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Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Feb. 23 2008, 04:37 What a morning! The post brought 3 CDs this morning and I'm so excited I can hardly sit still. But I need to start a bit further back. Musical history, like Art History, can be very misleading. It seems that in the middle of the 20th century a whole heap of British Victorian and Edwardian composers were consigned to the rubbish heap in that huge reaction against all things to do with Empire. (Even the reputation of Elgar himself suffered a severe decline at that time.) People like Parry, Bantock, MacKenzie, Wallace were once among the musical elite of their day, and now their major orchestral works are simply no longer played (though some of their choral stuff seems to have survived through the activities of amateur choral societies). But a friend recently alerted me to the fact that Parry had written 5 symphonies; that the 3rd symphony (the 'English' ) was particularly fine; and that my deep pleasure in Elgar would almost certainly mean that I'd enjoy Parry. It turns out that all his symphonies were recorded in the early 90s, but the CDs are either very expensive (£40 for a box set) or hard to find. I managed to get the 'English' symphony, and have been playing it every day for the last week. My friend was right. I love it. It sounds like Brahms, with chunks of Elgar poking through all the time. But even better, a few days ago I found all the other Parry symphonies affordably for sale on eBay - and that brings me to this morning, when they all dropped through my letter box. There seems to have been a not-particularly-successful attempt to bring all these guys out of the closet during the 90s. There's a 6 CD set available of Sir Granville Bantock, for instance, and various CDs of music by Wallace and MacKenzie. I feel like a kid at Christmas. A whole new musical landscape is opening up. Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Feb. 23 2008, 05:26 It has been said that there was no great British composer between Purcell and Elgar. Names like Parry and Bantock are ones I only ever heard when the subject was on composers Elgar was better than. I find it indeed hard to believe that there shouldn't have been anything worthwhile; I guess it's just some sort of academic cliché that has been repeated so often people started believing it. Enjoy your discovery! Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Feb. 23 2008, 05:47 Apparently Elgar himself was very impressed by Parry's music - and listening to Parry you can hear for yourself that Elgar didn't just come from nowhere. That famous 'nobilmente' feeling of Elgar's keeps popping up all the time in Parry. It seems that this was an important source of the sparks that lit the Elgar bonfire, as well as being very enjoyable purely in its own right. Back to top

moonchildhippy Group: Members Posts: 1807 Joined: Dec. 2004 Posted: Feb. 25 2008, 17:58 Quote (Holger @ Feb. 23 2008, 09:26) It has been said that there was no great British composer between Purcell and Elgar. Names like Parry and Bantock are ones I only ever heard when the subject was on composers Elgar was better than. I find it indeed hard to believe that there shouldn't have been anything worthwhile; I guess it's just some sort of academic cliché that has been repeated so often people started believing it. Enjoy your discovery! Wasn't Gustav Holst born in Cheltenham, I know with such a name he doesn't sound English, but I know he lived in Cheltenham, as I visited his house on a school trip.  Cheltenham has surprisingly produced quite a few musicians, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was born there. I know we're talking classical composers rather than rock.  Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, wasn't he responsible for putting music to Blakes poem "Jeruselam" . I know Parry composed music to Jeruselam as ELP did this song on their "Brain Salad Surgery" album.  I know with ELP they  often covered music by (lesser) known European/ British composers, rather than getting their inspiration from Americans     -------------- I'm going slightly mad, It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad If you feel a little glum to Hergest Ridge you should come. I'm challenging  taboos surrounding mental health "Part time hippy" I'M SUPPORTING OUR SOLDIERS BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!! Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Feb. 26 2008, 03:32 Quote (moonchildhippy @ Feb. 25 2008, 22:58) Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, wasn't he responsible for putting music to Blakes poem "Jeruselam" . Yes that's the same chap. With such a famous song under his belt, you'd think there'd be more interest in his other stuff, wouldn't you? But unlike a few choral pieces like 'I Was Glad', the symphonies seem to have been a closely guarded secret for a century, apart from the Chandos recordings in the 90s. I've now listened to four of his 5 symphonies. The 3rd (the 'English' ) and the 4th are very fine, but the 2nd has the most exquisite tune in the slow 3rd movement - a real tear-jerker. Back to top

