classical strut

edith headedith head 5,106 Posts
edited July 2006 in Strut Central
what are your favorite pieces? i am really ignorant in this dept cause i don't know where to start. the stuff i gravitate towards is either the romantic stuff or the jarring clanging fiery alive sounding stiff. i know i like stravinsky, brahms, schumann, schoenberg, ravel and the obvious ones like mozart and beethoven. i know i really don't like copland. I also am really not that into bach even though i like harpsichord and organ in modern music.are there any composers i haven't mentin i should check out?sidenote,i like to go to the symphony stoned in the center terrace. $12-$15 tickets and right behind the pit. it's fun you should do it. non stop

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  • what are your favorite pieces? i am really ignorant in this dept cause i don't know where to start. the stuff i gravitate towards is either the romantic stuff or the jarring clanging fiery alive sounding stiff. i know i like stravinsky, brahms, schumann, schoenberg, ravel and the obvious ones like mozart and beethoven. i know i really don't like copland. I also am really not that into bach even though i like harpsichord and organ in modern music.

    are there any composers i haven't mentin i should check out?

    sidenote,

    i like to go to the symphony stoned in the center terrace. $12-$15 tickets and right behind the pit. it's fun you should do it. non stop

    Debussy, Wagner (the Til Eulenspiegel one...), Vaughn-Williams, Holst, Milhaud, Gershwin, Smetana, Dvorak...

  • sticky_dojahsticky_dojah New York City. 2,136 Posts
    Debussy

    and some stuff of mozarts father is also very good...

  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    off topic, and an easy spot as i'm rocking one too, but ms. damn, that is at least the third ed ruscha avatar. could he be the most avatared fine artist?

    I don't know shit about classical.

  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts

    Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 is

    One of my all time favorite pieces of classical music. Itami Juzo used portions of Mahler's symphony no.2 for much of the music in his film Tampopo. Mahler's work is incredible.


  • Debussy

    and some stuff of mozarts father is also very good...



    Mozart, Mozart..why must you play so loud??[/b]

  • edith headedith head 5,106 Posts
    off topic, and an easy spot as i'm rocking one too, but ms. damn, that is at least the third ed ruscha avatar. could he be the most avatared fine artist?

    ed rusha is my favorite artist guy bar none. i adore him. who else is rocking him?




  • progbeatzprogbeatz 451 Posts
    Alban Berg

    Olivier Messiaen

    Anton Webern (his string quartets are awesome)

  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    off topic, and an easy spot as i'm rocking one too, but ms. damn, that is at least the third ed ruscha avatar. could he be the most avatared fine artist?

    ed rusha is my favorite artist guy bar none. i adore him. who else is rocking him?




    I concur 100%. I even have something of a man crush on him. books, photos, paintings- all top notch.

    i forget who else was. i defer it to you; i just switched to joseph kosuth.

  • edith headedith head 5,106 Posts

    Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 is

    wow thanks. i just checked out a clip for a sip of the juice and it sounds right up my alley


    one of my all time favorites is this one from ravel's string quartet in f. it's amazing

    audio

    when i saw the royal tennebaums for the first time, i thought i loved that movie because i was totally shocked they used my favorite piece in the opening credits. i was like, holy shit wes anderson is on MY level. then i saw the movie again on tv recently and it's not as good as i remember it.

  • Big_ChanBig_Chan 5,088 Posts

    Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 is

    wow thanks. i just checked out a clip for a sip of the juice and it sounds right up my alley



    I'm glad you like it! Check out more Mahler. His works are truly great.

  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    not really classical, but a couple hundred years before classical music, there is an AMAZING piece of gergorian chant called "spem in Allium" by a british dude Thomas Tallis...seek it out. I think it is one of the first pieces of counterpoint (I know little about this stuff, so I might be wrong), but it is a standard 40 voice choir like in all chants, but every singer sings in counterpoint to each other so it is this giant swirling piece of a bunch of different melodies all going at once, blew my mind the first time I heard it. Amazing. Grab the CD by the Tallis singers.

    But as far as classical goes I usually listen to Stravinski, Debussy and the good ol Beethoven's 9th. Strauss is good my ears also. Also dig me some Segovia classical guitar.

  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    not really classical, but a couple hundred years before classical music, there is an AMAZING piece of gergorian chant called "spem in Allium" by a british dude Thomas Tallis...seek it out. I think it is one of the first pieces of counterpoint (I know little about this stuff, so I might be wrong), but it is a standard 40 voice choir like in all chants, but every singer sings in counterpoint to each other so it is this giant swirling piece of a bunch of different melodies all going at once, blew my mind the first time I heard it. Amazing. Grab the CD by the Tallis singers.

