Its my favorite music genera! Great stuff!

I particularly enjoy Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Very moving.

Interesting list, Thucydides. What do those four pieces/composers have in common that makes them all part of the same genre, other than the fact that someone says they are?

20th Century Classical music pretty much comprises my whole ipod - I love *that* genre (contemporary/modern classical) to death.

Classical music is something that could have (and once did have) a much wider and broader audience other than just "young nerds and old people". However, the whole industry is mismanaged beyond comprehension, which keeps the music on its current disastrous path.

I like a lot of classical music, Mozart especially, for example his Piano Concerto #21, Symphony #40, and Requiem.

Are you talking about music of the classical era specifically, or all "classical"? Regardless, I enjoy mostly Romantic composers, Smetana, Wagner, Berlioz, and Dvorak. Ma Vlast is one of my favorite symphonies.

Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Saint-Saens. Especially Carmen/Samson and Delilah/Four Seasons.

"classical," not just Classical Music as opposed to Baroque and Romantic

Western Art Music is another way of putting it.

Which is why, ibadibam, I say that what they have in common is that they are western art music - music for its own sake, and not trying to make itself popular

the list also represents baroque (vivaldi), classical (mozart), romantic (mahler, well, i guess post-romantic but idc), and "modern" or "20th century" whatever that catchall means (glass)

"music for its own sake, and not trying to make itself popular"

That's quite the loaded statement which I think is indicative of the pretentiousness of "classical music" that alienates many people. That, and the lack of choruses about booty.

Classical music *should* be popularized, it has full potential to be - bring on the smoke machines to the concerts, the big screens, the flashing lights with differing colors. The music itself is fantastic - the ambiance of the concerts sucks.

Hasn't classical music been popularized in some sense? Beyond the obvious example of Metallica's album S&M, there are bands like Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor which are probably the modern equivalent to classical music.

Beyond that, there are modern musicians like Frank Zappa (and I'm sure others) that have very strong classical music influences.

i think the reason the concerts are the way they are is that the only thing that you supposedly need is the sound. in this sense the classical music concert is indeed an anachronism - the music may not be, but i think many would say that now that we have recording technology, it is unnecessary.

the point of it is the music, and the journey through it. that is what makes it different from other kinds of music, which are about the performance or the performer, or, if they display feelings, display them in a snapshot case-study kind of way. classical music instead is musical drama wrapped up in a single piece. people can project themselves and their emotions on it in a way less possible with other forms, though still possible.

classical music in this sense, in isolation, separate the pretentiousness and hatred some people have for it, is the most accessible kind of music, perhaps this and electronic music and other non-verbal music anyway i should say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DkslcOhytU

that is not classical music i however fully endorse it

I LOVE CLASSICAL! :D

Tchaikovsky and Mozart would have to be tied for my favorite...
Bach, Puccini, both also rank high with me...
I just discovered Shostakovich, now I'm really into him, it just FEELS 20th century...

And I could jsut go on and on.

I think there's a place for ANYTHING, no matter what it is, so long as it's great and speaks to and informs the human spirit in some way...



For the same reason I bang on about Shakespeare, Milton, and T.S. Eliot, and say they're still relevant and important, so to would I say Mozart and Tchaikovsky and the like are still important.

There's a point where an artist and his or her work transcends the medium and becomes part of the human experience.

Mozart is there.
Shakespeare is there.
Michelangelo is there.

We can go 2,000 years into the future, I'd argue, and, supposing we haven't wiped ourselves out yet or the works haven't been lost, the same way we still read Homer, we'll still be admiring Michelangelo's "David" and Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and--because it wouldn't be an Obi post on art if I didn't mention it--Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

(Incidentally, I've never heard a good adaptation of Hamlet into classical/opera..."Othello" and "Macbeth" were both done nicely by Verdi, but some FRench composer--forget who--did "Hamlet," and it's atrocious...Hamlet LIVES at the end, he becomes King! He sings of wine! What new spore of madness is this?! ;) So if anyone knows a GOOD version, I'd love to hear my favorite piece pf literature meet my favorite musical genre...I'm seeing a new opera broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera with friends...it's a "what-if" story, asking what if the characters from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" met the characters from "The Tempest," so a lot of magic and DOUBLE the Shakespeare there, so I'm totally excited...!)

