# 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:** 3
**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, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/41 "2014-06-26T19:41:46Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > 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! Consider this: _imagining_ your description gave me goosebumps. ---
**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, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/42 "2014-06-26T19:50:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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 | Open Culture](http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/the_genius_of_js_bachs_crab_canon_visualized_on_a_mobius_strip.html) You know, there are times when I want to kick Bach in the nuts. OK, Johann, we know you’re an alien with a musical brain the size of a planet, but do you really have to be obnoxious about it? 😛 (Of course, then he shows me a bit of [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBeXF_lnj_M), and I go right back to slobbering all over his privates, and promise that I’ll never be mean to him again.) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/43 "2014-06-26T20:02:56Z")
Not quite “classical,” but lots of movie soundtrack music: Bernard Hermann’s PSYCHO or VERTIGO, Elmer Bernstein’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, etc. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/44 "2014-06-26T20:05:01Z")
Prokofiev’s Troika: [- YouTube](http://youtu.be/AnT3DxWxeDg) Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto: [Mozart - Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat, K. 495 [complete] - YouTube](http://youtu.be/VEJFuWgkGkY) Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: [Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring (Instrumental) - YouTube](http://youtu.be/GLPbmITTYYE) Dvorak’s New World Symphony: [Antonin Dvorak - New World Symphony (Full) - YouTube](http://youtu.be/ETNoPqYAIPI) Saint Saens Le Petit Moulin: [Camille Saint Saens Le Petite Moulin - YouTube](http://youtu.be/K7Ioq8wRXBE) Watkin’s Ale: [- YouTube](http://youtu.be/3znw4gCk5R0) Fantasia on British Sea Songs: [Wood - Fantasia on British Sea-Songs / Rule Britannia (Last Night of the Proms 2012) - YouTube](http://youtu.be/YUXBrek5N9g) ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/45 "2014-06-26T20:06:09Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Not quite “classical,” but lots of movie soundtrack music: Bernard Hermann’s PSYCHO or VERTIGO, Elmer Bernstein’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, etc. Mike Oldfield’s [Tubular Bells](http://youtu.be/QvBAu0PJ7A8), most famous from The Exorcist. One of the greatest feats of composition of the ages. ---
**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, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/46 "2014-06-26T20:47:07Z")
There’s always the **Toy Symphony** , by Handel, or by Leopold Mozart, or by Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer, or maybe by someone else. It’s popular fort orchestra fund-raisers, because big donors can get to “play” in the orchestra when this piece is performed, playing the various toys. No musical skill required. > **[Toy Symphony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Symphony)** > > The Toy Symphony (full title: Cassation in G major for toys, 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings and continuo) is a musical work dating from the 1760s with parts for toy instruments, including toy trumpet, ratchet, bird calls (cuckoo, nightingale and quail), Mark tree, triangle, drum and glockenspiel. It has three movements and typically takes around seven minutes to perform. > It was long reputed to be the work of Joseph Haydn, but later scholarship suggested that it was actually written by Leopold Mozart.... Along those lines, there’s **Funeral March for a Marionette** by Charles Gounod. It was supposed to be the first part of a longer composition, but he stopped after this first movement. The piece was used in a 1931 radio drama, and as the accompanying music for a 1927 movie, _Sunrise_, which was seen by a young Alfred Hitchcock, who later used the music as the theme for his TV show **Alfred Hitchcock Presents**. > **[Funeral March of a Marionette](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_March_for_a_Marionette)** > > Funeral March of a Marionette (French: Marche funèbre d'une marionnette) is a short piece by Charles Gounod. It was originally written for solo piano in 1872 and orchestrated in 1879. It is perhaps best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents. > While residing in London, England, between 1871 and 1872, Gounod started to write a suite for piano called Suite burlesque. After completing this piece, Gounod abandoned the rest of the suite. The piece was dedicated t... ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/47 "2014-06-26T20:51:32Z")
PDQ Bach, [“Erotica” Variations for Banned Instruments and Piano](http://vimeo.com/3559152). ---
