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Works by W A Mozart seem to have been used as a "template" by at least two of our "unsungs". Spohr appears to have based his Alruna Overture on the Magic Flute Overture, whilst the finale of Josef Netzer's  First Symphony appears to owe quite a lot in its general form to that of Mozart's so call "Jupiter" Symphony in the same key of C major. I wonder if there are other similar "borrowings" of musical frameworks by other unsung composers.

I asked this question on this forum some years ago, but since then many new members have arrived on the scene.
On the face of it, the most obvious answer would be F J Haydn, but I have a sneaking feeling that some lesser known composer might have got there first. I'd also be interested to know if any unsung composer might have beaten Beethoven in the race to substitute a scherzo for a minuet in a symphony.

It would be interesting to hear forum members' thoughts on what they have found to be the most memorable melody they have come across from an unsung composer. For me, it has to be the march from Raff's Lenore Symphony. After hearing just one performance of that symphony on the BBC back in 1949, I kept that tune in my head for 40 years until I was able to come across a secondhand LP of the work in a record shop in York in 1989.
I wonder if that is some sort of record.

I've just noticed, thanks to the latest Radio 3 up date, that George Lloyd, whose music was so unfashionably tuneful in its day, is now Composer of the Week, every week day at 12 noon. Sadly, I've missed the first 2 episodes.

  Could anyone please point me in the direction of scores of Franz Lachner's symphonies? I am particularly interested in getting hold of Nos 2, 3 & 4, as I want to find out what bridges the huge chasm between rather run of the mill No 1 and the massively dramatic No 5. I would say this is comparable with the Chasm between Beethoven's 1st and 5th symphonies. If I can get hold of any of these scores, then, if I live long enough, I shall be able to copy them Into Sibelius software and produce virtual performances of them, as I was able to do for No 6.

Hello folks,
   Just a reminder that the Kingston Chamber Orchestra will be including Spohr's 2nd Symphony in their concert at All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames at 7.30pm on Saturday 22nd June. I gather tickets, at £10 each, are available at the door. I've already booked accommodation in the town in order to attend. Certainly, for me, this will be a unique opportunity to hear what has long been a great favourite of mine. The last time I was present at a live Spohr performance was that of his Nonet at Conway Hall, London back in 1957! 
   Cheers,
        John

Composers whose subsequent symphonies never quite came up to the standard of their first published efforts in that field.

I'm thinking of people like Louise Farrenc, Friedrich Gernsheim and his good friend Brahms.
   Cheers,
         John.

The latest edition of the Spohr Society Newsletter states that Spohr's Symphony No 2 in D minor, which he wrote during his second visit to England in 1820, is to be featured in a concert given by the Kingston Chamber Orchestra at Kingston Parish Church at 7.30 pm on 22nd June. I'm hoping to get along there myself, as I've only heard one live performance of any work by Spohr and that was his Nonet  back in 1957 at Conway Hall, London. No 2 is a particular favourite of mine and I think I can claim to have produced the first printable version of the score in modern times around 14 years ago having copied out a facsimile manuscript version into Noteworthy Score writing software.
     Cheers,
           John.

Having been away from the forum for a few days, I was most surprised that nobody had said anything about the Prince of Wales's very interesting programme on Parry which went out on BBC 4 from 7.30 to 9.00 pm on Friday 8th February. With the aid of various musicians, musicologists  and conductors including Anthony Paine, he gave a pretty comprehensive survey of Parry's choral music and life story and especially featured  the 5th Symphony. I was particularly interested to hear that Prince Charles enjoyed playing his Cello in ensemble with family and friends when he was young, as I am myself now studying that instrument in my 80's.

Hello Mark and Alan,
    As one of your oldest "customers" from the time that Unsung Composers was just an off shoot of the Raff Forum, I wanted to add my thanks to you both for deciding to continue this most informative forum, albeit in a slightly truncated form which hopefully will be more manageable by yourselves and your new antipodean colleague. However, having had computer troubles lately, when I did get round to reading your welcome back thread I just couldn't find a way adding my own comment, even when I tried manually logging myself in. Then I noticed a padlock symbol against it and eventually came to the conclusion that I'd missed the boat.
Anyway, I'd still like to thank you both for keeping the Forum going all these years. I've certainly learnt quite a bit from it and been introduced to some new (to me) interesting music, most notably by Rufinatscha. Whilst for me the 19th Century will always remain the golden age of western music of all types, I shall be sorry to miss references to contemporaries of my beloved Haydn and Mozart. In my opinion, Haydn's Sturm und Drang symphonies appear as some of the earliest manifestations of the Romantic Movement in music. I'm afraid my taste is still rather biassed towards the Classico-Romantic Style as exemplified by the Lachner brothers and various pupils and contemporaries of Beethoven. As for post 1900 music, do people like Joseph Suk, George Lloyd, Richard Wetz, Felix Weingartner, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Don Gillis still count as Romantics?
      Cheers,
           John.

