Neglected composers

[maestro267]

I'm listening to the Symphonic Mass by George Lloyd, and it is utterly beautiful music! It's making me wonder why this is not more popular than it is. There are many other figures for whom I could say the same. Why do some composers get a "big break" and others get left behind, when their music is just as worthy of acclaim and success?

[EdgeleyRob]

I'm listening to the Symphonic Mass by George Lloyd, and it is utterly beautiful music! It's making me wonder why this is not more popular than it is. There are many other figures for whom I could say the same. Why do some composers get a "big break" and others get left behind, when their music is just as worthy of acclaim and success?

I couldn't agree more maestro.
I don't know the answer to your question,it's a mystery to me.
For ages now I've been tryng to get a Radio 3 forum George Lloyd fan club going,our next meeting is here.

[Anna]

I couldn't agree more maestro.
I don't know the answer to your question,it's a mystery to me.
For ages now I've been tryng to get a Radio 3 forum George Lloyd fan club going,our next meeting is here.

Count me in the Tardis Rob, as the Doctor's assistant, I'm willing to go to outer space With you leading. Let's start a Revolution!

[Nick Armstrong]

Count me in the Tardis Rob, as the Doctor's assistant, I'm willing to go to outer space With you leading. Let's start a Revolution!

I can see it now...





....ahem.

OT - is it something to do with consensus? Ultimately, a critical mass of people like some composers over others, whereas for various reasons, the "neglected" ones speak to a smaller slice of the listening public?

[EdgeleyRob]

I can see it now...





....ahem.

OT - is it something to do with consensus? Ultimately, a critical mass of people like some composers over others, whereas for various reasons, the "neglected" ones speak to a smaller slice of the listening public?

Blimey,didn't know they were fans too,Anna,we're gonna need a bigger boat.

[Anna]

Blimey,didn't know they were fans too,Anna,we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Caliban is just being a smart arse, as his his wont.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm listening to the Symphonic Mass by George Lloyd, and it is utterly beautiful music! It's making me wonder why this is not more popular than it is. There are many other figures for whom I could say the same. Why do some composers get a "big break" and others get left behind, when their music is just as worthy of acclaim and success?

In the case of Lloyd, there was a period in the mid-'80s when you couldn't avoid his Music it was so frequently performed and recorded: he was even featured on a Desert Island Discs and was hugely popular and used as a club with which to attempt to batter "the Avant Garde" (a Gramophone article on "The Lloyd Phenomenon" asked the rhetorical question "which of today's Modernists would devote part of their life to cultivating mushrooms?" to which it received a deluge of replies with the literal answer "John Cage").

And then ... it all just fizzled away. The majority of the enthusiasts lost their enthusiasm, and younger performers didn't find anything particularly interesting in the Music to devote their time to. And I think that that's why certain composers who had their moment in the spotlight (from previous centuries, too) cease to get performed: their Music just doesn't "do" enough for enough (numbers of) the performers who have to play it. A painting by an artist of equivalent talent can still be seen; a book of poems or a novel picked up in a Library or second-hand bookshop. But Music and Drama need performers eager and enthusiastic to perform works.

[MrGongGong]

Why hasn't Trevor Wishart been COTW ?
a total inspiration, genius and influence on many composers both in the UK and the rest of the world

[Nick Armstrong]

...that's why certain composers who had their moment in the spotlight (from previous centuries, too) cease to get performed: their Music just doesn't "do" enough for enough (numbers of) the performers who have to play it. A painting by an artist of equivalent talent can still be seen; a book of poems or a novel picked up in a Library or second-hand bookshop. But Music and Drama need performers eager and enthusiastic to perform works.

That's interesting... so it's about consensus among performers rather than audience, you think... Good topic this

(PS: Anna - Guilty! )

[Anna]

(PS: Anna - Guilty! )

But, that is why I love you, for feeling guilty about anything! Bless Him. He does try to keep up.

[teamsaint]

One might also ask why certain composers get the attention they do. There are surely examples of composers who get a lot of attention despite a relatively small body of works that are regularly performed live.

in fact, is not this question of neglect or otherwise partly a function of the very narrow programming that takes place both in broadcasting and in live performance, or to put it another way, the appreciation of quality is squeezed by artificial constraints?

[EdgeleyRob]

In the case of Lloyd, there was a period in the mid-'80s when you couldn't avoid his Music it was so frequently performed and recorded: he was even featured on a Desert Island Discs and was hugely popular and used as a club with which to attempt to batter "the Avant Garde" (a Gramophone article on "The Lloyd Phenomenon" asked the rhetorical question "which of today's Modernists would devote part of their life to cultivating mushrooms?" to which it received a deluge of replies with the literal answer "John Cage").

And then ... it all just fizzled away. The majority of the enthusiasts lost their enthusiasm, and younger performers didn't find anything particularly interesting in the Music to devote their time to. And I think that that's why certain composers who had their moment in the spotlight (from previous centuries, too) cease to get performed: their Music just doesn't "do" enough for enough (numbers of) the performers who have to play it. A painting by an artist of equivalent talent can still be seen; a book of poems or a novel picked up in a Library or second-hand bookshop. But Music and Drama need performers eager and enthusiastic to perform works.

Interesting post ferney.
I suppose those of us who find music by these neglected composers so meaningful just can't understand why others do not.
It works the other way too,I have a Sibelius potty friend who is simply baffled (probably many on here are too) as to why I get so much reward from Lloyd and yet nothing from his hero.
Surely there is of enough of interst in the likes of say Rubbra or Weinberg that performers would be keen to play it,but as I am not a musician maybe I'm wrong.

[Alison]

In the case of Lloyd, there was a period in the mid-'80s when you couldn't avoid his Music it was so frequently performed and recorded: he was even featured on a Desert Island Discs and was hugely popular and used as a club with which to attempt to batter "the Avant Garde" (a Gramophone article on "The Lloyd Phenomenon" asked the rhetorical question "which of today's Modernists would devote part of their life to cultivating mushrooms?" to which it received a deluge of replies with the literal answer "John Cage").

And then ... it all just fizzled away. The majority of the enthusiasts lost their enthusiasm, and younger performers didn't find anything particularly interesting in the Music to devote their time to. And I think that that's why certain composers who had their moment in the spotlight (from previous centuries, too) cease to get performed: their Music just doesn't "do" enough for enough (numbers of) the performers who have to play it. A painting by an artist of equivalent talent can still be seen; a book of poems or a novel picked up in a Library or second-hand bookshop. But Music and Drama need performers eager and enthusiastic to perform works.

Very interesting: The Lloyd thing was all going off when I first got interested in music as a kid. I can't think of a conductor who might take on the symphonies now. What's happened to Dougie Bostock these days ?

[Petrushka]

I can't think of a conductor who might take on the symphonies now.

Has Sir Andrew Davis expressed any interest in Lloyd?

[umslopogaas]

Wasnt Lloyd one of a group of what you might call 'lyrical' British composers, who got pushed aside in favour of the more fashionably 'modernist' kind? I'll leave further discussion to those who know what they are talking about, but I'd like to put in a good word for Richard Itter, who founded the record label Lyrita. As well as Lloyd's symphonies 4, 5 and 8, I have Lyrita LPs of music by Alwyn, Bax, Berkeley, Ireland, Finzi, Leigh, Moeran, Rubbra and Scott. I always enjoy listening to them, though I have to admit that the music isnt often very memorable. You might not like the way Stockhausen makes your ears bleed, but at least its an experience you dont forget in a hurry (yes I know he wasnt British, I cant think of a British equivalent at the moment).