Must expand my listening habits.

[chopinlover01]

Everyone keeps spouting random names, and that's great. I just need a ton of obscure composers to listen to, so I can find something new outside my usual cycle of Chopin-Liszt-Beethoven-Mozart-occasional Medtner.
Thanks in advanced to visitor, who I know will be all over this thread <3

[mjames]

How about also expanding beyond the world of piano..? Or should i just stick to giving out piano composers?

idk

Anyways for orchestral music:

Janecek

Sibelius, his symphonic cycle is bloody amazing, probably one of my favorite symphonies ever. also his some awesome chamber works like his mature string quartet (he composed a few in his youth) and awesome tone poems (tapiola, sibelius lemminkäinen)

Nielsen's another one of the scandanavian greats. 6 great symphonies, especially the 4th aand 5th, awesome violin concerto, and he has a few piano works. i particularly like the chaconne and the theme&variations op. 41


One of my favorite composers ever (not just because hes obscure) is the frenchie ernest chausson. Everything of his high quality beauty

interesting piano trio:

Some obscure classical and baroque composers:

This portuguese has a pretty large collection of miniature sonatas. Very interesting baroque pieces.

Classical era:

Wolfl's one of my favorites. Awesome piano sonatas..and there's a lot to choose from!

Dussek. I think you might enjoy this one because he was a precursor to the popular style brillante style that will Chopin would adopt in the near future. Lots of early romantic type ornamentation and melodic configurations.

Very versatile composer. Wrote for the harp too....some really interesting piano&harp sonatas

recommend field for the same reasons as dussek

romantic and post romantic:

Reubke is pretty badass. He only wrote a bit because he died too young...his only piano sonata is pretty awesome. Im still waiting for someone to transcribe his psalm sonata for organ.

Stanchinsky is another "died tooo early" badass. I love his 12sketches...absolutely brilliant piano miniatures. Planning on working on the entire set soon.

[mjames]

Pierre Sancan wrote a pretty badass toccata---^

[visitor]

I think my listening and rep dosocvery shenanigans are given too much creditundred

I applaud this attitude mainly for the following reason, knowledge of and discovery of the literatire is severely lacking in most folk's training, its an important base.  I treat regularly listening and score discovery like practice sessions and dedicate time to it in a similar fashion.  I set out on a similar journey years ago and began to a self directed study project. It makes you a better musician and it is a skill that comes in handy later as you will learn what your tastes truely are, develop a filter by which you can better guage new disoveries on
Your own etc.

It's a bit of a toughy, over time I have literally reccommended hundreds on less known or neglected works and/or composers. I AM STILL LEARNING AND DISOCOVERING. The literature is vast and honestly i forget what is out there sometimes due to the volume. If i simply try to list off top of my head i will likely miss a bunch as sometimes it takes digging through my library and old notes to jog my memory.  Still i will do my best and try to start w a decent working skeleton list and build on that.

A bunch if what i might list will be somewhat biased as i am most familiar with the forgotten music i like most, also, we are going to be limitod in this discussion by what is on youtube, and a bunch of stuff i would like to suggest is not recorded or not uploaded and the albums that have them are rare or expensive.  

Where a work is suggested, do expand on it and try to find works by th same composer. Further research the basic bio and if you can find the name of the teacher or teachers in composition, or classmates or colleagues, that is a great source to springboard of  to more exciting territory.

Results are pednding while i gather my wits about me. Will reply w a starter list soon.  Then we can build on it.

[mjames]

Where a work is suggested, do expand on it and try to find works by th same composer. Further research the basic bio and if you can find the name of the teacher or teachers in composition, or classmates or colleagues, that is a great source to springboard of  to more exciting territory.

Right on! I discovered Stanchinsky while reading a few first sources about Scriabin. Basically Scriabin was trash talking him.

It's amazing how everyone's teacher, classmate, and friend were accomplished composers back then.
For ex:

Prokofiev, Alexandrov, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Liadov, Medtner and many more all knew each other! Reading about a composer's teacher/background education is a great idea.

Josef Elsner (Chopin's teacher) was quite the accomplished composer as well. Wrote some very interesting religious works, and a few adequate classical works. You should check them out Chopinlover!

