime early Brian, with hints of Elgar and other contemporaries at times, and some really remarkable and original writing at other times, with frequent suggestions of the Brian style to come. The second major section of the work (it's all in one continuous movement) is in 5/2 time, which I've never encountered in any other work of the period! In all honesty, there are also some bits of clumsiness and less than optimal writing, but considering the extent of Brian's musical training and experience at the time, it's more amazing that so much of it is very good.

My version is with organ accompaniment, however the score cries out for an orchestra, and I've toyed with some orchestration of it, but I just haven't had the time to carry it through, nor the expertise to pull it off idiomatically without some further research. As it stands, the Brian Society has promised to publish my performing version once I put the finishing touches on it. Then, perhaps some enterprising choir(s) will take up the cause!

Sadly, I don't have a decent recording of the premiere that I can share, for a number of reasons, but perhaps I can create a decent MIDI realization from the score which I created with Sibelius software.

I'd love to work on Cleopatra as well!

Latvian, thanks for 'divulging' your close involvement with Brian's early choral music. Both works positively leap from the pages of the vocal scores as absolutely sui generis in terms of contemporary British music (if not music generally).

It would be wonderful if they could be re-orchestrated and revived, but in the interim it would be very useful to have a midi realisation of one or both!

;D

I have long enjoyed the vocal score of Costa's Eli, especially the big choral fugue on a subject that sounds just like Indiana Jones' theme.  The whole piece isn't equally fun, but it was worth the $3 just for that movement. 

Julius Benedict's St. Peter, on the other hand, puts me to sleep and has gathered impressive dust in the closet.

David

I'm repeating this previously posted Upton description of Macfarren's cantata Christmas (although it's long.)  The words of the final chorus are omitted.  I particularly enjoy the way the 'Christmas story' turns into a blood-bath:

"'Christmas,' the poem by John Oxenford, was written in 1859, and was first performed at one of the concerts of the Musical Society of London, on the 9th of May 1860.  The poem itself contains no story.  It is merely a tribute to the season; but at the same time it is not destitute of incident, so that it possesses considerable dramatic interest.

After a short instrumental introduction the cantata  opens with a double chorus in antiphonal style, in which both the bright and dark sides of winter are celebrated.  The second choir takes up the theme:-

     "The trees lift up their branches bare
        Against the sky:
        Through the keen and nipping air
        For Spring's return they seem to cry,
        As the winds with solemn tone
        About them sadly moan;"

And the first choir replies:-

     "Old Winter's hand is always free,
       He scatters diamonds round;
       They dart their light from every tree,
       They glisten on the ground,
       Then who shall call the branches bare,
       When gems like those are sparkling there?"

The two then join and bring their friendly contest to a close:-

2nd Choir.- "Come in, and closely shut the door
                      Against the wintry weather;
                     Of frost and snow we'll think no more,
                        While round the fire we sit together."

1st Choir.- "Rush out from every cottage door,
                   'T is brave and bracing weather;
                     A madder throng ne'er met before,
                    Than those which now have come together.

This double number, which is very effective, is followed by a soprano recitative and romance ("Welcome, blest Season"), tender and yet joyous in character,  which celebrates the delight of friendly reunions at Christmas tide, and the pleasure with which those long absent seek "the old familiar door."  In the next number, an old English carol ("A Blessing on the noble House and all who in it dwell"), Christmas is fairly introduced.  It is sung first in unison by the full chorus, then changes to harmony, in which one choir retains the melody, and closes with a new subject for orchestral treatment, the united choirs singing the carol.  Christmas would not be complete without its story; and this we have in the next number for contralto solo and chorus, entitled, "A Christmas Tale."  It is preceded by recitative, written in the old English style, and each verse closes with a refrain, first sung as a solo, and then repeated in full harmony by the chorus:-

     "A bleak and kindless morning had broke on Althenay,
       Where shunning Danish foemen the good King Alfred lay;
       'In search of food our hunters departed long ago,
        I fear that they have perished, imbedded in the snow.'
       While thus he sadly muses, an aged man he sees,
       With white hair on his forehead like the frost upon the trees.
        An image of the winter the haggard pilgrim stands,
     And breathing forth his sorrows, lifts up his withered hands:
           'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
            Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'

