Classical Music

[Torchiere]

Classical music is pretty much the only music I listen to.

I'm very much a Romantic person, most of the stuff I listen to or play are from the late classical and Romantic periods.

I used to be really big on Chopin, like a quarter of my repertoire consists of Chopin, but right now Rachmaninoff is the one.

Some of the pieces I'm working on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6OlftugZl0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv-cz5xX4hs

[endersgame]

classical music?

wqxr is my station to wakeup to.
i like everything execpt for marchs and post-romantic...

i use to be so bad in orchestra, they stuck me in the back so the conductor couldn't hear me play..

[theetruscan]

I almost never listen to classical music. It never crosses my mind. Yet, every time I do (barring the "easy listening" Bach I hear on the Radio) it makes my month.

Years back (2003), I met a violinist on a flight to Montréal, and attended his quartet's show in some massive and lovely symphony hall. I was attending a conference and never managed to track down the name of the quartet or even the music played, but I still think about the concert.

Just recently I went to a concert where I heard Wagenaar's Cyrano De Bergerac, Tchaikovsky's Opus No. 4 and another few pieces that didn't click as well for me. Still reveling in the Opus.

And yet, despite enjoying it so much when I do, somehow I never track down classical concerts, cds or anything. I don't know why.

[fadetogrey]

I enjoy classical music, but I don't know much about it or composers or where to start. Basically I just have some Bach of my own and listen to the classical radio station every so often. Any suggestions on where to start?

[Torchiere]

The best way to start is to listen to the 'popular' pieces by 'popular' composers, however cliche they might be, they are popular for a reason, and usually the easiest to listen to.

Here are the genres ():

Early
-------
Medieval (500–1400)
Renaissance (1400–1600)
Baroque (1600–1760)

Common Practice—"Classical Music"
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Baroque (1600–1760)
Classical (1730–1820)
Romantic (1815–1910)

Modern and Contemporary
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20th-century (1900–2000)
Contemporary (1975–present)
21st-century (2000–present)

Here are the periods which Classical music are normally categorized (Thanks JoniF). To start, I would listen mainly to Baroque, Classical, and Romantic pieces.

Baroque: JS Bach, Handel, Vivaldi are easy to listen to.
Bach: listen to some of his Brandenburg Concertos, Prelude and Fugue (Well tempered clavier).
Handel: listen to Water music, music for royal fireworks, but his strength lies in operas and oratorios (I like Tamerlano).
Vivaldi: there are a lot of good violin and concertos. The Four Seasons come into mind.
There's also Scarlatti who's style is kinda in between Baroque and Classical, listen to his keyboard sonatas.

Classical: the big 3 - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.
Haydn: chamber music, symphonies.
Mozart: Piano concertos (20, 21, 23), symphonies (38, 40 ,41), violin concertos, piano sonatas, etc
Beethoven: Symphonies, piano concertos (listen to ALL of them, esp 3,4,5), piano sonatas (most popular being Pathetique, Moonlight, Appassionata, Tempest, Waldstein, Hammerclavier), string quartets, piano trios, etc. Just listen to any piece by Beethoven, they usually won't disappoint.

Will post more for Romantic later

[galia]

I stand by my statement that, if you're wired that way, the most popular classical pieces will not do the trick. Especially if you're into post-rock and experimental music, it's better to start with "contemporary classical" or modernists and move backwards

[casem]

I couldn't agree more! People make the mistake of trying to turn people on to classical music by starting with "the greats." The music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms etc. comes from another culture entirely so no wonder people don't feel a connection when they start with this music. I hate the idea propagated by popular culture and even most classical music institutions that classical music is written by dead white men, a relic of history. It's living and breathing today, and a lot of young people are studying it and making it today. Not all contemporary music is difficult listening, and if you already like experimental music to begin with, I'm sure you'll find it far more interesting than dun dun dun duuuun, dun dun dun duuuuun.

I certainly love and appreciate old music, but I think it better to make the connection with what's going on now and work back to see the tradition from which it came.

Ugh, everytime I see another Mozart festival pop up, I want to puke. OK, I get it, Mozart is great, lets give some other composers some air time now!

