#ClassicsaDay #ForgottenComposers Week 4

This month the Classics a Day team presents a real challenge. And that's to remember forgotten composers. It's a challenge, but remembering the forgotten can be important, too.

The idea here isn't to lift up composers who always labored in obscurity. Rather, the goal is to recall composers that were once popular. 

Throughout this month, many of the composers I'll be featuring will have the same story. During their lifetime they were famous and popular. People flock to hear them play, publishers fight for the rights to their music, and younger composers emulate their style. 

And yet, after their death, it all goes away -- and quite quickly. Usually, within a decade their music's out of print, no one performs or discusses them, and they're virtually eliminated from music history.

Why? The reasons vary. Sometimes it's gender or racial bias. Sometimes it's political upheaval. Sometimes tastes just change.

Here are my posts from the second week of #ForgottenComposers. I'll leave it to you to judge if they deserve to remain so.

11/21/22 Carl Loewe: Erlkonig

In the mid 1800s, Loewe was renowned as a tenor and as a composer of dramtic ballad. He was called the "Schubert of North Germany," and his music was admired by Wolf and Wagner. In time they would overshadow Loewe and his music fell into obscurity.

11/22/22 Thomas Arne: Ouverture to "Alfred"

Thomas Arne was Britain's premier composer of theatrical music, composing one hit after the other. Today, he's remembered for just two tunes: "Rule Britania," and "A Hunting We Will Go." 

11/23/22 John Knowles Paine: Symphony No.2 in A-major, Op.34 "Im frühling"

Paine was a major figure in late 19th Century American music. He founded the AGO, developed Harvard's music curriculum, and was a director of the New England Conservatory of Music. His music was regularly performed until after World War I when European repertoire became the norm in American concert halls.

11/24/22 Hans Pfitzner: "Palestrina," Act I Prelude

Pfitzner was a rising star in 1920s Germany. His contentious relationship with the Nazis hampered his career somewhat. But because he didn't fully break with the regime, his music wasn't performed much after the war.

11/25/22 Moritz Moszkowski: Piano Concerto in E major, Op. 59

Moszkowski was considered the greatest Polish composer/pianist after Chopin. His tours were always successful, and he was one of the most sought-after piano teachers of the 1890s. His health declined in the early 1900s, and his fame soon vanished -- as did his music from the concert hall.

Next month:

#ClassicsaDay #ForgottenComposers Week 3

This month the Classics a Day team presents a real challenge. And that's to remember forgotten composers. It's a challenge, but remembering the forgotten can be important, too.

The idea here isn't to lift up composers who always labored in obscurity. Rather, the goal is to recall composers that were once popular. 

Throughout this month, many of the composers I'll be featuring will have the same story. During their lifetime they were famous and popular. People flock to hear them play, publishers fight for the rights to their music, and younger composers emulate their style. 

And yet, after their death, it all goes away -- and quite quickly. Usually, within a decade their music's out of print, no one performs or discusses them, and they're virtually eliminated from music history.

Why? The reasons vary. Sometimes it's gender or racial bias. Sometimes it's political upheaval. Sometimes tastes just change.

Here are my posts from the second week of #ForgottenComposers. I'll leave it to you to judge if they deserve to remain so.

11/14/22 Frank Bridge: Three Idylls

Bridge was one of the pre-eminent composers of Edwardian Britain. After World War I, his music became more complex and forward-looking -- and less popular. Today, his fame primarily rests in the title of Benjamin Britten's "Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge," which made Britten's reputation.

11/15/22 Antonio Salieri: Requiem in C minor

Salieri was one of the most respected composers and teachers in 1790s Vienna. By the 1820s, changing tastes, and spurious rumors caused his music to disappear from concert halls. Salieri's music experienced a revival in the late 20th C. with the success of Peter Seller's "Amadeus."

11/16/22 Alberic Magnard: Symphony No. 4

He was known as the "French Bruckner." Before World War I his star was on the rise. But Magnard was killed in 1914, and styles changed after the war. His music was soon forgotten.

11/17/22 John Knowles Paine: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 23

Paine was the eldest member of the Boston Six and a major figure in American music in the 1890s. His works were performed internationally and regularly appeared in American orchestral programs. After World War I, there was an influx of European conductors, hired by the major American orchestras. These conductors considered Paine's music -- as well as those of his contemporaries -- old-fashioned and provincial. Paine's music ceased being programmed.

11/18/22 Sergei Taneyev: Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29

Taneyev was a music theorist as well as a composer. He was a master at counterpoint, and preferred to stick to the "rules" of the forms he wrote in. He often clashed with the Five, who were developing a Russian school of composition. Their opinion prevailed, and the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky, et al. became the standard for Russian music. 