"'Our hearts are moved with pity, thy sufferings we deplore,'
   Said Alfred's queen, the gentle, 'but scanty is our store;
   One loaf alone is left us.'  'Then give it,' said the King,
  'For He who feeds the ravens, yes, He will fresh abundance bring.'
   The wind was roaring loudly, the snow was falling fast,
   As from the lofty turret the last, last loaf he cast.
   An image of the winter, the haggard pilgrim stands,
   And Alfred's welcome pittance he catches in his hands.
          'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
           Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'

"The snow is thickly falling, the winter wind is loud,
  But yonder in the distance appears a joyous crowd.
  The hunters bring their booty, the peasants bring their corn,
  And cheering songs of triumph along the blast are borne.
  Before another morning, down-stricken is the foe,
  And blood of Danish warriors is red upon the snow.
  Amid the conquering Saxons the aged pilgrim stands,
  And like a holy prophet exclaims with lifted hands,
         'The Heavenly King, who reigns on high,
           Bless him who hears the poor man's cry.'"

A graceful little duet for female voices ("Little Children, all rejoice") picturing the delights of childhood and its exemption from care, follows the Saxon story and leads up to the finale, which is choral throughout, and gives all the pleasant details of Christmas cheer, - the feast in the vaulted hall, the baron of beef, the boar with a lemon in his jaw, the pudding, "gem of all the feast," the generous wassail, and the mistletoe bough with its warning to maids.  In delightfuly picturesque old English music the joyous scene comes to an end."

Fascinating, Latvian :)

Here are a few other ideas gleaned again, from two older Grove's editions:

Arienzo, Nicolo d'  (1842-1915   Oratorio: Cristo sulla croce
Arregui, Vicente  (1871-1925)                   Oratorio: San Francisco
Audran, Edmond  (1840-1901)                   Oratorio: La Sulamite
Bristow, George, F.  (1825-189   Oratorios – 2
Kaun, Hugo  (1863-1932)      Oratorio- Christus
Kiel, Friedrich (1821-1885)      Oratorio- Christus
Liuzzi, Fernando  (1884-1940)     Oratorios: La Passione and Laudi Francescani
Meinardus, Ludwig  (1827-1896)   Oratorios
Parry, Sir Hubert  (1848-1918)    Oratorios: Judith, Job and King Saul
Ryelandt, Josef  (1870-19??)      Oratorios: Maria, Coming of the Savior and Christus Rex         
Tinel, Edgar  (1854-1912)      Oratorio: Franciscus, opus 36
Torrance, George  (1835-1907)   Oratorios: Revelation, Captivity and Abraham
Turpin, Edmund  (1835-1907)                   Oratorios: John the Baptist and Hezekiah
Vittadini, Franco  (1884-1948)                   Oratorios: The birth of Jesus  & The Seven Words of Christ
Vogel, Charles  (1808-1892)      Oratorio: Le Jugement Dernier
Wade, Joseph  (1801-1845)      Oratorio: The Prophecy

Sorry the formatting copied from a Word document doesn't seem to work right.  Looks right before posting - then, zip...
Jerry

If we've gone international. let's not forget Raff's Oratorio World's End - Judgement - New World op.212 of 1881, which had its British première in 1883 at the Leeds Festival under the baton of Sir Arthur Sullivan. There aren't that many works which have miniature tone-poems depicting each of the Four Horsemen of he Apocalypse! He'd just started work on another, "John the Baptist", when he died.

Quote from: edurban on Monday 14 November 2011, 15:08
I have long enjoyed the vocal score of Costa's Eli, especially the big choral fugue on a subject that sounds just like Indiana Jone's theme.  It's not all that fun, but it was worth the $3 just for that movement. 

Julius Benedict's St. Peter, on the other hand, puts me to sleep and has gathered impressive dust in the closet.

David

Yes, Eli (Birmingham, 1855) is jolly and unashamedly vulgar, whereas St Peter (Birmingham, 1870) is crippled by moribund piety and the sub-Mendelssohnian trappings of Victorian music at its least appealing.

