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Hey all I noticed we didn't have a thread about Classical music. This surprised me as I thought one would be going. When referring to Classical music, there's a huuuuggee variety of subgenres that a lot of people call "Classical" but experts would not necessarily deem as "Classical". I'd like to avoid subgenre\era debates in this thread if at all possible. Otherwise it might end up like a Metal thread with "Is Iron Maiden NWOBHM or is it Power Metal? Pfft. It's CLEARLY Speed Metal" etc etc etc. Now if it's not immediately obvious, I know sweet gently caress ALL about Classical music. I would be one of the people who would make the stupid and nigh-inforgivable mistake of calling Bach a romantic composer when he's CLEARLY a...well...I dont know what. He might ACTUALLY be a romantic composer for all I know. All I know is that he is in fact currently decomposing (There, got that horrible joke out of the way). In fact, I'm using this thread to get into classical. Why? I heard this piece of music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8vJ_lMxQI Mozart - Requiem. Sure, probably cliche as all hell. However, that's not gonna rub the shine off the fact that this piece of music just blew the top of my head clean off my shoulders and had me going: "Holy gently caress". SO. To kick this thread off, if I like big, dramatic bits of music like Requiem, what else might I dig?
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Dec 21, 2010 10:17
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Hammer Floyd posted:
Carl Orff. You've heard O Fortuna in everything. It's big, with a chorus, like Requiem. But he never made anything as good as Requiem, Mozart's best work, which I believe was written on his death bed. I think Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt can be equally epic, and his 1st suite pretty much encompasses all of human emotion, it begins with Morning (the cartoon theme for waking up and pretty nature) and ends with In the Hall of the Mountain King, a scary bombast that screams "poo poo's gonna die." If you've never read the story of the Original Moz's Requiem, it's a pretty interesting piece of musical lore.
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Dec 21, 2010 10:50
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Since we are talking classical music, has anyone heard anything that is remotely similar to, or as simple and brilliant as the work of Eric Satie?
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Dec 21, 2010 10:53
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Hammer Floyd posted:Hey all I noticed we didn't have a thread about Classical music. This surprised me as I thought one would be going. The problem is that we keep having them (I know, having started one myself) and they keep falling into archive status after a page or two of interest. However, a good place to start with classical music is Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 (I prefer 2000 myself but both are good). Respighi, Pines of Rome: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCryf6nruD_I&h=7c3ce Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dp-gP6KFPEKA%26feature%3Drelated&h=7c3ce Stravinsky, Firebird: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3FWq17CT6Cs&h=7c3ce However, if you're looking for more stuff along the lines of Mozart's requiem (which is, in fact, Classical), then where better to start than with Mozart's other big hits? Overture to the Marriage of Figaro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikQNFqVkNNc Symphony 40: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZD9nt_wsY0 How about some essential Beethoven? Symphony 5 I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4IRMYuE1hI (as my music history professor always said, this is "only the most famous piece in the big fat world") III http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xbj4XyQqw&feature=fvsr IV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAyUzxDB9eE&feature=related And now that I've shared a bunch of pieces you will probably recognize, here's a good one that is less well known, from one of the first true Romantic composers: Berlioz, Symphony Fantastique IV March to the Scaffold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwCuFaq2L3U by the by, Bach is Baroque
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Dec 21, 2010 23:01
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GOP posted:Since we are talking classical music, has anyone heard anything that is remotely similar to, or as simple and brilliant as the work of Eric Satie? Satie was a big influence on John Cage, and much of John Cage's keyboard music is very simple and graceful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbjNoG6UoRI&feature=related "In a Landscape" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUosomc8Uc "Dream" He also composed a piece using the same rhythmic durations as Satie's "Socrate" named "Cheap Imitation" when Merce Cunningham was unable to get the rights to perform a dance choreographed to Satie's piece, and also organized the first performance of "Vexations."
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Dec 22, 2010 04:38
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Dr. Video Games 0081 posted:Satie was a big influence on John Cage, and much of John Cage's keyboard music is very simple and graceful: Thanks man. Can't say I like Vexations, that's the possibly endless, or like 8 hour piece right? But the two tracks you posted are good.
