From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V16 #384 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, April 4 2012 Volume 16 : Number 384 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Classical ["Varker, Patrick" ] Classical Listening [Adam Kimmel ] Re: Classical Listening [Kerry White ] Re: Classical Listening [Robert Lovejoy ] Re: Classical Listening [Alexander Johannesen Subject: Classical Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Both are among my favorite's. I find that listening to classical late in the afternoon (on my drive home from work especially) helps sooth me from the everyday hassles of getting on the highways! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 05:28:42 -0800 From: Adam Kimmel Subject: Classical Listening Well, here's a strange thing: after acquiring a new music player with four times more storage than my old one, I have started to fill it with classical music in an effort to educate myself. I've been surrounded with it my whole life but I've just never really been into the stuff, and suddenly I have an insatiable thirst for it. These days I seem to do most of my serious music listening on the commute, and I find classical music the perfect way to forget about my surroundings and ease myself into the day. It's a strange, difficult, but quite wondrous odyssey, and I hope I never get jaded. I mean, I've started out with a box set of Beethoven String Quartets by the Albern Berg quartett, and I swear they contain some of the most astonishingly beautiful music I've ever heard. I was amazed at my capacity, after all this time, to still be awestruck by a piece of music. And then I heard Schubert's Quintet in C....well, holy cow, that's just BREATHTAKING. Now I'm loading up with box sets of Mozart and Beethoven Piano Concertos and a set of Schubert piano music. There's....just so much. I mean, I think I'm starting with the basic big guys, and have no idea how long it will take me to even get to Mendelssohn or Brahms or Tchaikowsky. I appear to be without a map, which is kind of nice. Anyone have any favourite classical pieces? so far, for me, it's various Beethoven quartets (I can never remember the numbers!), the Schubert Quintet in C and Beethoven's Third. Anyway, Happy Easter to all. Adam K ____________________________________________________________ FREE 3D MARINE AQUARIUM SCREENSAVER - Watch dolphins, sharks & orcas on your desktop! Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/marineaquarium ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 11:13:56 -0500 From: Kerry White Subject: Re: Classical Listening Re: Dvorak: "Deram Records, an imprint of their Decca label, in 1967 decided that it needed a long-playing record to promote its new "Deramic Stereo." The Moody Blues were picked for the proposed project, a rock version of Dvorak's New World Symphony, and immediately convinced the staff producer and the engineer to abandon the source material and permit the group to use a series of its own compositions that depicted an archetypal "day," from morning to night." The rest is history. On 4/4/12, Kerry White wrote: > I have enjoyed listening to Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique. I love > most Prokofiev: including: Romeo and Juliet, Classical Symphony in D > Major and Peter and The Wolf, with no narration only! For quiet try > Erik Satie's Trois Gymnopedies - sublime! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:25 -0400 From: Robert Lovejoy Subject: Re: Classical Listening I discovered this list back in the sixties. It has been updated from a magazine series to a website. http://www.classical.net/music/rep/top.php Bob Lovejoy - -- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 11:50:01 +1000 From: Alexander Johannesen Subject: Re: Classical Listening Hi all, Oh dear, we've turned down a strange path, right into the fangs of darkness where I lie at night, ready to prance and giggle around unsuspecting victims. Now, you didn't mention what styles you mostly like, and I think the diversity of the answers here reflect that. And that's all good stuff. My own journey into the dark pit of "classical" music which mostly isn't classical starts, as they often do, with an accident. I moved in with my best friend numerous years ago, and he was a Bach fanatic. He had several recordings of pretty much anything Bach ever composed, hundreds and hundreds of CD's with Bach, Bach, more Bach, and ... hmm, what's this? At the end of his long line of Bach, Bach and Bach was a lonely little CD that he only had there because his mum had given it to him. He hadn't even listened to it, because, as you probably suspect by now, it wasn't Bach. It was Monteverdi. So I gave it a go, and it changed my life forever. I'll start a bit before this, though, with the connection between how I see Ecto and much of music through history, this longing for a human voice in