Classical Music- Is it for Musicians only?

Everskyward said:
That's another one that been in a movie. I can still see Richard Dreyfus playing it in "The Competition". Of course if someone is not interested in classical music they probably didn't watch it.
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Another great movie with (no surprise) lots of Beethoven: "Immortal Beloved". Pretty good movie too.
 
labbadabba said:
Something a little different but very fun to listen to are the Praetorius' Dances from Terpischore. Just pretend you're listening to courtly music from Henry XIII.
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Tallis would be closer. https://youtu.be/I5fYXDsh_YU


Holst - "The Planets" (particularly ... Mars)
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Nothing like a smooth relaxing melody to calm you down at the end of a day. https://youtu.be/KUTByW8NElo

R.V. Williams -... Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
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One of my absolute favorites of all time. https://youtu.be/qIhZbvlCjY0
Vaughan Williams + Tallis = amazing. But you have to let it play out.

Then there is Mendelssohn: The Hebrides. https://youtu.be/a3MiETaBSnc

Rimsky-Korskav: Scheherazade is fun as well. https://youtu.be/y0R439gPhEE
 
mturnerb said:
I'm not as big on the English composers (with "exception" of Handel who was German but wrote mostly for British audiences), but the Barber adagio is outstanding (also featured in a movie, "Platoon"). Smetana is great, I love "Die Moldau" - very dramatic piece.

I feel about Holst as you do Beethoven - a matter of tastes.

Love Rach, but gets long - great short piece is the Prelude in C# minor (Piano) also known as "The Bells of Moscow". (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw1Pd9oojdM)

TB
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Lol, yeah, tastes vary. Such discussions can rival the Spin Zone.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk
 
Stewartb said:
Tchaikovski's 1812 Overature impressed me young and still makes me stop to listen.
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Cracks me up that it is so big for the fourth of July given that it is about the defeat of a U.S. ally at the hands of the Russians (and their winter) and had very little to do with the U.S. war of 1812 (other than us keeping the U.K. busy which freed up Napoleon to go get his ass kicked.)
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
How could you not like opera like this???
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LOL, for being cartoons, they were amazingly educational.

I think the answer to the OP question is yes. I've taken music lessons, and ultimately ended up being affected by the complexities of classical music, and of the prog rock that borrowed heavily from it when I discovered synthesizers and the used record bin in the 80's:

Country Pie/Brandenburg (the original mashup?)

and check out anything The Nice did

And then in ELP, Fanfare for the Common Man (with Bernstein's America and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor thrown in for good measure):

Pictures at an Exhibition (rearranged in 1993):

Holst's Mars, the bringer of war:

Even Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet:

I could go on...
 
mturnerb said:
I'm not as big on the English composers (with "exception" of Handel who was German but wrote mostly for British audiences), but the Barber adagio is outstanding (also featured in a movie, "Platoon"). Smetana is great, I love "Die Moldau" - very dramatic piece.
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I don't know if you intended to say that Barber was English, but just to set the record straight: he was American, a Tennessean I believe. One of the all-time great American classical vocal works is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915. I also recommend his Violin Concerto which has a very warm, romantic sound.
 
rpadula said:
LOL, for being cartoons, they were amazingly educational.

I think the answer to the OP question is yes. I've taken music lessons, and ultimately ended up being affected by the complexities of classical music, and of the prog rock that borrowed heavily from it when I discovered synthesizers and the used record bin in the 80's:

Country Pie/Brandenburg (the original mashup?)


and check out anything The Nice did


And then in ELP, Fanfare for the Common Man (with Bernstein's America and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor thrown in for good measure):


Pictures at an Exhibition (rearranged in 1993):


Holst's Mars, the bringer of war:


Even Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet:


I could go on...
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Ah, a man after my own heart...

Check this out (skip to 4:07)
https://youtu.be/-Xr7IyDqW0k
 
I'll submit: Queen: A Night at the Opera as a good example of classical music's effect on rock.
 
azure said:
I don't know if you intended to say that Barber was English, but just to set the record straight: he was American, a Tennessean I believe. One of the all-time great American classical vocal works is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915. I also recommend his Violin Concerto which has a very warm, romantic sound.
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Didn't intend to say that - was referring to Williams. Not familiar with Praetorius
 
KeithASanford said:
This was "classic".
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Well maybe a Hollywood classic. Certainly not in the league with the three tenors album, leyotene price, or for instance the theme music from " Riley, ace of spies " which is taken from a Russian classical composer. ( many popular songs have been stolen from classical music.) as for " superior pilots", in many instances superior pilots were forced to make the best of situations they had no control over. IE: Bob hoover, flying several others in. A shrike commander that had been fueled with jet fuel. It quit in mid air and he landed it off airport with no injury. Another was the canadian airline pilot who had been fueled with the wrong amount of fuel. It ran out and he landed it on a drag strip saving the plane and his passengers. If you read the entire article, he had no way of knowing the fuel was inadequate. Lots of story's like this including lots of lousy mechanics not fit to work on aircraft.
 
mturnerb said:
Suggested listening if you think you don't like classical music (or want to get a taste of what you might like).

