What do you think of classical?

[PiotrSkut]

God, the ignorance on display in this thread is nauseating.

First, to the idiots who keep trying to make themselves look more educated than they are by slamming others use of the term "classical": get the fuck over yourselves.

Yes, the "Classical Period" was a specific era in Western art music which lasted from approximately 1750 to around 1820. However, "Classical Music" is also a catch-all term used to refer to ALL Western art music from the Dark Ages to the present.

So yes, Einaudi's music can still be considered "classical" based on its pedigree and stylistic elements.

Second, stop calling all musical examples you allude to "songs". A "song" is a piece of music which specifically incorporates a VOICE PART (pieces which require larger voice ensembles, such as choirs are usually still not referred to as such, though).

Here, I'll break it down for the idiots:

"Poker Face" by Lady Gaga = Song

"Für Elise" by Beethoven = Not a song


Got it?


Third, to you idiots who say that classical music is "overrated", or that it's "stuffy" and just more "dead white guy" garbage: wow, just wow.

That's kind of like some idiot going on about how the latest Spider-Man comic has such an awesome storyline while dismissing James Joyce or Dostoevsky as boring crap.

Don't you morons realize that if it wasn't for Josquin des Prez, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, etc, etc just from a theory standpoint ALONE your favorite type of music wouldn't even exist?

And if someone can honestly listen to this and not be moved, congratulations: you officially have no soul:

<youtube=qSeg69d3CQ8>

 

[justnotcricket]

It works as musical wallpaper, prettying up the background. I can be doing other stuff, but couldn't sit down just to listen to it at any great length.

Doing homework or something with that sort of music in the background is nice


This is a favourite of mine

I love this guy's stuff to =) And Debussy's, of course ;-)

I do love classical music - my alter ego plays in a semi-professional orchestra, and while I enjoy many types of music, nothing makes me happier than classical. Especially things like Beethoven's Eroica, Elgar's Enigma Variations, Barber's Adagio...

*sigh*

 

[TyrunnAlberyn]

@PiotrSkut: I see your Piano Concerto No.5 and raise you with:
That said, both are great pieces.

Also a great thing in my eyes:

 

[photog212]

Wow never thought I'd find another Ludivico Einaudi fan, ever. Ya he's great.

Hooray, neither did I!

Yeah, I love his works to bits.

I love Einaudi, but never really considered him to be 'classical'. On account of him still being alive and all. Contemporary instrumental if you will. (I'm nit picky.)

 

[Treefingers]

I study classical guitar at uni, so yeah. Though i tend to listen almost exclusively to classical guitar music when i listen to classical.

You know about this guy right?

Spoiler

Yes. He's more of a Flamenco guitarist, but yes.

 

[Queen Michael]

First of all, DON'T use "******" as an insult. Secondly, classical music is the best genre there is.

 

[KindOfnElf]

I'll just drop this here... and wish you nice times listening to it. Open up for this wonderful music... feel it, shed a tear if you must


And I am off to play it on my violin, cause I feel inspired of this thread.

 

[Outright Villainy]

It works as musical wallpaper, prettying up the background. I can be doing other stuff, but couldn't sit down just to listen to it at any great length.

Doing homework or something with that sort of music in the background is nice


This is a favourite of mine

Dang, got their first. I bloody love that song. Probably the nicest piano I've ever heard.
It's rare to hear an instrument emote. God I love that song...

First of all, DON'T use "******" as an insult.

Also, this.
I don't think very highly of the Op, or any one else who uses that insult unironically.

 

[kikon9]

Depends. I listen to a little classical music. But I'm one of those people who listens to a little bit of everything.

Same here. Except for gangsta rap and heavy metal (and pop, eugh.) So I wouldn't consider it anything special. It is unique compared to all the more modern music I listen to (there's this big gap throughout the 1800s and first half of the 1900s that I just can't stand any music.)