moonchildhippy Group: Members Posts: 1807 Joined: Dec. 2004 Posted: Feb. 26 2008, 08:40 Quote (Alan D @ Feb. 26 2008, 07:32) Quote (moonchildhippy @ Feb. 25 2008, 22:58) Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, wasn't he responsible for putting music to Blakes poem "Jeruselam" . Yes that's the same chap. With such a famous song under his belt, you'd think there'd be more interest in his other stuff, wouldn't you? But unlike a few choral pieces like 'I Was Glad', the symphonies seem to have been a closely guarded secret for a century, apart from the Chandos recordings in the 90s. I've now listened to four of his 5 symphonies. The 3rd (the 'English' ) and the 4th are very fine, but the 2nd has the most exquisite tune in the slow 3rd movement - a real tear-jerker. My enthusiasm for Emerson Lake and Palmer, has most probably led me on to another musical discovery       .   If it wasn't for Jerusalem and ELP I wouldn't have made the Parry discovery. Speaking of quintesencially English composers how abour Ray Davies, there's something in his works that mourns the passing of Englishness. -------------- I'm going slightly mad, It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad If you feel a little glum to Hergest Ridge you should come. I'm challenging  taboos surrounding mental health "Part time hippy" I'M SUPPORTING OUR SOLDIERS BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!! Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Mar. 01 2008, 05:43 There's been a bit of talk about physical vs digital media recently (in relation to some of MO's releases associated with Music of the Spheres), and I know the whole debate has probably been driven to exhaustion over the years - but I was really looking for a good excuse to show something and this seemed a good opportunity. Truth is - I'm having some difficulty getting into the music of Sir Granville Bantock. I feel as if it's the kind of thing I ought to like, but I find it isn't coming easy - so I'm having to work at it. However, I have a boxed set of his orchestral works which is so gorgeous - so luscious to hold, handle, and look at - that I find I'm persisting with the music even though it's a bit of a struggle, just because it's such a pleasure to open the box and rifle through the contents. Seems to me, this is a marvellous example of (a) how attractive CDs can be, despite their bad press; (b) how valuable it is to be stimulated, through its associated artwork, into giving a piece of music 'just one more try'. Just imagine a MO release presented with this amount of care! And don't tell me it's too expensive to do this. It's just a question of priorities - I don't see any signs of Hyperion going out of business, despite their lavish treatment of Bantock's works. The issue is merely one of whether the company cares about anything else except the making of money. (This fantastic package - 6 CDs, box and booklet, can be had for £32 or less on Amazon.) Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Mar. 08 2008, 15:50 This seems to be turning into something like a personal blog of my journey through forgotten British composers, but it's nice to have somewhere to record some of these discoveries. The Parry treasure hunt continues. First, I stumbled across a CD of some of his chamber music: two violin sonatas and two little collections of short pieces for violin and piano, picked up for a couple of pounds on Amazon Marketplace. See here. It almost makes me feel guilty to be able to buy such great music so cheaply. After three listens (I find it always takes me at least three listens to get into a new classical piece), I am hooked. There is some gorgeous music on this CD - really heartfelt, fine music, exquisitely recorded, so that you can almost feel the bow bouncing on the strings in the energetic bits - and once again I can only boggle at the fact that all this music has been left mouldering, hidden away, for nigh on a century. I just found two more CDs of his piano trios and quartet, which I'm really looking forward to hearing. Second up is this wonderful find: A real artefact from a neglected composer in a far-off age. Not sure quite what to do with it. Stick it on one of my CDs of his music (maybe my favourite, the 2nd symphony)? Stick it on the title page of the biography of him that I just picked up on eBay? Frame it? Ah, choices, choices...... Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 13 2008, 12:28 My trawl through forgotten English/British music continues, this time with a box of symphonies by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (see here on Amazon uk). Unfortunately as you can see it tends to be an expensive item, though I got one much cheaper by keeping an eye on Amazon marketplace sellers for a couple of weeks. It's not a lovely physical object like the Bantock set - just 4 CDs in the usual kind of double-thick folding plastic box, but it has a booklet with good notes. And already I can tell that I'm going to get on a lot better with Stanford than I am with Bantock. Stanford is known primarily for his choral music, and his symphonies have been almost completely ignored for about a century, but the two I've heard so far have a lot going for them. There's his 'Irish' symphony, no. 3, which has some great tunes - some of them Irish folk melodies. Like Parry's, his symphonies tend to remind me of Brahms, so the structure seems more accessibile and manageable (unlike Bantock who sprawls expansively and splashes his romanticism all over the place without quite knowing when to stop) - but again like Parry there's an English/British character to it that I can't really pin down but which I like. I've also listened to his 6th symphony, written in memoriam GF Watts (the Victorian painter), which is dominated by two themes - a 'love' theme and a 'death' theme which play off against each other in quite a moving way. OK - I admit that he isn't Elgar, or even close. Like Parry, he's in the second rank of composers rather than the first. But there are 7 symphonies here, all, I'm sure, with something to offer, and there are few things more enticing than an unknown road ahead stretching off in a promising direction into pleasant countryside.... Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 27 2008, 13:00 I think what's emerging from my delving into the music of these guys is that Parry (and to a lesser extent, Stanford) is turning out to be a firm favourite. The more I listen, the more he stands out. So much of what he writes is feel-good music: he doesn't make my spirits soar, but he makes me feel a bit more cheerful and comfortable on a rainy day. One CD in particular is turning out to be really lovely. It's a CD of chamber music that I've already mentioned earlier - the Amazon page for it is here, and you can get one quite cheaply. If you know the Pump Room at Bath, imagine sitting at a table, there, there with a pot of Earl Grey in late-ish afternoon. I don't mean the Pump Room of Beau Nash in the eighteenth century, nor even of Jane Austen in the early nineteenth. Think more of late Empire around 1900. Think of the clink of silver spoons on fine porcelain and the hum of genteel conversation. It's the lull before the storm of the 1st World War that would sweep all this away, and that knowledge always seems to me to bring a particular poignancy to this era. On the low stage is a violinist and a pianist, and what you hear on this CD is exactly the kind of music I'd expect to hear in this situation. If the situation sounds attractive, then maybe the CD is worth trying. If the situation makes you cringe, then I'd avoid the CD! Stanford is in some ways a shade closer to Mike Oldfield (though that seems absurd when I write it, baldly, like that). But my point is that he was Irish, and wrote a series of Irish Rhapsodies based on folk tunes as well as the symphonies I've already mentioned in a previous post - so there's a Celtic point of contact. These rhapsodies are all on a 2-cd set - the Amazon page is here. Each rhapsody is 15-20 minutes long, and the third is particularly lovely. It has a cello soloist, with orchestra, and is based on a haunting tune by Turlough O'Carolan. After three listenings, I'm getting very fond of this. Back to top

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