Unsung Anniversaries in 2011

[eschiss1]

I'm kind of surprised there's no other decently known 1811 composers though, really...

To balance the abundance of well-known 1810 composers (Chopin, Schumann, ...)?

[eschiss1]

btw not a composer and not unsung (but definitely music-related), but 1811: Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
unsung composers (not passing judgment on quality until I've heard more by them and admitting unshamefacedly that http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Geboren_1811 is my friend. apologies for duplications...) from 1811: Louis Kufferath, Vinzenz Lachner (the other other brother),  Ernst Methfessel, August Gottfried Ritter, Wilhelm Taubert (hrm. the fellow whose b minor symphony I was asking about awhile back, yes? ), Leopold Friedrich Witt.

more 1861: Franz von Blon (can't remember if he's been mentioned- maybe by me even), Pierre de Bréville, Henry-Charles Kaiser, Gustav Lange, Ludwig Sauer, Ernestine Schumann-Heink (alto), Ludwig Thuille (probably already mentioned in this thread), Rudolf del Zopp (tenor).

[jerfilm]

Sorry about including MacDowell.  Must've made a typo when I set up my database.  Then in retrospect, I wonder why we didn't hear more about old Edward om 2010.......

[eschiss1]

Allan Pettersson (1911-1980).
Less unsung but not tremendously known - Jehan Alain (1911-1940).
I think Stanley Bate's been mentioned in this thread but I'm not quite sure!
René Cloërec (1911-1995) (Apparently a film composer on the whole.).
Gábor Steinberger/Darvas (1911-1985).

[chill319]

MacDowell's birth date was given incorrectly as 1861 for more than a century.

Since it is still 2010, I am posting something about MacDowell under "A 2010 Unsung's Anniversary."

[giwro]

A death anniversary - Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

Although a 20thC composer, some of Dupré's music is very expressive and romantic.  Most of it is for organ solo, but he left also a symphony for Organ and Orchestra as well as some fine chamber music and piano works.

[thalbergmad]

I neglected to mention Camille Stamaty.

I intend to play through a couple of his sonatas over the Winterval if i can keep away from the Guiness.

Thal

[cjvinthechair]

Hello - I'm new, ignorant, but wanting to learn ! Having only just discovered Hovhaness this year, he currently rates as one of my favourites (along with Florent Schmitt, Ropartz, Sgambati, Rautavaara etc..).
He doesn't seem to figure too highly with one or two of you; why's that ?

[eschiss1]

I'm kind of surprised there's no other decently known 1811 composers though, really...

actually, it occurs to me that the lack of decently known 1811 composers to memorialize will be more than made up for this year by one 1911 composer whose music (which I have come to enjoy very very much- this remark is not out of personal distaste!) will I suspect be the focus of quite a lot of attention this almost-begun (begun in some areas I think?) year, along perhaps with Liszt's - Mahler's -
Eric

[chill319]

I'll bite, Eric. I'm not sure who you mean, but I think a reassessment of Menotti's work is overdue in the States. On the other hand, I don't think Pettersson, Rota, or even Herrmann are likely to generate much interest here.

[JimL]

Mahler died in 1911, Chris.

[eschiss1]

Mahler died in 1911, Chris.

Yes- that's what I meant. I was being a bit circuitous :
2010 was a big anniversary year for sung composers (Chopin and Schumann for example);
I sort of took TerraEpon to be indirectly implying (not true, true!) that 2011 had fewer sung-composer-anniversaries to crowd out remembrance of the unsung (not that it works that way, true);
but 2011 is an anniversary/birth or death centenary/bicentenary year for both Liszt and Mahler respectively, so - same situation this time around.
Eric

[albion]

Hello - I'm new, ignorant, but wanting to learn ! Having only just discovered Hovhaness this year, he currently rates as one of my favourites (along with Florent Schmitt, Ropartz, Sgambati, Rautavaara etc..).
He doesn't seem to figure too highly with one or two of you; why's that ?

Hi! I think that Hovhaness is a significant voice, but that his enormously prolific output puts many people off exploring (he makes Havergal Brian's catalogue seem positively stingy).

Hovhaness certainly produced some remarkable beautiful and powerful works, including his Symphony No. 2 (Mysterious Mountain, 1955), the Magnificat (1958) and Symphony No. 50 (Mount St Helens, 1982). Perhaps his style did not develop significantly over his career, but that should not deter sympathetic listeners from exploring some very rewarding music. It seems as though his centenary will not pass by totally unnoticed:

http://www.hovhaness.com/News-Hovhaness-Centennial-Concerts-Seattle.html

[TerraEpon]

I'll bite, Eric. I'm not sure who you mean, but I think a reassessment of Menotti's work is overdue in the States. On the other hand, I don't think Pettersson, Rota, or even Herrmann are likely to generate much interest here.

Certainly Herrmann is likely to have film music releases. Certainly there's a new recording of a couple of his scores on the way (though reletively unrealted to his anniversary). I think someone said on the FilmScoreMonthly board that the Moby Dick cantata is being recorded as well.

[chill319]

Good news re Herrmann. I'd love to hear his second symphony, written 30-odd years after the first. So far as I know it exists only in manuscript. I suspect it has been performed once and that parts exist somewhere, but have no information to support that speculation.

Re Hovhaness, New Age composer par excellence: without pretending to be a scholar of Hovhaness, there are actually several ways to designate periods in his compositional life (not including the earlier, purportedly Sibelian scores he is said to have destroyed [as Harry Partch destroyed his own early, more conventional scores]): (1) before and after his discovery of aleatoric scoring; (2) before, during, and after his intense focus on third-related half-diminished harmonic sequences (as in some symphonies numbered 20-30); (3) before and after his introduction of Japanese modalities to his melodic vocabulary. No doubt other, better distinctions could be pointed out. That said, you can expect a fugue and a trumpet solo in an awful lot of what AH wrote.