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Music To Avoid Treading In


MusingMuso

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I was just thinking that while the organ has Bach (as does the violin and clavier), we don't really have a Beethoven or a Chopin who took the music on and really is one of (note: not sits with) the musical greats.

 

===================

 

I would suggest Reger, but then I would, wouldn't I? (Anyone who catches a plane to hear Reger, has to be a bit of an enthusiast!)

 

Is the problem that of French Impressionism, which although wonderfully atmospheric or exciting, has tended to dominate the musical mind of organists well beyond the sell-by date?

 

I'm sure German musical composition has not collapsed "per se," but I cannot help but think that organ-music sort of died when music turned away from the contrapuntal forms.

 

That said, I have spent a lot of time (too much!) digging around for modern and contemporary music which inspires, and I have certainly found a great deal which lays hidden; hence my interest in Eastern Europe, which hung-on to the older styles to some extent, but combined them with more modern harmonies and ways of doing things.

 

But apart from Reger, and he was the best part of a century ago, there is certainly no comparable major musical figure of whom I am aware, other than Hindemith. Now, like him or loathe him, Hindemith was very able and very inventive. My instinct tells me that, within the modal (sometimes invented modes) of his writing, and the counterpoint therein, there is a way forward which awaits development. In all other genres, and espcially in America, his influence is still felt to-day from his great teaching skills whilst he was at Yale.

 

The only comparable figure is Petr Eben, and whilst many do not like his music generally, he IS a very major composer with an enormous Opus-list in all sorts of genres.

 

Incidentally, Eben has written some beautiful choral and vocal music; the former of which has more than a hint of "Anglicanism" about it.

 

My interest in relatively obscure or unknown modern and contemporary Czech music was originally sparked by the question of which composers for organ, if any, were connecting or had connected with main-stream music in the recent past. Both Smetana and Dvorak wrote organ-music....not particularly great organ music.....but it exists. Klement Slavicky was quite a major Czech composer, and his music seems to offer something both challenging and interesting to the virtuoso organist or pianist.

 

I just have the funny feeling that the next great organ and main-stream composer may well emerge from Eastern Europe rather than France, Germany or England.

It's just that there is a combination of new-found freedom, opportunity, increasing prosperity, good education, a rich musical heritage and a desire to express all that.

 

MM

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===================

 

I would suggest Reger, but then I would, wouldn't I? MM

 

(*Whimper*)

 

Surely you cannot include the superb (and joyous) fugue from the Fantasy on 'Wachet Auf'?! I occasionally play this at Christmas. I really like it - and the counterpoint is good - it works in a linear fashion. The chords in the last line are just, well PHWARR!!

 

:angry:

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Gosh, with Mendelssohn, Dupre, Langlais etc. dropping like flies, I'm beginning to wonder what people actually LIKE? (And I'm choosing to ignore some curious remarks made elsewhere on this board about JSB.)

 

I'm sure though, that there's often quite a difference between music which is satisfying to perform, and that which is satisfying to listen to, particularly to the non-player. And in the same way that the first recording/performance heard of a piece makes an indelible impression, so do pieces which we learn at particular times, and critical faculties desert us (me).

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Oh - sorry, I cannot get on with these, either. My apologies, Stephen; particularly since I believe that you recorded them!

 

Then there is Easthorpe Martin's Evensong. Now this may have been tongue-in-cheek, although I do not think so, but I find it absolutely execrable.

You're quite right pncd - I did record them. Still available from all good record shops of course :angry:

Evensong - lovely stuff. Do you know the Dubois Marche des Rois Mages? - you stick a pencil or similar on top b with a flute 4 and then off you go. Garbage of the most exalted variety, and all done in the utmost seriousness, which makes it funnier. I play it very couple of years to cheer myself up after Christmas.

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I've heard a few of the smaller pieces (can't remember which ones) and I've generally like it. There was one piece I heard that I really liked - I asked the organist what it was and I've now forgotton. It was quite low and dark in texture, with a lot of repeated chords and a lot of brooding energy. It was electric!

 

So I keep an open mind about Langlais, Te Deum aside...

Chant Heroique (9 Pieces)?

