Classical Pieces!

[Shadow of the Sun]

And now another annoying pointless music thread that will probably end in a debate between Amotis and Clarkvalentine with me throwing comments in at random- what are your favourite classical pieces and why? There are about a billion definitions of classical, so choose one and stick to it :)

First would be Mars, Bringer of War by Gustav Holst. Prime example of what a good, dark march should sound like with out copying the Imperial March, which was ironically based off of this.

Second would be the third movement of Gustav Mahler's First in D Major, an incredible funeral march that sounds so damn cool

Third would be one of my favourite guitar pieces ever, Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega, an amazing classical piece that I love.

My bad, it is Gustav, but my mp3 is dodgy, so meh

[Evil_Pacifist]

Yes, Mars is good, though I always thought that his first name was Gustav, and I like most of Mozart's harpsichord stuff, and I also liiiiiike.... Everything else classical. Dvorak's good, I like him.

[Jorkens]

Beethoven's 7th Symphony and 4th Piano Concerto are probably my absolute favourites. Other top stuff would be:
Mahler 4th and 5th symphonies and Das Lied Von Der Erde
Shostakovich's 5th symphony and 2nd piano concerto
Stravinsky's Pulcinella, Apollon Musagete and Petrushka suites
Britten's Peter Grimes
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, several of the piano concertos and the Requiem
Brahms' 4th symphony
Debussy's La Mer
Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and his piano concerto
Faure's Requiem
Webern's Six Pieces for orchestra
Bach's double violin concerto, B minor mass, Passions etc etc.

There's loads more stuff that I suspect is going to go onto that list when I get round to buying copies of things though.

[Beleriphon]

Given that I like opera I'm fond of Mozart's The Magic Flute, anything from The Barber of Seville is wonderful.

[Bryn]

I like pretty much any classical music (and not much else), but espeically Rossini's overtures, and anything by Mozart or Beethoven.

I also like playing said music on the violin.

[clarkvalentine]

If I had no music to listen to but Mozart's 41st for the rest of my life, I'd die happy. I can't say why.

I'm starting to explore Prokofiev and am really digging it.

[Don Beegles]

I'm not too familiar with all that much classical music. I am fluent in maybe a dozen pieces for the piano, and those are really all of the ones that I can speak about.

Of those, I'd have to say anything by Debussy or Grieg.

More specifically, Grieg's Nocturne, which was my first introduction to the field of lyric pieces, and I never looked back. It's very pretty, in a more structured way than any of Debussy's stuff.

By Debussy, I love both of his piece's I've played: Reverie, and La Fille a Chevaux de Lin. They're very similar, just different in length, and they both contain so much beauty, and wonderful things that you'd just never expect but work so well. I swear, the man is a genius. I'd have to say that my favorite part between all 7 pages of the two songs is the final repetition of the theme in La Fille; that part that starts with C-Flat Major chord, and then the theme an octave high, and ends with the staccato series upward and the G-Flat major chord. I'm not sure why, I just love that part. I recommend you youtube it if you get the chance.

[Tharj TreeSmiter]

Handel's "water music" is one of my favorites.
Bachs' brandenburg concertos

I mostly like the lighter faster pased classical music.

[Sewer_Bandito]

Rhapsody in Blue would be one of my favorites, especially after my high school wind ensamble got to perform it. Our piano player for that song was pretty much a prodigy, otherwise it probably wouldn't have been possible.

Also another piece my high school Wind Ensamble is working on, Esprit de Corps is so much fun to play it's not even funny, and sounds awesome too.

[ZombieRockStar]

Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. This is one of the most beautiful melodies ever, perfectly orchestrated for solo violin and orchestra.

Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, 1st movement.

Stravinsky's L'Ousseau de Feu (Firebird).

[Ravyn]

The Allegro from Vivaldi's Four Seasons--heck, any movement from the Four Seasons, but I've a soft spot for that one. The things that can be done on violin....

Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Minor, I suppose, even though it and I have a bit of a history due my having spent too much time in Wind Ensemble sitting around during it because the timpani were broken and there were no other percussion parts. But if I can find myself attached to it even when most of how I heard it was how the band played it and despite all that baggage... that's saying something.

For me, in both cases, it's the intensity and the strength. There's a clear picture there, and a clear emotion, and the pieces just drive.

[Jorkens]

Stravinsky's L'Ousseau de Feu (Firebird).
Yay Stravinsky. Do you like Petroushka as well?

[Amotis]

...seriously...do you want me to waste all my time making lists?

