Sure thing, Biggirl. Ash, if you ever get any sites start a thread in MPSIMS informing me and I will gladly apologize. (PS, your site is very good.)
Biggirl, going from what you say you currently like, I would suggest picking up some John Dowland/Thomas Campion Lute songs. They are in English and from the Renaissance period. A lot of that type of influence carried over even to modern day. If you like showmanship specifically on solo piano, I would suggest some Liszt being performed by Vladimir Horowitz. It is some good stuff.
This is my definition of classical music you might find useful, but will look silly to someone if you quote it: “classical music is an emotional argument mathematically expressed through sound in a medium of time.” (this necessarily and especially includes jazz)
I tend to think of pop music as poetry set to music. So how does something like the 9th Symphony (unquestionalbly classic and to which I am listening to even now) fit it? It is a hybrid. The fact that I don’t understand the German words tends to make it more classic than pop. I think of the Missa Solemnis as classic, yet most opera as a popular form of entertainment.
Two words: Fantasia 2000 (The movie, not the soundtrack).
My tastes in classical music run strongly towards the bombastic/romantic (what I like to refer to as loud, ass-kicking classical music). Some of my top recommendations along those lines include:
Mahler’s 1st Symphony (4th movement, in particular)
Shostakovitch’s 5th Symphony (4th movement, in particular)
Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (featured in Fantasia 2000)
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (4th movement, in particular)
Verdi’s and Mozart’s Requiems (Requia?)
As for the general debate of classical music vs. other musical traditions (improvisation, African music, etc.), I certainly will not claim that Western music is a priori superior. However, imagine two musical geniuses of equal calibre… one is Mozart, and the other lives (in Mozart’s time) in “uncivilized” Africa. I would argue that the fact that Mozart lives in a society with an infrastructure that allows him to correspond with a continent’s worth of musicians, view completed scores of zillions of masterworks, and in general read the writings of generations of great musical thinkers gives him an advantage over someone whose training and experience with music comes from an oral tradition, even an incredibly rich one. Which is not to dis anyone else’s music, nor to imply that Mozart would have had nothing to learn from non-Western musical traditions, but I think it’s overly simplistic to automatically assume that products of different cultures are always separate but equal.
Ode to Joy is what started me up. My daughter learned it on her flute and I loved it. I used to make her play it all the time. I don’t know why, but that song makes me happy.
It was here that I learned that classical music names are not that easy to follow. You can’t go into the store and ask for “The Diamond Commercial Song”. You have to know the composer, whether it’s a symphony or a sonata or something else entirely, in which order the goshdarned composer wrote the stupid things, what language . . . Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Do you know how long it took for me to find this out? And what an idiot I looked like while trying?
If you go into a record store and ask for The Pina Colada Song, the clerks don’t raise their eyebrows and go “You mean Escape, no?” He may raise his eyebrow at you because, well, that songs sucks, but he’ll know what you mean.
Biggirl, one other thing that has always made a big difference for me: Go check it out live!
Recordings are a waaaay distant second to the real thing when you’re talking about classical music. In a room with real people you can feel their energy and concentration, and experience the sounds in their full spectrum and warmth, not filtered through some engineer’s mixing board and then your stereo.
Concert tickets can be expensive, but there are often less expensive alternatives. If there is a university or college near you, you might check out some student performances on instruments that you like.
I think the ultimate live classical event is opera (of course, I’m extremely biased :)). Trying to listen to one on record is pretty hard, but when you get into the dark theater, with your eyes and ears focused on the performers on stage and in the pit it becomes an entirely different thing.
Some guy started a thread called “What’s that famous scary organ music?” a few weeks back, and everyone was tripping over themselves to yell “Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in D Minor, always played in conjunction with its accompanying Fugue!” And then starting lusty arguments over whether the guy should buy the E. Power Biggs or the Virgil Fox recording, and how many mistresses Bach had. And nobody was even supercilious about it.
Buying your classical recordings over Amazon.com is another option for avoiding snooty clerks. You can research different performances, read reviews from occasionally bright customers, and listen to bits and pieces of the music.
To present a responsible opposing viewpoint, I find that I get the greatest appreciation for a piece of music by listening to it over and over and over again… so my most enjoyable classical experiences (aside from actually performing the piece, which is certainly the ultimate) have come from purchasing a good recording of something, and just listening to it all day long while at work… the first few times through, I’m kinda ignoring it, but pretty soon I’m starting to recognize and love parts. That’s just me, though, and I have an unusually poor tolerance for just sitting still listening to music, even music that I love.
Umm, no- music derived from Karl Jenkins’ Palladio is in deBeers’ diamond commercials. By “derived from”, I mean the original commercial was straight off the score; since then, they’ve changed the instrumentation somewhat each time there’s a new ad. IMHO, they should have left it the way it was, even though that’d be repetitive.
