Unsung Composers

The Music => Recordings & Broadcasts => Topic started by: Justin on Friday 14 February 2020, 04:27

Title: Concert by the Society for Forgotten Music Quartet - February 13th, 1950
Post by: Justin on Friday 14 February 2020, 04:27
Found this rare recording of an American radio broadcast put on by the "Society for Forgotten Music." It includes various American works by composers which even in 1950 were already figures of the distant past. Hope you find it interesting.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/concert-by-the-society-for-forgotten-music-quartet/ (https://www.wnyc.org/story/concert-by-the-society-for-forgotten-music-quartet/)

Works:

String Quartet No. 2 Op. 132 by Henry Hadley

Piano Sonata in E Major by Alexander Reinagle

I Have a Silent Sorrow Here by Alexander Reinagle

My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free by Francis Hopkinson

Come Fair Rosina by Francis Hopkinson

O'er The Hills by Francis Hopkinson

To Helen by Charles Martin Loeffler, words by Edgar Allan Poe

"Mona's Dream" by Horatio Parker from the opera "Mona"

Quartet by George Whitefield Chadwick
Title: Re: Concert by the Society for Forgotten Music Quartet - February 13th, 1950
Post by: matesic on Friday 14 February 2020, 07:34
The Hadley quartet is certainly a new one for me. I like its "fresh air" muscularity. It wasn't published until 1941 but probably dates from much earlier. The Chadwick quartet is his No.4 from the 1890's - much more conservative and rather bland Dvorak-and-water I think. Thanks for posting this!
Title: Re: Concert by the Society for Forgotten Music Quartet - February 13th, 1950
Post by: semloh on Friday 14 February 2020, 12:02
Interesting set of works. The Chadwick 4th String Quartet can be heard on YT, and appears on a fascinating collection of early American chamber music: https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-early-string-quartet-in-the-usa-mw0001381822  (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-early-string-quartet-in-the-usa-mw0001381822)
The work by Hadley was started in 1932 - some sources say it was completed in 1934 - and I think falls outside the scope of UC.
Title: Re: Concert by the Society for Forgotten Music Quartet - February 13th, 1950
Post by: Mark Thomas on Friday 14 February 2020, 15:22
Yes, unlike much of Hadley's orchestral music which is late-romantic in style, this quartet falls squarely outside our remit on both chronological and stylistic grounds.