The Classical Chat Thread

[North Star]

Ken,
Here is a shot of Pollock making one of his pieces...

This means WAR!

Hommage à Jackson Pollock by Janacekian, on Flickr

[Moonfish]

This means WAR!

Hommage à Jackson Pollock by Janacekian, on Flickr

Another chimp piece... -  very...err... "pollocky"   

[North Star]

Hey! You can't fool me Moonfish! That is not Pollock. NO WAY. I mean, just look at the technique, the streaks of color. The pastels.

That's a Jasper Johns.

Trying to sneak one past me.

Hmm, I'd like to see a Johns work that resembles this (I do think you're correct in connecting these artists, but I don't have a particularly similar Johns saved on my PC.. Perhaps in the Pictures I Like thread.)

[Florestan]

When I want sophistication I listen to The Sex Pistols.

Sexphistication....

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Good god, after so long time I heard hunting chorus from Freischütz, I have never listened much to Weber (kind of strange considering how much he influenced my idol, Wagner) but now I really want to listen more of his compositions. I heard that outside of operas Freischütz, Eyryanthe and Oberon for ex. his clarinet concertos are very popular. Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend? But now I can't get that melody from hunting chorus out of my head. It's so damn catchy!

Ta tara ta tara ta tararatararatarara tarara tatta ta taa tatta ta taa tattata tatta taa!

[Gurn Blanston]

Woah, you're working on a Haydn book?

Hope so. My blog is just an outline where I'm working out format ideas and collating data. We'll see if I live long enough.

[Gurn Blanston]

Good god, after so long time I heard hunting chorus from Freischütz, I have never listened much to Weber (kind of strange considering how much he influenced my idol, Wagner) but now I really want to listen more of his compositions. I heard that outside of operas Freischütz, Eyryanthe and Oberon for ex. his clarinet concertos are very popular. Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend? But now I can't get that melody from hunting chorus out of my head. It's so damn catchy!

Ta tara ta tara ta tararatararatarara tarara tatta ta taa tatta ta taa tattata tatta taa!

His clarinet quintet is very fine, while you are on that instrument. I enjoy his piano sonatas too. Geez, he has a huge body of work, much larger than you would suspect. 

[Karl Henning]

His clarinet quintet is very fine, while you are on that instrument. I enjoy his piano sonatas too. Geez, he has a huge body of work, much larger than you would suspect. 

You mean, he has artistic significance beyond being an influence on you-know-whom?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Thanks for the suggestions Gurn! I'll make sure to check out those.

[Gurn Blanston]

You mean, he has artistic significance beyond being an influence on you-know-whom?

He was a monster hit in his day! 

[North Star]

Midori?

Now there's an epic snyprrrrian thread resurrection.

[Florestan]

Any other compositions from him that you'd recommend?

The 2 piano concertos; the 2 clarinet concertos; the 2 symphonies; the clarinet quintet; and if it adds anything of value, he is one of Gurn's betes noires, infamous for getting over and past Haydnian classicism. 

[EigenUser]

Hope so. My blog is just an outline where I'm working out format ideas and collating data. We'll see if I live long enough.

So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn! Best of luck, of course . Please don't make it $400 like the one on the Haydn symphonies we discussed .

That's kind of like I was with Bartok for the past seven years (music, biographies, scores, etc.) and currently am with Ligeti. Though, you will actually have something to show for it...

[Karl Henning]

So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn!

That's the cart before the horse!  Gurn's Haydn immersion came first.

[Gurn Blanston]

So that's why you're so immersed in Haydn! Best of luck, of course . Please don't make it $400 like the one on the Haydn symphonies we discussed .

That's kind of like I was with Bartok for the past seven years (music, biographies, scores, etc.) and currently am with Ligeti. Though, you will actually have something to show for it...

Thanks!

No worries about price, that is the reason I'm writing it, for people like us who are intelligent, curious listeners, not musicologists. When I tried to find out some background info to go with my music collection, simple stuff like 'when was that written?', it turned into an adventure every time. My ambition is to alleviate that so people can find what they are looking for without mortgaging their house! 

That's the cart before the horse!  Gurn's Haydn immersion came first.

Well, that's true, but I was nearly as immersed in Mozart and then Beethoven before Haydn. Problems arose when I discovered it was entirely too easy to find out anything I wanted to know about them, while it was nearly impossible to discover basic facts about the person who enabled them. Something ain't right! 

[Karl Henning]

Well, so perhaps we need a better model than the cart and horse . . . .

[Ken B]

Well, so perhaps we need a better model than the cart and horse . . . .

The addiction before the drug?

[Gurn Blanston]

The addiction before the drug?

Pre-addiction Syndrome. We can write a paper about it! 

[EigenUser]

Just saw this advertised on GMG in the top header.

I clicked on it and saw the tracks.

Lame. Really, totally lame.

A lot of people who don't like classical music have told me that they think it is boring -- I'm sure many of you have heard this, too. Chances are that the pieces listed here are the pieces that are heard and recognized by most people. I'm not saying that I think that this music is boring -- just that out of all pieces heard, these are some of the most common. So, someone who has come to such a conclusion will have likely only heard the ones listed here. What about a movement from "Rite", or the finale of Bartok's CFO, or Ravel's "La Valse", or some classical Gershwin? I can see the third movement of Ades' "Asyla" getting a lot of people to rethink the "boring" opinion. Minimalism also works well here. I have shown many friends Reich's M18M and they loved it. One asked me to find a performance for us to go to (as if it's as simple as finding Beethoven's Egmont ), another bookmarked the YouTube link immediately, and another asked me for a copy of the CD.

Why did I care so much that more people listen to classical music? Because I want more people to talk about it with!

[Moonfish]

Just saw this advertised on GMG in the top header.

I clicked on it and saw the tracks.

Lame. Really, totally lame.

A lot of people who don't like classical music have told me that they think it is boring -- I'm sure many of you have heard this, too. Chances are that the pieces listed here are the pieces that are heard and recognized by most people. I'm not saying that I think that this music is boring -- just that out of all pieces heard, these are some of the most common. So, someone who has come to such a conclusion will have likely only heard the ones listed here. What about a movement from "Rite", or the finale of Bartok's CFO, or Ravel's "La Valse", or some classical Gershwin? I can see the third movement of Ades' "Asyla" getting a lot of people to rethink the "boring" opinion. Minimalism also works well here. I have shown many friends Reich's M18M and they loved it. One asked me to find a performance for us to go to (as if it's as simple as finding Beethoven's Egmont ), another bookmarked the YouTube link immediately, and another asked me for a copy of the CD.

Why did I care so much that more people listen to classical music? Because I want more people to talk about it with!

Hmm, I never really liked classical "anthologies". They seem so disrupted. It is similar to a smorgasbord with puny pieces of very different kinds of food - an almost alien landscape of disrupted gastronomy.  I subscribe to the concept that classical music needs to be listened to "wholesale" to be fully appreciated. Granted it takes a bit of patience and it will be the standard warhorses, but wouldn't the full Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Beethoven's 9th be a better platform that a platter filled with chopped up pieces of music? However, I presume that people approach music very differently (i.e. there must be a reason why labels keep cranking out these types of anthologies).