# Cool and unusual classical music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626 "2014-06-25T17:25:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/21 "2014-06-26T05:25:26Z")
Debussy, 3 nocturnes for orchestra: No. 2 - “Fetes” [Claude Debussy - Nocturnes - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obv33I2Kf10#t=7m28s) But listen to them all. The first is “Nuages” (clouds), and the third is “[Sirenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obv33I2Kf10#t=13m42s)”. Debussy, “La Mer”, part 3, “Dialogue of the wind and the sea” [Claude Debussy, La Mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre. Pierre Boulez - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLhY0_CYcuU#t=16m16s) But again, listen to the whole thing. Part 1 is “from dawn to midday on the sea”, part 2 is “[the play of the waves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLhY0_CYcuU#t=8m54s)” Ravel, ballet “Daphnis and Chloe”, act 3 [Ravel: "Daphnis et Chloé" (complete ballet) - Rafael Fruebeck de Burgos - Part 3 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhKyMmgSUMw&list=PL07925DC14D79F527&index=4) Yet again, listen to the whole thing. Or watch the ballet here: [D&C 7 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nePQHOKX9mA&list=PLLzOp65IHENFoF0lvejbI2snGKmhceOc0&index=7) ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/22 "2014-06-26T05:40:10Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > [Gymnopedie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0koaxjHP5Q8) by Eric Satie. > > It makes me feel all squidgy. I really can’t say why because nothing else I’ve heard makes me feel like that. Moonlight Sonata comes close though. Years ago it was used as background music in a PSA about water safety. There was a shot of a lake taken from the beach and a narrator was reciting statistics in a solemn voice about how many children drown each year. I used to think of the piece as “The Drowning Song.” ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/23 "2014-06-26T05:53:55Z")
Liszt: _Les Preludes_ [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mkJuWbbjaI) _Totentanz_ (dance of death) [F.LISZT : TOTENTANZ for piano and orchestra - Krystian ZIMERMAN - S.OZAWA - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOLMFruHX-Q) Beethoven: Egmont overture [Beethoven Egmont ouverture Karajan - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=690gzPSdT4o) Coriolan overture [Beethoven - Coriolan Overture (Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qbOTgEJOk) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/24 "2014-06-26T05:56:42Z")
Mahler’s First Symphony is interesting. The third movement starts with “Frère Jacques” in a minor key, played as a round. Then it goes into a klezmer bit (my favorite part). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/25 "2014-06-26T06:03:43Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Mahler’s First Symphony is interesting. The third movement starts with “Frère Jacques” in a minor key, played as a round. Then it goes into a klezmer bit (my favorite part). This needs a [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQCHgnpCGf4). 🙂 (Yeah, it’s totally gorgeous.) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/26 "2014-06-26T08:04:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Charles Ives’ _America Variations_ – Ives takes several famous pieces of music and – how else to describe trhis – makes them sound like “America”. Fascinating piece. . . . [Another one by Ives: “The Unanswered Question.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbArUJBRRJ0) Very existential. The horn asks a question, and the orchestra more and more desperately tries to answer it; in the end, there can be no answer. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/27 "2014-06-26T09:37:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Holst’s “The Planets”. I saw the Baltimore Symphony perform this long, long ago, and they extended the “ahhhs” on the last piece (“Neptune”) for better than 5 minutes. It was awesome. Yes, that ending is wonderful. It makes me think that I’m in a little spaceship that’s leaving the solar system right as the voices fade out. Here are mine: **Ligeti** : _Lux Aeterna_ ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ySLWZVcXw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ySLWZVcXw)) Eerie, mesmerizing, oneiric and slightly unsettling - one of the greatest pieces for a cappella chorus in history IMHO. As matter of fact, almost all of Ligeti’s oeuvre qualifies. If you have the time, you must listen to his _Requiem_ (similar but with some truly terrifying parts), _Lontano_, _Cello Concerto_ or _Clocks and Clouds_. And a recent discovery. Did you know that industrial music was not invented in the 1970s as is generally thought but 50 years earlier? I have proof: **Alexander Mosolov** : _The Iron Foundry (Zavod/Machine Music)_ ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1-\_UPwYSM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1-_UPwYSM)) Short but amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/28 "2014-06-26T09:55:08Z")
Try looking up Fux on Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/29 "2014-06-26T13:09:59Z")
Martinu, “The Epic of Gilgamesh” Britten, “Curlew River” Hildegard von Bingen, “Canticles of Ecstasy” Janacek, “Glagolitic Mass” Pergolesi, “Stabat Mater” Prokofiev, “Alexander Nevsky” Rodrigo, “Concierto de Aranjuez” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/30 "2014-06-26T14:31:21Z")
The Dream of Gerontius. The final movement, “Softly and gently, dearly ransomed soul” has been aptly described thus: if it doesn’t break your heart, it’s time to check yourself in for a transplant. It makes me tear up and I don’t even believe in Purgatory. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/31 "2014-06-26T16:29:03Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > This needs a [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQCHgnpCGf4). 🙂 > > (Yeah, it’s totally gorgeous.) A sheynem dank! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/32 "2014-06-26T16:41:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > [Another one by Ives: “The Unanswered Question.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbArUJBRRJ0) Very existential. The horn asks a question, and the orchestra more and more desperately tries to answer it; in the end, there can be no answer. Good one! Following on that piece, I clicked on the first of the 1973 Harvard Norton lecture series by Leonard Bernstein, titled “The Unanswered Question.” One of the main themes LB presents is that beauty in music comes from ambiguity. In which the Ives piece is exhibit A. I first listened to these lectures, when they were new, on the radio station WCLV 95.5-FM. At one point they played the whole series over the air. LB had a huge influence on me when I was young, not only because I was immersed in classical music and was busy teaching myself music theory, orchestration, and composition, but particularly the way he links the universals of music theory with the universals of linguistics, after Noam Chomsky. Relating music to linguistics was irresistible for me, as I was already heavily into linguistics, which as it turned out became my professional career. This is the first I’ve seen the video of it. Thanks for my chance to hear it again! