suggestions for classical music playlist - P2P-Zone

honeybee · 24-05-03, 07:09 PM

Im illiterate in this music genre, suggestions appreciated!

JackSpratts · 24-05-03, 08:44 PM

http://205.188.234.67:8034

this will kill 2 birds with one stone. it's a classical stream. it shows artist, symphony, movement etc so when you hear something you like you don't need to sit thru endless soul killing classical announcer windage to learn it. it's a 16k hibit stream of classical and chamber 128k mp3's for winamp. (copy link, open winamp, ctrl "L", paste, bookmarks, add). you can also rip these tracks using streamripper. one cd will hold 12 hours of the stuff.

bon voyage.

- js.

Ramona_A_Stone · 30-05-03, 10:41 AM

A brief chronological survey of my own tastes in classical, in which I leap irresponsibly across centuries ignoring and forgetting oodles of genius:

St. Godric. Only three of his songs survive in written form from the 12th century, but they are striking. The piece Crist and St. Marie is incredibly haunting, and you can find a beautiful version by the group Anuna—who are a wonderful introduction to ancient classical music in general. Try also their version of Cormacus Scripsit, the oldest surviving piece written in three parts, or Sanctus, based on the works of Hildegard von Bingen.

Hildegard von Bingen. Ms. Bingen was also composing right at the cusp of written music and her work was suppressed by the church because she used "satanic" intervals in her liturgical chants. (thirds) There are older Gregorian chants that also come down to us, but Ms. Bingen shines like a beacon in the mists of history—recordings of her compositions feature some incredible female vocalists, and just about any you can find will transport you. There was a surge in the popularity of her music a few years ago which produced, among others, the albums Canticles of Ecstacy, Lux Vixens, and 11,000 Virgins, all excellent.

Some other good introductions to Medieval and early Renaissance music are Kronos Quartet's aptly named Lachrymæ Antiqua (Early Music), The Baltimore Consort's On The Banks of Helicon (Early Music of Scotland), and Jordi Savall's Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World), the music of Marin Marias, which brings us up to the 17th century.

Johann Pachelbel. German organist remembered largely for one piece: his Canon in D Major. You've heard this whether you know it or not, it's often used as Christmas music and cropped up in a recent commercial. For me, the best recording of it, although it's actually variations on the canon and not the original structure, is Brian Eno's Discreet Music. (in three parts)

The Albinoni Adagio is essential.

Johann Sebastian Bach. For me Bach is the ultimate classical composer. (I'm not terribly big on much symphonic music, with a few exceptions, and Bach's work tends more toward "keyboard studies" and chamber music, which is more to my taste.) My favorites are The Well Tempered Clavier, an extensive body of works, The Goldberg Variations, and The Brandenburg Concertos, but I find all of his work has a delightful, fluid yet mathematical quality. Indeed, a number of his fugues are said to be "impossible" and contain an impossible number of component voices. He had to be insane. Here's a site containg midi files of almost all of his work.

During the late Romantic/early Modern period there where a lot of brilliant composers to be sure, but much of the music is too flowery and operatic for my tastes. Frederic Chopin is a real standout, with his moody piano pieces, as is Franz Liszt and Erik Satie.

Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is a really accessible work, popularized in the late 20th century by Emerson, Lake and Palmer's rendering.

Claude Debussy seems to me to be one of the first classical composers to become really interested in developing his own unique sound, and I'm not certain, but I think he may have coined the idea of "tone poems." His work seems to have new colors in it compared to the history of music at his time, though in our time, I think, he has been so influential that it's easy to overlook how unique he was. His "greatest hits" are probably Clair de Lune, the Arabesques, Reverie, and Snowflakes are Dancing—the last being the title of an amazing album with synthetic renderings of all of the above by Japanese musician Isao Tomita. There's also a very interesting album called The Seduction of Claude Debussy by The Art of Noise, which doesn't touch directly all that much on his music, but is based on the story of his life.

Béla Bartók is an interesting cat, and a lot of his strange percussive, rhythmic works seemed to pave the way for a lot of modern composers such as Steve Reich. Try his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.

Igor Stravinsky, for me, represents everything good about symphonic music. The Rite of Spring is always the first thing I think of when I think of full orchestral works, alternately as violent and balls-out as any rock and roll, and eerily minimalistic and haunting.

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is another essential. You can probably find at least 50 different arrangements, ranging from choral to brass. (You might know this as the opening theme for Inside the Actor's Studio... if memory serves...)

