Food for thought...

Until I return from Colombia at the end of this month, posts will be small and far between.  I had a thought, though, on which you may care to chew (and feel free to spit it out in the form of a comment on this blog or an email).

As humans have made increasingly detailed records of music, we have changed the parts of the brain associated with musical aptitude (particularly in the west where music transcription has been held on an extraordinarily high pedistal).  Once music is written down, it is no longer an exclusively aural experience, but rather engages visual, spatial and logical aspects of the mind among others.  Music documentation in the west has followed a clear genesis from midieval transcriptions of simple, monophonic chant melodies through expansion into multiple cleffs and complex harmonies, to print and mass-produced scores, to the first records using wax tablets to render an analougue reproduction of the sound, to modern recording technology.

My point is simple: when we listen to much of recorded western music, in a sense we are hearing an audio experience of a written description of the origional essence of song rather than pure music directly communicating in it´s origionally intended form.  No judgement here, simply an observation.  I find it interesting, too how this has often resulted in a very specific, controlled, polished, complete musical experience which lacks the emphasis on virtuosity of a single instrument or voice; hence, those coming from a european musical background (including popular) may be more drawn to the polished, recorded product than to, say, a grippingly emotional vocal performance.

I would get into how this mirror´s German opera´s emphasis on the orchestral experience, but then I´d have to spend more time at this internet cafe.

Hasta luego!

To Cover Yourself in Another's Musical Dogshit

All members of the Kingdom Animalia have physical instincts (e.g. avoid pain, seek pleasure, etc...), in humans, the vehicles of these physical instincts are emotional instincts, and to widen our purview: the vehicles thereof are psychological instincts.  We are not the only animal to have emotional instincts, and probably not the only to have psychological instincts.  My aim in illuminating these vehicles is to make plain the fact that individual humans are as instinctually compelled towards certain music(s) as dogs are instinctually compelled to roll in animal excrement. Thus pop music is born.  There may not be a specific dog whose excriment's scent is particularly moving to all other dogs, but there sure as hell is a combination of scents which will stir the nostrils of vast contingents of the doggy population. Same goes for music and humans.

In modern engineering there are sonic tools to elicit specific responses from your ears.  A skilled producer may achieve an extreme level of precision in regards to which frequencies of which sounds should be louder or softer or echo; he or she can control which sound should come from which direction and how long or short it should be held; he or she, using modern technology, may actually contort the shapes of the sound-waves themselves.  These men and women know that a bass at 50hz will make your romp shake and that a drum at 200hz will make your throat thump.  They know that even with an enormously loud sound pulsing away at those low frequencies, you will still be able to hear Lady Gaga's sweet melodies overhead.

Without having a virtuoso on the Tuba, or muddying an arrangement with excessive tympani, it can be hard for some composers to reach those depths of bowel shaking ferocity which your speakers may not even pick up in electronic pieces like this (listen to the drop at .25 on your computer speakers, then do it again on some good headphones or speakers with a sub):

Composer Max Richter's response to this conundrum is to turn to electronics.  Listen in the following piece to the time leading up to minute 2.50 (make sure it's absolutely blaring on loud speakers).

Make of it what you will, my point is that mastering preferences have changed overtime in addition to changes in simple timbrel preferences.

Remastering Albums and Interpreting Symphonies

The entire reason I started thinking about this topic was that I heard the remastered version of the Beatles' The White Album  the other day (heaven forbid that estate go dry).  While some parts sound nice and crisp, I noticed that the mastering caters to the modern pop audience and thus looses a bit of its sixties character.  Particularly the bass drum was stomping on my vibe in some of the more mellow tracks because engineers these days have an evolved (for better or worse) idea of technical 'right' and 'wrong.'  

Similarly,  when a modern orchestra plays a symphony from the Viennese Classical era there are two schools of thought as to how the piece should be treated.  In pop there's a strong sense of empirical good and bad, whereas in classical there are two equally respected schools: Classical and Romantic.  An orchestra under the management of a 'Classical' music director strives to use the exact type of instruments available in the period of the composer and tenaciously obeys all tempo marks in the origional score.  His or her aim is to provide the audience with the experience of the symphony exactly as it would have been heard by the composer.  On the other hand, a 'Romantic' music director feels that a performance is an interpretation and that the conductor should take liberties where it serves the emotive content of the concert.  The orchestra will use the best instruments at hand, perhaps extra performers will be added to beef up the aural experience.  The NSO's current director Christoph Eschenbach is notorious for his slow orchestral interpretations.  Beethoven himself was not known for his technical prowess but was able to rise above his contemporaries in public acclaim because every music fan for thousands of miles knew that he played with more vigor and emotion than his contemporaries.  In his own words: "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is unforgivable."  What a boss.

Is That the New Beethoven?

     Back in the day composers such as Beethoven would go about  their daily lives and when musical ideas would pop into their heads, they would sketch them down in a notebook for later use.  Perhaps when sitting at the piano, such a composer would begin to compile some melodic ideas for a piece and write them down on staff paper.  Often these "sketches" went nowhere and were abandoned.  Sometimes the composer fleshed them out and added harmony, and perhaps instrumentation and published them as polished pieces.  Other times bits and pieces were left behind in treasured notebooks, some of which have ended up in modern museums.  Several of Beethoven's notebooks are still around (BTW this is still how a lot of composition is done although notation software has changed the game to an extent).

