Under appreciated composers

[wrathy]

This is something I find difficult:

Here is yet another amazing composer I have never even heard of. How do you guys find the time to "dig into" (to use Frodo's term) these new composers you discover? I can barely find the time to get my own music done. This is a pretty dense piece of music!

It also begs the question, is there ever a time in one's life when you have enough input, and your time is better spent trying to realize your own work? I don't have an answer to this, but I wonder about the masters tendencies in this regard...

BEST.

[kgdrum]

This is something I find difficult:

Here is yet another amazing composer I have never even heard of. How do you guys find the time to "dig into" (to use Frodo's term) these new composers you discover? I can barely find the time to get my own music done. This is a pretty dense piece of music!

It also begs the question, is there ever a time in one's life when you have enough input, and your time is better spent trying to realize your own work? I don't have an answer to this, but I wonder about the masters tendencies in this regard...

BEST.

I think there always must be time to hear and learn from other musicians as well as composers.
Yes there is a fine line we need to balance between listening to others works and having the time to get our own music done.
Every musician/songwriter/composer I have ever heard has been inspired as well as influenced on some level from other peoples creativity.
Everyone can learn from others,Stravinsky said "good composers borrow,Great Composers Steal"
KG

[Frodo]

KG used a great word-- balance. You'd be surprised at how much time you have. Listening to other composers is inspiring for me. By the time I get around to doing my own work, I feel more driven and more productive as a result. Writing is like burning gas in your car. Every once in a while you have to stop to fill the tank before you can continue.

One of my favorite quotes from Lord of the Rings (I know, here we go again...) is "all you have to decide is what to do with the time given to you". The only way we can give 100% of our attention to anything is if we do one thing at a time. The result is a greater sense of focus and a greater sense of accomplishment.

Who knows how it happens that a new composer's music comes our way. It could be on the radio while driving. It could be something you bump into on youtube. You might see an ad for a concert which includes an unfamiliar composer's name, or you might be thumbing through the dregs of what's left at some CD store that's sold out of Beethoven but has had modern classical music sitting in the bins for months. Either we are drawn to stuff like that or we in some way draw it to us. Whatever the case, jot it down. Make a mental note, and then dedicate 15 minutes at the end of your day to follow up on what you discover.

The internet has been amazing for quick research. I can't imagine how I got through college without it. Finding biographies and news about almost anything, especially about music and musicians, has become indispensable.

[kgdrum]

here is another cool composer,I heard on the early morning Classical radio program here in NYC on WKCR WOW!!
Kaija Saariaho: Verblendungen
This piece combines Orchestra and tape and it is really out there lol .I have never heard of this composer,the colors and textures she creates are brilliant!
this piece is not on youtube but other works are,interesting composer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DjG-9Y5 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcKsyw8ezaI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXaWt0U ... re=related
KG

[Frodo]

Thanks, KG. That gives me something else to look forward to!

[FMiguelez]

.

Yeah, nice. And the fact that she's a WOMAN composer is even nicer! There are SO FEW women composers... never fully understood why, though

I'll check out her work.

[Movies]

No one commented earlier, but as far as female composers go [or composers in general] that have, like, completely saved my life, Ruth Crawford Seeger is a total game changer. The score to her 1931 String Quartet literally lives on my desk. I should list it with my other equipment in my signature file.

More recently, I was introduced to Lou Harrison who I'm really enjoying.

Wrathy: With regard to finding more time to "dig into" music, I think you'd find that you have more time than you think you do. When I was in school [years ago] and needing to practice five or six hours a day, one of my instructors sat me down and we made a list of all of the minutes of my day -- an honest list of how I spend my time from waking up to going to sleep. It turned out I had WAY more time than I felt like I did and it was simply a matter of structuring my time better. Every so often when I'm feeling pulled in a jillion different directions, I sit down and figure out what my days actually look like. A few weeks ago, I realized I could flat-out fit a half hour of relaxing reading in every morning!

[kgdrum]

heard this composers work today,WOW!
Zoltán Kodály Concerto for Orchestra .
I never heard of this composer before.
Searched on Amazon,they do not have any of his works,Arkive has some,an interesting composer from what I heard,has anyone else here heard his compositions?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Kodály is among my favorites. His works for cello and piano are also worth a listen if you like "heartfelt" stuff, as are his (sometimes impossible) piano works.

[crduval]

I'm enjoying this thread and learning about so many people whose music I heard and really liked, but never really knew about. The cartoon music for early loony tunes stuff is so fantastic - frenetic, propulsive, manic and witty.

I always loved the music for Star Trek, the original TV series. There were several composers - Alexander Courage who wrote the title theme, George Fried and others (to be honest, I am not sure who wrote what). I think the great music did a lot to give the show "serious" credibility, and it really enhanced the action on screen.

...

Ok, thinking about this just compelled me to spend the last 45 minutes watching an episode (the Doomsday Machine, if you must know)!

Damn it Jim, I'm a musician, not a couch potato!

[Shooshie]

Just read this thread in rapt attention. Was pleased that I knew most of the composers mentioned. I actually have a CD collection of the works of Stalling, and I have videos with the works of many of the others. I've always been a fan of the people who wrote Flinstones, (Hoyt Curtin?) Jetsons, Bewitched, and many of the TV themes of the 60s.

Then there are the film scores that endure. One of them is that of High Noon. Written by Dmitri Tomkin, a Russian, if I remember correctly, it just sounds like it came out of the wild west itself. Of course, Tex Ritter made it a hit, and it was very simply produced. I see Tomkin's name on other films and am amazed it's the same person. He had quite a range.

But it's really not hard to write a certain kind of music. Beethoven only attempted to write Beethoven, which was the hardest thing he could do, but had he been a film scorer, and a producer said "we want it to sound like the deep South," he'd have finished it by noon. There's a difference between writing art music that will be judged by critics on the world-stage, and period, location, or peer music that is only judged by how well it fits the scenes. I'm not saying it's easy to be great at that, just easier to write it.

I'm in awe of many composers. There are SOOO many, and there is SOOO much great music. I can't begin to absorb it all. I love that we have the ability to play it at our will. Music used to be a rare privilege.

Shooshie

[kgdrum]

another interesting composer I recently heard for the 1st time is Boris Tischenko,the piece that I heard is Concerto for Cello,17 Winds,Percussion and Harmonium,amazing work I found the CD on the Northern Flowers label,I haven't had a chance to hear the other compositions but this work is very interesting.

[BKK-OZ]

Nothing to do with Bugs and the rest, but one of my super-all time faves is Mr Arvo Pärt.
I have to restrain myself from constantly buying recordings of his works.

Some information on him here (Wikipedia article) and here (his official site) and here (an Amazon listing of his recordings).

BTW, I agree with everything Mr Frodo wrote in his OP, esp. the bit about Ms Celine Dion!

[Movies]

I just discovered a composer named Sofia Gubaidulina -- a living Russian composer who, apparently, at one point studied under Shostakovich. Her work was recommended to me as someone to listen to for ideas regarding extended techniques for strings.

I picked up The Canticle of the Sun and it's pretty awesome. Super minimal, at times drony. All in all, very, very patient, thoughtful music.

[Shogun Assassin]

This is a great thread.
May I also add Hector Berlioz? He is probably one of the most under-appreciated master orchestrators that ever lived. He is famous for his "Symphonie Fantastique" but has an amazingly powerful "Te Deum" as well as his opera-which is almost impossible to stage- "The Damnation of Faust."
Great early romantic period stuff.

One of my all time favorite under appreciated film composers has to be Trevor Jones. He has done many a film score, but no one really gives him the time of day. He's wonderful.