English piano music

[simonjp90]

is there any REALLY good english piano/harpsichord music that is hardly ever played? i really want to get into some music from my own country for a change

[kitty on the keys]

Look into the piano literature books of Maurice Hinson. Also google English piano composers. Look into the music of Bax.

Kitty on the Keys

[vviola]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginalist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzwilliam_Virginal_Book
https://imslp.org/wiki/My_Ladye_Nevells_Booke_of_Virginal_Music_(Byrd,_William)

&c

[retrouvailles]

Look at Kenneth Leighton. He is definitely one of the best 20th century English composers for the piano, and he was independent of the Vaughan Williams/Bax/Walton/etc crowd.

[thalbergmad]

I would start with Byrd, Avison & Hook and then gradually work your way forward.

Potter, Sternale Bennett & C V Stanford are good romantics, Baines and Hurlstone for later romantics and a million different composers for 20th Century stuff.

Thal

[simonjp90]

Wasn't stanford Irish?

[thalbergmad]

He was born in Ireland, but he spent most of his life in England.

If he had stayed in Ireland, he would have become a potato farmer instead of a Composer.

Thal

[ahinton]

He was born in Ireland, but he spent most of his life in England.

If he had stayed in Ireland, he would have become a potato farmer instead of a Composer.

In one of his worse moments, Sorabji might have questioned whether the results of Stanford's work would have seemed much different if he had done that; he opined on one occasion that Stanford would have set the entire Bible to music, given the opportunity (perhaps Susanistimo might care to return here to comment on that)...

Best,

Alistair

[retrouvailles]

(perhaps Susanistimo might care to return here to comment on that)

God forbid....

Anyways, maybe one can also look at Sorabji? Could he even be considered an English composer, given his racial background?

[thalbergmad]

I feel it would be difficult to consider him anything but English. He had an English mother and was born in the same town as my Grandfather (Chingford), albeit 4 years later.

He probably ate jellied eels and got pissed down the local music hall on a Saturday night. The same as the average Edwardian.

Thal

[ahinton]

I feel it would be difficult to consider him anything but English. He had an English mother and was born in the same town as my Grandfather (Chingford), albeit 4 years later.

He probably ate jellied eels and got pissed down the local music hall on a Saturday night. The same as the average Edwardian.

Er - I rather think not! Yes, his maternal origins appear to have been English but it has long been well known that his paternal ones were anything but. As to your other admittedly entertaining (though hopelessly wrong-headed) fantasy, it's about as unlikely as J S Bach driving a Harley Davidson to a Happy-Clappy Church in Philly so that he could conduct an ensemble of guitars and tambourines there - and for someone as dedicated to the art of fine cuisine as KSS was, the notion of spending a weekend getting pissed (presumably on warm stale English beer) as an accompaniment to the consumption of jellied eels from Billingsgate fishmarket just doesn't quite have that ring of credibility about it, does it?

Best,

Alistair

[argerichfan]

...he opined on one occasion that Stanford would have set the entire Bible to music, given the opportunity ...

I can well imagine Sorabji making a statement like that, but alas, I think the honour goes to Delius who said that about Parry. 

[ahinton]

I can well imagine Sorabji making a statement like that, but alas, I think the honour goes to Delius who said that about Parry. 

Which may well be where KSS got it from!

Best,

Alistair

[simonjp90]

Look at Kenneth Leighton. He is definitely one of the best 20th century English composers for the piano, and he was independent of the Vaughan Williams/Bax/Walton/etc crowd.

had a listen to leighton, absolutely magnificent stuff. some of the choral music he wrote as well!! amazing. found a piece for organ called paean which is also fabulous.

also stumbled across john ireland - piano works recorded by john lenehan on naxos, also wonderful music

[simonjp90]

why is there hardly any english music from classical period?

[thalbergmad]

Well, the Navy had used all the available wood, so there was none left for manuscript paper.

The music of the English classicalists do not compare favourably with our European friends, but Hook and Griffin are worth looking at.

Thal

[gep]

jellied eels

* shudders *

Ah well, we eat rotted milk, fried slices of a poisenous plant, unborn bird embryos, living invertebrates, congealed bodily fluids en cow's tongue....
As do the English I guess!

got pissed down the local music hall on a Saturday night.

I guess it's possible to get pissed in any Saturday music hall without the slightest drop of alsohol. Perhaps one would need an awful load of beer in order NOT to get pissed in such an establishment. Anyone with a musical sense above the ordinary door bell at least...

gep

[simonjp90]

I would start with Byrd, Avison & Hook and then gradually work your way forward.

Potter, Sternale Bennett & C V Stanford are good romantics, Baines and Hurlstone for later romantics and a million different composers for 20th Century stuff.

Thal

cant find any piano music by stanford. did he definitely write some?

Listened to loads of Sterndale bennett on naxos website, brilliant suggestion thanks, Baines also is terrific.

i know you say theres millions of english 20th c composers but i dont actually know that many, could you maybe give me some highlights..?

[richard black]

I'm an admirer of Leighton, but I thought the Scots claimed him as one of theirs - ?

On the other hand, under the heading of 'English' piano music I think we can justifiably include the large body of works by my dear friend Ronald Stevenson, who may have spent pretty much his entire adult life in Scotland but was certainly born in England.

There's a Ronald Stevenson Society accessible via any of the usual search engines...

[ahinton]

I'm an admirer of Leighton, but I thought the Scots claimed him as one of theirs - ?

I think that you're pretty much on the nail there!

On the other hand, under the heading of 'English' piano music I think we can justifiably include the large body of works by my dear friend Ronald Stevenson, who may have spent pretty much his entire adult life in Scotland but was certainly born in England.

Ouch! Scottish father, Welsh mother - but he just happened to have been born in Blackburn, Lancashire (as distinct from the black burn that runs close to his Scottish home of almost six decades). No denying the importance of much of the piano writing, though! Just don't let on in his hearing that you've ever mentioned him in a thread about "English piano music" (that's if you value your life)...

Best,

Alistair

[communist]

Was Tippett born in England? If so he is an option.

[simonjp90]

Was Tippett born in England? If so he is an option.

im not the biggest tippett fan... hes definitely english though

I'm an admirer of Leighton, but I thought the Scots claimed him as one of theirs - ?

leighton is brilliant. scotland cant have him

[thalbergmad]

cant find any piano music by stanford. did he definitely write some?

I have never played/heard/investigated any of his solo works to be honest. I was basing my judgement on two piano concertos and concert variations on Down among the dead men, which I have studied.

Thal

[edwardweiss]

Excellent works by C.V. Stanford are the three Rhapsodies after Dante, dedicated I think to Percy Grainger. I have played the last two a lot. No.2, Beatrice, is reasonably manageable and quite beautiful. No.3, Capaneo is very dramatic and quite Brahmsian- [and hard!]-ironic really , since Stanford dismissed one of John Ireland's student works as 'All Brahms and water, Me Bhoy!'