     When Beethoven was 22 years old, he wrote his first piano sonata: Sonata Fantasia in D.  Somehow it was lost and never published.  Recently, it turned up in Bonn - it was somewhere between a sketch and a completed piece.  Most of the thematic ideas were in place but there are parts where Beethoven hadn't yet fleshed out the left-hand accompaniment.  It was reconstructed and performed a few days ago.  What you heard if you watched the video above was the world premiere of Beethoven's first and last piece...

According to Gramophone:
"There are a number of thematic similarities to Beethoven’s later works, however. The first part of the Sonata shares a theme with the trio of the third movement of his Symphony No 7. There are also several themes common to the Pastoral, Appassionata and Moonlight Sonatas."

Opium Hallucinations of Demons and Death

In 1830, only three years after the death of Beethoven, a young, French composer named Hector Berlioz premiered a piece which would change the world of art forever.  The transformative effects of his piece were felt not only in the realm of music, but can be observed to this day in theater, movies, and television.
     The piece is Symphony Fantastique, and at the time of its premiere the composer was 27 years old.  He had been born just as Beethoven had begun to test the limits of the definition of the symphony and of classical music itself.  The prodigious Berlioz took this unbridled drive to expand sonic and artistic boundaries and ran with it.  In addition to utilizing new harmonies, forms, and instrumentations, the composer introduced one particular idea which ushered in a new era.
     The idée fixe or "fixed idea" (yes folks, it is also the derivative of a modern psychological term of the same name) is a specific musical theme which represents a specific idea - or character, or place, or emotion, etc... It is a close relative, I'd say the father of the better known leitmotif made famous by Wagner, and hence a precursor for over a century of opera and film-scoring.  Without Berlioz, you bet your ass Hans Zimmer wouldn't be living in this sweet mancave. Let's see what we're dealing with here:

Symphony Fantastique is one of very few "program" symphonies. This means that the music is a direct representation of a narrative and as such is accompanied by a written program (without which the piece should not be approached). A brief synopsis of the piece's five movements:

     An artist falls totally in love, and whenever he sees his beloved her image is accompanied by a specific musical theme.  He sees her everywhere and can't handle being alone and not knowing if his love is requited.  Eventually he deals with his anxiety by ingesting a large amount of opium which, rather than killing him brings on a series of vivid hallucinations.  He sees himself murder his beloved and he witnesses his own execution.  The last movement is a "devilish orgy" complete with witches, ghosts, and the return of his beloved.  Good stuff in general.

AND NOW THE MUSIC!!!

Here's the forth movement.  Note how at times the music seems classical almost to the extent of feeling robotic, yet at others it pours forth emotion without thought to the musical sensibilities of the era.  At  6.08, after an uproarious section we hear the idee fixe for the beloved float in the clarinets and ends abruptly with a loud tutti crash and a thud which signifies the guillotine on the artist's neck:



If you enjoy this, I encourage you to seek out a live performance, download (and pay for) the music, or better yet join me for a listening of the vinyl :)  No matter how you listen, DON'T FORGET THE PROGRAM!  It's below in case you can't find it elsewhere.

"Part I: Reveries--Passions. The author imagines that a young musician, afflicted with that moral disease that a well-known writer calls the vague des passions, sees for the first time a woman who embodies all the charms of the ideal being he has imagined in his dreams, and falls desperately in love with her. Through an odd whim, whenever the beloved image appears in the mind's eye of the artist, it is linked with a musical thought whose character, passionate but at the same time noble and shy, he finds similar to the one he attributes to his Beloved. This melodic image and the model it reflects pursue him incessantly like a double idee fixe. That is the reason for the constant appearance, in every moment of the symphony, of the melody that begins the first Allegro. The passage from this state of melancholy reverie, interrupted by a few fits of groundless joy, to one of frenzied passion, with its moments of fury, of jealousy, its return of tenderness, its tears, its religious consolations--this is the subject of the first movement.

"Part II: A Ball. The artist finds himself in the most varied situations--in the midst of the tumult of a party, in the peaceful contemplation of nature; but everywhere, in the town, in the country, the beloved image appears before him and disturbs his peace of mind.

"Part III: Scene in the Country. Finding himself one evening in the country, he hears in the distance two shepherds piping a ranz des vaches (shepherd's song) in dialogue. This pastoral duet, the scenery, the quiet rustling of the trees gently brushed by the wind, the hopes he has recently found reason to entertain--all come together to afford his heart an unaccustomed calm, and to give a more cheerful color to his ideas. He reflects upon his isolation; he hopes that his loneliness will soon be over. But what if she were deceiving him! This mingling of hope and fear, these ideas of happiness disturbed by black presentiments, form the subject of the Adagio. At the end, one of the shepherds takes up the ranz des vaches; the other no longer replies. Distant thunder--loneliness--silence.

"Part IV: March to the Scaffold. Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a sleep accompanied by the most horrible visions. He dreams that he has killed his Beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to the scaffold, and that he is witnessing his own execution. The procession moves forward to the sounds of a march that is sometimes somber and fierce, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which the muffled sound of heavy steps gives way without transition to the noisiest clamor. At the end, the idee fixe returns for a moment, like a final thought of love before the fatal blow.

