In respose to a thread here [url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259268&highlight=identify+classical]UK Dopers - Can You Identify This Classical Piece?[/ur] I downloaded the identified music - ‘Balcony Scene’. It’s a pretty average song except for a really clever bit near the end lasting about 10 seconds.
The first Bagpipe bit in ‘Mull of Kintyre’ sends a massive chill down my spine every time I hear it.
(In fact bagpipes do that to me anyway)
What otherwise mediocre musical pieces have short brilliant bits in them?
Why leave it at ‘mediocre’ pieces? Debussy’s ‘Clair da Lune’ was four minutes of now-considered-elevator music sandwiching a minute and a half of the most beautiful piano stretch ever written. You know it when you hear it.
Bear in mind that when I say Mull of Kintyre I mean the Paul McCartney version. As I have just downloaded what turned out to be a really rubish version by some opera singers.
capacitor I do know it. And I think it is a beautiful song, but I had trouble distinguishing any particular bit of it as being better than the rest.
Or should that be ‘bare’? (‘bear’ in mind??)
I think it’s “bear” as in “bearing a load” only in this case we’re bearing information. I wish I had something to add, too.
The part where the piano playing starts to speed up, that’s when ‘Clair da Lune’ stops being ephemeral and become unforgettable.
Another piece with a masterful transistion was Mozart’s “Overture to Don Giovanni”. The entry into the main theme was brillant, reflecting Don being discovered with his dallying, and being on the lam, which begins the opera.