Anybody else like classical music?

[Minnesota Flats]

Back during the late 1940s-early 1950s, my parents had stacks of 78 and 45-RPM classical records they'd play on our single-speaker, Magnavox console (push-button, AM radio/changer that played 78, 45 and 33-1/3-RPM records). Check them stylish, brown Bakelite knobs, eh? In the top middle of the dial, partially obscured by reflection, is the green, illuminated tuning "eye" that glowed reassuringly whenever the unit was turned on. This console was our primary source of family entertainment before we got our first B&W TV (with "rabbit ears") in about 1954.

The "broadcast" band is AM. The other one is short wave, not FM.

Like so:


During the late '50s, my older brother got into building Heath kits. He started with a crystal radio and ended up building a "stereo hi-fi" with a separate amp for each channel.

There are many classical pieces whose main themes I can whistle note-for-note, though I don't know what they are called or who wrote them. Yet they stir deep, visceral memories of childhood.

 

[GGJaguar]

I was raised on classical and opera, but the music of the Baroque era (and Renaissance to some extent) is what really resonates with me.

 

[Brad Little]

Gustav!

If you like surrealism, check out Ken Russell's Mahler.

 

[Uke]

If you like surrealism, check out Ken Russell's Mahler.

I watched this, but wasn't too amused. I've read fairly extensively on Mahler (e.g., all four volumes of De La Grange's biography on him) so I suppose that wasn't the thing to do before watching the movie. It was entertaining, I'll give it that.

 

[ReevesRd]

Yes, I love classical music!
Chopin's Sonata 2, Op 35 4th movement

 

[walrus]

If you like surrealism, check out Ken Russell's Mahler.

The same Ken Russell who did The Who's Tommy movie...



And now back to your regularly scheduled thread...

 

[WaltW]

An example of Beethoven's power and his use of taking a simple melodic phrase and passing it through the sections of the orchestra. The 2nd Movement of his 9th Symphony, composed when he was completely deaf, by the way.

Very powerful to experience this live. Highly recommended as a live experience.

I am no technician or knowledgeable of classical music but Beethoven's 9th, for me, is the most powerful example of the complete use of each section of a full orchestra, individually and together as one. I have heard this symphony live twice, first time by the Yale orchestra in Woolsey Hall in New Haven 1973 and then at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC in 1979; donot remember the orchestra. The power and volume
rivals the biggest rock band and with no electronic amplification. (WOOF!!)
There are 2 BACH pieces that I hear in my head all the time. Toccata and Fugue in D minor on pipe organ and Air on a G string from a string ensemble. The Two Cello's version is very good also. Baroque form at it's finest imho.

 

[wileypickett]

The real founder of American classical music is Charles Ives. Before him the American composers were all German trained and pretty much followed that model. Ives received his initial training from his father, who had been a Cival war band leader at the age of 15. His father, George Ives, liked to experiment, one time inviting three other town bands to his Connecticut hometown and had each band march towards the town square from different directions playing different songs. Charles would later incorporate these sonic memories into his own music.

Sometimes nostalgic, oftimes forward thinking, always beautiful.

Heres just a couple of iconic pieces.

Very fond of Ives. His "Housatonic at Stockbridge" is a favorite of mine, from *Three Place in New England*.

 

[ReevesRd]

I had a professor who could perform Bach like no one I'd ever heard. He could trace the lineage of his teachers back to Bach. Whenever class was to meet in the chapel, I knew that it was time for an organ performance. Toccata and Fugue in D minor are outstanding in the hands of a well-trained organist.

 

[Uke]

Intersting that no one has mentioned classical GUITAR music (though Brad did mention having an extensive collection of classical guitar recordings). How about Heitor Villa Lobos:

 

[RBSinTo]

My "desert island" symphony (as in, "you can only take one"):



And this one. Gets me every time. Every. Time.

I was gonna buy those pieces of music, and learn to play them, but the version with the guitar part in tab wasn't available, so I didn't bother.
RBSinTo

 

[tonepoet]

Intersting that no one has mentioned classical GUITAR music

One of favorite classical guitar pieces is Granados' Spanish Dance No. 5 also known as "Andaluza" and this is a very nice performance of it.

