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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: splent on September 20, 2015, 08:29:20 AM
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This thread was partially inspirired by Fluffy. He has placed a few classical works in his top 50, and then I thought why don't I just put in a top 50 "Classical" works? So I'm doing it.
"Classical" is in quotes because I am trying to differentiate between all music played by an orchestra vs. the time period. For those who haven't studied music history, there are time periods based on compositional practice at the time: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern (which has about 5 billion subgenres, like serialism, minimalism, etc).
Periods I'll include in this (years are not set in stone, there is some overlap):
Renaissance 1400-1650
Baroque 1600-1760
Classical 1750-1835
Romantic 1825-1900
Impressionism 1885-1935
Modern/High Modern 1915-1965
Contemporary 1960-present
Just to let you know this is free game; all "classical" works are included, including a capella choral works; except for movie and video game scores. I don't normally include those in lists like these. You don't normally hear this type of music in concert (it isn't unheard of, however; I performed in a Final Fantasy concert several years ago, as well as a Star Wars concert). I may include a couple of iconic movie themes, depending on where this goes, but this will not be filled with John Williams and Howard Shore (though that doesn't mean 1-2 movie themes may make it on there; those are performed in concert settings much more often than they used to be). Video games are not going to make it; that's an entirely different genre in my book.
Don't cry if your favorite work isn't included; I mainly prefer Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th century works. Works from other periods will show up. But if you don't see Wagner on this list don't go all nuts on here because I HATE Wagner. He will not be on the list. I don't care how long the ring cycle is.
I have a list compiled, I'm just fine tuning the order and I'll probably start tomorrow.
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Following!
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I will definitely follow. Since last few days I don't know what to listen I could check some movements of works you'll write about to broaden my tastes. I do like classical but I rarely listen to it (however, I listen piano pieces like Einaudi or Beethoven's sonatas quite often).
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Following.
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Will follow with interest. Huge fan of classical music (in fact, I'm listening to Dvorák's 8th Symphony as I write this).
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How could I NOT follow this thread? :lol
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Yeah. It's going to be pretty epic.
I'm going to have a ton of honorable mentions. I'm already up to about 60 and I haven't even touched many romantic composers yet. I'm not lying... It may not be until Tuesday now. :lol Monday nights, I just got a job as the assistant conductor of a community choir. So the first post won't be until Tuesday at the earliest.
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OH! Also... Art Songs (Lieder) will not be represented. They are too short to include, and there are so many prominent lieder, espeically by Brahms and Schubert; dont' forget Schumann and Mozart had plenty. I could do a top 25 Lieder at LEAST.
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What about sonatas? :P
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What about sonatas? :P
symphonies are technically sonatas for full orchestra, so yes, we will see them
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I wonder how many pieces on here I'm actually going to recognise. Having said that, it'll actually be good to discover some neat pieces I don't know.
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I'm interested in this! Will the Modern era be represented? I know plenty of Classical Music lovers who hate anything that's been made after 1920.
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Funny you should start this splent at the same time as I get a shock classical submission in my roulette :lol I will try and keep a lazy eye on your list.
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I'm interested in this! Will the Modern era be represented? I know plenty of Classical Music lovers who hate anything that's been made after 1920.
Well, they'd be missing (https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/781356) out (https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1025111) :P
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I'm in! Looking forward to it.
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I'm interested in this! Will the Modern era be represented? I know plenty of Classical Music lovers who hate anything that's been made after 1920.
Well, they'd be missing (https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/781356) out (https://musescore.com/user/100120/scores/1025111) :P
Yes Modern is well represented.
I got a migraine last night, so I may post some honorable mentions tonight, but it may not be until tomorrow. Those of you who know what those are like, they pretty much leave you worn out for at least 24 hours.
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OK... here's some honorable mention movie themes. I've decided not to include any in my list, because it's gotten massive. This way they can at least be represented.
Prelude from North By Northwest - Bernard Herrmann - 1959
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMLL1FZRGPo
Bernard Herrmann was Hitchcock's go to guy when it came to scoring his movies. His most famous theme is probably the shower scene from The Birds (which Hitchcock initially wanted without music... but you know how much the music adds to that scene... that's how Herrmann was). This is what you first hear when you first start watching the movie, with the side of the building and the white shapes going up and down the buildings... The SECOND you start hearing this theme you know this movie is going to be filled with suspense. The foreshadowing of what the main character is going to go through throughout the entire movie is encapsuled here. Wonderful work.
Star Wars Main Title - John Williams - 1977
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucvlJxDyKAA
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
I remember seeing this for the first time... and that first chord just blew me away. You talk about ICONIC. That theme is recognizable even by those who have never seen Star Wars. It IS Star Wars. Absolutely perfect music for such an epic set of movies. I'm going to stop because everything else in this is just going to be blabbing away at how perfect it is.
Music from Misery - Marc Shaiman - 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13ZKYTf-cA
Marc Shaiman is more well known nowadays as the person who writes the music for many musicals, such as Sister Act and Hairspray... however early in his career he scored one of my favorite movies in Misery. The music encompasses the mystery (and morbidness) of Annie Wilkes, from those first notes on the piano... this is definitely a modern-day Hitchcock movie, but he does the complete opposite with those quiet mysterious chords than Herrmann does in many of his scores for Hitchcock. Just perfect.
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Because my list is so long, I'm probably going to end up doing a 5 song honorable mention from every Classical music subgenre from Renaissance on. I love Medieval music; however, the majority of that music is plainchant, and there wasn't a whole lot of experimentation until the Renaissance began, because the church forbade it. Leonin, Perotin, Dufay, Josquin... they are all noteworthy pioneers, and without them pushing boundaries, the Renaissance wouldn't sound the way it did. However, the Renaissance broke all those boundaries apart. So I will have a HM 5 in Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century/Modern.
THEN I will get started on the top 50!!
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What about sonatas? :P
There are sonatas, yes.
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I've never heard anything pre-Baroque, unless there are pieces I'd know from general knowledge. So I'll have to look into those names you listed.
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I've never heard anything pre-Baroque, unless there are pieces I'd know from general knowledge. So I'll have to look into those names you listed.
It's mainly vocal music... Although there's one instrumental piece I'm considering at least for an honorable mention.
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Today was insanely busy, with limited internet access on my computer (I did post from my phone, but that's hard, and to post links from YouTube...). Tomorrow I will have some time to post my first set of honorable mentions.
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OK, time for my honorable mentions. I'm going to select no more than 5 for each time period to include in the honorable mentions category, which will be Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. On with the list (finally!)
5R. Monteverdi - L'Orfeo (1607)
***Check on Spotify***
Technically you could say this is an early Baroque piece, but I always classify Monteverdi as a Renaissance composer, even though he was kind of a transitional composer (such as Beethoven is between Classical and Romantic). This is one of the earliest operas ever written. The reason it is not higher is because I'm not as familiar with it as I am with other operas (and there aren't many operas on this list... I love opera but I don't listen to it as much as I do instrumental or choral music, and actually prefer oratorios to opera lately).
The other reason I include this in Renaissance is if you listen to the first aria following the introduction (which comes in with a bang... and whose monotone bass also is very renaissancey), I'm immediately taken back to Renaissance Italy... I imagine a sunset with people wearing those puffy clothes with shoulder length hair and big hats with the feathers, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Stylistically, as an opera it is written as many other Baroque operas are (I'm thinking mainly Dido and Aeneas here because that is the only Baroque style opera I've ever performed in, let alone seen), where there is a chorus, the arias are relatively short, and the music just keeps going but there are clear set ups to the arias, recits, and choruses - they kind of flow into one another.
If I were more familiar with this piece it has the chance to go higher; however having only recently discovered it, it is currently only an honorable mention.
4R. William Byrd - Sing Joyfully Unto God (between 1575-1590)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va55VwsSX8U
I sang this piece in college, and when you listen to it, you can totally hear the joy that Byrd felt he wanted to show through this piece. It is completely full of joy, jumping around, with the different sections bouncing around different themes as the piece goes. The reason this piece isn't higher is because I have other pieces in the top 50 by him through larger works that I like even more than these motets and madrigals; however that doesn't downplay how much I enjoy them. He wrote TONS of them during this period as England's most prolific Renaissance composer.
3R. Thomas Tallis - If Ye Love Me (1560)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zGOsN0pAw0
This is one of the most tender pieces I've ever performed, and again, the reason this piece isn't higher is Tallis is already well represented in my top 50. I couldn't not include this though, so into the HM it goes. This piece is short, but you can totally feel the humility Tallis brought through the piece, almost as if he felt not worthy enough to write it for his God .
2R. Tomas Luis de Victoria - O Magnum Mysterium (1572)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
Again, another close inclusion... I like way too much. This piece emulates the MYSTERIUM perfectly... humble, yet mysterious... God is the grand mystery in this. I can imagine the premier performance of this in a darkened chapel, emulated only by candlelight, with the smoke from the candles creating a hazy atmosphere adding to the mystery that is God. Such a powerful piece.
1R. Ave Maria - Josquin des Prez (1485)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUAgAF4Khmg
The earliest piece included on this list. You can tell where music was going in this piece. Simple... yet he was a pioneer in this style of choral music. You can tell, even though it's so simple, the setting of this piece singing about Mary, is just glorious. It just emulates warmth upon listening. One of my favorites. However, one thing irks me... why does the music world randomly call him Josquin, instead of des Prez? We don't call Beethoven Ludwig or Mozart Wolfgang...
I get lost in this music so easily, and even picking these out was hard. One of my favorite eras of music. Baroque will be next, it will either be tonight or tomorrow.
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2R. Tomas Luis de Victoria - O Magnum Mysterium (1572)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
Again, another close inclusion... I like way too much. This piece emulates the MYSTERIUM perfectly... humble, yet mysterious... God is the grand mystery in this. I can imagine the premier performance of this in a darkened chapel, emulated only by candlelight, with the smoke from the candles creating a hazy atmosphere adding to the mystery that is God. Such a powerful piece.
this is good. Any chance there is a more modern (20th Century) "O Magnum" somewhere on your list?
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2R. Tomas Luis de Victoria - O Magnum Mysterium (1572)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKvNxYMDxE
Again, another close inclusion... I like way too much. This piece emulates the MYSTERIUM perfectly... humble, yet mysterious... God is the grand mystery in this. I can imagine the premier performance of this in a darkened chapel, emulated only by candlelight, with the smoke from the candles creating a hazy atmosphere adding to the mystery that is God. Such a powerful piece.
this is good. Any chance there is a more modern (20th Century) "O Magnum" somewhere on your list?
Perhaps… Still tinkering with the list a little bit.
Are you thinking about the same setting I am? ;)
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Will check these out during the next few days!
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this is good. Any chance there is a more modern (20th Century) "O Magnum" somewhere on your list?
Perhaps… Still tinkering with the list a little bit.
Are you thinking about the same setting I am? ;)
yeah, possibly. If so, it is my favorite choral piece I've ever sung.
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Not too late to follow am I? ;)
I need to broaden my taste as far as classical works go. Will find time to check some of these out.
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Next set of Honorable Mentions: Baroque era
This was tough. The Baroque is probably my favorite era of all, which is interesting because for most people it's their least favorite, because it's so "fancy" or "repetative". Part of the reason I enjoy it is because I have studied so much of it, including taking a counterpoint class in college, so I know WHY it's structured the way it is structured; once I realized it, I gained a whole new appreciation for the Baroque and loved it since then. Bach was insane with how intricate he composed within the formal structure of counterpoint. It's so insane. Handel is my man, his music is so happy. Vivaldi... Telemann... Rameau... and I discover new composers all the time (they aren't in the list yet). Anyways, here we go.
B5. Johann Pachebel - Canon and Gigue in D (1680)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa12uiraW3s
Yes, this is THE Pachebel's Canon. The only reason it's an honorable mention is how overplayed it is. Structurally, it's amazing how popular it is based on how repetative it is... I feel SOOOO sorry for anyone who plays this who is a cellist, because they play 8 notes over and over throughout the entire piece. The gigue is enjoyable enough, but the canon is what makes it famous. I do pop it out every once in a while to listen to it, and it's enjoyable in professional recordings including the gigue because it's played at a much faster tempo as Pachebel envisioned (which makes it MUCH more difficult, showing the musicality of the piece)... when you hear it at a wedding it's much slower. Anyways. Yeah.
B4. Jean-Phillipe Rameau - Pièces de clavecin en concerts (1741)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkcUOht1i4c
These pieces are pretty nice. I'm just getting into these pieces, so these have the potential to move up. However, I'm not as big of a fan of Rameau as I am of Vivaldi or Handel, so that's why these are where they are. They are nice background music in my opinion, and there's nothing extremely special about this piece other than it's pretty and nice. I enjoy listening to it with period instruments, it really adds a folksy sound to it (i.e. I imagine a folk dance late at night around a bonfire or something) with some of these.
B3. J.S. Bach - Orchestral Suite #2 in B Minor BWV 1067 (1739)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8pMS1zZ8SI
I have to include this piece. I am rather indifferent about this piece other than the last two movements, which are absolutely amazing. The minuet is a nice introduction to the badinerie, which is probably one of the most famous (and difficult) flute solos ever written. I LOVE the badinerie. I can't just include it by itself, however, due to me being OCD about completeness (and yes, I'm making ONE exception to this later on, but it's my list, so whatever, I do what I want).
B2. J.S. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (unknown)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkUUjUJ4wHg
Again it's an honorable mention due to overplay. I hate hearing this piece around Halloween, because Bach never meant for this to be a Halloween song. However, there's no denying the energy and feelings this piece brings upon listening. I am long tried to untie myself from seeing coffins, vampires, and haunted houses when hearing this piece... however, hearing this piece in a gothic type castle would be absolutely fitting. I love the fugue especially, it's evolution, and it's cadenza at the end. Stokowsky's orchestral arrangement is stellar as well; I love the hills painted by the Disney artists in Fantasia when hearing this piece.
B1. J.S.Bach - Two and Three part inventions (various)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgMkkR1iFYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Ei6MRMYrg
Although these pieces were meant to be exercises and not performed in concert, I LOVE hearing the complexity these inventions and sinfonias carry. I'm still trying to learn many of them. Two of my favorites are above: invention #13 and sinfonia #15, both played by Glenn Gould (who if you know Gould was a Bach machine; he played these especially fast, which I LOVE). There are so many though, that I really don't enjoy, so that's why it's an honorable mention.
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B5. Johann Pachebel - Canon and Gigue in D (1680)
B2. J.S. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (unknown)
:hefdaddy
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B5. Johann Pachebel - Canon and Gigue in D (1680)
The first memory I have of hearing this song is in Ordinary People. It plays at the beginning, with the choral addition, and at the end as an instrumental, after Conrad and his dad find peace with themselves and their relationship. It's a simple scene, but beautiful in its brevity. And I remember tearing up when the ending music played, and the camera pulled back on them embracing. I was in a tough spot in my life at the time, and my relationship with my dad has never been perfect. I barely ever remember the name of the song, it is always the Ordinary People Song to me.
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Love almost all JS Bach. Your choices are good ones too. Toccata and Fugue, what can you say, that is so dynamic and engaging especially for the baroque and I think it stands out for that, it makes sense why Disney picked it. Love the linked video for the Orchestral Suite #2. That flute player was seriously jamming on that solo, I don't remember a version quite so jazzy before.
Pachelbel's Canon is great of course. I wasn't really that familiar with the Rameau but it sounds pretty good if you ask me.
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Anytime I play "guess the composer" either on public radio or on music choice on cable (I close my eyes and try to guess the composer), if it's baroque, and it's not Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi, it's almost always Rameau. Like I said, I'm still getting into it, so it could still go up. I do enjoy it, just don't get lost in it like I do with other pieces (that's another criterion... Do I just really enjoy it, or do I get lost in it and start conducting or moving with the music? I only do that with music I REALLY love.
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Was listening to some Mozart today... Classical honorables coming up, probably tomorrow. You know it's probably only going to consist of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven....
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Those are all great! Two years ago, I couldn't have imagined myself saying it, but I'm a HUGE Bach fan :metal
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Sorry for the delay. I'm going to try to post this before I can HOPEFULLY see the eclipse (clouds have moved in... boo)
The main people in the Classical Period are Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (some people include Schubert but I view him more as Romantic)... There may be 1-2 others on this list but mainly those three. They DOMINATED this era. So here we go.
C5. Solfeggio - Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (1766)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBf2aUwODMY
CPE Bach (JS Bach's son) was a transitional composer between the Baroque and Classical periods (such as Beethoven was between the Classical and Romantic eras). None of Bach's sons gained the noteriety that their dad did, but CPE Bach had a respectable career. This is EASILY his most famous work. This piece is so much fun to play on the piano. It's interesting because for the most part it's monophonic; the melody acts in such a way as it creates harmony with itself, making it unique in my opinion.
