"Where have the great composers gone?"

[ahinton]

I thought it best to delete the recent exchanges. They've been said, they've been read. I see no point in bothering with them further.

(PS I'm responding to a complaint).

But are you sure that you've deleted enough?

[french frank]

“Just as many as are necessary, Your Majesty.”

[MrGongGong]

I'm so sorry that I really can't express myself as well as you so clearly can. I'm finding it sooooooo hard being in such exalted company that I'm almost shaking with awe and feel that I'm in a state of disgrace.

OOOOOOO

OK so

Why don't you see any point in writing music for a small audience?

(do you write music?)

[Bryn]

Way back in 1970 i composed a little piece titled The Tilbury Strike of Summer 70 for a pianist friend. It included the instruction "for [dedicatee's name] alone". When he came to perform it at the Purcell Room in December of that year he took the instruction literally and played it off stage in an otherwise deserted green room. Now that's what I call writing for a small audience.

[ahinton]

“Just as many as are necessary, Your Majesty.”

!!! In one fell swoop, you've made a joke and brought the thread back on topic!

[ahinton]

OOOOOOO

OK so

Why don't you see any point in writing music for a small audience?

(do you write music?)

When composers write music without having been commissioned to do so, they are in some instances not even certain that they'll get an audinece at all; it doesn't stop them doing it, though...

[ahinton]

Way back in 1970 i composed a little piece titled The Tilbury Strike of Summer 70 for a pianist friend. It included the instruction "for [dedicatee's name] only". When he came to perform it at the Purcell Room in December of that year he took the instruction literally and played it off stage in an otherwise deserted green room. Now that's what I call writing for a small audience.

Indeed - but have you by chance mentioned the pianist's name in your post?(!)...

[Bryn]

Indeed - but have you by chance mentioned the pianist's name in your post?(!)...

However ...

[doversoul1]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/22/composers-greatness-in-digital-age-susanna-eastburn

[Bryn]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...sanna-eastburn

Well ring that bell. That's the third time that article has been linked to on this forum in hte past 24 hours.

Bears repeated citing, however.

[cloughie]

Both Shchedrin and Stanford wrote very competently in the style of the past, making their music immediately accessible. Neither had much that was new to say but both wrote music of great service: the one to ballet, the other to choirs and places where they sing.

Neither are negligible, but neither rises above the journeyman level. I've heard a lot of Rodion and sung a great deal of Charles Villiers. On the latter front, now I'm a bass, I find CVS's lines interesting but when I was press-ganged into singing tenor, I felt dirty and abused: I was singing inchoate lines assembled from the harmonic notes that didn't fit into the treble and bass lines. Great composers do better than that!

So do good MVC arrangers - they recognise the optimum ranges for each TTBB voice.

[ahinton]

However ...

First one fully understood and expected (except that I'd no idea that Mr Richardson had been a pianist in his spare time) but McAfee doesn't like the second one (i.e. the link)...

[ahinton]

Anyway, to provide a simple answer to the question posed in the thread, some of us haven't gone anywhere; we're still here.

I've got me coat.

[doversoul1]

Well ring that bell. That's the third time that article has been linked to on this forum in hte past 24 hours.

Bears repeated citing, however.

Blame the poor connection I had for the last two months.

[french frank]

Well ring that bell. That's the third time that article has been linked to on this forum in hte past 24 hours.

Bears repeated citing, however.

As more George Lloyd than John Cage myself (well, more Mozart than John Cage, perhaps), I found the Eastburn article thought-provoking. But it seems that, wherever our own tastes lie, we all tend to focus in on the areas where we find most reward. As Eastburn said, what difference does 'greatness' make? It only becomes 'relevant' if anyone tries to impose their own tastes as the hallmark of greatness, in my view. Which (if correct ) immediately calls into question the theme of the original article.