Regarding Classical Music

[Dectilon]

"Just think of any Orchestral peice: the composor had to be nothing short of a genuis just to write it! Can you envision in your head writing notes for 60 people at once?"

A while back a team of researchers made a computer that could compose classical pieces based on a large set of principles. They had it make an hour-long concert and it got very good reviews from music critics. Only afterwards did they reveal who the composer was.

It was a few years ago though, so I don't remember what the project was called etc : /

Personally I do like Classical music, but not really over any other genre. Those who claim the tunes in one genre or other all sound the same haven't really given it a chance. I'll admit I hate "modern" orchestral music, because disharmonic music just doesn't strike me as musical at all. It's more like an expressive painting that hurts your eyes, and you can't really listen to something like that for too long.

"classical music feels like it was the time when the money for the music was not the biggest gain. Today i cant really belive all rappers and hip hoppers make all there songs out of heart."

You know, a huge number of preserved letters written by J.S.Back are just complaints about not having enough money, and not being payed well enough for the work he did. Even in letters to friends and family it's very common for it to come up apparently. : )

 

[alansmithee]

I believe the word you're looking for is expressionist, and at the same time I believe that the word you are looking for is not expressionist. you see the expressionist movement followed the impressionist movement and it was not divorced from the idea's of narrative pictorial representation, though it did sacrifice pictorial use of color for emotional, expressive, use of color(though impressionism was chided in its nascence for sacrificing the precision of color for the impression of color,) sic Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rousseau, Seurat, and Matisse if you include the Fauvists. Anyway when you refer to abstract art as modern you're using a definition of modern art that is at least 60 years old, since the abstractionist we've in fact had hyper real artists such as chuck close. All this is to say when someone is trying to express themselves I find that I am enriched when I at least try to understand them.

 

[PurpleRain]

I love classical music. Most of my absolute favourite songs are classical. It can build on any emotion and most are just so beautiful and moving. Era, Ameno is one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SvxaNQ6d7M

 

[Girlysprite]

I think that one of the nice things of 'classical' music os that it takes longer then 2-4 minutes. This opens up possibilities to play with the musical themes. Modern songs consist of few themes, often 2-3. In classical music it can be much more, they can be very playful, and sometimes give little reminders of previous themes of the same piece. Its little gems that you can find when listening.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

As with all music I like classical music, however, I don't delve too deeply so what I own are a few collections from a few different composers and then I stop there. When I hear something in a movie or have something suggested I'll buy it and listen to it then stick it in a playlist for times when I don't need someone screaming in my ears.

I suppose it sort of counts with the general definition (not the band nerd definition) but I'm listening to Peter and the Wolf right now or I would be if people would stop calling the damn office.

 

[Rapid-Fire]

Classical Music is my favourite genre of music by far. I've only been interested in it for a short time (a year or two maybe) but have a pretty hefty collection of it. With my Ipod to hand, some of my favourite pieces are:

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (liszt)
Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin)
Jupiter (well, you've probably picked up who it's by by now)
Piano Concerto in C minor (Rachmaninov)
Nocturnes + Minute Waltz (Chopin)
Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven)
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (Moussorsky)

Many, many more that I can't be bothered to mention. I havn't even mentioned any Tchaickovsky, Crieg or Prokofiev, which are also great composers.

I generally prefer music from the Romantic Period, but that's not to say I don't like music from the Baroque or Classical period.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

I can honestly say this. I like pretty much all music. Sure, I don't care for the singing of pop divas, and fallout boys or whatever aren't really my thing, but I really can appreciate most music.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Anybody have a copy of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony? I got a serious jones.
And from the vibes, I think I need a few peices of Rachmaninov in my collection. I have over 28 hours of music, 18 hours of it is classical.

 

[Baroque]

classical music feels like it was the time when the money for the music was not the biggest gain. Today i cant really belive all rappers and hip hoppers make all there songs out of heart.

Huh? Musicians were part of a court's staff (as in paid staffers), and even had a bit of rock star popularity to them - check this out: http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr2003/q2/requiem.htm

Plenty of musicians were there for the pay - and many derided each other for it. There's a book they sell through the Kennedy center filled with quotes of all the great ones disparaging each other for "not being in it for the music."

Thanks

 

[Lukeje]

I believe the word you're looking for is expressionist, and at the same time I believe that the word you are looking for is not expressionist.

The 'Rite of Spring' is not an expressionist piece... It contains elements of atonality, but it is more of a 'Nationalist' piece, with it's frequent use of Rimsky-Korsakov's transcribed folk tunes. I would however have to recommend 'Petrushka' or 'Le Oiseau de Feu' (the 'Firebird') as initial listening to anyone new to Stravinsky.

