Deservedly unsung............

[BFerrell]

I am curious about which composers the member sthink deserve to be unsung. Simply put, who do you consider worthless composers? Should be fascinating.

[Dundonnell]

Sorry but this reply will not be at all helpful to you

One could argue that if any listener finds that a piece of music appeals to them then the composer of that piece, by definition, cannot be entirely worthless and I cannot imagine that there are any composers of whom it can be said that there are absolutely no persons who see value in their music.

No doubt there may be many "amateurs" around who wrote or are writing some pretty dreadful stuff but I don't think those are the people we could necessarily identify with any degree of respectable decency

There are some composers you would have to tie me up and force me to listen to but even they I would not assert are "deservedly unsung"

Sorry, again, I know this is not a helpful response

[BFerrell]

 I was looking for personal opinions only. I'll start.....Feldman, Carter and Boulez.

[Alan Howe]

MODERATOR'S WARNING:
This will only be a profitable thread if people express their opinions courteously and give reasons for those opinions.

[ahinton]

MODERATOR'S WARNING:
This will only be a profitable thread if people express their opinions courteously and give reasons for those opinions.

And perhaps it moight not be too bad an idea if contributors to it also adhered to reasonable degrees of accuracy; I did not see the post concerned as it was before you edited it to what it is now but, given its present manifestation, "Feldman, Carter and Boulez" are hardly "unsung" in any case!

[Alan Howe]

Quite right. Carter and Boulez are definitely sung composers. Feldman has also been extensively recorded...
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Morton-Feldman/Composer/3688-1

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I am sorry, Tapiola, but I do think you've set up a pointless thread.

If I told you, and other forum members, that I happen to think so-and-so is a pretty worthless composer and the world would be a better place if she was unsung, then how would you or anyone else possibly benefit from my immense erudition on the matter??

Reminds me of truly awful schooldays when grubby little boys would congregate behind the school pavilion at break time, puff at a fag, and try to identify a girl with whom we wouldn't want to be seen dead.

Thank heavens we, or most of us, grew up!!

[Alan Howe]

I don't think the thread is pointless, provided that opinions are expressed carefully and reasons are given. However, any sign of it going pear-shaped and it'll be pulled!

[Alan Howe]

I suppose if I think about it, I can't think of too many deservedly unsung composers, but I can think of a number of deservedly unsung compositions. In this category would come, to my mind at least, Prout's Symphony No.4 which I find to be terribly dry and academic. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have heard it so as to fill out the broader context of British music in that era.

To me, Boulez would come in a different category - that of the undeservedly sung! Why? Because I find his compositions to be more akin to theoretical mathematics than music which communicates something meaningful. Of course, I recognise that it may be entirely my fault and I'm always grateful when someone gives me a key to unlock what has hitherto been beyond my pitiful powers of comprehension...

[Mark Thomas]

As you've started so well, Alan, I'll leave you to moderate this can of worms. Good luck!

[Alan Howe]

Well thank you, dear colleague!

[Latvian]

I think it best to steer away from the "undeservedly sung." Besides, didn't we already have a thread on that a couple of months ago? It was actually titled something like "music I just don't get," but don't we often have a tendency to devalue that which we don't understand? I can think of many, many composers who I didn't "get" earlier in my life (or even fairly recently), and whose music I've subsequently come to love and admire.

My prime nomination for "deservedly unsung" would have to be Roy Harris' 13th Symphony. Premiered in 1976 by the National Symphony, it lay unheard for decades. I wondered why, once I learned of its existence, since I value much of Harris' other output highly. Well, once I heard a recent revival on YouTube (and I think the work was posted on our Downloads as well), I fully understood why. This is an embarassment of a composition from any composer, let alone a major one such as Harris! Trite, banal, simplistic, shallow, pretentious, are all adjectives that come to mind.

Mind you, there's VERY little music where I don't find something to like about it. I usually find some redeeming quality in most anything I hear. But this work is not even remotely approaching tolerable!

[Dundonnell]

I did not intend to come back into this thread but Latvian's mention of the Harris Bicentennial Symphony does impel me to return

It is terribly sad when one comes across a fine composer whose later works show such a definite decline in quality but this, unfortunately, seems to have been the case with Harris. If he had stopped after Symphony No.9 his reputation might have been higher than it currently appears to be. I know that people view the 9th symphony in different ways and there is something to be said in favour of the one-movement Symphony No.11(recorded by Albany) but, much as I love and admire the earlier Harris symphonies, I have to admit that Nos. 10, 12 and 13/14-the Bicentennial-are almost embarrassingly poor. The 10th 'Abraham Lincoln' and the 12th 'Pere Marquette' are dirge-like and boring and Latvian has summed-up the Bicentennial. Whether the last would sound appreciably better with a first-rank orchestra(such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington which gave the first and only full professional performance) I don't know but I doubt it

(I wonder if the apparent decision of Naxos not to proceed with their Harris series came after they realised just how poor these last symphonies actually are )

[BFerrell]

I love Roy Harris, but yes, the 13th Symphony was simply awful. No other word for it. It was past time for him to set down his pen. I see that this thread was a bad idea. Hopefully the moderators can eliminate it.

[Dundonnell]

I love Roy Harris, but yes, the 13th Symphony was simply awful. No other word for it. It was past time for him to set down his pen. I see that this thread was a bad idea. Hopefully the moderators can eliminate it.

Oh.....you think the moderators should eliminate the thread Just after I wrote about Roy Harris

We could at least continue to discuss composers like Harris whose later works demonstrate appreciable decline in quality