WonderMeal's Classical Music Thread

[Cartierfor3]

If you like "A Christmas Story" you'll love Peter and the Wolf

[SkinnyBenny]

If you like Peter and the Wolf you'll like "A Christmas Story."

[J]

My Favorite Eras:

1. Romantic: A period of great change and emancipation. The rules of the classical era were let go so that the gamut of textures, chord structures, and meters could run free upon the canvas of human interpretation. This opened listeners up to a vast new array of elements within the tonal medium, and conceived fire from the tinder of the generation before it, allowing for a wildfire of innovation to flourish.
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2. Modern: A continuation of romanticism, but that sometimes fell even further outside of the box, fusing atonality with tonality, exploiting non-eight-note scales for their use in composition, as well as further segregating genres (sometimes within genres) as we know them today.

3. Baroque: Chords and patterns as we know them were seeded and grew from this era's fertile gardens. The exploration of using different instruments to manipulate character of sound and create musical niches flew firm upon the horizon of this era. It was sound as sound had never been before.
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1000. Classical: I hate the classical era. Too many rules and too little innovation. It is complete dogshit.

[SkinnyBenny]

Guys, can I confess something? Please only read if you'll keep this secret safe.

I love music theory but I honestly don't give much of a crap about form. It's boring as hell. And yeah it has some importance but it can sort of just exist as a suggestion to go by with about 10 different versions and then just let that be it. No reason for so many dork store profs to get boners over it i mean really lmao


Anyway, this is maybe my all-time favorite work. It's brilliant. Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. It has it all!

--Dope, lush orchestration
--Fiendish, fiery, fast piano that seems impossible
--Evocative slow movement that will make you cry ur eyes out.

Oh and it has a chord progression near the beginning of the first movement that Muse used in their song "Space Dementia."

Full 3 movements, which you should dedicate 33 1/2 minutes of your undivided attention to over MLK weekend. (Rachmaninoff deserves it and it's what the King would've wanted.)



Now for the specific Muse callback!

Listen to the Rachmaninoff original here. Link below is set to start right where it begins, and you can stop listening at 2:07.


Muse, "Space Dementia"
and listen through 2:51.



Rachmaninoff is a complete stud. COMPLETE stud.










 

[Tobias]

Bolero is for the studs like us.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/217340-unraveling-bolero/

[SkinnyBenny]

Dat Bolero modulation

[tdaver]

Yes SkinBen!  I am a sucker for piano concertos.  Rach 2 is fantastic.  I could listen to the 2nd movement over and over for days on end.  Also love the Grieg concerto and of course everyone knows Rach 3 after "Shine" popularlized it.  Speaking of Shine, that movie has some excellent music in the soundtrack, even some great choral stuff that i usually don't go for.

[mocat]

J i don't get your classical period hate. too many rules you say? who is the most famous composer from the classical period? mozart. how many fucks did mozart ever give about rules? 0

[mocat]

the Bolero love is warranted. nobody was ever so productive as one who was listening to Bolero.

my favorite piece is from the Romantic period, from Smetana's My Country (how cliche romantic period is that?  ), The Moldau. It's just increds and it traces the entire life of the Vltava river, from its small spring source through the countryside and through Prague and on a wild fox chase and eventually disappearing by merging with the Elbe.
You can imagine my delight when I heard it played prominently in The Tree of Life.

anyway some other faves:

Rach III has been mentioned, as well as Shine. if you haven't seen it, you need to go see the old pirate as the eccentric pianist genius hermit guy

Beethoven Violin Concerto in Dmaj

try to listen to Brahms' A German Requiem and not just weep uncontrollably

I know the Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss is overly familiar, but the entire 10 minute piece is fantastic

[spacedog]

Spacedog's favorite eras

1. Romantic /Post-Romantic- So much innovation, composers busting out music that made people go crazy. Even though the era "ends" around 1900, early 20th century romantic composers cranked out some awesome music.
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2. Modern/ 20th Century- Come at me
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3 Classical- You can give it crap for being boring, having too many rules, and not being expressive, but the way the greats (Haydn especially) used the rules to guide their creativity is genius stuff. Following all of the rules of composition but still creating something new and exciting can be just as impressive as creating something out of left rough ridin' field. Hating on classical can GTFOOMF.
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4. Baroque- Nobody should play music on period instruments. They went away because they were shitty, don't bring them back.


 

[mocat]

ya baroque is pretty hard on the ears. no piano? no thanks.

[Cartierfor3]

Anyway, this is maybe my all-time favorite work. It's brilliant. Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. It has it all!