At some times, string orchestras and simple but skilled piano melodies are just awesome. But I like modern music that use a lot of those instruments too. I'd really like to see some musicians push the boundaries of what you can do with orchestrated strings rather than that modern arty bullshit, and see more piano-focused music, rather than just having piano bits and then going to guitar. It could be cool.

Have you ever heard of guitar vs piano?

 

[Nyaliva]

I like most forms of music (nothing urban) but I LOVE classical music. I was much like Digi7, I got into classical in my teens and now I can't even remember when I started, it's just become natural. The thing I love is the beauty of classical music (and contemparary and minimalist, anything under the 'classical' umbrella), the shear depth and character of the music, something lacking in today's music.
Like many others, I like individual pieces more than composers but if I had to pick I'd probably pick Beethoven, his Moonlight Sonata is one of my favourites, all three movements. To name a few of my favourite pieces, Toccata and Fugue in D (orchestral version), Requiem for a Dream (Mozart), Clair de Lune, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Liebstraum and, wait for it, Ludovico Einaudi!!!!

I like I Giorni and Le Onde but I now enjoy Divenire (thanks Digi7). Another 'new classical' artist I like is Michael Nyman who wrote the music for "The Piano". However, what I want to listen to depends on what I'm doing: I listen to piano classics when I need some good thinking background music, soft, deep, beautiful orchestral music when I want to enjoy the beauty of classical music and stronger, faster paced classics when I just want some good, powerful music to enjoy.

So, yeah, classical music is awesome and I only wish more people could appreciate its beauty.

 

[BonsaiK]

That music is true genius, and no talentless ****** like Bieber can even begin to be on the same reality plane to compare to it.

Now, a lot of people are snooty about classical music.

Gosh, irony.

The piece you linked isn't classical in either historical period or musical style, but other posters have covered that off pretty well. In fact given the multi-layered approach and cyclical, repetitive harmonic structure its closest musical ally would be... wait for it... pop music. Most minimalist composers were very much influenced by the simplicity of pop. Einaudi, with his reasonable commercial success relative to his peers and strictly economical harmonies and melodies could be almost considered a Beiber of the contemporary music world.

On the other hand, much of "rockin' metal" actually has more in common with classical music than Einaudi in terms of harmonic structure and arrangement...


I don't like a lot of classical music myself, probably because I studied it for years, and also I probably have some negative bias, due to having had the extreme displeasure of working with classical music ensembles.

 

[Jack_Uzi]

I love some of the Russian composers very much. Especially this song: Always brings a smile to my face and makes me long for cold winters with hot coco!

 

[Wandering hobo]

Well to be honest i like listening to Bach and Stravinsky but i also listen to metal music because i find it somehow close to classical.For example there are sub-genres of metal that use classical themes like symphonic metal.You could say metal is a really mature genre because for example most of the songs (at least the ones i listen too) rely a lot on the singers actual voice without the tons of editing that are something usual for most of todays music.So yeah give metal a try too.Listen to the classics like Manowar or maybe Maiden.

 

[Treefingers]

Think it's boring, and prefer your rockin' metal?

You do know that in terms of technicality and virtuoisity many classical composers would most likely have played in metal bands had they been born in this day and age.

No.

In terms of technicality and virtuosity many classical composer would most likely be making contemporary classical music had they been born in this day and age.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

I like classical music, but I have to agree that it's not all good.

I'm not sure where counts as "here" for this, but "over here" we have Classic FM and Radio 3, both playing Classical Music. Classic FM will tell you you're listening to Classic FM quite often while you listen to Classic FM and if you habitually have Classic FM on you could get sick of Classic FM broadcasting the station title "Classic FM" ... but generally speaking the adverts drive me to the tape player or CD player a lot faster than that. Radio 3 is on the BBC and does not have adverts, but they do have an old presenter ... who will take the time ... to inform the listeners ... that this piece was first played ... by the Berenkhov Ensemble ... in the Pearl Room ... at the Palace of Angelsk ... on the occasion ... of the celebrations ... of the fourteenth birthday ... of the then Tsar's ... daughter Lolita ... and on that occasion ... the lead violin ... was played by Nikolai Ivanovich Lobochevski ... whose cousin Imelda Vladinova ... emigrated that year ... to Prague ... from where she later moved ... to Blackburn, Lancashire ... and it is her great-great-grandson ... Michael Marcos ... Alexandre ... Gratinoff ... who conducted ... the performance ... we're about to hear ... in the Royal Albert Hall ...