 

[twocorgis]

Well, I have 3 advanced degrees focusing on classical music, so, yeah, I guess you could say I like it. My favorites have varied through the years; an early one was Tchaikovsky which led directly in Mahler after my Jr. High band directorthought I’d like him since I liked Tchaikovsky.

But since there’s been a focus on European composers, I thought I’d throw in a homegrown favorite, whom I just found out that he’s a 7th cousin, which thrills me to no end. The real founder of American classical music is Charles Ives. Before him the American composers were all German trained and pretty much followed that model. Ives received his initial training from his father, who had been a Cival war band leader at the age of 15. His father, George Ives, liked to experiment, one time inviting three other town bands to his Connecticut hometown and had each band march towards the town square from different directions playing different songs. Charles would later incorporate these sonic memories into his own music.

Sometimes nostalgic, oftimes forward thinking, always beautiful.

Heres just a couple of iconic pieces.

Very fond of Ives. His "Housatonic at Stockbridge" is a favorite of mine, from *Three Place in New England*.

I graduated high school in 1976, and went into "competition" for all-state choir in my senior year. I ended up being the only kid from my high school to make it, but boys always had better odds than the girls because there were so many more of them.

My making the choir probably had more to do with my ability to hit a low E (same as the low E on a guitar) reliably, and that was something not too many high schoolers could do. It also turns out there were a lot of them in this piece, part of an all American composer performance for the bicentennial.



It's a very powerful piece.

 

[amnicon]

I had a professor who could perform Bach like no one I'd ever heard. He could trace the lineage of his teachers back to Bach. Whenever class was to meet in the chapel, I knew that it was time for an organ performance. Toccata and Fugue in D minor are outstanding in the hands of a well-trained organist.

I'm quite partial to classical music IN my rock music:

 

[Brad Little]

Well, I have 3 advanced degrees focusing on classical music, so, yeah, I guess you could say I like it. My favorites have varied through the years; an early one was Tchaikovsky which led directly in Mahler after my Jr. High band directorthought I’d like him since I liked Tchaikovsky.

But since there’s been a focus on European composers, I thought I’d throw in a homegrown favorite, whom I just found out that he’s a 7th cousin, which thrills me to no end. The real founder of American classical music is Charles Ives. Before him the American composers were all German trained and pretty much followed that model. Ives received his initial training from his father, who had been a Cival war band leader at the age of 15. His father, George Ives, liked to experiment, one time inviting three other town bands to his Connecticut hometown and had each band march towards the town square from different directions playing different songs. Charles would later incorporate these sonic memories into his own music.

Sometimes nostalgic, oftimes forward thinking, always beautiful.

Heres just a couple of iconic pieces.

Been an admirer of Ives for a long time. I think I have a biography of him somewhere, or maybe I read it from a library. If you can find it, "Charles Ives: A Good Dissonance Like a Man" is a pretty good film bio. One other thing his father did that had an influence on him, he would have the family gather around a piano and sing hymns but each person would have to sing in a different key, so there was a bit of dissonance.

 

[Brad Little]

I watched this, but wasn't too amused. I've read fairly extensively on Mahler (e.g., all four volumes of De La Grange's biography on him) so I suppose that wasn't the thing to do before watching the movie. It was entertaining, I'll give it that.

When I saw it in a building at Yale, a few people walked out, I guess they were expecting a "strait" biography, On a different note, this was the first date with the woman who became my wife! She didn't know much about Mahler, but she was familiar with Ken Russell's work.

 

[Guilderland21]

My favorite composer is Shostakovich, and my favorite piece of his is the Fifth Symphony:


Other great pieces of his that I recommend checking out: Symphonies Nos. 10 and 13, String Quartet No. 8, Piano Trio No. 2, the Viola Sonata

Britten's Violin Concerto is also very good:

 

[Rocky]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I detest the word 'classical' and it's implied age and superiority. Can something be contemporary and classic at the same time?

I prefer 'symphonic' or 'string quartet' or whatever. And I can really appreciate the musicality and vision of many composers. Stuff far beyond my imagination.

 

[Uke]

a bit of dissonance.

Just a bit, huh? Great story!

 

[lungimsam]