the chaos of human emotion, obviously played in a minor key, usually someone that sounds unique and strangely familiar at the same time. My entry and staple diet of Ecto is Happy Rhodes, and not much else. There's the odd Noe Venable, but I'm not *into* Ecto as I'm into Happy. I want her uniqueness and strange familiarity, and not a genre of music. So, in much if not most of the historic music I love, there's a predominant Ecto theme running through it, and I'll make some brief comments here and there about what I recommend ; Early days - ------------- Hildegard von Bingen - She was a polymath mediaeval Happy Rhodes, a uniqum both by the beautiful music and by virtue of being a woman in a hardcore man's world. If the Catholic Church didn't have certain views on women, a sainthood would probably be in order. Any recording would do, but look for her more famous Ordo Virtutum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen) Coll - Spanish hero of the Folia de Espana, an Ecto of instrumental art form that is far more important to music history than we tend to think, although Jordi Savall and his many merry men and women do this part justice. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=5Frq7rjEGzs) In fact, listen to anything Jordi touches. Middle days - -------------- Josquin des Prez - Everything, but especially "Mille regrets" which is quite understandably the3 definite Ecto chanson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GBwbt6hK6c). Cristobal De Morales - lesser know to most people, but a very important Spanish composer of polyphonic Ecto; he's very addictive. I love his Officium defunctorum and the 'O sacrum convivium' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6gsmLAG_4U). For a traditional rendition with a modern twist, his 'Parce mihi Domine' is used on "Officium" by the Hillard Ensemble and Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, absolutely gorgeous stuff. Palestrina - The polyphonic standard for Roman style music that influenced for centuries about counterpoint and harmony. Get any samle you like, but I adore the Missa Papae Marcelli (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E23LSKpJS3M) Notable entries: de Lassus, Byrd, Allegri, Farraro, de Wert, Frescobaldi, Gabrieli (father and son), Byrd again, Special mention to "Greensleaves" like you've never heard it before; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzk13OqfFUA Baroque - ---------- Monteverdi - The composer that changed me through speaking my language. I can't ramble on enough about his music. I listened to a show on ABC Classic FM a couple of weeks ago, an interview with a Flemish (I think) conductor of some choir, and they had just finished a tour of Monteverdi's music. In a half-sentence he said, as if it is a common phrase that we all just use, that there probably were no finer composer than Monteverdi, that they all are shadows, that Bach and Handel and Mozart and whomever you want were great because Monteverdi was great. And yet not a lot of people know or hear much from him. Please change that. He refined opera, created the lament, perfected the madrigal, was the main proponent of 'the second practice' where basso continuo mixed with matching music to lyrics, master of polyphony ... and the Ecto polymath of the most beautiful tone! * From Madrigals; Zefiro Torna (!!!) in maybe the best version I've ever heard, both vocals *and* musicians; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq49rymjvNg * From Madrigals; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKPK3CINlWU and a special rendition of that by Ane Brun; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrMuIYmJ4Y0 * From the Vespers; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLPNhtVKfE * From the Vespers; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueweCVZaxN0 * From the madrigals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1UsSkgsWy8 * From the operas; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHFxkd7s0s * Opera; a favourite, amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm641MrwPN0 Schutz - I'll just quote the intro from WikiPedia: "generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi." Nough said. I love his Christmas Oratorium to bits, the Cantus Koln recording especially will turn me into a blubbering mess. Oh, and Schutz visited Monteverdi and took note. Enough said! Purcell - The only English composer get into the baroque section, but then he far makes up by that by being so awesome! And what's more Ecto than funeral music? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7JRMed2NKE Also check out his mini-opera "Dido and Aeneas", awesome stuff. Bencini - An Italian of the Roman style. Not particularly famous, but man should he be! His Marian Vespers are sublime, here heard with the amazing Ruth Holton singing soprano; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Rvgo89dBk Caldara - A melodic genius, and his "Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo" is so unbelievably good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I72__ksggzg) Try to get the recording with Fink, Kiehr, Scholl, Turk, it is a legendary recording, perhaps one of the best recordings I know of; http://www.amazon.com/Caldara-Maddalena-ai-piedi-Cristo/dp/B0000007C4 Zelenka - Czech composer that should get faaar more attention, like here, his amazing Missa votiva; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7JRMed2NKE (And if you've noticed, then yes, I'm in love with Hana BlaE>C-kovC!) Biber - Oh, I love Biber. No, not Justin. Biber redefined and blew out of the water the mass with pomp and number of voices, for example his Missa Bruxeliensis is over 40 parts), and the Agnus Dei part of that mass is nothing short of spectacular; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjuNN7lr1o . But he also was an amazing violinist and redefined what that instrument was all about. Try out this favourite from the Rozenkrantz / Mystery sonata; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRNmLbdNVh8 Bach, Bach, Bach, although my favourite from him is mostly his cembalo concertos, and I don't find Bach all that Ecto to be honest. Notables: Handel, Buxtehude, Lully (he almost made a proper entry, but lost out for being so complete), Marin Marais (the most beautiful stuff; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBj5qZb71M), deLallande (the postcursor to Lully), Classical and romantic - --------------------------- Hayden - He was torn (IMHO) between the old and the new, mastering, perhaps arguably, none of the specifics but if not *the* transition itself. But enough of that; his violin concerto in G major is sublime; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdj0DqDN8c Beethoven - sonatas, symphonies, and on and on. We know it all, and we love it. But pay especially attention to "Missa Solemnis"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM9bavYuoAc Edward Grieg - He's Norwegian, embracing that delightful melancholic troll's brew they've got up there. Highlights; "In the hall of the mountain king": http://youtu.be/dRpzxKsSEZg but also the gentler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5l3XG6ucOE and, well, so much more, he was a marvellous symphonic weaver. Modern - ---------- Shostakovich - Love his symphonies, and here is the amazing Luskin with his cello concerto; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5642_or4sQ Ravel - One of my favourites, and just like Ravel himself, I also hate the bolero, taking away from him the magic he otherwise created. Two special highlights are ; * String Quartet in F; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehQMe57TPPM * Piano concerto in G; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fpim9AanqI Erik Satie - Yes, he's the "Gymnopedie" guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU) which is almost hardcore Ecto in its sublime subtlety, but he was an amazingly quirky and uncompromising composer, his Gnossiense (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Yoz9Nh21k) is similar in style to Gymnopedie but equally awesome, just like the Sonniere de la Rose-Croix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tZXdhLLs-g), but where it gets really exciting is "Pieces in the form of a pear" and his many idiosyncratic stories ("he ran up the stairs" followed by a piano trill), shifts in tempo and feel, it goes on and on, true genius, who, like Ravel, seems to be only famous for the one piece. Explore him. Mahler - My favourite symphonizer. Just listen to the opening of his second symphony, the bass motif that gets ressurected again and again (pun intended); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tZXdhLLs-g . Mahler was a big controversy throughout his life, just the kind of uncompromising Ectophiliac I like. The rest; Debussy (should have his own section, but I'm running out of time), Chopin (for all his good work), Bruckner, Wagner without the singing, Richard Strauss (and especially his symphonic poems), Tchaivkosky, Mendhelson, As to contemporary music, there's just too much, but I love bits of Glass, Gavin Bryar is awesome, Ross Edwards, Part (especially his Spiegel im Speigel; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8qg_0P9L6c), Raskatov, the list could go on and on, there's just so much wonderful stuff out there. I realize that I've taken on an impossible task, and I need to stop, otherwise this would go on for days and days. But yeah, Monteverdi. Regards, Alex - -- B Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps - --- http://shelter.nu/blog/ ---------------------------------------------- - ------------------ http://www.google.com/profiles/alexander.johannesen --- ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V16 #384 ***************************