One Hit Wonders

[Goldsmith]

Marcel Lanqueuit's Toccata has recently been rescued from justified obscurity by several notable players. I don't know of any other pieces.

 

And in a different league, might the Thalben-Ball Elegy count? It's certainly more popular than Edwardia, Toccata Beorma etc.

 

And there's another French-type Toccata, whose composer escapes me. I heard it a few years ago played after Easter evensong at Windsor Castle, and a few times since. Quite memorable, even if the name of the composer wasn't. Anyone any ideas?

[parsfan]

Yes, DGW is an advocate. Goodness knows why. Tedious beyond belief. As are the Bolcomb Gospel Preludes. SP and Sarah Baldock both play these. Lets hope the novelty wears off soon and we can get back to some propoer music.

[James Goldrick]

One names springs to mind right after Reubke and Boellmann

 

 

...a certain Ralph Vaughan Williams.

[Brian Childs]

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Sure that isn't F.I.A.T. Lux?

 

 

MM

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Are n't you old enough to remember the Latin Mass ? Or to have done 5 years of it at school ?

[Brian Childs]

One names springs to mind right after Reubke and Boellmann

...a certain Ralph Vaughan Williams.

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Does that make Chopin, Delius, Debussy, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schubert etc, etc NO HIT WONDERS (unless transcriptions are allowed ? As far as I am aware none of these wrote anything intended for performance on the organ. I have certainly never come across an original organ work by any of those named, though I have certainly encountered their music in organ performance on a number of occasions. And what about the likes of Bruckner, Beethoven, and Dvorak whose original organ compositions pale into insignificance in comparison with the works for which they are well known ? And did Mozart actually write any organ music intended for performance by a human being as opposed to a clockwork machine ?

 

 

Perhaps we need to refine the rules a bit in order to provide for the cases of (1)internationally celebrated composers who wrote nothing at all for the organ :(2) internationally celebrated composers whose organ works are insignificant and rarely performed ; and (3) internationally celebrated composers whose contribution to the organ literature is well known but was not originally conceived for the organ, such as Mozart and possibly Schumann , depending on the view taken of his real attitude to the pedal piano for which some of them were ostensibly intended.

 

I would argue that RVW belongs in a fourth category : "composers with an international reputation who have produced one reasonably well known piece of organ music" - that certainly fits RVW and also Nielsen, Britten and Michael Tippet.

 

BAC

[Vox Humana]

Does that make Chopin, Delius, Debussy, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schubert etc, etc  NO HIT WONDERS (unless transcriptions are allowed ? As far as I am aware none of these wrote anything intended for performance on the organ.

I gather a Prelude and Fugue by Debussy was discovered a few years back - it's listed in the lastest edition of Henderson. Don't know anything about it, but it's hardly a typical Debussian form - I'm expecting to learn that it was a student exercise as is so often the case with posthumously published organ pieces by the greatest composers (Dvorak's preludes, for example). I think Schubert's two organ fugues fall into the same category. If you haven't come across these, you've not missed anything.

[Brian Childs]

I gather a Prelude and Fugue by Debussy was discovered a few years back - it's listed in the lastest edition of Henderson. Don't know anything about it, but it's hardly a typical Debussian form - I'm expecting to learn that it was a student exercise as is so often the case with posthumously published organ pieces by the greatest composers (Dvorak's preludes, for example). I think Schubert's two organ fugues fall into the same category. If you haven't come across these, you've not missed anything.

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Thanks for the information: clearly I need to get myself a more up to date, and perhaps bigger, musical dictionary. I suppose that puts Debussy and Schubert in the same category as Beethoven and Dvorak rather than where I had them and I suspect the research obsession currently driving Higher education will lead to more cupboards being turned inside out and the discovery of further examples of long (and sometimes better) forgotten work. Nevertheless, I think the categories hold water even if I put certain individuals in the wrong box.

[James Goldrick]

I would argue that RVW belongs in a fourth category : "composers with an international reputation who have produced one reasonably well known piece of organ music" - that certainly fits RVW and also Nielsen, Britten and  Michael Tippet.

 

BAC

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Not to mention some others listed here already

 

...Edward Elgar and Charles Ives among them

 

 

 

...also, does Poulenc count?

[MichaelDavidson]

Not to mention some others listed here already

 

...Edward Elgar and Charles Ives among them

...also, does Poulenc count?

