Anyone interested in classical music?

 Lots of heavyweights here, buliwyf, and a good topic for this site, as prog often looks as much (or more) to classical for inspiration, as it does to rock or jazz.

I really like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky, and wouldn't want to part with the beautiful and timeless music of any of these giants, but I gave my vote to Handel, because I really LOVE his Water Music. ( I somewhat prefer Baroque in general -- Bach is especially good!)

It's perhaps my favourite -- I have a great version, on period instruments, by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert (they're terrific) on the Archiv Produktion label. It is warm-sounding, majestic, joyful, elegant and uplifting. I want the final, triumphant movement to be played at the end of my funeral -- hopefully many years from now! Handel's Messiah is also lovely!

The first CD I ever bought, when the technology was new, was a digital recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Great music for playing Risk! Love those cannons! Go Wellington and Allied forces! Boo Napoleon! 

Peter Rideout wrote:  Lots of heavyweights here, buliwyf, and a good topic for this site, as prog often looks as much (or more) to classical for inspiration, as it does to rock or jazz. I really like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky, and wouldn't want to part with the beautiful and timeless music of any of these giants, but I gave my vote to Handel, because I really LOVE his Water Music. ( I somewhat prefer Baroque in general -- Bach is especially good!) It's perhaps my favourite -- I have a great version, on period instruments, by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert (they're terrific) on the Archiv Produktion label. It is warm-sounding, majestic, joyful, elegant and uplifting. I want the final, triumphant movement to be played at the end of my funeral -- hopefully many years from now! Handel's Messiah is also lovely! The first CD I ever bought, when the technology was new, was a digital recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Great music for playing Risk! Love those cannons! Go Wellington and Allied forces! Boo Napoleon!

You sound like you know quite a bit about classical music.  I have been addicted to it for about a year or so, but mostly I've been listening to the pre modern era composers.  Can you recommend me any good contemperary composers?  I am especially fond of impressionistic classical and the haunting works of messiaen. 

 Sorry, Buliwyf, but my knowledge of this great music is really not that extensive. I have only around 40-50 classical/baroque/medieval cds, and most of what I know about these genres has been gleaned from the CD booklets, radio, and a smattering of reading here and there. (Beethoven and Mozart's histories are fascinating!) 

The "newer" stuff (Copeland, etc.) does not really interest me much (I stop around Tchaikovsky), but I have quite enjoyed hearing some Philip Glass -- and Steve Reich (?) -- over the years. Rather minimalist, but it grows on you.

Re the older stuff, I also quite enjoy Spanish composers like Rodrigo (sp?), especially when played upon the (classical) guitar. (Every Doors fan should know Rodrigo!)

You can't always rock out! Good music for mornings, reading, snoozing and... loving!

Anton Dvorak.

Except for some of the modern / neo-classical stuff that leaves me going:

   HUH? 

 - the nice thing about classical music is that the crep has largely been filtered out and forgotten over the last 4 or 5 hundred years or so.

The composers that remain are remembered because they were the Robert Fripp and Herbie Hancock, the Keith Emerson and Miles Davis of their day.  If you can get your head around classical music in the first place, then you just have to find which ones you enjoy the most.  Much like whether Rush or Gentle Giant, or both, pleases your ears the most.

For me, though they were from different periods, I enjoy J.S. Bach and Tchaikovsky the most with the later getting my vote by a hair.  But there is at least one work by every composer mentioned that I've enjoyed.  Like the inestimable Mr. Rideout and his crack assault teams of ninja wolverines, I probably don't have 100 classical CD's in my collection (yet), but I like all that I have.

Loads of these composers are not "Classical", of course...

You've missed a GREAT cross-section of 20th Century composers, without whom prog may never have come to pass;

I refer, of course, to the likes of Stockhausen, whose almost unlistenable collages of tape are the foundation of modern music recording and sampling, Varese, who was a profound influence on Zappa, and Penderecki - one of my very favourite composers. If you can track down a copy of his "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", then I strongly urge you do so.

You may need either a strong stomach, or a taste for the very darker side of music, as parts of it are truly horrifying. Or, if you've got no imagination, very waily and screechy. But that's a philistine's opinon

Certif1ed wrote: Loads of these composers are not "Classical", of course... You've missed a GREAT cross-section of 20th Century composers, without whom prog may never have come to pass; I refer, of course, to the likes of Stockhausen, whose almost unlistenable collages of tape are the foundation of modern music recording and sampling, Varese, who was a profound influence on Zappa, and Penderecki - one of my very favourite composers. If you can track down a copy of his "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", then I strongly urge you do so. You may need either a strong stomach, or a taste for the very darker side of music, as parts of it are truly horrifying. Or, if you've got no imagination, very waily and screechy. But that's a philistine's opinon

Thanks, Cert! I've often wondered about Stockhausen.

 Once, happening to turn on the radio, I heard a full symphony orchestra playing improvisational jazz. That was the weirdest (but most interesting!) stuff I had ever heard!

Certif1ed wrote: and Penderecki - one of my very favourite composers. If you can track down a copy of his "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", then I strongly urge you do so.

As a native from Poland, I know many of its composers. Penderecki is not my cup of tea : too much "contemporaneousity". But if you like his stuff, I can recommend Lutoslawski to you, he is in the same vein. I am much more keen on composers such as Paderewski, Gorecki, Kilar or Wieniawski.