"Part V: A Witches' Sabbath. He sees himself at the sabbath, in the midst of a frightful troop of ghosts, sorcerers, and monsters of every species, all gathered for his funeral; strange noises, groans, bursts of laughter, distant cries which other cries seem to answer. The Beloved melody appears again, but it has lost its character of nobility and shyness; it is now no more than a dance tune, mean, trivial and grotesque. It is she, coming to join the sabbath ... a roar of joy at her arrival. She takes part in the devilish orgy--funeral knell--burlesque parody of the Dies irae--sabbath round-dance--the sabbath round-dance and the Dies irae combined."

Feed me the ROCK(maninov)

Just had the pleasure of watching a friend perform this riveting piece:



Also, for you DC concert goers, or anyone in DC looking to become a concert goer in an affordable way BUY THIS GROUPON TODAY!!!!  http://www.groupon.com/deals/nso-jfk-center

It's three concerts for a total of $75.  That's a hell of a deal!  If you need figuring out which ones to go to you know who to ask:)

Fellow enthusiasts of music, I call on you to help preserve the legacy of Charles Ives whom we discussed in this post if you feel so compelled:

Here is a petition to immortalize his house in CT.

And for your troubles here is Ives' musical interpretation of some of that sweet, sweet New England territory:

MURDA!!!

GESUALDO - biggest hardass in music.  Murdered his wife and her lover, wrote music centuries ahead of its time, spent the last 16 years of his life secluded in his castle employing a team to physically torture him.  WTF

This video courtesy of Jon Quirk, a badass in his own right.

Back to Beethoven

So, we can all hum the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth symphony, but why is it really so important and well remembered?

The piece was revolutionary in several different ways:

Compositionaly it was the first symphony ever to have one movement lead directly into the next.  The transition between the third and forth movements is one seamless gust which served as a precedent for symphonic cohesion for centuries to come.  Additionally, the connecting passage between the movements was the first such passage ever to bring the orchestra from a dynamic marking of ppp to fff so quickly.  In layman's terms that means it gets REALLY loud REALLY fast.  Here's the forth movement in all of its Indiana Jones inspiring glory:



Those with a little more music theory experience may notice that the tonal center is basically moving from V to I over and over again creating a sense of finality and triumph.  This symphony represents triumph over fate.

Orchestrally this was the first symphony whose score includes any of the following instruments: piccolo, contra-bassoon, trombone. Beethoven simply needed more power than the traditional orchestra could offer so he did what any visionary would and broke the rules.

Many have argued that the fifth symphony is actually the beginning of the Romantic period (I would say it's probably his third symphony). Whether or not that is the case, until Beethoven's works symphonies were often a total of 15 minutes in length (that's right folks, classical music has not always dragged on for hours!), but in many Beethoven Symphonies each movement alone is more than 15 minutes. Sheesh.

Brohann Sebastian Bach

What a hardass:

"In the summer of 1705, [Bach] got into a brawl with a student named Geyersbach. Geyersbach had insulted Bach's musical abilities and began to threaten him with a stick. Bach then reportedly called Geyersbach a "nanny-goat bassoonist" and Geyersbach retorted that Bach was a "dirty dog" and took a swing at him. Bach drew his sword, but Geyersbach jumped on him, making swordfighting impossible, and they fought until other students were able to break them apart. Later in the year, Bach was given four weeks leave to study the vocal music of Dietrich Buxtehude Another legend claims that Bach walked the entire 200 miles to Lьbeck for these studies. The four week leave actually turned into four months, which did not please Bach's superiors. Also, the new musical techniques that Bach picked up did not go over well and rumors were spread about his impropriety with a young woman. He eventually left this poor situation to take a job in Mьlhausen in June of 1707."

And some excellent quotes:

Beethoven:

"Only the pure at heart can make a good soup."

"Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken."

Elvis:

 I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

Mahler:

"If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music."


Stravinsky:

"A good composer does not imitate; he steals"

 And now, perhaps you can tell me if this is music...

 

Some enchanting music to start your week off right:

A new take on something you've heard before:



From the Jim Henson movie "Mirror Mask"

Something classical which will make you want to conquer dragons (if you listen to the whole thing)!



And this is how I spent my Sunday:



Have a nice day - you'll be hearing from me soon...

Original Classical Music by Peter Valente

Unless

Overview: “Unless” is based on the children’s book “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss. “The Lorax” deals with themes of natural beauty and the destruction thereof at the hands of consumerism and capitalism. “Unless” is my translation of the book - at some points literal and exact, at others loose and impressionistic - into a musical medium. The message put forth in “The Lorax” was particularly poignant to me during the composition of “Unless” because I wrote the piece in 2009/2010 (without access to a piano) while living on the Pacific island of Pohnpei; Pohnpei is a place of immeasurable natural beauty which is currently facing the deleterious social and environmental effects of an imported, money-driven culture. Below is a cursory walk-through of the seven movements in the suite.  I do hope you make it all the way to the bottom, it is worth it (because some movements are wild and others conventional).