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... or Hindemith for that matter?

[Goldsmith]

Marcel Lanqueuit's Toccata has recently been rescued from justified obscurity by several notable players.  I don't know of any other pieces.

 

And in a different league, might the Thalben-Ball Elegy count? It's certainly more popular than Edwardia, Toccata Beorma etc.

 

And there's another French-type Toccata, whose composer escapes me. I heard it a few years ago played after Easter evensong at Windsor Castle, and a few times since. Quite memorable, even if the name of the composer wasn't. Anyone any ideas?

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And in reply to my own post, I've remembered the one-hit Toccata chap: Albert Renaud.

[parsfan]

What abt Nibel's Carillon Orleanis? Yet to hear it in a recital !

[J Maslen]

What about the little Toccatina by Pietro Yon? Never heard of anything else he wrote. Just wish I could play it properly!

 

Regards to all

 

John

[MusingMuso]

What about the little Toccatina by Pietro Yon? Never heard of anything else he wrote. Just wish I could play it properly!

 

Regards to all

 

John

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Want a hit? A real hit? A hit so great that it became a pop-song?

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you..........

 

The Andantino in D by Mr Edwin Lemare (aka "Moonlight and Roses")

 

 

 

MM

[Brian Childs]

... or Hindemith for that matter?

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Does that involve treating all 3 sonatas as a single work ? If not, which one is the hit...?

[Vox Humana]

...and I wonder whether the two early pieces recently published by Schott will make a difference. Are they any good?

[MusingMuso]

Does that involve treating all 3 sonatas as a single work ? If not, which one is the hit...?

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I can never recall which is the best known Hindemith, and the music is at church.

 

However, assuming that everyone knows the work to which I refer, I have always adored it; the last really memorable performance I heard being in Holland, naturally.

 

I wouldn't quite describe Hindemith as a "one hit wonder" or, as the Americans call them, "One trick ponies"......he was quite a major composer and, as an educator, utterly inspirational apparently.

 

It's interesting, but even now, many years after Hindemith's work at Yale University, his influence is very apparent on many American composers; such as Earsley Blackwood of Chicago University.

 

I don't quite know why I say this, but the mixed modal language of Hindemith provides, I believe, the potential for a new style of contemporary contrapuntal composition, should anyone care to take up the mantle.

 

For those who enjoy at least some modern or contemporary organ-music, I have always liked the Peter Racine Fricker, "Pastorale" which I have never, ever heard in recital. I think Fricker was another who trotted off to America.

 

On that basis, it isn't even a one hit, but a no hit with the organ community.

 

I have often wondered if he was any relative to the Fricker who used to be City Organist at Leeds Town Hall.

 

Of course, another very obvious contender for the "one trick pony" piece, is another Pastorale, by Ducasse, which is just magnificent.

 

MM

 

MM

[Brian Childs]

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I can never recall which is the best known Hindemith, and the music is at church.

 

However, assuming that everyone knows the work to which I refer, I have always adored it; the last really memorable performance I heard being in Holland, naturally.

 

My experience has been that most people find the Third Sonata the most immediately accessible and appealing

 

I For those who enjoy at least some modern or contemporary organ-music, I have always liked the Peter Racine Fricker, "Pastorale" which I have never, ever heard in recital. I think Fricker was another who trotted off to America.

 

 

This was quite popular in the 1960s as I recall and was recorded several times; David Lepine at Coventry, Francis Jackson at York, and Melville Cook at Hereford (another Michael Smythe recording). More recently Kevin Bowyer has recorded it (but what has he not apart from the Ad Nos and the Elgar Sonatas?) as has Roger Judd at the Laurenskerk, Rotterdam. Could not find one at St Bavo's...sorry .

MM

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[James Goldrick]

Sweelinck?

[MusingMuso]

Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck

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

 

 

Didn't he write the original score for "The Sound of Music?"

 

Ut,re,me and all that.

 

I think he's most famous for his chromatic fantasia....certainly among academics.

 

Then there's "Est ce mars" and the "Unter der linden grune" and all those gorgeous choral works.

 

His influence stretched in a line from Holland to North Germany, and he more or less founded an influential school of keyboard composition and performance.

 

Somewhere, I have a Netherlands banknote with his mug-shot on it (an engraving of course).

 

Organists may only remember him for "Mein junges leben" by and large, but that certainly doesn't make him a one-trick-pony.