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Dec 22, 2010 05:06
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Speaking of long, quiet music and Cage, there's his associate Morton Feldman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIWqdEL4Npk "For John Cage"
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Dec 22, 2010 05:14
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Dr. Video Games 0081 posted:Speaking of long, quiet music and Cage, there's his associate Morton Feldman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIWqdEL4Npk "For John Cage" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxSt_w2ODaQ I sampled Rothko Chapel on an instrumental hip hop song recently, it's my favorite of his works. An anecdote- I kept confusing Morton Feldman with Milton Friedman and I confused everyone in my economics class. And my musician friend, when I told him about the cool minimalist composer he said, "Milton Friedman? He makes music? gently caress him, he's a monetarist piece of poo poo."
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Dec 22, 2010 05:27
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OP, you should by no means concern yourself with the Mozart Requiem being cliche, it's popular because it's that good. I would defintely reccomend Brahms because his requiem is also great, and is relatively "new" in classical terms in that it's from the end of the 19th century. Also, check out his "Schicksalslied", which is fairly short, and absolutely gorgeous. Sorry for no links, I'm posting from my phone.
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Dec 22, 2010 07:24
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Personally I like the classical music generated from the 18th through the 19th century. Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, etc, etc. This period is where the modern foundations of harmony, composition and rhythm originated. I also like that all of this was brought up and then completely torn down in the 20th century.
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Dec 22, 2010 07:51
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In what way were those foundations torn down? A later composer cannot negate an earlier composer's work by composing more music. And the 2nd Viennese School which inaugurated the projects of twelve-tone and serial music saw themselves as being in a lineage that stretched back to Haydn and came down to them through Mahler. AND it's not like the great music from the 20th century even gets played enough at concerts compared to music from the 19th.
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Dec 22, 2010 08:08
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n/m, I'm dumb legendaryRev fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Dec 22, 2010 |
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Dec 22, 2010 08:09
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Dr. Video Games 0081 posted:In what way were those foundations torn down? A later composer cannot negate an earlier composer's work by composing more music. And the 2nd Viennese School which inaugurated the projects of twelve-tone and serial music saw themselves as being in a lineage that stretched back to Haydn and came down to them through Mahler. AND it's not like the great music from the 20th century even gets played enough at concerts compared to music from the 19th. They weren't torn down in the sense that it completely destroyed the concepts I alluded to. Cage and Stockhausen are good examples. What these composers did was make people think about what they knew about Western music and while they never took off in the mainstream they did have a significant amount of influence on subsequent composers. This is obviously my take on it and it can't be quantified. Miles Davis's work in the late 60s and early 70s is probably the best example.
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Dec 22, 2010 08:41
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I guess the one thing about classical music is that the interpretation of a piece is very important, so serious aficionados are more like "I enjoy piece X by composer Y, as performed by artist Z" rather than just a song itself. Whereas in other types of music, "interpretation" usually means improvisation by adding your own notes, accompaniment, or rhythm, interpretation in classical music usually involves -execution. This means little things like phrasing -- in other words, playing this next note just a little softer, making these series of notes just slightly more flowy/smoother, holding onto this note for a millionth of a beat longer, and so on. These little differences and details all add up. In other words, classical music "connoisseurs" are basically huge snobs. As for recommendations: Brahms Requiem (starts here for the full thing) -- Someone suggested this but might have gotten lost above. I'm probably partial to this because we did this in university choir, but Brahms is pretty awesome in general. The first part starts out a bit slow, though, but give it a few. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 -- Personal favorite. Rachmaninoff is a badass. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade -- For your "epic saga" fix. It's hard not to like this piece. Inspired by tales from Arabian Nights or 1001 Nights or whatever it's called.
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Dec 23, 2010 07:08
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The best piece of "classical" music ever is The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire suite is about 50 minutes long, which may seem like a lot at first- but it has seven movements, each with their own unique characteristics. The entire work is available online here for free, and although the playing isn't so great and the solos sometimes suck in this recording, it's pretty good overall.