C4. Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" - W.A. Mozart (1781)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhxeo6zLAM
Mozart travelled all around Europe during his youth. There was a point during this year of composition where he lived in Paris. This was a popular folk song in Paris. Mozarts Variations gave it notoriety, and probably because of this we now have about 20 songs following this melody. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You must click the link. MWAHAHA
C3. Rage Over A Lost Penny - Ludwig von Beethoven (c. 1795)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFPkfRoe9jA
This piece is just fun, which is interesting because so much of Beethoven's work is dark.
C2. Symphony #3 "Eroica" - Ludwig von Beethoven (1801)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YObQ6bP0eDQ
I can't put all of Beethoven's symphonies in my top 50!!!
C1 - Piano Sonata #8 "Pathetique" - Ludwig von Beethoven (1798)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcOcKYQX3c
This was TOUGH because it was between this and another one... however I like the other one JUST a little bit better overall. One of my favorite pieces to play in music is the 2nd movement of this piece... so serene...
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spoilers - the other beethoven piano sonata is #14 ::)
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spoilers - the other beethoven piano sonata is #14 ::)
I'll be disappointed if that one isn't on the list at all :P
I've been told there's an interpretation of Rage Over... by Jordan Rudess, and faster. Can't find it tho.
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It took a while for me to get into the "Eroica" Symphony. But it's certainly happened now. What a breakthrough in music history! The symphony was by far the longest written at that point in time. The first movement development section takes you into all sorts of unexpected tonal areas, foreshadowing the chromaticism that composers like Wagner would later explore more fully. The funeral march slow movement is probably what pushes this symphony forward to the Romantic period. Funeral march = emotion. Then you have the Scherzo, with its middle Trio section featuring chords from three horns (one more than the standard pair required for classical-period orchestras), and the finale, which takes the form of a Theme and Variations. The theme for this was originally used in his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, and he later wrote a separate set of variations on the same theme for solo piano.
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Eroica was pretty fun to play last semester
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Periods I'll include in this (years are not set in stone):
Renaissance (1450-1600)
Baroque (1600-1750)
Classical (1750-1825)
Romantic (1825-1900)
20th Century (1900-1965)
Modern (1965-present)
Out of curiosity, why 1965 for the "modern" period?
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Periods I'll include in this (years are not set in stone):
Renaissance (1450-1600)
Baroque (1600-1750)
Classical (1750-1825)
Romantic (1825-1900)
20th Century (1900-1965)
Modern (1965-present)
Out of curiosity, why 1965 for the "modern" period?
50 years just seemed like a round number... Also that was right around the time when Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, and Steve Reich were starting to become popular with the minimalism movement, gradually gearing music away from atonality back to tonality.
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To be honest, I've been thinking about breaking it down even a little bit more…
Maybe something like this… I know the years are off... I have to think about it... Also don't know what to put after 1990, unless it's like post minimalism or something.
Romantic 1925-1880
Impressionism/Neoclassicism 1880-1935
Serialism/Musique Concrete 1935-1965
Minimalism 1965-1990
Modern 1990-present
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My biggest issue is music evolved so much in the first part of the 20th century that I have no idea how to categorize it without breaking it down too much. It's not going to be perfect. Technically John Cage was not a Composer that I would put underneath serialism, but that's the only place I can think of where he would fit. Plus you have composers who were successful during this time period Such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. They most definitely were not composers Who wrote in the serialism. And then you got Charles Ives who is completely ahead of his time… I'm stuck.
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Renaissance (1450-1600)
Baroque (1600-1750)
Classical (1750-1825)
Romantic 1825-1885
Impressionism/Neoclassicism 1885-1935
Serialism/Musique Concrete 1935-1965
Minimalism 1965-1990
Modern 1990-present
VERSUS
Renaissance (1450-1600)
Baroque (1600-1750)
Classical (1750-1825)
Romantic 1825-1900
Modern 1900-present
This may change. I'm not exactly sure if I like this setup, and I'm not a fan of Serialism at ALL so I may not have an honorable mention for it... I may just give up and put everything past 1900 in one category but I REALLY don't want to. If you have any better suggestions be my guest. I just don't want to dump everything from the last century in one category because it evolved SO MUCH. Maybe I'm being anal about it but this is something I'm very passionate about.
Please make some suggestions if you have any.
Romantic (regardless of years) will be posted tonight.
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Excellent idea for a thread! My knowledge of Classical music is not that strong, so I'm following to learn more!
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OK
I'm going with the first list. I can't figure out another way. This way, you can be introduced to a few of my favorites in every time period, even if no others make my top 50 (ahem, such as serialism pieces).
So here now commences my honorable mention Romantic pieces.
So many people in this forum LOVE this time period... I really don't. To me, it sounds overblown, schmultzy, and drawn out, sort of like a Lifetime movie. Wagner is the worst. I DETEST Wagner. I'm sorry to all you Wagner lovers. There are still a few gems in here that I enjoy; since travelling was easier with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, many composers were now heavily influenced by music from other parts of the world, particularly that of the Middle East and Asia, and even including the United States (This was later during this period). There was also a HUGE increase in Nationalist music and folk music from particular countries, which I enjoy. In addition, more composers from Scandinavia (Grieg, Sibelius) and Eastern Europe started becoming popular (Chopin, Dvorak, Liszt) as well as Russia with the big 5 and Tchaikovsky.
RM5. Peer Gynt Suite #1 - Edvard Grieg (1875)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBxBAXVP8IA
This was based on a play by a Norwegian, and Grieg wrote the incidental music for it; he later expanded it into two suites. I chose the first suite. I do enjoy a few of the movements, but they are somewhat overplayed in commercials, particularly In The Hall of the Mountain King and Morning Mood. I do enjoy Anitra's Dance a lot though. It's also fun to do Hall of the Mountain King with Kindergarteners, pretending we're sneaking up the mountain and then getting chased at the end :)
RM4. Violin Concerto - Johannes Brahms (1878)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqqSJfS3Lm4
This piece is very good. It's beautiful. Oddly for everything that Brahms composed this was his only concerto. But it's one of my favorites. I dont' listen to it often but when I do I get lost in it.
RM3. Hungarian Rhapsody #2 - Franz Liszt (1847)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byGI1mDi3no
You probably know this piece as the piece that Tom played while Jerry was in the piano, or the one that Bugs Bunny was playing. This piece is just so much fun to listen to and it's FREAKING HARD. The last page of the music I'm like :omg: It was also orchestrated at a later point, but the piano piece is just wow.
RM2. Raindrop Prelude - Frederic Chopin (1838)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8uONLM5U-I
This piece is soft, tender, and quite long for a prelude, but one of the most famous. I've tried playing this, and it's not particularly difficult, but I love the tenderness of it. I think Raindrop is a perfect nickname for it... reminds me of a late April shower when everything is green, flowers are blooming, and the smell of the rain.
RM1. Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItSJ_woWnmk
The opening of this piece is the most famous... unfortunately anytime I hear it I think of Annie Wilkes putting on her Liberace records...
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B5. Johann Pachebel - Canon and Gigue in D (1680)
B2. J.S. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (unknown)
C3. Rage Over A Lost Penny - Ludwig von Beethoven (c. 1795)
C2. Symphony #3 "Eroica" - Ludwig von Beethoven (1801)
RM4. Violin Concerto - Johannes Brahms (1878)
RM2. Raindrop Prelude - Frederic Chopin (1838)
RM1. Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875)
I know all of these pieces.
Eroica is by far the best of the early Beethoven symphonies, IMO.
Raindrop is one of my favourite Chopin pieces.
I've never been able to get into Violin Concertos/Concerti. I love Bach's Ciaccone from Partita No. 2 though.
Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto really is all about that first movement.
As far as I know, I still haven't heard Peer Gynt (though I understand I would be familiar with at least bits of it) or Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, those are two pieces I've been meaning to get around to.
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I just looked on Wikipedia, and there are several other ways that I can group my honorable mention music… I'm going to look into it throughout the day, and hopefully post my impressionist pieces tonight.
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I detest Wagner too, but the romantic period is still one of my favourites, Brahms and Mendelssohn especially.
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I detest Wagner too, but the romantic period is still one of my favourites, Brahms and Mendelssohn especially.
I really enjoy Mendelssohn too… You may see him on the top 50 ;)
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OK... I'm going to post Impressionistic Honorable Mentions, but then I'm going to be out of town for the weekend, so I won't be posting much (unless I have time late at night, which is probably not going to happen).
I'm still trying to tweak the subsections of more modern music. Here's what wikipedia has:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Impressionism
Modern/High Modern - This includes serialism (Schoenburg, Webern), Expressionism (Ives, Mahler, Stravinsky), and NeoClassicism (Hindemith, Copland)
Contemporary - This includes Minimalism and postmodernist music, basically stemming from the latter half to third of the 20th century to today.
THIS IS HOW I WILL DO THIS!!!
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I love Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, have mixed feelings on Brahms and Wagner and still know too little of Grieg, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Liszt to judge on them. I will have a listen to the pieces you mentioned, especially the ones I don't know too well yet. As I'm still relatively new to classical music some styles/periods, like romanticism, are still hard for me to figure out. I just have to listen to every piece very carefully a few times to understand what is going on and to determine whether I like it or not; only Chopin and Tchaikovsky I can listen to and 'get' it immediately.
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I'm still trying to tweak the subsections of more modern music. Here's what wikipedia has:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Impressionism
Modern/High Modern - This includes serialism (Schoenburg, Webern), Expressionism (Ives, Mahler, Stravinsky), and NeoClassicism (Hindemith, Copland)
Contemporary - This includes Minimalism and postmodernist music, basically stemming from the latter half to third of the 20th century to today.
THIS IS HOW I WILL DO THIS!!!
This is the common periodisation. It's overly broad, but should be enough for a top I guess. Going into subdivisions might prove difficult, as esthetics needs definition (which some might disagree with (ex : Ives, Stravinsky and Mahler never wrote expressionists works to me, expressionism designating mostly german early atonal pieces by Schonberg, Berg and Webern, and some others (like early Hindemith)) and can run over several periods of time (with some composers switching from one esthetic to another). "Neoclassicism" is particulary difficult to pin down : 80 % of the composers of the 20th century would fall under this category. It's mostly an expression of an underlying esthetical and political war between expressionism/serialism and neoclassicism, but does not say much about the music itself (what do Stravinsky neoclassic music have in common with Hindemith late pieces ?).
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My biggest issue is music evolved so much in the first part of the 20th century that I have no idea how to categorize it without breaking it down too much. It's not going to be perfect. Technically John Cage was not a Composer that I would put underneath serialism, but that's the only place I can think of where he would fit. Plus you have composers who were successful during this time period Such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. They most definitely were not composers Who wrote in the serialism. And then you got Charles Ives who is completely ahead of his time… I'm stuck.
True. Traditions and esthetics overlaped a lot in the XXth century. The logical progression from late romantism (Wagner and Strauss) to early expressionism (Schönberg, Berg, Webern) to first serialism (the same) to the second serialism (Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio, etc.) to the various forms of post-serialism (with a bit of Debussy and early Stravinsky thrown in it for good measure), that the serialists tried to impose is only a partial way to see the music history. Nowadays, it's worse, you can find everything from extreme avant-garde to every kind of neo-romantism that you can think of, and everything in between.
But it's actually not that new. Even in earlier periods, esthetics and styles overlaped (and let's not forget that musical creation is driven but artistic reasons but also social and political contexts). There were composers writing music that sounded like renaissance music as late as 1650. Even Bach was "old school" at the end of his time when some younger composers were reaching toward what would be the classical style. The renaissance is also a period when many styles were evolving in parallel. History is never as clear and simple as some would want it to be...
I guess you can just talk a little bit about pieces you lile. :corn
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I'm still trying to tweak the subsections of more modern music. Here's what wikipedia has:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Impressionism
Modern/High Modern - This includes serialism (Schoenburg, Webern), Expressionism (Ives, Mahler, Stravinsky), and NeoClassicism (Hindemith, Copland)
Contemporary - This includes Minimalism and postmodernist music, basically stemming from the latter half to third of the 20th century to today.
THIS IS HOW I WILL DO THIS!!!
This is the common periodisation. It's overly broad, but should be enough for a top I guess. Going into subdivisions might prove difficult, as esthetics needs definition (which some might disagree with (ex : Ives, Stravinsky and Mahler never wrote expressionists works to me, expressionism designating mostly german early atonal pieces by Schonberg, Berg and Webern, and some others (like early Hindemith)) and can run over several periods of time (with some composers switching from one esthetic to another). "Neoclassicism" is particulary difficult to pin down : 80 % of the composers of the 20th century would fall under this category. It's mostly an expression of an underlying esthetical and political war between expressionism/serialism and neoclassicism, but does not say much about the music itself (what do Stravinsky neoclassic music have in common with Hindemith late pieces ?).
Exactly. I would have a HARD time trying to find pieces to fit into a serialsm honorable mention top 5 because I really can't stand most of it... Webern's tone row music just sounds like banging on a piano to me. It gets worse with John Cage... although I do enjoy some of his prepared piano pieces, his indeterminate music is again, like my daughter just playing around on the piano to me (although, the ironic thing is Cage would actually call that music; and I can't say that I don't enjoy my daughter trying to play). And yeah, Stravinsky going from his huge nationalistic ballets to more neoclassical music is a HUGE shift... and then you got a ton of other composers like Lygeti, Boulez, and Penderecki that are ALL doing different things, Stockhausen who was a pioneer in the world of electronic music with musique concrete, and others. For me, it would be almost impossible for me to make an accurate top 5 honorable mention with all these specific categories without putting someone in inaccurately, so I'm just going to use modernism to explain them all. And to be honest, this era will probably be the one that evolves the most before my next version of this list, as I've heard pieces by many of these composers but am not familiar enough with them to place them in a top 50 or honorable mention list, so for the next version, if I do get more familiar with the pieces, I will end up changing it to more specific subgenres.
Alrighty, onward with Impressionism.
I5. Arabesque 1 - Claude Debussy (1888)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMVmQAW0CM8
I learned how to play this in high school, and it was at the time the most difficult piece I learned to play. While playing for solo and ensemble festivals, I had judges comment that I would be good at playing Debussy because of the expression that I put in my playing, and this just fit for me. It's so beautiful and intricate. I love the chords that are put into it... the arpeggiated chords in the lower register (which are a BITCH to play) just give a sense of flowing... I feel calm immediately while listening to it.
I4. Pines of Rome - Ottorino Respighi (1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvgyfqzLC0A
I first heard this piece while watching Fantasia 2000, so obviously I think of whales floating while watching this, even though that's not Respighi's vision (blessing and a curse in Fantasia). Although the immediate splash of music that you hear when the music begins reminds you again, of water flowing and splashing, just like you'd see in a fountain. The ebbs and flows of this music are undeniable.
I3. La Cathedrale Engloutie - Claude Debussy (1910)
I was given a task in college to orchestrate this piece, and I must have done OK since I got a B+. I would love to hear my arrangement live at some point, but I'd have to tweak with it (if you want to check it out, it is on the classical music archive, so I linked it below... it's a .mid file, so not the best quality). The translation of this prelude is "The Sunken Cathedral" so I imagine an old cathedral with it's bell still intact, still ringing, even though it's under the water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5hvGS7X7w
https://www.classicalarchives.com/contributor/1008.html (My orchestrated arrangement, you need to register to hear the full version)
I2. Jeux d'eau - Maurice Ravel (1901)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_36x1_LKgg
I LOVE this piece. It's so joyful... why is it that almost all of these pieces that I picked are about water? I guess all these open quartal and quintal chords give me a vision of water. Anyways, I just imagine while listening to this water flowing... it's not a rapid river, it's a clear stream flowing through the mountainside in spring, splashing against the rocks sticking out from the ground.
I1. Gymnopedie 1 - Eric Satie (1888)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU
FINALLY a piece NOT about water! Satie was an eccentric man... and pieces such as this helped to influence both Debussy and Ravel greatly, even though compositionally Satie isn't generally considered an Impressionist composer. I HAVE to put this here, because there are just too many elements within the musical structure of the piece (not necessarily how they are used) are impressionistic.
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Listening to DesPrez now, I know I'm a bit late. I love music of that era, and even more the music before that. Last year I bought an album full of 13th century French music. Really simple, but so effective.
I'm gonna be honest, I've never cared for Baroque or Classical era music. I'll listen to the pieces in you top list, but I'm going to skip the HM.
So the Romantic era, I love romantic music, the extremities, the emotions, the harmonies.