 

On the other hand, he's possibly the most famous composer Holland ever had, because they don't seem to breed composers much over there. It's fascinating to compare the wealth of composers originating in Belgium, just a few miles away.

 

I wonder why?

 

MM

[Vox Humana]

His influence stretched in a line from Holland to North Germany, and he more or less founded an influential school of keyboard composition and performance.

Bull!

 

And possibly Philips.

 

That's where Sweelinck got his style from. Bull and Philips in turn got it from Byrd, Gibbons and the rest of the English school. So it was the English who laid the foundations on which Bach eventually built.

[parsfan]

Back to one hit wonders-Sicilienne by Martha Von Paradis !!

[jonspark]

The Toccata by Georges Kreiger springs to my mind.

I've only ever heard it performed by John Scott-Whitely at york minster.

fantastic piece of work

[giwro]

I'd submit Paul de Maleingreau....

 

Poor guy, not only is he noted for one piece, but simply for a single MOVEMENT therin(!)

 

From his Symphonie de la Passion (written BEFORE Dupré's, BTW) "Tumult in the Praetorium"

 

~~

 

Most of us are likely unaware that he wrote 2 FURTHER organ Symphonies, and a total of over 100 opus numbers(in various genres), only 30-40 of which were ever published.

 

~~

 

Some chaps deserve to be one-hitters.... (just explore their further output) some were simply never championed by influential people...

 

~~~

 

One more - Jean Berveiller, made famous by Jeanne Demessieux and her performance of his "Mouvement". Most are unaware he wrote also a fine Suite (very similar in concept to an organ Symphonie, and with a RAVISHING Adagio movement) as well as 2 other organ works. I'm told that all of the rest of his works remain unpublished (along with the elusive Mouvement)

 

Cheerio,

[MusingMuso]

I'd submit Paul de Maleingreau....

 

Poor guy, not only is he noted for one piece, but simply for a single MOVEMENT therin(!)

 

From his Symphonie de la Passion (written BEFORE Dupré's, BTW) "Tumult in the Praetorium"

 

~~

 

Most of us are likely unaware that he wrote 2 FURTHER organ Symphonies, and a total of over 100 opus numbers(in various genres), only 30-40 of which were ever published.

 

~~

 

Some chaps deserve to be one-hitters.... (just explore their further output) some were simply never championed by influential people...

 

~~~

 

One more - Jean Berveiller, made famous by Jeanne Demessieux and her performance of his "Mouvement".  Most are unaware he wrote also a fine Suite (very similar in concept to an organ Symphonie, and with a RAVISHING Adagio movement) as well as 2 other organ works.  I'm told that all of the rest of his works remain unpublished (along with the elusive Mouvement)

 

Cheerio,

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Spooky!

 

I was just mentioning Paul de Maleingreau the other day, when we were talking about the Caleb Jarvis recording at St.George's Hall, Liverpool.

 

On that recording can be heard the Toccata Op.14, from the Suite in E minor, which is really quite good, I think.

 

MM

[sjf1967]

I'd submit Paul de Maleingreau....

 

Poor guy, not only is he noted for one piece, but simply for a single MOVEMENT therin(!)

 

From his Symphonie de la Passion (written BEFORE Dupré's, BTW) "Tumult in the Praetorium"

 

~~

 

Most of us are likely unaware that he wrote 2 FURTHER organ Symphonies, and a total of over 100 opus numbers(in various genres), only 30-40 of which were ever published.

 

~~

 

Some chaps deserve to be one-hitters.... (just explore their further output) some were simply never championed by influential people...

 

~~~

 

One more - Jean Berveiller, made famous by Jeanne Demessieux and her performance of his "Mouvement".  Most are unaware he wrote also a fine Suite (very similar in concept to an organ Symphonie, and with a RAVISHING Adagio movement) as well as 2 other organ works.  I'm told that all of the rest of his works remain unpublished (along with the elusive Mouvement)

 

Cheerio,

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Jonathan - I used to play the whole Suite, and still play the middle two movements from time to time - I'm not so convinced by the outer ones these days. Do you know the recording by Kevin Bowyer at Blackburn? I have a score of Mouvement, supplied on pdf from someone else who plays it, and have played it once or twice. John Scott plays it from time to time. There's also the Berveiller Cadence, of which I also have a copy (now out of print, I think, and also on the KB Blackburn LP).