Topics

Anyone else unable to access Rapidshare today? I am getting a blank screen, not only for downloads but also for their homepage! I was thinking of going over to them instead of Mediafire, as I'm fed up with their sneaky adverts, sex-oriented material, and forced page re-loading. 

I gather from having no replies to my earlier query, that nobody here has used 4Share.

I thought perhaps members would be interested to know that the 22nd Australian Festival of Chamber Music is currently being held here in Townsville, and that this year sees quite a number of Unsung Composers and a more wide-ranging interpretation of "chamber music" than previously.

I went to the opening night last week and the concert (which was firstclass, and was broadcast live nationally) began with John Ireland's fine Piano Trio No.1, and over the weekend there was a performance of Malcolm Williamson's Piano Concerto No.2. Nigel Westlake is our composer in residence, and the artistic director has for many years been the pianist Piers Lane. If you are interested in finding out the musical tastes of modern Australia, please take a look at the week's programme at:

http://www.afcm.com.au/events_day.php

You never know, maybe we can tempt you to come and take a holiday here in paradise for next year's festival! 

Further to Pengelli's query of a long time ago - I think:

Australian film 'The Curse of the Gothic Symphony' is screening theatrically through Event Cinemas. Screening twice daily at 10.30am and 4pm, the film is now showing until 6th June 2012 at Chermside Event in Brisbane, Newcastle Event in New South Wales and Manuka Event in Canberra.   In December 2010, over five hundred Australian performers came together under the baton of Maestro John Curro to stage the biggest symphony ever composed -- the Gothic Symphony. Filmed over seven years in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and the UK, this gripping, funny and inspiring feature-length documentary, The Curse of the Gothic Symphony, follows their epic journey.

"A great documentary about persistence, artistic temperament and the inestimable value of facing adversity with humour." - The Age

The trailer can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UtPTwHggO0

It's been mentioned fairly regularly on the radio, and I think it's at least alerting Australian listeners to HB and his music. 

Apologies if this has already been mentioned! 

4Shared asks for users to 'sign up'.  Has anyone on the forum had experience of 4Shared? Will I get bombarded with spam if I sign up? I'd appreciate your advice.

Thanks! 

I hope the administrators will forgive me posting this, since it is not strictly about unsung composers, but I just wanted to draw attention to a report which relates to many comments we have been making in this forum regarding the strategy of BBC Radio 3, and what we have generally regarded as its "dumbing down" approach to programming.

Please have a look at this report, which notes that in one year, the UK has "lost" c. one million listeners to classical music radio.... 

http://www.overgrownpath.com/

Is there any value in me sending in the duration of works listed, where these are not already given? I'm happy to do that, but only if it's of interest to members. 

Is anyone familiar with the music of California resident, Edward Schaffer? He seems a very sociable fellow, who has a number of web pages, including the ubiquitous Facebook. His response to the question "Is music your primary source of income?" is a gem of understated optimism - "No, not yet". 

A lot of his music can be found on the Internet Archive, and I am about to sample it by downloading from:

http://www.archive.org/details/jamendo-105414

This has his Symphony No.1, a Sinfonietta and a Piano Concerto.  Among much else, the archive offers a symphony numbered 25, and a work listed as Op.253 - so he's a very prolific composer!  Amazon lists a CD of his 2007 ballet Stonehenge, and one entitled Symphony 4 Sol - which includes a Violin Concerto.

I'd be interested to know what you think.

I am a bit confused as to why Irish music doesn't appear to have a downloads discussion thread of its own.... my apologies if I've missed it.

I just wanted to echo Colin D's appreciation of the Bodley 3rd symphony. Although it's not as immediately appealing as his more 'pastoral' 2nd, I think it is a masterpiece, and deserves sustained attention.

The other Irish items kindly uploaded by Latvian are a delight, too. Grateful thanks. 

Mark - or anyone else - can you please tell me how you can increase the volume of audiofiles. I have several that are so quiet (not from this forum) that I have to have my speaker volume up at maximum - which of course creates problems, eg. when there are automatic sounds or when I play another file recorded at normal volume.
Thanks! 

