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Date: | Sat, 13 Nov 1999 00:03:02 -0000 |
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Since I'm also the Fanfare reviewer someone quoted as bringing up the
question of composers with palindromic surnames, I can throw in a couple
more. Dave usefully pointed out Lessel, and Steve gave us Barab (who he,
Steve?); and a Fanfare reader has come up with a chap called Otto; I can't
lay my hands on his letter for the moment -- but it wasn't Ernst Julius
Otto, so that's four to add to the list of Reger, Egge and Nin. Any more
for any more? [Estaban Salas (1725-1803), Mexican composer. -Dave]
And on palindromes themselves, in Bob Simpson's music in particular,
the Ninth Quartet, 32 palindromic variations and a fugue (no, that's not
palindromic -- and there's a challenge and a half!), is based on a much
earlier (1948) _Variations and Finale on a Theme of Haydn_ for piano,
written (as the composer said) "with the unworthy (and unsuccessful) aim"
of catching out the fabled sight-reading of composer-pianist-writer Harold
Truscott. You'll find the Ninth Quartet on Hyperion CDA66137 and the piano
variations on CDA66827. And there's a less obvious palindrome in Simpson's
music: the slow movement of the Second Symphony (but for the last five
bars); it's on CDA66505, with the wonderful Fourth Symphony. Needless to
say, nobody noticed at the time; Simpson came clean about it only later.
Lastly, has anyone examined Harold Truscott's own music, on two Marco Polo
CDs? There is a very beautiful _Elegy for Strings_ waiting to be discovered
on 8.223674. Comments from anyone who has listened to this or the
companion chamber-music disc?
Martin Anderson
Toccata Press
http://www.classical.net/music/books/toccata/
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