I consider John Cage a classical composer though his work is widely varied and often very difficult listening, including such things as amplified plucked cacti and instructions for musicians to play radio tuning and volume knobs. If you can find the piece Atlas Eclipticalis however, music based on star charts of the constellations, it represents perhaps the most unique use of an orchestra to date and is quite beautiful.

Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) is for me the breathtaking pinnacle of modern symphony, almost tantric in its slowly rising glacial layers. There are a few different recordings of it, but I think the best is the one that features Dawn Upshaw.

Karlheinz Stockhausen never fails to intrigue. His piece Trans is perhaps my favorite: a seething, hissing orchestra punctuated by the intermittent sound of the shuttle of a giant weaver's loom.

Hmm, well we're already up to Philip Glass. Perhaps best known for his scores of Koyaanisquatsi and more recently Dracula, performed by the Kronos Quartet. A lot of people find his work repetitious and trite, but for me it has a certain "atomic" structure that is appealing (if sometimes annoying) but definitely worth checking out. I'd suggest either of the above or my favorite, which is the CD The Photographer.

I'll stop here, both because I feel a little sick at having summed up the history of music in these few paragraphs, and beyond this point the idea of what is "classical" gets all fuzzy. Some people consider Ryuichi Sakamoto a "classical composer" because of all his film scores, but he's undoubtedly also a "pop" musician... and is Danny Elfman a "classical composer"? I dunno, but if he is the theme song from The Simpsons takes on a strange new value...

thinker · 31-05-03, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ramona_A_Stone
Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is another essential. You can probably find at least 50 different arrangements, ranging from choral to brass. (You might know this as the opening theme for Inside the Actor's Studio... if memory serves...)

Yeah, we sang this in our concert series this semester - a cappella, ensemble of ~16. In the recording session we had to sing it twice in a row w/o break...the first time, someone hit a light switch and it fucked up the recorder, zapping the recording about halfway through. We were obviously pissed, but the second go-through turned out better anyway. The choral arrangement is called Agnus Dei (there are many Agnus Dei versions out there - some use the Latin text, some use a combo of Latin and English...I don't know, however, if any are done in just English...if so, it wouldn't even make any sense to call it Agnus Dei...it may as well just be Lamb of God - Samuel Barber is definitely not the only person to do an Agnus Dei).

Edit: I hate typos.

Ðiego · 31-05-03, 01:49 PM

America - Ventura Highway  

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Shani · 12-06-03, 03:36 AM

a must have

Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp Minor (1830) from the pianist
especially listen in for the interval after 2:39.

KevC · 13-06-03, 06:43 PM

Chopin, or Rachmaninov. You can't go wrong with Romanticism.

24-05-03, 07:09 PM	#1
honeybee 2 smokes, lets go. Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 1,663	suggestions for classical music playlist Im illiterate in this music genre, suggestions appreciated!

12-06-03, 03:36 AM	#6
Shani Spagal Join Date: Oct 2000 Posts: 1,662	a must have Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp Minor (1830) from the pianist especially listen in for the interval after 2:39. __________________

13-06-03, 06:43 PM	#7
KevC Velut Arbor Aevo Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: t.o. Posts: 2,100	Chopin, or Rachmaninov. You can't go wrong with Romanticism. __________________

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24-05-03, 08:44 PM	#2
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,017	http://205.188.234.67:8034 this will kill 2 birds with one stone. it's a classical stream. it shows artist, symphony, movement etc so when you hear something you like you don't need to sit thru endless soul killing classical announcer windage to learn it. it's a 16k hibit stream of classical and chamber 128k mp3's for winamp. (copy link, open winamp, ctrl "L", paste, bookmarks, add). you can also rip these tracks using streamripper. one cd will hold 12 hours of the stuff. bon voyage. - js.