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Dec 23, 2010 23:02
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Hammer Floyd posted:SO. To kick this thread off, if I like big, dramatic bits of music like Requiem, what else might I dig? If you like big and dramatic, you might check out some of Mahler's symphonies. He was a late Romantic guy, about a hundred years after Mozart, and his work is nothing if not big and dramatic. For example, the end of his 2nd is awesomely over-the-top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsicaSxh7_Y The 8th is probably my favorite. On the downside, many of them are 80+ minutes long and Mahler really liked to expound upon themes at incredible length. Particularly if you're not already accustomed to listening through lengthy pieces of classical music, they can try your patience a bit. Personally, my favorite composer is Sibelius. He was a contemporary of Mahler but had an entirely opposite style. He could certainly do drama in his own way though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Kq0qMMpgU (you'll have to click through to the following movements)
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Dec 24, 2010 06:18
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breaks posted:If you like big and dramatic, you might check out some of Mahler's symphonies. He was a late Romantic guy, about a hundred years after Mozart, and his work is nothing if not big and dramatic. For example, the end of his 2nd is awesomely over-the-top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsicaSxh7_Y Seconding that bit about the end of Mahler's 2nd Symphony. He calls for a group of brass players and percussionists to go off stage, and it creates this eerie distant effect that adds to the already ridiculous raucousness of the piece.
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Dec 24, 2010 06:27
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Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube Waltz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CTYymbbEL4 It has one part somewhere in the middle that's just perfect. I should take up dancing just so I could dance that. (At about 5:50 in this video. This isn't the best version I've heard though. It's too subdued.) Ravel - Bolero http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4J5j74VPw Edit: other maybe better versions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwI5k-gFwc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urfjyj4FnUc&feature=related uXs fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Dec 25, 2010 |
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Dec 25, 2010 11:13
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uXs posted:Johann Strauss II - The Blue Danube Waltz Funny story about Bolero- some people think that the song was a product of some sort of dementia, and Ravel himself hated the piece. Also it's one of the few orchestral pieces ever to call for a sopranino saxophone.
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Dec 25, 2010 19:26
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Some website that does bigraphies posted:Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer known primarily for his symphonies, masses, and motets. His symphonies are often considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. Unlike other radicals, such as Wagner or Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mold, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. His works, the symphonies in particular, have detractors (especially in English-speaking countries) who point to their large size, their use of repetition, Bruckner's propensity to revise many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred. Anton Bruckner wrote quite a few symphonies. They're all very good, but one of my favorites is his Symphony No. 8, also known as The Apocalyptic. It's really long, running up to 103 minutes in some cases. Give it a listen though, and you'll fall in love with Bruckner. One thing about this work that separates it from a lot of other works during that era is the use of Wagner Tubas.
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Dec 27, 2010 20:00
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Elephant posted:Funny story about Bolero- some people think that the song was a product of some sort of dementia, and Ravel himself hated the piece. Also it's one of the few orchestral pieces ever to call for a sopranino saxophone. I'm gonna hook it up with some Ravel and also call attention to solo piano music. Martha Argerich is a Chopin competition winner, amazing pianist, and gorgeous performer. To me, there's something about the impressionist composers that make for especially captivating hand movements on the keyboard... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_36x1_LKgg
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Dec 28, 2010 00:54
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I'll pimp my own Opera megathread here for those who want to discuss opera specifically. A non-opera vocal performance that I just love is Natalie Dessay's rendition of Kyrie from Mozart's Great Mass. Despite having a cold (she is noticeably coughing at the beginning and in other clips from this performance) her voice is transcendent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqCNny51RPs This piece never fails to astonish me. There's easily half a dozen themes that any lesser composer could have based entire songs around, Mozart just throws them all in one after another. To the OP: It doesn't get more dramatic / exciting than this. If you like Mozart's Requiem, you'll love this clip. regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Dec 28, 2010 |
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Dec 28, 2010 02:18
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Can you guys recommend me some classical music that's good for ear training and theory training? I understand that good classical pieces always have a lot going on, but something like "listen to the chord progression in THIS part of the song" would be really helpful for me. I have a pretty basic understanding of theory (intervals, chords, scales, chord progressions) but past that I haven't got much, and I don't have much ear training either. Anything you guys suggest would be helpful! I'm learning to play the piano, if that affects anything.
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Jan 4, 2011 04:06
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Jinnigan posted:Can you guys recommend me some classical music that's good for ear training and theory training? Bach. Bach Bach Bach Bach. Pretty much anything by him is going to have tons of examples of anything you could wish. I really like his inventions, the Well Tempered Clavier, and his fugues for organ. All of them are awesome.
