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From: ellis@flairvax.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Inquiry about composer Bax
Message-ID: <408@flairvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Mar-84 01:47:28 EST
Article-I.D.: flairvax.408
Posted: Mon Mar 26 01:47:28 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 02:37:08 EST
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 38

Several years back (~1977) I was really into Bax -- particularly his
symphonies. They were ALL available on Musical Heritage Society recordings,
which are not represented in the Schwann catalog, to the best of my
knowledge (at least not back in 1977). That might explain your difficulty
locating them. MHS is a relatively respectable mail-order-only label
that will let you purchase (at a higher price) without joining, thereby
avoiding the monthly send-in-the-card-or-else-you-get-this-record pain.
Check out any classical rag and you'll probably see an ad somewhere...

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Bax's symphonies themselves are very conservative -- my friends used to
think I was into movie music -- but that's a problem all classical
Anglophiles (though Bax is Celtic) seem to have to endure. If you like 
Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton, and Brian, you should find much pleasing 
in everything Bax wrote.

My favorite Symphonies were 2 and 5. Gloomy dreamlike moods, occasionally 
broken by harsh (sometimes vulgar) orchestral displays seem to be Bax's 
hallmark. His music also seems to go on forever, without any point, towards
some obscure resting place, much like Elgar (#2 is almost `modern', however).
Connoisseurs of things that are superficially familiar but genuinely obscure
should have a field day with this guy.

British music is a strange topic. It seems that classical music
was imported from the continent until Elgar and Vaughan Williams created
the very aristocratic, backwards-looking British style around 1900.
Before that date, you have to go back to Tallis/Byrd/Purcell during the 
Renaissance to find anything at all. Perhaps the revolutionary nature of
British rock was interconnected somehow with the reactionary nature of its
formal music.

Fans of the British school should check out the Penguin guide to classical
music, especially the edition available in 1979, which was severely biased
towards these composers.

-michael