I realize that our topic is composers, but I just had to note the passing of the great conductor Paavo Berglund, announced on ABC Classic FM this morning. The announcer said they were having difficulty finding a recording featuring his conducting, to play by way of tribute!!   
I mean - Finland's greatest conductor!

Poor show, ABC! 

Picking up on Tapiola's comment in the Finnish Downloads discussion.............. I've decided to gird my loins, grasp the nettle, and stand up and be counted! I confess .............. I really don't care much for Havergal Brian's Symphonies! 

Yes, I know that many of you good people, including Dundonnell, Herrenberg, and many others, adore his work, but I trust you won't send me to Coventry for this quirk in my musical sensibilities! Before anyone starts trying to tell me what I'm missing, I should point out that I have all the symphonies, and have been patiently listening to them on-and-off for 40 years, thinking that one day I might understand what it is that holds his fans in thrall, but without success. I've listened to the Gothic many times and it's OK but it doesn't really do much for me. I don't dislike it, you understand, and I am delighted that HB has his champions and dismayed by his neglect, but his music doesn't talk to me, doesn't move me in any significant way.  (So, I was far more moved by Colin's wonderful account of his son's encounter with HB' music, than I have ever been by the music itself!)

I don't want to spark a 'for and against' argument here - I just wanted to reassure others with a similar view that they are not alone!  As we've agreed so many times before - musical taste is amazingly diverse and long may it be so!

I have a file which I've labeled "Homer - ballet suite" but it has no other identifying data! It's a late 20thC orchestral piece, lasting 24 minutes, building to a big, percussive finale, ending with an ethereal tinkling glockenspiel receding into the distance. I've had no success in searching the web for further information (not helped by the Simpsons-related search results!). I would upload it for you to listen to but I have no idea where the file came from originally.... it sounds like it's from an LP or CD, so could be commercially availble.

I think we can be fairly sure that it's composer falls into the 'unsung' category!

Any ideas, anyone, please? 

I see that Gianfranco MALIPIERO has been mentioned in other threads as an unsung 20thC symphonist, and I would be interested to hear your reactions to his compositions.

I am utterly astounded that he repudiated his works composed prior to his 'Damascus experience' of attending the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in 1913. His Sinfonie del Silenzio e de La Morte (1909-10) is utterly beautiful, full of variety, powerful, charming and skillful. 

Listening immediately afterwards to his 1st & 2nd Symphonies (1933 & 1936) it is clear that he has begun to sacrifice these qualities in pursuit of his post-Stravinskian vision. The 1st is still a fine work, but the 2nd less so for me, and I expect the 3rd continues the drift in the primitivist direction, that rhythm will increasingly crowd out melody, dissonance will supplant harmony, and I'll be increasingly lost! 

I know it's a matter of taste, but can anyone advise me otherwise, before I invest in more Malipiero? 

I see that someone is suggesting that rare works by "sung"composers could be made available - and then presumably discussed - in the forum.

Administrators - is this appropriate? 
You no doubt can see the dangers 
.....but also that it might be valued

If it is acceptable, maybe it's something that justifies a separate category on the Homepage?

I expect some members will be familiar with this, but I thought I should draw attention to the
CHARM (= Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music) website of King's College, London, at:  http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/index.html

The focus is 78s, but don't be put off! In addition to stuff about gramophones and recordings, it holds a number of attractions!

Firstly, there's hundreds of downloads (all classical).    I don't know what interest members may have in 78s, but sometimes  they are the only way of hearing obscure material. Admittedly, it's mostly Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, et al., but there's some nice Bridge and Bax, some unusual bits of Britten, and recordings in which some of the unsungs are performers (such as York Bowen playing Brahms). There's a lot of songs and chamber works, and short pieces, often featuring famous names, and there's a 1948 performance of Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens. Among the less familiar, I found:

• COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: Christmas Overture (BBC Wireless Symphony Orchestra!)
  FOULDS: A Keltic Lament
  FLOTOW: Stradella Overture (BerlinOperaOrch)
  GRÉTRY: La Rosiere Republicaine - Suite de Ballet
  IRELAND: Chamber music and songs
  JUON: Chamber Symphony, Op.27 (recent version already on site)
  KEEL: Two orchestral songs
  LIPATTI: Sonatina for Left-hand
  LORTZING: Der Waffenschmied – Overture
  MALIPIERO: String Quartet
  QUILTER: Songs
  ROSSE: Merchant of Venice Suite
  RAWSTHORNE: Street Corner – Overture; Theme & Variations
  RUBBRA: Violin Sonata No.2
  SIEBER: Fantasy for Cello & Piano
  STANFORD & PARRY – various religious works
  TATE, Phyllis: Nocturne for Four Voices
  THOMAS: Raymond – Overture
  THOMAS, AG: Orchestral Aria – Oh, my Heart is Weary
  THOMPSON, Randall: Alleluia
  WALLACE, WV: Maritana
  VAUGHAN THOMAS: Saith O Ganeuon Ar Gywyddau

Of course, many are rather fizzy old 78s, but some are post-war and not too bad at all. Looking through the available recordings makes me realize how limiting 78s were because of their duration. The LP must have transformed the listening experience of classical music lovers, once it finally 'caught on'!

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, there's a classical discography page, which spans 78s, LPs and CDs! 
You can download :

• The Complete Decca Classical Discography 1929-2009
  The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Discography 1961-2009
  The London Symphony Orchestra Discography 1913-2009

And, if you really need it and have the patience for the big downloads, you can also have
The World's Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music (at 357 MB) with two very substantial supplements, amounting to another 350 MB!

I hope there's something to interest members!

Anthony Burgess has been mentioned in relation to his piano concerto from the British downloads page, which turns out to be as attractively quirky as his books! 

Peter noted that he was a prolific composer, and I've just found a list at:
http://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/burgess.music.html   

But we don't get to hear them, and I wondered if members here can shed any light on their quality, whether they get performed, and whether any have been recorded. 

Burgess seems to come pretty close to the old Renaissance figure of the 'polymath' - with a substantial finger in every intellectual and artistic pie!

Thanks, Mark.

I wonder if anyone would be willing to share their expertise on the subject of digitizing and processing music stored on reel-to-reel tape, audiocassette and LP. The forum relies on members doing this, and there must be better and worse ways.

I can sort out the equipment, stick the right leads into the computer, and get a digital copy, but I would be interested to learn what equipment the experts on the list are using, and would appreciate some advice about the best software to use. I currently use freeware, like Free Hi-Q Recorder, which gives good results, but doesn't allow me any room to manoeuvre in the case of poor originals. What do our great uploaders use?

Administrators - Would it be approriate/possible to have a place to ask technical questions?  I would be grateful, for example, for advice about digitizing tape recordings, etc., and about the various options for uploading. I realise that such things are not the subject of the forum, but there's a lot of expertise here!

I would appreciate some advice on copyright issues, please.

I wanted to upload recordings from the old Louisville LP sets, but eschiss1 kindly alerted me to the fact that at least some of them had been reissued on CD. Wanting to do the right thing I have been searching for evidence that the other items in the set have not been reissued. I found a number recently reissued by 'Soundmark'. The Alan Hovhaness page: http://www.hovhaness.com/News-Hovhaness-Soundmark.html
says of the Soundmark releases that:
"They (some Hovhaness works) are among well over one hundred releases which Soundmark's founder, Matthew Walters, has painstakingly created, often from original LPs, believing them to be "recordings that deserve continued 'quality' circulation".

But, a web search reveals that:
- the Soundmark trademark is no longer registered (http://www.trademarkia.com/soundmark-records-75117831.html)
- the items in question are available only as MP3 downloads,
- Soundmark has no dedicated webpage, business address, etc.
- and I can find no trace of Matthew Walters elsewhere on the web, although he is credited with being the person responsible for engineering the 'First Edition' Louisville reissues.

Does anyone on the forum know anything about Soundmark? The MP3s still seem to be being released, but it makes me wonder how issues relating to the copyright on the original recordings have been addressed.

It raises the general question ... what is the best way to be sure that old recordings can be uploaded here? I don't want to upset the applecart!

Wow! Thanks, Arbuckle, I'm looking forward to listening to these. Had no idea there were any Monegasgue composers. I see that Wiki lists a further three - Charles Albrecht, who wrote their national anthem, and Marc Giacone and Didier Marouani, both contemporary composers. Albrecht (1817-1895) doesn't appear in Grove, and maybe he was principally a conductor.