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Classical Music - What are some classical pieces that you listen to?


Columbia

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One of my most favorite compositions is Symphony 9, Op. 125 (a.k.a Ode To Joy), composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Other than the glorious, choir-sung Fourth Movement("Freude, Schöner Götterfunken!") I found the piece epic in it's whole.

Some others that I listen to as well are:

1. Serenade no. 13 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Another famous and relaxing piece, also played a lot in Little Einstein's)

2. Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D -Edward Elgar (Adapted as graduation theme, and a sung version, "Land of Hope and Glory".)

3. Canon in D - Johann Pachelbel (Frequently used as Wedding March, and overall causes "feels." *tears up)

4. Turkish March - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Another famed Mozart piece. Surely, Turkish soldiers marching to this must have really, really quick feet!)

5. Symphony 5, Op. 67 - Ludwig van Beethoven (The victory theme! Epic in the first movement, but rather relaxing and slow in the others.)

6. Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi (I've never heard such a relaxing piece before..)

There are more, of course, but it's quite a lot, especially if I mention all in one thread.

So, what about you guys?

Edited by Columbia
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I'm a keyboard (Any kind of instrument with a keyboard will do :D ) player myself so i play/listen alot of bach (on harpsichord not piano you savages!) and French composers like rameau couperin and stuff. Also some piano music : Schubert, satie, etc etc ! Not gonna mention titles otherwise it will take days :P

OP : @ your sig : there are no wrong notes. -Miles Davis

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- Antonín Leopold Dvořák (Just plain awesome.);

(Yeah, not really classical music, but it's still beautiful, and is the reason violins are my absolute favourite instruments of them all, barring none.);

The whole of Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack - Kow Otani (I'm even less sure if it can be counted as classical music... But I dunno. Still love it to bits.)

And overall I really enjoy classical (or not...) music, just can't remember the titles.

Edited by DestinyPlayer
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Ear-food thread ! Yay, here I am.

I listen a lot to composers from the Baroque period :

- Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur (first performed in 1691) is probably one of the works I have the most listened to. Here's the famous Aria from the Third Act, "What Power Art Thou", performed by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie. Bass-baritone Petteri Salomaa singing.

- French master of the viola da gamba, Marin Marais (1656-1728).

"Prélude en Harpègement", performed by Mathilde Vialle.

- My wife cherishes Johann Sebastian Bach. His works are regularly listened to at home, especially piano recordings.

The Aria from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (first published in 1741), performed by Glenn Gould.

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- One of our most esteemed composer is Carlo Gesualdo Da Venosa (1566-1613). An Italian nobleman, lutenist, and also murderer (he assassinated his wife Donna Maria d'Avalos and her lover the Duke of Andria in their bed, and according to some sources, he also killed his second son by Maria, after doubting his paternity). Director Werner Herzog, always interested in the frontier between genius and madness, made a good docu-fiction about his life, Gesualdo : Death for Five Voices, in 1995.

Back to his music, Gesualdo is a composer of the late Renaissance era, and his work was strongly criticized in its time, as it somehow stands between Renaissance and Baroque music. Gesualdo is praised today for his early use of dissonance and audacious chromatic juxtapositions.

"In Monte Oliveti", from the Tenebrae Responsories For Maundy Thursday, performed by the Schola Cantorum Nürnberg. It is beautiful and devastating.

I like

too. The dissonances are slightly more noticeable (a few coughs near the microphone along the way though).

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I'll be back with organ works...

Writing this post and looking for links is quite painful. A little synchronicity issue between me listening to these pieces and my neighbours watching a soccer match, with windows wide-open on both sides. : )

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EDIT : Columbia, did you listen to Brian Eno's version of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, on his 4th LP Discreet Music ? It's a beautiful slow-paced version. The musicians were asked to gradually alter the tempo and other elements of the composition. On this album, Eno's intention was to explore multiple ways to create music with limited planning or intervention.

It's here :

Edited by Plume & Akakak
addition for Columbia
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Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition .

In all forms, instrumentations and variations, it puts me through so many emotions and sensations that it almost feels magical to me.

Orchestral

Organ Arrangement

And there's an very interesting and notable interpretation by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Edited by AcidSludge
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- My wife cherishes Johann Sebastian Bach. His works are regularly listened to at home, especially the piano ones.

I'm sorry, but as a Bach lover and harpsichord/piano player, i can not let this remain unpunished, i must react... :

No, No, and NO ! There are NO Bach piano works. Terrible anachronism. Bach did not ever compose a thing for piano. Pianos had not even been invented at that time. He barely saw the very early pianofortes and the end of his life !! Playing Bach on piano because you don't have an harpsi by hand is alright (and actually pretty understandable since harpsichords don't run around the streets nowadays), but playing it/listening to it on piano by choice is pure blaspheme ! Gross ! It sounds completely wrong.

Of course listen to whatever you want since it's all a matter of taste, but now when you will listen to Bach on piano at least you will know how bad of a profanation it is. :)

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I'm sorry, but as a Bach lover and harpsichord/piano player, i can not let this remain unpunished, i must react... :

There are NO Bach piano works.

Mea maxima culpa ! How many lashes ? : D

You're right.

Like many people, she played a lot of Bach when learning the piano.

[...] but playing it/listening to it on piano by choice is pure blaspheme ! Gross ! It sounds completely wrong. [...] how bad of a profanation it is. :)

Now dismiss the Spanish Inquisition immediately. I wouldn't call it a profanation. Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach isn't a desecration.

Edited by Plume & Akakak
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I always thoroughly enjoy Simeon ten Holt. It is rather unconventional in the sense that each player can permutate as he pleases, creating a unique piece almost every time. It is also different in that it does not try to stick pretty bits of music together. Each 5 minute interval listened separately is not really that special, but when you listen to a full piece of between 40 and 90 minutes, the build-up is amazing and rewarding and the tension is tangible. It is one of those things worth taking your time for. You will need to take your time to grasp what is going on.

Part one of six (all on Youtube

):

playing it/listening to it on piano by choice is pure blaspheme ! Gross ! It sounds completely wrong.

You feel it sounds completely wrong. Bach himself might have preferred the piano, we will never know, but there certainly is no wrong or right there. At best there is more and less accurate or more time period correct.

Edited by Camacha
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Vivaldi is a composer I can also enjoy. Rather uncomplicated and easily accessible, yet with a mean punch here and there. Anyone sitting through Summer unmoved must be made of stone. Just pleasant music.

Summer (also included above):

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About a few removed posts...A thread about classical music should stay on the topic of classical music. If you don't enjoy music, please refrain from trolling or derailing the topic.

Cheers,

~Claw

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Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition .

[...]

And there's an very interesting and notable interpretation by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

I love Emerson Lake & Palmer. Revisitations are frequent in their music. Another sideway step with Hubert Parry's "Jerusalem" prog-rock-ified on Brain Salad Surgery (1973) :

I always thoroughly enjoy Simeon ten Holt. [...]

This piece is beautiful !

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Some organ pieces :

- Louis Vierne, Organ Symphony No. 1 in D minor Op. 14 (1898-1899). The Symphony's Prelude, performed by Michael Murray at the Cavaillé-Coll Organ of the Church of Saint-Ouen in Rouen :

- César Franck, Pièce Héroïque in B minor from Trois Pièces (1878). Played by Marcel Dupré, apparently at St. Thomas Church in New York City.

- Just Pierre Cochereau improvising :

Cheers

Edited by Plume & Akakak
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