NTT: I don't know that a Sanctus text is exactly a "dead giveaway..." but noting the slow tempo, the full brass section, and the Romantic harmony in conjunction with the history-textbook mention, I'll guess: Reinecke, Franck, and Rubinstein.
Absolutely loved all the analysis on my NTT last week, it was all spot on, even if the actual composer’s name eluded everyone. We’ll see if I manage to make any guesses in Will’s submission for this week.
On Schumann’s advice, I’m afraid I just cannot follow it unless an emendation is made so that it reads:
“Love your instrument, but do not be vain enough to consider it the greatest and only one…unless your instrument is the clarinet, which everyone knows is the best.”
(I will, however, concede agreement with the sentiment that choral music with orchestra is the most sublime.)
May 25, 2023·edited May 25, 2023Liked by Tone Prose
Perhaps someday "Remember Also That Singers Exist" will be a book of its own. Thank you for the Isserlis recommendation; felicitously, I was able to walk four doors down the hallway to the vault that houses our in-print titles to find this, which was published just before my current stint at UC Press and had escaped my notice.
Unless this is an individual piece, or something from an opera cathedral/church scene, most likely it's indeed part of a Mass.
It sounds so very familiar, and yet, with all the Masses I've performed, it's not something I've ever played - or heard. As a horn player, I would likely have remembered that gorgeous horn quartet - with mezzo (remember that singers exist 😉 ).
Definitely Romantic era (or, at least in that style melodically and harmonically). Composed by someone who writes very idiomatically for the horn - individually and as a section - like Brahms or Schumann or Weber. Reminds me in many respects of the Bruckner Andante for Horn Quartet. I'll leave them near the basket, but all of those composers are probably too frequently mentioned to fit the description of not in "the top rank of fame."
Perhaps it's something by hornist and composer Hübler. After playing Schumann's new Konzertstück for 4 Horns in the composer's presence, he decided to compose his own Konzertstück (one I've been fortunate to perform). Perhaps he also wrote a Mass.
Or maybe it's something less well known by Humperdinck. Along the lines of his poignant Evening Prayer, played by horn quartet to open the Overture to Hansel and Gretel.
Or perhaps by Delibes - who wrote the gorgeous horn quartet opening to his ballet Coppélia.
Or Gounod - famous for his opera Faust and his Ave Maria. He also wrote a number of masses, I recall. But don't think I've ever heard anything except St. Cecilia, which does have a familiar melody or two.
Hanson wrote wonderfully for horns in the romantic style, particularly in his Symphony #2, aptly named Romantic. But I'll rule him out for this, since that piece leans heavily on the NEO side of Neo-Romantic.
But "a mention in the history books, at least since I was an undergrad" sounds like someone whose work might have been previously under-represented until more recent history. Perhaps the composer was a non-European or a woman.
In which case, I'll also add Beach as another possibility. Her Gaelic Symphony #2 includes luscious horn writing. And she did compose at least one Mass that I have never heard.
Whatever this piece turns out to be, if the rest of it is appealing as this snippet, it's something I want to hear in full - and maybe play.
A bit late-on-the-draw for NTT, but I'm having trouble figuring out if the brass is just horns, in which case I find it somewhat reminiscent of Weber's Freischütz Overture, so I'll put him in the basket. From the hint (and if the instrumentation is actually different and it's from the other end of the nineteenth century), I'll also throw in Mascagni and Leoncavallo, both of whom I think usually get at least passing mention in the textbooks.
NTT: I don't know that a Sanctus text is exactly a "dead giveaway..." but noting the slow tempo, the full brass section, and the Romantic harmony in conjunction with the history-textbook mention, I'll guess: Reinecke, Franck, and Rubinstein.
Absolutely loved all the analysis on my NTT last week, it was all spot on, even if the actual composer’s name eluded everyone. We’ll see if I manage to make any guesses in Will’s submission for this week.
On Schumann’s advice, I’m afraid I just cannot follow it unless an emendation is made so that it reads:
“Love your instrument, but do not be vain enough to consider it the greatest and only one…unless your instrument is the clarinet, which everyone knows is the best.”
(I will, however, concede agreement with the sentiment that choral music with orchestra is the most sublime.)
Perhaps someday "Remember Also That Singers Exist" will be a book of its own. Thank you for the Isserlis recommendation; felicitously, I was able to walk four doors down the hallway to the vault that houses our in-print titles to find this, which was published just before my current stint at UC Press and had escaped my notice.
Unless this is an individual piece, or something from an opera cathedral/church scene, most likely it's indeed part of a Mass.
It sounds so very familiar, and yet, with all the Masses I've performed, it's not something I've ever played - or heard. As a horn player, I would likely have remembered that gorgeous horn quartet - with mezzo (remember that singers exist 😉 ).
Definitely Romantic era (or, at least in that style melodically and harmonically). Composed by someone who writes very idiomatically for the horn - individually and as a section - like Brahms or Schumann or Weber. Reminds me in many respects of the Bruckner Andante for Horn Quartet. I'll leave them near the basket, but all of those composers are probably too frequently mentioned to fit the description of not in "the top rank of fame."
Perhaps it's something by hornist and composer Hübler. After playing Schumann's new Konzertstück for 4 Horns in the composer's presence, he decided to compose his own Konzertstück (one I've been fortunate to perform). Perhaps he also wrote a Mass.
Or maybe it's something less well known by Humperdinck. Along the lines of his poignant Evening Prayer, played by horn quartet to open the Overture to Hansel and Gretel.
Or perhaps by Delibes - who wrote the gorgeous horn quartet opening to his ballet Coppélia.
Or Gounod - famous for his opera Faust and his Ave Maria. He also wrote a number of masses, I recall. But don't think I've ever heard anything except St. Cecilia, which does have a familiar melody or two.
Hanson wrote wonderfully for horns in the romantic style, particularly in his Symphony #2, aptly named Romantic. But I'll rule him out for this, since that piece leans heavily on the NEO side of Neo-Romantic.
But "a mention in the history books, at least since I was an undergrad" sounds like someone whose work might have been previously under-represented until more recent history. Perhaps the composer was a non-European or a woman.
In which case, I'll also add Beach as another possibility. Her Gaelic Symphony #2 includes luscious horn writing. And she did compose at least one Mass that I have never heard.
Whatever this piece turns out to be, if the rest of it is appealing as this snippet, it's something I want to hear in full - and maybe play.
A bit late-on-the-draw for NTT, but I'm having trouble figuring out if the brass is just horns, in which case I find it somewhat reminiscent of Weber's Freischütz Overture, so I'll put him in the basket. From the hint (and if the instrumentation is actually different and it's from the other end of the nineteenth century), I'll also throw in Mascagni and Leoncavallo, both of whom I think usually get at least passing mention in the textbooks.