Wow, you must be one in a million… or billion… or…
klockwerk wrote:
I’ve heard of stuff that was one voice/rhythm/boring melody but have never heard it. Although a lot of the stuff I have heard is one rhythm and a staid melody, and I still like that. The harmony is what makes me like it, though.
Sometimes, though, half of a song is sung by one person, then the refrain is sung by accompaniement. In fact, I think I will dig out a tape and play it now…the one i have is a “Mass”, and they really push the envelope at the end, they have a bell 
A great deal of Romantic era music just doesn’t cut it for me- particularly the operas and symphonic works.
Pre-Baroque and 20th/21st century stuff is more my cup of tea. Praetorius, Byrd, Montiverdi, Dufay, Crumb, Partch, Webern- that’s where it’s at.
My taste runs through the whole gamut of classical music, from Gregorian chant to contemporary. I don’t think there is any composer I’ve heard that I totally dislike, on the other hand, I don’t think there is one composer whose works I all like (well, maybe Bach and Mahler).
Well, Mahler is certainly long and drawn-out, but I wouldn’t say it’s always dark and depressing. He supposedly was a very tortured soul, but his music often sounds quite uplifting to me. (End of the Resurrection Symphony, for example) Not that good music can’t be dark and depressing, but I just feel like I’m toiling away in a labor camp or something when I listen to Shostakovich. It’s just a matter of personal preference for me. Also, the 2 composers had IMO radically different harmonic vocabularies, and while Shostakovich’s harmonies were perhaps more unusual and innovative, they just don’t speak to me personally.
Maybe I overstated it, though. I enjoy Shostakovich; I just don’t think I’d go out of my way to buy a recording of it or anything.
Some of you don’t like Sibelius and Shostakovich? :eek: I am so shocked! I love these guys! I grew up with them (especially Sibelius) since my dad was a numero uno Sibelius fan. And I mean a big, BIG fan. And also Bruckner. My dad was a big Sibelius, Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich fan. So I can’t help but love them too, since I heard them all continually–starting when I was in the womb.
Something by Sibelius that sounds like “meandering” at first is in fact brilliant and full of rich texture. You just gotta keep listening. And have you heard the rather obscure (just first recorded about 17 years ago, I think) Sibelius work “Our Native Land”? That is freakin’ brilliant. At least I think so.
As far as my dislikes, I guess I have to say some of Bartok, Schoenberg and John Cage just don’t do it for me. Other composers have a few pieces that I like (I do like a little bit of Bartok) but the rest of it–no thanks. And the same goes for some operas. (I do have season tickets to the local opera, and always enjoy each production, so many increased exposure and education will help expand my horizons when it comes to opera.)
Must add one more thing: You guys act as if “depressing, drawn-out and dark” are a bad thing!
Some of my favorite music is depressing and long and drawn-out. There’s nothing quite like a long, depressing piece to lift the spirits, I’m tellin’ ya. 
Charles Ives sets my teeth on edge. I generally dislike twelve tone or atonal music. I understand that it has value, but it doesn’t please me. At the same time, I really do like Stavinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” as strident and downright violent as it gets, and Elliot Goldenthal’s new ballet “Othello” is beginning to grow on me.
Bernsteine operas, just can’t stand them. Bartok (most of) and wagner (again, most of) I realy don’t like.
Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice
Reich’s “Counterpoint Clams” heard in the Zankel Hall performance space. This piece involves an addition of 3 musicians to the normal orchestral complement, and they are dedicated to playing the castanets. The clattering “chatter” the three musicians generate is remarkable as the “clams” sing back and forth at various pitches and speeds, and this goes on at length until the breaks, which are these sort of swirling techno suspend and release bits, while a choral group makes vague moaning sounds in the background. This goes on for about 45 minutes.
I’ll come to the defense of Carmina Burana. It’s one of my absolute favorite pieces. But once you get into the “sequels”, Orff composed, you love my vote. Catulli Carmina and Trionfo Di Afrodite are abyssmal.
My roommate and I did have a lot of fun with those sections of Catulli Carmina from which the translations had been ommitted in the liner notes. “My little fish longs for your little fountain” and all sorts of other great pickup lines. You know, just in case you’re ever hanging out at a party filled with Latin speakers and some puella beata catches your oculus (ouch!).
To quote myself:
Let’s clear one thing up - It’s possible to admire a composer, while at the same time not particularly enjoy his music. While I admire Shostakovich’s abilities as a composer, his music is just too freakin’ introspective for my taste, that’s all. Tchaikovsky #6 is depressing as hell, but I love it!
Love Mahler. Like Bruckner, although it gets a little static-sounding and repetitive at times. But Bruckner is awesome just for the glorious brass writing, if nothing else.
Nah, I’ve listened to it. Brahms is full of rich texture; Sibelius is full of pointless noodling.
At my roommate’s request, I’m adding Franck.
“Modulez, modulez!”
HERETIC!!! :eek:
How can you say such things about the great Jean Sibelius!!! I am beyond inconsolable…
Mahler does nothing for me — but I do like Shostakovich. Odd?
I generally enjoy music in all shapes and sizes, but I have a strong preference for everything that’s not classical+symphonic. I was battered to death with Brahms and Beethoven’s pieces based on a…ahem… more branched-out arrangement and right now I’ll take anything “chamber” and “solo” over these.
The exeption would be Prokofiev and Dvorak and i guess generally late XIX, first half of XX music.
I’m too stupid for Berg, just shoot me, I don’t get it. I get Yoko Ono, but not Berg.
apropos Carmina Burana - we actually sang it with a choir and I will bet most anything it’s 100 times more fun to sing it than to just listen. It’s a rrrriot.
Love Mahler (especially his 5th), but Bruckner’s never really done much for me. Though maybe I just haven’t given him enough of a chance.
I find Barber’s Adagio for Strings* boring and way overrated, but that could very well be my fault rather than the music’s.
Even more apropos of Carmina Burana - I just performed it (viola) all weekend. I win.
It seems that Mozart hasn’t come up all to often. moodtobestewed claimed that he didn’t enjoy a couple of his piano concertos, but after a quick search, no-one else has said a thing about him. Which leads me to assume he was just a mediocrity, or we all just love him to death.
Does anyone out there dislike him as a composer, or at least more than 2 or 4 of his works? It’d be pretty interesting to know that we can all find comfort with the one and only Amadeus.
Come to think of it, not all too many Classical age composers have come up. All the conflicts arise surrounding that period of music…