Unsung British oratorios (c. 1850-1914) are a much poorer crop on the whole than the cantatas, liturgical works and odes. Pierson's Jerusalem (Norwich, 1852) and Mackenzie's The Rose of Sharon (Norwich, 1884) are the best of them by quite some margin, followed by Macfarren's lively St John the Baptist (Bristol, 1873) and Stanford's Eden (Birmingham, 1891) which is a fascinating, if very uneven, score.

Oratorio found Parry at his worst and he detested the genre, grudgingly fulfilling commissions for Birmingham (Judith, 1888 and King Saul, 1894) and his attempt at a shorter work (Job, Gloucester, 1892) is musically poverty-stricken compared to the best of his contemporary secular music. Likewise, for its pastoral, unsanctimonious tone, I would advocate Cowen's Ruth (Worcester, 1887) were it not markedly inferior to the best of his cantatas.

As a great admirer of Sullivan I would like to find The Light of the World (Birmingham, 1873) more engaging than I do - one or two passages are impressive (especially the dramatic crowd interjections in the synagogue and several of the massive choruses which Sullivan used as pillars to close each of the scenes) but vast swathes of the elephantine structure sag under the weight of turgid sentiment. The Prodigal Son (Worcester, 1869) is more compact, quite dramatic and much more appealing.

:)

Quote from: Mark Thomas on Monday 14 November 2011, 17:24If we've gone international.

O, ja! It's not a specifically Unsung British Oratorios thread.

;)

You'd never know... ;)

Quote from: Alan Howe on Monday 14 November 2011, 18:08You'd never know... ;)

I think that the thread-title rather gives the game away, but lest the Austro-German hegemony be left panting in the field, under starter's orders then - away you go!

;D

Anybody heard Ludvig Irgens-Jensens's Heimferd (Homecoming)? As it is available on Simax it is not completely unsung, but a very good work and mostly unheard outside of Norway.

Quote from: erato on Monday 14 November 2011, 19:47
Anybody heard Ludvig Irgens-Jensens's Heimferd (Homecoming)? As it is available on Simax it is not completely unsung, but a very good work and mostly unheard outside of Norway.

Yes, indeed....the Simax boxed set sits proudly on my shelves ;D  And a very fine piece of music it is too :)

I add also:
Aleksander (Alexandre) Tansman (1897-1986)
Prophet Isaiah (1950)

In that case it could not be callad "unsung" because it was performed here in Lodz/Poland on 29.08.2004

Just to make some of us feel less guilty, I assumed the "international" thing when I saw Albion's list.  Arthur Foote, Horatio Parker, Anton Rubinstein.   I'd have been surprised if anyone had claimed them to be British.  But then, I suppose, you never know.   :P

Jerry

I've got the Tansman Isaiah on LP ( that makes it kosher , doesn't it?) if anyone wants it.....

As the British connection was not (explicitly) mentioned in the first post or title of -these- threads, unlike the cantata thread, I am not actually sure it is relevant (or rather, I mean, I am quite sure it is not, for my own part. I am not an admin, but that would be my own view.)

It's an oratorio, I know, but I would love to hear a full decent recording of Sullivan's "The Light of the World", which was very well thought of in its time and which Gounod apparently dubbed a masterpiece. I have an ancient vocal score of it, and spent much time in my teens trying to get an idea of how the work might sound. Now that the (apparently less mature) "Prodigal Son" has been done by Hyperion, might one not hope?

I could contribute a fair sized list from my Grove gleanings so will just stick with some American composers and their cantatas.

Frederick Archer (1828-1901)  King Witlaf's Drinking Horn (????)
Hans Balatka (1826-1899)  Festival Cantata
Mrs. H H A Beach  The Chambered Nautilis;  The Minstrel and the King
George Frederick Bristow  Two cantatas, neither title am I familiar with......
and last but not least
John Knowles Paine  The Realm of Fancy, The Song of Promise, The Hymn of the West

If I could only hear one of these pieces, it would be one of Mrs. Beach's.

Jerry

Quote from: jerfilm on Tuesday 15 November 2011, 15:52George Frederick Bristow  Two cantatas, neither title am I familiar with......