The Peer Gynt suite is wonderful. Still a bit painting by numbers to me, but very much helping the listening to picture a landscape.
Brahms is something I always think I'd like, but never really listen to. It has never really grabbed me. I guess the idea of a symphony orchestra doesn't really grab me. Just too old fashioned maybe.
Right now, Liszt. Love piano music from this era (always had more with Chopin but Liszt is good too) I had never heard this piece, I think, but I really like it, thanks!
So onto Chopin. Remarkably this piece didn't do very much to me. Very dramatic, but not as dreamy as Chopin can be.
The Tchaikovsky piece is a classic, and rightly so! Just like Grieg though it reminds me very much of the radio on sunday morning. Though this is a bit more up and down, I like that. The unpredictable side of romantic music.
Impressionism:
Debussy: I really love La Cathedral Engloutie. Classic Debussy piano work. Dreamy, never really to the point, I really like that side of his music.
Respighi. I had never heard of this composer. So I went to listen with great interest. Didn't let me down, interesting arrangement, and use of instruments. Great melodies and extreme ups and downs.
Ravel, next to the Bolero I've never heard anything of Ravel I believe. I really like this piano work! Wonderful piece, thanks!
Satie, I've heard this piece being performed before, I love the simple melodie, and the way it's being accompanied by another simple thing. It could've been a children's song as well.
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My modern honorable mentions will be posted probably sometime today. I've also decided that I'm going to do a top 25 or top 50 choral pieces. So much my background is in choral music, but it doesn't really fit in this type of top 50, and I want to include that in some sort of list.
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Respighi's other two Roman tone poems are also very much worth a listen. Fountains of Rome and Roman Festival. All three (Pines included) are richly orchestrated, making great use of percussion (both tuned and untuned), piano(s) and organ. Pines also has the first use of pre-recorded sound in a live musical work, namely the nightingale heard at the end of the third section.
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The use of "modern" here refers to modernism, namely art through the first half to two thirds of the 20th century, before the drastic change that followed in the mid 1960s.
Schoenberg is NOT on this list, as this is how I feel about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y41_gjk2V4c
M5. Igor Stravinsky - L'Histore du Soldat (1918)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RewFQpEY55w
Stravinsky wrote this during the beginning of his Neoclassical period, after his larger works such as Firebird and Rite of Spring. It sounds completely different, as he almost immediately changed his composition style after the backlash he received after Rite of Spring and his opera The Nightengale. This can be performed in a few different ways (both performance wise and in instrumentation), and the narration is more often in French... however, I put the English version on here, as this production with the ballet tells the interesting story that goes along with it quite well.
M4. John Cage - Sonata V (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHoKZRYBlY
I'm not a huge fan of John Cage because his indeterminate method just sounds like banging on a piano (he followed the I Ching, and basically rolled a die to determine pitch, note value, and other things wtihin the music)... but I always found the prepared piano pieces fascinating. He made the piano more percussive by putting screws, nuts, bolts, and other objects in the piano. I first heard this in my 20th century music class and I found it quite cool.
M3. Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbvhU22uAM
As a music teacher, I love this piece, as it integrates the teaching of the instrument families and their individual instruments within the piece, as was its intent. We start hearing a song based on a theme by Purcell, and slowly it ebbs away from that after the introduction of the instrument families through various variations of that theme that feature the individual instruments, coming to a head with a final fugue-like variation in the finale.
M2. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (1956)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Psx24n3rM
This was basically the first piece of electronic music to become popular, as it interweaves various eletronic sounds with recordings of someone singing and speaking. While experimental in nature and avant-garde in sound (I don't usually like this type of music), it's fascinating to me as basically without this, we may not have what was to come in electronic music (ambient, sampling, synths, etc).
M1. Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3BlFZWJNA
I studied the score for a class in college, and it was full of tone clusters (basically the entire staff was blacked out at one point)... I was like what is this... but you listen to this you hear the agony, pain, and sadness that compounds the tragedy that became the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It just fits. And it hurts. And it's supposed to. (side note - This was basically #51 on my list... it hurt to take it off... but too many other pieces deserve to be on my list)
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Stravinsky wrote this during the beginning of his Neoclassical period, after his larger works such as Firebird and Rite of Spring. It sounds completely different, as he almost immediately changed his composition style after the backlash he received after Rite of Spring and his opera The Nightengale.
You make it sound like Stravinsky changed his style because of the backlash. It's not really the case...
M1. Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
I studied the score for a class in college, and it was full of tone clusters (basically the entire staff was blacked out at one point)... I was like what is this... but you listen to this you hear the agony, pain, and sadness that compounds the tragedy that became the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It just fits. And it hurts. And it's supposed to.
The funny thing is that Penderecki didn't write the piece with Hiroshima and Nagasaki in mind at all. It was written as a purely abstract and experimental piece. Penderecki gave the final title only after the piece was premiered with its original title (8'37", the approximate duration of the piece). It was a smart move, as the piece probably wouldn't have been as succesful without its title...
While it's good, it's not my favorite piece from Penderecki early period.
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No
Stravinsky wrote this during the beginning of his Neoclassical period, after his larger works such as Firebird and Rite of Spring. It sounds completely different, as he almost immediately changed his composition style after the backlash he received after Rite of Spring and his opera The Nightengale.
You make it sound like Stravinsky changed his style because of the backlash. It's not really the case...
Oh no I know that. I think it was a factor... However, I know he was evolving as a composer, ESPECIALLY after Lenin came to power (I believe that was the ultimate factor that made him deviate from his nationalistic period to his neoclassical period); even though the soldiers tale was about a Russian soldier.
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Oh what the heck. Here are the contemporary honorable mentions. I want to get the countdown started. A few of these (more in the top 50) are choral works because I'm such a choir guy... so I give you fair warning.
C5. Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians (1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c
I love Steve Reich and his phasing works... I think it's just the chaos that builds in between each section that finally meets up and to me it's like a new section of music. This was Reich's first work that really branched out away from that... you can hear how the music still evolves slowly (which is a characteristic of most minimalistic works, but especially Reich's. The first section is called "Pulses", as you can hear (and feel) the pulses of the music. There are only 11 chords in the piece, yet the music changes so much (yet so little)...
C4. Philip Glass - Another Look At Harmony, Part IV (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ysq3lEoWXI
Philip Glass is another one, and his earlier works do evolve slowly as with Reich... just with more arpeggios (buh dum pssh). No I know it's not so cut and dry. I do enjoy this piece. One of my favorite pieces written by him are the pieces he wrote for Sesame Street's Geometry of Circles, which are similar in voicing as this is.
C3. Terry Riley - In C (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRaa34E8tXQ
THANK YOU TERRY RILEY.
This was written in direct response to Schoenburg-inspired atonal techniques that had dominiated the musical landscape for decades... when my 20th century professor played this piece we literally cheered, because music sounded like music again. Music finally had tonality again, and while this wasn't the first piece to had tonality return, this was the first in the same vein as those modernist composers as before. While it isn't my favorite minimalist composition, this must be mentioned.
C2. Steve Reich - Different Trains (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLfrQhPR5A
THIS PIECE IS AWESOME. Reich took recordings of people who were train operators and those who rode trains, train whistles, and composed the music around their speech, integrating them perfectly, and captures the emotion of the time period. Movement one is called America Before the War, describing those who rode trains around the country. Movement two is called Europe during the war, describing trains taking Jews to the concentration camps... and Movement Three is after the war. Reich did this type of compositional technique again for a piece about 9/11.
C1. Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2JRcC6wBs
Whitacre is one of the most prolific choral composers currently, and this music is one of the reasons why. I close my eyes and am lost... Darkness and then... light.
This piece with original lyrics in Latin that mean "Light of Gold" captures that idea... he composed a sequel a few years ago called Nox Aurumque.
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Ugh, can't stand Music for 18 musicians - bores me to tears :lol
Btw, gave the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima piece a listen. Damn, so atonal, dark, and abrasive. Right up my alley.
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C1. Eric Whitacre - Lux Aurumque (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2JRcC6wBs
Whitacre is one of the most prolific choral composers currently, and this music is one of the reasons why. I close my eyes and am lost... Darkness and then... light.
This piece with original lyrics in Latin that mean "Light of Gold" captures that idea... he composed a sequel a few years ago called Nox Aurumque.
just listened to a performance of this very recently. Some great chords/voicings in this, particularly the soft ones in the second half of the song.
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Ugh, can't stand Music for 18 musicians - bores me to tears :lol
Btw, gave the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima piece a listen. Damn, so atonal, dark, and abrasive. Right up my alley.
I have to be in the mood, more often I'm in the mood than not.
And threnody is seriously one of the most intense piece of music ever composed. As Kilgore trout pointed out, the original title was eight minutes 23 seconds or something like that, as in oh mosh to John cages four minutes and 33 seconds… I'm glad he changed the title LOL
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I really like Whitacre, but my favourite of his works would, without a doubt, be "Water Night", though I guess that is as much due to the briliant poem that it is based on, but the music is beautiful too.
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I really like Whitacre, but my favourite of his works would, without a doubt, be "Water Night", though I guess that is as much due to the briliant poem that it is based on, but the music is beautiful too.
Water Night is awesome too, but my favorite is in my top 50.
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With the minimalism out of the way, hopefully the actual top 50 will have more interesting contemporary works.
Also, if you want to hear a composer who defiantly stuck to Romantic/tonal principles through the dark days of serialism, listen to the music of Cornish composer George Lloyd (1913-98).
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With the minimalism out of the way, hopefully the actual top 50 will have more interesting contemporary works.
There are a few. There are also a couple of more recent works by composers that were mainly minimalists in the 60s that I do enjoy as well. Then again, I do enjoy minimalism more than probably most (probably because, in a way, it was like a 2nd renaissance back into tonality, and the way it evolves somewhat reminds me of Renaissance composers.
That said, let's start the countdown.
50. Felix Mendelssohn - Elijah (1846)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqhBvwL5QBg
Arguably Mendelssohn's most popular and famous work, there are some BEAUTIFUL choral works as well as solos in here. My personal favorite is He Watching Over Israel, which is what I posted here. It's an oratorio, meaning that it's a work with a chorus and soloists, such as like an opera; main differences are that it's usually not acted out, and the text is sacred, usually from the bible. This oratorio has elements of both classical and romantic periods, as it was composed during that transitional period, so it's not totally over the top as it did around the time Wagner was king. Soft, subtle, and beautiful.
49. Camille Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre (1874)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpqcJ1IfoA
Great program music. It's based on a thematic poem by Henri Cazalis about Death having fun on Halloween night. You can hear the clock chime midnight at the beginning, the xylophones representing the clash of bones of skeletons (also used in Carnival of the Animals, same theme and all)...
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Wow, what a great start to the list proper!
Danse Macabre is one of those rare pieces where I feel like there's not a single note wasted. Perfection for what it is.
Elijah is not something at the top of my personal list but it is a very nice choral piece and Mendelssohn is I feel underrated if that's possible. I mean he's clearly one of the top 25 composers that people mention, but I think he's that good consistently.
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Btw, gave the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima piece a listen. Damn, so atonal, dark, and abrasive. Right up my alley.
I would have thought you knew that piece. We used to make fun of it in my class (even though the subject matter is obviously not something to joke about), because it's so otherworldly compared to even a lot of music from the same era. It's almost as if someone recorded nails on a chalkboard 200 times and put that all together.
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Just did a looooot of catching up.
Debussy was awesome, I need to listen to his music more. The Ravel piece was pretty cool as well. The Pines of Rome was good but not spectacular, though that might change with more listens. The Satie piece needs more listens as well. Stravinsky was good but needs way more listens, although I kind of expected that. The John Cage Sonata was okay, but not something I'd listen to. I actually had never heard Britten's 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' before but thought it's pretty good for what it is. I hated the Stockhausen piece, I wouldn't classify that as classical music. 'Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima' was really good, sounded like a horror movie soundtrack but better. I thought Music for 18 Musicians was boring, there are minimal pieces that are way more interesting IMO. Glass's 'Another Way to Look at Harmony Part IV', on the other hand, was more interesting. At least interesting enough for me to want to listen to it again.
And that's basically how far I came. Bit ironical that I wrote so much lame comments about that much music in such a short time and I haven't even listened to the rest yet :lol
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Btw, gave the Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima piece a listen. Damn, so atonal, dark, and abrasive. Right up my alley.
I would have thought you knew that piece.
I know very little of contemporary/modern music of this kind, so I hope this list will open my ears to new stuff ;D
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Wow, Danse Macabre is something. Listening to it second time in row. I'm following this thread even more now :P
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I love the fact that I get to teach about Danse macabre to my students this time of year. He did such a good job. You can just close your eyes and envision all those ghosts and skeletons just partying it up with death playing his violin. I think Saint saens is very underrated; I need to listen to more of his music.
I'm not home and posting from my phone so I'll get to 47 and 48 tomorrow.
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49. Camille Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre (1874)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpqcJ1IfoA
This interpretation is pretty bad.
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50. Felix Mendelssohn - Elijah (1846)
Arguably Mendelssohn's most popular and famous work
Really? More popular/famous than the Wedding March? The 'Italian' Symphony (No. 4)? The Hebrides Overture?
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Really? More popular/famous than the Wedding March? The 'Italian' Symphony (No. 4)? The Hebrides Overture?
Or A Midsummer Night's Dream or the violin concerto, or, or, etc. Splent is probably influenced by his choral background. Oratorios aren't really famous nowadays, in general (unless they are in the US, with all the choirs you've got? I'm not american).
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"For he shall give his angels" has been the set closer for many a show that I have done with my choir, and it - like the entirety of the Elijah - is definitely exceptional music. Mendelssohn has always been a favourite of mine, and the Elijah ranks near the top for me as well.
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50. Felix Mendelssohn - Elijah (1846)
Arguably Mendelssohn's most popular and famous work
Really? More popular/famous than the Wedding March? The 'Italian' Symphony (No. 4)? The Hebrides Overture?
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Really? More popular/famous than the Wedding March? The 'Italian' Symphony (No. 4)? The Hebrides Overture?
Or A Midsummer Night's Dream or the violin concerto, or, or, etc. Splent is probably influenced by his choral background. Oratorios aren't really famous nowadays, in general (unless they are in the US, with all the choirs you've got? I'm not american).
I did several oratorios with the choir I was formally in, and so yes I have a little bit of knowledge of oratorios; I've performed parts of Elijah, and a few of Handel's oratorios in their entirety. Not so much of Bach's cantatas though (other than the famous instrumental, choral, and solo movements used for weddings, sacred holiday music, and the like)... that's something I would love to jump into.
Anyways, the key word there was ARGUABLY. I know he's done a lot of other beautiful music; he's one composer I'm ashamed to say I'm not too familiar with other than his "hits" (Song Without Words, anyone?), so I'll be diving into a couple of those suggestions soon (I'm keeping a list).
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49. Camille Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre (1874)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpqcJ1IfoA
This interpretation is pretty bad.
Yeah I was in a hurry when I posted; just took a listen and yeah it's not the best. There are better versions out there.
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48. Steve Reich - Clapping Music (1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY4bL_bO8sA
OK, OK, OK... Yeah I know I may get a little flack for this piece being as high as it is, but it was an ongoing internal "joke" that I and several of my friends in college had... spontaneous mini-performances in the music building hallway and the like, references in class discussions... yeah we were nerds. It was fun. This inclusion is more sentimental. If not for that it probably wouldn't be so high. The "performance" I posted is kind of silly, but it works rather well.
47. Georg Telemann - Wassermusik (Water Music) (1724)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFBwntoMNkA
I don't know what it is about Baroque composers and music having to do with water... but it happens a lot. I enjoy this music because it incorporates elements of program music, something that didn't really happen a whole lot until almost a century later with Beethoven's 6th symphony (and then really was put into practice throughout the Romantic period). It doesn't surprise me that the program music is mythology based... but it totally fits. The music sounds SO happy and care free, and just has the FEEL of water flowing. Just makes me feel happy listening to it.
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Just caught up on 50 and 49. The Mendelssohn piece is lovely, really peaceful, but therefor not really interesting in my book.
Saint Saens' piece is one I've heard a couple of times. I didn't really find a good version, I've tried a couple now, either too fast, or with wrong instrumentation. The melodies are great though.
I got the impression that I'm the only one that loves Music For 18 Musicians. I really think that's one of Reich's best pieces. The clapping music works I guess, but I always get the idea that it's a piece for students to perform. I mean it sounds so thin and easy.
I love that Telemann uses program-elements in his piece. But as soon as the Baroque-ness takes off it's over for me. Like at 4:42, all instruments performing 16ths, and I'm just in a mess of notes. I bet I'm not trained enough to hear it, but I get really turned off by that.