    But as far as classical goes I usually listen to Stravinski, Debussy and the good ol Beethoven's 9th. Strauss is good my ears also. Also dig me some Segovia classical guitar.

    Get the Tallis, also Monteverdi and Bach Mass in B Minor.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    Bartok

  • GnatGnat 1,183 Posts
    Rachmaninov is crazy and moody. Amazing. The following piano concerto should be listened to with headphones:

    Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 3 (16.46min), @ 8:43 there's a break.


    http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=E40CCF1A3BD70AF0

  • ja_bruceja_bruce 295 Posts
    Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
    Vivaldi
    Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
    and this guy, Anton Webern, while not classical I think you should check out

  • CosmophonicCosmophonic 1,172 Posts
    what are your favorite pieces? i am really ignorant in this dept cause i don't know where to start. the stuff i gravitate towards is either the romantic stuff or the jarring clanging fiery alive sounding stiff. i know i like stravinsky, brahms, schumann, schoenberg, ravel and the obvious ones like mozart and beethoven. i know i really don't like copland. I also am really not that into bach even though i like harpsichord and organ in modern music.

    are there any composers i haven't mentin i should check out?

    sidenote,

    i like to go to the symphony stoned in the center terrace. $12-$15 tickets and right behind the pit. it's fun you should do it. non stop

    Hi, Ms Damn.


    Both of my parents, my brother and about 50% of my extended family consists of classical musicians, and even though this does not in the least make me an "expert" on classical music, I??ve heard a bunch of it, and I??ve chatted with a load of people who don??t know a lot about classical music but want to get into it, and I can tell you those same things here.

    Firstly, classical music (in itself a pretty vague genre) is exactly like any other kind of music: there??s tons and tons of crap and some really good stuff. I personally don??t think you should try to enjoy something that is promoted as THE GREATEST PIECE OF ORCHESTRAL MUSIC EVER just because someone calls it that. But, if you want to enjoy one of the "billboard" classical pieces, make sure you listen to a recording made by a GOOD orchestra. Beethoven??s 5th (by many regarded as THE classical piece) sounds a whole lot different when played by the New York Philharmonic led by Bernstein than say, some budget troupe called "United World Orchestra". Good labels to look for are His Master??s Voice and Deutsche Gramophon.

    From then on it??s a matter of taste. Check out different composers, listen to various recordings of the same concertos, listen to the pieces at different times while you??re in different moods and so forth. A piece of classical music can affect your mood greatly.

    So, since I don??t know what you like (maybe you don??t even know yourself), I??ll just tell you about some personal favourites.


    Bela Bartok has always been among my favourites. His pieces are often pretty dark, sad, sometimes violent but always beautiful. He wrote a magnificent opera called "Bluebeard??s Castle" which is my favourite opera of all time. He is also probably the most sampled classical composer. Dan the Automator sampled him on the Dr. Octagon track "Blue Flowers" (both the original and the remix) and also on one of his solo tracks called "sleep". Most of his works are worth checking out.

    Francis Poulenc composed a variety of interesting pieces, I love his "Concert Champetre" for harpsichord and orchestra, and since you said you like the harpsichord this could be something for you (the harpsichord is such a dope instrument, any funk records made with this? I know Axelrod used it on some things, but I mean like some real gritty stuff...)

    Gustav Holst is high on my list simply because he composed "The Planets". I think you should get a recording of this right away. There??s a really good one on HMV/EMI with Sir Adrian Boult conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra. It??s made up of music inspired by the planets of our solar system, and every planet has it??s own piece. My favourite is Neptune "the mystic". Pluto is missing because it had not yet been discovered when Holst composed the music, but in 2002 some dude composed a seperate piece for Pluto and tacked it on there. Pretty terrible (it sounds very out of place and draws the piece out after a very nice ending), so avoid any recording that includes Pluto.

    Debussy did some very nice pieces. I love his "Chatedrale de Engoulfe" or "the engulfed cathedral" piece for piano. This is actually one of the classical pieces I??ve never gron sick of. I can listen to it forever.

    If you??d like some crashbangzoom fantasticness, get "the Rite of Spring" by Stravinsky. This is super-famous for a reason. I recommend seeing this live. They put 107 musicians on stage to do it. I took one of my ex-girlfriends to see it, not thinking about the fact that she had never been to a classical concert before in her life. She was COMPLETELY overwhelmed, and after a rather embarrassing meetin between her and my family she never called me again. If you have to go stoned, LSD would blow your head clean off.

    Okay, that??s a little bit to get you started I guess. Good thing all of these great pieces of music usually end up in the $ bin.