30-05-03, 10:41 AM	#3
Ramona_A_Stone Formal Ball Proof Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 2,948	A brief chronological survey of my own tastes in classical, in which I leap irresponsibly across centuries ignoring and forgetting oodles of genius: St. Godric. Only three of his songs survive in written form from the 12th century, but they are striking. The piece Crist and St. Marie is incredibly haunting, and you can find a beautiful version by the group Anuna—who are a wonderful introduction to ancient classical music in general. Try also their version of Cormacus Scripsit, the oldest surviving piece written in three parts, or Sanctus, based on the works of Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard von Bingen. Ms. Bingen was also composing right at the cusp of written music and her work was suppressed by the church because she used "satanic" intervals in her liturgical chants. (thirds) There are older Gregorian chants that also come down to us, but Ms. Bingen shines like a beacon in the mists of history—recordings of her compositions feature some incredible female vocalists, and just about any you can find will transport you. There was a surge in the popularity of her music a few years ago which produced, among others, the albums Canticles of Ecstacy, Lux Vixens, and 11,000 Virgins, all excellent. Some other good introductions to Medieval and early Renaissance music are Kronos Quartet's aptly named Lachrymæ Antiqua (Early Music), The Baltimore Consort's On The Banks of Helicon (Early Music of Scotland), and Jordi Savall's Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World), the music of Marin Marias, which brings us up to the 17th century. Johann Pachelbel. German organist remembered largely for one piece: his Canon in D Major. You've heard this whether you know it or not, it's often used as Christmas music and cropped up in a recent commercial. For me, the best recording of it, although it's actually variations on the canon and not the original structure, is Brian Eno's Discreet Music. (in three parts) The Albinoni Adagio is essential. Johann Sebastian Bach. For me Bach is the ultimate classical composer. (I'm not terribly big on much symphonic music, with a few exceptions, and Bach's work tends more toward "keyboard studies" and chamber music, which is more to my taste.) My favorites are The Well Tempered Clavier, an extensive body of works, The Goldberg Variations, and The Brandenburg Concertos, but I find all of his work has a delightful, fluid yet mathematical quality. Indeed, a number of his fugues are said to be "impossible" and contain an impossible number of component voices. He had to be insane. Here's a site containg midi files of almost all of his work. During the late Romantic/early Modern period there where a lot of brilliant composers to be sure, but much of the music is too flowery and operatic for my tastes. Frederic Chopin is a real standout, with his moody piano pieces, as is Franz Liszt and Erik Satie. Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is a really accessible work, popularized in the late 20th century by Emerson, Lake and Palmer's rendering. Claude Debussy seems to me to be one of the first classical composers to become really interested in developing his own unique sound, and I'm not certain, but I think he may have coined the idea of "tone poems." His work seems to have new colors in it compared to the history of music at his time, though in our time, I think, he has been so influential that it's easy to overlook how unique he was. His "greatest hits" are probably Clair de Lune, the Arabesques, Reverie, and Snowflakes are Dancing—the last being the title of an amazing album with synthetic renderings of all of the above by Japanese musician Isao Tomita. There's also a very interesting album called The Seduction of Claude Debussy by The Art of Noise, which doesn't touch directly all that much on his music, but is based on the story of his life. Béla Bartók is an interesting cat, and a lot of his strange percussive, rhythmic works seemed to pave the way for a lot of modern composers such as Steve Reich. Try his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Igor Stravinsky, for me, represents everything good about symphonic music. The Rite of Spring is always the first thing I think of when I think of full orchestral works, alternately as violent and balls-out as any rock and roll, and eerily minimalistic and haunting. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is another essential. You can probably find at least 50 different arrangements, ranging from choral to brass. (You might know this as the opening theme for Inside the Actor's Studio... if memory serves...) I consider John Cage a classical composer though his work is widely varied and often very difficult listening, including such things as amplified plucked cacti and instructions for musicians to play radio tuning and volume knobs. If you can find the piece Atlas Eclipticalis however, music based on star charts of the constellations, it represents perhaps the most unique use of an orchestra to date and is quite beautiful. Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) is for me the breathtaking pinnacle of modern symphony, almost tantric in its slowly rising glacial layers. There are a few different recordings of it, but I think the best is the one that features Dawn Upshaw. Karlheinz Stockhausen never fails to intrigue. His piece Trans is perhaps my favorite: a seething, hissing orchestra punctuated by the intermittent sound of the shuttle of a giant weaver's loom. Hmm, well we're already up to Philip Glass. Perhaps best known for his scores of Koyaanisquatsi and more recently Dracula, performed by the Kronos Quartet. A lot of people find his work repetitious and trite, but for me it has a certain "atomic" structure that is appealing (if sometimes annoying) but definitely worth checking out. I'd suggest either of the above or my favorite, which is the CD The Photographer. I'll stop here, both because I feel a little sick at having summed up the history of music in these few paragraphs, and beyond this point the idea of what is "classical" gets all fuzzy. Some people consider Ryuichi Sakamoto a "classical composer" because of all his film scores, but he's undoubtedly also a "pop" musician... and is Danny Elfman a "classical composer"? I dunno, but if he is the theme song from The Simpsons takes on a strange new value...