Expressionism basically only encompasses Schoenberg, and those tutored by him (i.e. the 'Second Viennese School'), although Schoenberg's tonal works make good listening (check out 'Verklarte Nacht'), his 'expressionist' works (e.g. Pierrot Lunaire) take some getting used to.

 

[LividFiction]

I'm still looking for some jazz that don't make me want to claw out my eardrums, though....

Check out Miles Davis's Kind of Blue. I've heard that even jazz haters enjoy it. (Personally I think Dave Brubeck's Time Out and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme are better albums, but Kind of Blue is damn good regardless.)

 

[windfish]

I'm going to respond to a lot of posts here, but I don't feel like sorting through and quoting everyone. Hope that's OK.

For the benefit of the board, I'd like to remind folk that "classical" (ie concert) music is not a thing of the past. And I'm not talking about FF soundtracks or movie soundtracks either - I'm talking about modern composers, writing music for the sake of music. Look up Kevin Puts, Steve Reich, John Adams, Nicholas Maw...etc. People are doing different sorts of things now, like not writing outside tonal system (which has been going on for a while now, since Stravinsky and before), but it's still there.

Also, it is unfair to lump all modern classical music into the "disharmonious" label. You may be thinking of 60's serialism. Nowadays, the compositional landscape is such that there is no real stigma - you can write anything, as long as it's your music. If people like it, good for you. Comparing common practice music to hip-hop and pop is a little unfair - there's hardly ever anything harmonically interesting going on in pop or hip-hop - they are written more so people can dance to them and be entertained. Most pop songs on the radio these days, and most days, use 3 chords. That's so if they ever, at one point in the song, use a different chord, it sounds exciting. Indie musicians tend to be a little more adventurous in the music they write, since they don't have multi-billion dollar labels telling them what to do. However, hip-hop still has quite a bit to offer rhythmically, and I can think of several modern composers who admit to drawing rhythmic influence from rap.

In general, modern composers of concert music are trying to do what every great composer throughout history has done - write something new. It's tricky, because so much excellent stuff has been done. Stravinsky was a revolutionary composer because he wrote in a pandiatonic system that his audience had never really heard before. Chopin mixed up traditional progressions using the iii chord as a lead to the dominant - something unique that makes his music sound definitively Chopin-esqe.

(Oh, and the Russian Five wouldn't be writing 2 chord country songs. That's silly. They're better than that. Not that the measure of a piece is determined by how many chords it uses, but there's value in being at least musically interesting.)

OK, sorry about that. You might ask, "goodness, WindFish, why are you such a prick?" Well, I'm a music composition major, working on a string quartet at the moment. Feel free to yell at me or something now.

 

[Girlysprite]

I don't think you're a prick at all windfish, just well-informed You get me curious about the things you write though; maybe i could hear some of it?

 

[windfish]

Once I finish with my quartet, I'll send you a recording of sorts of the performance. I'd send you some old stuff, but to be honest I've learned a lot this year, and I'm not as proud of my old stuff as I used to be. If you want to hear some of it anyway, then I'm flattered. I'll update my googlepage at some point and send you a link.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I'm interested too, Windfish. O_õ

 

[windfish]

Give me some time, and I promise I'll hook folk up with recordings, or a Scorch page.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Nowandays my Classical library has grown to a ripe 21 hours. And I love it all. Some of my newer favorites are by John Williams, who writes awesome movie scores. I heartily recomend 'Bugler's Dream' [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=lwqE1QeyxM8] from the movie Munich.

 

[stompy]

Well, I'm alright for most types of music. When it comes to classical, I'm a big fan of Chopan. Though, in my eyes, nothing beats a good game score... **listens to Liberi Fatali and One Winged Angel**

 

[PureZephyr]

i love classical music but i like all types of music (though i like rap and country a little less)

 

[Wicked Glee]

Can anyone find a grander peice of music than Holst's Jupiter?

Well, some of the grandest pieces of orchestral music I know are the following (Omitting previously mentioned pieces):
Bedrich Smetana - Má Vlast - Vlatva ( http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9j8857i4ZTI , http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=RcM84dhFfw8 )
Charles Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre ( http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ_w_ZLmqAU )
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite - Infernal Dance ( http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=H4S64H4HXTw&feature=related )
Carl Orff - Camina Burana - O Fortuna (Everybody's heard this one http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=lF7_PhB9coo )