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Jan 4, 2011 04:11
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Are there any definitive recordings/performances of Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto? Any good Prokofiev interpretations are welcome. Valentina Lisitsa performs the absolute best version of that insane cadenza that I've ever heard. Unfortunately, it is only the cadenza + some and not the whole concerto. I would kill to hear her do the whole thing.
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Jan 4, 2011 04:19
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I just found this piece Elfentanz browsing around YouTube for cello music. Absolutely a delight to watch and listen to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzndvydB-ws&feature=related Also glad to see a classical music thread again. Yeah yeah, we all know the classics (Beethovan's 9th, Rach's 3rd, etc.) and they are worth listening to and knowing, but one hobby of mine is to find cool pieces that haven't been reduced to cliches by the film industry. Here's a few, and if anyone knows any others please post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNJdjtNxop0 - Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze for solo piano, played by Yeol Eum Son. This was her final recital in the 2009 Cliburn, and goddamn I still think she should have won. This was the only song that could calm me down before my doctoral preliminary exams, and I love playing it whenever I want to relax. It really illustrates how even simple songs can be made awesome through mastery of dynamics, voicing, and tempo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MEUIGjfHNw - Kodály's Cello Solo Sonata I. Mvt played by the master Janos Starker. I put this on while I fold laundry, so I always think of that whenever I hear it. A POWERFUL solo piece. I post the first movement, but all three are worth listening to (especially the third). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVpLzUpTOd8&feature=related - Dohnanyi's etude no.6, capriccio. Just a balls out fast and complicated piano song. Really difficult to play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnuAaKiX1sg - György Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. Modern choral piece with 16 voices, very creepy to listen to while working but a beautiful sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_JbyrN3zQ - Mozart's Difficile Lectu. One of my favorite Mozart pieces. The Latin is complete nonsense, but in German the primary lyrics phonetically sounds like 'lick my rear end.' 'Jonicu' said quickly in repetition sounds like cujoni (Italian for balls). I love that Mozart made a vulger pun from nonsense Latin into two other languages, plus set it to a beautiful and catchy canon. That's all I got for now, but it should be enough for anyone who loves classical music. Foyes36 fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Jan 6, 2011 |
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Jan 6, 2011 04:56
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Shostakovich wrote some rhythmic stuff. It's pretty cool! Here's Rostropovich doing his thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcnAsv4YUn4 For the Prokofiev 2nd, here's Yuja Wang doing it. It probably ain't definitive, but she's pretty drat slick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jkloUBCeg
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Jan 6, 2011 05:14
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A classical thread isn't complete without more works from my favorite Russian man, one Igor Stravinsky Petrushka (Tableaus 1 and 4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdKtlK3SKZg (1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbdfR3xYW8 (4.1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydznfg6yrt0 (4.2) Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewyqXI21vp0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1tn7WJ9lRc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn_PGrl5vYg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtAzaQ_fd-A And to confirm I'm not just a Stravinsky guy, here's some Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (Moosepac, as it was known among Rowan Music Majors) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6R4uw-Bapc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK57jiF_qXY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd-2Yfhy-LE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bexzEce6UZU
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Jan 14, 2011 14:54
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Dr. Video Games 0081 posted:Stravinsky's religious music is really cool too: I was saving those for another post, but yeah, those are great, great works as well.