Despite the crass commercialization, this is actually an enjoyable disk. I rather like the string quartets and have kept the CD repeating all day at work on a few occasions.
Classical music must sound more alike than I thought. I’ve never heard of Palladio, but I’ve got Winter playing right now. Sounds like the commercial to me.
Actually, Clamydia, they do have a fairly similar sound. While it’s a typical kind of sound for Vivaldi, it’s not for Jenkins- he is usually more modern.
Anyway, it’s not surprising you haven’t heard of Palladio- if it wasn’t for deBeers’, no one would have. For that matter, I expect few people would have heard of Jenkins either. I know I wouldn’t have.
Well, distinctions tend to get lost in things that are unfamiliar to you, so don’t sweat it. But this discussion of TV commercials reminds me that lots of movies and cartoons have great classical music in them. I tried to link to the search results in Amazon but the browser gripes, so just go to their classical music section and search for “movies” and “cartoons.” Have fun.
Erm, somehow the argument over composers and patronage immediately led me to think of the castrati who made big bucks - y’know, Farinelli, Caffarelli, and the like. Maybe I’m just weird.
Funnily enough, I know Jenkins from the use of his music (from the first Adiemus) in Cheltenham & Gloucester ads (in the UK). It’s not substantial fare, but for lightweight stuff it’s not bad. I didn’t know the DeBeers ad was his music as well, although I could tell it wasn’t Vivaldi.
As for asking for works that you’ve heard in commercials, movies and TV shows, the record store clerk is probably rolling his/her eyes because you’re the 327th person to ask for “that piece in the X ad”. It’s probably THE main form of exposure to classical music most people get. And the record companies know it too: apart from the appearance of “As heard in…” stickers on classical CDs, you can also get compilation CDs of classical music from commercials.
Helpful hint: if anyone ever asks you “What’s the name of that music in that movie ad/trailer?”, there’s a 90% chance that the answer is “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. Trust me on this. I speak from experience.
Biggirl: some more recommendations, following on from what others have said –
If you like Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets, you should definitely try his Alexander Nevsky. I recommend getting the full movie soundtrack rather that the orchestral suite, and I particularly like the Eisenstein recording (with the big black and red mask on the cover).
If you like the Hallelujah Chorus, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t listen to the rest of Handel’s Messiah. Admittedly it’s a mixed bag, qualitywise, depending on what recording you get. I’m partial to the Gabrieli Consort version, but that’s a personal choice, really.
If you like Air on a G String, you might also try Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos. I’ve always liked #3 particularly (there are six concerti overall). No recording recommendations, except to say to avoid the Roy Goodman/ Parley of Instruments recording.
Opera: Opera’s always better to watch than just to listen to, but I always recommend Mozart to beginners, especially The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, or (for something more serious) Don Giovanni. Mozart writes lots of wonderfully singable (and memorable) tunes, and is a joy to listen to. Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is hilarious, but again, works better on stage.
Early music: Even trickier than opera, in part because there’s a lot of different types of early music and so much of what people like is down to personal taste. I happen to really like The Baltimore Consort’s recordings – they’re probably too relaxed to satisfy a real purist, but they do use authentic instruments and period works. Try La Rocque ‘n’ Roll, or for a real laugh, The Art of the Bawdy Song. My copy of the latter came with one of those Parental Advisory labels on it, so you have some idea what to expect.
Biggirl, if you’d like to listen to something which mingles folk traditions with classical stylings and structures, try O Espirito da Paz (The Spirit of Peace) by the Portuguese group, Madredeus. They have about half a dozen CDs available, most of which are original compositions in style of traditional Portuguese music, but this CD is more “classical”. I especially love the opening tracks – two instrumentals following by a song. The first sung note is like the sun rising over the ocean, it’s beautiful.
In the classical department, I am partial to Luigi Boccherini’s string quartets and quintets (some of which I have played) and Dvorak quartets. Another favorite piece of music is J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. I tend to like chamber music over symphonic pieces – for both listening and playing – because of the individuality of each voice in the composition.
I also heard a very interesting modern piece commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra from the Finnish composer Ratovari (sp?) and first performed in April/May 2000. Does anyone happen to know what this was?
I assume you mean Einojuhani Rautavaara (hey, I don’t know that many contemporary Finnish composers). If so, according to this site the piece was his Eighth Symphony.
I like his Cantus Arcticus for recorded birdsong and orchestra; it’s very accessible and I like the way the instruments mimic the taped birdcalls.
I love that piece – especially the way the slow, sonorous brass chords in the orchestra seem to move in a different time scale than the busy bird-chatter above. In a way, it reminds of of Charles Ives’ Unanswered Question, with the flutes taking the role of the birds, and the slow string chords becoming the brass.
Kaija Saariaho is another hot Finnish composer these days. She’s a little more “out there” than Rautavaara, but she’s getting played all over Europe.
(PS, your site is very good.)