Let's have some positivity - who do you want to big up? Make me want to sample a composer that most people may have overlooked. As we're on this side of the board, let's keep it to people NOT primarily involved with incidental music for film..
You know more than I do about classical music TG, so no point me going there. How about musical theatre? I don't believe you're a fan (at least that I've noticed), but Jason Robert Brown has composed some nice stuff. His shows include the excellent 'Parade', 'The Last Five Years' and 'Honeymoon In Vegas'. Here's Kelli O'Hara singing a song from his excellent 'Bridges of Madison County'..
Hmm...well, for classical, there's not much I can add. I love the organ music of Georg Muffat and Francois Couperin -- which I guess could be considered fairly unknown to the regular Joe -- but I know organ music is an acquired taste. Most other things I like in classical music, I'm sure you've heard about.
For rock and pop, I don't have too many obscure favourites. Some early John Miles, maybe (due to my Alan Parsons love), but hardly obscure.
For jazz, I can't really think of any obscure composer that I like.
I think the one area where I could recommend composers and artists that are less known to members of this forum, would be electronica, and then especially the more hardhitting or experimental stuff from the 90s onwards. EDM, as they call it. People like Paul Oakenfold, Max Graham, Shpongle, Infected Mushroom, Filteria, The Man With No Name, The Infinity Project, Astral Projection, Hallucinogen and so forth. It's a vast area with more sub genres than film music ever had, but lots of fantastic, instrumental music with loads of energy and creativity.
Okay, you may argue that as he has composed music for films he should be rejected but I'd nominate Richard Rodgers ... largely for his body of work with lyricist Lorenz Hart. Yes, many of their songs were for films or, perhaps, became well-known via the celluloid medium but the original source was more likely the stage.
I think the American songbook is a wonderful achievement and there are many names i could have opted for. It's just that there are so many great - no: fabulous - songs which were penned by this wonderful duo. And it's the melodies which get me, time after time. I find Rodgers' work less interesting when he partnered Oscar Hammerstein II.
From titles like I Could Write a Book, There's a Small Hotel, The Lady is a Tramp to Wait Till You See Him/Her, My Funny Valentine, Where or When to ... There's a Song in My Heart, This Can't be Love, Spring is Here to ... ... well, one of my top favourites Ten Cents a Dance
Just so many marvellous tunes.
In the classical/concert hall field, I continue to find new works which make me wonder why I've shunned this field for so long. But as a favourite I think I would still opt for Rachmaninov simply because he composed several works which I've loved for years: Cello Sonata, Op.19 in G minor, Trio élégiaque No.2 in D minor, Op.9, Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.27 and his crowning masterpiece: Piano Concerto No.3, Op.30 in D minor.
But then, I'm a romantic at heart ... which explains why I still think John Barry tops the list
The Rach is good, but hardly a composer "most people may have overlooked".
Agreed, Thor, but I was torn between TG's thread title and thread text. I'd struggle to name a composer I consider a favourite who is someone not known.
Hence I decided to answer the thread in two parts ... favourites (away from the film side) and then suggest a few less than well-known names (but diverted for household duties ).
I was looking to see what works I had by your named composer, Georg Muffat, finding only two, neither of which I've played for some time and cannot recall if they are organ works: Exquisitioris harmoniae instrumentalis gravi-jucundae (1689): Concerto I: 'Bona Nova' in D minor and Florilegium secundum - Suite 8: Indissolubilis amicitia in E.
As for François Couperin, I have a few works but these are mostly harpsichord rather than organ pieces.
I will continue to think of obscure names I could promote: would Fran Lhotka suffice? I played his ballet suite Ðavo u selu (The Devil in the Village) a few days ago ... very enjoyable!
Mitch
NP: North German Organ Music - The Raphaëlis Organ in Roskilde Cathedral (Denmark) - 6 composers' name I do not know and three Anon
Again, only solitary works but I can highly recommend:
George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsodies, Op.11 - wonderfully melodic Matthias Georg Monn's Cello Concerto, in G minor - the cello really shines and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust's Sonata for Lute & Violin in D minor - I can't believe how much I enjoy the sound of the lute in such intimate pieces ... it just demonstrates how rubbish so much of today's music is.
I know, I know ... Enescu is hardly unknown ... especially if you derive from one of the Balkan states.
Friedrich Wilhelm Rust's Sonata for Lute & Violin in D minor - I can't believe how much I enjoy the sound of the lute in such intimate pieces ... it just demonstrates how rubbish so much of today's music is.
I think there's a lot of "today's music" -- however you define that -- that is perfectly fine (no reason to put down one thing to cherish another), but I love me some lute music now and then. I have an album called LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY'S LUTE BOOK (on Harmonia Mundi), and I sometimes pop it on for "something completely different" and weirdly therapeutical. I guess that counts as obscure enough in this context.
Not my very favourite composer (that would be Handel), but if you like 20th century English music you should give Herbert Howells a try, he's mostly known for choral music, but in the early days he composed a lot of orchestral music, some lovely stuff. There's a great double CD on Chandos (originally two separate CD releases) that's well worth a try.
Hard to go wrong with Debussy -- also a great crossover composer for film music fans (or for classical fans into film music, for that matter). But yeah; hardly obscure.
Speaking of composers associated with programmatic music, I don't think Paul Dukas ever got his due. Everybody always associates him with the "Sorcerer" music, but he did several other things that were also excellent, like the Symphony in C.
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