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roslynmuse
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« on: 17:51:13, 14-03-2007 » |
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In 1963, R Murray Schafer compiled a volume called British Composers in Interview. There were 16 selected:
Ireland, Wellesz, Arthur Benjamin, Alan Bush, Rubbra, Walton, Lennox Berkeley, Tippett, Lutyens, Britten, Searle, Fricker, Arnold, Hamilton, Goehr, Maxwell Davies
In 1985, 22 years on, Paul Griffiths compiled a second volume, New Sounds, New Personalities. This time there were 20 names:
Goehr, George Benjamin, Maxwell Davies, Bainbridge, Jonathan Harvey, Knussen, Ferneyhough, Casken, Matthews - David and Colin, Tavener, Holloway, Osborne, Souster, Stephen Oliver, Bryars, Muldowney, Maw, Saxton and Birtwistle.
Add another 22 years and we get to 2007. Let's increase the number to 24 composers - who should be included in this year's volume? We are allowed an overlap of four names only.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #1 on: 18:49:59, 14-03-2007 » |
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The overlap of four creates some difficulties, but here goes for a possible other twenty: Ades, Anderson, Barrett, Butler, Ferneyhough, Finnisey, Holt, Hoyland, Jonathan Lloyd, MacMillan, McCabe, Martland, MacRae, Nyman, Payne, Pickard, Skempton, Swayne, Turnage, Weir.
Some of these should be interviewed for their celebrity as much as their musicianship...but I'm naming no names....
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time_is_now
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« Reply #2 on: 21:49:45, 14-03-2007 » |
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Hmm ... i'd be happy with any 4 of the first seven as my overlaps, after which - well, I'm off to bed, but briefly (I'll fill in the gaps another time):
Finnissy, Gilbert, Dillon, Barrett, Fox, Martland, Toovey, Skempton, Anderson, Ades, Cole, Weir, plus Barry if I'm allowed an Irishman
If I have to narrow down my overlap to four I'll go for:
Benjamin, Harvey, Max, and Knussen
(partly because I think they'd have the most new to say since 1985)
although I might think again about Bryars - not sure what he's been up to recently ... might be a good counter-balance to some of the usual suspects
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Andy D
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« Reply #3 on: 22:30:34, 14-03-2007 » |
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If we're looking for new or newish British composers, can I suggest a few other names?
Phil Cashian, Phillip Neil Martin, Ed Bennett, Alison Kay, Joe Cutler, Morgan Hayes, Laurence Crane, Huw Watkins, Ed Hughes (I suppose Dai Fujikura doesn't qualify)
I would, until recently, have included Tansy Davies but I wasn't too impressed with her new piece for BCMG which I heard the other week.
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #4 on: 22:34:28, 14-03-2007 » |
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OK:
For a balanced selection:
Ades, Anderson, Barrett, Benjamin, Birtwistle, Bryars, Clarke, Dillon, Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Fox, Goehr, Harvey, Hoban, Holloway, Knussen, Martland, Maxwell Davies, Newman, Nyman, Saunders, Skempton, Weir, Wood.
(there are plenty more I might include, but I'm trying to keep it to 24 and include a broad cross-section).
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #5 on: 22:38:48, 14-03-2007 » |
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Ian - balanced, as in some good, some not-so-good?  (Read my post in the Nyman thread...) |
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John W
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« Reply #6 on: 23:02:50, 14-03-2007 » |
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Ahem,
At only 35 years old, even a proms performance, Joby Talbot?
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #7 on: 23:22:46, 14-03-2007 » |
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Ahem,
At only 35 years old, even a proms performance, Joby Talbot?
No. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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John W
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« Reply #8 on: 23:24:45, 14-03-2007 » |
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Ok What about Juliana Hodkinson? I'm not recommending her as the only piece of hers I've heard Befall was to my ears a bad arrangement of Chopin. John W |
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jennyhorn
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« Reply #9 on: 00:02:38, 15-03-2007 » |
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i agree most strongly- -an update of the Griffiths book is long overdue.
i`m surprised luke stoneham`s name hasn`t cropped up,Richard Baker (a very fine piece 'crank' for music box....)or John Woolrich (the viola concerto is extremely beautiful among others...)
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John W
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« Reply #10 on: 00:05:53, 15-03-2007 » |
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Well I must say all these lists of composers (there's another thread of them somewhere) are not very useful to the rest of the forum.  Why not use the sendspace.com site to make short (or long) soundclips available and then EXPLAIN why certain names are in your lists and certain names are not.  We need to be told !  John W |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #11 on: 07:14:44, 15-03-2007 » |
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A few points arising: John W's question suggests that New Music is becoming increasingly alien even to music listeners (though would even a handfull of short clips from each composer really be able to say anything useful about them?) Even the biggest names are now rather outside the everyday knowledge of the general public, though there are probably more composers working at a level which could justify their inclusion; perhaps the list should stand at thirty rather than twenty-four. Furthermore, the person with arguably the greatest public exposure as a 'Classical' composer (Karl Jenkins) - (sorry)- has had no mention at all (and some might even quite P McCartney and Carl Davis as eligible). Also the fact that with the fragmented nature of the scene means that some composers are better known outside the UK than at home...
Sorry about the garbled nature of this, have to dash off to work now,but perhaps somebody else could pick up a few of the points......
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #12 on: 08:59:34, 15-03-2007 » |
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I'm not really active in the British scene so I'm afraid a list won't be forthcoming from me. But if it were I wouldn't be confining it to composers I thought were good or even necessarily to those who were famous. Or even of course to composers still working in the UK. I would personally be of the view that at least some of Carl Davis, Paul McCartney, Karl Jenkins should be in there because like it or not they're an essential part of the classical music scene (and of course because some of the other subjects would have something to say about them so they should certainly have a chance to stick up for themselves!); as should composers like Chris Dench, Brian Ferneyhough, Richard Barrett who (at the moment) don't live here (I'm in London at the moment so I can say here ), partly so that they could say why. But to address a point of John's - I wonder if the fact that even he has to say 'there's another thread of them somewhere' suggests that perhaps not just the scene but the board has got a little fragmented? |
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richard barrett
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« Reply #13 on: 09:15:24, 15-03-2007 » |
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The "other thread" is I think at "the other place" and wasn't just about British composers.
I realise I might well be speaking out of turn here, but I did find John W's statement that the list is "not very useful to the rest of the forum" a little strange. Look at it this way. A number of contributors to this forum have come up with selections of names of contemporary British composers who they believe to be significaant enough to warrant inclusion in a book of interviews. Surely John's reaction could more "usefully" be: "here's a gap in my musical knowledge" (which as we know is pretty wide in John's case) "- what am I going to do about it?" Why not do a bit of easy internet research of your own, John, rather than putting an onus of explanation on the shoulders of those here for whom this music is as much a part of their lives as the music you value is of yours? The truth is out there.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #14 on: 09:20:52, 15-03-2007 » |
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Hm, well indeed there are some lists at The Other Place. But there's certainly a bit of listing going on at This Place under music appreciation/21st century/young composers...
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