I think I'll just stand to the side and agree and disagree with people.

I do not like Holst and Gershwin. I love Debussy, Bach, Ravel, Mahler, Brahms, Stravinsky, Williams, Greig, and Tchaikovsky. I'm meh (love a few pieces, hate a few, meh about most) with Mozart, Vivaldi, Dvorak, most of The Five (I saw a few of 'em mentioned), Petroushka, Wubern, and Handel.

And to complete this review, I'll mention someone that should of been at least in Don Beegles post (as a pianist), if not before; Chopin.

If I get bored at school I might acutally make a list. I seriously have to spend a lot of time on it empting my brain onto this thread or else I will feel I've left out a piece or composer I adore and it'll kill me.

[Portent]

Everyone tells me that Mozart is "music that sings to the soul" or something like that. For whatever reason, though, whenever I hear Mozart, I just don't "feel" it. I find it rather dull for some whacko reason.

Unfortunately, the only piece I can name that I liked was the cliche Pachelbel's Canon in D.

There was a four string quartet here at Purdue just last year...Wish I could remember their names, but I absolutely loved it.

Does anyone happen to know the name of the piece where the musicians are expected to randomly scream, shout, and shake their heads while playing it? The cello guy had a nice opening speech about it, but I lost the name.

[Don Beegles]

@Amotis: I've honestly only played one thing by Chopin, this Prelude (Opus 28,#6) that sounds like Bells and is really pretty. I didn't put Chopin because it was too short to really touch me, and I learned it when I still wasn't very good and so I never did get the full effect of it. I'll have to ask Mrs. B for something else by him to play, because anything that you say is good is probably great.

[Aidan305]

Let's see now,

The Brandenburg number 4, Final movement of Beethoven 5, Ballet Mecanique by Antheil, Britten's Young Person's Guide, and a fair amount of other stuff by misc composers.

[tape_measure]

hmmm....

Jusat about anythin from Wagner. Don't know why, guess i just like angry Germans. *shrugs*

Most of Percy Grainger's works are amazing. Simple, but amazing to say the least.

Ravel's big hit, (insert name that has escaped me)

I hate these threads sometimes. I have a huge stash of calssical music just sitting around at home (that I can never remember when the tiem comes)that I want to pluck apart and listen to, but alas work has sucked me in...again.

[Jack Squat]

Mozart's Turkish march...done on the electric guitar (Stevie Salas IIRC)

[Amotis]

Ravel's big hit was Bolero. Which he hated.

You really should get something by Chopin, Don Beegles. He is one of my favorite and one of the best composers for piano.

Wagner, while I personally don't like most of his stuff, is basically one of the major superstars of Opera. So I'll give that to him.

[tape_measure]

ahhh...Bolero. The peice gets stuck in my head (lieknow) but I can never remember the damned name, thanks!

The main reason I like Wagner is the trombone parts. Always goose bump inspiring, at least for me.

[Amotis]

I like him 'cause of eccentric personality more then anything :P
Composers can be pretty bad ass. Bach was bloody awesome. I remember him being quoted as telling someone to "go back to building organs" after hearing them play.
Liszt is the playboy superstar, of course.
Debussy was very poetic and his personality certainly matched him music.
Wagner was an anger german.
And it goes on and on...

[tape_measure]

That, I suppose, is why I like Grainger so much.

Maybe it's just the hippie in me.

if I remember right, Hindemith has some bizarre pieces for all instruments. I played a..umm...some obscure concerto for Bass Trombone that seemed more like a bipolar/schizo piece that ranged from the lowest of the low octaves the high, ear piercing sound trombones make. Makes my blood crawl and lips hurt just to think about it.

Ya know, it seems like the more modern composers were all about just plain odd sounds coming from horns rather than harmonies and melodies. Take for instance a Wind Ensemble teacher I had at the University of Louisville. One piano concerto I sat in on seemed more like the player had to bash the keys on the high end in one rhythm while the left hand played some atonal mess.

Nearly drove me insane....

[Amotis]

Nah, some modern composers are. Like Xenakis and others. Who were focused on breaking the traditional boundaries of using instruments. And while people may not like them, they certainly have their place.

But certainly don't think that's the only kind of modern composer. Else I would be out of a job. Melody and harmony are immortal things, not tied down by classical or romantic form, so such things are rapidly used today. Things that feel pleasing to the ear and are modern in the sence they break from modes, keys, progressions, and traditions exist every where. I know 20th century and contemp. classical are hard to find...but I suggest you do. There's an entire world out there and it's expanding rapidly.

