Classical Music

[Elvedans]

Originally posted by Khamûl
You have very good taste, especially with the Four Seasons and the Adagio for Strings.

Why thankyou!

[azalea]

Originally posted by IronParrot
I'm very wary of using the term "classical" as it does refer to a very distinct compositional paradigm in the years from Hadyn to Beethoven.

I've been listening to a lot of Chopin lately. I was rediscovering a lot of his pieces on the piano over the summer so I thought it was worth it to stock up on some records where the professionals show me how it's supposed to be done.

So would you call it symphonic music if you were refering to it as a whole (everything of that style including those years)?

[Elvengirl]

Originally posted by Arien the Maia
I took piano lessons for 3 years and before that I took organ lessons for a few years too. I briefly tried to play the flute but to no such avail I would love though to be able to play the Viola and the Classical Guitar!!!! the viola rocks!!! does anyone knoe if it's possible to teach it to youself from out of a book?

I played violin for several years and I love classical music.
I actually do know of a book that is very simple and teaches on a very good gradient level. If you're interested, you can look at the website.
www.violinbook.com
There are books for viola and cello as well as violin.

I think it is better to have a teacher, but these books are written so that you can teach yourself, like a homeschool study. They are very good.

Hope that helps! I agree, viola is a beautiful instrument, and you should definitely take it up.

[galadriel]

Originally posted by IronParrot
I'm very wary of using the term "classical" as it does refer to a very distinct compositional paradigm in the years from Hadyn to Beethoven.

You have a point... but it's easier to use the same terminology as everyone else, even if it is imprecise. Besides, imprecision in languages is what makes them fun!

[hectorberlioz]

Of course i was aware that there was "periods" baroque, classical, romantic. "Classical" is what its been labeled, so, i'm going to continue to call it that.

[Sheeana]

I must say that I haven't really done classical to any big extent, but I guess I'm more of a mozart person than anything else (evil BF's influence there.) I also like to some extent Albinoni, Vivaldi, and Bach. But again, I've only really listened to a few scant things, so... Oh, I've also listened to a small amount of Wagner's The Ring.

Edit: Are we considering contemporary composers? If so, I'd like to add Bartok as well.

[hectorberlioz]

yeah, every classical music composer. i like bartok quite a bit.
i like your new avatar sheeana.

[katya]

I guess classical music can really have two meanings: Music from the classical period, and any sort of "serious" music whether it be baroque, romantic, or whatever. Anyway, I like Tchaikovsky a lot. And all the famous guys, you know, Beethoven, whatever. I have been playing a lot of Chopin on piano lately as well. I think it's my new favourite on piano! (Except maybe Ludolph Arens who probably not that many people have heard of...and Chopin's better anyway!) I tend, actually, to prefer a lot of Romantic music to Classical. I really like Rachmoninov! As far as contemporary goes, I like some of it, but not a lot. If I'm listening to something contemporary, it's probably pop music. (Not pop exactly, but well you know, popular music: rock, etc.) I like Bartok though! Pretty cool!

[katya]

By the way, how do you pronounce Berlioz? (I'm so clueless!)
And guess what? I'm going to go see Madam Butterfly at the opera house! (Don't ask me which one...) I love that story!

[hectorberlioz]

just like you read it. bear-lee-oz(but not like "oz" as in wizard of oz, it kinda mixes with an a.)
Glad you like rachmaninov
try Franz Liszt

[Khamûl]

Rachmaninoff was one crazy Russian. I've tried to play some of his stuff, and wow was it hard. (See Prelude Opus 3 No. 2 in C sharp minor)

In my opinion, Liszt also suffered bouts of temporary insanity when it came to writing music. If you don't believe me, go play the cadenza involving the descending major and minor thirds near the end of Libestraum. If you can, you're a better pianist (or at least you practice more ) than me.

[jellyfishannah]

i love crazy fast piano.
have you heard of a pianist named "alexander tutolov"? i met him, he sometimes visits our church.

[hectorberlioz]

you met alexander tutolov? oh my goodness! do you know how famous he is!? meeting him is like meeting chopin or liszt!
i love crazy fast piano also.

[Alqualaure]

I'm a lover of many kinds of music, but opera is my special passion... Puccini, especially, but also Verdi, Wagner, Dvorak, Mascagni, etc... I adore La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Aida, Rigoletto, Cavalleria rusticana, Rusalka - I could go on and on, but I'll spare you - LOL!

Any other opera lovers out there?

[hectorberlioz]

i havent listened to a lot, but what i've heard i've liked(especially puccini).

[hectorberlioz]

Has any one ever heard of Leos Janacek?

[Elfhelm]

I have been collecting classical records for about 35 years. I have gone through many phases in my love of music. When I was young I was bothered by the idea that taste could be different for different people, and I really wanted to believe there was an absolute truth of what is good music. Over the years I have learned that the universe is infinite and various and that I cannot impose my personal taste as absolute truth.

