Pianophilia

At the request of fredbucket who has little of this composer I post here a beautiful little piece by Hamish MacCunn, a Scotsman if you hadn't already guessed. This piece is not difficult but does need a delicate use of rubato to make the melodies sing and lots of pedal to recreate that feeling of twilight in the glen when the wind is just disturbing the trees enough to give you a glimpse of the setting sun as it turns from yellow to purple and your true love is hanging on your arm and cuddling closer as the cool of the glen and the heat of the sun give you that tremendous feelgood sensation. A guaranteed success with the older ladies who all like a good tune.
regards to all
Brian

Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916), was born in Greenock. He showed musical talent at an early age and when only 15 won a scholarship for composition to the Royal College of Music in London. Following his four years there, he taught privately and at the Royal Academy of Music, during which time he composed a large number of works.
Compositions and Correspondence
The collection of manuscript and published works in Glasgow was donated to the University by MacCunn’s widow in 1951. It includes the published vocal score of Jeanie Deans and the autograph score of Diarmid, the two operas by which he was best known during his life; over 50 published songs, part-songs and cantatas, and almost as many unpublished, as well as a small number of orchestral, chamber and piano pieces, about half of which are unpublished. The Library holds the published full score of probably the only work by which he is well-known today, the overture Land of the mountain and the flood. Some 50-odd letters sent by Hamish MacCunn to Janey Drysdale, sister of the composer Learmont Drysdale , are to be found in the Farmer Collection.

I Beleive that there are some piano scores that can be downloaded in the Library of the University of Glasgow:

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/collection/maccunn.html

Ilu.

HullandHellandHalifax wrote:At the request of fredbucket who has little of this composer...

I now have a bit more, has been printed off and I will examine acoustically. Thank you.

Regards
Fred

Well I finally got my hands on these things.

Igod82 wrote:Well I finally got my hands on these things.

Very good !! Thanks !!

Igod82 wrote:Well I finally got my hands on these things.

Excellent posting, thank you - out of curiosity these have been recorded.....check out Armstrong Gibbs Society website

http://www.armstronggibbs.com/html/recordings.htm

- CD is called Hounds of Spring...its about halfway down the list of CDs given.

Malcolm

Norman Houston O'Neill (1875, London 1934, London) was an Irish / British composer and conductor who specialized largely in works for the theatre. He studied in London with Somervell, and Knorr at the Hoch Conservatoire in Frankfurt from 1893-1897. His studies there were facilitated by his lover, Eric Stenbock. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s.

O'Neill was associated with the Haymarket Theatre. His works include over fifty sets of incidental music for plays, including many by Shakespeare (Hamlet, King Lear, Juius Ceasar, Macbeth, The Mercant of Venice etc.), J.M Barrie (A Kiss for Cinderella ) and Maurice Maeterlinck (The Blue Bird). O'Neill's works also include a number of symphonic suites and chamber music. He was treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society from 1918 until his death, and taught harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

I have posted four pieces /dances taken from his incidental music to "The Blue Bird" by Maeterlinck.

Malcolm

And another rare gem from a composer of British theatre: Percy Eastman Fletcher (1879 – 1932). Born in Derby. British composer. He was musical director of various theatres in London and is best known for his many theatre works

Most of Fletcher's piano music was arranged from orchestral scores (examples are Nautical Scenes, Sylvan Scenes, At Gretna Green and Bal Masqué) and a selection from his musical Cairo appeared in piano form. However, the Five Lyrical Pieces subtitled Idylesques, Six Compositions, Four Confessions and the early Dreamer of Dreams are piano originals. He also put piano accompaniments to a set of French Nursery Songs published by Curwen. He also composed quite widely for organ.

Strangely the Valse Arabesque was not included in the original works list, yet appears not to be related to a transcription from a stage work.

Malcolm

And as we're running with this thread on British composers...my last one for the evening [thank you Mr P]: Harry Farjeon (1878 – 1948) was an English composer. Born in New Jersey, USA, his parents returned to England when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead for the rest of his life.

He studied music privately with Landon Ronald and John Storer, and then in 1895 he entered the RAM in London, where he studied composition with Haynes and Corder, and piano with Septimus Webbe. He was a contemporary of Bax, Bowen, Carse, Coates and Dale. He left the RAM in 1900, but returned to teach composition in 1901. Two years later, at the age of 25, he became their youngest ever professor. He also taught at the Blackheath Conservatoire.

His Piano Concerto in D minor was performed at a Promenade Concert in 1903 and his Phantasy piano concerto won a Carnegie Award. Harry Farjeon composed music throughout most of his life. His compositions are mostly for piano, but he also wrote songs, sonatas, concertos, orchestral works [including a Hans Andersen suite and Pannychis, a symphonic poem], and a mass setting. He also wrote about music critic for Musical Times, Daily Telepgraph and other periodicals. Among his pupils were George Lloyd, Christain Darnton, Phyllis Tate and Steve Race.

I have posted his suite Op 11 Night Music.

Malcolm

mballan wrote: He also composed quite widely for organ.

Yes, and I'm sure all the organists on here know his delicious confection Fountain Reverie. (It sounds harder than it actually is.)

Thanks, Malcolm, for the Valse!