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Jan 14, 2011 17:57
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For the OP, I would specifically recommend Dvorak's New World Symphony, especially the first and fourth movements. Also, Sibelius's Finlandia.  Like many of you, I'm a longtime musician who has played Corelli to Copland and everything in between, so I base part of my judgment on how fun the piece is to play. Different composers from the same eras can be vastly different in this respect. For the early 20th century, Gershwin is always fun to play, but Shostakovich's pieces are almost soul-crushing at times. In the late 19th century, the Russians are usually exciting to play, but the earlier 19th century trend of pastoral pieces makes my bow arm want to fall off. Bach and Mozart may be deservedly legendary composers, but I hate playing their work. Bach's especially, because it was written at a time when string instrument bows were short and inflexible, and could not easily sustain a note, change in volume, or play stylistically. Playing Bach today denies my instruments their full capability, which is sometimes frustrating. My favorites are unpredictable, less methodical, and highly melodic, which usually means from Beethoven onward. WHERE IS MY COFFEE fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Jan 14, 2011 |
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Jan 14, 2011 19:41
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Classical music thread! Wall of text incoming. With regards to the OP: Mozart's Requiem is a stunning piece of music; but there is some AMAZING chorale work out there. If you like modern stuff--anything by Eric Whitacre is top notch (and there's A LOT of it. He's incredibly prolific.) As far as older chorale music goes, Maurice Durufle is pretty much one of the recognized masters of that sort of thing. I would check out his requiem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWekKdoVOeo (starts here, is five parts, is pretty much one of the greatest pieces of chorale music ever written). With regards to general classical discussion: I'm a classically trained pianist, so a lot of my listening heads in that direction. There have been plenty of major composers and others already mentioned, so I'll try to post some things that are very different than what has already been put out. My absolute favorite piano music is by Scriabin : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0lfk2QgPhc -- Scrabin's 5th sonata is an interesting piece of music. It's still accessible and is played often, but still maintains his unique sound. (The big difference is that he gets away from the 3rd relationship in all of his composing. He was a huge theosophic, and he believed that the 4th chord opened the doorway to a mystical realm. I'm not kidding.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0xgfScsVo8 -- This is his 8th, which is not only a fascinating piece of music, but contains some of his most enigmatic melodies. (This is not the greatest recording.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gemRLXoqQj8 -- This is no. 9, which is probably his best sonata. It's also the one that he genuinely refused to play, because he believed that he had crafted something so fundamentally evil.. or something along those lines. (It's entitled the "Black Mass;" no. 7 is the white mass) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKX1Fk6W2wQ -- I'll mention the 3rd, briefly, because I love playing it. It's generally considered the most accessible of his works, but Hamelin likely correctly notes that there's not a lot here that he doesn't do better in his other pieces. The melody isn't interesting for the melody itself, but rather the way he works with it. Very Russian Romantic. Other Russian Romantics: Blumenfeld is a lot of fun. His pieces are incredibly virtuosic and are primarily centered around lyrical etudes. He was primarily a teacher, and many of the great pianists coming out of Russia at the turn of the 20th century were trained by him. He was Horowitz's teacher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0El0scKO44 -- This is a selection of his preludes. Pretty much everyone after Bach writing piano music tries to emulate the Well Tempered Clavier (Chopin actually specifically says this in his introduction to his suite of preludes) and crafts 24 preludes in the various keys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZTm_ZnMM7g -- This is indicative of his etudes. They are really really really hard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxkLthJoGQA&feature=related -- This is for the left hand alone. Live performances of this tend to make me go  I'll mention Godowsky in a bit, but he also does a bunch of left hand alone stuff which is just mind-bendingly difficult.Mendtner attempted to be the heir to Rachmaninoff's throne. I really like his Sonata Tragica, but hunting down a good recording can be tough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTsPpKsAwKA&playnext=1&list=PL7BCF88652EFD29B2&index=4 Glazunov , Liadov , and Lyapunov are also all good. Liadov has some beautiful preludes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5awcn3bJ0&feature=related. (the sound quality is crap, but Sofronitsky's interpretations of Russian stuff is absolutely fabulous.) I'll briefly mention MacDowell , because he's a.) American, and b.) the epitome of  . Most of his music is basically him going "Look what I can do. " His 4th sonata seems to be the one that's considered the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaQxmZGwVR4Godowsky is also awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZLx4a_Dss -- This is a wonderful piece of music. Godowsky was said to have some of the greatest technical ability of any pianist ever, but he never really performed, so it's more just hear-say and stories from his students. The elephant in this thread is definitely contemporary classical. Some of it is very hard to listen to. Some of it is absolutely ridiculous. However, in general, the movement has spawned some brilliant stuff. People should listen to Carter's 2nd Sonata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L1ZB3-Mfv0 (The guy doing this is in one of the better conservatories in the world, so his interpretation is pretty good.) The 2nd Sonata's spiritual successor is Vine's second Sonata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0ffbvO0rE&feature=related This is Joyce Yang's interpretation. There is actually a pretty big ongoing debate on how this piece of music is best played, despite Vine's indication that he really really doesn't like romantic expression or rubato in it. This is also a piece that's really in the forefront right now: it's getting tons and tons of exposure in competition. It was played 4(?) times in the last Van Cliburn, which is pretty much -the- piano competition. And it's a piece of music that definitely highlights the comment in this thread about the importance of interpretation in classical music. Vine's apparently been on record redacting his initial instructions in the piece, which can be summed up as "Play exactly what I wrote, dammit," but I've also heard that that apparent redaction is untrue, etc. etc. V  VI could go on forever, and would be happy to do so if there is interest. I spend a good portion of most days finding, listening, and trying to play at this sort of stuff.