    Tell me what you liked, and sorry if I didn??t make myself understood. I haven??t written anything this long in English for quite a while.

    - J

  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    I sung in a classical choir for 10 years so ive seen it all and you guys have dropped good suggestions

    MsDamn definetly check yourself some Poulenc like that guy mentioned but something all of you should check is Clement Janequin..especially his Chant des Oiseaux

    My all time favorite choir piece it was super modern and "before its time" a mix of gregorian harmonies and interluding melodies trying to emulate birdsounds...

    check out the Ensemble Clement Janequin for a great rendition

    always appreciate your "art" posts msdamn

  • beatstew72beatstew72 314 Posts
    chopin, chopin,chopin. rubenstein playing his waltzes is nice...his sonata business is nice...i recently found a record of rachminov playing chopin...

  • CaMKIIaCaMKIIa 269 Posts
    since it hasn't been mentioned yet, henryk gorecki. seriously check him out, amazing.

    also bela bartok is uber uber uber

  • tuneuptuneup 586 Posts
    as much as it has been mentioned (and rightly so, the Debussy machine is the monster as far as it goes for me. The harp is one of my favorite instruments, and the Debussy harp music is breathtaking.

    I feel that this CD (although it is a soundtrack overall...it in my opinion is a great representation of french romantic period music), is on of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.....





    Music by Vladimir Cosma, who is famous for his soundtrack and Library music work. This is truly one of my top 10 records of all time. if you care to hear it, PM me and I'll send you a track or 2. It is definitely worth hearing.

  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    really not that into bach

    the performer is as (if not more) important than the composer. take bach for example. your average thrift/record store has tons of bach records and, yes, most are not that good. but try Bach solo music performed by...

    Glen Gould (piano) or Janos Starker (cello) or Jacha Heifz (violin).

    same goes for readings of symphonic works. ex. Bruno Walter for Mahler or Herbert Von Karajan for Beethoven...

    Labels are important too. Look for Columbia LPs with the grey "three eye" label. they are everywhere and sound great. A little harder to find are RCA Living Stereos with the red "shaded dog" label, London FSS "blue backs" and Mercury Living Presence lps.

    Mono chamber music records from the 50s and 60s are secret Blue Notes that you can find everywhere for a case quarter.

    hi

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,954 Posts
    My favourite is Neptune "the mystic".



    Erik Satie's "Trois Gymnop??dies" are also sublime, IMHO. Chords are the best thing in music, and he knows it. These pieces are very popular, you will recognise them from adverts or skating or bootmash mixes of Death Angel v. Satie. Well, I am joking about one of them... Good Satie link here: http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/intro.html

    Enjoy

  • piedpiperpiedpiper 1,279 Posts
    Firstly, classical music (in itself a pretty vague genre) is exactly like any other kind of music: there??s tons and tons of crap and some really good stuff. I personally don??t think you should try to enjoy something that is promoted as THE GREATEST PIECE OF ORCHESTRAL MUSIC EVER just because someone calls it that. But, if you want to enjoy one of the "billboard" classical pieces, make sure you listen to a recording made by a GOOD orchestra. Beethoven??s 5th (by many regarded as THE classical piece) sounds a whole lot different when played by the New York Philharmonic led by Bernstein than say, some budget troupe called "United World Orchestra". Good labels to look for are His Master??s Voice and Deutsche Gramophon.

    From then on it??s a matter of taste. Check out different composers, listen to various recordings of the same concertos, listen to the pieces at different times while you??re in different moods and so forth. A piece of classical music can affect your mood greatly.

    This is serious I agree that it is more useful to recommend a composer or various pieces AND the particular recording /orchestra/conductor.

  • edulusedulus 421 Posts
    i used to play cello and clarinet back in the day, so i tend to pick out the guys that are killin it on the solo front. obviously yo yo ma but mi madre (who plays cello as well) put me on to lynn harrell. there arent any real classical clarinet-ists that i like. but benny kills it.

  • CosmophonicCosmophonic 1,172 Posts
    i used to play cello and clarinet back in the day, so i tend to pick out the guys that are killin it on the solo front. obviously yo yo ma but mi madre (who plays cello as well) put me on to lynn harrell. there arent any real classical clarinet-ists that i like. but benny kills it.

    I you like oboe (since it??s sorta related) I just listened to a recording of Harold "Notoriously Unreliable" Gumberg play "Metamorphosis". It was really nice.

    - J

  • AaronAaron 977 Posts
    Was looking for some new etudes today and suddenly remembered a composer you'd probably like: Heitor Villa-Lobos. From Brazil, moody, arias in Portuguese, cello octets. The work is called Bachianes Brasilieras. MUST BUY!
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