Dead-Composers Society

[northie]

Northie, when it's women you want  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65NuypEkg-4

There's nothing wrong with Ethyl Smythe - an amazing English eccentric if ever there was one.

[Drew Espinosa]

I had a high school history teacher who used to play classical music before class started and during breaks.  He introduced us to a lot of composers, many of which I have since forgotten.  I remember one that I loved, but unfortunately can't remember the exact name of the piece.  It was a Russian composer and based on a fairy tale.  Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or something.  I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can point me in the right direction

Try Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov. Maybe you'll find one of their compositions that will ring a bell.

[Valkyrie]

Try Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov. Maybe you'll find one of their compositions that will ring a bell.

Looks like Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.  Thanks!

[AC Benus]

Well, this forum has taken on a life of its own - that's fantastic!

[AC Benus]

On my way to the slow movement, I dipped into the first as well. That, I found identikit sub-Mozart - definitely nothing to write home about. The slow movement was quite different. It has all sorts of interest: harmonically, rhythmically and in its use of the orchestra. It reminds me of early Beethoven (which is a pretty good thing, in my book).

[[uMMMMM.... lol, maybe next time you'll start where asked to start...jk. Also, I have no idea what 'identikit sub-Mozart' means, but I suspect I would not like the answer...hehe. This period of music is my is my wheelhouse, so I can tune into lots of nuances of the overarching 'style.]]  

 

I thought you would specifically like the moment in the second movement where the kettledrums are used piano under the melody line at the recapitulation. It's not particularly fancy or elaborate, but highly effective to turn the otherwise sweet melody solidly towards the 'disquieted' - perhaps even unsettled. imo 

 

Thanks for listening! I do really appreciate you giving it a try.       

[AC Benus]

Dvorak's Symphony # 9, 'New World' 4th movement. 

 

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=C211US0D20160219&p=New+World+Symphony

Years ago I taped the attached performance from television. This youtube vid has fantastic sound - and you can skip ahead to the final movement. Listening to it just now put me in mind of a novel I'm reading at the moment, Owen Wister's The Virginian. He has wonderful passages about the West as wide open expanse, and Dvorak's brasses puts me right there with them. 

 

Thanks for posting this! 

 

[AC Benus]

Thank you, AC for this accompaniment to Live Poets. I am unsure of how to add videos to a post. 

 

However, here is a link to one of my very favorite pieces by Francois Couperin. In many ways, it was far ahead of its time. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JeJClooBYqY

This piece is beautiful! Thanks for posting it. It's certainly new to me; I only know a few liturgical compositions by this composer, so it's nice to hear a keyboard composition.

 

Puts me in mind of a recording of Gluck I used to listen to when Naxos had a free website with their entire catalog online to stream.

[AC Benus]

Hmm, this takes me back to my high school music appreciation electives. My fall back favorites are Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (sorry, I can't post a link using my tablet). I first encountered them on recordings from the Smithsonian Museum using period instruments back in the 70's.

I was 17 when I fell in love with Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. I was on a plane coming home from a school trip to Europe, and the classical channel on board only had an hour-long program, including a recording of it. I set my watch after the first hearing, and made sure I listened to it every hour on the hour, lol. I don't know how many times - 7 maybe... omg, nuts - but I loved it

[dughlas]

My son was very likely conceived to the Brandenbergs.

[AC Benus]

It's about time we introduced a woman into the proceedings ... This is a recording I was about to inflict on AC before he went 'public' with this thread.

 

Lili Boulanger was a French composer from the beginning of the C20 - she would probably be much better known if she had lived longer but she died aged only 24. This setting of Psalm 24 knocked me sideways when I first heard it - the sheer impact of the opening with its powerful, rhythmically-urgent music grabbed my ears like little else.

I always like to learn about new music. This piece does have a nice bang at the start. Overall it puts me in mind of Cecil Coles, who I suppose was a contemporary. 

 

As for female composers, I did run into a new one (new to me, that is) only a few weeks ago. I'll have to see what I can dig up :') [[yes, another death pun, sorry...]] 

[Parker Owens]

Smalin is a channel on Youtube that I absolutely enjoy. It's been around since pretty much the beginning of the website and in those eleven years, Stephen Malinowski has devoted his time to creating animated graphical scores for many compositions.

 

Here are two personal favorites of mine.

 

Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578

 

Clair de lune by Debussy

I am out of likes, but I emphatically agree with Drew! This is a great channel! Thanks, Drew!

[Mikiesboy]

Oh man. Most of this is waaay over my head. 

 

I started listening to classical music at the request of my psychiatrist. He thought it might soothe the mess that i was. It certainly helped. I still listen though not a lot at home too often - mostly on my trips back and forth to work, which stress me out. I recognize a few pieces I've read on here ... and a few composers and (yay) not only the mainstream ones.  Mostly I listen to a classical radio station, which I really enjoy.  So I'll be watching this forum, may not be able to contribute much, but I'll enjoy learning from it.

[Mikiesboy]

I wouldn't be worthy of my avatar, when my first contribution wouldn't be music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

For me the most beautiful piece of music is the ending of the Weihachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio). I first heard the oratorio as a boy when I got my first (transistor) radio and could -without knowledge of my parents- listen in bed late at night with an earpfone (only one earphone in those days: stereo came later ).

 

In Bach's time all music was live and mostly to be performed just once, so it was common practice for composers to re-use their own work and even use music by other composers.