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Jan 19, 2011 00:51
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I've always been a big fan of John Adams and I ended up buying the LAPO's premiere of City Noir on impulse on iTunes. I was kind of suspicious that being a minimalist, a whole 30+ minute symphony of his would be monotonous but I was totally blown away. He stays on theme without ever reusing the same tropes to death and the orchestration is great at contrasting and synthesizing the classical and jazz aspects. The only youtube I could find was the end of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WoO27cG-Z8&feature=related The best stuff he's done since Doctor Atomic, I would definitely give it a shot.
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Jan 19, 2011 03:27
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Alabaster Disaster posted:The best stuff he's done since Doctor Atomic, I would definitely give it a shot. Thanks for this; I saw Doctor Atomic through the MET in HD livestreaming they do at movie theaters, and thought it was amazing. Hell, I was just listening to Batter my heart, three person’d God this afternoon at work. Herr Napalm posted:Godowsky is also awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZLx4a_Dss -- This is a wonderful piece of music. Godowsky was said to have some of the greatest technical ability of any pianist ever, but he never really performed, so it's more just hear-say and stories from his students. This is an absolutely gorgeous piece. Your whole post is amazing and exactly what I wanted from this thread: obscure composers and their awesome work. We all know Beethoven, but I'd never heard of Godowsky (and I liked to think that I was up on my piano composers being an amateur player myself) until tonight. Thanks! Foyes36 fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Jan 19, 2011 |
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Jan 19, 2011 04:35
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Pfirti86 posted:This is an absolutely gorgeous piece. Your whole post is amazing and exactly what I wanted from this thread: obscure composers and their awesome work. We all know Beethoven, but I'd never heard of Godowsky (and I liked to think that I was up on my piano composers being an amateur player myself) until tonight. Thanks! I actually got recommended this piece by my teacher in college. I was interested in trying to do some water music, but wanted to get away from Gaspard de la Nuit (also because Scarbo gives me absolute fits) and Debussy's stuff. Not that they aren't wonderful, and rightly so, but there were about three different people attacking Gaspard for the senior recital, and Debussy etudes and preludes get played everywhere. Godowsky's Java Suite has several pieces with various water themes, and while I'm not sure of the total accuracy of this statement, it probably has something to do with the Javanese culture: Kraton is the Javanese word for palace. The piece itself is also trying to emulate a gamelan, which is a Javanese instrument. Other interesting water stuff: Bax's Nereid; which is a 4 minute long tone poem. It's close to impossible to hunt down full recordings on the internet, but its a beautiful piece of music. MacDowell has a couple of water pieces in his New England.. suite? I can't remember what the group of music is. Idylls or something. I'm convinced the most haunting of Debussy's preludes is the one that actually doesn't get played a ton (no. 10, and probably for good reason, there's a good argument that its the hardest): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfSBddhFvyA-- "La Cathedrale Engloutie." The notes themselves aren't tremendously difficult, but acquiring the smooth technique and avoiding bumpiness or dynamic changes while maintaining some independence of the notes so it doesn't sound like a mishmash is horrendously difficult. I actually have access to a unique piece of music that's not in print: Richard Rodney Bennett's Bacarolle only exists in manuscript form. I happen to have a copy. I can try to get a recording up at some point, but it's thoroughly charming. Probably possible to hunt down a professional's interpretation though. I will also mention another one of Blumenfeld's etudes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VCYPqv9x6s. "Sur Mer" is actually a pretty enjoyable piece of music, and very lyrical and sweeping. His etude op. 25 no. 1 is very similar. ---- In other news, I have been listening to significant amounts of Arvo Part. He's very much a modern minimalist, but his stuff contains a raw emotion that I don't always get from Philip Glass or his ilk. His Fratres for Violin and Piano is a unique and interesting piece of music. Part always talked about how he tried to compose completely "white" or "pure" music (in the sense of color,) where the refraction into actual emotional states was done purely by the listener. oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 19, 2011 |
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Jan 19, 2011 19:14