Could they be The Great Republic, Op.47 and The Pioneer, Op.49?

???

Also, I really like what I have heard of Horatio Parker's music, but there seems to have been hardly anything recorded, orchestral or choral. Even his once-celebrated Hora Novissima, Op.30 (1893) has yet to receive an adequate modern rendition. Some of his other unexplored choral works are -

The Ballad of a Knight and his Daughter, Op.6 (1884)
King Trojan, Op.8 (1885)
Idylle, Op.15 (1886)
The Norseman's Raid, Op.16 (1888)
The Kobolds, Op.21 (1890)
The Dream-King and his Love, Op.31 (1891)
The Legend of St Christopher, Op.43 (1897)
A Wanderer's Psalm, Op.50 (1900)
Hymnos Adron, Op.53 (1901)
A Star Song, Op.54 (1901)
Union and Liberty, Op.60 (1905)
The Spirit of Beauty, Op.61 (1905)
King Gorm the Grim, Op.64 (1907)
A Song of Times, Op.73 (1911)
The Leap of Roushan Beg, Op.75 (1913)
Morven and the Grail, Op.79 (1915)
The Dream of Mary, Op.82 (1918)
A.D. 1919, Op.84 (1919)

Quote from: mikehopf on Monday 14 November 2011, 08:52I can also recommend The World of the Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen ( Amadeus Press)

Thanks for the tip, Mike - I'd not come across this book before, but have just ordered a used copy on Amazon.

:)

For my money, the Upton book takes pride of place, though the Pahlen work does deal with a lot of obscure 20th Century works.

I've found a couple of items that may be of some interest to you and which I'll be glad to upload:

COLERIDGE TAYLOR: A Tale of Old Japan

SOMERVELL: Christmas - Cantata

I'd really like to see Draeseke's Requiem in B minor of 1883 given a modern recording. The transfer that I have of the one LP recording of the piece exhibits quite a bit of distortion - unfortunately.

Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 15 November 2011, 22:26I'd really like to see Draeseke's Requiem in B minor of 1883 given a modern recording. The transfer that I have of the one LP recording of the piece exhibits quite a bit of distortion - unfortunately.

If it's no longer commercially available, could it be a candidate for the download section?

???

Quote from: mikehopf on Tuesday 15 November 2011, 22:16I've found a couple of items that may be of some interest to you and which I'll be glad to upload:

COLERIDGE TAYLOR: A Tale of Old Japan

SOMERVELL: Christmas - Cantata

Yes, please!

;D

The items that you requested have been uploaded.

Let me know what you think of them.

I have a private recording of On Shore & Sea but I believe that Hyperion are bringing out a recording soon.

Jimfin, there is a modern recording ( 2000) of Light of the World available:

Sullivan: The Light of the World
Soloists:
Karen Johnson, soprano
Adrienne Murray, contralto
Paul Dutton, tenor
Stephen Wells, baritone
Richard Wiegold, bass

NFMS North West Festival Choir
Liverpool Youth Choir
St. Julie's R.C. School Choir
Chester Music Society Choir
Hulme Singers

Organist: David Houlder
Conductor: John Bethell

Recorded at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
25 November 2000

NFMS WRW202-2.
The Light of the World, by Holman Hunt 

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 00:30
The items that you requested have been uploaded.

Let me know what you think of them.

I have a private recording of On Shore & Sea but I believe that Hyperion are bringing out a recording soon.

Thanks Mike, I look forward to hearing the Coleridge-Taylor and the Somervell when the post is approved.

:)

I used to have the old Sullivan Society cassette of On Shore and Sea and have heard the cantata performed twice live - under Richard Hickox in Nottingham (1988) and under the auspices of the Sullivan Society down in Portsmouth a few years ago (the same concert at which the rediscovered numbers from The Beauty Stone and The Rose of Persia were first aired).

Could you possibly tell me anything about your source of information regarding a Hyperion recording?

???

