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Classical music challenge: convince me.

Yonni

Yonni

Oct 31, 2016
1,893
6,597
Scotland
#1
As a European (born just outside London), classical music was all around me as a kid. Many of the rock bands I grew up listening to have stated that they’re influenced by classical. I have pretty diverse tastes now but as teenager I was very much a Rush, early Genesis, Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Zappa fan. I tried on occasion to listen to classical but never knew where to start and inevitably it didn’t move me like rock did. So what am I missing? Do I have no soul??

I was watching a German comedy on Netflix where a chauffeur chose music for the car depending on the mood of the meeting his boss had just had. That’s what I want: music to capture my mood. So, your challenge is to introduce us to classical music by mood. For example:
Sad strings, listen to...
Powerful and Angry = ...

Over to you
 
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#2
I was sent off to piano lessons as a kid, and played in the high school band, so have always enjoyed classical music. One thing I really enjoyed was listening to rock adaptations of classical music, so maybe that would be something to try.

Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Knife Edge" based on Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta
Rick Wakeman's "Cans & Brahms" based on the third movement of Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Johannes Brahms
 
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#3
I really enjoy simple baroque tunes. The melodies and harmonies are beautiful to me. Less is more when it comes to classical music.

(The same goes for Jazz. I really dig melodic Jazz.... Yellowjackets, Fourplay, etc.)

Bach, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, etc.

Sorry, I don't have mood examples off the top of my head.

That being said, like what you like and make no apologies. Most of Jaco's playing is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. And I don't care who knows it. :D
 
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#6
Yonni said:
As a European (born just outside London), classical music was all around me as a kid. Many of the rock bands I grew up listening to have stated that they’re influenced by classical. I have pretty diverse tastes now but as teenager I was very much a Rush, early Genesis, Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Zappa fan. I tried on occasion to listen to classical but never knew where to start and inevitably it didn’t move me like rock did. So what am I missing? Do I have no soul??

I was watching a German comedy on Netflix where a chauffeur chose music for the car depending on the mood of the meeting his boss had just had. That’s what I want: music to capture my mood. So, your challenge is to introduce us to classical music by mood. For example:
Sad strings, listen to...
Powerful and Angry = ...

Over to you
Click to expand...

To get you started:
Sad: Brahms - Requiem; Mozart - Lacrymosa; Beethoven - Symphony no.7 ii
Melancholy: Erik Satie - Gymnopédie; Jean Sibelius - Violin Concerto
Powerful: Lizst - Totentanz; Rachmaninoff - Variations on a Theme by Paganini; Jean Sibelius - Finlandia
 
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#7
I'm going to ignore your request for categorization (sorry), and go straight for:
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) by Igor Stravinsky.
Yes used the finale to his ballet "The Firebird" as a recorded introduction to their shows, circa 1972... so there's a progressive rock connection to Stravinsky.
Rock fans usually can relate to "The Rite of Spring" because Stravinsky used really brutal rhythm and polytonality to try to create a prehistoric vibe. (The ballet is about human sacrifice: a tribe of prehistoric Russians choose a young victim who dances herself to death.) In one famous section, the strings pound away at a chord made up of E major with E flat dominant 7 stacked on top. There are other sections where two keys collide. In the final section (the fatal dance scene), the time signature changes every measure for several minutes.
The orchestra is huge and powerful, and the orchestration is influenced by his teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov-- it's extremely colorful and exotic.
This piece is mostly known to non-musicians because a riot broke out at the 1913 premier in Paris. The modernity of the music (and choreography) was too much for a lot of people.
It's influenced many rock and jazz musicians, from Frank Zappa to John McLaughlin.
If you think of classical music as people in 18th century wigs politely dancing to minuets... this is NOT that.
My favorite recorded version is by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa.
 
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#11
A few things that might whet the appetite...

Requiem, Op.48, Gabriel Faure
Zadok the Priest, HWV258, George Frederick Handel
Symphony 10, Op.93, Dimitri Shostakovich
Sleepers Wake, BWV140, J.S.Bach
Andante Festivo, Jean Sebelius
Oboe Quartet, K.370, W.A.Mozart
Clariner Quintet, K.581, W.A.Mozart
 
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#12
Honestly, you leave a thread for a couple of hours to get the kids tested for Covid-19 and when you get back it’s all over the place!

some of these suggestions are of the few classical pieces I know and like (Pachelbel, Barber, Satie, Holst). The only one I think that wasn’t mentioned yet us Carmina Burana.

The Ring cycle? I thought that was supposed to be very long and not very accesible?

I like the sound of the Stravinsky piece and I like cello too. So I’ll give those a listen while I’m working tomorrow. Thanks fir the list too Steve. I’ll put together a playlist tonight.
No Mahler fans? A friend of mine who composed his own stuff when we were teenagers always went on about Sibelius and Mahler.

By the way, I’m pretty sure the kids just have a cold but the rules in Edinburgh are that they’re excluded from school even for colds and if they have a new cough, they need to get tested.
 
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#17
Yeah, Wagner's operas are daunting to say the least.
However, his orchestral compositions were unrivaled, and I enjoy the instrumental arrangements of his overtures - and they are very much a part of the standard symphonic repertoire.
Here are a few to get you started:



 
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#18
bass12 said:
Debussy: “Claire de lune”, “La Mer”, “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune”, the Nocturnes, etc.
Click to expand...
Not to mention, the Arabesques! :woot:



Incidentally, this fellow has made many visualizations of classical music favorites that are marvelously creative in the way the demonstrate the relationships of notes, rhythmic timing, and dynamics:

https://www.youtube.com/c/smalin/videos

A good example of how a vocal line moves along & over the orchestra is in his treatment of the "Queen of the Night" aria from the Magic Flute:



More Mozart, from the Requiem Mass;



And some Beethoven:



If that last one sounds familiar to some of you in the states, the "stings" were used in a commercial for beef products some years ago. :laugh:

Anyway, one can browse that guy's channel all day & night, and it'll be time well spent. :thumbsup:
 
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#20
I'm going to second the Planets by Gustav Holst.

I'd also add Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. It's essentially a concept album of the composer touring an art exhibition, including a recurring Promenade them that signifies him walking from piece to piece. This link has time stamps of all of the individual pieces. If you're looking for one piece that sticks out as pretty powerful and rock, I'd recommend The Hut on Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga) at 26:08, but it's all really good.

 
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