Classical Music

DavidBelcher

pneumatic wrote:

You could do worse than pick up a copy of The Best of Humphrey Littleton.

"...and to prove the point, piano accompaniment will be provided by Colin Sell"

David

sloboy

I'd tend to put symphonies down as the least accessible for someone used to a song structure of music. So for me, I've found that pieces with strong melody and shortish components suit me better

ballet music - Swan Lake etc
instrumental solo - Chopin's Preludes, some excellent classical guitar stuff I have in the car at the moment, Mendelsohn's Songs without Words
concertos - wide range here, Mozart, Rachmaninov

all to be pretty digestible. Opera in particular is absolutely terrific, but you do have to get the acquired taste piece of the vocal style. In Opera, I'd recommend Puccini - as a writer of "songs" he is without equal IMHO, most especially La Boheme and Tosca have some really terrific tunes.

craker

op are you still there or are we boring you? :shock:

I'm listening to a BBC radio 4 series called The Making of Music (broadcast a couple of years ago), which charts the history of the Western classical tradition.

It's fascinating, covers the whole range (in snippets) and keeps on driving home the point that most of this tradition relies on its place, both in history, geographically, politically etc.

obvious examples like where would Beethoven's eroica be without Napolean & Shostokovitch without Stalin

So just listening to 'classical music' without any idea of it's context would leave me a bit cold I think.

..but I've just failed to find a link to it on the torrents, have a scour alot of BBC stuff is downloadable (and legit. in my opinion but not the laws..)

Mettan

Roadie Rods wrote:

I'd also like to throw in my twopenneth worth for Gerald Finzi - I consider him to be the most underrated composer ever. Dies Natalies, Clarinet Concerto, Nocturne, etc. Quintessential 1940's imagery of England. Stunningly simple, yet utterly beautiful.

Yep, we've produced a whole host of slightly "lesser known" (to the GBP) "accesible" talents like Alwyn/Arnold/Bax/Berkeley(Lennox)/Ireland/Rawsthorne/Walton etc - Tippet's Piano Sonatas do it for me (in a big way) - (not that all of his stuff is accesible to the gen. public).

If anyone's interested in VW try some of his song cycles like his "4 Last Songs"/"On Wenlock Edge" etc - beautiful.

justresting

Carmina Burana by Carl Orf bits of it crop up in many adverts, once used for old spice & another section for Websters pennine bitter.

iainment

mr_si wrote:

op are you still there or are we boring you? :shock:

I'm listening to a BBC radio 4 series called The Making of Music (broadcast a couple of years ago), which charts the history of the Western classical tradition.

It's fascinating, covers the whole range (in snippets) and keeps on driving home the point that most of this tradition relies on its place, both in history, geographically, politically etc.

obvious examples like where would Beethoven's eroica be without Napolean & Shostokovitch without Stalin

So just listening to 'classical music' without any idea of it's context would leave me a bit cold I think.

..but I've just failed to find a link to it on the torrents, have a scour alot of BBC stuff is downloadable (and legit. in my opinion but not the laws..)

Yes still here, taking it all in. Agree that music/art etc has broader context than itself and that it can be thrilling to get that as well - btw Napoleon influenced Tchaikovsky as well!

Am enjoying good book about politics and 60s counter culture music at the moment called "There's a riot going on" by Peter Doggett, highly recommended.

cee

+1 for Prokofiev...

DavidBelcher

justresting wrote:

Carmina Burana by Carl Orf bits of it crop up in many adverts, once used for old spice & another section for Websters pennine bitter.

Of course, for the real diehard boozer [1], both of said products may often be found in the same drinks cabinet.

David

[1] Fans of Roger's Profanisaurus will be familiar with the charming epithet 'turps nudger'....