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If anyone is looking for something a little different, I highly recommend Debussy's preludes for piano. They are right on the border between 20th century and impressionist music, Debussy writing as he was at the time impressionism was 'it'. Each prelude has some sort of story behind it, and the music is there to represent said image. You'd think this would at the expense of any sort of tuneful melody to which one can hum along. But not so. Sometimes the music will make you want to sing. Sometimes to dance. And other times to sleep. Here's one of my favourites (partly because it's one of the few I can play myself) It is 'La Cathédrale Engloutie'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfSBddhFvyA And here is Stokowski's beautiful orchestration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9UKua69NSI&feature=related Good old Claude would write the name of the piece at the end of the score, so the performer could make up their own mind of what it was about before they discovered the composer's own idea. This piece in particular was based around the myth of an old Cathedral around the Isle of Ys which was said to rise out of the mist, and one could hear the church bells ringing from amidst the fog. These can be clearly heard in the solo piano recording, and moreso in the orchestral. Interestingly, the score for this piece actually gives direct reference to the impression it is trying to create. "Little by little out of the fog" being the most obvious example. For any pianists among you I highly recommend books I and II of his preludes, as they are great fun to play, with so much scope. They're also quite challenging in parts.
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Jan 21, 2011 18:49
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crazyvanman posted:If anyone is looking for something a little different, I highly recommend Debussy's preludes for piano. They are right on the border between 20th century and impressionist music, Debussy writing as he was at the time impressionism was 'it'.  This post reminds me of a story I heard about Rachmaninoff once. He sat down and played Scriabin's Sonata-Fantaisie (the second movement is famous for being directly inspired by Chopin's 2nd sonata, which at the time was pretty mind-blowing.) and said, after nailing the piece in 2 hours of light work, "Hm. That's a tricky one." If your technique is up to snuff to play all of Debussy's preludes to some degree of mastery, you are either a.) a professional, or b.) trying to become a professional. Debussy does NOT write easy music, and some of the preludes are very very difficult. The whole set of 24 presents enough of a spread of virtuosic and technical difficulties to challenge all but the premiere pianist. I'm kind of surprised that you note no. 12 as being the one that you can play, as it's regarded to be one of the most difficult to actually get right. oilcheck my ass fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jan 26, 2011 |
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Jan 26, 2011 19:54
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If you want something completely out of character with the rest of the stuff in this thread, check out Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Granger. A masochist and a xenophobe, Granger at one point spent years travelling around collecting traditional English folk songs on wax cylinders. He set six of them for wind band, and Lincolnshire Posy was the result. It's one of the hardest pieces to play for a wind ensemble, and even professionals have trouble with it. Movement 1 Movement 2 Movement 3 Movement 4 Movement 5 Movement 6
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Jan 27, 2011 00:18
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Elephant posted:Bach. Bach Bach Bach Bach. Pretty much anything by him is going to have tons of examples of anything you could wish. I really like his inventions, the Well Tempered Clavier, and his fugues for organ. All of them are awesome. I was required to take a music/art class in order to graduate from the university I went to, and I randomly picked a class about Bach. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I was (and still am) an ignorant person when it comes to "classical music", but the one thing I can definitively say is that J.S. Bach was a genius. We are truly privileged to be living in a day and age where you can instantly listen to music like this. The best way to visually see the genius behind his music is to watch a video like this that graphs it. Toccata and Fugue is one of his best known works, but there is so much out there. Just throw a dart at this list and enjoy.
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Jan 27, 2011 02:08
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I'm guessing this is the best place to ask for this. I would like a nice introduction to Krystof Penderecki. I've heard a lot of his works in movies but am not familiar with any actual pieces. I really love the dreadful sounds he came up with. Anyone similarly horrifying is welcome.
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Jan 27, 2011 05:02
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