Did anyone of you hear about the following artists :

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

CHARLES KOECHLIN

CLAUS OGERMANN

GEORGE ENESCU

lucas wrote: Certif1ed wrote: and Penderecki - one of my very favourite composers. If you can track down a copy of his "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", then I strongly urge you do so. As a native from Poland, I know many of its composers. Penderecki is not my cup of tea : too much "contemporaneousity". But if you like his stuff, I can recommend Lutoslawski to you, he is in the same vein. I am much more keen on composers such as Paderewski, Gorecki, Kilar or Wieniawski.

I love the way Penderecki uses "clusters" and teeny tiny fractions of tones - really eerie! Much more imaginative than the boring composers we've had in Britain the last century or so.

Thanks for the tips on those other composers - I will check them out!

Not here bro, not here.

HMMMM I THINK I SEE A PATTERN HERE FREIND DANBO (THERES MISCHEIF AFOOT!!)

DOES THE TERM "BOGUS SUCKIN THREADS" MEAN ANYTHING?

Way to go, Danbo - your animations crack me up!!!

ehem...

classical music is were everything started for music in the west side of the world, mainly with master BACH and other early composers from the baroque era, however the great russian composers of the late XIX and early XX century are great: Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, etc., and the new modern acts like Stockhausen, Takemitsu and Arvo Pärt are great, beyond our knowledge, great poll man!!!

peace

Get Bach to where you once belonged.

arqwave wrote: ehem... classical music is were everything started for music in the west side of the world, mainly with master BACH and other early composers from the baroque era, however the great russian composers of the late XIX and early XX century are great: Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, etc., and the new modern acts like Stockhausen, Takemitsu and Arvo Pärt are great, beyond our knowledge, great poll man!!! peace

Um actually it started earlier, in the Renaissance. A composer named Monterverdi is widely credited with inventing opera in the form we know it (although he probably didn't, but that's another story...) and composers were producing full-length instrumental pieces too. This practice probably started even earlier - perhaps the middle ages or before, with groups of musicians either in the courts of the rich, or strolling minstrels. There's not enough documentation to be sure though - the earliest we have is Monterverdi and some of his contemporaries. We know that Henry VIII enjoyed music - and even published some, including Greensleeves - although it is doubtful that Henry actually wrote any of it.

Bach "merely" rationalised the whole thing and created beautiful mathematical structures of music, raising the bar several notches. Vivaldi and his contemporaries were already writing in what was essentially sonata form, the basis of "classical" music (small c) until the end of the 19th Century.

Mozart is really responsible for some of the major changes that led from Classicism to Romanticism, and even though he is still held in very high regard generally, he achieved such a huge amount in such a short space of time that his real genius in so many areas is easily overlooked. Beethoven was the colossus under whose shadow composers still live, Schoenberg and his contemporaries formulated a new mathematical method of writing music - it's really not that far out once you've got used to it - modern jazz and Stockhausen, Cage et al - not to mention PROG can be far more extreme... then there's Mariah...

 why did I start that thread

Pr@gmatic wrote: BACH

J.S. Bach,it doesn't get any better.

Bach, Tchichovsky, and Holst. But Mozart's up there too

However, one of my all time favourite songs in Moonlight sonata by Beehtoven

I really can't vote because it's impossible for me to pick a favorite, and because some of my faves aren't up there.  I love all of the 20th century Russians that robert mentioned (plus Mussorgsky!), as well as Beethtoven. 

I'm very surprised that nobody's mentioned Chopin yet.  Not a profound influence on prog, I don't think, but he's written some of the most beautiful (and challenging) piano music that exsists!

Contemporary: Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass

20th Century: Bartok, Stravinsky, Shostakovitch

Late 19th century: Satie, Debussy

19th century: Profokiev, Beethoven

18th Century: JS Bach

Early: John Dowland

Just off the top of my head.

For me:

1. Edvard Grieg (because of the piano concerto, Peer Gynt, Lyric Pieces for piano, Holberg Suite and more; underestimated composer because he wasn't doing many works on a large scale, more miniature works)

2. Sergej Rachmaninov - especially because of all 4 piano concertoes and some smaller works; too emotional and bombastic for some, but hey, I like ELP too

3. Ludwig von B. - because of his 5th, 6th and 9th symphony, his 1st piano concerto, some great sonatas ... he was well ahead of his time. I still don't understand nothing of his latest string quartets; they sound like a classic sort of Henry Cow

From most well known composers I like some works, and can't get into other works

Latest great discoveries: Sibelius' The Swan FromTuonela and Debussy's Fetes / Nuages . I'm trying to get into Mahler but I still have to acquire the taste. I love some of his stuff on the 1st Symphony though.

Tchaikovsky

Mozart a close 2nd

You know who is damn progressive? Glass- any thoughts?

Mozart

I also enjoy Brahms and some Shostakovich i've heard.

J. S. Bach, Vivaldi( I like baroqe composers ingeneral),Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky.

I have a lot to discover yet.

Bengamin Britten

This one is the proggiest composer ever been! listen to him is like listen to ELP, Gentle Giant and Genesis alltogether.

War requiem, Peter grimes, and many more

do not miss him !!

ALSO

try messian.

Recently i've been listening to Messian - Turangalila symphonie, than listen to Larks tounges in aspic by KC. The sound was quite the same! it was a treatment !