Classical Music Enthusiasts

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samsa
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25 Apr 2011, 11:41 pm

AngelRho wrote:

I'm a mixed bag of attitude when it comes to classical music. My biggest COMPLAINT about classical music enthusiasts is how many pretentious people there are out there, usually NTs, btw, who rave on and on about Mozart because, damnit, it's MOZART!! ! The people in that category who annoy me most are clarinet players who go gaga about the famous clarinet concerto. Musically, it is not a special piece. It's not Mozart's best work. The only thing worth going on about it is that it was one of the first MAJOR works for clarinet as a solo instrument--and even then it wasn't written for the modern clarinet but a variation of it with an extended range--Mozart wrote it, and it was one of the last works he composed. His keyboard and string quartet works are just fun, but his keyboard music is no Chopin. It's not even Schubert. Plain and simple, Mozart was a prolific child prodigy and gifted at writing representative period Classical music. He is worthy of study. But I wouldn't deify him like non-musical classical music connoisseurs do.

I agree that the deification of Mozart annoys me. Nearly all of his work is good, and he wrote great works in nearly all the genres. It's nice music, but he's not the best composer ever, like he's often made out to be (I, personally think picking a 'greatest composer ever' would be impossible, even subjectively.)

I mostly listen to Romantic music myself. I lack knowledge of modern music (although I do like Shostakovitch, and intend to find more modernist music someday,) and am indifferent about Classical and Baroque composers (but do like their music, it's just not my favorite.)

And no, I don't play. I intend to learn an instrument someday, and plan on teaching myself how to read music and some basic music theory later this year (mostly so I can follow along the scores.)

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rabidmonkey4262
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25 Apr 2011, 11:50 pm

samsa wrote:

While it's totally possible to have a favorite composer, I don't think you could ever claim someone as the "greatest composer" just because one composer may be great at one aspect, but be lacking in other aspects. Chopin is one of my favorites, but I'm not a fan of his concerto orchestrations. It's a good thing he wrote mainly piano music

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samsa
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26 Apr 2011, 12:09 am

rabidmonkey4262 wrote:

samsa wrote:

Which was what I was trying to say, if badly

. Although I don't mind Chopin's piano concertos myself, they are by no means the best in the genre.

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Solvejg
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26 Apr 2011, 4:55 am

AngelRho wrote:

Count me in!

I'm a mixed bag of attitude when it comes to classical music. My biggest COMPLAINT about classical music enthusiasts is how many pretentious people there are out there, usually NTs, btw, who rave on and on about Mozart because, damnit, it's MOZART!! ! The people in that category who annoy me most are clarinet players who go gaga about the famous clarinet concerto. Musically, it is not a special piece. It's not Mozart's best work. The only thing worth going on about it is that it was one of the first MAJOR works for clarinet as a solo instrument--and even then it wasn't written for the modern clarinet but a variation of it with an extended range--Mozart wrote it, and it was one of the last works he composed. His keyboard and string quartet works are just fun, but his keyboard music is no Chopin. It's not even Schubert. Plain and simple, Mozart was a prolific child prodigy and gifted at writing representative period Classical music. He is worthy of study. But I wouldn't deify him like non-musical classical music connoisseurs do.

I do highly respect Beethoven, though, because he brought something genuinely distinct to every genre he composed in, especially the symphony. Not just the 9th, either. Every single symphony he wrote is a case study on symphonic writing. Each one is ground breaking in its own way.

I do enjoy Romantic period literature. I LOVE Weber's music, and not just the clarinet concertos (yes, I'm a clarinetist).

[b]But my FAVORITE of all time comes from the High Modernist era of the 20th Century. I never get tired of the Second Viennese School--Schoenberg and his disciples. I'm more a Webern fan than a Berg fan. I like the other stuff, too--like John Cage, Terry Riley, Reich, Adams, Glass (though not as much as Reich and Adams, but the Portrait Trilogy are my fav Glass works), Varese, Stockhausen, Babbitt (LOVED Philomel, LOVE his pieces for solo instruments).

I myself am a hardcore serialist composer. Only trouble is there isn't much demand for 12-tone or dissonant music. I don't care. I write it anyway.

I'm more active at the moment as a church musician. My wife are working together learning 4-in-hand handbells. I dislike writing hymn arrangements, but it's just one of those necessary things I have to do. I'm still wrapping my head around technical issues relating to handbells, so in the meantime I've revived an interest in "space music" and am applying serialist methods to composing space/ambient/atmospheric music. I realize we don't really count that as "classical" music, but it isn't unlike the High Modern approach of composers after WWII, so I think my electronic work is just as "legit" as that of others within the whole "classical" music rubric.

I live for serialism and 12 tone rows. My fav thing is composing a 12 tone row in my head. Whenever i feel stressed, this is what i do.

I am not into listening to music as much as looking at the notation although glass and cage always keep me listening.

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rabidmonkey4262
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26 Apr 2011, 6:49 am

samsa wrote:

Which was what I was trying to say, if badly

. Although I don't mind Chopin's piano concertos myself, they are by no means the best in the genre.

I really like the piano parts and I do list them as one of my favorite concerti. They're classic Chopin and they're hard as hell, but it's just the orchestrations that sound a bit generic. In his defense he only wrote the orchestral parts to compliment the piano, not necessarily to show off the orchestra. The Beethoven concerti were written with more equality between orchestra and soloist.

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Jonsi
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26 Apr 2011, 4:49 pm

I'm not big into classical, but I would die musically without Mozart, Beethoven or Dragonetti.

Djn
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26 Apr 2011, 6:34 pm

I'm not a musician or musically trained at all. I started listening to classical because I wanted to try something that I had not been around before. When I was in college I would work and listen to one of those cassette tape collections of composers. I discovered the benefit that it allows me to focus better and be more productive. I continue to listen to it and it has been going on 20 years since I started.
As cassettes went the way of the dodo, I started getting symphonies of composers that I like on CD- Beethoven is my favorite, just something clicks with me. I'm still learning and am still (and will probably always be) green. I heard Heroica on the classical music station the other day and I liked that one too.

Oh and also like Bach, I had a nice CD of organ pieces that I liked, but I misplaced it somewhere :oops: I have a strings focused one now and I like that too!

Have a nice evening.

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davesalyers
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26 Apr 2011, 11:42 pm

What I particularly like about the classical music genre is that a decent music collection can actually be developed at a very reasonable cost through budget CD's. Unless you are looking for particular big name artists/performers, you can find decent performances and even some excellent performances (usually from older recordings - anything post-1950 is typically fine). I know many like the offerings from Naxos label, but I have had really good luck with the budget offerings from Decca.

If I was going to rank the styles of classical in order of preference, I would typically rate them in this order: 1) Romantic, 2) Classical, 3) Modernist, and 4) Baroque. But I have been known to go through phases - including times where my primary preference is Baroque. I spent the last week listening to Beethoven's Symphonies 1-9 during my work commute. Today I was listening to Satie and Stravinsky. I'm thinking of listening to my Liszt collection next. Sometimes I also listen to the classical music channels on my satellite radio.

I haven't yet really made the leap to opera so much - any suggestions??

jmnixon95
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27 Apr 2011, 1:51 am

rabidmonkey4262 wrote:

jmnixon95 wrote:

Are you talking about "Classical music", "classical music", or both?

both really.

rabidmonkey4262
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27 Apr 2011, 10:34 am

davesalyers wrote:

I spent the last week listening to Beethoven's Symphonies 1-9 during my work commute. Today I was listening to Satie and Stravinsky. I'm thinking of listening to my Liszt collection next.

I haven't yet really made the leap to opera so much - any suggestions??

What's in your Liszt collection?

I love the first movement of Beethoven's 9th so much that my therapist suggested I play it in my head during forced social gatherings. It might actually work, provided that I don't have to talk. I can't imagine talking and playing my mental ipod at the same time.

I'm going to admit I'm not an opera fan. My parents introduced me to Hansel and Gretel when I was a kid, but that's where it stopped.

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dsaly1969
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27 Apr 2011, 12:49 pm

My Liszt collection has the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A, Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1-6, A Faust Symphony, and a variety of Sonatas and Etudes.

Since I support my family on a single-income (my wife and I homeschool our kids), I take advantage of the budget classical music collections - in this case it is the Ultimate Liszt boxed set collection from Decca.

rabidmonkey4262
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27 Apr 2011, 1:36 pm

dsaly1969 wrote:

Liszt was an exciting composer. I learned the No. 6 rhapsody, which is still so much fun to play. Some day I want to learn the No 2 rhapsody.

It's interesting how some of these classical composers like Liszt, Bartok, and Chopin were essentially ethnomusicologists with a keyboard. So many of their works are just classicized transcriptions of folk melodies, many of which were not previously recorded on paper. For all we know many of those melodies could have still been in obscurity if it wasn't for these ethnomusicologists in disguise.

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rabidmonkey4262
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10 May 2011, 5:49 pm

I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga, but I thought this four-part fugue was really well done:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYBJAQ-_24[/youtube]

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RainingRoses
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10 May 2011, 9:07 pm

I am mainly a classically trained percussionist, although I've studied piano, violin, guitar, and trombone over the years, too. I started playing when I was in Kindergarten and haven't really stopped -- although the opportunities to perform have become fewer and fewer. I was probably at my "percussive peak" in high school and studied with members of the Boston Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. I also played at Tanglewood for two summers (for people who know what and where that is). I see the OP is from Chicago ... one of my best friends was the principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony up until a few years ago.

I started law school in the fall of 2000 in Philadelphia where there is a TON of classical music always going on (Philly is a great town for that), so I started playing the piano again after many years away -- mainly to relieve stress. I actually started taking that more seriously than I did law school!

I agree with the poster who suggested that acquiring a classical music collection on CD can be a pretty economical affair. I'm sure I have >1000 classical CDs by now? Always bargain shopping!

Anyway, I'm intrigued by this question that seems to be winding its way through the thread: who is the best composer? I'm split on this, actually. Half of me wants to say, "it's Bach obviously, just get over it." The other half of me wants to let a few more contenders in. Put it this way. If God were to whisper the answer in my ear, I would be surprised if it weren't Bach. It could very well be Beethoven, however. Probably not Mozart, but who am I to say? Outside of those three, I'd be shocked. Brahms? Schubert? Schumann?

Some personal favorites who definitely would not be confused with No. 1: Scarlatti, Chopin (seems to be universal here), Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Debussy. No one 20th Century -- sorry, folks. (Except maybe Stravinsky, and then mainly the neo-classical works.)

Favorite pianists: Richter, Gould, Magaloff, Michelangeli, Lipatti -- I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch.

Awesome thread ... thanks!

DarrylZero
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10 May 2011, 9:32 pm

rabidmonkey4262 wrote:

I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga, but I thought this four-part fugue was really well done:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYBJAQ-_24[/youtube]

That gave me flashbacks of my counterpoint assignments in school. :pale:

rabidmonkey4262
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10 May 2011, 9:56 pm

DarrylZero wrote:

That gave me flashbacks of my counterpoint assignments in school. :pale:

I believe running joke was: every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.

Every time you write parallel fifths...

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