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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 29, 2019 15:28:23 GMT -5
I use the term "Classical Music" broadly to encompass Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc. all the way up to Post-Modern and Post-Post-Modern instrumentation.
To start, Let's listen to one of the greatest romantic melodies of our time: Rachmaninov's 18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. You don't have to listen to all of it. At least the first 2:00. Quick intro to the piece: A doof named Nicolo Paganini wrote Caprice No. 24 for solo violin. Rachmaninov took the basic theme from that Caprice and created 24 variations for piano and orchestra. The 18th variation (of 24) is the most famous.
The second post in this thread will provide a quick laymen's analysis of this variation and the entire Rhapsody in general.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 29, 2019 15:28:33 GMT -5
Here's a quick and very interesting laymen's analysis of the above music. At least watch the first 4:00.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 29, 2019 15:28:59 GMT -5
(Reserved)
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Post by hammer on Apr 29, 2019 16:41:48 GMT -5
This is where my expertise looms large ... Corpus Christi en Sevilla, from Suite Iberia
If you can play this you are god:
And, IMO the greatest solo piece for piano ever written, El Abaicin, again from Suite Iberia:
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Post by ironhammer on Apr 29, 2019 19:59:36 GMT -5
No expert in classic music. I admit having listened to concerts on classical music and struggling to stay awake. I'm sure the pianist and violinist was doing a great job, it's just my primitive and savage brain can't appreciate it.
That being said I do like some classical pieces of music (namely the most famous ones).
Beethoven's Symphony No.9, Ode to Joy. I like the flashmob version:
And Canon in D Major:
Speaking of which, why the heck do they always play canon at weddings?! That I've always wanted to know.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 29, 2019 21:02:28 GMT -5
No expert in classic music. I admit having listened to concerts on classical music and struggling to stay awake. I'm sure the pianist and violinist was doing a great job, it's just my primitive and savage brain can't appreciate it. ... It's because you're not a member of the Cultured Elite.
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Post by ironhammer on Apr 29, 2019 21:04:56 GMT -5
No expert in classic music. I admit having listened to concerts on classical music and struggling to stay awake. I'm sure the pianist and violinist was doing a great job, it's just my primitive and savage brain can't appreciate it. ... It's because you're not a member of the Cultured Elite. Yes, my cardinal sin. The world is ending because of my lack of appreciation for classical music. Hehehe. Actually, I do like classical music, the ones that don't put me to sleep and can be listened over and over again.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 29, 2019 21:19:30 GMT -5
It's because you're not a member of the Cultured Elite. Yes, my cardinal sin. The world is ending because of my lack of appreciation for classical music. Hehehe. Actually, I do like classical music, the ones that don't put me to sleep and can be listened over and over again. I think it helps if you "studied" or took lessons in some instrument, e.g., piano, violin. My entire family -- wife, 3 kids, 4 dogs -- all took music lessons when they were young so they ALL love classical music. This is not to say we geek out when we get together and talk about Schubert and Prokofiev and Liszt, ad nauseam. We actually don't. But when we randomly encounter classical music, e.g., at the mall, radio station, PBS, we stop to listen. No one has ever fallen asleep, except for the dogs. I took some lessons when I was young but stopped for a variety of reasons. I resumed in my early- to mid-20s in grad school. (I was studying EE but I took private piano lessons on the side.) At the time, I couldn't make heads or tails of classical music. But the more lessons I took, the more I was able to distinguish one type of music from another, one composer from another. I bought all of Mozart's piano concertos on CD. Despite hours listening to them on my stereo, I couldn't tell one from the other. They all sounded the same. I wondered if it was a waste of time. But I kept listening to them. Then, one day, while I was walking to class, I turned on my earphone radio to a classical station and one of Mozart's piano concertos came on and I was humming along perfectly from beginning to end! And I could name that concerto! I couldn't believe it. Somehow through prolonged exposure, all those notes stuck in my head!
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Post by hammer on Apr 30, 2019 0:39:24 GMT -5
I started piano lessons at age 5 and continued for many years reaching a high level of proficiency. At some point though you have to make a decision where you are going in your life and I chose STEM over music. I still play occasionally and I own a nice piano, but music can be a real time sync and science and sports rounded out my life. And, I found VolleyTalk.