The Street of the Lifted – mirrors the eerie opening of the book in which the narrator finds himself walking through an inexplicably desolate world. This movement establishes the key of the Onceler as B minor.

Playing, Singing, Humming pt. 1 – represents the untouched natural world of the trees, bears, swans, and fish, each of which has its theme introduced here. With the exception of the tree theme, the natural themes are in two flats – a key which opposes that of the Onceler. The twinge of melancholy at the beginning of the movement derives from the fact that it is the Onceler who is regretfully whispering the story.

Brownish, Mossy, Sharpish, and Bossy (suggested listening given time constraints) – contrasts the other movements in that rather than representing a specific point in the book, it represents one particular character’s journey from when he is introduced until he leaves at the end of the book. That character is the Lorax himself. The Lorax’s key signature is clear – no flats or sharps. As he is the sole mediator between nature and the Onceler, his key signature is exactly between the two. The downward run at the beginning of the movement is the first tree being chopped and crashing to the ground. The chords that follow show the Lorax springing forth from the stump. Towards the middle of the piece the listener hears many trees of the forest falling one after another. The final section prominently features a C-sharp and is hinted at earlier in the movement. It represents the Lorax flying away in the end of the book. In the final movement this episode is respelled, again using the C-sharp to show the Lorax flying away.

Without a Face – is a musical snapshot of the frenetic whirlwind which follows the Onceler’s business activities. In the book, the more the Onceler establishes his factories, the more the once peaceful landscape becomes a torrent of traffic and machinery. The many shifts within this movement help to evoke a feeling of instability. The movement begins in the key of the Onceler, but modulates a tritone away before returning. The rhythmic feel and textural style are also subject to unsettling fluctuation.

Playing, Singing, Humming pt. 2 – presents the tragedy that has befallen the once idyllic natural world. In the book the creatures are forced, one by one, to leave their old habitat; In this movement the once cheerful themes of the creatures are one by one turned to minor tonalities. In some cases the accompaniment has been changed to a more modern, almost bluesy feel so that it can be said that modernization itself has distorted the themes. Throughout the movement the tree theme is heard, but only the first three notes. Over and over again the three eighth notes at octaves are heard, but never once the entire theme. Only stumps remain, and they are scattered everywhere. Listen for the influence of Santigold!

Speak Truth to Power – describes the futile conversation between the Lorax and the Onceler. The key signature is one sharp which is right between those of the two characters. The piece is jarring, mechanical, and unyielding. In measures 13-25 the main themes from the third and forth movements are woven into the right hand creating an intercourse between the music of the Lorax and that of the Onceler. At the end of the movement the falling of the last tree is heard. Listen for the influence of Nine Inch Nails!

Unless – is a short, serene picture of the end of the book, fraught with tinges of melancholy. The form of the movement can be broken down into a simple ABAB'. The B section (m. 13-15) represents the Lorax flying away and thus contains the C-sharp from the end of the third movement. The B' section (m. 30-36) represents the seed at the end of the book which the Onceler gives to the narrator, and the hope for which that seed stands.

And that's where it stands, hope you enjoyed...

Nick's Picks - Volume I

Happy Monday and welcome to the first edition of "Nick's Picks" in which I will be exploring - in classical terms - a piece of electronic music of Nick's (Nick Valente aka Rex Riot) choice. This week's pick: Tommy's Theme by Noisia.

The first section (or as the classical folks are fond of calling it: the exposition) runs from 0:00 to 1:05. We will call this section A.  We can break the A down into two main parts and a codetta (return to the home key after the exposition). The first main part of the A section we will call a repeats four chords - C#minor, A, F#minor, G#minor - the entire time.  While there is no further harmonic development within a, almost every iteration of the four chords ushers in a new voice.  Plucked (pizzicato) strings with drums, synths, hi-hats, basses.

At 0:39, the key and instrumentation both change. This is b.  The same four chord progression is played but this time it sounds three semitones higher, or in the key of E minor. It becomes E minor, C, A minor, B.  This key change on its own would create a striking shift in atmosphere, but Noisia couples it with the addition of a choral melody to beautiful effect.

From 0:51 to 1:05 there is a string codetta.

The next section we can call B.  While no new harmonic material is introduced, Noisia makes this section as distinct as can be from the previous section through the use of timbre. Also, the iterations of four chords from the a and b sections only occur twice each before switching and each progression is played three times in the B section.  So you can break it down as a'b'a'b'a'b' with a' and b' being variations of a and b.

At 2:22 A returns.  It is repeated from the exposition but shortened to create symmetry with the B sections.

At about 3:00 B' is heard and lasts until the Coda at 4:20.

Simple right?  It's the timbre that makes all the difference.  It would be hard to play this song on guitar and keep it interesting the whole time because it's just the same two sets of chords repeated over and over.  That said, the amount of energy which went into the creation of these specific timbres is what makes the piece great.

Alcohol + Pete + Shostakovich = ?