But yes...modern music is good and as varied as anything ever before. (See with something like the impressionalist period, someone could very well say, "I don't like that music" and be in the right. Today, someone can't say "I don't like modern music" because it basically is everything. I can't begin to discribe how much material/creativity/music is out there under the brand of modern classical). Modern classical is good. Great even. The pushing point and if I could be transfered to any place in time I would stay right here. The wave hasn't even reached it's peak yet. I want to be riding it right there. So yeah...

edito - Yeah...that's how much I like TM. I refrained from exploding. Yes. *pats self on back*

[tape_measure]

Thanks, Amotis. I appreciate it.

Looking back on my previous post, I can see why you wanted to explode. I sound rather ignorant, truthfully.

I think I've been burned by the multi keyed/time/feel/etc type of 'modern' music. I do try to find more music, but lack of resources and well...laziness hinder my evolution. Maybe it's my ear, too. I grew up learning all about the wave lengths and matching them up correctly.

I remember one ex cerise where the conductor would raise/lower different groups of the band a half step to point out the wave lengths to truly train our ears. It was an almost painful ex cerise, really, but one that I grew from. When I hear the dissonance now, I cringe and want it changed or resolved immediately.

ergo, my atonement to the classic and romantic eras, mostly. i shouldn't nay-say the modern era. It has taken music above and beyond anything anyone could have expected.

[Amotis]

Heh, I grew up on Bach Chorals, I know what you mean. It is indeed hard to see the world from a view where polytonality/atonality runs free. As well as where composers question every single thing that has defined music in the past. Where things never really go where your ear wants it to.

But even if you want to take the cheap way out, there are plenty neo movements that use the moods and feels of eras like the romantic era but backs it with modernality. Accesable stuff. Or even the most atonal composers have beautiful tonal stuff. I am simply blown away by Shoenberg's tonal work. It's wonderful and I have to try with all my might to not be too influnced by it.

(And hey! I did that excersise too...
I'll continue this train of thought after class though)

[Tharj TreeSmiter]

Rhapsody in Blue

This brings up an interesting question, what do people consider "classical" music.

I would never include rhapsody with classical, in my interpretation the classical music era ended with the industrial revolution and thus rhapsody (20th century) would be a different genre.

Agree disagree?

[Jorkens]

I like him 'cause of eccentric personality more then anything :P
Composers can be pretty bad ass. Bach was bloody awesome. I remember him being quoted as telling someone to "go back to building organs" after hearing them play.
Liszt is the playboy superstar, of course.
Debussy was very poetic and his personality certainly matched him music.
Wagner was an anger german.
And it goes on and on...
Berlioz was quite entertaining. The old "boy sees girl, boy falls madly in love with girl without having met her, boy composes Symphony Fantastique about the situation, girl hears that mad young composer has written borderline sectionable symphony about her, girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, they marry, girl dies" story.

[Don Beegles]

You really should get something by Chopin, Don Beegles. He is one of my favorite and one of the best composers for piano.



Do you have any suggestions? I've only got two downloads a day on Sheet Music Archive, so I don't want to try my luck and maybe get something that's not one of his best.

[Jorkens]

This brings up an interesting question, what do people consider "classical" music.

I would never include rhapsody with classical, in my interpretation the classical music era ended with the industrial revolution and thus rhapsody (20th century) would be a different genre.

Weeeellll... strictly speaking the classical era began with CPE Bach and ended with Beethoven so all this talk about Liszt or Wagner should be in a "Romantic Pieces" thread. But I'm guessing that we're working on the more common definition of 'Western Art Music', ie music in the western classical tradition. Which is a very definite continuum running through the industrial revolution and down to the present day. Cutting off just twentieth century stuff doesn't really make sense when you consider how much of a logical progression there is from the late 19th century.

[Jorkens]

Heh, I grew up on Bach Chorals, I know what you mean. It is indeed hard to see the world from a view where polytonality/atonality runs free. As well as where composers question every single thing that has defined music in the past. Where things never really go where your ear wants it to.
This is definitely a conditioned response, though. Dissonance as a phenomenon seems to be absolute, and I think that pretty much everyone from every time and culture will hear a flattened fifth as being more dissonant than a major third - although there is the standard argument about microtuning and equal temperament to be had, suggesting that it's [i]all[/i/ conditioned. But in any case, what is considered an acceptable level of dissonance and how quickly and completely dissonance has to be resolved has changed a great deal over time. And can vary in a particular person as they get used to it.

