Alistair Hinton

[davidjosepha]

Has anyone here played any of his piano works? Has anyone heard any of his piano works?

I kinda want to buy one or two of them just to see what they're like, but I don't know where to begin. I have no idea how difficult they are, how much I might like them, even what style they are.

Really, any information on his stuff would be helpful.

[ajspiano]

go here i guess..  and contact him asking for recordings

https://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/hinton/scores.php

or ask him directly via the forum.. he's a member - username "ahinton"

[davidjosepha]

Yeh, I've looked there, but there's only so much information--length, dedication, a couple other things...I'd be fine blind ordering a piece for 10 pounds (which most of them are), but I wouldn't want it to arrive and then find out "Oh, crap, I can't play this. At all." and still have no idea what it sounds like. I'd probably be safe with "Little Suite (Six Easy Pieces)", but that doesn't sound particularly interesting to me.

And I only know about him because he's a forum member Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll see this post. I guess I could email him too, but I'm sure I'd get a better impression of what the music is like from someone here (if anyone here has played any of it) than from the composer himself.

[j_menz]

I must confess to not having heard any of his music either.  Just ordered a CD with his Variations and Fugue on a theme by Greig, so will let you know what I think. I recall reading somewhere around here that someone liked it.

[emrysmerlin]

I must confess to not having heard any of his music either.  Just ordered a CD with his Variations and Fugue on a theme by Greig, so will let you know what I think. I recall reading somewhere around here that someone liked it.

Please share your experience with all of us! 

[ahinton]

If you're worried about outlaying too much money on scores of pieces that you do not already know whether you'll like and which you may or may not find yourself able to play, it might be helpful for me to point out that all of my work is now available in .pdf format, a risk (! - you all know what risk!) that I have taken a few months ago in order specifically to overcome that very problem; that won't help you find out much about the music in advance, of course, but it will at least mean that you can spend a lot less on scores in order to find out, provided that you don't mind printing them out for your use when you've downloaded them if you need to do so.

Best,

Alistair

[davidjosepha]

If you're worried about outlaying too much money on scores of pieces that you do not already know whether you'll like and which you may or may not find yourself able to play, it might be helpful for me to point out that all of my work is now available in .pdf format, a risk (! - you all know what risk!) that I have taken a few months ago in order specifically to overcome that very problem; that won't help you find out much about the music in advance, of course, but it will at least mean that you can spend a lot less on scores in order to find out, provided that you don't mind printing them out for your use when you've downloaded them if you need to do so.

Best,

Alistair

If I order a print copy from you instead, what is the quality of the print? Is it essentially just the score printed out by you, or is it comparable in quality to published editions by Schirmer or Peters, or such? I don't mind printing out the music myself, but if I'd be able to get it in significantly better quality by buying a print copy, that would definitely be preferable, even with the price increase and wait time.

[ahinton]

If I order a print copy from you instead, what is the quality of the print? Is it essentially just the score printed out by you, or is it comparable in quality to published editions by Schirmer or Peters, or such? I don't mind printing out the music myself, but if I'd be able to get it in significantly better quality by buying a print copy, that would definitely be preferable, even with the price increase and wait time.

A handful of course are typeset but most are in ms.; a fair number of those mss. are in ink and of reasonable legibility (there is one glaring exception which is a piano work whose ms. was stolen and the master-copy from which I now produce copies was taken from a poor photocopy of the original taken before that theft). That said, the difference in visual quality between a paper copy and a downloaded one should be negligible and subject only to the quality of print that you can obtain from your printer (it should be pretty much the same when viewed on screen) - and you'd save yourself some money with .pdfs, especially if you are located outside UK and have to pay high mailing charges for paper copies.

Best,

Alistair

[apmapmapm]

Has anyone here played any of his piano works? Has anyone heard any of his piano works?

I kinda want to buy one or two of them just to see what they're like, but I don't know where to begin. I have no idea how difficult they are, how much I might like them, even what style they are.

Really, any information on his stuff would be helpful.

I've messaged you.