:)

As far as listing favorite pieces:

10. "The Magic Flute" by Mozart
9. "Symphony No. 3" by Mendelssohn
8. "Brandenburg Concerto No. 1" Bach
7. "La Boheme" by Puccini
6. "Violin Concerto No. 2" by Bach
5. "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven
4. "Madame Butterfly" by Puccini
3. "Don Giovanni" by Mozart
2. "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky
1. "Carmen" by Bizet

And I could expand that and go on forever, and that list would probably fluctuate based on the day, with the Top 5 staying and shifting places and the Bottom five moving or even giving way...

Honorable mentions to Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody," Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," and Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 1."

6/10 of those are operas, so pretty obvious what my favorite type of classical is...

And then, a bonus mention for Shostakovich's Waltz No. 2 as my newest piece of music that I've really come to love...

'"music for its own sake, and not trying to make itself popular"
-Thucydides

A lot of what was written before the mid 19th century WAS written to make the composer popular or wealthy. And pieces were usually performed once or twice before being discarded. The composer never had the luxury of spending 10 years writing a symphony or opera, and instead was constantly generating new material, much like a modern performing artist. It wasn't really until the late Romantic period that we developed the idea of the artist as inseparable from their work, and of their work itself as being a timeless monument to truth and beauty and so on.
That's why I have to object to obiwanobiwan when he says that we'll still appreciate these things in 2000 years. We didn't appreciate them 200 years ago. If we changed our way of thinking that much that quickly, who's to say what we'll value in the future?


"... modern musicians like Frank Zappa (and I'm sure others) that have very strong classical music influences."
-Yonni

In fact, Zappa has mostly been embraced by the musicological world as a composer in his own right.

"A lot of what was written before the mid 19th century WAS written to make the composer popular or wealthy. "

yeah i knew someone would say that, you are right, i mean in terms of now

"That's why I have to object to obiwanobiwan when he says that we'll still appreciate these things in 2000 years. We didn't appreciate them 200 years ago. If we changed our way of thinking that much that quickly, who's to say what we'll value in the future?"

I also agree with this, I am of the school of thought that is taken out of Ecclesiastes:

"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them."

i.e. things we think are timeless will go the way of the things other people thought were timeless that we no longer know, because we forgot them.

doesnt mean we cant value it now though

With the exception of several big-name all-time pieces, I generally find classical music boring. It's not offensive, but more on par with easy listening, elevator music, and light jazz. In most situations, I'd probably prefer to listen to nothing.

So why is that exactly?

Have you ever considered listening to classical music as more akin to a kind of meditation? What I'm asking is have you ever listened to it while not doing anything else? That's one thing I think makes it different from a lot of other music - it begs to be listened to with no interruption.

i.e. it's not just mood or background music, as I said, it's a musical drama

Well, not as meditation because I don't meditate, but yes I have listened to classical music without doing anything else. That includes visits to the San Francisco Symphony (and SF Opera, and SF Ballet) and SF Philharmonia, as well as many other live performances.

As to why, I don't know. Why is staring at the ceiling boring? I just don't find classical music stimulating, in general. I do appreciate certain pieces, but those tend to be the ones that are universally recognized as the all-time great works.

Try taking Benjamin Zander's advice:

think about (listen to) the piece from start note to finish note, let it carry you from one to the next, and contemplate something from your own life appropriate to the mood of the music.

great video here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Holst 'Mars' !?!

@Thucy - If you like Glass, listen to his Heroes Symphony as well as the soundtracxk to The Hours. Both are excellent Glass pieces.

My favorites -

Barber's String Quartet (the whole Quartet, not just the Adagio)

Copland - everything but especially Appalachian Spring

Bernstein's West Side Story Suite (and the original source musical, West Side Story)

Mozart's Requiem, Die Zauberflote, Le Nozzi de Figaro and Don Giovanni alonmg with all his concertos and symphonies. In fact, the only thing Mozart I'm not fond of is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

Orff's Carmina Burana

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

and many many more.

I think what The Hanged Man is saying resonates with a lot of people, and that has as much to do with how classical music is used as it does with anything contained in the music itself. When, in the modern age, music has been relegated to background filler in restaurants, shops and on television, it's hard for us to give it our full attention. If I hadn't taken music theory classes in college and learned to listen fully, I don't think I'd be able to sit through a symphony.

"No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them."

Brilliant. Ecclesiastes is by far my favorite passage of any ancient scripture I've yet to read.

+1 ibadibam