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46. W.A. Mozart - Sonata in Bb Major K.333 (1783)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAF0tWX53Q Mvt 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh0jhUw7eaM Mvt 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNPyUz82JZU Mvt 3
I love several of Mozart's sonatas but this is probably one of my favorites. I put Lang Lang's performance here because he has so much fun while playing (yes I know some of it is probably affected, but that's not the point)... I can imagine that Mozart probably was similar to this in his performances, especially if he was having fun with his friends. I especially like the 3rd movement with that theme being changed up several times (Mozart was a pro at this). For some it's kind of a formulaic Mozart sonata, but I like this one in particular.
45. Carlo Gesualdo - O Vos Omnes (1603)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pNln_X4rTg
Gesualdo was so ahead of his time musically; so many of his harmonic interludes and transitions were not seen again until the mid-Romantic era. But it works. So mysterious, beautiful, and tense. Gesualdo was a troubled man; he killed his wife and his lover in a crime of passion and got off; you have to think that event had some impact on his writing to some extent throughout his life. I'm just starting to get familiar with Gesulado and his works so I expect more of him to enter my top 50 at some point.
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Two choral pieces today.
44. O Magnum Mysterium - Morten Lauridsen (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ch7uottHU
One of the most beautiful pieces of music written in the last 25 years. Mysterious, but angelic. The chordal clusters just ebb and flow, the tensions and releases... work so well here. A perfect piece of music to be performed around Christmas Eve...
43. Lamentations of Jeremiah - Thomas Tallis (1569)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbczcKGgcwM
Ebbing and flowing once again, thematic material overlapping each other... you can hear the tension in this piece, and it's so prevelant from the first notes. Another beautiful piece. This is from the first setting.
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I'm not sure if we're supposed to comment... Lamentations of Jeremiah is a beautiful piece for sure. So is pretty much everything Gesualdo wrote.
I didn't know this work by Lauridsen. I don't like it. It's too easy on the ears for me, and quite cliché overall. There are a lot of great choral music written these days, and I think a lot of it is much more interesting than this.
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I prefer Lux Aeterna to O Magnum Mysterium. You're right though, Lauridsen is some of the best music post 1970. Tallis is also great churchy music. I can listen to church music all day, it is so beautiful.
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I'm not sure if we're supposed to comment... Lamentations of Jeremiah is a beautiful piece for sure. So is pretty much everything Gesualdo wrote.
I didn't know this work by Lauridsen. I don't like it. It's too easy on the ears for me, and quite cliché overall. There are a lot of great choral music written these days, and I think a lot of it is much more interesting than this.
Comment away. I can see how one can see it being cliche; I just think it encompasses the text very well in a much different way than many others (esp in the Renaissance era).
As far as today's choral music, there is so much and it's so varied that I think most people would cater to some choral music in some way.
I prefer Lux Aeterna to O Magnum Mysterium. You're right though, Lauridsen is some of the best music post 1970. Tallis is also great churchy music. I can listen to church music all day, it is so beautiful.
Lux Aeterna is good too. In fact there is a lot that he has written that I enjoy. I am going to do a top 25 or top 50 choral pieces at some point similar to this (but without the honorable mentions) and Lauridsen will be represented.
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Two choral pieces today.
44. O Magnum Mysterium - Morten Lauridsen (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ch7uottHU
One of the most beautiful pieces of music written in the last 25 years. Mysterious, but angelic. The chordal clusters just ebb and flow, the tensions and releases... work so well here. A perfect piece of music to be performed around Christmas Eve...
YES! Love this one. Performed it at least twice with the select chorale in college. On the tension/release comment, there is one dissonant note the altos hit a couple of times that just about makes my knees buckle every time I hear it. Then the crescendo into the resolve is just masterful.
I will say that the rendition you linked is not one of my favorites, however. It's a bit too "in your face" and a bit too, I don't know, proper? Is that the right term? It seems too overly pronounced and has too much flair or ornamentation in style. I like it better starting and ending as a whisper and being much more "mysterious".
There is an arrangement of this for a brass choir that is quite spectacular as well.
Will we see any other contemporary choral composers on the list by chance?
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42. Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXy50exHjes
Mussorgsky wrote this piece for his friend Victor Hartmann, who was an artist and an architect. He died a year before the piece was written, and to honor him, he wrote a suite of 10 movements, each movement representing one of Hartmann's works. In between the listener hears a promenade connecting the two pieces. The piece was originally written for solo piano; in 1922 Maurice Ravel orchestrated it, and that's probably the way most people hear it today (and what I posted here). The movement most people are familiar with is probably the final movement, "The Great Gate of Kiev"... the majestic theme has been used many times in mass media for everything from advertising burgers to showing pristine beauty. I imagine St. Basil's Cathedral in moonlight when I hear it.
41. Steve Reich - Piano Phase (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQdP03iYIo
I promise this will be the last phasing piece I post :lol. But seriously, when I first heard this piece I was like... what...? And then hearing the melody pull apart and create a new version of harmony and rhythm just always draws me in, almost like a tension/release of a renaissance piece. It does get monotonous for a lot of people, but I hear the rhythm and harmony break through each "phase". This particular performance is especially impressive because it's by one performer (Mr. Reich was in the audience)... do you understand the control you need to play this piece by yourself!?! Man....
***Keep following this post... I'm trying to control myself from posting any more than 2 at a time, at least right now... but I may post more than two if I know I'm going to be busy or unable to post; usually that happens on Mondays as well as weekends (especially next weekend, as my daughter's birthday party is next Sunday... plust with the Cubbies in the NLCS who knows if I'll have time to post on THOSE nights). I'm going to keep posting 2 at a time until I get to the top ten.
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I know most people's favorite movement on Pictures at an Exhibition is The Great Gate of Kiev, but there's something about the down-to-earth nature of Bydlo that makes me like it more than any other part of the piece.
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40. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Sonata #14 in C#minor (Moonlight) (1801)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNtm3O4bfz4
spoilers - the other beethoven piano sonata is #14 ::)
You called it, Lucien... the piece speaks for itself. Everyone knows the 1st movement, but I love the complexity of the 3rd as well. The stark contrast between movements.... the first is the dark, mysterious nature of the moon. The second is the playful, light, and fun part of the moon. The third is the vengeful, angry part. (On the recording... I've only played the first movement, but I prefer it a little slower; however, I think Beethoven's written tempo is more like what's shown)
39. William Byrd - Mass for 5 Voices (1594)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZSB0WTyIrg
Byrd was probably Britain's most prolific composer during the Renaissance. He completed several masses; his two most well known are Mass for 4 voices and Mass for 5 voices. I performed the Agnus Dei in college and fell in love with it immediately. Keep an ear open at the opening theme for the Kyrie... it comes back at the beginning of the Agnus Dei (standard practice for the time) So serene... and then BOOM... and then falls back... so often.
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40. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Sonata #14 in C#minor (Moonlight) (1801)
You called it, Lucien... the piece speaks for itself. Everyone knows the 1st movement, but I love the complexity of the 3rd as well. The stark contrast between movements.... the first is the dark, mysterious nature of the moon. The second is the playful, light, and fun part of the moon. The third is the vengeful, angry part.
Except the subtitle "moonlight" was given by the german poet Ludwig Rellstab five years after Beethoven's death... the piece has nothing to do with the moon at all. We should listen to it without these kind of imagery in mind, because they overshadow the true nature of the pieces (like several other classical pieces which have been nicknamed with no reason by others people than the composer).
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40. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Sonata #14 in C#minor (Moonlight) (1801)
You called it, Lucien... the piece speaks for itself. Everyone knows the 1st movement, but I love the complexity of the 3rd as well. The stark contrast between movements.... the first is the dark, mysterious nature of the moon. The second is the playful, light, and fun part of the moon. The third is the vengeful, angry part.
Except the subtitle "moonlight" was given by the german poet Ludwig Rellstab five years after Beethoven's death... the piece has nothing to do with the moon at all. We should listen to it without these kind of imagery in mind, because they overshadow the true nature of the pieces (like several other classical pieces which have been nicknamed with no reason by people other than the composer).
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OH YES I FUCKING LOVE SONATA #14. The first movement is my favorite piano piece by any composer, and learning it was tough (for a beginner I mean), but playing it, surreal. A dark, sad and very emotional song that doesn't get played with enough passion imo. At least most interpretations I've heard sound way too flat.
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Re. Pictures at an Exhibition:
Over the last 18 months or so, I've been looking into different orchestrations of Pictures besides Ravel's. This started when I purchased a "compilation" version, where each movement is orchestrated by a different composer. Since then I have bought recordings of the work arranged by Sir Henry Wood (founder of the world-famous BBC Proms concerts) and Peter Breiner. It is fascinating to hear music I am already familiar with, but dressed in different orchestral clothes. For example, in Catacombae, Wood adds bass drum rolls, tam-tam strikes and deep organ pedal notes to Ravel's heavy brass. Also, the ending of The Great Gate of Kiev works much better and is much more powerful when the full organ joins the orchestral forces.
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Re. Pictures at an Exhibition:
Over the last 18 months or so, I've been looking into different orchestrations of Pictures besides Ravel's. This started when I purchased a "compilation" version, where each movement is orchestrated by a different composer. Since then I have bought recordings of the work arranged by Sir Henry Wood (founder of the world-famous BBC Proms concerts) and Peter Breiner. It is fascinating to hear music I am already familiar with, but dressed in different orchestral clothes. For example, in Catacombae, Wood adds bass drum rolls, tam-tam strikes and deep organ pedal notes to Ravel's heavy brass. Also, the ending of The Great Gate of Kiev works much better and is much more powerful when the full organ joins the orchestral forces.
Yeah before I did this I relistened to Mussorgsky's original piano version... It was interesting but just lacked the depth that I would expect from Mussorgsky (I mean the wall of sound as was his music; I sang a chorus from Boris Gudonov in college and I LOVED it). I should check out some of the other orchestration arrangements.
URRRG did I really just post today? That's how long my day was... I want to post 37 and 38 :lol
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I happen to think the original version is much better and much more interesting than any orchestration, and that Ravel's orchestration is an overblown travesty of the original work :D.
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38. George Frederic Handel - Zadok the Priest (1727)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcfR4utkASo
This was originally composed for the coronation of George II, and has been sung at every coronation since... so we haven't heard it in that regard since Queen Elizabeth II was coronated forever ago. I've sung it a few times, and yes the regality is totally there (singing about King Solomon, rejoicing, etc). The hallelujah, amen, repetition does seem to go on and on, as is the case of Handel sometimes, but every time it is sung it is JUST different enough to maintain interest (at least in my opinion).
The video I have here is sung in Westminster Abbey, probably where this was sung the first time, and where Handel is buried, so I think it's appropriate.
37. Carl Orff - Carmina Burana (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBG_FeITBY
EVERYONE knows the O Fortuna. Get past that and you get a very secular, earthy, piece in 4 parts... the first part is about Spring, the second part is about the Meadow, the third part is about men in a Tavern (including a countertenor drunk!), and the fourth part is about two people having sex (yes, that is correct... the guys singing veni veni venias meaning come come come and then the soprano soloist singing dulCIIIIIISIME (so sweet) so high... you know what's happening there! :angel:)
Anyways, I love this piece, and it's so much fun to perform.
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I can't stand Carmina Burana. It wouldn't be much if it was only the cheap rip-off of "Les noces" by Stravinsky that is it, but it's also a piece linked to the nazi ideology, written by a composer who tried as much as he could to please the nazi regime. The fact that, at the end of the war, he tried to pass as a resistant when a was collaborator doesn't play in his favor. The "fun" of this piece is a tainted one. Despicable piece.
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48. Steve Reich - Clapping Music (1972)
:clap:
Nice one! I have a similar story regarding this one :)
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38. George Frederic Handel - Zadok the Priest (1727)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcfR4utkASo
This was originally composed for the coronation of George II, and has been sung at every coronation since... so we haven't heard it in that regard since Queen Elizabeth II was coronated forever ago. I've sung it a few times, and yes the regality is totally there (singing about King Solomon, rejoicing, etc). The hallelujah, amen, repetition does seem to go on and on, as is the case of Handel sometimes, but every time it is sung it is JUST different enough to maintain interest (at least in my opinion).
The video I have here is sung in Westminster Abbey, probably where this was sung the first time, and where Handel is buried, so I think it's appropriate.
good stuff. I've sung this a few times as well. VERY REGAL!
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I can't stand Carmina Burana. It wouldn't be much if it was only the cheap rip-off of "Les noces" by Stravinsky that is it, but it's also a piece linked to the nazi ideology, written by a composer who tried as much as he could to please the nazi regime. The fact that, at the end of the war, he tried to pass as a resistant when a was collaborator doesn't play in his favor. The "fun" of this piece is a tainted one. Despicable piece.
I'm playing devil's advocate here, but if he had written music not pleasing to the Nazis, he probably would have been arrested, especially since it was his first major success. I wonder how many people "agreed" with the Nazi philosophy out of fear. I don't see how it's linked to the Nazi ideology at all, since it's based on a medieval work, and the subject matter I believe is still relevant today.
As a music teacher I'm always going to defend Orff, because his pedagogy in elementary music education is still used widely today, and given the resources I love teaching it.
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I'm playing devil's advocate here, but if he had written music not pleasing to the Nazis, he probably would have been arrested, especially since it was his first major success. I wonder how many people "agreed" with the Nazi philosophy out of fear.
Many composers chose to flee the country. Some other stayed, like the much greater composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Orff wasn't jew, he didn't risk much as long as he refuted his modernistic tendancies" (to quote the Music and the holocaust website : "Choosing to forget all associations with Jewish, leftist, or modernist artists, Orff emphasised his hatred of jazz music and the atonality of Schoenberg and his disciples, and emphasised his own sincere and deep-seated appreciation of folk music.") Carl Orff didn't agreed with the Nazi Regime out of fear. While probably not a nazi himself, he had many high-ranking nazi relations, and chose to go along because it was convenient.
I don't see how it's linked to the Nazi ideology at all, since it's based on a medieval work, and the subject matter I believe is still relevant today.
To quote the Music and the holocaust website again : "Despite its exotic sounds and sexual themes, [Carmina Burana] came to be perceived as 'a celebration of the power of an uninterrupted life instinct' and its elemental melodies and rhythms were said to bear witness to 'the indestructible and always re-emerging power of the ways of the common people'."
This is a little bit too general, because it goes farther than that. The piece pretty much has everything the nazi regime was looking for : a simple and rough music, with simple rhythms and melodies akin to military music, with emphasis on pseudo-folk music and ritualistic expression, with on top of that a kind a fascination for a fantasized roman antiquity. It's ready-made music for fascists.
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Couldn't you say that about any kind of nationalistic music though? I mean I doubt Orff was like "ooooo I'm going to write this because the Nazis will love it!" Now his reaction when they did (to basically disassociate himself from previous works), ok I can see your point.
When I hear it though I don't think Naziism I think of that raw earthly human emotion, and if that's what nazis ironically embraced (let's embrace our past while getting rid of a huge part of it), that sucks.
This is about the piece in itself, not the overly played O Fortuna.
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I'm really loving how you have so much choral music in your list. Moonlight Sonata is nice, but I think it illustrates how I've never been that taken with solo piano. Just about the only thing I like where there is one type of 'instrument' is choral music. There is something so special about it. I wish I could put into words what that is, but it just evokes so much more emotion than any musical instrument can to me. The Byrd mass is wonderful, as is the Handel. Of course Carmina Burana is nice, but as a whole I've always thought it was not engaging, there's only a few of the movements that I like. As a kid O Fortuna was amazing to me.
I don't remember hearing this particular Handel before, but that big chorus with the big organ is great! So joyous and grand. Thanks for including it on your list.
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Couldn't you say that about any kind of nationalistic music though?
I don't think so. I don't hear anything of that in Sibelius' music, for example, even in his most bombastic pieces. There are many ways to be "nationalistic". It's a thing to emphasize the nationalistic values of a country, it's another to emphasize (by will or by chance) the ones of the most hateful regime of all times. I think Carmina Burana is tainted. Not only the context of the times it was written in can't be forgotten, but the context marked the piece to my ears.
I mean I doubt Orff was like "ooooo I'm going to write this because the Nazis will love it!"
That part is actually unsure, as Orff lied at the end of the war to appear as an anti-nazi. I don't think he changed his style to fit in the esthetical needs of the regime, but the guy wasn't a great moral figure to begin with.
When I hear it though I don't think Naziism I think of that raw earthly human emotion, and if that's what nazis ironically embraced (let's embrace our past while getting rid of a huge part of it), that sucks.
