"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
I suppose from the previous responses that we're taking the term "classical" to mean "non-contemporary instrumental music" rather than music of the classical period. If that is the case, I will have to offer this Schubert piece:
When I still played violin and was in a youth orchestra, this was one of the works we had to play the most. It is stunning. I was surprised when it became such a big club hit just around the time I started going to clubs and bars (1999/2000) thanks to the remixes of William Orbit's version.
If we are picking semi-standards and I'm not being obnoxious and picking a full ballet, I love Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from his Romeo and Juliet ballet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBsKplb2E6Q
Ooh! Someone else likes Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, too! That's probably my favorite. Also partial to Debussy's Images, Copland's Billy the Kid ballet, Poulenc's Sextet for Winds and Piano, and um...I have to keep thinking. I have two or three others.
Eric said: "When I still played violin and was in a youth orchestra, this was one of the works we had to play the most. It is stunning. I was surprised when it became such a big club hit just around the time I started going to clubs and bars (1999/2000) thanks to the remixes of William Orbit's version."
Eric, I think you're referring to Barber's Adagio for Strings. Which, of course, is one of the most popular and enduring pieces of 20th C. classical music. And, naturally, I have a heart and soul so I love it as well. But, I was referring to his Symphony No. 1 which might not be as emotionally resonant as first for some people, but to my ears is one of the greatest 20th c. compositions. I saw the San Diego Symphony give a stunning performance of the symphony 5 of 6 years ago. I wish it was performed as often as the Adagio.
Here's the first movement. It's from a St. Louis Symphony/Leonard Slatkin recording of Barber works that is unmatched.
J.S. Bach's Six suites for unaccompanied cello. Cello music is my personal fave though I don't play the instrument. Mstislav Rostropovich's take on the work is in heavy rotation on my iPad mini.
If I had my back against a wall and a gun to my head, I'd probably have to say Russian Easter Overture by Rimsky-Korsakov. But I love so many pieces for so many different reasons. Those I simply love to hear and those I fondly recall playing cello or percussion as part of a large group or small ensemble.
Of course, having studied piano since I was five years old, I'm extremely partial to piano pieces.
Ha! I hate piano pieces for the same reason! But put me in front of a marimba with a pair of number 20 Stevens mallets and I'll be a happy camper ALL DAY.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Classical is a whole world unto itself, to just try and pick only one piece...
I'm partial to a wide range. Here's a brief sample.
Adams' Two Fanfares: Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Tromba Lontana Beethoven's 6th and 9th Symphonies Elgar's Enigma Variation: Nimrod Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Muhly's The Only Tune Nyman's In Re Don Giovanni Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel Reich's Music for 18 Musicians Rodrígo's Concierto de Aranjuez Smetana's Má vlast: Vltava Vaughan Williams' A Lark Ascending
And I still feel I've only scratched the surface of classical music, with entire eras and composers I've yet to even listen to ahead of me.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
I read a Philip Glass article that introduced me to the compositions of Junichi Masuda and Koji Kondo, two Japanese composers of early video game music that Glass said were doing wonderful things with the built-in limitations of the early technology. Both of them eschewed the beeps and boops and simple jingles most common in video games of the era, but each went in a different direction.
Kondo, who is most famous for the music to the "Legend of Zelda" series, combined the styles of movie scores and 19th and early 20th century impressionist composers. There is a heavy Debussy and Satie influence to his work.
Masuda, on the other hand, worked in a more minimalist fashion, especially on the original Pokemon: Red and Blue soundtracks, crafting a score that blended Glass-like atonality and repetition with early 20th century Americana. Evocation of Copland, ragtime, folk tunes and Tin Pan Alley sit right up against eerie electronica that could be from an 8-bit version of "Koyaanisqatsi."
Like all music, mine changes with mood. Yesterday for example, I spent time in the lovely countryside which borders England and Wales, with immediately evoked Ralph Vaughn Williams "The Lark Ascending". However, I'm generally always happy to listen to "Rhapsody in Blue" which couldn't be more different.