Music Monday: Songs of Our Lives Meme

[chomiji]

16: One of your favorite classical songs

Songs? Surely they mean "classical pieces"?

And dude, I don't listen to classical.

It's kind of weird, in retrospect, because I went to the state art and music camp, where I was an art major, for several years, and I was exposed to a lot of music performed by my fellow campers, some of the best young musicians in the state of Maryland. But none of it seems to have stuck.

On the other hand, in college, I used to listen to movie scores, especially by John Williams ("Star Wars" and many others), for hours.

Maybe you all have some pieces to recommend that I try?

Comments

[muccamukk]

I get my classical almost entirely from TV soundtracks, so this might appeal. May I rec the following for true glory of mopey drama (I have them in a play list called Gloomy Classical):

Due South
Antonín Dvořák: Stabat mater - Eja mater
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68f6Zeb0RG8

Legends of Tomorrow
Beethoven's Symphony #7 in A Minor - II Allegretto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHREyE5GzQ

Master and Commander
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY

Dunno
Chopin Nocturine in c-sharp minor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hyAOYMUVDs

Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 In A Major, II Adagio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf711o8jAQA

John Adams- Doctor Atomic- Batter My Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYiokai3FW4

[chomiji]

THANK YOU!

I will let you know which I liked best once I have a chance to listen to them.

[oracne]

"Gloomy Classical." I resemble that remark.

[muccamukk]

It's great writing music! I'm not tuned in enough to follow the stories of the themes and stuff, but the emotion comes across.

I recently saw my Bro-in-law in Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers, which I liked a lot as well. I got the recording of it by The Sixteen. (For context, I have a tendency to go to his things, find they're two hours of atonal chanting, and getting in a really nice nap, but I stayed awake for all of this one!.)

[oracne]

That's an excellent recording. My choir just did Monteverdi Vespers for New Year's Eve - so fun!

an assortment for you to explore

[yhlee]

Movie/TV/game scores are where the classical music tradition has gone these days anyway. XD

This is almost all instrumental because that's where my knowledge lies (former violist, played classical guitar at one point).

"Russian Sailors Dance" from The Red Poppy by Glière [Youtube]. This is super-dramatic and brooding.

"Rhosymedre" by Vaughan Williams [Youtube] for the gentler, quieter side; based on a Welsh hymn.

Von Suppé's "Light Cavalry Overture" [Youtube]. A lively military-ish piece. It will always be special to me because of the story my dad told me about it--he related to me that in school he thought classical music was "for sissies" (his phrase, sorry!) and then one day the music teacher played this piece for the class and my dad fell instantly in love and became a classical music fan yea, even unto this day; my sister and I grew up with him taking us to the ballet once a year or so.

Grieg's Holberg Suite: "Praeludium" [Youtube]: fast and furious.

Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"[Youtube]: Tender, exquisite, demands utter precision in pitch for the harmonies to work. (I know this because our high school orchestra played it and we...uh...fell short. Perfect pitch is a curse, what can I say. XD)

Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2" [Youtube]. Brooding, with moments of surprising lyrical grace. I like the story [Wikipedia] behind this one, which is that Rachmaninoff had been depressed and composing this piece was the capstone of his recovery.

"Recuerdos de la Alhambra" [Youtube]. A classical guitar piece that, as far as I can tell, every classical guitar student gets walloped over the head with at some point because it forces you to master tremolo. :)

Poulenc's "Novelette No. 3" [Youtube]. A mysterious and soaring piano piece. My hands are not large enough to play it properly (I was assigned it when I took piano at the Houston Music Institute).

Bizet's L'Arlésienne No. 1" [Youtube]. Bizet's opera Carmen is probably much better known but I'm fond of this.

Ravel's "Boléro" [Youtube]: what you can do with the same melody over and over again, orchestrated different ways, structured as one inexorable crescendo.

Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" [Youtube]. I love Copland's quintessentially American sound--this is not the best-known of his works but it's one of my favorites.

Reinecke's "Flute Concerto Op. 283" [Youtube]. Dramatic, romantic, bold. I think the score calls for like six French horns or something.

Villa-Lobos' "Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra" [Youtube]. More on the atonal end, I whipped this out and clubbed my HS music teacher into admitting that the harmonica IS TOO a valid musical instrument. (I taught myself harmonica.) Bonfiglio's technique is amazing.

Maute's "Les Barricades" for three alto recorders [Youtube]. I saw this performed live by Wood 'N' Flutes, who moved among the aisles of the performance hall to reflect the story of separation and alienation told by the music. It was stunning.

Okay, I'll stop there!

Re: an assortment for you to explore

[chomiji]

Thank you so much! I will let you know which I liked best once I have had a chance to listen to them.

[oracne]

Any guidelines? As in, do you prefer orchestral, small ensemble, solo vocal, choral? 21st century or older?

[chomiji]

It's really hard to say what I do and don't like, because my first instinct is to say "simple is better, small ensembles and things," but then there's all that John Williams orchestral stuff I listened to with such pleasure.

I guess syrupy massed strings are not good? And bombastic stuff is bad (but then again, I love Sousa marches played with brio, so maybe it just has to be the right kind of bombast?).

I like things where I can hear the individual instruments show their stuff. I like stuff with rhythm, and I don't mind less common rhythms (one of my favorite pop songs every is Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill," written in 7/4 time, and I also love Cat Stevens' "Rubylove," in 7/8 time). I don't like pretentious atonal weirdness. I like music that propels me, either quickly or slowly.

I think that for starters, short works are better than long ones. When we went on our Euro river cruise, we heard a long organ concert, and I got very bored.

[oracne]

Hmm. You might get into Renaissance polyphony. Simple, clean, long lines that intersect and separate and have ornamentation. Rhythm is not always propulsive, as it doesn't have measure breakdowns like modern music, but the rhythm can get pretty complex, and time signature can shift on a dime. DEFINITELY not syrupy.

Here is an example, the Tallis Scholars singing some Palestrina - it's several movements of one piece in this recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IksdCSgB--g

Here's New York Baroque doing some Salamone Rossi, a Jewish Baroque composer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvyyuMT2s9U

Piffaro, an excellent Philadelphia instrumental group, has some stuff on YouTube as well as various albums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF1mHF3N5k8

Some small vocal ensembles I love, who do a lot of early music: Hilliard Ensemble, Trio Medieval, Anonymous Four, Boston Camerata.