Souvenir de Porto Rico by Gottschalk

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist who failed to apply to the Paris Conservatoire for reason no other than his country being a country of steam engines. That was Pierre Zimmermann who said that (and rejected Gottschalk’s candidature thereafter); however, browsing YouTube once I stumbled on a steam-powered synthesizer – the incident that proves thinking steam and music don’t have anything in common is not relevant anymore. Be that as it may, American composers shouldn’t be flung aside: even though the most significant contribution they made was to contemporary, rather post-war, music (minimalism being the prime example), likes of Gottschalk prove that Romantic music was more than a match for them as well. See for yourself – here is sheet music for his Souvenir de Porto Rico and the video is below:

Flower Songs by Gustav Lange

Even though I’m not in any way affiliated with The Guinness Book of World Records (nor did I hold it in my hands in the last couple of years), I’m well familiar with a few of its record-breakers, just because of my avid interest towards classical music. Say, Georg Philipp Telemann – with about 3,000 original works he is the most prolific composer ever lived. However, if we were to judge by extant works, Telemann would appear less of a person who hadn’t been sleeping and eating for a whole composer’s career (really, how do you produce oeuvre as tremendous to the nth degree as it is otherwise?) – about 800 of his pieces survived. Thus it is easier for other composers, such as Gustav Lange (with a number of 500), to breath down his neck. The latter was also born in Germany – probably the very air of this country boosts up creativity. Here is one of his finest pieces: Flower Song, Op.39. Enjoy!

A Bird upon a Rosy Bough

American composer John Knowles Paine had made a long way to become as respected and influential person as he was. To be as precise as possible, not only long but also cross-continental: for a while he was studying organ in Berlin. Never before him were American composers getting considerable recognition for their large-scale orchestral works but Paine changed the rules of the game. Also he was among the first acknowledged professors of music, worked in Harvard and, among other things, wrote a few books, such as The History of Music to the Death of Schubert. A Bird upon a Rosy Bough is one of several Paine’s songs. Download it here: A Bird upon a Rosy Bough, Op.40 No.1.

Poème de l'amour et de la mer

Have you ever wondered how many of those who work full-time in offices could have become great composers? Not many? Well, maybe, but there always is a chance. Decades before going down in history as author of some of the most refined pieces ever written, Ernest Chausson was working as a lawyer. However, he always felt he should devote himself to art, and his 2-year employment history proves his feelings were unadulterated – sincerity and lyricism were at all an inseparable part of both his person and his oeuvre. When it comes to Chausson’s vocal music, he was especially punctilious, trying to merge voice and instrumentation together. His Poème de l'amour et de la mer is available for download here: Le temps des lilas, Op.19.

Gavotte No.2 – Popper

Perhaps, all performers and composers have their listener and even those of them who are not known to a wider audience still have an enclave of admirers. Take David Popper: his name may not sound familiar to everybody, but for cellists he is a person of indisputable authority. Only a few musicians – Mstislav Rostropovich, for example – were able to play certain cello pieces of Popper without apparent effort. This prolific Bohemian composer is among those who proved that cello is very versatile instrument and showed its true potential. Here is one of Popper's splendid pieces, Gavotte No.2 for Cello and Piano, Op.23.

Highlighting Cyril Rootham

Some music gets less recognition than it deserves – this is the point I’m trying to convey in this blog. With all its seeming evidence many people forget the main thing: emergence of interest towards lesser-known composers is not a natural phenomenon, there always is someone who has his (or her, which too isn’t rare) hand in it. Abstracting from classical music, John Peel took a huge part in future success of post-punk band The Fall and is also known for broadcasting Nirvana way before they became world famous.

This is now Handel and Mozart are big names, with the latter being willy-nilly heard by absolutely everyone. However, some of their works were out of the spotlight until Cyril Rootham, a composer, organist, and educator, introduced them to the repertoire. Unfeigned music devotee, Rootham was never guided by selfish motives and thus didn’t put too much effort promoting own works. Nevertheless, not only his musical catalogue is surprisingly extensive (given all the activities he was involved in), but also dignified and ingenious. Bypassing his works is a crime, no less. How could you, knowing that they were composed by a contributor to the growth of Arthur Honegger, the man who imitated the sound of a steam locomotive in one of his symphonies?.. So don't give the go-by and download Suite for Flute and Piano.

Le Lac de Côme by C. Galos

It never hurts to know the details behind creation of the piece – what inspired a composer to begin working on it; whom he dedicated his work to; and, finally, where was he at the moment? Talking about Le Lac de Côme by C. Galos, it is unknown whether it was composed under a momentary impression or over time in another country – wait, we don’t even know whether its author was man or woman. Still this pell-mell makes things complicated rather for biographers than listeners and musicians – at least we can conclude that a composer didn’t remain indifferent towards the deepest and most beautiful lake in Italy, and that may be enough. Download this exquisite piano piece here: Nocturne No.6 'Le Lac de Côme' (Lake Como), Op.24.

Sept chants de terroire

Vincent d’Indy was a French composer and teacher. It’s very hard to describe him and everything he was involved in in short – only a story about a school he founded is priceless, not to mention everything else, – but I’ll try. D’Indy was heavily influenced by Wagner and wrote a book about him where named the latter a savior of French music. And as even foreigners had participated in musical life of his homeland, d’Indy couldn’t remain indifferent himself and founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris – the first private music school in the country.

Schola is absolutely unique phenomenon in sense that it had been criticized for conservatism yet its graduates included Eric Satie and Edgard Varèse – composers who were breaking all conceivable musical rules on a permanent basis! As concerns this very critique, do not pay much attention: d’Indy wasn’t a retrograde by nature and in the beginning opposed to the musical establishment himself (once again, he dared to found independent music school). He had a strong personality and didn’t belong to neither impressionists nor academics. Here's his Sept chants de terroire, op.73, a piece enjoyable and, now that it is scored for piano four hands, uniting.

Piano Trio by Ignaz Lachner

What is the most curious about Ignaz Lachner is that his brother was friends with Franz Schubert and benefited from it, making his mark. Ignaz, in turn, was less lucrative and hence less famous. Still he was a great composer – prodigy even – and prominent conductor. Lachner is mainly known for his chamber music and was a novator in this field in sense that several of his trios feature the unusual instrumentation – violin, viola, and piano. These his works certainly deserve close attention, and you may find one of them – op.58, to be exact – here: Piano Trio No.3 (Full Score). I hope you won’t remain indifferent towards this masterpiece!

Fugue on the Hymn of the Virgin

Live and learn, for real: just yesterday I wrote that I don’t know much about organ music – and today I stumble on article about French organ school – a centuries-old tradition with own rules and own form, established by composers who were in constant search of new possibilities of self-expression by the means of music.

If we would take Baroque or Romantic styles, they are much like huge music continents, and schools – be it New German or French Organ school, – are like islands: they’re smaller in size but exploring them isn’t any less fun. Talking about New German school, names of Liszt and Wagner are familiar to everybody, but not many know about it as a separate movement in art music.

The same thing happened to me: I heard some pieces of Jean-François Dandrieu, the only thing is I didn’t know he was a part of certain - French Organ, in our case - tradition. There is a lot of French organists I’m not familiar with still, but I can vouch for works of Dandrieu. Exceptionally good is his Fugue on Hymn to the Virgin; you may download it here: Pieces for Organ. Book I. Fugue on Hymn to the Virgin.