**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, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/48 "2014-06-26T21:00:06Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > Mike Oldfield’s [Tubular Bells](http://youtu.be/QvBAu0PJ7A8), most famous from The Exorcist. One of the greatest feats of composition of the ages. Even more so when you know (as I’m sure you do) he played 98% of the instruments himself, overdubbing like a mad bastard, and had to start from scratch when the master tape wore clean through. Jeez! ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/49 "2014-06-26T21:00:29Z")
On the more serious side of unusual instruments, there are a number of works for “prepared” piano, including this one - [Mount Hood by Hauschka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgph8aPmRJs). ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/59ef9b/32.png) [@FlyingRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/50 "2014-06-26T21:05:29Z")
And one more: Zoe Keating’s “layered cello”, in which she employs a Stradivarius cello, a control pedal, and a laptop to record and loop herself as she plays live. [“Sun Will Set”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgw-bW0g1Mw) was the first piece of hers I heard, and still my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/51 "2014-06-26T21:27:53Z")
Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. It’s a beautiful, emotional piece of atonal music, and it will show you (well, it showed me) that atonal music _can_ be beautiful and emotional. Same with his opera, _Wozzeck_, which I had the pleasure of seeing with Deborah Voigt at the Met last season. Berg used the vocal techniques of _Sprechgesang_ and _Sprechstimme_ (sort of pitched speaking, rather than actual singing), and Voight, usually known as (and deservedly famed as) a Wagnerian soprano, handled them magnificently. ---
**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, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/52 "2014-06-26T22:31:42Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > . . . Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto: [http://youtu.be/VEJFuWgkGkY](http://youtu.be/VEJFuWgkGkY) . . . [And the companion piece…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHWnFJ4_61U&feature=kp) (Flanders and Swann. Michael Flanders sings the horn part to Donald Swann’s piano accompaniment. A transport of delight – no, wait, that’s another of theirs. This one is called “An Ill Wind.” The old classical radio station here in San Diego used to play the two together for a hearty one-two punch.) ---
**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 27, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/53 "2014-06-27T05:25:26Z")
Charlotte Moorman’s 1960s cello explorations pushed the boundaries of the instrument farther than anyone else ever has. She may have given her life for her art: there is suspicion that she contracted the breast cancer she died of from wearing a bra made of 2 miniature televisions, which Nam June Paik fitted her out with. She got arrested a number of times for performing topless or nude. She played chocolate cellos and ice cellos as well as TV cellos and all kinds of freaky stuff. She was one of a kind. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/54 "2014-06-27T07:04:38Z")
[Hurdy-Gurdy - Beowulf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4BUkOjxuZo) [The Epic of Gilgamesh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTsFe1PVs) [Gnossienne #3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9Vx0svwdM) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/55 "2014-06-27T13:27:22Z")
[“Musikalisches Würfelspiel”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musikalisches_W%C3%BCrfelspiel) die-generated compositions certainly would count as “unusual.” Professor David Cope has come up with some interesting compositions…well, the [software he wrote came up with some, anyway.](http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,2958756-7071243,00.html) I’ve always been partial to It’s “Another Rag, After Joplin”, mimicking, naturally the style of Joplin. There was also a piece that synthesized the styles of Mozart, and a Balinese Gamelan. The [works](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqcFGJNyxIg) of swordsman and composer [Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_de_Saint-Georges), aka “The Black Mozart,” might be of at least unusual historical interest. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/56 "2014-06-27T22:45:30Z")
Two by Leopold Mozart. (Wolfgang’s papa.) [The Toy Symphony](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnrL46wY44) (for many years incorrectly attributed to Haydn.) The orchestra backs up a collection of — toys! Bird calls and rattles and the like. Charming! [The Peasant Wedding](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztyc3JFBJ_0). The members of the orchestra are instructed to holler “Yahoo!” and to whistle between their teeth. At a couple of points, a pistol is let off. (And bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy!) ---
