A Happy and Prosperous New Year

To All Readers of

The Land of Lost Content

 Some Significant (and less so) Composer Anniversaries for 2023: 

Bi-Centenaries:

Edmund T. Chip

John Bacchus Dykes

William S. Rockstro

William Spark

 

150 Years:

William H. Bell

Landon Ronald

David Vaughan Thomas

 

Centenaries:

Don Banks

John Barton-Armstong

Gerald Briscoe

Arthur Butterworth

Madeleine Dring

John Lanchberry

 

American and Continental Composers Anniversaries

Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (200)

Sergei Rachmaninov (150)

Max Reger (150)

Ned Rorem (100)

György Ligeti (100)

I would certainly like to see some recognition of Don Banks, Madeleine Dring and Arthur Butterworth in concerts, recitals and the record shops over the coming year. Hopefully, the English Music Festival may feature something from their catalogues. John Lanchberry is probably best recalled for the score he devised for the ballet, The Tales of Beatrix Potter. Little else of his work seems to be in the public domain. 

Sadly, little attention has been paid to William H. Bell, a composer born in England, but who spent much of his life in South Africa. Hopefully his sesquicentennial anniversary may see some recognition.

Also celebrating 150 years, is Sergei Rachmaninov, who has certainly never lost his popularity. Slightly less fashionable is Max Reger, whose reputation rests largely on his organ music.

Important centenaries include the American, Ned Rorem, who died on 18 November 2022. Sadly, his webpage does not seem to have been updated since 2019. Hopefully, some special events will have been arranged Stateside. Finally, Hungarian born György Ligeti, whose avant-garde music explores "slowly evolving complexes of polyphonic sound, dispensing with the formal elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm" will be honoured at home and abroad.

Finally, it will be interesting to see how all these composers are represented in 2023 Proms season and other concert venues.