Barb and I tend to have the most eclectic tastes in the world. Our collection ranges from early 90s rock to Vivaldi with nearly everything in between.
Probably our favorite classical composers are Piotr Ilyich Tchmispelling and most of the Five (we neither own any Cui nor plan to). I’m not sure how overlooked or underappreciated it is, but our favorite piece, which we hear nowhere else but at home, would have to be Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto…which was bastardized for some “pop standard” song which I have finally put out of my mind.
Uke, I may be stamping myself as totally middlebrow, but I have to go along with the Chief…John Williams is excellent background music when you’re doing something else.
Question for the aficionados of contemporary “classical” music: I have heard good things about Hovhaness, who seems to be a Washington State native with much talent, but never see his music anywhere or hear it on any classical station. What is his work like? In your opinion, is it any good?
By all means, check out Hovhaness. Very impressionistic, hypnotically alluring music. His best known pieces are well worth owning: Symphony No. 2 (“Mysterious Mountain”) and AND GOD CREATED WHALES, which includes tapes of whale calls.
I used to think I hated Rachmaninoff, but I now love his Symphony No. 1, very rarely performed or recorded, which is not only Romantic but Decadent Romantic. Also his tone poem THE ISLE OF THE DEAD, a tribute to one of my favorite paintings (see the “Favorite Paintings” thread).
I’ve been feeling bad all afternoon about teasing the Chief on that John Williams thing. I own a number of soundtracks myself, mostly Bernard Herrmann’s: JANE EYRE, VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. (Also ZABRISKIE POINT, which features over twenty minutes of 1970 Jerry Garcia solo electric guitar improvisation.) Herrmann’s “serious” music is really great, too…especially his Symphony, his String Quartet, and his Clarinet Quintet (he wrote one of each).
I don’t much care for the true “classical” composers (Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven). I find that I get bored when listening to music of that period. Don’t get me wrong - I realize the importance, complexity, and beauty of these works. They’re just not my cup of tea.
Instead, I find myself attracted to the Romantics and Modernists. Some of my favorite pieces include:
Moussorgski’s Pictures at an Exhibition - I just love the majesty of the “Great Gate of Kiev”.
Dvorák’s Symphony from the New World - The allegro con fuoco movement just gets me going.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo - These were the first classical pieces I fell in love with - so much so that I named my dog Copland.
Khatchaturian’s Spartacus - It’s been a long time since I heard this one. Now I gotta go try to find my recording of it!
Holst’s The Planets - I love the contrast between Mars and Venus, the “flightiness” of Mercury (pun intended), and the majesty of Jupiter.
I’ve always liked Darius Milhaud’s LE BOEUF SUR LE TOIT. He envisioned it as music for a Charlie Chaplin movie.
I may be crass, but I find many of the sterotypical “classical” pieces quite good. These include the 1812 Overture (try hearing it live some time – records can’t capture it properly) and the William Tell Overture (along with a lot of Rossini). The reason why these pieces are so overplayed is because they’re good.
Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” is considered part of the classical repetoire, as some of his other music. He wanted to be a classical composer and went to Ravel for lessons. Ravel refused, saying, “Why should you be a second-rate Ravel, when you’re already a first-rate Gershwin?” Nice to see George got his wish.
On a recent album Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma did a version of Bach’s Musette in D Major that suddenly breaks into “Purple Haze.” The audience was obviously baffled at the joke, but since I played Musette in my piano lessons, I loved it.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
My absolute favorite piece is Dvorak’s String Quintet Op 97 as performed by the Raphael Ensemble. It’s Hyperion 66308, ooooh how I love this piece.
Overall I’m partial to medieval vocal music, the secular stuff most of all although it’s all pretty good. Sinfonye are my favorite ensemble for this sort of thing in particular a CD of theirs called The Courts of Love (Hyperion 66367 - I’m a big fan of Hyperion records if you couldn’t tell!)
I like to use the term “Classical” loosely. Meaning, any style of music that would comfortable (to the casual listener) be played on a Classical radio station.
Or, another way of looking at it would be, any style of music that would raise complaints from listeners on your typical rock/pop/whatever radio station. (They’d be saying “I don’t like this ‘song’” when confronted with “The 1812 Overture” or something. Or, they’d say they were uncomfortable with listening to something “too obscure”.)
You get my drift - a musical piece that is mostly orchestral, or a vocal song that has a strong orchestral accompanyment. Of course, there will always be things that could be argued would fall into the “Classical” category that would not fit into my simplistic and loose description. I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that much film music, under my generous description, would be considered “Classical”, seeing as I almost never hear his work played anywhere else other than Classical radio stations.