--Dope, lush orchestration
--Fiendish, fiery, fast piano that seems impossible
--Evocative slow movement that will make you cry ur eyes out.

Oh and it has a chord progression near the beginning of the first movement that Muse used in their song "Space Dementia."

Full 3 movements, which you should dedicate 33 1/2 minutes of your undivided attention to over MLK weekend. (Rachmaninoff deserves it and it's what the King would've wanted.)

Piano player is a babe in this youtube. Good for the eyes and ears

[SkinnyBenny]

Mocat those are all very excellent choices even if you say they're cliche. I mean the way I think of it, if stuff in the classical music world seems cliche it's just because it's good enough to have stuck around in the public consciousness for well over 100 years. Most of the time, at least.

And now for some Rach talk!

K-State had a stud piano player named Bill Wingfield for many years. He was on the music department staff as the accompanist guy. d00d was an incredible talent who could sit down and sightread anything on the planet. Grumblings that the KSU Music Dept. had a stud piano student who was supposed to play Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto with the K-State Orchestra, but this stud fell ill three days before the concert so Bill Wingfield was just like "Hey sure I'll crank out these seven million notes within a 30-minute span and I'll be completely flawless. Sure. Let's give it a whirl."

[Cartierfor3]

Mocat those are all very excellent choices even if you say they're cliche. I mean the way I think of it, if stuff in the classical music world seems cliche it's just because it's good enough to have stuck around in the public consciousness for well over 100 years. Most of the time, at least.

And now for some Rach talk!

K-State had a stud piano player named Bill Wingfield for many years. He was on the music department staff as the accompanist guy. d00d was an incredible talent who could sit down and sightread anything on the planet. Grumblings that the KSU Music Dept. had a stud piano student who was supposed to play Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto with the K-State Orchestra, but this stud fell ill three days before the concert so Bill Wingfield was just like "Hey sure I'll crank out these seven million notes within a 30-minute span and I'll be completely flawless. Sure. Let's give it a whirl."

What kind of dork gets sick and is still too sick 3 days later to play the piano?

[SkinnyBenny]

I think it was an excuse for a stud who was unable to cross over to superstud through Rach II. Either way that guy needs to read the sick day thread.

[0.42]

CONFUTAAAAAAAATIS

[J]

 

J i don't get your classical period hate. too many rules you say? who is the most famous composer from the classical period? mozart. how many fucks did mozart ever give about rules? 0

The hate for classical is purely my personal preference. I definitely recognize the genius of men like Hayden, Mozart, Salieri, etc. But I personally don't enjoy it.

[mocat]

Mocat those are all very excellent choices even if you say they're cliche. I mean the way I think of it, if stuff in the classical music world seems cliche it's just because it's good enough to have stuck around in the public consciousness for well over 100 years. Most of the time, at least.

And now for some Rach talk!

K-State had a stud piano player named Bill Wingfield for many years. He was on the music department staff as the accompanist guy. d00d was an incredible talent who could sit down and sightread anything on the planet. Grumblings that the KSU Music Dept. had a stud piano student who was supposed to play Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto with the K-State Orchestra, but this stud fell ill three days before the concert so Bill Wingfield was just like "Hey sure I'll crank out these seven million notes within a 30-minute span and I'll be completely flawless. Sure. Let's give it a whirl."

that is a great story.

sorry if i was unclear; what i meant by "cliche" is that the title of Smetana's set of symphonic poems "My Country" is very cliche for the Romantic period. The Romantic period was the first time where people really started identifying with their ethnicities and having nationalistic pride (ultimately boiling over to WWI, one could argue). So the fact that there's this great work of music titled "My Country" is very representative of the Romantic period in general. At least that's my opinion from a very limited knowledge of European history.

[mocat]

Mozart music has too many notes

got it, thanks

[J]

he doesn't like what i like  must be too stupid to understand it!!

just let it go, mo

[Cartierfor3]

I had a music history class where we were in the classical period, and one student was always asking questions about Salieri, I assume because of Amadeus

[mocat]

he doesn't like what i like  must be too stupid to understand it!!

just let it go, mo

  

[J]

he doesn't like what i like  must be too stupid to understand it!!

just let it go, mo

  

top bantz m8!

[J]

i used to go to the library with my computer where the media section was and sit there for hours burning music (mostly classical) onto my computer. did anyone else do this? i also ate a bunch of fruit snacks during this if that matters

[Brock Landers]

Mozart music has too many notes

got it, thanks

Emperor Joseph II:  Your work is ingenious.  It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all.  Just cut a few and it will be perfect.

Mozart:  Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?