1. Mozart - Clarinet concerto, Piano concerto (especially #20, 21, 22, 27), serenade for 13 winds (3rd movement), piano/wind quintets, Requeim (really anything by Mozart)
2. Beethoven - Symphony #7, second movement. Piano concerto #5, "Emperor", Piano sonatas - Pathetique, Moonlight.
3. Bach - Brandenburg concertos, Cello suites, Goldberg variations (admittedly a bit of a stretch for new listeners)
4. Chopin - Nocturnes
5. Tchaikowsky: Piano concerto # 1
6. Saint-Saens: Organ Symphony, first and second movements
7. Grieg: "Solveig's Song", "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

Just a broad sampling that appeal to many tastes. Easy way to listen - paste any of these into YouTube search.
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Bach: Art of The Fugue
Violin Concertos in A and E
Double Violin Concerto in D minor
Triple Violin Concerto in D minor
 
There were some great "getting started" lists above.

After being subjected (tortured?) by college level music "appreciation" courses in my whopping one semester as a Jazz studies and music education student, and having the usual mandatory opera parts to sing, as a singer back then, and concert choral arrangements, along with being required to pick up a classical stringed instrument (note to self: Double Bass was a bad idea in a State known for snow in winter and practice rooms a quarter mile away from the dorm... Haha... But then again, I'm also stupid enough to have carried a concert Baritone horn in a marching band... Which is effing painful after six hours...), I'm impressed with the lists provided. Nice!

About all that's missing is choral stuff and it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Everything from Gregorian Chant (one really can't laugh as hard at Monty Python making fun of it, until you understand the original art form but then slamming their heads with a board for rhythm, and what that means for the use of the chants as religious behavior is some of the funniest satire based on music, ever done), to various operas and arias, to more modern stuff like John Rutter's Gloria, it's all tasty listening to me when I'm in the mood. Heck, come a little more modern and find a well done recording of Shannandoah and a great arrangement done by a really good concert chorus, or any number of interesting Shakespearean words set to various songs throughout various decades in various styles, those are all a treat too. Various arrangements of "There is no rose (of such virtue..." are stunning additions to the artistry of the words.

I have to bow my head and pay omage to the master, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms as a total pain in the butt to perform RIGHT, but also a favorite to just sit with eyes closed and hear performed right -- on either a great recording or especially live when one can find it. Many modern "pop" orchestras and choruses simply won't touch it. Too difficult, and not enough "audience appeal".

(Some of the parts in that work are a serious b**** to sing properly.)

Rutter Gloria:

http://youtu.be/uaYkpoOC3S4

And the hardest part of the work (IMHO) to perform well, done by the Cambridge Singers with read along musical score.

Rutter will jack with your head jumping back and forth from 3/4 to 5/8 time when you're first trying to sight read the bloody thing.

http://youtu.be/o2-EsLZ2iBA

Bernstein... Masterful. Amazing. He'll just kill you with unresolved dissonance for 11 minutes and then tease you with chords that start to sound nicer, then at 13:30 or so in this video when your ears want nothing more than a nice minor or major chord, he busts out one of the most beautiful choral call and response segments ever written. Still in a lovely haunting minor key...

http://youtu.be/7Yhnml4DW9g

(It helps to also look up the words for more meaningful listening to the entire work.)

And even though I made fun of "pop" orchestra, there's no doubt that the Boston Pops under Williams was an unmitigated success, and many of their works are "gateway" classical pieces that many recognize and then start listening to other pieces.

One can throw on Copeland and many folks will instantly recognize Fanfare for the Common Man...

http://youtu.be/FLMVB0B1_Ts

Or of course, Hoedown...

http://youtu.be/LsReWx9XdNs

("Beef, it's what's for dinner!") ;)
 
I love classical music. Have no musical talent or training. I also love many other forms of music.
 
paflyer said:
Nate, I think you'll enjoy this:



'Bernstein, The greatest 5 min. in music education'

https://youtu.be/Gt2zubHcER4
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Yup. Music theory 101. Heh. Circle of Fifths. But way more interestingly presented by Bernstein than my profs covered it.

What's really fun is messing with raised fifths and sevenths, which of course, is a mainstay of Jazz...

And of course my lovely wife who sings barbershop, which is all about ringing the overtones of fifths and god-awful Baritone lines to fill in the chord. Heh.

All that boring theory leads to understanding stuff like this...

http://youtu.be/5pidokakU4I

And this...

http://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o

The latter of which attempts to "make fun of" the ability to take "country" songs (most of the modern country songs being published really belong I think, in the "rock with a violin, banjo, or steel guitar accompaniment" category if you ask me) and mash them together, but you can do it with rock, pop, even many classical pieces, very easily...

