Saw this on tv some weeks ago. This kid Alex Prior was 16 when he wrote this piece. Fucking impressive.
The string players look like they don't know what the fuck is going on. Edit: watching without sound once and it looks like he's being so tender on those drums. I wonder what it would be like if Rouse popped some Nile-level drum-work into his piece for the percussionist to chew on.
Listening to Brahms' 1st for the first time. Shit's pretty good. Wasn't so into it during the first movement, but that was probably just that it normally takes me a bit to get a feel for the style of the composer. My rate of classical discovery has slowed to a crawl in recent times. In about the last whole year, I've checked out Bach's 4th, 5th, 6th Brandenburg Concertos, a small set of Wagner overtures and excerpts, Glass' 1st Violin Concerto, The Rite of Spring and Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa (the 'album', not just the one piece).
I recommend listening through Brahms's symphonies in order, but listen to each one 3 or 4 times before you move on to the next one. Brahms is like Bach in that it takes multiple listens to hear some of the more convoluted structures and patterns. If you do this for the first two Brahms symphonies, then the third one will hit you like a ton of bricks on first listen.
I was listening to Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartets [1-13 (Borodin Quartet)] last night. Damn, son.
Liking Brahms 1 on first listen is impressive. It took me many listens, reading about it, and actually playing the thing a couple of times before I really started to like and appreciate it. But that's me. Sounds like you've tackled quite a bit of classical music, actually. In my opinion, classical gives back greater rewards than other genres, and you can chew on a work like Rite of Spring or multiple Wagner overtures for a loooooong fucking time while you discover all the stuff buried within it technically/structurally and then also getting a sense of its historical place in classical progression or the composer's life and style development as well as beginning to attach all of the Affective elements that will materialize with repeat listens. Most of this music has been established as great shit, while 90% of the stuff we're listening to that comes out today (in all genres) is horseshit that won't live more than a few years at most in random people's collections before dropping into obscurity, so it really feels like we burn through a lot of it in comparison. Or you can be elnimio and ravenously devour everything at an inhuman pace. I've been listening to these for years and still don't think I've bitten off all of them yet. Great stuff but just about every quartet has a whole world packed into it. I love Borodin's tone and interpretation--so dark.
I've been listening to tons of Stravinsky this week. Such a colorful composer. I'm going to delve into Schoenberg next week. I'm thinking that I'm going to focus on a single classical composer each week in order to broaden my knowledge, rather than just getting scattershot surface views of a ton of composers.
If anyone reading this thread hasn't heard it, immediately check out Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, which is easily one of the greatest musical works of all time. The first time I heard it was like witnessing real life magic. It's that outstanding.
definitely -- Rachmaninov's symphonic works are highly underrated, and the Dances (his last composition) are possibly the pinnacle of his writing, and show that it is possible to go out with a huge bang. I'd recommend, if you can find them, Kiril Kondrashin and Moscow Philharmonic (usually paired with The Bells) or either of Evgeny Svetlanov and USSR State Symphony Orchestra's recordings. The former has more raw power and the latter holds more depth, but both are amazing. here's the third movement (split into 2 parts) from my third favorite interpreter of the piece, Vladimir Ashkenazy, with the Concertgebouw:
Been enjoying the shit out of Brahms' Quartets, also Shostakovich Symphony 7, dat repetitive invasion motif
When you are out tomorrow, or on Amazon/iTunes, pick this album up. This is one epic classical collection. Playing this in the presence of a member of the opposite sex will mean good things for you, guaranteed. Adagio for Strings Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Fantasia on Greensleeves Andante Cantabile Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor Romance. Andante from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Largo from Winter (The Four Seasons) Elegie from Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra
where exactly does one go about finding a female who likes classical and not horrible dance/pop/L.M.F.A.O./one or two classic rock bands that an ex-boyfriend introduced to them once?
They're around - you might need to get out of your routine places of looking for them. Mine was a majorette in the marching band in college. Try theater performances, concerts, visual art exhibitions, etc.
when the slow theme with the drone note from the first movement of Mahler 1 reprises in the fourth movement is one of the best moments in music
I'm totally unfamiliar with classical except for Holst's "The Planets" and the usual Mozart/Bach/etc. famous pieces. Recommend me something to check out?
My comp major friend just sent me a list of 20th century names to check out and I was wondering if you guys could recommend me some of their works. I'm sure I won't like some of them, but I figured I'd give them all at least one good listen: anton webern milton babbitt pierre boulez karlheinz stockhausen luciano berio brian ferneyhough tristan murail matthias pintscher helmut lachenmann
I think he probably just went through a phase of being interested in it at some point in college. One of his roommates posted something by Edgar Barroso on his wall, so I just asked him about 20th century composers in general
I'm a fledgling classical fan, I was wondering if anyone would be up to putting together a beginner's guide to classical sort of comp, or a list of works to get a handle on a few of the styles under the umbrella. It's all a bit intimidating to such an album minded person like myself. I would be mega grateful.
I can do that this evening maybe. Generally I would say start with symphonies because they are usually about the same length as a rock album and will therefore seem "normal."
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/dt2/so_you_want_to_start_listening_to_classical_music_ This list is good introduction imo
Please pass this list along to me too. I have a decent starting point, but I always want have more ready to go.
Yeah. This seems to be as valid and good for starting as anything, if you're just trying stuff out. There's really no telling what is going to grab you guys, even if you talked about what you think you might prefer.
The series starting with this video is pretty good just to get an overview of how classical music evolved/is evolving ... but at the same time it's kind of overwhelming to listen in one sitting. To me, listening to classical music in the historical contexts makes it a lot more interesting.
That reminds me of Nielsen's 4th--The Inextinguishable. Some good timpani shit at the beginning and around 5:40--double player "battle" with shifting pitch. Some hairy string passages in and around as well.