I note that, from an internet search, that the Gavle Symphony Orchestra recorded J N Eggert's Symphonies Nos 1 & 4 back in December 2009 to be issued on a Naxos CD No. 8.572457 but I've been unable to locate that CD. I'm just wondering what has gone wrong. Can anyone throw some light on this subject please?

  In this year of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubillee I thought it might be appropriate to attempt a list of all the works by both sung and unsung composers in whch the tune of God Save The King/Queen is made use of. This is all I can recall so far:-
(1) Beethoven's "Battle Symphony" ending with a fast fugue on the above tune.
(2) Geoge Onslow's string quartet, Op. 9 No.1 uses it for a set of variations in the 2nd movement.
(3) Heinrich Marscher's Grande Ouverture Solenne of 1842, celebrating the birth of the future King Edward VII, is based largely on God Save the Queen.
       I'm sure there are lots more instances of the uses that composers down the years have put to this well known melody. No doubt other members of this forum will be able to fill in a few.

My answer to this would be Louis Spohr.  My reasons:-
(1) His various experiments with the symphonic form. e.g in symphonies Nos 4, 6 & 7. No 5 appears more conventional, but it     has a motto theme running through 3 of the 4 movements. He was also one of the first to include a bass tuba in the symphonic orchestra.
(2) His series of double string quartets.
(3) His pioneering use of the baton in conducting. Up to his time, most conducting was done from a keyboard, but Spohr wasn't
      a pianist.
(4) His introduction of the violinist's chin rest.
      Maybe someone will now tell me that another unsunsung was even more innovative.

 MDT records are currently offering quite a large number of Marco Polo and Naxos CDs at the knock down price of  £2.75 each in their sale. If you order £50 worth you get free postage and packing. For details go to www.mdt.co.uk.
    By the way, I don't hold shares in the above company or in Naxos!

The German JPC record company has kindly presented me with a 5 EURO voucher for my birthday. Given my interest in 19th Century symphonies from Beethoven's time onwards, could anyone please suggest how I spend it?

Last night our local band, the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra under guest conductor David Grubb, included the Oboe Concerto written in 1993 by Joseph Horowitz as a test piece in the final of the Isle of Wight International Oboe Contest.
    The soloist, Max Spiers, obviously put a lot of hard work into the performance but that wasn't enough to convince me that this work deserved a place in the repertoire. Unlike many late 20th Century works, there was nothing harsh about it that grated on my ears. I'm sure it was well written by someone who obviously knows his stuff. However, I for one was unable to discern any definite tunes in it. Maybe I'm being old fashioned in expecting tunes in my music. What do other forum members think?

Towards the end of last year, having at last acquired a miniature facsimile copy of the original score from Musikproduktion Hoflich, I spent approximately 200 hours copying it out into Sibelius software. I now have a few CDs to give away to anyone who likes to send me the cost of postage and their terrestrial address. Alternatively, I shall endeavour to turn it into MP3 files which I could then attach to e-mails.
    Bearing in mind that this is a purely synthetic performance, I think I can say that, on the whole, I'm a bit disappointed with this work compared to the 5th and 8th symphonies currently now available once more on Marco Polo CDs. I certainly don't agree with Robert Schumann's enthusiasm for it. In particular, I find the opening movement rather tame, its one redeeming feature being the little double fugue towards the end. However, the work seems to improve from movement to movement. I do like the rather spooky scherzo in B minor and the rollicking rondo/sonata finale brings the whole thing to a rather jolly end.

I note that the BBC are putting on a series of programmes on The Symphony, starting tonight, 3rd November, at 9pm GMT on BBC 4.
  I suspect it will all be "mainstream" stuff, but it would be nice to have something on the early symphonists such as C F Abel and the younger Bachs and maybe later on Spohr, Lachner, Raff and Rufinatscher could get a mention, to say nothing of Hans Rott and the myriads  of other fine symphonists we talk about on this forum.

I've just heard on the Radio 3 3 Breakfast programme, that goes out every week day morning, that the presenters want to know what everyone's top 9 symphonies are. I think this could be a golden opportunity for us to push our own favourite unsung symphonic works. It would be a great shame if they just got inundated with the usual warhorses from "ignorant" listeners.
   I think we need to go to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk to cast our votes.

I've just noticed that Vinzenz Lachner's 200th birthday fell on the 17th of this month. Nobody seemed to remember that, even me this time; so I was unable alert the BBC to the above fact. Not that the present Radio 3 Controller ever takes any notice of my messages anyway. I'd love to get hold of some more of his music, either printed or recorded as all I have so far is the Rodin Quartet's recording of 2 string quartets by him on the Amati label which also has the surviving quartets of his 2 elder brothers. I find both these works very enjoyable and well written, even if they tend to be eclipsed by those of Franz and Ignaz.
    It would be nice to hear some of his symphonic and choral music as well as that of elder brother Ignaz. But I doubt if anything will be done about that in my lifetime.