British Music

[Dundonnell]

Truth to tell, I feel horribly out of place uploading the Richard Rodney Bennett today when all around me is discussion of and uploads of late 19th century British choral works

There is no use pretending that the Bennett is pleasant, easy, accessible music....it ISN'T Moreover, it bears little apparent similarity to the music the composer has written over the last couple of decades.

Chandos released a disc labelled "Richard Rodney Bennett, Orchestral Works, Volume I" in 2006 containing the Partita, Reflections on a Sixteenth Century Tune for Strings, Songs before Sleep for bass-baritone and strings and Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song for cello and strings.

There has never been a "Volume II".....Mark, take note

The works on the Chandos disc are attractive and lyrical. The avant-garde pieces I have uploaded from the 1960s and 1970s are not. Frankly.....I don't like them

......but, if I didn't upload them then it is highly improbable that anyone will ever have the chance to hear them again.

So........

[BFerrell]

With the irreplacable loss of Handley and Hickox, almost all of Chandos' projects went down the drain. I think Andrew Davis and Gardner are too involved in too many other duties. Handley and Hickox were very, very rare in that they were not "careerist" but real musicians.

[mikehopf]

While hunting for your requests, I came across the following items of possible interest to collectors of British music:

PARRY: The Lotus Eaters for Soprano, Chorus & Orch.
            Eton Ode ( 1891)
            De Profundis for Soprano, Chorus & Orch.
            Ode on St Cecilia's Day

BANTOCK: The Time Spirit for Chorus & Orch.

J. HARRISON: Mass in C
                      Prelude for Harp & String Quartet
                      A Worcestershire Suite

COLERIDGE TAYLOR: Scenes from an Imaginary Ballet Op 74

WHITTACKER: The Coelestial Spheare (sic.)
                       The Lyke-Wake Dirge

Norman HAY: Symphonic Poem Dunluce ( 1920)

BRENT SMITH: Elegy

P.CORDER: 9 Preludes for Piano

ROOTHAM: City in the West for Chorus & Orch.

Any interest before I put them back in their cases and continue my quests.

[mikehopf]

Details on the Parry: Pied Piper of Hamelin:

Kim Begley (t); Robert Hayward (b), Stephen Hicks ( org), BrightonOrpheus Choir; Orchestra cond. Patricia Harding

[dafrieze]

I would humbly submit that every single item you mention is of interest to lovers of English music.  DO NOT put them back in their cases.  PLEASE upload them as soon as you have the chance and the strength, so that we may shower you with praise and gratitude.  Seriously.

[eschiss1]

Archive.org has a lot of vocal scores of Parry choral works that seem interesting and I shouldn't mind hearing some of them - the Te Deum, the 1904 Sinfonia sacra "Love that casteth out Fear", others. Pied Piper is one of the scores they have scanned also (through one of their associated libraries) - thanks!

[semloh]

The full score of Parry's The Pied Piper of Hamelin can be downloaded in pdf at:
http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/3/3a/Parry-Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin.pdf

[albion]

Any interest before I put them back in their cases and continue my quests.

Hi Mike, yes please could you upload these works. The 1986 David Willcocks' Lotus Eaters is already in the archive - but perhaps you have another performance?

I'd particularly like to hear -

Hubert Parry (1848-1918) - Ode on St Cecilia's Day (1889); Eton (1891); De Profundis (1891)

Granville Bantock (1868-1946) - The Time Spirit (1904)

William Gillies Whittaker (1876-1944) - The Coelestial Sphere (1923); A Lyke-Wake Dirge (1924)

Paul Corder (1879-1942) - Nine Preludes (1904)

Julius Harrison (1885-1963) - Mass in C (1936-47)

Norman Hay (1889-1943) - Dunluce (1920-21)

- the other works would be very welcome too!

Harrison's Worcester Suite and Rootham's City in the West have, of course, been commercially recorded but it would still be good to have alternative performances available.

[eschiss1]

when I see or hear full score I think "with all the orchestral parts written out" (all the parts written out) (full=vertical, complete=horizontal) - that's a vocal score (such as is also available at archive.org and now at IMSLP also though the one at CPDL is typeset and definitely cleaner  - thank you. Having both the first edition and the typeset has its advantages, of course - speaking as a typesetter who doesn't trust himself much ) (a third term, choral score, is used for a score of just the choral parts, as I recall.)

[albion]

The two 'bonus' tracks on the end of Parry's The Pied Piper (which I discovered just as I was falling asleep last night) have now been siphoned off, and the file re-uploaded as a compact 25-minute piece: another excellent and sadly unknown score, with wonderful characterisation and plenty of humour - I particularly like the Funeral March quotation which accompanies the rats' demise.

[semloh]

when I see or hear full score I think "with all the orchestral parts written out" (all the parts written out) (full=vertical, complete=horizontal)

Ah, quite right, Eric - my apologies for my slack terminology. 

[eschiss1]

Mine in turn and no worries...

[eschiss1]

Seems to have received several quite good contemporary reviews- I believe I'll agree it deserved them. Thanks!

[Latvian]

I would humbly submit that every single item you mention is of interest to lovers of English music.  DO NOT put them back in their cases.  PLEASE upload them as soon as you have the chance and the strength, so that we may shower you with praise and gratitude.  Seriously.

Yes, please!

[albion]

The following broadcast is now available -

Frederick Delius (1862-1934) - Violin Concerto (1916) played by Hugh Bean with the RLPO under Charles Groves

Many thanks to calico for this addition to the archive.