 I came home drunk last night (this morning) and wrote a brief diatribe on twentieth century symphony then somehow had the sense not to post it... And now in the clear light of sobriety I change my mind. Enjoy:)

"Dude, Here’s the thing with a lot of the twentieth century composers of classical music. They were in such a mood of  “my art is so damn brilliant you can’t even understand” that part of the era’s aesthetic became being really unintelligible. So you take something like Mahler or Shostakovich and listen to his symphonies and you realize that when he rails hard in that music he fucking rails SO hard, but then when he goes off the deep end and gets all introspective he goes so far beyond what’s cool to anyone but himself.  Like take Shostakovich 8^th symphony: I guarantee that this piece would absolutely dominate your mind if you sat down and really engaged your ears and brain with the entire thing, but I also guarantee you wont even be able to stay awake until that point because there’s so much ‘weird’ shit that would bore you before then.  It’s like there was Penderecki and there was Shoenburg and this is what falls inbeetween. Same goes for Mahler, if you can make it all the way through one of his symphonies to the epic finale scherzo movement it will blow your mind, but I guarantee you you WONT make it all the way through.  He has a symphony where it's written in the score that the horn players fucking stand up in the finale so that they can have maximum force. like a boss..   BUT the thing with Shostakovic is that he had to play the delicate balancing act between appealing to Stalin’s taste and appealing to the peoples’ taste and that balancing act became an art in itself."

The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Theme And Variations

      This piece by Frederic Rzewski is a flamboyant example of the "theme and variations" form.  There is the initial stated theme (at 0:43 after he finishes thoroughly adjusting the sheet music), and then several variations of that theme follow.  This is not quite the same type of theme and variations that would be heard in Mozart's day, in the modern era composers are able to take many more liberties with their variations. In the following video variations begin at 0:54, 1:23, then a transition from 1:51 to 2:00 and into a violent variation which lasts until 2:12 when an airy, abstract variation takes over and so forth... see if you can follow along.



     This form always makes me think of the forth movement of Brahms' forth symphony which follows the form: passacaglia.  A passacaglia is similar to a theme and variations; A simple bassline is stated, then repeats throughout the entirety of the piece while the accompaniment changes.  I have posted this piece before but here it is again... try to hear the repetition in the bass as stated by the low brass in the beginning.

Max Richter and Subtle use of Electronics

First of all listen to this gorgeous menage:



Second, here's an example of a piece which must be considered classical but which employs a very tasteful use of electronics:

A couple treats to chew on :)

This piece by Alfred Schnittke may at first sound like the thousands of other hymns you have heard in your life, but really turn on your ears and engage your brain on this one and you will find something more. This is a lesson on harmony.  Harmony is combination of tones.  Listen to the chords, the tones which sound together are not the same major and minor chords we usually hear in classical music, and furthermore the progression of chords and the cadences (where the progressions end up) stand apart from much of what you may have grown up singing in church... ENJOY!

For contrast, a good excersise would be to listen to 30 seconds or so of the first, then spend the same amount of time on this more "traditional" hymn and see if you can hear the difference.

On Timbre - A Treatise

   

     Today we discuss the one concept which has its grip so tightly locked around modern music that it will define this era when considered in retrospect by scholars in centuries to come.  That concept is called "timbre."  This post is very long and comprehensive, but it is without question the most important post thus far and those who can find the time to absorb it will reap great benefits.

Timbre - In simple terms, timbre is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness.

     That is the most straightforward definition I can find online.  Timbre is the quality of a sound.  It is the difference between the sound of my voice singing middle C and a trumpet playing middle C and a violin playing middle C.

     A friend once asked me pessimistically "Where are the musical geniuses of today? Why is there no living Bach or Mozart or Beethoven?"  One has only to look in the right places to find them...

A Brief Historical Overview:

 

      Throughout the history of Western Classical music the pendulum of aesthetic preference has swung back and forth between the intellectual and the emotional, the contrived and the primal, brain music and heart music.  This undulation has been steadily accelerating.  Of course in every era the greatest masters are those able to bridge the gap and uncompromisingly fulfill both sides of the musical spectrum.

    In the Baroque era (approx. 1600-1750) the defining musical concept was counterpoint.  Composers like Bach relied on counterpoint to get their emotive messages across to listeners.  To generalize, there were essentially two dynamics (loud and soft), and everything ended with a major key cadence.  The baroque era was characterized by outlandish sorties into uncharted and emotionally rich, dissonant harmonic grounds.  Heart music.  It is no wonder that the work of J.S.Bach stands out from this era as particularly masterful because his scores were also so intellectually rigorous that a student of music can find enjoyment in them with only her or his eyes.

     The classical era (1750-1827) ushered in many new musical structures and arrangement styles.  Categories like "Symphony" and "String Quartet" became crystallized by Haydn and Mozart and adherence was paid to rules of key and modulation and tonal centers... Long story short the emphasis was on structure and form.  The classical period was one which emphasized the intellectual side of the music which is probably why Beethoven's temperamental style pushed the genre beyond its former limits.  Fun fact, the term "scherzo" now widely used to describe a fast, stylized dance movement really means "joke."  It originated when Haydn would make sections at the end of his string quartets which sounded like several fake endings before the piece actually died.  There are accounts of players sight reading these pieces for the first time and bursting out laughing because they found the false endings so funny!  Example.

