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.