Unsung Composers

The Music => Composers & Music => Topic started by: albion on Friday 06 May 2011, 08:12

Title: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: albion on Friday 06 May 2011, 08:12
Bach and Shostakovich (Op.87) wrote cycles of preludes and fugues systematically working through the entire key-system, whilst there are sets of preludes in all the keys by Chopin (Op.28), Rachmaninov (spread across various opus numbers), Scriabin (Op.11), Alkan (Op.31) and another set by Shostakovich (Op.34).

York Bowen wrote his 24 Preludes, Op.102 around 1950 and Stanford traversed the entire key scheme twice in his Preludes Opp. 163 (1918) and 179 (1921).

Are there any other examples of this very orderly approach?  ???
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: alberto on Friday 06 May 2011, 10:11
Some examples could be J.N. Hummel op.67, Felix Blumenfeld op.17, Dimitri Kabalevsky 0p.38. Possibly also Nikolai Kapustin op.53.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: albion on Friday 06 May 2011, 11:50
The cyclic key concept is clearly alive and well, as Russian composer Lera Auerbach (b.1973) produced the following sets in 1999:

24 Preludes for Piano, Op.41
24 Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op.46
24 Preludes for Cello and Piano, Op.47

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Auerbach.jpg)

Away from the piano, there are 24 Preludes for Guitar (c.1929) by Manuel Ponce (1882-1948), of which half remained unpublished until 1981.

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/5561901.jpg)

Algernon Ashton (1859-1937) clearly had time on his hands, reputedly completing 'cycles' of 24 piano sonatas and 24 string quartets, each covering the entire key scheme (many now unfortunately being lost, along with all his orchestral music).

(http://www.toccatapress.com/tmp/thumbs/Algernon-Ashton-c-RCM-240x-A2F55EB4.jpg)

Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: eschiss1 on Friday 06 May 2011, 13:16
Shostakovich may have been working toward the same with his quartets (though only managed 15) and Rheinberger with his organ sonatas (better innings there).
Agreed, lots of examples.  Guessing that the following are among them - 24 Études en forme de Preludes by Edward Wolff, 24 Exercises et Préludes opus 21 by Henri Herz, 24 Preludes opus 81 by Stephen Heller (Chopinesque sequence of keys). Perhaps? sets besides by Palmgren (rather unusual key sequence for this context) and Kalkbrenner.  (Eg the IMSLP Preludes category (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Preludes) has a long sublist of '24 preludes' though it's a question only determinable by observation which of them cover all the keys...)
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: Francis Pott on Friday 06 May 2011, 20:32
Hello, I've just happened upon this interesting website and joined up. I've written various notes on Bowen, Dale and others for Hyperion and if I may I'll correct you slightly about the Bowen Preludes: they were only published in 1950 but the compositional part was completed shortly before the outbreak of the Second War. I find them uneven in inspiration but the best of them are excellent - as are the performances they've now received on disc from Messrs Hough and Celis and also from Marie-Catherine Girod.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: TerraEpon on Friday 06 May 2011, 20:51
Gliere and Kabalevsky both did it as well.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: Jonathan on Friday 06 May 2011, 21:35
And Cui as well!
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: thalbergmad on Friday 06 May 2011, 22:10
Chasins, Cramer, Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Niemann, Palmgren, Concone, Cummings-Knight, Winding, Tsintsadse, Chaulieu & Sorokin as well, unless I am mistaken.

Thal
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: kdjupdal on Friday 06 May 2011, 22:11
Geirr Tveitt:
12 Inventions in 12 different keys. An early work by this composer, and quite nice music. Modal tonality.

spotify:album:1bIyl1xo5pbhcjcKBxB9qX

And of course:
Ludus Tonalis by Hindemith.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: alberto on Saturday 07 May 2011, 09:08
If 12 preludes in 12 different keys is inside the topic, there is the controversial Hans Huber (and for four-hands piano).
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: albion on Saturday 07 May 2011, 09:37
Quote from: alberto on Saturday 07 May 2011, 09:08
If 12 preludes in 12 different keys is inside the topic

Yes, any composite work which seeks (for whatever reason) to exploit the full range of the chromatic scale (not necessarily major and minor) should be included. They need not necessarily be Preludes either:

there are complementary sets of Etudes by Alkan - 12 in all the major keys (Op.35) and 12 in all the minor keys (Op.39), whilst Johann Christian Schickhardt (c.1682-c.1762) in his Alphabet de la Musique, Op.30 (c.1735) wrote 24 sonatas in all the keys for flute, violin or recorder.

Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: Francis Pott on Saturday 07 May 2011, 19:02
In his opus 31 Alkan went for 25 Preludes so that he could come round again and end where he began, in C - but there's an idiosyncratic arrangement, with pairs in which the first is always the dominant of the second. There's also the curious 'split-level' entity of the 12 Etudes by Liszt that get only halfway round the key cycle and are finished off much later as an act of homage by Liapunov.

I think Hans Gal wrote 24 Preludes (possibly fugues as well, I don't have them and can't remember).
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: eschiss1 on Sunday 08 May 2011, 02:36
According to the Hans Gal website, 24 Preludes, op.83 (http://www.hansgal.com/works/op83.html) (1959-60) probably fits...
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: chill319 on Sunday 08 May 2011, 07:48
Stephen Heller, 24 Preludes, opus 81 (c.1853 based on the B&H plate nos.)
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 09 May 2011, 00:24
re Heller opus 81: according to Hofmeisters Monatsberichte, 1853 (http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-buch?apm=0&aid=1000001&bd=0001853&teil=0203&seite=00000359&zoom=6) is indeed right for the Breitkopf & Härtel issue and probably for the first appearance of the work in print at all too (or use RHUL-Hofmeister (http://www.hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/) to search). Useful resources for determining publication dates within certain ranges (though with caveats as with any other resources, of course). - Eric
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: dax on Sunday 13 November 2011, 08:46
Christopher Hobbs (b.1950) - 24 Preludes in all the keys (1992).
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: Okon Fuoko on Wednesday 21 December 2011, 06:17
Hello to all of You!
In the category of 24 Preludes there are also the early Ferrucio Busoni and the more obscure (and more fine!) Finnish Erkki Melartin's examples, as well as Miecszyslaw Vajnberg's set for the solo cello. 
Speaking about 24 Preludes & Fugas I must mention two sets from the Soviet composers in the footprint of Shostakovich: Rodion Shchedrin (Great set!) and Sergei Slonimsky.
And - as the last but not least - Niels Viggo Bentzon's Tempered Piano: 13 sets of 24 Preludes & Fugas (covering the total of 15 cd:s)!!
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: isokani on Thursday 22 December 2011, 15:07
Semyon Barmotin.
Felix Blumenfeld.
Busoni (v early, not sure there are 24 though).
Bacarisse.
Barvynsky.
Kasyanov
Mushel (pr. + fugues).
Shirinsky.
Golts.
Casadesus.
Kabalevsky.
Karaev.
Heller.
Kapustin.
Palmgren.
Abramian.
Gal.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: saxtromba on Friday 23 December 2011, 16:03
So far as I know, there's only one composer who actually wrote music in all the major and minor keys: Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846), who wrote two sets, each of 30 pieces, covering even the rarely used enharmonic keys (a# minor, C# Major, Ab minor, and Cb Major).  One set, Op. 55 for organ, was Preludes; the other, for piano, Op. 67, was 'Exercises'.

A brief bio, though one which doesn't mention his unique achievement: http://www.naxos.com/person/Johann_Heinrich_Christian_Rinck/26299.htm
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: Rainolf on Friday 23 December 2011, 17:58
The Silesian composer Gerhard Strecke (1890-1968) wrote 24 Preludes and Fugues for organ late in his life as his op. 101. I don't know this pieces, but they are sold by the Laumann Verlag in Dülmen, which is specialized on Silesian music.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: kb on Sunday 01 January 2012, 22:30
From Norway, I know these collections for piano solo:
Trygve Madsen: 24 preludes Op. 20 / 24 preludes and fugues Op. 101
Frank Tveor Nordensten: 24 preludes and fugues
Filip Sande: 24 interludes / 24 preludes and fugues
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: doctorpresume on Monday 02 January 2012, 16:27
A vote here for Goldenweiser's "Contrapuntal Sketches", opus 12, a cycle of 24 pieces (structured Prelude, Fugue, Canon, Prelude, Fugue, Canon etc) in all the keys. Marvellous recording by Jonathan Powell on the Toccata Classics label.
Title: Re: Preludes in all the keys
Post by: eschiss1 on Sunday 04 March 2012, 03:36
Not quite the same, but Dancla's op.115 is a set of scales, etudes and melodies in all the major and minor keys, if the Boston edition published by Whipple in 1881 and scanned in by the Library of Congress is accurate (the original title, L'utile et l'agréable (24 Mélodies) doesn't seem to suggest this.)
Eric