**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 28, 2014, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/57 "2014-06-28T10:44:45Z")
Haydn’s “Missa Sanctae Caeciliae” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/58 "2014-06-28T11:32:53Z")
Two things I find awesomely hypnotic, I listen to them once in a while and hear them in my head for days, are: Carl Orff’s [Musica Poetica](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJb2Q14z4g) and Philip Glass’s [Prelude to Akhnaten](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHXgbJEMJAo) which is built around one musical phrase repeated over and over with different emphasis. ---
**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 28, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/59 "2014-06-28T13:19:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Two by Leopold Mozart. (Wolfgang’s papa.) > > [The Toy Symphony](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnrL46wY44) (for many years incorrectly attributed to Haydn.) The orchestra backs up a collection of — toys! Bird calls and rattles and the like. Charming! Look up to my post #46. There’s now a belief that Leopold Mozart didn’t compose it, either, but a Benedictine monk I’d never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626/60 "2014-06-29T03:58:44Z")
> [@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. I think we could just nominate _all_ of Charles Ives’ production. Nevertheless, I think the companion piece to the Unanswered Question needs to be mentioned: [Central Park in the Dark](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPZbHNuZzI). This is about as close as it comes to a painting in music. It’s incredible that a piece like this was composed in 1906. From a completely different era, but in a similar genre, 16th century composer Clément Janequin’s [Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPhbS_ZlRk) (Hear the Cries of Paris). After a short intro in which the title is repeated, we’re presented with a rather cacophonous collection of genuine market criers’ calls. Again, it’s incredible that a piece like this (turnip! turnip!! turnip!!!) was composed 500 years ago. It’s an incredible historical document. Looking even further back, there’s also the work of 13th century composer Pérotin. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame School. This was the beginning of polyphony, and it’s music that [sounds like](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpgaEFmdFcM) it might have been composed ten years ago. In a completely different genre, there’s W.A. Mozart’s [Musikalisches Würfelspiel](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtpb1DkPx7I). Doesn’t sound so weird? That’s true, but it’s nevertheless unusual in that the score is created before each performance by rolling dices and following Mozart’s instructions about how to randomly arrange fragments. It’s John Cage 200 years before John Cage. Speaking of John Cage, I think his [In a Landscape](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF1DoVdHM9M) and [Dream](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUosomc8Uc), both from 1948, are unusual. To our ears, they don’t sound weird, but no one else was writing music like this in 1948. Certainly not “serious” composers. There are several pieces like that, that aren’t unusual by themselves, but are nevertheless highly unexpected when you consider the composer. Several years ago, all I knew of Stravinsky was his [Rite of Spring](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZtWAqc3qyk). I was so shocked when I first put on a CD of his [Pulcinella](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVEcJnlHUMM) that I had to take the disk out to make sure I didn’t make a mistake. A few people have linked to Legeti’s excellent choral works. He also wrote very different [vocal pieces based on Hungarian folk music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqbWFPB0x4I). Similarly, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu wrote beautiful and slightly dissonant [impressionistic music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBhwubxobSE) that blended [western and Japanese influences](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CZEZxo6bBM). Serious stuff. I picked up a CD of his title “Song of Circles and Triangles” and expected… [not what I got](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0GpGV1aCXE). He also wrote [guitar transcriptions of Beatles songs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBTf38ZGcA). A little-known composer that deserves a little bit more recognition is André Caplet. He famously beat out Ravel in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition and was a collaborator of Debussy. Unfortunately, he was not very prolific and died young. He was a master orchestrator and his music features unusual instrument combinations, which is why I mention him here. [The Mask of Red Death](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM4h1N-rPAk) for harp and string quartet (1908). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-and-unusual-classical-music/691626.md?page=4)