Introduce yourself here.....

[Gauk]

Are you a Scot by birth, Gauk? And, whereabouts in Scotland do you live? After 40 years of chasing obscure repertoire, I wonder what your favourites are and whether Scottish composers are of particular interest. Quite a number have featured here at UC.

No, but I am by adoption, having spent most of my life here. There was a time when I moved in musical circles and knew many of the contemporary Scottish composers quite well. But my favourite has to be the greatly under-rated McEwen, ever since hearing some of his string quartets played at Glasgow University. Interesting to see the music of Eric Chisholm appearing on CD now, as well. Then there is MacCunn!

[motiaan]

Hi from Wuppertal, Germany. I am an engineer, turning 50 in a few months, and always looking for something new to hear. My preferences lie with instrumental music, from piano solo to concertos and symphonies. I like operas, but only live (the other vocal genres are not for me). So I hope to explore many different composers's works.

Cheers, Helli

[jerry.buszek]

It has been very entertaining to read some of the comments of fellow members. So, I would like to put my 2 cents worth of information on myself. I have been a member approximately 2 years. I check out articles about every 2 weeks but about 2 months I completed a project of "burning" 87 cd's with downloads of some of the items that were downloaded on this web site. I was pleasantly amazed at the wonderful works that have been downloaded and appreciate all the work other members have done to help listeners like me enjoy the music of some great unsung composers like. Anyway, I am 71 years old, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan (USA) but currently reside in the Kansas City area. I play drums, percussion, guitar and some piano. I can read music and have several ministure scores. My music collection consists of about 11,000 records, cd's, casettes, reel-to-reel tapes, 78 & 45 rpm discs. The only thing I never collected was 8-track tapes (thank goodness!). I enjoy music from the former Soviet Union of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries (Glazunov, Gliere, the "Kuchka", etc.) I have several older Melodiya lp's that I wish I could download, such as Rimsky-Korsakov's Mazurka on Polish Themes in C Major for Violin & Orch    (1888) that I have never come across anywhere else. I was a member of the Glazunov Society and have a copy of a Glazunov biography written by a member in English. Regretfully I understand this Society no longer is in existence. I moved from Omaha to Kansas City area and forgot to notiofy the Society, but read in a note from a member in Unsung Composers that the Society no longer exists. I hope other members place a posting here and would like to talk via e-mail with some members now that I am retired. I would be willing to trade cd's or burn some compositions onto a cd with some of my collections. I have all my recordings listed on my computer, a la the Schwann Catalogue (something else no longer in existence). My e-mail is detroit7810@hotmail.com. Thank you for your patience if you have this far and I hope this web site continues forever.

[Alan Howe]

Great to hear from you in such detail, Jerry.

[britishcomposer]

Welcome, Jerry!
You may be interested to know that Rimsky's Mazurka has been uploaded by a YouTuber:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJiqna6LCOk
Anyway, as it comes from an LP it cannot been uploaded here, that's a principle of the UC forum.

[jerfilm]

Yes, welcome.  I sent you a private email.

Jerry

[Archimus]

I spotted this site only the other day and was really pleased that there should be a forum for discussing these beautiful things which, for one reason or another, lie undiscovered, unappreciated or forgotten.

I'm an architect, but most of my friends are in some way involved in music, either composing, conducting, playing or singing (or even administrating).  I became interested in "serious" (i.e. not pop) music before anyone told me I wasn't supposed to like it, and have been following my ears ever since.

Consequently, over the years I've built up an enormous collection of first performances, rarities and exquisite things, and it gives me huge amount of pleasure - you all know the feeling!

[Leafshimmer]

Dear all,

I am new here and am trying to learn how to navigate this forum.  This particular post may simply fall into a big black hole but I'll give it a shot anyway.

My name is Steve Shutt and I am about to turn 56 years old.  I was first turned onto many of the composers here by my late friend Marc Bernier.  I still remember Marc bringing a 12 inch 78 rpm recording of Leila Megane performing two selections from Bantock's "Songs of Egypt" (alas, with a rather feeble orchestral accompaniment) and being enchanted.  Other significant listening experiences included the Martha Verbit album of Cyril Scott's Piano Sonata and Poems, the Lyrita recording of John Ogdon performing the Scott Piano Concertos, tape recorded redactions of Claire Croiza performing selected songs by Pierre de Breville, an LP transcription I found on a visit to NYC of Reynaldo Hahn singing and performing his own music (several songs sung by the unforgettable Ninon Vallin), another tape recording of an LP of Quilter songs as performed by Alexander Young, and the incredible recording conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham of Bantock's marvelous "Fifine at the Fair."  Many other revelatory sharing of recordings followed, too many to note within the space of what is meant to be a short intro.

I think of myself very much as a fan and an amateur of these composers.  I think Cyril Scott in some of his books best outlined some of the features that makes the music so outstandingly beautiful, powerful, and enduring.  Josef Holbrooke's book on Modern British composers published I believe circa 1930 gives some valuable insights into the artistic mood of the period in England.  Although I am an ardent Anglophile, I also appreciate some French, American, and German composers of the period... and Australia is represented, of course, by Percy Grainger.

I am trying to access the British Music Broadcasts archive.  I have tried searching the site in a variety of ways but my searches keep yielding no results, apart from a thread that discusses the BMB archive and various downloads.   Did the archive have to be deleted due to copyright concerns?  I am particularly keen to hear the file with the excerpts of Scott's opera THE ALCHEMIST.  I was unaware that any of it had been recorded.  At some point in the early Bronze Age I had a go at looking through a copy of the published score in the Library of Congress.

I wonder whether other Scott radio broadcasts I have read about, such as THE HOURGLASS SUITE and THE MYSTIC ODE, might show up here at some point.

Best wishes to all,

Steve Shutt (aka Leafshimmer)

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome to UC, Steve.

[britishcomposer]

Steve, the archive has moved.
You can access the contents after signing up at the Art-Music Forum:
http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,506.0.html

[Leafshimmer]

Many thanks, British Composer!

Best,

Steve

[Mark Thomas]

Just for clarification: the BMB archive has moved to the site above, but the rest of UC's archive of recordings is still here at UC itself.

[jerfilm]

An inappropriate and unneceesary aside - I can't help but laugh - there are still folks over at Art Music who can't resist taking snide shots at us here at UC.  But let a new download appear on our site, and (surprise) a reference or even a link appears magically.   Perhaps, the download fairy is at work.....heehee....

J

[Alan Howe]

The Art Music Forum is an excellent resource. It's good that those interested in later music have a place where they can debate the subject. It's just not for us at UC.

[jerfilm]

No argument there, Alan.  I pop in from time to time becuz once in a great while, something from our remit shows up.  Not often, mind you.  But I'm always saddened how some folks just can't let go......