"Raw earthly human emotion" definitely echoes the "blood and soil" nazi ideology to me.
On another hand, do you know Stravinsky's Les Noces, Bartok's Cantata profana and three village scenes or Britten's Our hunting fathers? In a kind of similar style, I think they are much better works than Carmina Burana.
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I have not heard those pieces, but I know Bartok was a huge advocate of maintaining and saving folk music in his own country and implementing it into his music.
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36. J.S. Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in d minor BWV 1043 (approx 1720)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wapqrTbs-S8
The first movement of this piece is probably the most well known, but the piece as a whole is probably one of the most pristine examples of music of the Baroque era. The melody interweaves back and forth between the two violins. I got to see this performed by Hilary Hahn and Victor Yampolsky while working at the Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin (BEST. SUMMER. JOB. EVER.) and it was absolutely breathtaking.
35. Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (1944)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2R7eDwD2TY
Probably one of the most definitive pieces of American music (from arguably the definitive American composer), this piece is absolutely beautiful. Contrary to the title, this has nothing to do with the Appalachian mountains or the area in the United States. In fact, the piece is set in Pennsylvania, during a farmhouse raising (I guess in a Shaker community, alluding to the hymn "Simple Gifts" being arranged within the piece). It's beautiful, and while not set in Appalachia, that area of the country is beautiful in itself, and you can just picture "America" within the piece (which WAS intended).
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I need to catch up again, but Bach's Double Violin Concerto is :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
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I'm really loving how you have so much choral music in your list. Moonlight Sonata is nice, but I think it illustrates how I've never been that taken with solo piano. Just about the only thing I like where there is one type of 'instrument' is choral music. There is something so special about it. I wish I could put into words what that is, but it just evokes so much more emotion than any musical instrument can to me. The Byrd mass is wonderful, as is the Handel. Of course Carmina Burana is nice, but as a whole I've always thought it was not engaging, there's only a few of the movements that I like. As a kid O Fortuna was amazing to me.
I don't remember hearing this particular Handel before, but that big chorus with the big organ is great! So joyous and grand. Thanks for including it on your list.
There are several more choral works to come. Some of them are pretty well known, others are a bit more obscure, especially outside the choral world. Hope that you will enjoy what's to come! :tup
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Quick update while the Cubs game is on a commercial.... hopefully they'll come back in the next 4 innings.
34. W.A.Mozart - The Magic Flute (1791)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGGjutPf_tk
Fun opera.
33. Franz Josef Haydn - The Creation (1798)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l07oRR4u-rk
One of Haydn's finest works, inspired by Handel's oratorios.
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32. Antonín Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 "New World" (1893)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqyfEyNXQo
Heavily influenced by American music, specifically African-American spirituals, this symphony is probably Dvorak's magnum opus. He was friends with Harry Burleigh, an African American composer and arranger who was one of the earliest composers to write down African American spirituals, and Dvorak was immersed in them. This is heard in the well known 2nd movement which uses the spiritual "Going Home" as the main theme.
31. Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMVB0B1_Ts
This piece may seem cliche for some, but I think that is because this piece is used so often when talking about something masterful, or great, or timeless (that and John Williams heavily borrowing ideas from it for his music for the Olympics). The piece was written in response to the US entering WWII, and I think this work fits that theme... although I (also cliche) also think of astronauts walking on the platform... those open quartal and quintal chords just kind of scream liftoff to me.
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Ah, I'm getting behind here. Magic Flute- yeah a fun opera but not one I would put in my top 50. Mozart in general isn't very high on my list. That Haydn though is really nice.
and Dvorak's 9th only in 32nd? That may be the best symphony of all time! well, glad you have it on the list. every movement is stellar, and what an epic ending. Copland, yeah FFTCM is very enjoyable, but hmm maybe a bit short to be on a top list of mine.
still enjoying the heck out of this list. keep em coming!
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Ah, I'm getting behind here. Magic Flute- yeah a fun opera but not one I would put in my top 50. Mozart in general isn't very high on my list. That Haydn though is really nice.
and Dvorak's 9th only in 32nd? That may be the best symphony of all time! well, glad you have it on the list. every movement is stellar, and what an epic ending. Copland, yeah FFTCM is very enjoyable, but hmm maybe a bit short to be on a top list of mine.
still enjoying the heck out of this list. keep em coming!
As I was listening to it again for the first time in a long time I was like Heck why didn't I put it higher? You can probably guess a few of the Symphonies I put higher ;)
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Re. Dvorák:
For a while, the Ninth was the only one of Dvorák's symphonies I was really into, but I've recently grown to appreciate the 7th. I really need to get the first 5 symphonies into my collection. Of his other works, the Symphonic Variations are also very much worth a listen. Many recordings pair the Ninth with the Variations, so it should be easy to find one.
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and Dvorak's 9th only in 32nd? That may be the best symphony of all time!
:omg: I can think of around 100 symphonies better than this one. Then again, I pretty much hate everything Dvorak wrote, and the 9th is one of his only piece I find tolerable.
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I prefer his 8th symphony by a very wide margin. The 9th was fun to play last year, though
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and Dvorak's 9th only in 32nd? That may be the best symphony of all time!
:omg: I can think of around 100 symphonies better than this one. Then again, I pretty much hate everything Dvorak wrote, and the 9th is one of his only piece I find tolerable.
what planet are you from? ok, I'll make you a deal. you name 10 symphonies that are better than this one. and I'll tell you why they are all much worse than Dvorak's 9th.
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and Dvorak's 9th only in 32nd? That may be the best symphony of all time!
:omg: I can think of around 100 symphonies better than this one. Then again, I pretty much hate everything Dvorak wrote, and the 9th is one of his only piece I find tolerable.
what planet are you from? ok, I'll make you a deal. you name 10 symphonies that are better than this one. and I'll tell you why they are all much worse than Dvorak's 9th.
Just to let you know, I have I believe 6 symphonies to go on my list. You won't sway me on my top 2 symphonies (and you probably haven't heard one of them because it's not very well known).
There are also several symphonies not on my list that I heard long ago but haven't had the time (or patience) to listen to them again. Sibelius' first 3 symphonies fall in this category. Or maybe it's his other 3. I don't remember. See? :lol
Anyways, here are the next 2.
30. Sergei Rachmoninoff - Piano Concerto #3 in D minor (1909)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lusMu2LGIUM
I was introduced to this piece through the movie Shine and it's since become one of my favorites. Arguably one of the most challenging pieces of music for a pianist to play. It's a beast.
29. Eric Whitacre - Sleep (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4AlcQeaf0
Whitacre originally set this piece to the poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost; however, after the premiere the Frost estate said he couldn't publish it (he never secured permission, and literally months before finishing the piece the estate stopped allowing composers to compose music using his poems until they entered public domain). He asked his friend Charles Anthony Silvestri to write new lyrics that encompassed the theme of the Frost poem while maintaining originality and this was the result. I love this piece. So much.
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:tup @ rach 3
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what planet are you from? ok, I'll make you a deal. you name 10 symphonies that are better than this one. and I'll tell you why they are all much worse than Dvorak's 9th.
So, I need to name consensual symphonies? Let's do a little mix up.
Mahler 6 (or 9)
Sibelius 7 (or 3, or 6, or 2)
Ives 4
Shostakovich 8
Mozart 41
Lutoslawski 3
Beethoven ?? (name the one you prefer)
And I'm gonna name three symphonies I don't particularly like, but still think are better than Dvorak's 9th and are consensual choices, just for the sake of the argument :
Bruckner 9 (or 7 or 8)
Tchaikovsky 5 (which I think is stronger than the more famous 6th, but you can say 6th if you prefer)
Brahms 4 (or 1 or 2 or 3, you get the idea)
Plus, as some others have said earlier, Dvorak's 7th and 8th could be considered superior to his 9th.
And I haven't even named my favorite symphonies.
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Ives! I haven't heard his symphonies. Perhaps it is time for a listen... I do like Ives music just because it was so interesting... It was so ahead of its time. However I'm not familiar enough with any one specific work to include it on this list.
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His first symphony is a student work, in a Dvorakian style. The second is more personnal, but still a transitional work. The third is a curious one, quite hard to grasb. In it, Ives atempted to simplify the polytonal/atonal/mashup/crazy style he was developing at the time. The two masterpieces are the Holidays Symphony and the fourth symphony. The Holidays Symphony has still some romantic aspects while dwelving into high experimentation, and contains some of the most beautiful music ever written. The fourth is a more intellectual and modernist construction - that is why it is generally considered a stronger piece than the Holidays (that and the fact that the second movement is the most complex and insane movement Ives ever wrote, and that the last one is one of the greatest example of a perfect combination of high modernism and beauty (Ives considered his best piece ever)).
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what planet are you from? ok, I'll make you a deal. you name 10 symphonies that are better than this one. and I'll tell you why they are all much worse than Dvorak's 9th.
So, I need to name consensual symphonies? Let's do a little mix up.
Mahler 6 (or 9)
Sibelius 7 (or 3, or 6, or 2)
Ives 4
Shostakovich 8
Mozart 41
Lutoslawski 3
Beethoven ?? (name the one you prefer)
And I'm gonna name three symphonies I don't particularly like, but still think are better than Dvorak's 9th and are consensual choices, just for the sake of the argument :
Bruckner 9 (or 7 or 8)
Tchaikovsky 5 (which I think is stronger than the more famous 6th, but you can say 6th if you prefer)
Brahms 4 (or 1 or 2 or 3, you get the idea)
Plus, as some others have said earlier, Dvorak's 7th and 8th could be considered superior to his 9th.
And I haven't even named my favorite symphonies.
maybe you should name your favorites then. cuz none of these is close, not by a long shot. Beethoven's 9th and Tchaikovsky's 5th you could at least make the argument for. It's not that these are bad composers. Mahler 1, Sibelius 1, sure those are great. Brahms and Bruckner though, I can go the whole rest of my life and not listen to them again. I mean I have opinions on all of these but I"m not gonna spend an hour just to type it up.
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Ah yes, Sleep. Whitacre has many nice compositions, I"m not sure if I could pick one over the others, maybe Cloudburst, but this is definitely a good choice.
Rach 3 isn't even my favorite Rach concerto but I like most of his stuff. If possible he's an underrated orchestra composer, rather than just a piano composer.
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10 symphonies I like more than Dvorak's 9th, in no particular order
Mahler 2
Shostakovich 5, 9
Tchaikovsky 5
Beethoven 5, 9
Dvorak 8
Bruckner 9
Brahms 1
Mozart 40
music is subjective though, arguing one piece is 'better' objectively than another just makes you sound really pretentious
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cuz none of these is close, not by a long shot.
and what about those pieces makes them somehow inferior?
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This is exactly the type of discussion I was hoping would happen through me posting my top 50. I'm loving this. :hat
Symphonies have been mentioned that will be on my list. Many that won't (Mahler isn't but only because, like Ives, I don't have the familiarity that I have with other pieces). And some that haven't been mentioned are.
I just got in the car to go home, so I'm gonna put on Ives 4 and check it out.
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Just finished listening to it, and wow. Loved it. Ives was insane. You were not kidding about the second movement. Bombastic brass, and then that violin solo with the quarter tone music behind it… And then all of a sudden music that sounds like for marching bands playing different music at the same time… It was absolutely crazy. Which is why I love Ives. He was always pushing the envelope, trying new things, doing things no one else had done before or who have done since. I really need to listen to more of his music.
I already have my list, but this piece would definitely be in my top 50 somewhere if I were to redo it.
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cuz none of these is close, not by a long shot.
and what about those pieces makes them somehow inferior?
I'm not the guy who threw the first grenade. Go talk to that guy.
Best way to put it is that each movement in Dvorak 9, either through melodic continuation or rhythm, maintains momentum in a way that no other symphony does. It has no "dead spots". And it's just so damn good.
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I adore Rachmaninoff’s 3rd PC.
Dvorak’s 9th ain’t bad, but it never really stood out to me so much.
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I'm not the guy who threw the first grenade. Go talk to that guy.
But you're the one that said you would be able to say why "they are all much worse than Dvorak's 9th". You just proved you were not able to do so.
Best way to put it is that each movement in Dvorak 9, either through melodic continuation or rhythm, maintains momentum in a way that no other symphony does. It has no "dead spots". And it's just so damn good.
So you're argument here is "it's good because it's good"? I've never said that Dvorak's 9th wasn't good. I just said it wasn't the best. You could said that all the symphonies I've named maintain momentum too, and most of them doesn't have any dead spots. These are just subjective impressions (I personaly think Dvorak 9th is full of "dead spots", conventional writing, melodic easines, and is overall pompous and shallow, but I wouldn't say it doesn't work). But they are all achievements in their own right, in ways Dvorak's 9th (which you could consider an achievement too) aren't. For example, as I've said, I don't like Bruckner 9th, but it does show an impressive mastery of development (which Dvorak's symphonies never does), and as such it's a great symphony and I understand why people might love it, and consider it one of the greatest symphony ever written.
Moreoever, the fact that you named Mahler 1 and Sibelius 1 (two youth works from the late XIXth century, when these guys wrote much better symphonies later) shows that you're mainly a romantic guy (and tend to like the more colorful, immediate and positive aspects of this kind of music). There is nothing wrong with that, but that might not make you the best judge for all the kind of music classical music has to offer.
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lol. snob alert!
"development" as it is used most post Beethoven symphonies, is synonymous with (wait for it, DT reference since we're on a DT forum) Outcry-type passages that don't actually add to the enjoyment of the listener. you could certainly call the middle section in that song development, but most people agree it doesn't make the song good.
dead spots doesn't mean the music just isn't good. it actually has to do with the rhythm being absent and the melody or thematic lines being absent or so obfuscated that they are lost on anyone who isn't studying the score. so I'm not just saying it is good because it's not not good.
parts of Mahler's and Sibelius' later symphonies are brilliant. I just don't think they hold together as a whole as well as the firsts. just as parts of all the symphonies you mentioned are brilliant. but brilliant passages don't necessarily make brilliant symphonies.
I'm not sure why I have to like particular music do be able to appreciate classical music in your eyes. I've listened to all the types of orchestral music from the early baroque to the avant-garde of the mid- and latter-20th centuries. I know that I don't like a lot of it. but it's not because I didn't give it a chance.
look, I don't want to keep arguing about this. it's fine to have different tastes in music. just don't go off insulting other people's tastes, especially in a place like this where you know people seek out stuff they like and are passionate and knowledgeable about it, or assume you can somehow appreciate it more than they do.
ok, reset. I'd love to see a top 50 of yours Kilgore. for real. I might not like it but I sure would read it and listen to any pieces I haven't heard before.
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After listening to a bit more Ives I've wondered why I like Ives but don't like Schoenberg and Webern and I think I know why.
Ives was unique in that within his method of madness, he had polytonality, and tonality interweaved in and out of his music. I heard references to multiple folk songs, hymns, and patriotic music in much of his music (Variations on America, Symphony #4 had "Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue", etc). It was almost as if two melodies were playing at the same time in each speaker of the stereo system (a la Ornette Coleman with his free jazz). He experimented with tonation, quartertones, bitonality, etc. Tension leads to more tension, and then a little release, when BAM it goes into a different direction. He was so ahead of his time.
Schoenberg and his contemporaries were so structured in their music that they took out tonality in the music, especially with 12 tone music. I tried to compose a 12-tone song once (piano + woodwind trio) to try and make it tonal, and it was pretty much impossible. To me, it sounds like legato playing of random notes, even though there's structure behind it. They purposely took tonality out of it, and to me that took the music out of it, so people are basically playing only for the sake of playing. There's no tension because there's always tension. There's no release because there's always release. There's no buildup, it's just there.
That's just my take of it. And believe me, I listened to a lot of Webern especially in college... meh.
OK onwards.
28. Giacomo Puccini - La Boheme (1896)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHAS7r8Pd0k
La Boheme is probably my favorite opera. There are elements of other Puccini operas that I enjoy (Nessun Dorma obviously is one of the most beautiful arias written). It wasn't bombastic and ridiculous like Wagner, in my opinion. Yes most of his libretti were basically soap operas, but with La Boheme there was a sense of realism there as he tackled social topics in the Bohemian world (which over a century later have evolved but are still very much present), such as living for art (basically choosing art before money), disease (tb in la boheme, aids in rent), and others. This is the main reason I LOVE La Boheme.
27. Philip Glass - Metamorphosis (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2inNYauU1o&list=PLD17F974B1B42858D
Minimalism again. I think this piece is beautiful. The evolution (although with similar structure) of the piece evolves until the last movement repeats the first movement. It's very slow (as metamorphosis is in nature), but it's very good, intricate, and calming. I know this type of music isn't for everyone, but I love it. It calms me down. And this particular piece I can play which adds to it.
