Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

Monday, October 9, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "Z" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "Z" Composers

Jan Dismas Zelenka
Alexander von Zemlinsky

Nationalities

Czech 1
Austrian 1

Earliest

Composer - Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)
Composition - Zelenka's Psalmi Verspertini (1925)

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942)
Composition - Zemlinsky's String Quartet No. 2 (1913)

Total Compositions Sampled - 7

Top Ranked "Z" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Alexander von Zemlinsky (10/10)

Austrian, 1871-1942

Symphony No. 2

Jan Dismas Zelenka (6/10)

Czech, 1679-1745

Missa Votiva in E minor

Thursday, October 5, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "X" Composer

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "X" Composer

Iannis Xenakis

Nationalities

Greek 1

Earliest

Composer - Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
Composition - Xenakis's Pithoprakta (1955)

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
Composition - Xenakis's Pleiades (1978)

Total Compositions Sampled - 3

Top Ranked "X" Composer

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Iannis Xenakis (4/10)

Greek, 1922-2001

Pleiades

Friday, September 29, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "W" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "W" Composers

Richard Wagner
William Walton
Peter Warlock
Carl Maria von Weber
Anton Webern
Thomas Weelkes
Kurt Weill
Jaromir Weinberger
Egon Wellesz
Eric Whitacre
Charles-Marie Widor
Henryk Wieniawski
John Wilbye
John Williams
Malcolm Williamson
Hugo Wolf
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Hugh Wood

Nationalities

English 5
American 4
Austrian 3
German 2
French 1
Polish 1
Australian 1
Italian 1

Earliest

Composer - John Wilbye (1574-1638)
Composition - von Weber's Symphony No. 1 (1806)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Composition - Whitacre's The Sacred Veil (2022)

Total Compositions Sampled - 93

Top 5 Ranked "W" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

John Williams (10/10)

American, b. 1932

Star Wars

Richard Wagner (10/10)

German, 1813-1883

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Eric Whitacre (10/10)

American, b. 1970

This Marriage

Charles-Marie Widor (10/10)

French, 1844-1937

Symphony No. 3

Carl Maria von Weber (10/10)

German, 1786-1826

Symphony No. 2

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "V" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "V" Composers

Edgard Varèse
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Giuseppe Verdi
Tomás Luis de Victoria
Henri Vieuxtemps
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Antonio Vivaldi

Nationalities

French 1
English 1
Italian 1
Spanish 1
Belgian 1
Brazilian 1
Venetian 1

Earliest

Composer - Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
Composition - Vivaldi's 12 Violin Sonatas (1709)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Heitor Villa-Lobos (1678-1741)
Composition - Varèse's Ecuatorial (1961)

Total Compositions Sampled - 28

Top 5 Ranked "V" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Ralph Vaughan Williams (10/10)

English, 1872-1958

Sinfonia Antartica

Heitor Villa-Lobos (10/10)

Brazilian, 1887-1959

Symphony No. 3

Henri Vieuxtemps (9/10)

Belgian, 1820-1881

Violin Concerto No. 1

Antonio Vivaldi (9/10)

Venetian, 1678-1741

Four Seasons

Giuseppe Verdi (8/10)

Italian, 1813-1901

Requiem

Friday, July 21, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "S" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "S" Composers

Camille Saint-Saëns
Aulis Sallinen
Giuseppe Sammartini
Pablo de Sarasate
Erik Satie
Alessandro Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti
Samuel Scheidt
Franz Schmidt
Florent Schmitt
Alfred Schnittke
Othmar Shoeck
Arnold Schoenberg
Franz Schreker
Franz Schubert
Gunther Schuller
William Schuman
Robert Schumann
Heinrich Schütz
Cyril Scott
Mátyás Seiber
Roger Sessions
Harold Shapero
Ralph Shapey
Rodion Shchedrin
Dmitri Shostakovich
Jean Sibelius
Elie Siegmeister
Robert Simpson
Christian Sinding
Niko Skalkottas
Alexander Scriabin
Bedřich Smetana
Ethel Smyth
Fernando Sor
Leo Sowerby
Louis Spohr
Gaspare Spontini
John Stainer
Johann Stamitz
Carl Stamitz
Charles Villiers Stanford
Robert Still
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Johann Strauss II
Richard Strauss
Igor Stravinsky
Josef Suk
Arthur Sullivan
Franz von Suppè
Jan Sweelinck
Karol Szymanowski

Nationalities

American 7
German 7
English 6
Russian 5
Austrian 5
Czech 3
French 3
Hungarian 2
Spanish 2
Finnish 2
Papalini 1
Irish 1
Lombard 1
Neapolitan 1
Swiss 1
Sicilian 1
Norwegian 1
Dutch 1
Greek 1
Polish 1

Earliest

Composer - Jan Sweelinck (1562-1621)
Composition - Scheidt's Tabulatura Nova III (1624)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Auslin Sallinen (b. 1935)
Composition - Schuller's String Quartet (2014)

Total Compositions Sampled - 240

Top 10 Ranked "S" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Dmitri Shostakovich (10/10)

Russian, 1906-1975

Symphony No. 7 Leningrad

Richard Strauss (10/10)

German, 1864-1949

Alpine Symphony

Camille Saint-Saëns (10/10)