With that said, my favorite underappreciated “Classical style” pieces are:
"Our Native Land" by Jean Sibelius. Absolutely gorgeous choral music. Sigh.
And then “Under Fire”, an out-of-print film score by Jerry Goldsmith. It got an Oscar nomination the year it came out (1985?).
Maybe it’s not obscure, since I hear it on a popular car commercial, but Ralph Vaughn-Williams (sp?) “Lark Ascending”. Probably the most gorgeous music ever written.
Realizing it’s very much an acquired tase, I should recommend “Hymnen” by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It’s electronic, quite a bit of musique concrete, but if you can deal with it there are parts (especially the Russian national anthem) that really pack an emotional wallop.
Beyond that, the “Exordium” from “Delusion of the Fury” by Harry Partch. Spooky stuff.
Saint Eutychus H.M.S.H. " ‘He is a prince’ , the minstrels sing.<BR>
Among men, yes. Among fools he is a king." Disney Shorts The Eutychus Papers
My favorite obscure composer is Vivaldi! Let me 'splain. When I first became interested in serious music, only one composition was known, “The Four Seasons”. I liked it so much that I searched for more of his works. The Schwann Catalog of that time listed only that one work. As time went by, other Vivaldi compositions were found & recorded, to my delight. Now, there so many
Vivaldi works have been found that they are now cataloged as is Mozart & J.S.Bach.
Re: The Planets. The first recording that I bought was on 12" 78’s (which I can no longer play lacking a 78rpm player). Next I got a momo LP, then a Reel to reel stereo tape (we called it “binaural” then) later a stereo LP, a cassette tape for the car. I even have a vidio of astronomical views, the accompaning music, The Planets. I don’t have a CD yet, but it seems that I should.
Mozart is my favorite composer. I’m even married to a native Salzburger!
I’ll throw out a few that haven’t already been mentioned:
Bela Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta - If you don’t like “that dissonant modern music”, this might change your mind.
Carlo Gesualdo: Madrigals Books 5 & 6 - Very moving, get translations from the Italian text to read while listening. You may find it hard to believe this harmony was composed around 1600.
Leonard Bernstein: Slava! - A short, light, humorous piece that has some catchy tunes. Mass - A long pompous theater piece that has moments of humor and brilliance.
Some other favorites, but they’re hardly overlooked or unappreciated:
Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana
Antonin Dvorak: Slavonic Dances
I’d say that Carmina Burana squeezes (barely) into the overlooked / underappreciated category, not including “O Fortuna”, obviously.
Not that “O Fortuna” isn’t one of the most kick-arse ditties of all time, but I have a particular fondness for “Fortune Plango Vulnera” and “In Taberna”.
Mussorgsky, definitely, “Pictures at an Exhibition” is awesome, so are pieces of “Boris Goudonov”. Of course, you never know whether you’re listening to Mussorgsky, Ravel, or Rimsky-Korsakov.
Don’t know if it would be considered “classical”, but I listen a lot lately to Copland’s “Quiet City” and Schoenberg’s “Theme and Variations”.
For the “big” sound, there’s always Berlioz and Mahler.
Resphigi, Rossini, Persichetti, there is so much to choose from…
Right about “O Fortuna”, Denning. I’d definitely put her on the list of “Classical music everybody recognizes but few know where it’s from.” Along with Also Sprach Zarathustra, Dance of the Hours, Ride of the Valkyrie, and so many more.
Pictures definately rocks - and one should also hear Night on Bald Mnt, also by M.M.
But so far in this thread nobody has mentioned Igor Stravinski’s “Le Sacre du Printemps”? Or the Chopin Preludes/Etudes? Opus 10, no 4 in C#-minor is something quite amazing. Also Opus 28 no’s 8, 16, and 24, as well as the more famous no’s 20 and 4.
The true “classical” period is thought to have started in 1750, with the death of J. S. Bach.
A classical (in the looser form of the word) that I think of as a favorite is Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sheherezade”.
As for the classical music of the future, I think you have to look toward movie soundtracks. Some of John Williams’ music will survive the test of time, I’m sure; still I’m not particularly fond of him. Horner, Silvestri, Elmer Bernstein, and possibly Elfman will all be thought of as great contemporary composers, for their work in the movies. Other possibilities are Vangelis, Glass, Barry, and Kamen.
When someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles to frown. But it takes only 4 muscles to extend your arm and whack them in the head.
