Classical Music

[Kappa]

Whoa! Hold the rotten tomatoes, folks! I'm under the impression that not a lot of people enjoy classical music around here and I want to prove my idea wrong, but... first, let's ask. Take this as a test of sorts (without using the answers of someone who answered first! :P):

1. What is your concept of classical music?
2. Do you enjoy it?
3. Who/what is your favorite composer/piece/melody/opera/etc.?

I'll be honest. What brought me across writing and asking this (apart from the fact that I'm hearing Tchaпkovsky right now) is that I'm worried about the fact that musical education in most places is now just a matter of knowing what's pop nowadays. I'm not joking: I visited my old school with Rachmaninoff on my CD Player and a girl from junior year asked me who was it that I was hearing; I replied who he was and she told me that she had never heard of him but that she had been born on 1988 so he could possibly be from a couple of years before her. (!) I was like, "Oh, so assuming. -_-"

I'm curious, so I want to make a poll of sorts (with the difference that this is three questions I want answered. ^_^) I'll be grateful for you replies.

[thegurgi]

Classical Music would be music composed before like, 1960.

Classical Music can have Vocals... like, for instance, Mozart's Requiem has tons of vocals in it.

I think the term Classical Music has been misconstrued to mean "Orchestral Music" and that isn't true. It's more about the time period ranging from Rennaisance to 1950.

I wouldn't consider the soundtrack to a movie to be CLASSICAL MUSIC.

Being a classically trained singer :: wink ::
i've learned to not only love classical music but appreciate it for what it is.

My favorite FAVORITES are Gershwin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky [1 american and 2 russians]

[Lena410]

1. It's music compossed in the period that is called Classic. Don't ask me when excatly. thegurgi already posted when it is and the only thing I remeber about Classic is my teacher saying: Not everything that's old is classic! Only things composed in that period are classic!

2. I enjoy every kind of music I can relate to and I love Classic music. I was probably the only one not bored in school.

3. Mozart: nearly everything from him..I couldn't really pick one..for example Requiem, A la Turca
Beethoven: everything from him..I love him.
Bach, Dvorak (Czech), Mendelsson..Tschaikovsky..

well that's everything my tired brain could come up with..

[rivierakid]

I usually think of classical music as...well...mostly old music. Kinda like thegurgi said. ^_^;; Mostly without lyrics, although some classical pieces have them. Usually for a band or orchestra. Quite emotional.

Personally, I love classical music. Of course, my being a band geek may be a reason for that. ^_^;; Either way, I love the emotion in classical music that you can't get in the more comtemporary music (you know, pop, rock, rap, etc.) Possibly because in the contemporary stuff, you tend to get distracted by the lyrics and can't appreciate the music itself.

I couldn't tell you who my favorite composers are...I've heard so many things by tons of different composers! But I really like one of the songs we're playing in band now. It's Holst's First Suite in Eb, 2nd movement. Actually, the whole thing's awesome, but for some reason I *really* like the 2nd movement. ^_^

EDIT: Woo! 500th post, yo!

[Kappa]

Lena410, you must marry me. We'll have musical children. XD

[spyretto]

1.something boring
2.no
3.none

no, just kidding

I don't like music that has to adhere to pre-established norms but classical music I do like, although I'm not too keen on opera , I'm afraid.

My favourite composer is Mozart...every other composer might have one or two embarrassing moments but Mozart has none.

What I really despise are those compilations whereby they choose, say, Pachelbel's Canon in D, Beethoven's first part of Moonlight Sonata , Albinoni's Adagio n G minor, something from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff etc. and make a "hotchpotch" of classical kitch.

Well, I prefer to listen to the complete works, and to do that, even for the most well-known composers, a lifetime may not be enough. It's a huge volume of work...so I don't...cause then again I prefer pop, I'm very shallow.

[russkayatatu]

Classical music is much more complex than pop or rock: for example: it usually has more than one or two chords , different harmonies, melodic lines, etc. Often it uses different instruments from contemporary pop music (like orchestras made up of several dozen players, for example) and can be written in radically different formats, some really old (sonatas, chamber music, symphonies) and some just made up in the composer's mind.

There are a lot of composers now writing music that I would call "classical"...I don't know what else you would call it: just "dissonant music"??