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 00:39
Jimfin, there is a modern recording ( 2000) of Light of the World available: [...] NFMS WRW202-2

With the best will in the world, I could not recommend this recording. The general adequacies of the soloists and the organist are obscured by the cavernous acoustic of LAC, whereas the inadequacies of the chorus are not obscured enough. More reviews are here -

http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullvocal-lotw2001.htm (http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/sullvocal-lotw2001.htm)

:o

But a positive outcome of the event was that it caused Cramer to produce a brand new vocal score, resetting the complete first edition (275 pp) rather than the more generally-available truncated second edition (259 pp) -

(http://www.chappellofbondstreet.co.uk/sites/chappellv3.05/productimages/300x300/COBS000044492.jpg)

:)

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 00:39
Jimfin, there is a modern recording ( 2000) of Light of the World available:

Sullivan: The Light of the World
Soloists:
Karen Johnson, soprano
Adrienne Murray, contralto
Paul Dutton, tenor
Stephen Wells, baritone
Richard Wiegold, bass

NFMS North West Festival Choir
Liverpool Youth Choir
St. Julie's R.C. School Choir
Chester Music Society Choir
Hulme Singers

Organist: David Houlder
Conductor: John Bethell

Recorded at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
25 November 2000

NFMS WRW202-2.
The Light of the World, by Holman Hunt

Oh, thank you, that is amazing news: I love Sullivan's choral works (apart from the 1886 Ode, which I find tedious) and have been wanting to fill the gaps for years. Hyperion doing 'On Shore and Sea' sounds wonderful too: I'd been wondering if they'd been forgetting their British side lately.

I've got a decent recording of Parry's Pied Piper of Hamelin if anyone wants an upload.

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 21:42
I've got a decent recording of Parry's Pied Piper of Hamelin if anyone wants an upload.

Yes, please.

;D

jerfilm, I can let you have Paine's Hymn of the West if you it.

Albion, my dog-earred catalogue reveals a Cantata : The Shepherd's Vision Op.63 by Parker.

Also, an overture: "Count Robert of Paris".

Is this the same Horatio Parker.

I've got opera highlights from "Mona"... this is definitely by Horatio.

PS Re: Parry... any interest in Eton Ode for Chorus & Orchestra ( 1891).?

Albion, re: On Shore & Sea. I was present at that performance of this attractive work. They borrowed a "Jingling Johnny" from the V & A Museum which they used to great effect. I also have the cassette that was issued at the time.

A member of one of our local G & S Societies recently completed his doctorate with a thesis on "On Shore & Sea " . I believe it was he who told me about the Hyperion recording but I vaguely remember hearing it from another source too. Maybe from Alan or Mark?

Yes Mike, would love to have The Hymn of the West.

Thanks, too, Coleridge-Taylor and Somervell cantatas. 

Jerry

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 22:15
jerfilm, I can let you have Paine's Hymn of the West if you it.

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 22:24
Albion, my dog-earred catalogue reveals a Cantata : The Shepherd's Vision Op.63 by Parker.

Also, an overture: "Count Robert of Paris".

Is this the same Horatio Parker.

I've got opera highlights from "Mona"... this is definitely by Horatio.

PS Re: Parry... any interest in Eton Ode for Chorus & Orchestra ( 1891).?

Mike, it would be great if you could upload anything by Horatio Parker - and yes, Count Robert of Paris is Op. 24b (1890).

Quote from: mikehopf on Wednesday 16 November 2011, 22:07I seem to have a whole lot of Parry vocal and choral works listed in my excuse for a catalogue. Any particular requests?

Re. Parry, please could you upload the Eton Ode, The Pied Piper and anything else that isn't commercially available?

Many thanks.

:)

PS. Have you got the Amber Ring full score of On Shore and Sea - it's a wonderful achievement.

If cantatas are also included in this discussion thread, there is a good recording of Taneyev's "John of Damascus" in the Russian music downloads folder, and I have just added two fine cantatas by Myaskovsky to the folder.

John ( Albion), you may be right about the Liverpool recording of Light of the World, but compared to the only other recording available at the time on Michael Thomas' now defunct RRE label, this was pure nectar!

Amphissa- ooh. I have one of Myaskovsky's big unrecorded choral works, but I was going to ask if anyone had the other (I assume you mean Kreml Nochiu and Kirov is With Us...) , and here already...