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Gosh, with Mendelssohn, Dupre, Langlais etc. dropping like flies, I'm beginning to wonder what people actually LIKE? (And I'm choosing to ignore some curious remarks made elsewhere on this board about JSB.)

 

I'm sure though, that there's often quite a difference between music which is satisfying to perform, and that which is satisfying to listen to, particularly to the non-player. And in the same way that the first recording/performance heard of a piece makes an indelible impression, so do pieces which we learn at particular times, and critical faculties desert us (me).

On the subject of likes - Alain. I think he's more intriguing and innovative than Messiaen, much as I love the latter. Who knows where A's rhythmic experiments (viz Trois Danses) might have taken him?

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Chant Heroique (9 Pieces)?

Is it this:

 

http://www.pilarcabrera.com/mp3/pilar/langlais1.mp3

 

I think it was the one. Yes, I rather like it! ;)

 

I think I'll have to learn to play it to see whether it's better than Mendelssohn. Wish me (lots of) luck!! :angry:

 

Many thanks to you for helping me find this piece of music again!

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(*Whimper*)

 

Surely you cannot include the superb (and joyous) fugue from the Fantasy on 'Wachet Auf'?! I occasionally play this at Christmas. I really like it - and the counterpoint is good - it works in a linear fashion. The chords in the last line are just, well PHWARR!!

 

:P

 

=========================

 

 

No,no,no!

 

I ADORE Reger's music....I've travelled under severe hardships to hear it, like Bach went to Lubeck.

 

Meine Gott!

 

Imagine....Car to Yeadon in the wee-small hours, wait for an hour in the bar/restaurant, plane to Amsterdam Schipol, (breakfast), get frisked by Dutch security ;) , catch a train which fails to stop untl it gets to Leiden, back up the track, change trains, go to Haarlem, walk to either Bavo no.1 or Bavo no.2, real ice-cream in a cone.....REGER (swoon)....another ice-cream in a cone....eat terrible Dutch sandwich, walk to station, catch train, end up in Eindhoven after falling asleep, back to Schipol, fight my way through customs and check-in, hum Reger themes as I sit among awful, sleazy, pleasure-seekers retuning home (the few Dutch on board assume that I am some crazed Lutheran missionary who knows something about jet-engines and metal fatigue) , fight my way out of Yeadon Airport, get frisked by Asian security :angry: , retrieve car from car-park (paying £20 for the privilege :P )....drive home, stroke/feed the cat, go to sleep happy.

 

I just don't have Bach's talent, that's the difference!

 

;)

 

MM

 

MM

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Is it this:

 

http://www.pilarcabrera.com/mp3/pilar/langlais1.mp3

 

I think it was the one. Yes, I rather like it!  ;)

 

I think I'll have to learn to play it to see whether it's better than Mendelssohn. Wish me (lots of) luck!! :angry:

 

Many thanks to you for helping me find this piece of music again!

That's certainly the Chant Heroique - glad you've tracked it down again! It's a good piece I think.

S

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I see nobody's mentioned Caleb Simper yet. Or doesn't that qualify as music?

 

With reference to Simper and J H Maunder, I found this quote: "....Composers with ridiculous names: their names are about the one thing these composers couldn't help; other aspects of their activities are less innocent."

 

(Ralph Vaughan Williams on Simper and Maunder)

 

Ouch :angry:

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I happen to like the Langlais Te Deum.

 

Anyone remember David Lepine's LP from Coventry, years ago, with the most thilling account I can recall. The chordal sections were quite majesterial and the middle section (Te Domine speravi) was bursting with suppressed energy which just boiled up for the final onslaught.

 

Now, where did I put me Dupré Deux Esquisses ...?

 

H

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No offence - just a difference of taste, which is what this thread is all about. But there are some gems I think - what about the 4th movement (Communion) of the Suite Medieval, or No.1 of Huit Pieces Modales? Both are beautifully crafted miniatures.

 

Some of the bigger stuff is a bit angular, but I do love the Te Deum..............

 

The two books of 'Orgue de Choeur' type pieces on two staves have some nice miniatures - Priere and Prelude Modale especially.

 

AJJ

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