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/33 "2014-06-26T16:44:34Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > **Ligeti** : _Lux Aeterna_ ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ySLWZVcXw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ySLWZVcXw)) > > Eerie, mesmerizing, oneiric and slightly unsettling - one of the greatest pieces for a cappella chorus in history IMHO. As matter of fact, almost all of Ligeti’s oeuvre qualifies. If you have the time, you must listen to his _Requiem_ (similar but with some truly terrifying parts), _Lontano_, _Cello Concerto_ or _Clocks and Clouds_. Eerie, mesmerizing, oneiric and slightly unsettling—those are some well-placed adjectives. Coincidentally, I just rewatched _2001: A Space Odyssey_ for the first time in many years. It’s uncanny how perfectly the Ligeti complements the scenes it’s in. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/34 "2014-06-26T17:17:30Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Eerie, mesmerizing, oneiric and slightly unsettling—those are some well-placed adjectives. Coincidentally, I just rewatched _2001: A Space Odyssey_ for the first time in many years. It’s uncanny how perfectly the Ligeti complements the scenes it’s in. I’m sure you know Kubrick cut the entire movie to fit the music. That took guts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/35 "2014-06-26T17:25:18Z")
One of the more unusual pieces I’ve heard is Hector Villa-Lobos’s [Harmonica Concerto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmWJD0G8xF4). Debussy has been mentioned already, but I have to do a quick shout-out for _Claire De Lune_, which is my favorite piece of music of all time. Also, when you’re ready to take a small step away from unusual and part of the way towards bizarre, I recommend Karlheinz Stockhausen. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/36 "2014-06-26T18:45:41Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Holst’s [“The Planets”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVsszW7Nds&feature=kp). I saw the Baltimore Symphony perform this long, long ago, and they extended the “ahhhs” on the last piece (“Neptune”) for better than 5 minutes. It was awesome. Did they re-write it or add repetitions? It’s one of my favorite moments in classical music. > [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > If this means that posting really famous pieces is OK, I might as well link to Stravinsky’s [Rite of Spring](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFRwKQqbk4).The first time you hear it, you hate it. [Then your brain rearranges itself in a new configuration to make sense of it.](http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/01/02/the-neuroscience-of-music/) After that, it becomes awesome. 😃 I’m happy to report that the first time I ever heard it was like being hit by lightning. I loved it instantly, and 42 years later it still moves me to tears. My entries for “unusual” in the piano division– Stravinsky: **Circus Polka** (“for young elephant”) _[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eXRvTBfoiY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eXRvTBfoiY)_ Milhaud: **Saudades De Brazil** Suite of twelve Brazilian dances, each with the left and right hands playing in different keys. Hauntingly beautiful. William Bolcolm playing one of them, from my preferred album _[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYoPqfSH0A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYoPqfSH0A)_ and a poor quality recording of someone else playing the first six of them: _[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF5M7FcjOfc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF5M7FcjOfc)_ ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/37 "2014-06-26T18:50:33Z")
Isn’t cool and unusual classical music a violation of the eight amendment? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/38 "2014-06-26T18:54:38Z")
There’s Bach’s _Crab Canon_, which is awesomely complex, while appearing to be very simple. I read about it in Douglas Hofstadter’s _Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Braid_. Here it is, diagrammed on a Moebius Strip on YouTube: > **[The Genius of J.S. Bach’s “Crab Canon” Visualized on a Möbius Strip](https://www.openculture.com/2013/02/the_genius_of_js_bachs_crab_canon_visualized_on_a_mobius_strip.html)** > > The most impressive of Johann Sebastian Bach's pieces, musicophiles may have told you, will knock you over with their ingeniousness, or at least their sheer complexity. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/39 "2014-06-26T19:06:43Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > One of the more unusual pieces I’ve heard is Hector Villa-Lobos’s [Harmonica Concerto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmWJD0G8xF4). > > Debussy has been mentioned already, but I have to do a quick shout-out for _Claire De Lune_, which is my favorite piece of music of all time. > > Also, when you’re ready to take a small step away from unusual and part of the way towards bizarre, I recommend Karlheinz Stockhausen. For “unusual” there’s this: Mozart [Adagio for Glass Harmonica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UpLYuSVgoQ), ISYN. A favourite of mine on the organ, not that I’ll ever be very good. Then let’s ring in Stanford’s “Blue Bird” and Borodin’s “In The Steppes of Central Asia”. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/40 "2014-06-26T19:14:09Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Did they re-write it or add repetitions? It’s one of my favorite moments in classical music. I’m thinking they just repeated the last 2 to 4 measures. Getting quieter. And quieter. And quieter. For 5 minutes. All the while, the conductor is just standing there, back to the audience, not moving a whit. Not a movement or sound from the orchestra (and it was a BIG orchestra). And you couldn’t tell where the “ahhhhhhs” were coming from. The Meyerhoff had/has outstanding acoustics. I suppose it would have been cliche to have turned down the lights in time with the “ahhhhhs,” but that would have been cool. I need to amend: it was FUCKIN’ awesome! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626.md?page=3)