Favorite obscure classical composers?

shimniok

shimniok

Super Member
So, we all know about Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, etc. What about the lesser played, somewhat more obscure classical composers? Who are your favorites, and why are they interesting to you?

The purpose here is for the rest of us to learn about composers we may not have considered listening to before. This isn't a contest to see who can list the most obscure composers. :D What's obscure for one person is daily listening for another. Doesn't matter. Just use your best judgement about composers others may not know about.

So, with that in mind, please tell us something about your recommended composer... why should we give 'em a try?

I don't have a lot of info about these guys so if you can add, please feel free.

Charles Ives - got a 4-track of this with my deck. Woah. Seriously insane, chaotic, yet actually somehow kind of listenable. Really intriguing.

Elgar - We all know Pomp and Circumstance (high school graduation music). I ordered Serenade for Strings (Em, op 20) on a compilation disc the other day. I'm digging it. Nothing unapproachable here. Quite pleasant.

Britten - On this same disc. Not that he's totally obscure, but the casual classical listener may not be too familiar (me). I remember in college hearing a concert with one of his works featured. While it was bizarre sounding to me, when I paid attention it was really pretty interesting stuff. Came away really liking the experience.

Bruckner - Ok, he's probably plenty well known, but I had no idea about him a couple years ago. Have a symphony of his that really grew on me fast. I have a couple more LPs of Bruckner that is in the queue for cleaning and spinning for the first time. EDIT: while he's mid to late 1800's I'd say he has the approachability of the earlier romantic works, at least for that symphony, in that it has memorable melody and strikes me as being fairly structured and not rambling / meandering.

Hummel - Hadn't heard of him before but have an LP of his that came with a big classical score. Pretty decent at first listen.

Nielsen - got a disc of Symphony Nos 2 and 4 a few months ago, on RCA Red Seal, conducted by Morton Gould (who himself is a lesser known composer) and Jean Martinon. Really cool, rather exciting. :)

Michael
 
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Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)

are the two that pop into my mind at the moment.
 
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

A contemporary of Bach, Handel and the like. Telemann composed more than any of them and was much more popular during that time I believe. Even a non classical lover recognize the name Bach, but I would have to believe that many casual classical music listeners would not recognize the name Telemann.

RC
 
Pachelbel, Albinoni, Charpentier, Scarlatti, Handel, of course much of this depends upon whether you subscribe to the maxim "If it ain't Baroque, fix it."
 
Some of these are more obscure than others, but some of my favorites:

William Alwyn
Arnold Bax
Franz Berwald
Alan Hovhaness
George Rochberg
Ned Rorem
Roger Sessions
Michael Tippett
 
RichPA said:
Some of these are more obscure than others, but some of my favorites:

William Alwyn
Arnold Bax
Franz Berwald
Alan Hovhaness
George Rochberg
Ned Rorem
Roger Sessions
Michael Tippett
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I wanna add Hovhannes and Bax to mine..Bax on Lyrita LP's is awesome.
 
Gesulado
Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo da Venosa (March 8, 1566 – September 8, 1613), Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian music composer, lutenist and nobleman of the late Renaissance. He is famous for his intensely expressive madrigals, which use a chromatic language not heard again until the 19th century; and also for committing what are amongst the most notorious murders in musical history.

Perotin
Pérotin (fl. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the twelfth and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony. He was one of very few composers of his day whose name has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Léonin. Anonymous IV called him "Perotin Magister", which means "Pérotin the master or expert." The name Pérotin is itself derived from "Perotinus," the Latin diminutive of Petrus, the Latin version of the French name Pierre.

Marais
Marin Marais (31 May 1656, Paris – 15 August 1728, Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles. He did quite well as court musician, and in 1679 was appointed "ordinaire de la chambre du roy pour la viole", a title he kept until 1725.

Zelenka
Jan Dismas Zelenka, also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka (16 October 1679 – 23 December 1745), was a Czech Baroque composer. Zelenka played the violone, the largest and lowest member of the viol family, analogous to the double bass in the violin family of stringed instruments.

Dunstaple
John Dunstaple or Dunstable (c. 1390 – December 24, 1453) was an English composer of polyphonic music of the late medieval era and early Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers active in the early 15th century, a near-contemporary of Leonel Power, and was widely influential, not only in England but on the continent, especially in the developing style of the Burgundian School.

Tallis
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of its earliest composers. Tallis has been said to be one of the most important composers of his time and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship (Farrell 125).