Quote from: mikehopf on Thursday 17 November 2011, 03:22
John ( Albion), you may be right about the Liverpool recording of Light of the World, but compared to the only other recording available at the time on Michael Thomas' now defunct RRE label, this was pure nectar!

Yes, I suppose that's a fair point! I collected several Rare Recorded Edition LPs (including The Rose of Persia, The Light of the World and Ivanhoe) and never ceased to marvel at the talent on display.

;)

I heard Oldham Choral Society perform the entire oratorio (and I do mean entire, with every last scrap of Lazarus) with organ accompaniment in 1988, also conducted by John Bethell: the organist and soloists were excellent, but the choir resolutely sang about a quarter-tone flat throughout. Nevertheless, at least they were unanimous in this resolve and this was still by far the best performance I've ever heard, and in a decent church acoustic - it really should have been recorded at least privately...

Eric, yes, "Kremlin at Night" and "Kirov Is With Us" are the two I've added. Not yet approved by a moderator, though. I suppose they sleep at night over there in England.

Ah, thanks. I have a Rozhdestvensky-conducted recording of opus 61, apparently... (and I recall skimming the vocal score of the other, part of his collected-not-complete works published in the later 1950s iirc. Need to listen to it again and looking forward to hearing the other, so thanks.)

QuoteI suppose they sleep at night over there in England.

:) They're both now approved.

QuoteI've got opera highlights from "Mona"... this is definitely by Horatio.

Please! And any other Parker rarities you may have!

Maurice Jacobson: The Hound of Heaven (a really superb piece)
Joseph Holbrooke: Choral Symphony "Hommage to E.A. Poe"
John Foulds: A Vision of Dante
Granville Bantock: Christ in the Wilderness; Gethsemane; King Solomon - but ESPECIALLY The Song of Songs
Peter Racine Fricker: The Vision of Judgement
Cyril Scott:  Hymn of Unity

You are aware, I hope, that both the Jacobson and the Fricker were recently added from my own collection to the British Music section on here?

(Apologies, if you already knew this :)))

I did not. Thanks very much.

Albion very kindly produced a list of major British choral works which have not received the attention they deserve. He restricted himself however to what he deemed the golden age of British Choral Music, roughly 1850-1914.

Other members have added to that list, including Gareth, who listed Maurice Jacobson's "The Hound of Heaven" and Peter Racine Fricker's "The Vision of Judgment"-both of which are now available to download from this site.

There are, of course, a substantial number of distinguished large-scale British Cantatas/Oratorios written since 1914 which equally merit recording.

These would certainly include-

William Alwyn's Oratorio "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"(1936)
Sir Lennox Berkeley's Oratorio "Jonah"(1935)
Arnold Cooke's Cantata "Holderneth"(1933-34)
Iain Hamilton's Cantata "The Bermudas"(1957)
Daniel Jones's Oratorio "St. Peter"(1962)....a truncated version is available for download from this site.
William Mathias's Cantata "World's Fire"(1989).....which Holger recently made available on this site
Anthony Milner's Oratorio "The Water and the Fire"(1961)....available for download from this site
Alan Rawsthorne's Cantata "Carmen Vitale"(1963).....available for download from this site

There are also a number of choral works of substance by Sir Arthur Bliss but I shall write about them very shortly in a separate thread ;D

Recent additions to the BMB archive have prompted me to purchase second-hand vocal scores of four large-scale twentieth-century choral pieces: reading through whilst listening, these have impressed me tremendously -

Julius Harrison (1885-1963) - Mass in C (1936-47)
Maurice Jacobson (1896-1976) - The Hound of Heaven (1953)
Franz Reizenstein (1911-1968) - Voices of Night, Op.27 (1951)
Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990) - The Vision of Judgement, Op.29 (1957-58)

Although I generally prefer not to use the term 'masterpiece', which seems to me a fallible and inherently subjective assessment, I would urge members to hear these works.

:)

Jerfilm, apologies for the delay in sending Paine Hymn of the West.

I definitely have it on cassette or tape.. it's just a question of finding it.