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Post by vup on Apr 30, 2019 14:24:06 GMT -5
I play a pretty good Liebestraume (No. 3) (still working on getting the second cadenza though).
Chopin's Revolutionary Etude
Chopin's Waltz Op. 64 No. 2
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Post by dc on Apr 30, 2019 14:24:18 GMT -5
A really fantastic, unbelievably beautiful Concert Band Piece "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" transcribed for band from Wagner's "Lohengrin". A really slow version by the Baylor University Wind Ensemble-really fun version, with some great cymbal crashes in the climax (arguably too slow) a more traditional tempo version by the UMichigan Symphony Band. The Baylor version has 268k views which seems like a lot for something like this
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Post by vup on Apr 30, 2019 16:26:06 GMT -5
Concert Band for life. Thanks for sharing that!
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Post by hammer on Apr 30, 2019 17:39:46 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. The financial potential drops so much too if you aren't great, which is another buzzkill. If, OTOH, you are a scientist/ME/EE/CS and you can code, life is good.
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Post by Phaedrus on Apr 30, 2019 18:35:49 GMT -5
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. My friend is a first violinist with the Boston Symphony, she gigs incessantly, teaches at BC and is in a string quartet. Talking to her is like talking to someone who plays pro sports. Her back, shoulder, arm, and neck are shot. She is in constant pain but she can't stop, this is her career.
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Post by volleylearner on Apr 30, 2019 21:56:20 GMT -5
Like other musical genres, I like some classical but not most. Not a fan of any Rachmaninoff that I know of, but have plenty of Bach in my classical playlist. I also like multiple Tchaikovsky pieces. Other composers might have one piece I like but I don't spend a lot of time exploring classical music.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 30, 2019 22:01:18 GMT -5
This was the first MAJOR piece I was able to learn and was quite proud of. It's Brahms' Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2. However, I played it conventionally. If you look at youtube videos of performers playing this piece, they all play it conventionally. And they're all boring.
Glenn Gould, my all-time favorite pianist, played it differently. One thing Gould did so well in his entire body of work was he let you hear the different lines of melody in a piece. He uncovered lines you never thought were there. Such is the case with this performance of this piece. If you listen to the section 1:30 - 1:44 (and it's even more pronounced in section 5:10 - 5:22), most pianists emphasize the right hand melodiy while leaving the left hand bass for background color. In Gould's case, however, he really brought out the bass and revealed a hidden melody. No one else plays it this way! Just llsten to that section and the bass line. If you listen to other performers play this piece, they don't emphasize that bass line at all and, in many cases, they downplay it.
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Post by Phaedrus on May 1, 2019 14:20:55 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. The financial potential drops so much too if you aren't great, which is another buzzkill. If, OTOH, you are a scientist/ME/EE/CS and you can code, life is good. Blair Tindall wrote an expose of the classical music factory titled: Mozart in the Jungle. detailing the bill of goods most musicians are sold regarding a career in classical music. She was a bassonist and she subsisted on Broadway show orchestras and living in rat trap apartments. She was particularly derisive of the conservatory system and how they raise hopes and churn out way more musicians than the market can bear. She got a measure of fame when she said that she had an affair with Keith Lockhart, the Boston Pops conductor for a long time while Lockhart's wife was pregnant with their first child. It led to his divorce from his first wife. Tindall has done pretty well, sold the book as a comedy series on Amazon Prime. Book is worth a read, not that great of a writer but this is one pissed off woman.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 1, 2019 15:23:07 GMT -5
May is National Chamber Music Month. For the uninitiated, what is chamber music?
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Post by Wolfgang on May 1, 2019 15:31:28 GMT -5
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Post by tomclen on May 1, 2019 16:12:12 GMT -5
Classical music radio stations are a lot like an Oldies station.
Except the songs are longer. Ain't much singing. And all of the artists are dead.
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Post by yoda on May 1, 2019 18:00:15 GMT -5
My biggest exposure to classical music was The Moody Blues album Days of the Future Passed with the London Festival Orchestra.
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Post by hammer on May 1, 2019 21:12:13 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. I know the Canon's popularity exploded (pardon the obvious pun) in the 1970s due to some popular recording of it. Possibly that was why it started showing up more and more at weddings. Anyway, it is very mathematical piece, with the same bass line repeated over and over again.
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Post by hammer on May 1, 2019 21:25:01 GMT -5
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. My friend is a first violinist with the Boston Symphony, she gigs incessantly, teaches at BC and is in a string quartet. Talking to her is like talking to someone who plays pro sports. Her back, shoulder, arm, and neck are shot. She is in constant pain bitt she can't sp, this is her career. Notice the hunched back syndrome (also called postural kyphosis) that tends to plague many keyboard players. When you are young you think you can do anything and the body tends to hold up. After about 30 the slide downward begins and chronic fatigue takes over often leading to pain and self medication.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 1, 2019 21:36:45 GMT -5
My theory on why wedding chamber groups play the same set of music at every single wedding:
1. The wedding planners and/or family are, like 95% of the population, unfamiliar with classical music and so their knowledge base is limited to the same set of "greatest hits" pieces: Canon (Pachelbel), Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart), Air in G (Bach), Ave Maria (Bach), Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (Bach), La Primavera (Spring) (Vivaldi), something by Satie, etc. The wedding chamber group will show them their list and the family will go, "Yeah, yeah, that's fine."
2. The chamber group have a fixed set of music in their repertoire that they've practiced together ad infinitum and know very well. To add something new would require additional time to their practice schedule that they don't have because most of them are busy with second jobs like Door Dash delivery people, Lyft, or standard waiters/waitresses.
3. The chamber group may add music upon request but it'll cost extra because of reason #2 above, and the wedding planner/family doesn't want to pay extra. Cheapskates.
These are just my thoughts. I don't know for sure why. Even at my own extended family weddings, they played the same crap. If they had consulted me, I would've offered some pleasant albeit eclectic and unfamiliar alternatives.
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