... and I really would like to let the BBC know that I don't care!

Radio 3 also tends towards the massed choir singing "Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria. Gloria."

Classic FM run a Hall of Fame thing every year, and every year they release a boxed set of the top 30 tracks as voted for by you. The top 30 tracks as voted for by you in 2010 are not that difference from the top 30 tracks as voted for by you in 2009 or the top 30 tracks as voted for by you in 2008 ... so it seems rather pointless to buy them all. What I'd really like would be the top 100 as voted for by us in 2000-2010.

Regarding metal, I did try to start a poll thread to gather data on how many people like both rather than just one or the other, but the polls weren't working.

With lyrical metal you get the freedom of vocabulary, mood, tone, volume, speed and so on that makes classical music so varied.

When it comes down to some two-note middle-class kid moaning through an auto-tuner about how much money he's got over a looped tape of four bars from an older song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQyslvyRS18], and the whole thing's designed to be learned in its entirety before it's finished playing even once so nobody out there feels intimidated by all the words, that freedom has gone away, and they all sound the same.

 

[KarenLee]

For Ludovico Einaudi fans, he's coming to the US in October 2010 for live performance dates:

Oct. 8 New York, NY Angel Orensanz Church

Oct. 11 Denver, CO The Arvada Center

Oct. 12 Seattle, WA Benaroya Hall

Oct. 13 San Francisco, CA Herbst Theatre

Oct. 14 Los Angeles, CA Ford Amphitheatre

Oct. 16 Milwaukee, WI Marcus Center/Vogel Hall

Ludovico Einaudi is a household name in the U.K. and Europe but in the U.S., he may be the most popular musician you?ve never heard of. But if you?re a fan of film, television, or even basketball, you?ve probably heard his music. The NBA, the British TV series Doctor Zhivago, and films like This Is England and The Reader have all used Einaudi?s lyrical, atmospheric works. His music is ambient, meditative and often introspective, drawing on minimalism, world music and contemporary pop.

Nothing in Ludovico Einaudi?s family tree suggests that he would become a musician. But it does suggest that whatever he did, he would do well. The Einaudi family is a formidable one: Ludovico?s grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was Italy?s second president, and, with a 7-year term, one of its most successful. His father, Giulio Einaudi, founded one of Europe?s most respected publishing houses, working with authors like Italo Calvino and Primo Levi.

Early on, Ludovico studied music with Luciano Berio, one of the 20th-century?s most accomplished classical composers, and developed the ability to write serious, brow-furrowing music; ultimately he found he wanted to write music that spoke directly to the heart instead. But Einaudi is neither a conventional classical composer nor an electronica artist; he has carved out his own genre and it?s drawing fans all over the world at a record pace. In October, he is bringing his unique brand of classical ambient piano to the U.S. where he will return to major cities and will bow in three cities with the support of the radio stations that play his music.

 

[Sronpop]

I appreciate it, but I do not listen to it. It is just not what I want to listen to at this stage of my life, I need something absolutely bleeding with energy and power like metal. Metal is pretty much just classical music distilled into a 5 piece band and altered a bit.

<youtube=VK344h0wnDY>

Skip to the end for a nice classical surprise, or if the vocals are too much for you
<youtube=1DND8S_CF_g>

<youtube=PjtZW_FCSTo>

This is why I don't listen to classical, it has evolved into something else.

Sure I will probably actively seek good classical music one day, but for now this is what I want.