A random old book I read once drew a slightly silly analogy - "dissonance in music is like garlic in cooking - a little of this pungent ingredient will add interest to a dish, too much will render it unpallatable. But tastes differ between people and cultures - the amount of garlic that a Frenchman or an Italian may prefer in a dish would make it inedible to an Englishman."

Amotis - what contemporary stuff do you consider interesting? My knowledge kind of peters out in the second half of the twentieth century - there just seems to be so much stuff around that I can't pick out what's worth listening to...

[Amotis]

@Tharj - Well it is a jazz piece set to classical instrumentation to me. Strictly speaking, I feel that it isn't classical because of how it's put together. It lacks form and cohesion as a whole. But then again, some jazz artists don't see it as jazz either. So I guess, Rhapsody is like the step-child no one wants.


@Don Beegles - While I don't know your skill level, I'll throw out one of my favorites for him. Nocturne in B Major op. 9 no. 3 (psst, what site is that? I'd like to steal it.)

@Jorkins - I love you. I mean..what?

While I agree with you on how such ear tendencies change over time, taking example most of the classical community accepting atonality since it's arrival on the scene and how modernism is dying with it's composers (no, not modern music, those who aren't familiar with the genre, modernism meaning surrealism and such). Such almost "shock value" has faded away.

But I was simply addressing a person who's ear isn't trained or nourished by the modern scene. Not only from a certain culture, but from a certain socialization if you will.

As for me personally, I try to buy everything I can. Even if I certainly don't like it or don't think it's good. Silvestrov, McMillian , Schnittke, John Cage (adore), Didkovsky, Gorecki, Messiaen (currently playing on my ipod in whom I adore), and Weir all immediately come to mind as things I am constantly listening to. Some of these cats might overlap into the first half of the 20th century, but most of them are contemp.

Now your turn. Come, we must speak.

[Don Beegles]

Hmm, that looks interesting, Amotis. I should have anticipated that you're favorite would be such a tough one. The hardest songs I've played are the two Debussys, so I guess something around that level would be more what I'm looking for if you can think of anything.

The site is www.sheetmusicarchive.net, and it's got a fair selection of a whole bunch of composers. Not the complete works, but a good percentage. Evidently, it appears, the number of downloads per day has gone up to five since last I was on it which is pretty cool.

[Amotis]

Awesome, thanks. Oh, and you have gotten this (http://www.classicalarchives.com/) site before, right?

[Don Beegles]

No, no I haven't. That there is pretty nifty. Thanks.

[Amotis]

Oh, and finally talking about Tarrega, he's a stand out composer simply because he almost supplies the classical guitar community with 1/3 of it's pieces. His range in composing pieces of different skills is most welcome. As the first piece I ever played was one by him and now a while later, I'm trying to master one of the hardest pieces I've ever attempted; Recuerdos de la Alhambra (It's so hard! Moove...stupid...fingers!). I'm glad he decided to compose sole guitar pieces as opposed to having to transpose cello or violin pieces to guitar.

[Chunklets]

There are some pieces from classical opera that I'm quite fond of. In particular, I would mention the Queen of the Night's aria from The Magic Flute, and "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot. Those, and pretty much all of La Boheme...

[J_Muller]

Flight of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner and In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg are my personal favorite pieces of classical music.

[Don Beegles]

I rather like Mountain King as well. It's not nearly as pretty and lyric as some of his other stuff, but it's so powerful and strong, even near the end when he starts going up in to some pretty high ranges. It seems paradoxical that it can get bigger and bigger, even as it gets into the usually softer treble ranges, and I love it for that paradox.

[Amotis]

Greig is one of my favorite melody writers. He makes everything flow so harmonically even with the most simplist of arrangments.

[ZombieRockStar]

Apparently Grieg himself hated it with a passion and apologized for it.

I like the whole of the Peer Gynt suite together. I also like the play by Ibsen, and every other play by Ibsen, but that's for another thread.

However, it's Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor that is what makes me really love his music.

[Amotis]

Ravel's Piano Concerto's are very underappreciated. I enjoy them quiet a bit. People should really listen to them.

[sktarq]

Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies
Mahler 1st, 4th, and 5th symphonies
Shostakovich's 5th and 9th symphonies
Rhapsody in Blue
Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete
Dvorak's New World Symphony
Bartok's i think it is fifth
and I have this amazing horn concherto I'll have to look up-I only found it on LP

And Shostakovich's 9th 4th movement is my favorite piece of music period.