I really like classical music...not all the time, but often. Especially I like opera (I grew up on opera ): Puccini's "Turandot" (esp. the first act), most of Verdi. Mozart, Beethoven, the Russian Five - I love Smetana's "Moldau" and Handel's "Messiah" - Schubert's songs -ehhh, a lot of music. My brother is way more into it than me; he studies music and plays the viola and makes fun of basically anything that I put on, including tatu I like his music too, though

My mom sang in the chorus at the Houston Grand Opera for a while and she said that she would drive to work blasting Billy Joel and feeling so risque next to the others who had bumper stickers like "Honk if you love Mozart" ha haaa, that's something like my attitude too; I haven't listened to classical music in forever - too busy doing other things - but I definitely still like it and enjoy it a lot. But I'd rather go to work with pop/rock in the car

[spyretto]

hmm, are you sure there is classical music written nowadays? like what?
yeah Smetana's the Moldau is great...and Handel's Messiah if you can manage all 4 cds..and I can also recommend Respighi ( Pines of Rome )

[russkayatatu]

Hmmm, there's people like Philip Glass...what's his music classified as? But actually I was thinking of a guy called Yehudi Weyner (that's a guess; I don't know how to spell it), who wrote some string quartets I heard played recently - and he coached the players - so, maybe it's not classical, but then I don't know what it is. People still write music for orchestras that's def. not pop or any other genre I can think of...so what is it if not classical? A serious question, really.

Also, if you say that classical music is only written in the classical period...the history of music is divided into different eras, like Romantic, Baroque, Classical - do you count all of them as "classical music"? There's a big difference between Telemann (early), Beethoven (later), and Philip Glass (now), for example.

People write new operas all the time too. There was one recently called "The Great Gatsby"...anyway...is this contemporary stuff classical? I would say yes, but then again I have no idea.

edit: yeah, I need to listen to Respighi; I never have

[spyretto]

Philip Glass? I think he's not actually Because then John Williams is also...and I don't know who else...Danny Elfman ??
Hmm, I think those are film composers really, or composers for orchestra.

No, I don't count baroque as classical music...exactly as you said it...baroque is baroque, classical is classical. They're two different genres...classical has its own established forms, like the sonata, the concerto etc. baroque was the movement that preceded classical, am I right?

But I'm not an expert at all

Yehudi Weyner? that sounds familiar is he a violinist?

[russkayatatu]

OK then, yeah I agree, apparently it's sorta a nebulous term at least to some people, cause a lot of the time I use it to refer to much more than classical era compositions (Rachmaninoff, for example, isn't). I can see that John Williams is stretching it Maybe there's another category for film composers, or composers for orchestra, you're right...but I'm no expert either

Here is the biography of composer Yehudi Wyner:

http://www.schirmer.com/composers/wyner/

although I panicked for a moment and thought I was thinking of another Wyner and picked the wrong first name...maybe there is a famous violinist too; it sounds kind of familiar to me too but I can't find it.

Edit: Yehudi Menuhin??

Edit2: Classical period is considered 1750 - 1825. Bach is considered late Baroque, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Strauss are considered Romantic, Debussy and Stravinsky are considered Modern...just to give you an idea. Major classical composers are Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden, Schubert.

[goku]

1. Music from the classical age (Renaissance and Enlightenment)

2. Do I enjoy it?! It goes beyond that, friends..

3. Beethoven.. Mozart and Bach are great, but Beethovens symphonies give this feeling beyond belief.

[spyretto]

yeah, I saw his biography... to me he looks like a very legitimate "classical" composer...but then again the term may not be correct.
Rachmaninoff and Gershwin yes, maybe borderline but Philip Glass and John Williams is streching it a bit too much Lets wait for another 50 years

Yeah, I'm the one who is wrong about the composer. The violinist is Yehudi Menuhin ( same first name, you see )

[russkayatatu]

Here is a definition I found:

Classical music: traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste

Synonyms: serious music

That's rather vague Anyway I think there are several definitions, so darje's question at the beginning - "what is your concept?" - was a good one.

[Lena410]

darje, just tell me when and where

[Lux]

i agree with Goku in that classical music is from the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. other than, i'd define classical music as just strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

having played violin for over 10 years, and being in two private orchestras that question was never presented.

[Kappa]

Lena410, here and NOW! Lux can get us married.

Anyway. Don't you think that Danny Elfman and John Williams are off what's strickly classic music? We'd have to add Hans Zimmer and Michael Kamen (ooooooh my favorite) and a number of others to that category, if we include that. For an example, there's this awesome DJ from Australia who's called Rob Dougan: the man can do everything from a HUGE symphony to a get-down-like-a-ho'-on-crack techno melody. Weird, isn't it?

[taty994945]

so orchestral music is different from classical? i never knew that before.

[Lena410]

darje now?! But I don't have a dress! *sees her dream of a beautiful bridal dress slowly fading* *shrugs* ok. I can live with that.

[febrika]

i like hearing classical music. full of my emotional representation

1. violin, piano, bass, cello and all their friends gathering as one.
2. luub it.
3. beethoven, mozart, chopin.