     Beethoven is either seen as the end of the classical period or the beginning of the Romantic period (My favorite of periods).  I date the Romantic period from 1800-1900.   The music of this period is characterized by sweeping melodies and more developed, daring harmonies.  The guiding/defining musical concept was harmony and melody of course continued to develop and play a great role in shaping the music.  Composers began stepping outside of the traditional structures and experimenting with all of the harmonic tools at their disposal to evoke great emotion.  Less importance was placed on adherence to strict rules of form and structure.  The term "Romantic" does not refer to romantic love, but to the expressionism and passion ubiquitous in art of the era.  Heart music.

     The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the birth of impressionism.  Composers such as Debussy began experimenting with scales and harmonies outside of the usual major and minor.  By definition, impressionistic music is highly personal and left up to the listener's interpretation, rather than being explicit and striving to reach a universal emotive standard like the music of Romanticism.  It is about the listener's individual impression rather than the composer's universal expression.   This lead into Atonal and 12 tone serial music.  Schoenburg and his followers created a system which treats each of the twelve tones equally and therefore has no key and some would say no emotive content... very few people find enjoyment from listening to 12 tone serial music, but occasionally scholars will sit down and examine the musical scores and figure out the intricate patterns of notes.  Mind music.

A quick, colorful intro to 12 tone serial music:



     Why waste all that breath on the past?  In the 20th century, classical music splintered and with the advent of new recording and communication technology music took several new directions.  I trace one more general pendulum swing to heart music and back before we arrive at the present but music has taken so many divergent paths that it becomes more difficult to generalize.  HOWEVER the point of looking at past eras is to determine the musical characteristics which drove the creative and musical evolution of the times.  Obviously Rhythm and Melody came as soon as we began banging sticks on things and singing, then counterpoint, structure, harmony, even mathematical purity have all had their time as the driving forces in music.


What drives music today? What is the force which pushes it along and separates this from other eras? Where is all of today's genius focused?

TIMBRE

     With the technological explosion of the past twenty to thirty years, our capabilities of making new sounds have become virtually limitless.  On top of other obvious benefits, electronic media allow composers to hear what they produce as they produce it; the equivalent would be having an orchestra with you at all times while composing a symphony so that you could constantly tweak the sound to perfection.  The great parallel between classical composition and electronic composition is that both require the mental task of manipulating notes on a canvas (page or computer screen) to be performed by someone else.  As far as the skill sets go, the two are no different from one another.  The main distinction is that it is a lot easier in this day and age to come across a computer program which will play your music than it is an orchestra.  I say with %100 certainty that if Beethoven were alive today he would be producing electronic music.  

     Those who claim that music is not developing, or that it is getting dumbed down, are not observing just how far the quality of recorded sound has come in mere decades.  Just because a piece repeats the same chords over and over again doesn't mean that the engineering of the sound carries no intellectual weight.  That said, the best artists are always those who integrate the common trends with a more timeless sensibility in regards to musical balance.

     Obviously nobody can say definitively who the greatest musician alive is, but if you ask me it's Richard D. James. This was my answer when my friend asked where all the modern geniuses had gone.  James accomplished things with electronic media twenty years ago which current musicians are still hard-pressed to replicate.  His work has shaped modern classical, popular, and electronic music and left a lasting impact on today's creative paradigm.  Here is an electronic piece of his produced more than fifteen years ago, and here is a more classical piece of his from the same album.  ALL of the glitched out mind-dance music (even some of the Brittany tracks I've heard recently) you have ever heard has in some way been influenced by James, he is the pioneer.


Then why hasn't he been recognized as such by the classical community? 
     He has.  The BBC and other orchestras have recorded orchestral versions of several of his pieces. Composers such as Stockhausen were openly influenced by his work.

Here's a great remix he did combining composer Philip Glass's "Heroes" with David Bowie's "Heroes"



Creepy.

     The electronic musicians are not the only ones, though, to discover the power of new timbres.   Many contemporary classical composers are venturing into uncharted sonic territories (as seen in the video at the top of the post).  Across the board, Timbre is the edge, the frontier in musical evolution today, and in the history books you can bet it will be the characteristic by which this era in music is remembered.   Where do we go from here?  Remember, the great composers are those who are able to use the current creative discoveries outside of the limited context of the current trends.  We are already seeing a dialogue between classical and electronics; classical music's evolution comes when the timbrel tools of today are seamlessly incorporated into the rich tradition which has been passed to us over hundreds of years in written notation.


It's beginning to happen:






An interesting phenomenon has cropped up with classical musicians performing renditions of electronic music... since they don't have the same tools of timbre they are forced to take their own liberties with the arrangements to make up for it.  Take this piano version of "Blood Red" by Feed Me:





In order to honor the value of contemporary music's contribution to the Western Classical tradition, from here on out Friday will be Nick's Picks day in which my brother Nick Rex "Riot" Valente chooses one electronic piece which I will dissect from a classical standpoint.  Nick is a prolific electronic musician whose album "Beyond" is out today on Play Me Too Records.

BOOM!
    

DEATH MUSIC

So we've all heard the sweet soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream, but what is a requiem anyway??  A requiem originated as a catholic mass specifically dedicated to the passing of a particular person's soul to the next life (or whatever it is that Catholics believe).  The term is more widely used to describe any piece dedicated to a person's passing. 

Requiems are often the most bad-ass piece that a composer ever makes.  It's not hard to understand why a composer might put an extra amount of creative energy into such a serious piece, and usually Requiems are written late in a composer's life so the composer has had time to develop and mature stylistically.

