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

[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.