Uncomfortable with Taneyev's intellectual approach to composition, Rimsky-Korsakov characterized it as dull and academic (though it was actually neither). Nevertheless, performances of his works soon dropped off.

#ClassicsaDay #ForgottenComposers Week 2

This month the Classics a Day team presents a real challenge. And that's to remember forgotten composers. It's a challenge, but remembering the forgotten can be important, too.

The idea here isn't to lift up composers who always labored in obscurity. Rather, the goal is to recall composers that were once popular. 

Throughout this month, many of the composers I'll be featuring will have the same story. During their lifetime they were famous and popular. People flock to hear them play, publishers fight for the rights to their music, and younger composers emulate their style. 

And yet, after their death, it all goes away -- and quite quickly. Usually, within a decade their music's out of print, no one performs or discusses them, and they're virtually eliminated from music history.

Why? The reasons vary. Sometimes it's gender or racial bias. Sometimes it's political upheaval. Sometimes tastes just change.

Here are my posts from the second week of #ForgottenComposers. I'll leave it to you to judge if they deserve to remain so.

11/07/22 Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini: Sonata in G major

Maria Teresa was renowned as a keyboard virtuoso. Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa was both a fan and a patron, and Pinottini's concerts were destination events for European music lovers. Although a good deal of her music was published, it was not well-curated. After her death in 1795, it was considered second-rate and not worth preserving. As a result, much of her music has been permanently lost.

11/08/22 Franz Schreker: Prelude to a Drama

Schreker, like Wagner, created a unique musical and dramatic aesthetic. After WWI, he was the most-performed operatic composer after Richard Strauss. But he was Jewish. His career was brutally shut down by the Nazis, who officially declared his music irrelevant. Schreker died in 1934, and that assessment of his work was carried forward by historians well into the 1990s.

11/09/22 Thomas Canning: Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan

Canning studied with Howard Hanson at Eastman and had a successful career in academia. He taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto, the University of Hull, and West Virginia University. Most of his compositions were written for specific events, and though favorably received, were still music of the moment. His Fantasy on a Hymn Tune remains his best-known work, although that, too, has lapsed into obscurity.

11/10/22 Robert Fuchs: Piano Concerto in B-flat minor Op. 27

Fuchs was an influential composition teacher at the turn of the century. His pupils highly regarded him as a composer, including Sibelius, Mahler, Korngold, Wolf, Schreker, and Zemlinsky. Fuchs was never interested in promoting his music, so it lfell into obscurity after his death.

11/11/22 Malcolm Arnold: Fantasy for Trumpet, Op. 100

Arnold was a trumpeter who turned to composition. At one time, he was the most-performed composer in Britain. He wrote over 100 film scores, including "Bridge on the River Kwai." Anti-social behavior exacerbated by alcoholism eventually destroyed his career. Now only a few of his most popular scores are infrequently performed.

#ClassicsaDay #ForgottenComposers Week 1

This month the Classics a Day team presents a real challenge. And that's to remember forgotten composers. It's a challenge, but remembering the forgotten can be important, too.

The idea here isn't to lift up composers who always labored in obscurity. Rather, the goal is to recall composers that were once popular. 

Throughout this month, many of the composers I'll be featuring will have the same story. During their lifetime they were famous and popular. People flock to hear them play, publishers fight for the rights to their music, and younger composers emulate their style. 

And yet, after their death, it all goes away -- and quite quickly. Usually, within a decade their music's out of print, no one performs or discusses them, and they're virtually eliminated from music history.

Why? The reasons vary. Sometimes it's gender or racial bias. Sometimes it's political upheaval. Sometimes tastes just change. 

Here are my posts from the first week of #ForgottenComposers. I'll leave it to you to judge if they deserve to remain so.

11/01/22 Louise Farrenc: Trio for flute, cello, and piano, Op. 45

In her lifetime she was feted as a virtuoso pianist and wrote symphonies, chamber works, and piano music. She was a Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory for 30 years and wrote several important piano technique books and etudes. Shortly after she died, her reputation and music disappeared.

11/02/22 Hans Huber: Symphony No. 2 "Böcklin Symphony"

At the turn of the 20th Century, Huber was the pre-eminent Swiss composer. His second symphony was part of the orchestral repertoire. After his death in 1921, his music and his reputation were quickly forgotten.

11/03/22 Marianna Martines: Keyboard Concerto in A major

In her lifetime Martines was renowned throughout Europe as a singer, harpsichordist, and composer. She had studied with Haydn and was the first woman to be admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna. After her death in 1812, her music all but vanished.

11/04/22 Niccolo Jommelli: Requiem

In his lifetime Jommelli was extremely influential among French and Italian operatic composers. He, along with Christoph Gluck, was credited with revitalizing the art form. And yet after his death in 1774 his music ceased to be performed. Very soon music histories credited only Gluck with the innovations they both championed.