[Jorkens]

Ravel's Piano Concerto's are very underappreciated. I enjoy them quiet a bit. People should really listen to them.
Just did.

Good idea!

[Shadow of the Sun]

One of my friends has a triangle concerto at his place- he stuffed it up the first time he played it, it was funny as hell.

[Castaras]

I really like Holst's "The Planets". I also really like "Hall of the Mountain King", by a guy who's name I can't spell.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Edvard Grieg, I believe.

Due to my hypocritic oath I am now allowing music with blatant classical influences because there is a lot of music that sounds classical, you check and then you realize it was written last year.

I like a lot of GY!BE's stuff- it is a shoe in for classical if you ignore all the stuff that isn't

[Hazkali]

First would be Mars, Bringer of War by Gustav Holst. Prime example of what a good, dark march should sound like with out copying the Imperial March, which was ironically based off of this.


No....not another person who likes Mars!!! I much prefer Jupiter, Bringer of Jolity.

My favourite classical composers have to be Vaughan Williams and Einaudi. Vaughan Williams because of his work with traditional English folk songs, thereby combining my two favourite genres of music (:smallbiggrin: ) and Einaudi for the impassioned piano solos in works like Nefeli and Giorni Dispari.

(Edit) Oh, and soundtracks- are you counting those? The Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, and Harry Potter are some of my favourites.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Vaughan Williams is an immediate genius in my books simply for the wonderful piece that is Seventeen Come Sunday.

[J_Muller]

If we're including soundtracks, the Indiana Jones theme song is awesome.

[Lemur]

Symphonie Fantastique, by Berlioz
Night on Bald Mountain, by Mussorgsky
Montegues and Capulets, from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet
Carmina Burana (especially the In Taberna section), by Carl Orff
New World Symphony, by Dvorak
Dog Breath Variations & Uncle Meat, and G-Spot Tornado, by Zappa
Finlandia, by Sibelius
Symphonic Metamorphosis, by Hindemith
Beethoven's fifth symphony
Mahler's first symphony

[Amotis]

Any one notice in the "best collections" of classical music (like "the most beautiful melodies of classical music" or "Top 100 Classical Pieces" or stuff like that) sometimes really don't have really good stuff? Like if I wanted someone to get into Mozart, I wouldn't give him the standard Mozart with his tendencies and his very similar nature that people usually already know and made up their mind to, I would give him Mozart's Requiem or some awesome one like that. My beef with collections like those are also they limit them to only one movement. Which is bull...grumble grumble. I want to hear the later movements of stuff like moonlight sonata and toccata and fugue in d minor because they're just as good, if not better, as the first movements everyone knows.

[Jorkens]

Like if I wanted someone to get into Mozart, I wouldn't give him the standard Mozart with his tendencies and his very similar nature that people usually already know and made up their mind to, I would give him Mozart's Requiem or some awesome one like that.
Hmmmm... I'm always slightly dubious about getting people into stuff by playing them something a bit uncharacteristic and saying "try listening to this, it doesn't really sound like Mozart." It seems somehow more moral to give them the clarinet concerto and say "listen to this, it's everything you don't like about Mozart but it's amazing with it."


My beef with collections like those are also they limit them to only one movement. Which is bull...grumble grumble. I want to hear the later movements of stuff like moonlight sonata and toccata and fugue in d minor because they're just as good, if not better, as the first movements everyone knows.
With you on that. It kind of turns classical music into a series of recognizable 'bits' and cuts out any sort of development or big structure.

[ZombieRockStar]

Little known fact: there are second and third movements to Ein Kleine Nacthmusik, both of which are far superior to the first. :smallyuk:

The thrid movement of the Moonlight sonata is awesome. I'm trying to learn it on piano.

[Amotis]

Hmmmm... I'm always slightly dubious about getting people into stuff by playing them something a bit uncharacteristic and saying "try listening to this, it doesn't really sound like Mozart." It seems somehow more moral to give them the clarinet concerto and say "listen to this, it's everything you don't like about Mozart but it's amazing with it."

I suppose. I'm just speaking through personal preference as it took me forever to get into Mozart. As in, find a piece I found to be good enough to inspire me. I don't outright dislike him but I feel his music, at least the more famous works (and not his operas), fall into the same mood/feel/structure.



With you on that. It kind of turns classical music into a series of recognizable 'bits' and cuts out any sort of development or big structure.

Indeed. They made pieces, not movements. They put them together for a reason.



The thrid movement of the Moonlight sonata is awesome. I'm trying to learn it on piano.


Bloody hard. Good luck at that. :smalltongue: