In no particular order: Piano Concerto in G major: adagio by Ravel Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G major by Bach String Quartet in F major by Ravel Concerto for harpsicord and orchestra by Bach
Finally, a thread about actual music. In no particular order: Monteverdi- L'Orfeo, Vespers, Ottavo Libro de' Madrigali Rodrigo- Concierto De Aranjuez Bach- Brandenburgische Konzerte Dvork- Slavonic Dances Handel- Water Music, Messiah, Israel In Egypt Mozart- Requiem Beethoven- Everything Smetana- The Moldau Perotin
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending Strauss: Metamorphoses Mussorgski: Night on Bald Mountain Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn Nektar: Recycled U.K.: In the Dead of Night
I like Bach very much, and Mozart and Wagner. I don't bother to remember the composition numbers-- I mean, do people actually spend time memorizing things like .... Symphony No. 12 in B minor? If you do, wow, I couldn't. I can't even remember my cellphone number most of the time when people ask me. But my favorite classical composition is "Rise of the Valkyries". What power, what beauty, stuff that really stirs you. I like the Brandenburg concerto too. (Don't ask me which number.)
Holst - The Planets Had to be said. Oh and ... Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
One of the stranger works I have a thing for is Bartok's "The Miraculous Mandarin". The work was not very popular and its easy to see why: the work is pure absurdity, the sort of fringe composition that Stravinsky would pine to. Its interesting nonetheless as a museum of classical decline. The 19th-20th centuries I see as the end of music in the West (traditional music still lives on in other cultures, but it is sadly passing away). With maybe the exception of a few videogame or film soundtracks (Star Wars comes to mind), there is not much in the way of dynamic or well-thought out music. Furthermore, soundtracks are nothing more than what they are: tracks to dramatic productions, and do not resonate with any deeper meaning, and NOTHING put out in modern times could compare with the works of old.
NOTHING put out in modern times could compare with the works of old. I agree with you there. No one will write music like Bach's for the next two hundred years. But no one will write drama like Shakespeare too.......We're going dowhnill.
Good to see a decent human being Gerry. Please check out my older topic on this issue: http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=48507
Gerry and Hagar, our two resident elitists. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Ain't none of this crap these young kids are puttin' out today that holds a candle to the good old stuff. I'm sorry, but "Dark Side of the Moon" is as good as most of (yawn) Bach's work, which uses the same motifs over and over and over and over again. If I ever have to hear that chord progression again that ends absolutely every "classical" piece composed before 1850, I will just throw up. Was it mandated by law or something? And Isao Tomita's overdubbed synthesizer performances of "The Planets" and "Night on Bare Mountain" are far superior to the symphonic versions. Two of the greatest recordings of the past forty years. If you're looking for literature in the English language to match the literature in the Golden Age of the English language then by definition you're doomed to fail. Much great literature is being written is Spanish now.
My favorite compositions: Shostakovich, Dmitri - Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 12) Scriabin, Alexander - Piano Sonata No. 5: Poem of Ecstasy (Op. 54) Rachmaninov, Sergei - Piano Sonata No. 2 (Op. 36)
Quote-"If you're looking for literature in the English language to match the literature in the Golden Age of the English language then by definition you're doomed to fail. Much great literature is being written is Spanish now." I think the best literature is still being written in English. The Spanish world gave us the finest novel ever, but it too has been in decline these many centuries hence. To tell the truth, I'm not really sure how good some of these Hispanic writers are: I'm still not sure what there was that was so exceptional in "One Hundred Years of Solitude", for instance. On the other hand, Borges was really very good.
" I'm sorry, but "Dark Side of the Moon" is as good as most of (yawn) Bach's work, which uses the same motifs over and over and over and over again. If I ever have to hear that chord progression again that ends absolutely every "classical" piece composed before 1850, I will just throw up. Was it mandated by law or something?" Pink Floyd is a mediocre band. And if Bach makes you yawn and mediocrity turns you on, you are in a sad state. No wonder people cheer Eminem and 50 Cent these days. When you start liking Pink Floyd over Bach, twenty years later your kids are going to prefer 50 Cent.
Right now I'm listening to an unnamed Italian concerto in F major by Bach (not adante or presto). As I lose myself in it, a beginning and ending to an entirely new world reveals itself. There are simultaneous pauses whilst other instrumentation fritters on. There are also whole pauses now and again which Bach employs brilliantly. Somewhere within it one can visualize the beauty of brief melancholy followed by some other stuff that makes me think of Bach as a romanticist composer more than anything. There's a lot of instrumental coordination that gives the appearance of something more than harmony, assistance.
Indeed! And I thought I was a snob! Whew, nothing in comparison to those. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Bach-The goldberg variations Vivaldi-The Four season Holst-The Planets Wager-The Ring Everything by Beethoven and Mozart who did to music what Einstein did to physics. PS The above is in order of what you think that order should be.