The chord progressions are the same. Anyone with a music theory background just chuckles and says, "Duh..."

The above shows why I'm fascinated with good jazz when I'm in the mood to really listen. The mixture of things that *shouldn't be done" chromatically, into something infinitely listenable and recognizable, is pretty cool.

Charlie Parker is a favorite for that. Amongst others. Bird hasn't had many contemporaries who can do what he did.
 
So many already mentioned. Some favorites:

- Second the Moldau
- Tchaikovsky's Pas De Deux in the Nutcracker
- John Field's Nocturnes
- Handel's Water Music in particular, but anything by him.
- Praetorius
- Palestrina
- Arcadelt
- Tony Viv;-) Lute Concerto in D maj. 2nd part
- Martini's Plasir d' Amour. Check out ' Love Affair' (1939) on u-tube and a bunch of other's with this piece. i.e the Seekers, Joan Baez, etc.
 
Jaybird180 said:
I was thinking about the first time I encountered someone listening to classical on a radio. I didn't get it; why would you purposely listen to THAT!

As I'd become more exposed to it, I came to see something different and during my time in music classes had begun to actually appreciate the skill required to play or compose a piece.

I went to a live performance once and really enjoyed myself.

Does anyone listen to it for pure entertainment value? Does anyone with no musical training listen to it?
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Why would I listen to that crap?
 
I'm a classically trained musician, so are my kids. My wife is not. My kids and I "get" classical music. My wife does not. But she knows what she likes when she hears it. Oddly enough, so do my kids and I.
Years ago I explained that "Sturgeons Law" applies to everything, especially the arts.
If the Classical station is on with something that is stinking up the earways, someone will invoke Stugeon's Law and change the channel.

BTW: When I play at all anymore I play jazz or rock, my son is lead guitar in a rock band, and also does violin and piano, and my daughter plays classical violin and also piano and does background music for digital games.
 
Reference to Sturgeons Law without any explanation... fish?
 
AuntPeggy said:
Reference to Sturgeons Law without any explanation... fish?
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I didn't think there was anyone on earth that didn't know Sturgeon's Law.
"Ninety percent of everything is crap."

Sturgeon's revelation, commonly referred to as Sturgeon's law, is an adage commonly cited as "ninety percent of everything is crap."
It is derived from quotations by Theodore Sturgeon, an American science fiction author and critic; while Sturgeon coined another adage that he termed "Sturgeon's law", it is his "revelation" that is usually referred to by that term.

The phrase was derived from Sturgeon's observation that while science fiction was often derided for its low quality by critics, it could be noted that the majority of examples of works in other fields could equally be seen to be of low quality and that science fiction was thus no different in that regard from other art forms.
 
Going back a could generations, I loved PDQ Bach, and some of the (then) new electronics as they were used on classical pieces. More recently, the best concert we have ever attended was Andre Rieu, and the Vienna Symphony.
If you include Mannheim Steamroller, you have some very lovely music.
 
I am not musically inclined. Both of my children play the piano and are getting to be very good. I listen to "live" classical music everyday at home. Just since the kids have been playing(5 yrs), I listen to it on the AM radio in my truck while working the honey bees. The bees seem to like it too as they are usually calm.
 
Number7 said:
Going back a could generations, I loved PDQ Bach, and some of the (then) new electronics as they were used on classical pieces. More recently, the best concert we have ever attended was Andre Rieu, and the Vienna Symphony.
If you include Mannheim Steamroller, you have some very lovely music.
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Speaking of Andre Rieu , if you've ever seen him on public TV you have seen thousands of people , in Europe, standing and sitting to watch his excellent orchestra perform. I doubt if the majority are musicians but rather people exposed to good music at an early age and simply enjoying it. His audience turnout in the U.S. Is much less. He is regarded as a master of the violin. When we saw him, the seats were half empty. Wonderful orchestra.
 
I thought 6 straight weeks of pp training was a long time. My kids have taken private piano lessons once per week for 5 yrs(250 times at 30 minute per session). I would guess it is very difficult to master. Well, with two of them $5000 is still cheaper than my training. It really makes you respect good musicians!
 
Number7 said:
Going back a could generations, I loved PDQ Bach, and some of the (then) new electronics as they were used on classical pieces. More recently, the best concert we have ever attended was Andre Rieu, and the Vienna Symphony.

If you include Mannheim Steamroller, you have some very lovely music.
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"Please kind sir, that portrait I see..."
 
labbadabba said:
Holst - "The Planets" (particularly Jupiter and Mars)
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Easily one of my favorite Suites of music ever. Played a bit of both Jupiter & Mars in high school band, went to a performance of the entire suite by the St. Louis Symphony in high school, and actually going to see them perform it again in May 2016. If you're in the area I'd recommend it.
 
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