Let's look at two examples of note:

1. Verdi's Requiem.  You may have seen this small section of the requiem posted the other day:



Written to commemorate painter Alessandro Manzoni.  The full work is definitely worth a listen but it's not exactly over in the blink of an eye.

2.Mozart's Requiem!  Mozart's Requiem is one of my favorite pieces of music, certainly my favorite piece by Mozart.  It's emotive force and heavy orchestration outmatch not only his other compositions, but any other work of the era (1791).  Mozart wrote the piece on his deathbed for an anonymous commision so part of the lore is that from the composer's perspective he was writing his own death piece (and in fact he expired before it was finished).  A few of the parts...

Intro:


Kyrie:


Lacrimosa


I could go on, but the truth is each section is equally gripping - if you ever have the opportunity to see this piece live, spare no expense to do so. 

Stay tuned for movie music!

DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST TURN UP THE VOLUME AND LISTEN

DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, JUST TURN UP THE VOLUME AND LISTEN:

That was the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem premiered in 1874.  And now that I have your attention let's talk about hallucinations...

Auditory hallucinations are an interesting and well-documented phenomenon.  The question is: what's the line between vivid musical creativity and hallucinations?  Is it that one is within the mind's control?  Those of you who have written your own music may have experienced the sensation of original sound spontaneously entering your imagination.  There are those, however, who would do anything to silence the muses in their minds.  Tchaikovsky for example was found weeping as a young child, grieving about the loud music he was hearing which would not cease.  Another example comes from the end of Schumann's life when he gradually went deaf and all real auditory input was replaced by sounds of his brain's own design:

"Schumann spent the end of his life experiencing auditory hallucinations. Schumann’s diaries state that he suffered perpetually from imagining that he had the note A5 sounding in his ears. The musical hallucinations became increasingly complex. One night he claimed to have been visited by the ghost of Schubert and wrote down the music that he was hearing. Thereafter, he began making claims that he could hear an angelic choir singing to him. As his condition worsened, the angelic voices transmogrified into demonic voices." Laqueur, Thomas (2007-09-03). "Spirited Away". pp. 36–42.

 Even Beethoven was seen in his last years dancing and jumping around in fields to the music  coming from between his ears.

     Before we get away from the topic of Schumann though, I'll just throw in a note about his wife Clara for good measure.  Clara was also an extremely talented musician and composer and by some accounts her accomplishments in composition eclipsed those of her husband.  Unfortunately for her, getting your music published as a woman in the 19th century was quite difficult so a lot (though not all) of her compositions ended up being published under her husband's name and even to this day there is some ambiguity about which pieces are hers.
     Robert Schumann was jealous his whole life of his wife's relationship with the composer Johannes Brahms.  The two were extremely good friends (plus Mrs. Brahms was known to rip Johannes' compositions to pieces if she found flaws in them so I could see why he might need a breath of fresh air...).  I'm also kinda into Brahms because he made this:



and also this:



Stay tuned for death music...

Humans Are Insane!

First of all, this is totally insane!!!



This is a piece by contemporary composer Steve Reich, written for two pianists.  It's called a phase shift meaning it's the exact same thing played over and over again at two very slightly different tempos.  The fact that one human is able to do it is insane.  This video is a little abridged, but you can see the effect of the phase shift.

Now on to Satie...



That is the soothing, soothing sound of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 from his Trois Gymnopedies.  Satie was another composer from the turn of the twentieth century.  He was french and although he composed around the same time as Ives and Scriabin, he was known for the simplicity of his melodies and his adherence to common tonalities.  He was friends with (and a great influence on) his much more well known contemporary Claude Debussy.  Debussy arranged a number of Satie's piano works for orchestra - here is a stunning orchestration by Debussy of Gymnopedie No 1:



Satie preferred the title of 'phonometrician' (someone who measures sounds) to that of musician.  If you enjoyed the Gymnopedie, I strongly encourage you to check out the music of contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Part, particularly his Spiegel Im Spiegel.

Stay Tuned Next Week for Some Schooling in the Classics and a Look at the Modern Traditions...

Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?

     

     As continued from yesterday, we are looking at the strange music from the beginning of the twentieth century.  Charles Ives is an interesting case of someone whose upbringing was the quintessence of boring perfection but whose music stretches the sonic limits.

     Ives' early musical exposure came from his father who was a bandleader in the civil war.  The theory instruction Ives received from his father was anything but standard and experimentation was encouraged.  Ives also gained exposure to hymns while serving as a church organist. He attended Yale and as a top athlete was chided because his passion for music got in the way of his athletic career.  His senior project was his first symphony, a masterful mixture timbres and dynamics.  Ives' creative license quickly spiraled out of control and he eventually began writing songs in which the voice and the accompaniment have little or nothing to do with one another.  Many speculate that his preference for such music came from listening simultaneously to his father's band and other bands perform simultaneously from across town square while growing up.

     Fun Fact: As with Jean Sibelius, one day Ives walked downstairs weeping one day and told his wife: "Nothing sounds right!" and that he could no longer compose.  He spent the last 30 years of his life without creating any new compositions but if you mention his name around those in the field of insurance you may get an avid response.  Ives was as prolific in the insurance industry as he was in music!