If I argue, please enjoy arguing with me or don't, but it isn't personal, OK? These are just opinions. :-)

Bach is not the father of classical music. Bach is my favorite composer, but he was the end of an era, not the beginning of one. Many of the people before Bach are amazing. Take Buxtehude, for example. Bach skipped out of school and hiked for days to see this man play organ. Back up one era to the Rennaissance and you'll find people like Josquin Des Prez and Palestrina, without whom Bach's music would not have been possible. Go back another era to the time when the Papacy was in Avignon. Aha! There it is. The invention of polyphony! Guillaume de Machaut is the man I would call the father of classical music, if anyone.

The concept of using mathematics completely to compose was actually first proposed by an astronomer, Kepler, in 1619 in a book titled Harmonice Munde. He was calculating the star movements which he called the "music of the spheres". He wrote, among other things, that "that the movements of the planets are modulated according to harmonic proportions." Actually the idea goes as far back as Pythagoras who discovered that the lyre can be tuned mathematically. Many composers use mathematical principles when composing, including Bach. Wolfgang Graesers argued that Bach used math when writing the Art of the Fuge, one of my favorite Bach compilations. The tempered scale, and the famous well-tempered clavier are mathematical deviations from the natural harmonic scale. Building on these thoughts, the Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg late in the 19th century tried to develop a system that incorporated all 12 tones of the tempered scale. In my opinion, the tempered scale makes music sound dull. To use all twelve notes in a studied avoidance of major and minor chord relations is not my cup of tea. I like to hear notes bent and twisted to express passion.

Igor Stravinsky lived to be 89 years old. He began as a post-romantic, became an impressionist, switched again to atonality, then settled into neo-classicism. I don't know which phase you find monotonous. I find the later phase to be boring. I love the works of his impressionistic phase. Bela Bartok and Alberto Ginastera were greatly influenced by this phase of Stravinky's work. Their works, together with Ravel, Debussy, and Gershwin, are my favorites from the 20th century. I continue to find other composers of this period and style to add to my collection, such as Szymanofsky and some works by Prokofiev. I like Alban Berg, but mostly because he's a modernist who wrote opera, like Britten.

I love opera. Opera, opera, opera! The Apollonian side of me loves to dissect music, but the Dionysian side loves opera! I wish I could spend the whole day writing about my love of music, and especially to expound on which operas I most want to see, but I have to go earn some money.

John Cage is a conceptual artist. It's a different genre. Just because he uses elements of music in his performance art doesn't mean he is a classical composer. Many artists in every genre were influenced by the concept of relativism. It's just a part of our development as a species. I wouldn't call any of them jerks. I believe that they all believed in their visions with the same passion that I have towards mine. As it happens, our tastes are not the same, but I do not fault them for pursuing their visions. If nothing else, the discussions that arose in their wake were constructive. I have done conceptual and performance art. It's a different art, I tell ya. It includes all the arts and none of them at the same time. What the audience should understand is that most performance artists believe that art took a wrong turn when it let specialists take over selected areas. They seek the wholistic art of the shaman in a prehistoric culture because they feel something was lost when the arts became distillations or artifacts rather than a part of everyday existence. When Cage, for instance, composes a poem by selecting each next word that begins with each next letter of James Joyce's name from one chapter of Ullysses, he is actually proposing that the book can be read by other people in any way they choose. When he uses dice to determine the next note of a piece of music, he is making a philosophical statement. As such, it is subject to debate. One can argue, ignore, or attack. Of the three, the latter is least intelligent, in my opinion.

I am personally bored by minimalism in any of the arts.

I better get to work!!!!

[hectorberlioz]

wow! thank you Elfhelm.
There is a funny story about josquin de prez. de prez had been under the service of a king for some time and he wanted a raise. the king promises him one. after a while though he still has not given it and de prez really needs it. one day the king commissions a cantata(a piece for the church to be sung as a praise to god) and de prez writes it and calls it "remember thy promise unto thy servant oh lord"(subtly reminding the king of his promise of a raise) the king gives him his raise and de prez writes a cantata entitled "we gives thanks oh lord" . I love that story.

[hectorberlioz]

MY 200th POST!- halelujah! halelujah! ha-le-lu-jah!- from HANDEL'S messiah.

[Elfhelm]

Yeah! That's a great anecdote.

Do you know the one about Mozart and Palestrina? The Pope was not allowing Palestrina's music to leave the Vatican. I guess he wanted people to have to visit there in order to hear it. When Mozart was a child his father took him to the Vatican. They performed a mass by Palestrina. He went back to the hotel room and wrote it down! Then his father took it back to the Vatican and showed it to them. This got them invited to meet the Pope, who asked him never to do it again! LOL!