French, 1835-1921

Symphony No. 3

Jean Sibelius (10/10)

Finnish, 1865-1957

Symphony No. 2

Robert Schumann (10/10)

German, 1810-1856

Symphony No. 1 Spring

Bedřich Smetana (10/10)

Czech, 1824-1884

Ma Vlast

Franz Schubert (10/10)

Austrian, 1797-1828

Symphony No. 7 The Unfinished

Christian Sinding (10/10)

Norwegian, 1856-1941

Symphony No. 1

Igor Stravinsky (10/10)

Russian, 1882-1971

The Rite of Spring

Arthur Sullivan (10/10)

English, 1842-1900

The Moon and I

Thursday, April 27, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "R" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "R" Composers

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Joachim Raff
Priaulx Rainier
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Maurice Ravel
Alan Rawsthorne
Max Reger
Steve Reich
Ottorino Respighi
Wallingford Riegger
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Leroy Robertson
George Rochberg
Joaquin Rodrigo
Bernard Rogers
Joseph-Guy Ropartz
Gioachino Rossini
Albert Roussel
Edmund Rubbra
Anton Rubinstein
Carl Ruggles

Nationalities

American 6
French 4
English 3
Russian 3
Italian 2
German 1
Spanish 1
Swiss 1
South African 1

Earliest

Composer - Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Composition - Rossini's Sinfonia al conventello (1806)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Composition - Reich's Electric Counterpoint (2017)

Total Compositions Sampled - 110

Top 10 Ranked "R" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (10/10)

Russian, 1844-1908

Scheherazade

Sergei Rachmaninoff (10/10)

Russian, 1873-1943

Piano Concerto No. 2

Maurice Ravel (10/10)

French, 1875-1937

Le tombeau de Couperin

Anton Rubinstein (10/10)

Russian, 1829-1894

Symphony No. 1

Edmund Rubbra (10/10)

English, 1901-1986

Symphony No. 6

Joaquin Rodrigo (10/10)

Spanish, 1901-1999

Concierto Andaluz

Joachim Raff (10/10)

Swiss, 1822-1882

Symphony No. 1

Ottorino Respighi (10/10)

Italian, 1879-1936

Roman Trilogy

Steve Reich (9/10)

American, b. 1936

Music for 18 Musicians

Gioachino Rossini (8/10)

Italian, 1792-1868

The William Tell Overture

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "Q" Composer

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "Q" Composer

Roger Quilter

Nationalities

English 1

Earliest

Composer - Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Composition - Quilter's Three English Dances for Orchestra (1910)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Composition - Quilter's The Rake (1925)

Total Compositions Sampled - 4

Top Ranked "Q" Composer

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Roger Quilter (7/10)

English, 1877-1953

Where the Rainbow Ends Suite

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "P" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "P" Composers

Johann Pachelbel
Ignacy Paderewski
Niccolò Paganini
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Andrezj Panufnik
Horatio Parker
Hubert Parry
Paul Patterson
Krzysztof Penderecki
Giovanni Pergolesi
Allan Pettersson
Gabriel Pierné
Walter Piston
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Manuel Ponce
Amilcare Ponchielli
Nicola Porpora
Francis Poulenc
Michael Praetorius
André Previn
Sergei Prokofiev
Giacomo Puccini
Juan Pablo Pujol
Henry Purcell

Nationalities

English 3
Polish 3
American 3
German 2
French 2
Neapolitan 2
Paplini 2
Swedish 1
Genoan 1
Italian 1
Mexican 1
Lombard 1
Russian 1
Luccan 1
Spanish 1

Earliest

Composer - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c1525-1594)
Composition - Praetorius's Dances from Terpischore (1612)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Paul Patterson (b. 1947)
Composition - Penderecki's Symphony No. 7 "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" (1996)

Total Compositions Sampled - 138

Top Ranked "P" Composers

Ranked on a purely subjective personal enjoyment scale

Sergei Prokofiev (10/10)

Russian, 1891-1953

Peter and the Wolf

Ildebrandon Pizzetti (10/10)

Italian, 1880-1968

Piano Concerto

Walter Piston (10/10)

American, 1894-1976

Symphony No. 1

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (10/10)

Polish, 1860-1941

Suite for Strings in G major

Gabriel Pierné (10/10)

French, 1863-1937

Piano Concerto

Niccolò Paganini (9/10)

Genoan, 1782-1840

Caprice 24

Allan Pettersson (9/10)

Swedish, 1911-1980

Symphony No. 8

Adrzej Panufnik (9/10)

Polish, 1914-1991

Symphony No. 2

Giacomo Puccini (8/10)

Luccan, 1858-1924

Nessun Dorma

Francis Poulenc (8/10)

French, 1899-1963

Piano Concerto

Thursday, February 9, 2023

TDCM: Review of the "O" Composers

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

List, Stats, Curiosities of the "O" Composers

Jacques Offenbach
Stephen Oliver
Carl Orff

Nationalities

German 1
French 1
English 1

Earliest

Composer - Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Composition - Offenbach's Grand Concerto for cello in G major "Concerto militaire" (1848)*

*Earliest dated composition

Latest
Composer - Stephen Oliver (1950-1992)
Composition - Nilsson's The Lord of the Rings (1981)

Total Compositions Sampled - 10