When exploring the world of classical music, it is all too easy to stick with the safe, big names like Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bach, and all the other familiar composers. After all, there is a reason that these composers are “the Greats”. However, there are many, many other composers whose music deserves hearing every bit as much, with their own unique pleasures. I’m thinking of composers like Tveitt, Finzi, Kalinnikov, Ligeti, Martinu, and Nielsen — just to name a few. Reasons for the obscurity of these composers often has less to do with the inherent quality of their music than one might expect; it might be that they composed at a time when their particular style was out of fashion; or perhaps they composed a handful of works whose reputations are so good that they have overshadowed the rest of their output; and there is, of course, the constant reality that many composers — being relatively poor and not in good health — simply died before their gifts could blossom in maturity. And there is the problem of the sheer volume of music produced; not everything can be heard and preserved. It is a harsh reality that undoubtedly has cost the world some music that otherwise might be seen as masterpiece quality in its own right.
I’ve been looking a bit lately at the Unknown Composers Page, which contains information on a number of these nearly forgotten artists. Perhaps, if there is still life in classical music, part of it lies in breaking beyond the standard repertoire and discovering the true depth and diversity of our musical heritage.
