I have always wanted to get into classical music but wasn't sure where to start..
I really like Jazz, listen to quite a bit of it.. any suggestions that would be a sort of bridge?
One guy I'd recommend is Nikolai Kapustin. Russian classical composer who's very interested in fusing jazz and classical (often Baroque) forms, and has in turn become influential in terms of modern jazz piano.
If you listen to a lot of jazz, you're probably familiar with Keith Jarrett. He does a lot of classical exploration in his music, and is very involved in the contemporary chamber music industry. One of the links I had in my previous post - The Arvo Part recording - features him playing with Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer. I think it can be useful to listen to a musician you're already familiar with and see what they do in a different setting.
Another way of making the jump from jazz to classical is to find some classically trained jazz musicians that you like, find out who their classical influences were, and then see if you can find common elements in their music. For example, Canadian jazz pianist DD Jackson says he was influenced by Prokofiev, among others, and his music at times has these big, dissonant chords that are really reminiscent of some of the sounds that Prokofiev uses.
IMO, Requiem is the greatest piece of music ever written.
Seconded! Most classical music, for me, is something you play in the background but not really pay strict attention to. Which is not to say I don't enjoy it.
But I find when Mozart's Requiem plays I pay much more attention. The version I have is von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, but I'd be interested to hear what other's favourite versions are.
One of my favourite pieces of music is "Intermezzo" from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.
It's featued in Godfather III and Raging Bull.
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We may curse our bad luck that it's sounds like its; who's sounds like whose; they're sounds like their (and there); and you're sounds like your. But if we are grown-ups who have been through full-time education, we have no excuse for muddling them up.
I have always wanted to get into classical music but wasn't sure where to start..
I really like Jazz, listen to quite a bit of it.. any suggestions that would be a sort of bridge?
Anything by Claude Bolling. He has a 'schtick' - basically it's a jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) with a classical musician added. Some well known classical players are featured on his recordings, like Jean Rampal, Alexandre Lagoya, Yo-Yo Ma, etc.
Seconded! Most classical music, for me, is something you play in the background but not really pay strict attention to. Which is not to say I don't enjoy it.
But I find when Mozart's Requiem plays I pay much more attention. The version I have is von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, but I'd be interested to hear what other's favourite versions are.
What puts it over the top is that Mozart knew he was dying and wrote it for himself.
This was the guy who wrote a symphony when he was 8 and an opera when he was 13. He wrote his stuff out in ink the first time because he never re-drafted or edited. Probably the most talented composer the world ever has or will see.
When you combine effortless talent with a drive of emotion that we probably can't comprehend, the Requiem is what you end up with.
I'm partial to orchestral music and Cello since I grew up playing that instrument.
There is some absolutely amazing classical music out there, but also really boring stuff as well. You just need to find some favourites and you might fall in love with this genre.
Some favourites that also might be somewhat recognizable:
Dvorak - New World Symphony
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons
Mozart - Symphony 40
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Saint Saens - The Carnival of the Animals
Gustav Holst - The Planets
IMO, Requiem is the greatest piece of music ever written. Age old controversy about how much of it Mozart actually finished before his death, but nonetheless an amazing work of music:
Great piece of music, but I think Verdi's Requiem and Faure's Requiem are in the same league. My favorite of the three is Verdi's.
Moto Perpetuo, Carnival of Venice, Flight of the Bumblebee, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Tis the Last Rose of Summer are just a few of the great selections of music found on CARNIVAL. I have yet to find someone who does not enjoy most of the selections on that CD.
Beethoven's odd numbered symphonies are phenomenal. I've always been partial to Eroica.
Haydn was a prolific composer of symphonies. I enjoy no's 44, 53, 94, 104 among others.
Mozart's 3 Divertimento performed by Sir Neville Marriner and The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is one of my favorite recordings. And like many 18th century classical composers Mozart had some fantastic violin concertos (3 & 5). The same could be said for Vivaldi as he composed somewhere over 500 concertos. Pietro Antonio Locatelli was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer. His violin concertos 10 & 11 are very good. And one cannot forget the contributions Niccolo Pagannini made to the art of the violin concerto. Magnificent he was as both a composer and virtuoso violinist.
JS Bach's Well-tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations and Brandenburg Concertos as well. Lots of people getting into this type of music sometimes find Baroque compositions easier to listen to; ie. The Four Seasons, Handel's Water Music. Some of this stuff is really top notch and great to listen to on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon.
For inspiring overtures Rossini's William Tell, The Thievish Magpie and the Italian Girl in Algiers.
One of my personal favorite pieces of music has to be Strauss' The Blue Danube. Strauss was paid the highest compliment by his friend Brahms when the latter declared it was the one piece of music he wished he wrote. Fantastic.
Richard Wagner wrote some legendary operatic works as well as other calssical pieces. Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, the Flying Dutchman, Tannhaeuser, etc.
Some others:
Gustav Holst - The Planets
Tchaikovky - Piano Concerto no.1 in b flat minor
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto no.2
Johannes Brahms - symphonies no. 3 & 4
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
Schubert - Unfinished Symphony
Mahler - symphony no. 9
As much as I enjoy listening to a great deal of these composers, Beethoven alone, stands above the rest. There is something special about what he did. I'd encourage any classical music neophyte to jump into LvB's catalog with both feet.
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Anything people would specifically recommend as pump you up music... possibly already linked in you tube form, but that said and not wanting to listen to them all... what would you use to pump up a team before a game, or blast before/during that really hard rubicon 4x4 rock climb.
Just a classical spin on the we "will rock you" blah blah, we hear all the time.
Anything people would specifically recommend as pump you up music... possibly already linked in you tube form, but that said and not wanting to listen to them all... what would you use to pump up a team before a game, or blast before/during that really hard rubicon 4x4 rock climb.
Just a classical spin on the we "will rock you" blah blah, we hear all the time.
Another piece from Wagner perhaps? It worked for Robert Duvall to blow up a Vietnamese village in Apocalypse Now, maybe it will work for climbing a rock.
Another piece from Wagner perhaps? It worked for Robert Duvall to blow up a Vietnamese village in Apocalypse Now, maybe it will work for climbing a rock.
Anything people would specifically recommend as pump you up music... possibly already linked in you tube form, but that said and not wanting to listen to them all... what would you use to pump up a team before a game, or blast before/during that really hard rubicon 4x4 rock climb.
Just a classical spin on the we "will rock you" blah blah, we hear all the time.
The ending of the first movement (Allegro con brio) of Beethoven's symphony no. 5 is pure aggression in music. The last 90 seconds in particular.
Also the last 4 minutes of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, when the French are retreating from the gates of Moscow and the Russians start firing the captured French artillery on the retreating troops of Napoleon's Grande Armee.
Carl Orff's O Fortuna from Carmina Burana.
Gustav Holst - The Planets - Mars, The Bringer of War.
Last edited by NBC; 03-19-2011 at 04:01 AM.
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