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Post by ironhammer on Apr 30, 2019 1:03:02 GMT -5
Yes, my cardinal sin. The world is ending because of my lack of appreciation for classical music. Hehehe. Actually, I do like classical music, the ones that don't put me to sleep and can be listened over and over again. I think it helps if you "studied" or took lessons in some instrument, e.g., piano, violin. My entire family -- wife, 3 kids, 4 dogs -- all took music lessons when they were young so they ALL love classical music. This is not to say we geek out when we get together and talk about Schubert and Prokofiev and Liszt, ad nauseam. We actually don't. But when we randomly encounter classical music, e.g., at the mall, radio station, PBS, we stop to listen. No one has ever fallen asleep, except for the dogs. I took some lessons when I was young but stopped for a variety of reasons. I resumed in my early- to mid-20s in grad school. (I was studying EE but I took private piano lessons on the side.) At the time, I couldn't make heads or tails of classical music. But the more lessons I took, the more I was able to distinguish one type of music from another, one composer from another. I bought all of Mozart's piano concertos on CD. Despite hours listening to them on my stereo, I couldn't tell one from the other. They all sounded the same. I wondered if it was a waste of time. But I kept listening to them. Then, one day, while I was walking to class, I turned on my earphone radio to a classical station and one of Mozart's piano concertos came on and I was humming along perfectly from beginning to end! And I could name that concerto! I couldn't believe it. Somehow through prolonged exposure, all those notes stuck in my head! Unfortunately, I don't have the musical genes in me.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 30, 2019 1:10:54 GMT -5
I started piano lessons at age 5 and continued for many years reaching a high level of proficiency. At some point though you have to make a decision where you are going in your life and I chose STEM over music. I still play occasionally and I own a nice piano, but music can be a real time sync and science and sports rounded out my life. And, I found VolleyTalk. At the peak of my interest, I practiced the piano at least 3 hours per day on work days and at least 5 hours on weekend days. The time really flies because there I had a specific routine: scales, arpeggios, various drills, and of course, the individual pieces (sections at a time). I'm probably not as good as you, but I played a lot. I also discovered that I played better when I was sick, probably because I wasn't thinking as much and went on pure instinct.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 30, 2019 1:14:01 GMT -5
I started piano lessons at age 5 and continued for many years reaching a high level of proficiency. At some point though you have to make a decision where you are going in your life and I chose STEM over music. I still play occasionally and I own a nice piano, but music can be a real time sync and science and sports rounded out my life. And, I found VolleyTalk. So, the username "hammer" has multiple meanings: volleyball and piano hammers.
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Post by Phaedrus on Apr 30, 2019 7:25:38 GMT -5
Being Chinese by birth, which means violin lessons until I went to college. Hated it when I was taking lessons but really appreciate the knowledge now that I am much older. THE Mendelssohn.
Concierto de Aranjuez
Beethoven's Ninth, Ode to Joy, with a choir of 10,000 in Japan.
THE Moonlight.
Elgar's Cello Conceirto, with Jacqueline Du Pre soloist. Gone too soon.
Glenn Goud is renowned for his performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations.
This piece combines my love of music and mathematics, thanks to Douglas Hofstadter. From Wikipedia. The Musical Offering (German: Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of keyboard canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia), to whom they are dedicated. The Ricercar a 6, a six-voice fugue which is regarded as the high point of the entire work, was put forward by the musicologist Charles Rosen as the most significant piano composition in history (partly because it is one of the first).[1] This ricercar is also occasionally called the Prussian Fugue, a name used by Bach himself. The composition features in the opening section of Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979).
This video shows how he integrates six voices into the composition.
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Post by hammer on Apr 30, 2019 12:02:55 GMT -5
I started piano lessons at age 5 and continued for many years reaching a high level of proficiency. At some point though you have to make a decision where you are going in your life and I chose STEM over music. I still play occasionally and I own a nice piano, but music can be a real time sync and science and sports rounded out my life. And, I found VolleyTalk. So, the username "hammer" has multiple meanings: volleyball and piano hammers. Yes, you could say that, but more of a coincidence. I found the practicing was hard on my back, especially the upper back. You have to put in the hours to be master scales and chordings. Later volleyball and golf did a number on my lower back. My middle back and vertebrae are ok though.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 30, 2019 12:21:38 GMT -5
I stopped playing when I realized I was only "good" but had no potential to be "great." That was kind of a buzzkill.
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