[visitor]

[visitor]

Ellinor Remmick Warren considered neo romantic in slant ie like Barber Times
Her work along the shore ( suite type) is fantastic
Ie excerpts

I. Dark hills

Ii nocturne

Iii sea rhapsody

This was later orchestrated as the third movement of Warren's tone poem, "Along the Western Shore". Warren's love of the full tonal range of the symphony orchestra is readily apparent in this virtuosic piano piece, where one can readily imagine the restlessness of the sea, its surging waves breaking against a shore.

[visitor]

Siegmeister
Three studies

Or here Is ex from American piano sonata ( no 1 )
Iii lusty and joyous

Like Warren Flagello was neo romantic at heart as had a more tonal aesthetic at a time wheni at of music world lost it's mind and was obsessing over the absurd complete rejection of traditional melodic and tonal constriction and lyricism
Cool étude in honor of Freddy
Homage a Chopin

I believe  his piano sonata deserves as much respect and study and praise as Barbers
You could excerpt a movement.  Very romantic In scale and in late romantic virtuosic feel

[visitor]

Another long time favorite
William grant still. Wrote a lot of great piano music , very interesting and impressive background ( especially his "training" )

Deseret Plantation suite for piano
Excerpt ( hymn )

Other ex of many pieces and variety of style

[visitor]

Margaret Bonds

[visitor]

[visitor]

or this little diddy  

[/quote]

[visitor]

[visitor]

[visitor]

[visitor]

this is on my wish list, i need to start looking again, score super scarce

[visitor]

Zygmunt Noskowski (see info box of video for bio info etc)
Aen Automne Op 29 No 1 (give her about 1 minute to start playing but once it starts, it was worth the wait!)

Rozycki/Ginzburg Fantasy on the Waltz from Casanova

amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing ^^

[visitor]

Leschetizky

[visitor]

von Bulow

Stenhamar

[visitor]

Tolinger

one of the less often remembered students of Liszt....

Alberto Williams

Czerny
so shouldn't need to be part of the thread but it is a sad state of affairs, as only the some of the etudes are part of the common lit.

should see more of this type of stuff

Stamaty teacher and pianist composer, most famous pupils were Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint-Saëns.

[visitor]

Grunfeld

[visitor]

glad someone finally ul'd this one, love her stuff

[visitor]

[pencilart3]

Harrison, we seem to like similar styles, so you may find these interesting!

[pencilart3]

Oops and I forgot about this. You've got to listen to this every now and then.

[visitor]

really must discover Vladigerov (senior, though his son wrote a rad set of variations *see below)

son

[visitor]

slavic->slovak, jazzy, melodic, sharp/astringent, all at once. this is money.

*dat 3rd mvmnt, me gusta

[visitor]

[visitor]

Book I 00:01
Book II 13:31

[zpianist]

Leopold Kozeluch (1747-1818), another Bohemian. In 1792, he became court composer in Vienna (or was it Prague?), after Mozart's death left that position open.

His works are of variable quality; quite a few are formulaic and "tonic-dominant," as though he wrote the same piece 200 times. But at his best, Kozeluch wrote fascinatingly Romantic works with rich harmonic imagination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B94WEmp0c5A (the repeated octaves remind one of the Beethoven "Appassionata," written about a decade later)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOYne2muXBI (Oh right, that's another thing about Kozeluch. While being relatively accepted during his life, he was also somewhat of an anachronism, e.g. calling these works "trio sonatas")

[zpianist]

Vorisek, one of the first to write Impromptus. As you can probably tell, instrumental in the development of Schubert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8GPPW6xArc

This is totally edgy and out here: Rautavaara's (b. 1928) 2nd sonata, "The Fire Sermon"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wSNSk97hEY. Here are Rautavaara's own notes on this piece

Like many of my works, Piano Sonata No. 2, "The Fire Sermon", written in 1970 derived its musical energy from its sub-title; the magic words 'The Fire Sermon' stuck in my mind, repeating themselves like a mantra. There is no conscious link, however, with T.S. Eliot's poem of the same name or Buddha's famous sermon. All three movements observe the principle of continuous growth and the initial idea grows in extent, density and strength until the texture cracks (often into clusters), becomes dissonant, dissolves into a fog of sound or, as in the concluding fugue, goes overboard from pathos to trivial irony for a fleeting instant. The mysticism and devotion of the First Sonata have here given way to pessimism, to a repeated and frustrating struggle.