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"development" as it is used most post Beethoven symphonies, is synonymous with (wait for it, DT reference since we're on a DT forum) Outcry-type passages that don't actually add to the enjoyment of the listener. you could certainly call the middle section in that song development, but most people agree it doesn't make the song good.
Sure, strictly speaking, it does designate the middle part of the sonata form. But that is what Beethoven changed : with him, development became more important than the thematic expositions. Beethoven is the master of the symphonic form (and of musical form in general) because he can build long cohesive works from small thematic motives which have no musical interest in themselves (see the POM POM POM POM of Beethoven 5th, it's dull to the extreme without what is coming after that - Beethoven genius does not lie in the POM POM POM POM, it lies in what he does with it). As a general term, development designates all the tools a composer uses to build a structured discourse from a musical material without recuring to non-musical material. Development is what makes a piece coherent as a whole and what allows a serious composer to build large forms. It also allows the musical material to reach its most complex and complete appereances. It is the principle of germanic post-classic symphonic writing. A symphony without development is a symphonic piece, not a symphony. I've used the term development talking about Bruckner, not because he writes long "outcry-type passages", but because the way he develops the musical material over long period of time is staggering in terms of imagination and creativity.
And development is actually what makes a piece of serious music good, at least in the germanic post-classical tradition. The main interest of the germanic tradition lies in the exploration of the possibilties of the musical material, which the development allows.
It might seems snobish, but it is the truth. This is how and why that music was written. You can listen to a germanic symphony like it was bel canto, but you're missing 98 % of it. And yes, a lot of listeners nowadays listen to classical music as it was pop music. But it's not pop music.
And for the record, Dvorak's 9th follows the Beethovenian tradition, and uses development a lot.
(and obviously, things changed again with the XXth century, with the teleologic forms of Sibelius, the integration of baroque forms into symphonies with Hindemith and Hartmann, and the mixing of the symphonic poem form with the symphonic form, but the idea of structuring musical discourse through transformations of the musical material remained)
It actually has to do with the rhythm being absent and the melody or thematic lines being absent or so obfuscated that they are lost on anyone who isn't studying the score. so I'm not just saying it is good because it's not not good.
I'm not sure what you're meaning here, but rhythm and thematic lines are not absent of these pieces. These impressions say something of the listener, not of the pieces themselves. Pop music and the culture of fast entertainement have damaged the capacity of listeners to actually hear what is going on in these pieces. At the beginning of the XXth century, melodies and thematic lines were not obfuscated to the listeners, because they knew how to listen to these pieces, they were more patient and didn't expect music to give them instant pleasure. They actually hear the music. But you can still get these habits. You don't need to know how to read a score for that.
parts of Mahler's and Sibelius' later symphonies are brilliant. I just don't think they hold together as a whole as well as the firsts.
Actually, they hold together much more than their first, especially Mahler's : his first symphonies are programatic and can be quite messy formaly, whereas 5-6-7 and 9 are much more tightly structured. In terms of form, Mahler's 6th is one of the most tightly written of the whole repertoire. A good comparison can be made between the finales from 2 and 6, which are both very long (and I love both) : the finale from 2 is a linear, almost narrative, movement, with little formal structure and little logic outside a succession of episodes, while the finale from 6 is an abstract and very tight work of developement of musical material, where thematic exposition merge with development in a extremly dense course, and as such is an absolute (and somehow puts an end) to the germanic symphonic tradition. Mahler was a great composer in the sense that he was able to switch from free-form, almost symphonic poems movement, to tightly structured sonatas forms, and at his best mix the two, giving a impression of great freedom and dramatism while maintaining the cohesion of the whole.
Sibelius is another beast, reversing the germanic way of doing things (exposing the musical material, then developping it) into a teleologic form, where the complete form of the musical material is actually exposed at the end - the musical material is actually building itself along the course of the work. It's a totally different way of dealing with structure and time.
This is not stuff you get only by reading or analysing the score : you can actually hear the formal construction of pieces, the motivic transformation, the macro and micro-structures, but it does require certain habits of listening (and good interpretations, because the best one are the ones that will make come alive these formal aspects, that will make you feel them). But when you hear it, the pleasure is only greater. The difference is like trying to read a text in a foreign language you know only a few words of, and reading a text in a language you know how to speak.
look, I don't want to keep arguing about this. it's fine to have different tastes in music. just don't go off insulting other people's tastes, especially in a place like this where you know people seek out stuff they like and are passionate and knowledgeable about it, or assume you can somehow appreciate it more than they do.
Ok, I might have sound harsh, but I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I was merely saying that Dvorak 9th is not that good, and that they are plenty of others fishes. There is so much more to classical music than the mainstream stuff.
ok, reset. I'd love to see a top 50 of yours Kilgore. for real. I might not like it but I sure would read it and listen to any pieces I haven't heard before.
I'm not sure it would be of any use. Most of the pieces I would chose would be from not very well known composers (and some almost unknown), and not accessible ones (and something like 30 % of it would being hardcore contemporary music, that I've not problem saying it's really hard to "get" unless you're a full time classical listener who is also heavily interested in the evolution of serious music over the last century).
Honestly, my top 50 would be a snobish one even to snobish casual classical listeners. :facepalm:
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Ives was unique in that within his method of madness, he had polytonality, and tonality interweaved in and out of his music. I heard references to multiple folk songs, hymns, and patriotic music in much of his music (Variations on America, Symphony #4 had "Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue", etc).
Symphony 4th has "three cheers for the red white and blue" ? This is the list of the quotes that has been identified in the sole second movement : THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER, BEULAH LAND, Camptown Races, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, Garryowen, GOD BE WITH YOU, Hail! Columbia, HAPPY LAND, Home! Sweet Home!, Irish Washerwoman, Long, Long Ago, Marching Through Georgia, MARTYN, Massa's in de Cold Ground, NETTLETON, Old Black Joe, On the Banks of the Wabash, Pig Town Fling, Reveille, St. Patrick's Day, Street beat, SWEET BY AND BY, THROW OUT THE LIFE-LINE, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Turkey in the Straw, Westminster Chimes, Yankee Doodle; Ives, "Country Band" March; Sousa, Washington Post March.
:rollin
Schoenberg and his contemporaries were so structured in their music that they took out tonality in the music, especially with 12 tone music. I tried to compose a 12-tone song once (piano + woodwind trio) to try and make it tonal, and it was pretty much impossible.
Actually, Berg wrote tonal passages with series. The serie from his violin concerto "to the memory of an angel" is actually build in a way that it allows to make tonal relations appear (with a Bach quote thrown in for good measure). It is one of the reason it is one of the rare serial works that the audience likes (that, and the subtitle).
Moreover, some other composers did write complete tonal works with series. It is very much possible, but is contrary to the whole purpose of the serie.
That being said, the "tension all the time leads to no tension at all" argument is a common one, which hold some truth. I would argue about that around here :chill.
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Maybe list a few of yours after my list is completed, Kilgore. I'm always open for hearing new music in that regard. As you can see my taste is fairly broad (with the exception of Wagner and tone row/12 tone music I'm an open book basically)
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BTW... i just did some tweaking of my list and realized that I really am not a huge fan of what I originally had in at number 26 (slipped through the cracks from how I arranged my list; it was originally Swan Lake... and while I like bits and pieces of it I'm not a huge fan of the piece as a whole), so I replaced it with the Ives. Yes, that's how much I liked it. It was amazing. And yeah upon listening to it again, 25/26 is an appropriate place for it. So you get to see that again tomorrow!
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It's fantastic to see active discussion of classical music on this forum. I'm probably more passionate about classical music than I am about rock. I certainly have far more classical recordings than I do rock album.
Great list so far, splent. :tup
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Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
This is three cheers for the red white and blue.
I didn't obviously hear all of those songs the first time through, but I knew there were several. That was just the one that stood out to me the most the first time through.
As far as Berg goes, of the three serialist "greats" to come out of that school of music, I get annoyed by him the least. I agree there is a little bit of tonality in his music. Doesn't mean I enjoy it very much. In my opinion Webern was the worst. I can't stand Webern. One time I had a friend tell a musical joke. "Here is a piece by Webern" and then she half slid her hand across the piano keys so just some of the keys played.
Actually now that I think about it that joke would work better to describe John Cage...
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I didn't obviously hear all of those songs the first time through, but I knew there were several. That was just the one that stood out to me the most the first time through.
Some of the quotes are actually very hard to hear, because they're heavily transformed. But "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" is one of Ives' favorites, he quotes it all the time.
As far as Berg goes, of the three serialist "greats" to come out of that school of music, I get annoyed by him the least. I agree there is a little bit of tonality in his music. Doesn't mean I enjoy it very much. In my opinion Webern was the worst. I can't stand Webern. One time I had a friend tell a musical joke. "Here is a piece by Webern" and then she half slid her hand across the piano keys so just some of the keys played.
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Webern, but this kind of joke actually sounds nothing like his music. Webern sounds very precise and thought-out in its randomness.
But there is more to these composers, especially before serialism. Schönberg wrote some strong tonal (but post-wagnerian...) works, and his free atonal period is generally more accessible (Pierrot lunaire, the second string quartet, the Fünf Orchesterstücke op.16) than his serialist period.
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Yeah I heard a beautiful pre-atonal work he wrote a while back; but obviously he's much more well known as a serialist.
Even his free atonal stuff has a lot of structure with tone rows and the like. He just extended that to serialism with the 12 tone technique. Pierrot Lunaire is tolerable but I can't listen to it now without hearing the goat :lol
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Schoenberg's cantata Gurrelieder is epic! Nearly two hours in length and scored for a colossal orchestra, bigger than that called for in Mahler's 8th Symphony.
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26. Leonard Bernstein - Chichester Psalms (1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yhnml4DW9g
A powerful piece by Bernstein, composed during a time when he was mainly conducting the New York Philharmonic (this and his Kaddish Symphony were the only two compositions he wrote during the 60s; both encompassing Jewish themes in the lyrics). My favorite part of this piece is the 2nd movement, where a boy soprano or countertenor sings the 23rd Psalm (never a woman - many believe Bernstein wrote this direction to give the impression that the boy David was singing these lyrics), with the women in the choir continuing.... then all of a sudden the men come in singing the 2nd psalm (why do the nations so furiously rage)... encompassing the inner struggle that many people (including Bernstein) have in regards to faith. I also love the first movement, because my favorite time signature is 7/8 (in this case 7/4, but same idea).
25. Charles Ives - Symphony #4 (approx. 1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xXv55ARtsM
Thank you Kilgore for introducing me to this. This piece is probalby one of the most complex pieces of music ever written, specifically the 2nd movement, which introduces themes from several well known works (marches, hymns, folk songs) and they interweave within each other, creating a sort of chaos... I have to listen to it again but there is a haunting violin solo in the middle of it, compounded with a quiet piano accompaniment and then SOMETHING (I think it's a 2nd piano) in the background playing another accompaniment a quartertone flat giving a very chilling feel to it.
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Bernstein is probably my favourite American composer. His 1971 work Mass is my favourite work of the last 50 years, for its diversity in musical styles, its incredible dramatic momentum and the darn catchy melodies he wrote in it. Probably not to everyone's taste, but certainly to my taste.
The Ives is definitely on my wishlist of symphonies I need to get a recording of. The 2nd movement is so complex it actually requires a second conductor to help out. There are also several groups of musicians placed in different parts of the concert hall away from the main orchestra.
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25. Charles Ives - Symphony #4 (approx. 1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xXv55ARtsM
Thank you Kilgore for introducing me to this. This piece is probalby one of the most complex pieces of music ever written, specifically the 2nd movement, which introduces themes from several well known works (marches, hymns, folk songs) and they interweave within each other, creating a sort of chaos... I have to listen to it again but there is a haunting violin solo in the middle of it, compounded with a quiet piano accompaniment and then SOMETHING (I think it's a 2nd piano) in the background playing another accompaniment a quartertone flat giving a very chilling feel to it.
There are indeed not two but three pianos, one of which is in quartertones.
There is a kind of program to the second movement, inspired by the short story The celestial railroad by Nathanael Hawthorne. The whole symphony is kinda programmatic too, with movements 2-3-4 being different "answers" to the "question" asked in the first movement.
The score is there, if you want to have a look at how crazy the whole thing is (the new edition starts with a survival guide for the conductor :lol) :
https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/symphony_no_4_perf_ed_47475
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I think Chichester Palms is an enjoyable choral piece, but far from my favorite Bernstein. I'll just say, I think the Overture to Candide is one of the most joyous 4 minutes of music ever composed. Simply magical. And of course, his West Side Story material is legendary, and I love the version of the symphonic dances that he conducts himself. Just so much energy and passion in the music that you don't get from other conductors. everyone who doesn't own the CD that has both of those pieces conducted by Bernstein should definitely get it. By far the best version of both.
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Sorry for the delay. Daughter turning 5 and all.
24. George Frederic Handel - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from "Solomon" (1749)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66XCqWkhmw
Yeah remember like a month ago when I said that I only would post works in their entirety with one exception? This is the exception. Love this piece. It's exactly how it is... the Queen of Sheba Arriving to visit King Solomon. There is an air of regality behind it, even with the repetative thematic sixteenth note motives played by the strings (which I know some people aren't a fan of, but I love it immensely). Handel is one of my favorite composers for this reason. The whole work Solomon is good, but this is my favorite. I remember singing this oratorio and being bummed when I first heard this music, because I knew I wasn't going to sing it.
23. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli (1562)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRfF7W4El60
This is in my opinion one of the most beautiful pieces of choral music ever composed. I could die in this music. When I die and go to heaven, I hope I hear this music. Seriously. It's that beautiful. Legend has it that when the Catholic church was arguing whether or not to ban polyphony in sacred music in the church Palestrina wrote this to impress Catholic scholars that polyphonic music so beautiful.
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I absolutely adore the Queen of Sheba piece. I can't tell you why exactly, but it's just good music. one of my friends played it at their wedding for the part where they walked down the aisle together at the conclusion of the ceremony, but that was a long time ago, and I liked it even before that.
And I've never really gotten familiar with Palestrina besides knowing it is nice choral music, but this suite really is great music. thanks for introducing me to it!
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22. W.A. Mozart - Symphony No. 40 (1788)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzBwa2jI1Oc
Mozart's last three symphonies were some of his defining works, and from the opening familiar themes of the first movement, from the frenzied last movement. One of my favorites.
21. Philip Glass - Mad Rush (1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q0G0-9E5SE
The piece starts off simply... left hand plays eighth notes, then the right hand enters, playing eighth note triplets against that, creating an odd calmness about it... until after a few repeats of that main phrase.... quick arpeggiated chords with odd meters playing in opposite directions... oddly maintaining that calmness amongst the frenzy... which yes it repeats a LOT... this is Glass' MO... but for some reason it keeps me interested.
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And I've never really gotten familiar with Palestrina besides knowing it is nice choral music, but this suite really is great music. thanks for introducing me to it!
If you enjoy that, check out (this doesn't include one other Palestrina piece that's later in my list):
Super florina Babylonis
Stabat Mater
Exultate Deo
Hodie Christus Natus Est
Vineam Meam Non Custodivi
And his other Missas (Masses)
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20. Sergei Rachmoninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (1934)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL5aiUKPt3Q
This piece is great. The whole piece is good, but obviously my favorite (and most people) is the 18th variation (if you don't know, watch Groundhog Day)... I found a recording of Rachmoninoff performing it with Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski and while the quality isn't the best, obviously you know it's going to be good.
19. J.S. Bach - Brandenburg Concertos (1721)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCPM8DEsvmc
I was torn. I love all of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, but I couldn't pick just one, so I decided to pick them all. These constitute some of the best music of the Baroque era. There are parts of all of them that I LOVE and parts that I enjoy but aren't my favorites, so I just like them all. I posted them all here, and indicated my favorite movements of them. Enjoy them all if you have some time.
Concerto 1 in F major - Mvt. I, Mvt. III (this one is probably my 2nd favorite)
Concert 2 in F major - Mvt. III
Concert 3 in G major - Mvt I, Mvt. III (this one is probably my favorite)
Concerto 4 in G major - Mvt. I
Concerto 5 in D major - Mvt. I, Mvt. III (I like this one especially as well... see how hard this is for me!?!)
Concerto 6 in Bb major - Mvt. III
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ooh 2 updates to get caught up on. And great choices. a Mozart symphony is a Mozart symphony. eminently listenable but nothing that thrills me. good music to work to.
that Glass is very good. I haven't heard that piece before. In general I am a Glass fan but haven't looked into his works deeply.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is Rach's best concerto. yeah I'm gonna call it a concerto like a lot of people do. The theme in the 18th is of course sublime. What can you say about a perfect melody? As a whole since it's a condensed version of a concerto I like it better, as you can tell from the recent discussion I'm not a fan of excessive development.
