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drplaceboIt's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
This week's feature is again chamber music, this time by English composer Madeleine Dring (1923-1977), a multi-talented composer who was perhaps better known as a stage actress and singer. She was trained primarily as a composer, entering the Royal College of Music as a composition student at 14, but had a lifelong love for the theater as well -- many of her early compositions were incidental music for theater, radio, and television, and by the time she graduated from the RCM she was regularly appearing in theater productions herself.
Dring has sometimes been described as a "British Gershwin" because, like Gershwin, she spent most of her career writing musical theater and cabaret songs but also produced a number of "serious" pieces for the concert hall. This was in part a result of her theatrical bent, but also stemmed to some degree from her frustration with the musical establishment; in a decade-long correspondence with American composer Eugene Hemmer, she complained of feeling cut off from her fellow composers because of her lack of interest in avant-garde music. The resulting crisis of confidence led her to compose mainly for herself and people close to her: her songs were largely written for herself to perform, and most of her chamber music was composed for her husband Roger Lord, who was principal oboist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Much of her music was not published until the 1990s or later, despite her own efforts during her life and her husband's persistence after her death.
Dring's Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Piano is probably her most frequently-performed piece. It was composed in 1968, and premiered in New York that year with London Symphony Orchestra principal players Peter Lloyd and Roger Lord on flute and oboe respectively and Andre Previn on piano. The first two measures grab the listener's attention immediately and kick off a quirky and charming first movement full of slightly-off-kilter harmonies and rhythmic wit. The second movement contrasts the first with a beautiful simplicity, an extended oboe solo introducing a theme that develops as a relaxed conversation among the trio. Closing out the piece is an irreverent third movement that features a virtuosic double cadenza for the flute and oboe.
Movements:
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante semplice (3:13)
III. Allegro giocoso (8:06)
This week's feature is again chamber music, this time by English composer Madeleine Dring (1923-1977), a multi-talented composer who was perhaps better known as a stage actress and singer. She was trained primarily as a composer, entering the Royal College of Music as a composition student at 14, but had a lifelong love for the theater as well -- many of her early compositions were incidental music for theater, radio, and television, and by the time she graduated from the RCM she was regularly appearing in theater productions herself.
Dring has sometimes been described as a "British Gershwin" because, like Gershwin, she spent most of her career writing musical theater and cabaret songs but also produced a number of "serious" pieces for the concert hall. This was in part a result of her theatrical bent, but also stemmed to some degree from her frustration with the musical establishment; in a decade-long correspondence with American composer Eugene Hemmer, she complained of feeling cut off from her fellow composers because of her lack of interest in avant-garde music. The resulting crisis of confidence led her to compose mainly for herself and people close to her: her songs were largely written for herself to perform, and most of her chamber music was composed for her husband Roger Lord, who was principal oboist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Much of her music was not published until the 1990s or later, despite her own efforts during her life and her husband's persistence after her death.
Dring's Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Piano is probably her most frequently-performed piece. It was composed in 1968, and premiered in New York that year with London Symphony Orchestra principal players Peter Lloyd and Roger Lord on flute and oboe respectively and Andre Previn on piano. The first two measures grab the listener's attention immediately and kick off a quirky and charming first movement full of slightly-off-kilter harmonies and rhythmic wit. The second movement contrasts the first with a beautiful simplicity, an extended oboe solo introducing a theme that develops as a relaxed conversation among the trio. Closing out the piece is an irreverent third movement that features a virtuosic double cadenza for the flute and oboe.
Movements:
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante semplice (3:13)
III. Allegro giocoso (8:06)