Sir Patrick Moore - Composer

[AuntDaisy]

I think I have an even earlier edition of that one! although actually, come to think of it, my daughter has all my Observer books now...

Mine's the "4th revised edition", first published in 1962. It's one of my earliest surviving books, I was ~9, and it was for Sunday School attendance.

[Bryn]

Andrew Lloyd Webber's brilliant Requiem

Not something I am familiar with. Which composers' works did he plunder for that?

[NatBalance]

Not something I am familiar with. Which composers' works did he plunder for that?

Ha ha. I can't hear anything in it that's been plundered. I have to admit when Webber plunders he does a darn good job of it. (I presume his surname is Webber otherwise there would be a hyphen).

[RichardB]

Which composers' works did he plunder for that?

Orff, Thomson, Fauré, Stanford, Howells, Messiaen and the inevitable Puccini have been mentioned in that connection.

[ahinton]

Orff, Thomson, Fauré, Stanford, Howells, Messiaen and the inevitable Puccini have been mentioned in that connection.

Quite; not exactly a small list for a work of its dimensions, but then that is perhaps only to be expected of the person whom a composer colleague calls "Lord Lloyd Loom"...

[NatBalance]

Orff, Thomson, Fauré, Stanford, Howells, Messiaen and the inevitable Puccini have been mentioned in that connection.

I just don't know but are you referring to directly quoting or being influenced by? On listening to his Requiem I have never found myself thinking 'haven't I heard that somewhere before?' but then I was caught out by I Don't Know How to Love Him and was it Mendelson's violin concerto middle movement? All composers are influenced by other composers and imitate them in some respect whether consciously or unconsciously.

[ahinton]

I just don't know but are you referring to directly quoting or being influenced by? On listening to his Requiem I have never found myself thinking 'haven't I heard that somewhere before?' but then I was caught out by I Don't Know How to Love Him and was it Mendelson's violin concerto middle movement? All composers are influenced by other composers and imitate them in some respect whether consciously or unconsciously.

There are different stages of this kind of thing. "Influenced by" suggests something of the style and manner of one composer being reflected, consciously or otherwise, in that of another, but then there's transcriptions, arrangements, adaptations, paraphrases, pieces in which overt "imitation" of one composer's work is admitted by another - and then there's pastiche and outright plagiarism - with the 50+ shades of grey borderlines between them all. Quite where ALW fits into all of this is not really for me to say beyond what strikes me as a consistent paucity of ideas that the listener could reasonably ascribe to ALW himself as distinct from (other) composers...

[RichardB]

I just don't know but are you referring to directly quoting or being influenced by?

I'm quoting from a review of the recording in the Gramophone. I haven't heard his Requiem myself, besides which I would be unlikely to pick up some of the references like Thomson and Howells. ALW is well known for patching his melodies together from various sources, and settled out of court in a plagiarism case brought by the Puccini estate. ("I've never heard any Puccini in my life m'lud. )

All composers are indeed influenced by others, but not all composers imitate others, even unconsciously!

[Serial_Apologist]

Ha ha. I can't hear anything in it that's been plundered. I have to admit when Webber plunders he does a darn good job of it. (I presume his surname is Webber otherwise there would be a hyphen).

Purveyors of fake goods often do.

[MickyD]

We should not forget Herschel's sister, Caroline, who lived with William in Bath and was a fairly talented musician too, though not a composer I think. However her important astronomical work (including the discovery of comets, nebulae and galaxies) has been somewhat overshadowed because of her sex.

I particularly love Herschel's 8th symphony, sort of English Sturm und Drang. His symphonies are, in my view, very underrated, and I would kill for a good period instrument recording of them. I think the AAM or OAE would do them justice.

[RichardB]

His symphonies are, in my view, very underrated, and I would kill for a good period instrument recording of them. I think the AAM or OAE would do them justice.

Yes, surprising that they've never appeared among Hyperion's many releases of British baroque- and classical-period music.

Speaking of musico-astronomical families, both the father (Vincenzo) and brother (Michelagnolo) of Galileo Galilei were musicians, the former quite important both as a theoretician and as one of the members of the Florentine Camerata.

[MickyD]

Yes, surprising that they've never appeared among Hyperion's many releases of British baroque- and classical-period music.

Speaking of musico-astronomical families, both the father (Vincenzo) and brother (Michelangnolo) of Galileo Galilei were musicians, the former quite important both as a theoretician and as one of the members of the Florentine Camerata.

Indeed, they would have been ideal for the English Orpheus series...Peter Holman and Roy Goodman did some fine things as part of it. I particularly enjoyed their collections of keyboard, violin and clarinet concertos by English composers.