[rubinsteinmad]

Everyone keeps spouting random names, and that's great. I just need a ton of obscure composers to listen to, so I can find something new outside my usual cycle of Chopin-Liszt-Beethoven-Mozart-occasional Medtner.
Thanks in advanced to visitor, who I know will be all over this thread <3

Replace Medtner with Rachmaninoff and ur good to go  \

(Really, the only Medtner piece I like is his "Canzone Serenata")


Oh, and add Schumann and Grieg to your listening liszt. We'd appreciate that.

[visitor]

Fracisco de Lacerda

a few examples from his set of 36 shorts...(for amusement and children)

all 36 as playlist, highly reccommend a complete listen through, they are super charming and well done miniatures and more interesting than the same old Grieg lyric pieces, these sort of remind me of Bizet music but a little spicier.

[rubinsteinmad]

more interesting than the same old Grieg lyric pieces

Please check the dictionary for the word "interesting"

[visitor]

Please check the dictionary for the word "interesting"

harmonic language is more modern vs the gireg, to me they are sharper, acidic, , more interesting I never said they are better or prettier, just more interesting. I like the gireg lyric pieces.

[visitor]

[mjames]

Replace Medtner with Rachmaninoff and ur good to go  \

(Really, the only Medtner piece I like is his "Canzone Serenata")


Oh, and add Schumann and Grieg to your listening liszt. We'd appreciate that.

Even Rachmaninoff considered Medtner to be the superior composer. His sonatas alone make him superior imo...

Op. 10 triad sonatas
Forgotten Melodies Op. 39 cycle
Sonata Tragica
Op. 5 Sonata
sonata reminiscence
sonata romantic
sonata idyll

and the GLORIOUS
ULTIMATE
one of the GREATEST sonatas ever

THE NIGHTWIND SONATA

honorable mentions:
vocalise sonatas
violin sonatas
The Skazki
Piano Quintet


Medtner's ouvre is absolutely amazing. You may not like him sure, but that certainly doesn't diminish his genius.

[visitor]

Even Rachmaninoff considered Medtner to be the superior composer. His sonatas alone make him superior imo...

Op. 10 triad sonatas
Forgotten Melodies Op. 39 cycle
Sonata Tragica
Op. 5 Sonata
sonata reminiscence
sonata romantic
sonata idyll

and the GLORIOUS
ULTIMATE
one of the GREATEST sonatas ever

THE NIGHTWIND SONATA

honorable mentions:
vocalise sonatas
violin sonatas
The Skazki
Piano Quintet


Medtner's ouvre is absolutely amazing. You may not like him sure, but that certainly doesn't diminish his genius.

YEP.


and this. let's not forget the suite vocalise. wow.

wow.

[mjames]

YEP.


and this. let's not forget the suite vocalise. wow.

wow.

BEAUTIFUL CRAFTMANSHIP

TALENT LIKE THAT SHOULD BE A CRIME.

Let's not forget the Op. 7 Arabesques too! uGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Like rachmaninov said: "one can write such a piece and then die!"

TOO MUCH BEAUTY.

That idyll is so perfect in form its amazing...

[rubinsteinmad]

2:30 (The only part I like is when the chorus comes in)
Even though Vaughan Williams isn't obscure, he is still far less popular (in the U.S.) than Medtner or Alkan.

[rubinsteinmad]

[visitor]

Reis is dope. Studied w Beethoven i believe.

[visitor]

[visitor]

http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/gustave-samazeuilh.pdf

[Bob]

Same here.  I've been thinking I'm in a rut for listening to music.  The same stuff over and over. 

Except it's work.  But one of the more effective things I remember was being forced to memorize pieces to composer and piece info.  I really picked up the composer's style that way.  (Although you can listen once, save sound clips, and really focus in on the sound clips instead of listening to the whole piece.)

Maybe some "medium" composers... with their top selected works.


Or finding listening lists from music classes was useful too.

[rubinsteinmad]

[rubinsteinmad]

Just to bring back to your attention (you probably have heard this already):