 

To show how totally different the same choral theme can sound, it is followed by a choral from the Matthäuspassion (St. Matthew Passion) where the celebration of birth in the Christmas Oratorio with interruprions of the timpani and the tromba in major key between each line is replaced by a much more modest orchestration and set in a minor key on the way to crucifixion.

 

I sincerely hope this will fit in the forum and is not seen (nor meant) as a religious item. If I violate any posting rules, though, I'll accept removal of the post without discussion.　

I just want to comment on your mention of religion. I'm so far from being religious I can't tell you, however, a lot of beautiful music has been written because of it. Music and songs I love and celebrate, so while I do not believe, I think we have to understand and accept that without religion we might not have a lot of the music we love.

[Ashi]

Smalin is a channel on Youtube that I absolutely enjoy. It's been around since pretty much the beginning of the website and in those eleven years, Stephen Malinowski has devoted his time to creating animated graphical scores for many compositions.

 

Here are two personal favorites of mine.

 

Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578

 

Clair de lune by Debussy

 

OMG, Drew!!!!  You're such a nerd!  In the most affectionate way of course.  I love it.

[Ashi]

Oh man. Most of this is waaay over my head. 

 

I started listening to classical music at the request of my psychiatrist. He thought it might soothe the mess that i was. It certainly helped. I still listen though not a lot at home too often - mostly on my trips back and forth to work, which stress me out. I recognize a few pieces I've read on here ... and a few composers and (yay) not only the mainstream ones.  Mostly I listen to a classical radio station, which I really enjoy.  So I'll be watching this forum, may not be able to contribute much, but I'll enjoy learning from it.

 

Hey..., if you want more music which soothes the soul, I have quite a bit I can list.

[Mikiesboy]

Hey..., if you want more music which soothes the soul, I have quite a bit I can list.

Thank you, Ashi! You should list some here, I may not be alone, lol!

 

tim

[dughlas]

Oh man. Most of this is waaay over my head. 

 

I started listening to classical music at the request of my psychiatrist. He thought it might soothe the mess that i was. It certainly helped. I still listen though not a lot at home too often - mostly on my trips back and forth to work, which stress me out. I recognize a few pieces I've read on here ... and a few composers and (yay) not only the mainstream ones.  Mostly I listen to a classical radio station, which I really enjoy.  So I'll be watching this forum, may not be able to contribute much, but I'll enjoy learning from it.

I know what you mean about this being another place to learn and grow.

[northie]

I just want to comment on your mention of religion. I'm so far from being religious I can't tell you, however, a lot of beautiful music has been written because of it. Music and songs I love and celebrate, so while I do not believe, I think we have to understand and accept that without religion we might not have a lot of the music we love.

I second this wholeheartedly - you don't need to have any belief to be able to appreciate music originally written for a religious setting.

[northie]

Oh man. Most of this is waaay over my head. 

 

 Mostly I listen to a classical radio station, which I really enjoy.  So I'll be watching this forum, may not be able to contribute much, but I'll enjoy learning from it.

This is how I felt when I first started trespassing over at live poets and how I still feel whenever the posts take on a technical aspect ...

[dughlas]

This is how I felt when I first started trespassing over at live poets and how I still feel whenever the posts take on a technical aspect ...

What do you mean "trespassing". You are a welcome part of "live poets" as would be anyone else who wishes to visit and share. I get lost sometimes on the meat of what is discussed too but am always encouraged to participate and question just as here.

[northie]

What do you mean "trespassing". You are a welcome part of "live poets" as would be anyone else who wishes to visit and share. I get lost sometimes on the meat of what is discussed too but am always encouraged to participate and question just as here.

Thanks, dugh. Trespassing is how it felt at the start but not now after the welcome from everyone.

[northie]

Thank you, Ashi! You should list some here, I may not be alone, lol!

tim

Tim, these are some of the things I listen to if I'm 'wound up'. One person's music for relaxation is someone else's boring so feel free to try and discard if you don't like it.

 

John Tavener: The lamb; Angels; God is with us

 

Henryk Gorecki: Totus tuus; Amen

 

Rachmaninoff: Vespers; Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

 

Tchaikovsky: Orthodox church music

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by northie

[Tomas]

Hmmm!

 

I like so many works of classical composers I really don't think that I can honestly pick only one or any one of their works, but I can at least provide a list of some of the composers. I do think that I tend more toward the Russian composers than some of the others.   

 

Partial list:

 

Prokofiev

Rimsky-Korsakov

Tchaikovsky

Stravinsky

Shostakovich

Rachmaninov

Sibelius

Dvorak

Grieg

Vivaldi

Smetana

Vaughan Williams

[J.HunterDunn]

Smalin is a channel on Youtube that I absolutely enjoy. It's been around since pretty much the beginning of the website and in those eleven years, Stephen Malinowski has devoted his time to creating animated graphical scores for many compositions.

 

 

 

By accident I found these only recently, but they were an eye opener for me. Some music that I had known for years and had read the "traditional" scores many times, suddenly had hidden spots that the animated break down clearly showed. Thanks for mentioning the exact place to look for, Drew.

[J.HunterDunn]

There's nothing wrong with Ethyl Smythe - an amazing English eccentric if ever there was one.

 

I did add a wink, but actually like Ethel's music. And then there was also at the back of my mind the link to GA, for when I see of hear Ethel Smyth I must think of Virginia Woolf and then also of Vita Sackville-West, who is better known in the UK than in the US, I assume.

Edited July 27, 2016 by J.HunterDunn