Classical Music

Frédéric Chopin. It's my i hate the world music.

 

"I agree. You know... Frederic F**kin' Chopin?"

Sincerely,

 

Ravel, Bartok, Tchaikovsky, Schubert

 

"Classical" covers a LOT of territory. We're talking about HUNDREDS of years of music that people classify as "classical". But here are some of my favorite not-quite-household-names from the many periods people lump together as "classical":

Franz Liszt
Carl Orff
Gustav Mahler
Louis Berlioz
Gioachino Rossini
Frédéric Chopin
Emmanuel Chabrier
Francis Poulenc

 

Dvorak is a good one to listen to
Schubert
Cage (This is modern Classical music)
Faure
Copland
Debussy
Ravel

Those guys are awesome in my book.

And BetterThanI is right...there are distinct periods that music scholars split "classical music" into.

Medieval
Renaissance
Baroque
Classic
Romantic
20th/21st Century

For the most part, when people are talking about classical music they are talking about the baroque (Bach, Handel), Classic (Mozart, Haydn) and Romantic (Beethoven, Debussy) peroids.

Sorry...this is probably more than you wanted to know, but if you want to get into classical music, you might as well know it.

And just for you general info, the romantic period is my favorite. This tends to have more feeling (imo) than the other periods. Classic is very cut and dry (other than Mozart) and Baroque is more cut into molds. Romantic, composers are finally branching out and doing more with their music.

 

Mussorgsky.

The "Great Gate of Kiev" still gives me chills.

 

One more thing, if you are looking into something that will give you a slow intro into classical music mixed with a bit of humor these two will make you laugh and throw in a bit of music with it.

Victor Borge and PDQ Bach.

 

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best-classic-wks.html

here's a good list. just listened to "The Planets" it was really good

 

If you're new to Classical Music, start with Mozart and Beethoven. Chances are you've heard enough snippets from movies and cartoons and ads for it to be a little familiar. After you get comfortable, start branching out.

(It may be a cliche, but I don't care... Beethoven's 9th is the greatest piece of music ever written.)

 

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Dudley Moore also had a fun Beethoven parody:

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agree. easily the best


i love moonlight sonata too. the first movement alone is incredible, but the third movement is probably the most intense thing i've ever heard

 

I'd also recommend watching Amadeus (about Mozart, I think it won the Oscar for best movie in 1984 or something), if you haven't before.

 

I just wanted to drop off this Chinese balm for your burns. It's supposed to be great stuff. It's all herbal.

 

Another recommendation: listen to Exploring Music on NPR. It's on 88.7, 7-8pm in Houston, but I think you can listen to it online also.

 

Personal favorites:

Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
Petr I. Tchaikovsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Antonin Dvorak
Claude Debussy

And for even more "out-there":

Gyorgy Ligeti
Krzyzstof Penderecki

 

If you are new to classical music you should probably start with stuff that you've probably heard before (i.e. movies, etc...). Then when you find a composer you like, try some more stuff by that guy.

My suggestions:

Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Mozart - Symphony No. 29 in A Major
Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
Mozart - Overture to the Marriage of Figaro
Pachelbel - Canon in D
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5
Beethoven - Symphony No. 9
Handel - Water Music Suite
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons


More suggestions:
Holst - The Planets (John Williams based his Stormtrooper music off the Mars section and Jupiter is used at graduations all over the country)
Copeland - Appalachian Spring Suite (The melody in the middle called "Simple Gifts [or "A Gift to Be Simple" depending on what you read] is also a very famous)
Ravel - Bolero (used in the movie "10")
Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra (One of the most famous intros in classical music [next to Beethoven's 5th]. It is used in the movie 2001 - a Space Odyssey, however, the rest of the piece is probably not familiar at all)
Borodin - Music from Prince Igor (specifically Polovetsian Dances)
Stavinsky - Firebird Suite
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (You probably won't know the first 10 minutes but you will most certainly now the last five...)
Orff - Carmina Burana - Often used in movies when satanic rituals are going on.

Some other food for thought.... you might want to get a book or take a class in music appreciation that is oriented towards classical music. I say this because most things become more enjoyable when you know something about them. Since you didn't grow up listening to classical music there is probably a lot of information that you just don't realized. For example, (and I think someone mentioned this in an earlier post), there are different "types" of classical music defined by the time when the pieces were written. So, just like rock music (or jazz) has changed over the years and most people can recognized, say a song from the 50's as being from the 50's or a song from the 90's as being from the '90's, many classical music fans can recognized pieces that came from the Classical Period or the Baroque Period, Rococo, Renaissance, etc.... Also, why the pieces were written can be interesting. Knowing whether it was just dance music they were hired to write or some grand political or religious statement can make listening to the piece more interesting.