And Brandenburg Concertos! Loved these since I heard Carlos' Switched on Bach as a 6-year old. (If I remember it's the 3rd, and then I learned the rest later.) The 3rd is still my favorite though.
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18. Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (1880)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8
Tchaikovsky wrote this in honor of Russia holding off Napolean's attempted invasion in 1812. Here it is presented in his authentic vision with the bells and the cannons... so don't turn it up super high if you are wearing headphones.
17. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Symphony #5 (1808)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POVjeuef0RY
Yes... Symphony #5 is this low... This was in my opinion where Beethoven jumped into greatness (not that he wasn't great already... but he kind of jumped to the next level of greatness)... this is probably one of the definitive pieces of music for anyone to listen to who isn't familiar with classical music. And it's not even my favorite by him as you will see.
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I am fine with the placement of this symphony
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Love both of those. 1812 Overture is actually the piece through which I was introduced to classical music almost 4 years ago.
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Two pieces that were vital in my introduction to classical music. 1812 was the first work that introduced me to it, and my first major purchase was the complete Beethoven symphonies in a 6-disc boxed set.
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I hate saying this, because I try not to be snobby about things. but 1812 is a piece that I've grown tired of and don't enjoy much anymore. It is probably because it is overplayed though. I just can't take myself back to being a kid and liking it again though, I've tried. But kid me loved this piece.
And Beethoven's 5th, I have to say I love the first movement, but after that it's sort of meh. I've tried so much to like it because everyone says it's so good, but again, after the first movement I can leave it alone. But that first movement is gold.
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Two pieces that were vital in my introduction to classical music. 1812 was the first work that introduced me to it, and my first major purchase was the complete Beethoven symphonies in a 6-disc boxed set.
I did EXACTLY the same :lol
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And Beethoven's 5th, I have to say I love the first movement, but after that it's sort of meh. I've tried so much to like it because everyone says it's so good, but again, after the first movement I can leave it alone. But that first movement is gold.
For me, the first movement has been overplayed, so I enjoy the other movements far more (except the second movement). The transition between the third and fourth movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQFJ1YpFaI&t=4m35s) of that symphony is one of my favorite moments in all of music. Of that symphony, the finale is my favorite movement, and I respect the third movement for giving us double bassists such a hard time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQFJ1YpFaI&t=1m52s).
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If it's alright with other people, I'd like to do a list after Splent is done - though be warned, it's probably going to be 90%+ of vocal music, either a cappella or in conjunction with instruments.
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Colour me excited!
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If it's alright with other people, I'd like to do a list after Splent is done - though be warned, it's probably going to be 90%+ of vocal music, either a cappella or in conjunction with instruments.
:tup
I was going to do my own choral music list but do it! I'm always up for hearing some choral music. And by the way more of it is coming.
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16. Igor Stravinsky - Firebird (1910)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vch2ZpSYPRQ
The breakthrough for Stravinsky. I love this piece. The storytelling in the music is absolutely beautiful, I love the dance of Katchai, I love the ending, I love it all.
15. W.A.Mozart - Requiem (1791)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neDnpgZPPvY
Probably one of the most haunting pieces of music given the circumstances of its' writing.
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I had conferences the last two days so it's been crazy. I'll ipdate later.
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14. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Symphony #6 (1808)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2VY33VXnrQ
OK.... I may get a little flack for this but I enjoy #6 more than I do #5. It's such a sharp contrast between the two... Imagine being there the night where they both were premiered back to back... I would be floored (he also premiered his 4th piano concerto and the Choral Fantasy... MAN!!!). I enjoy the fact that Beethoven made this music programmatic, which wasn't really done for decades before Beethoven brought it back... and then it became more common. Also known as the Pastoral Symphony, it's unusual in form as it has 5 movements rather than the usual 4. My personal favorite of the movements is the 3rd movement.
13. Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune (1890/1905)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIsQPdC9YnY
I love this piece. I love playing it (I'm still learning it - Don't have much time to practice... but I can play the first third or so pretty well, until those arpeggios in the left hand kill me lol). Apparently this was written in 1890 and never published, it wasn't until a publisher came to him in 1905 that they were published, and Debussy edited them greatly as his compositional style changed significantly since then. But it's just so beautiful and picturesque.
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Firebird- Yeah a great late romantic piece. The 'action' writing in the middle Katchai section was revolutionary at the time I believe. And that ending, while I feel like I hear it a little too much, is one of the best endings in musical history, if not the best.
Okay, another Mozart, yeah always listenable, never memorable to me.
Beethoven 6 is a really nice listen. I don't think any parts really stick out to me though.
Claire de Lune is magical, especially the orchestrated version. Just like many other Debussy pieces, it makes you feel like you're floating along in a cloud. Probably only my 3rd favorite Debussy (you can probably guess the other 2).
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Probably only my 3rd favorite Debussy (you can probably guess the other 2).
Come on, Halloween is over, don't scare me like that :o.
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12. Symphony #7 - Ludwig Von Beethoven (1812)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq9Gu5N42HQ
The entire symphony is grand, but one of my favorite pieces in all music (along with many) is the 2nd movement... so powerful... so emotional... even with the simplicity of it... how Beethoven took something so simple and made it so complex is why Beethoven is Beethoven.
11. Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium (1570)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJDLQZWKWe8
(BTW the King's Singers... one of my impossible dreams is to sing with this group. There are other recordings of full choirs not overdubbing but I've always loved the King's Singers (I want to be that countertenor) so I chose this rendition)
Now THIS was revolutionary. 40 part vocal music. No lie. 40 parts. I've ALWAYS wanted to perform this piece. Hope I get to soon. Now, even though all 40 parts do get to sing together a few times during the song, it's actually 8 choirs of 5 voices and they play off each other throughout the first part of the song, going through all eight parts, eventually culminating in the middle of the piece (and then again at the end). There is somewhere an exhibit where this piece is performed in an art gallery using speakers... I want to say it's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
And with that I've reached the top 10!!! Starting tomorrow (or when I get to posting it) I'll post only one piece at a time.
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Big fan of both Beethoven symphonies listed recently. The Sixth is an oasis of calm amidst Beethoven's generally turbulent symphony cycle. For instance, the timpani only appear in the "Storm" movement (IV). The fifth movement has one of Beethoven's loveliest tunes, as the Shepherd gives thanks for surviving the storm. The symphony ends with a tranquil, contented feeling as the sun sets.
The Seventh is my No. 1 Beethoven symphony. The composer really puts the pedal down here, taking us on a thrill ride, particularly in the last two movements. Unusually, the work doesn't have a proper slow movement. The 2nd movement certainly has the solemnity required for it, but it's actually marked Allegretto. The scherzo (3rd movt.) is actually in 5 sections (ABABA) instead of the usual 3. Beethoven also did this with the 3rd movement of the Sixth Symphony. In fact, he plays a trick on the listener by starting to bring the B section back a third time, before 5 emphatic chords bring us home to F major.
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Love the seventh.
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Beethoven's 7th: I mean, I can immediately identify all 4 movements upon hearing them, which is more than I can say for most symphonies. And you can tell there's quality written all over them. There's no fat to be trimmed. It's excellent. What's more, it was just pushing the art form so much at the time. He was like the Beatles, lol. But it just doesn't keep me coming back.
Tallis's Spem in Alium (don't think I ever knew how it was actually spelled as I think I only heard it said by radio announcers before) is a nice choral piece. I like it, but never thought anything outstanding about it. But great relaxing and inspiring music at the same time (for me anyway).
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10. Heinrich Schütz - Die mit Tränen Säen (1648)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98uqpyQaBg
I sang this piece in a Renaissance ensemble that I was in (even though it's early Baroque, it still maintains a lot of elements of Renaissance music, although you can tell that the lyrical phrases are more homophonic than in most Renaissance music)... it's one of my favorite choral pieces... The translation is
"Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
He who goes out weeping, bearing seed for sowing
will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves."
The piece starts mysterious, sad, almost mournful (as if the singers were sowing their tears)... the reaping in joy brings a slightly more upbeat section (although in this particular recording it's not as sped up as many people take it)... and then the weeping section is overlapping weeping, in a more polytonal section... then all of a sudden bearing seed for sowing coming again with joy, the ending tempo is faster and is overall more joyful sounding finally ending on a major chord of joy. A wonderful piece. The constant tension/release that I LOVE in Renaissance music is all over the place in VERY appropriate places lyrically. I think the music fits the translation beautifully.
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Probably my favourite Schütz, certainly Top 5, and that's saying quite a bit. As the music school of which my choir is a part of is actually called the Heinrich Schütz Music School (mainly because I live in the city in which Schütz lived), we sing Schütz all the time, but so far, few to none of his pieces that I've sung have surpassed this for me.
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That surely sounds interesting and I've never heard it before.
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OMG I JUST REALIZED I LEFT OFF ONE OF MY FAVORITE PIECES OFF MY TOP 50 ALL TOGETHER... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Oh well. This will be edited. I'll do another rendition next year :lol
Anyways on with the countdown
9. John Rutter - Gloria (1974)
Pt I - Allegro Vivace "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZAOQcUQtvo
Pt II - Andante "Domine Deus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rALKnDeUTlY
Pt III - Vivace e ritmico "Quoniam tu solus sanctus" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2-EsLZ2iBA
LOVE this piece. I always end up conducting it in the car when I'm listening to it. Sorry for the three videos... my favorite version is the recording of the Cambridge Singers and the only one on youtube was in three separate videos. It's on Spotify.
The joy that comes out of this piece within the first and third movements surrounding the humility of the second movement make this an excellent sacred piece. The intensity and the fugue in the third movement with the giant crescendo to the end just blows me away EVERY TIME. Never fails. One of my favorite pieces of music.
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NICE!! Any more Rutter on the list?
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Probably only my 3rd favorite Debussy (you can probably guess the other 2).
For the record, what were the other 2?
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NICE!! Any more Rutter on the list?
No, but when i make my choral list he will be well represented. I love Rutter especially when done properly; light and straight, a la the British choral sound.
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ok cool. Are you starting the choral list after this one? I have a Rutter story, but it's not about this piece.
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Probably only my 3rd favorite Debussy (you can probably guess the other 2).
For the record, what were the other 2?
La Mer and Prelude to the Afteronoon of a Faun (I haven't picked out the order, but probably La Mer first.)
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That Rutter is something I've never heard before, but it's excellent! Yeah that last movement is great!
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8. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Sicut Cervus (1584)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mdmco61Htk
This is one of the most celestial pieces of choral music ever written. That's all I can say. I get chills and tears every time I hear this piece. Based on Psalm 42:1 (As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for thee, O God), thie piece is so beautiful...
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simply beautiful piece.
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It is indeed beautiful, but I'm no big fan of that specific version - it's too fast in my opinion.
While not a professional recording, I much prefer this version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0wBIk9-pr8 - it also includes the second part of the piece that, for me, is just as essential as the first and just as brilliant; I've never performed them apart and I don't think I would ever want to.
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7. George Frederic Handel - Water Music (1717)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcknsYVgdkM
The recording also have Music for the royal fireworks, but I love this. This is a great piece of music from one of my favorite composers. I love the fact that it was first performed on the Thames back almost 300 years ago. I wish I as there for it.
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6. Antonio Vivaldi - Four Seasons (1723)
SPRING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enl_2-LwFOk
SUMMER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4W2DhUHzV8
AUTUMN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSM-mzRljP0
WINTER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHMq2D9rtSc
WINTER MUSIC VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syDtrOZWIH8
Probably one of the first instances of program music, Vivaldi even wrote poems to go along with each movement. I think his music compliments the poems perfecty.
This was one of the pieces of music that first got me into classical music. I was obsessed with The Weather Channel at the time, and then Gil Shaham and Orpheus recorded the Four Seasons and a music video to go along with it, which aired on TWC quite often. It's my favorite rendition of the four seasons, after hearing numerous. I went out and got the CD, which came with a CD-ROM where I could watch the video on my computer (quad speed CD-ROM... remember those!?) Anyways, enjoy.
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So... Any guesses on what the top 5 will be? 😊
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Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Beethoven Symphony 9
Mozart 40
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1
Tchaikovsky 5
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake
any of those
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Mozart 40 and Tchaikovsky 1 are already used
;)
You are right about 1 or 2 tho
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Mozart 40 and Tchaikovsky 1 are already used
;)
You are right about 1 or 2 tho
I didn't bother to go through the list again ;)
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So... Any guesses on what the top 5 will be? 😊
post us the whole list to this point and we can guess
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5. Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (1913)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76eZfI5pOM
Lucien got it.
This piece was amazing. Like many, I was first introduced to this piece through Disney's Fantasia. The interesting thing about it was when Fantasia was produced Stravinsky was still alive, and when he went to the studio someone was like "Do you want to look at the score?" and Stravinsky was like :yeahright "I KNOW the score..." and the other guy was like "Well, we made a few changes..."
You can bet THAT went well... about as well as the premier night when everyone rioted... most people have heard that story. Who can blame them? All borders in music were knocked down with this piece of music. Hard not to imagine volcanoes and dinosaurs still, but I really don't anymore. This piece is a tribal piece, a sacrifice takes place during the course of the ballet... If you look there is a performance of the piece with Nijinky's original choreography (again, very tribal, part of the reason the people rioted)... but I LOVE this piece.
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So... Any guesses on what the top 5 will be? 😊
post us the whole list to this point and we can guess
Stravinsky Rite of Spring
Vivaldi Four Seasons
Handel Water Music
Palestrina Sicut Cervus
Rutter Gloria
Schutz Die Mit Traenen Saen
Beethoven's 7
Tallis Spem In Alium
Debussy Clair De Lune
Beethoven's 6
Mozart Requiem
Stravinsky Firebird
Beethoven's 5
Tchaik 1812
Rach Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (All? 1 at a time?)
Glass Mad Rush
Mozart 40
Handel Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli
Ives 4
Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Glass Metamorphosis
Puccini La Boheme
Whitacre Sleep
Rachmoninoff Concerto 3
Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Dvorak 9
Haydn Creation
Mozart The Magic Flute
Copland Appalachian Spring
Bach Double Violin Concerto
Orff Carmina Burana
Handel Zadok The Priest
Byrd Mass in 5 voices
Beethoven Sonata 14 (moonlight)
Reich Piano Phase
Mussorgsky Pictures
Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah
Lauridsen O Magnum
Gesualdo O Vos Omnes
Mozart Sonata K333
Telemann Water Music
Reich Clapping Music
Saint Saens Danse Macabre
Mendelssohn Elijah
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The Rite of Spring would probably be my #2 or #1.
Some more guesses:
Shostakovich 5, 7
Mahler 2
Saint-Saens 3
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The Rite of Spring would probably be my #2 or #1.
Some more guesses:
Shostakovich 5, 7
Mahler 2
Saint-Saens 3
I will be honest, I'm bad, I'm not familiar enough with Shostakovich or Mahler to include them on the list (I've heard the pieces, but not enough to be blown away or remember them... it was a LONG time ago too... I may ask people to do a recommend thread after my top 50 is done). From what I HAVE heard by Shostakovich I'd probably enjoy them immensely.
A preview of what's to come:
1. Most people have heard
2. Most people have heard
3. Everyone has heard
4. Very few have heard
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I'm guessing Beethoven 9 is one of them. Having a hard time predicting the rest of them based on your list.
Yes, Rite of Spring is a very awesome piece. I will always prefer The Firebird, but it is just so evocative that I can't help but get drawn in.
And since I didn't comment on it, yeah Four Seasons is great too.
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The Rite of Spring would probably be my #2 or #1.
Some more guesses:
Shostakovich 5, 7
Mahler 2
Saint-Saens 3
I will be honest, I'm bad, I'm not familiar enough with Shostakovich or Mahler to include them on the list (I've heard the pieces, but not enough to be blown away or remember them... it was a LONG time ago too... I may ask people to do a recommend thread after my top 50 is done). From what I HAVE heard by Shostakovich I'd probably enjoy them immensely.
A preview of what's to come:
1. Most people have heard
2. Most people have heard
3. Everyone has heard
4. Very few have heard
Let's just say if you had known Mahler 2 well, it would probably be #1 on here (it's a choral symphony like Beethoven 9)
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5. Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (1913)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76eZfI5pOM
That interpretation is good for a conservatory orchestra, but is damn bland compared to the great interpretations out there... 5 minutes in and I'm already sleeping. Ancerl, Salonen, Boulez are great, but my favorite version is the conducted by Robert Craft, a great little known Schönberg and Stravinsky conductor, who worked closely with the latter but died a few days ago.