Part
Arvo Pärt (born 11 September 1935 in Paide, Estonia), (IPA: [ˈɑr̺vɔ ˈpær̺t]) is an Estonian classical composer. Pärt works in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabulation and hypnotic repetitions influenced by the intellectual counterpoint elements of European jazz, but fitting into European-American classical post-modernism rather than so-called world music.

...for starters.
 
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doucanoe said:
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

A contemporary of Bach, Handel and the like. Telemann composed more than any of them and was much more popular during that time I believe. Even a non classical lover recognize the name Bach, but I would have to believe that many casual classical music listeners would not recognize the name Telemann.

RC
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Good call! Teleman gets a lot of play time on my system. Heck, I've even played a piece of his on flute. :thmbsp:

As for all these other guys -- can you tell me a little about 'em? I think it's helpful to have a short bit of info like the above to help us figure out if we want to dig into them or not. Thanks :)

Michael
 
shimniok said:
As for all these other guys -- can you tell me a little about 'em? I think it's helpful to have a short bit of info like the above to help us figure out if we want to dig into them or not. Thanks :)

Michael
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Follow my hyper-links. :yes:
 
I was going to say Tallis, but pmsummer beat me to it, along with some other excellent and relatively obscure ones.

I don't think Sibelius is that obscure, but since he hasn't been mentioned, I'll mention him.
Ditto for Gabriel Fouret, whose Pavanne is one of my favorites.

The Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz is another favorite, although I'm not sure he qualifies as obscure, either. Manuel DeFalla is another compatriot of his who is not really obscure, but also quite good.

There are some much more obscure ones on my shelves, some of whom I like, but most of them are not as big 'favorites' as these, who are perhaps a bit more famous for good reason.
 
Rafe Vaughn Williams, English composer and since you mentioned Elgar get his Enigma Variations, no music library should be without it.
 
merrylander said:
Rafe Vaughn Williams, English composer and since you mentioned Elgar get his Enigma Variations, no music library should be without it.
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I love the phonetic spelling! ;)

The Lark Ascending, Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Symphonies No.3 and No.6, among my favorites.
 
pmsummer -- awesome!

pmsummer said:
Tallis
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of its earliest composers. Tallis has been said to be one of the most important composers of his time and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship (Farrell 125).
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Funny you mention Tallis because I'm listening to "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Vaughn Williams. He gets a fair amount of airtime on the local classical station (KVOD) but I'm not all that familiar with him. I wouldn't say he's obscure but then again I doubt he's as widely known as the Big Guys. Anyway this work is absolutely gorgeous and was instantly recognizable for me.

Michael
 
Arkay said:
I don't think Sibelius is that obscure, but since he hasn't been mentioned, I'll mention him.
Ditto for Gabriel Fouret, whose Pavanne is one of my favorites.
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Once you begin to really listen to "Classical Music", few of these listed are truly obscure, they're just not the "Three Bs and M" (Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart).
 
Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude (Dietrich, Diderich) (c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a German-Danish organist, lutenist and a highly regarded composer of the Baroque period. His organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services. He wrote in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach and Gustav Mahler. Buxtehude, along with Heinrich Schütz, is considered today to be the most important German composer of the mid-Baroque.

Schutze
Heinrich Schütz (October 8 (JC), 1585 Köstritz - November 6, 1672 Dresden) was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi. He wrote what is thought to be the first German opera, Dafne, performed at Torgau in 1627; however, the music has since been lost. He is commemorated as a musician in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on July 28 with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was buried in the Dresden Frauenkirche but his tomb has since been destroyed.
 
Here's a few I sometimes listen to:

Allan Petterson
Havergal Brian
Howard Hanson
Elliott Carter

I think a few mainstream composers have gotten into this thread.
 
vinyl1 said:
I think a few mainstream composers have gotten into this thread.
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Quite a few. But, alas, mainstream to you (and perhaps me to a lesser degree), and "mainstream" to that example of evil incarnate, the dreaded and feared "Classical Radio Program Manager", are quite different things. ;)
 
vinyl1 said:
I think a few mainstream composers have gotten into this thread.
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It's all good. We all come from different levels of experience and exposure to classical music --- so I wanted a thread that was the next step beyond that excellent "how to get started" thread posted up a week ago that listed the foundational classical library composers / pieces.

This was meant as more of a "broaden the horizons" kind of thread than a contest of who is into the most obscure composers :D So far so good, all kinds of great suggestions here!

Michael
 
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