I stand by my statement that, if you're wired that way, the most popular classical pieces will not do the trick. Especially if you're into post-rock and experimental music, it's better to start with "contemporary classical" or modernists and move backwards

[H-R]

I only started listening to classical music when I was in college. Of course, it started with "dead white men" like Bach, Mozart, Schubert etc and then my college instructor introduced me to Eliot Carter, which I found more interesting than the bygone era classical music. These days I usually go for Eastern European composers like Penderecki, Part and Gorecki. In addition to that, I also listen to Glass and Reich, mostly minimalist stuff....

[H-R]

Here's the original thread btw:

http://stylezeitgeist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6896

It contains a lot of resources and overview to help people start on classical music

[tweeds]

I couldn't agree more! People make the mistake of trying to turn people on to classical music by starting with "the greats." The music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms etc. comes from another culture entirely so no wonder people don't feel a connection when they start with this music. I hate the idea propagated by popular culture and even most classical music institutions that classical music is written by dead white men, a relic of history. It's living and breathing today, and a lot of young people are studying it and making it today. Not all contemporary music is difficult listening, and if you already like experimental music to begin with, I'm sure you'll find it far more interesting than dun dun dun duuuun, dun dun dun duuuuun.

I certainly love and appreciate old music, but I think it better to make the connection with what's going on now and work back to see the tradition from which it came.

Ugh, everytime I see another Mozart festival pop up, I want to puke. OK, I get it, Mozart is great, lets give some other composers some air time now!

i think maybe the trick is selecting pieces and performers of a particular composer. as far as post-rock goes, there are bits of the goldberg variations, and beethoven's symphonies and chamber writing that are remarkably modern in their use of harmony and texture...

certainly i wouldn't ask a krautrock fan to listen to the brandenburg concertos, but instead of going with the easy temporal categories, i'd just make a mixtape of all sorts of things i link to it, bach till glass!

[H-R]

How about Penderecki, Xenakis, Charlemagne Palestine for drone metal fans?

[galia]

My point exactly. Everyone knows those "best loves" classical pieces. If they haven't drawn you in, you need something else. It's pointless to say "listen to mozart's requiem or ravel's bloero" to someone who's heard them a million times and still doesn't feel that he gets or likes classical music

[tweeds]

oh, and not entirely related but i saw Amiina (string quartet on Sigur Rós' Ágætis byrjun album) play in a church last night, fucking ethereal. a perfect melding of strings, 'found' objects, and electronic loops. they were soundtracking two of lotte reiniger's silhouette animations.

[todestrieb]

How about Penderecki, Xenakis, Charlemagne Palestine for drone metal fans?

One word: Dumitrescu



Drone metal ain't got nothing on this.

[Mail-Moth]

I really began to listen to classical music a few years ago, and now I can't find satisfaction in anything else. It is not some kind of snobism - at least I hope it is not. It is simply that my personal clock slowed down. I hear seconds of sound rather than minutes now, and there are compositions that I love for a few notes that, to me, represent more than enough.

Maybe Glass, Reich, Gorecki and Part - that I used to listen compulsively when I was still studying, along with bunches of slow/sad/whatever-core I can't physically stand today - introduced me to the "dead white men", I don't know. Most probably. But curiously I feel like I will never be able to go back to them, because the language they're speaking is far too familiar. The things they're telling belong to the world I've grown in, when ancient composers appear to me as exotic and strange, now I've stopped believing that I knew them already - as lots of people do, I suppose.

At this very moment I'm discovering Alfred Deller singing Purcell's Songs for a while, recorded in 1979. There is so much fragility in this clear, and at the same time aging voice.

Here are a few compositions that I particularily love :

Beethoven's Diabelli Variations - the last one is probably one of the most cristalline things I've ever heard. His last piano works and string quartets are among my favorites too.
Debussy's Préludes, with an unconditional love for Des Pas dans la neige.
Schubert's König in Thule and Der Leiermann - I still have to be more familiar with the rest of the Lieder, but those two became a part of my musical universe in a heartbeat. Same goes for Mussorgsky's Little star.

And Bach. I own four different versions of his Cello suites. The fifth one's Prelude is probably the most moving thing I've heard, and the deepest.