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The Rite of Spring would probably be my #2 or #1.
Some more guesses:
Shostakovich 5, 7
Mahler 2
Saint-Saens 3
I will be honest, I'm bad, I'm not familiar enough with Shostakovich or Mahler to include them on the list (I've heard the pieces, but not enough to be blown away or remember them... it was a LONG time ago too... I may ask people to do a recommend thread after my top 50 is done). From what I HAVE heard by Shostakovich I'd probably enjoy them immensely.
A preview of what's to come:
1. Most people have heard
2. Most people have heard
3. Everyone has heard
4. Very few have heard
Let's just say if you had known Mahler 2 well, it would probably be #1 on here (it's a choral symphony like Beethoven 9)
I intend on listening to it soon; it's just SO LONG and I find that daunting, at least with my schedule right now.
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Rite of Spring is amazing - not sure if I prefer it to Firebird, but they are both amazing pieces of music.
Four Seasons is nice too, but it never really drew me in like Rite of Spring and Firebird did, and I'm not a huge fan of Händel.
Looking forward to the rest of the list!
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Today was crazy so I'll post tomorrow
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#4 - Leonard Bernstein - Symphony #2 "The Age of Anxiety" (1949/1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aU2Se1RHw
In 2002 I was working at a music festival in Door County, Wisconsin, and first heard this piece, and was absolutely fascinated by it; not just it's difficulty and complexity, but by the fact that I hadn't heard this piece by Bernstein before (after being familiar with works like West Side Story and Candide) and how this piece was actually program music. For my 20th century music class in college, we were required to analyse a piece and I picked this piece in a heartbeat, partially because I knew no one else would because of the fact that it's not extremely well known or performed often. I also wanted to know what was the motivation behind it, and why it was called the Age of Anxiety.
It's in fact based on a poem by W.H. Auden. When writing my paper I read the poem and then analysed the score and music. It's in fact not a direct influence, although the overall premise of the poem and the characters are the basis for the piece. The piece takes place during the beginning of WWII, where 4 characters meet at a bar and basically hit it off and become friends through the events happening in the world (drowning their sorrows, easing the pain, and the like), and each explaining their own "meaning of life" while acknowledging the others as valid (not dismissing at all)... the way Bernstein does this is through a set of theme and variations, very different from what most people think theme and variations are (he varies the melody immediately preceding the variation, and then a new variation begins based on thematic material preceding that, and so on.
The second half of the symphony begins at bar close, when the 4 are at their lowest, on their way to the girls' apartment for a nightcap, and they end up partying it up to kind of ease that grief in a mad jazzy frenzy (the most "Bernstein sounding" part of the symphony, with complex rhythms and percussion)... at the end of that, the frenzy is over... the grief is over... but the piece ends with a beautiful piano cadenza and then a triumphant return of the orchestra, Bernstein's point being that "all that is left is faith".
If anyone wants to read my paper, I can send it to you... I'm not posting it here. But I may revisit it and re-read the poem and see if any of what I wrote over 10 years ago has changed in my living experiences.
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yeah that jazzy section was pretty great. really impressed with the piano work. shout out to the guys playing jazzy celesta and harp! not sure how I feel about the rest of the symphony though. the end is grand, but the first half is a little too drab for my tastes.
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3. Ludwig Von Beethoven - Symphony #9 (1824)
Oh you've heard it. My computer is acting up (slow) so I'm not posting yotube link right now.
No explanation necessary. This symphony changed the game. And sorry for not typing much, I'm in a hurry. I'll type more with #2.
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I was never a big fan of Beethoven, but I had to admit that the 9th has its moments.
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2. George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH2PH0auTUU
This was the piece that got me into classical music. I was about 7, and I heard the theme on the international forecast on the weather channel (brought to them by United Airlines, hence why they played it)... it was like a really synthy version that I liked, and then I heard the slow section play and enjoyed it. My dad had a record of it and let me play it and I was immediately hooked.
While this piece wasn't the first piece to combine classical and jazz per se, this was the first piece in that regard to have any sort of success. It was a huge hit after being heard in NYC. In fact, the opening gliss of the clarinet was added at rehearsal after the clarinetist did it as a joke, but Gershwin loved it. He also wrote it in a hurry... apparently he was approached by Paul Whiteman to do it, and initially declined because of time constraints... then read in a newspaper that he was doing it and then heard from Whiteman that another jazz composer was going to steal the idea if he didn't do it, so he ended up writing the music (sans the piano part, which was improvised by Gershwin at the initial performance) in about 5 weeks time.
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2. George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH2PH0auTUU
This was the piece that got me into classical music. I was about 7, and I heard the theme on the international forecast on the weather channel (brought to them by United Airlines, hence why they played it)... it was like a really synthy version that I liked, and then I heard the slow section play and enjoyed it. My dad had a record of it and let me play it and I was immediately hooked.
While this piece wasn't the first piece to combine classical and jazz per se, this was the first piece in that regard to have any sort of success. It was a huge hit after being heard in NYC. In fact, the opening gliss of the clarinet was added at rehearsal after the clarinetist did it as a joke, but Gershwin loved it. He also wrote it in a hurry... apparently he was approached by Paul Whiteman to do it, and initially declined because of time constraints... then read in a newspaper that he was doing it and then heard from Whiteman that another jazz composer was going to steal the idea if he didn't do it, so he ended up writing the music (sans the piano part, which was improvised by Gershwin at the initial performance) in about 5 weeks time.
I studied this piece earlier this year, very interesting indeed!!!!....,
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If your #1 is Maurice Duruflé's Requiem Opus 9 I will love you.
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Splent said that most people had heard number 1, so it's probably not it. In the same kind of style, Fauré's Requiem is much more famous.
While it's probably a choral work, I would not take a guess.
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I don't know choral works, as a string player, so I'd be surprised if #1 was a choral work :lol
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Splent said that most people had heard number 1, so it's probably not it. In the same kind of style, Fauré's Requiem is much more famous.
While it's probably a choral work, I would not take a guess.
Verdi's Messa da Requiem then?
I have a thing for Masses.
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I don't know choral works, as a string player, so I'd be surprised if #1 was a choral work :lol
You know, it's not because you are a string player that you're forced to listen only to music that involve strings...
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I'm a guitarist, I don't like most classical music because most of contains instruments I don't play :neverusethis:
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I'm guessing it will be an early/Baroque choral work. One of Bach's Passions, maybe?
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I'm guessing it will be an early/Baroque choral work. One of Bach's Passions, maybe?
The logical choice would be his mass in B minor or either one of the passions, but I don't think they're "user friendly" enough.
:corn
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I'm guessing it will be an early/Baroque choral work. One of Bach's Passions, maybe?
The logical choice would be his mass in B minor or either one of the passions, but I don't think they're "user friendly" enough.
:corn
Right era, wrong composer ;)
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Handel's Messiah
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Gotta catch up after Thanksgiving. Beethoven 9, yeah. Rhapsody in Blue, what a great piece. Love the andante.
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Handel's Messiah
Maybe... ;)
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Handel's Messiah
This, obviously. I forgot about this one.
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Handel's Messiah
This, obviously. I forgot about this one.
Gets my vote, too! :hefdaddy
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Before I post #1, I'm going to add that following this I will be posting a few pieces I completely forgot about that should have been in my top 50, or at least the honorable mentions, including the piece I replaced with Ives.
1. George Frederic Handel - Messiah (1741)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTMJVvld9ok (yes this is the whole thing)
His most popular work today (though greeted with only warm reception when it premiered) is my favorite. I've performed this many times, and I never get bored, save during the Alto aria "He Was Despised" because it's so slow and so long... but even then it maintains my interest. I love it.
Handel wrote this over the course of about a month, although the legend surrounding its composition is debated (that he saw the heavens before him when writing the Hallelujah chorus)... he just had a huge burst of creative energy (he wrote Samson over the course of the following month, which I've also performed and which I also thoroughly enjoy). Anyways, the king standing during the Hallelujah chorus is also not known, although the practice was in place while Handel was alive. He premiered it in Dublin to help raise money for charity. It was not as well recieved in London, and he was constantly editing the piece, adding arias and taking them away, adding instrumentation, etc. By the mid 1750s the piece was around what we normally hear today.
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it's a magnificent work. I've also been part of several productions of this, specifically the "Behold, I tell you a mystery/The trumpet shall sound" air for bass.
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I've never gotten the love for this one. It's good, but it's nothing that I tend to gravitate toward for some reason. It's been a while since I last heard though and I will be seeing it on New Year's Eve, so maybe that will change my mind, after all that has happened before.
Whenever you're done splent, I'll be starting my list, is that alright with you?
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I will say, as splent alluded to for one section, there are parts of Handel's Messiah that REALLY drag for me. But the other parts more than make up for them, imo.
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And He Shall Purify.... I could listen to that on repeat for hours...
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I've never gotten the love for this one. It's good, but it's nothing that I tend to gravitate toward for some reason. It's been a while since I last heard though and I will be seeing it on New Year's Eve, so maybe that will change my mind, after all that has happened before.
Whenever you're done splent, I'll be starting my list, is that alright with you?
Go ahead whenever you are ready. I look forward to it.
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Alright, so I'm going to do my Top 50 list. splent, could you please change the thread title? Thanks.
Before we get started, a few words about my list. As I have already said, the focus will lie strongly on choral music - looking over my list, only six pieces are completely or mostly instrumental. The others are either orchestra and choir, choir a cappella or solo voice. This, I would say, is mainly due to the fact that I myself sing in a choir and therefore find it a lot easier to connect to vocal music, even though most of the music we sing (and, indeed, most of the music on this list) is sacral music and I, myself, am not a religious person at all. Not sure why that is, but anyway.
Let's get started!
50. Heinrich Schütz - Selig sind die Toten (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QoJBT7Ldlc) (1648)
engl.: Blessed Are the Dead
Schütz has never been one of my absolute favourites, even though our conductor is a huge fan of the guy and we have yet to sing a concert without at least one motet written by Schütz. Maybe it's because he's from our city and the music school of which our choir is a part of is named after him, I don't know.
Anyway, while I never loved most of his work, there are clear exceptions and this is one of them. Like most of his work, "Selig sind die Toten" features many interweaving melodies and lots of contrasts, but what seems formulaic in other works of his seems effortless and natural. The melodies here are especially strong and the contrasts between the "Sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit" and the more energetic "Und ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach" that immediately follows make this one of the most interesting Schütz pieces that I know, both to sing and to listen to.
49. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - Herr Gott, du bist unsere Zuflucht (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkvP7qhA_Y) (1877)
engl.: Lord God, Thou are our refuge
Mendelssohn has always been one of my favourite composers, and basically everything that he has ever written is amazing, but I will limit to myself to three of his works, and this is the first. As with many things written by Mendelssohn, what really makes this amazing is the simplicity in its composition and how, despite that simplicity, the resulting piece is something that seems far more than the sum of its parts. Especially the softer parts ("Bist du Gott...") stand out for their majestic alto melodies and keen use of harmonics in a way that seems totally obvious and yet keeps you engaged and interested, again both as a performer and a listener.
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Wouldn't it be better to make à distinct thread ?
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Why do you think so? What's the problem continuing this one?
48. Johann Sebastian Bach - Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgmyVC-Zib4) (1729)
engl.: The Spirit Helps Us In Our Weakness
While most of what Bach wrote for choir is a bitch to sing - and this is no exception, I've been told - it's undeniable that the end result is most definitely a joy to experience as a listener. While I like most Bach motets a fair amount, this one stands out among the others for how catchy and well-used its main motif is throughout the piece. It was also the first Bach motet that I heard, so maybe that factors into me preferring this one.
"Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf" has got pretty much everything that you would expect from Bach, so if you don't like Bach, this won't change your mind, but if you do, then you will find this motet to be abundant with elegant melodies and a great use of two choirs that interplay in a way that one choir could never really do.
47. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ave Verum Corpus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KUDs8KJc_c) (1791)
engl.: Hail, True Body
I've never really enjoyed Mozart as much as I feel I probably should, but, as with Schütz, he does have plenty of amazing pieces, and this is most definitely one of them. What makes this motet so amazing is that, unlike with many other motets, the orchestra is just as important as the choir(I know there are there versions with organ, but they aren't nearly as good imo) and it's really the union of the two that makes this such a magical piece, especially the short violin lead parts that form great transitions between the sung sections.
The choir passages are equally amazing, with the short moments of solo soprano at the end of each stanza that everything develops towards being the obvious standouts - the rest is very subdued, but closer listens reveal that it is just as interesting, and that this was most definitely the work of a genius composer.
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Why do you think so? What's the problem continuing this one?
Splent's list will kinda disappears once the thread will get big. It doesn't really matters, but each of the top 50 albums have its own thread, so why not do the same thing with these classical lists?
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There's been quite a few of this type of threads that one person takes over after someone is done - what has been done there traditionally is that the first post is continuously edited to show who has posted a list or is planning to do so in the future, and which page of the thread each list starts. I think that that worked quite well.
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My choir is working on #48. Hope we can pull it off.
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Addendum 1: Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings (1936)
https://youtu.be/CcflwUYYoXk
How could I have forgotten this one?!? Just tugs at your chest... I love it. Some may think it's a little melodramatic (particularly when used in satirical tv shows like South Park...) but so good.
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46. Hugo Distler - Selig sind die Toten (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaqKfu-MILg) (1933)
engl.: Blessed Are the Dead
Based in the same text that Schütz's "Selig sind die Toten", which appeared at number 50, this is nevertheless a wholly different piece. Much of what makes Distler's style so characteristic is on full display here, with a keen sense for intriguing harmonics and melodies that nevertheless always gel together beautifully and feel wholly natural instead of constructed is the key here.
I think the reason that I prefer this to Schütz's version (though the difference in quality is minimal) is that this feels less formulaic and a lot more organic, and ultimately this is what I love so much about most of Distler's music and about this piece in particular.
45. Gregorio Allegri - Miserere Mei, Deus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Y_ztEW1NE) (around 1630)
engl.: Have Mercy on Me, God
Oh man, this piece. If legend is to be believed, Mozart heard it during a service and then wrote it down later from memory, so that it could be published, because direct publication was strictly forbidden. I don't know how much of that is true, but if it is, then I will always be grateful to Mozart for this, because this is truly beautiful. It's a pretty simple composition, nothing elaborate, but through its constant vocal repetition, interspersed with soaring melodies, it gains a truly ethereal quality to it that few pieces can match. And while it is pretty long, I find that while listening to it, time just seems to fly by, making it feel significantly shorter than its 15 minutes. Definitely a piece that I would recommend to everyone, not in the least because very few people seem to know it from my experience, and that's kind of a travesty.
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Sorry for the long delay, I had tons of stuff to do at the beginning of December and then I kind of... forgot that this existed. Won't happen again. :blush
44. Sergei Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbbtmskCRUY) (1908)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Arnold_B%C3%B6cklin_-_Die_Toteninsel_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/1280px-Arnold_B%C3%B6cklin_-_Die_Toteninsel_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
The painting "Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin that inspired Rachmininoff to write his symphonic poem of the same name.
What fascinates me most in this piece is the mesemerising quality of its main motif and how it develops. Starting out calm and serene, it grows ever more powerful and forceful as more and more instruments enter. The build-up in this piece is great and I love how it repeatedly grows more imposing and intense, only to collapse back in on itself and for the development to start anew. Even though that description may give the impression that this is repetitive, it is really not - at least, not in the negative sense. Rather, this piece uses repetition and development in such a way that, even though the number of motifs used throughout at few, the listener is kept engaged for the entire twenty minutes that this piece lasts, and that's why it's one of my favourite works for orchestra.
43. Anton Bruckner - Locus iste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmmUJkanMEE) (1869)
Bruckner is, once again, a composer where I'm pretty picky about what of his stuff I like and what I don't. Much of his work for choir, for my taste, neglects memorable melodies in favour of interesting modulations ("Vexilla regis" and "Christus factus est" are the two that come to mind immediately), which, while interesting to analyse from a theoretical point of view, don't do much for me when actually listening to the music.
With "Locus iste", however, Bruckner hits the sweet spot between simple and memorable vocal lines yet still injecting enough of his trademark treatment of harmony to make it unmistakeably Brucker and that keeps it from becoming monotonous and derivative. Especially the middle section ("Irreprehensibilis est") is astounding both how well the melodies sound together and yet at how complex and interesting the harmonies behind them actually are. If you are not familiar with Bruckner, this is an excellent starting point, at least concerning his choir music and motets.
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I can't really comment on classical music, not my thing, but there's two #47's and two #46's, that can't be right right?
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Locus is one of my favorites.
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Is this thread dead?