Stay Tuned for the Soothing Sounds of Erik Satie...

Music for the End of the World

First of all, if you are interested in the neuroscience of music I suggest the video on the left about music and the elderly.  This week we'll look at some of the more peculiar people and music from the turn of the 20th century.   

First of all a strange Russian man named Scriabin whose harmonies pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the time.  Scriabin believed that humanity was like a pregnant storm cloud which was working towards its ultimate lightning-strike goal and that his music was the catalyst.  Later we will get into Charles Ives, a Yale athlete macho-man who was as revolutionary in the insurance industry as he was in music.  Ives had a tendency to put two totally unrelated melodies on top of each other and the result was often unique to say the least.  Also in store we have a French man named Erik Satie who in the midst of all this wild music found the beauty in the soft and the simple.  Satie was a friend of and a huge influence on the wildly famous Claude Debussy.

Alexander Scriabin, the little frail Russian man with a tenuous relationship with god.  In one of his notebooks he actually claims to BE god.  I might also claim that if Rachmaninoff  decided to play my music for a recording.  Antisocial as a child, enamored with self-fashioned mysticism as a man, he had a system of associating certain colors with certain tones.  He is by no means the first person to draw up such a detailed synesthesia:

Scriabin created the "Mystic Chord," a cluster of six tones which is also often seen in Jazz.  Such tone clusters gave both his piano and orchestral music a unique flavor.

"For some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayan Mountains, that would cause a so-called "Armageddon", "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world"... The Mysterium was, psychologically, a world Scriabin created to sustain its own evolution."

 And on that note I leave you to wonder what Charles Ives holds in store...

Sibelius Goes Hard

"All of the doctors who told me to stop drinking and smoking have long since died." - Jean Sibelius at the age of 91.



Heyo, today we discuss briefly the life, times, and music of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) musical genius and Finnish national hero.  In fact, the composer is such a point of pride in Finland that his face is on the 100-mark bill, and Finnish flag day is on his birthday.  His most famous piece Finlandia (above) is a brilliant tribute to his beloved homeland.  Yes, he was a reckless alcoholic, and yes he spent the last 30 years of his life in a wild manic-depressive state, unable to compose (arguably insane).

He enjoyed nature walks and the horn part in the last movement of his fifth symphony is based on swan calls which he heard on one of his walks.  If you love good music with a little edge and character I would suggest all of his symphonies and violin concertos.

Fun fact, the Finnish government spends 200 times what the US does (per capita) on the arts.

"You're welcome JRR Tolkien"

     The other day I briefly mentioned "Program Music" but did not give much of an explanation.  Program music is music which represents something as opposed to music whose only meaning is the notes which are heard.  You know, like Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. I've got some rockin examples for you but first a shameless plug for my new track and a note on Nordic Mythology...

     Recently a friend of mine was talking about JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and I started blabbering on about how Tolkien took much of the material for the narrative from Wagner's "Der Ring Des Nibelungen."  There are many obvious parellels both thematic and musical such as a ring which grants its bearer ultimate power and the necessity of its destruction in order to redeem the world.  It would be a lot easier to believe Tolkien if his claim were that Wagner's Ring played only a small part in the conception of LOTR; however, Tolkien claims not to have been influenced by it at all.

     But hold on a minute, what is "Der Ring Des Nibelungen?" Often referred to as The Ring Cycle, it is a work of art which has no parallel.  Wagner believed that no artistic work could reach its full potential unless it incorporated as many different art forms as possible.  So he invented the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (or total-artwork). Gesamtkunstwerk is essentially an epic opera.  Epic meaning 4 hours long with a gigantic chorus and orchestra and deep psychological themes.  The Ring Cycle is a cycle of four operas totaling about 15 hours which took 30 years to create. It is the most written about work of musical art in existence (partally because every character and emotion in the cycle has a specific musical theme called a leitmotif attached to it).

     But we all know opera is boring, right (just kidding)? The important thing is that Wagner was a huge proponent of program music.

And now the important stuff: a few bits of knowledge on program music which will make you sound smart should you find yourself at a fancy dinner party...

1)Beethoven only wrote one opera, it was entitled "Fidelio" and the consensus among music scholars is that it is not very good.  Beethoven's Achilles heal so to speak.

2)In 1916 English composer Gustav Holst wrote "The Planets" - a suite in seven movements with each movement representing the astrological character of one planet from our solar system.  My personal favorite is Saturn - Bringer of Old Age which begins timid and mellow and proceeds to rock your face off...  Sarah you might also like Jupiter - Bringer of Jolity it's probably the most famous of the movements.

3)In 1874 Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition - a suite in ten movements which represents a walk through an exhibition of his friend, painter Viktor Hartmann.  The main theme is the 'promenade' which represents the viewer of the exhibition walking from piece to piece.  Each recurrence of the promenade has a different feeling depending on the mood of the pictures which have just been observed. Though originally composed for piano the suite is so colorful that it has been re-orchestrated time and time again.  The most famous version was done by Maurice Ravel.  Here are The Gnome and The Great Gates of Kiev - two of the movements as orchestrated by Ravel.

Stay tuned this week for fast cars, explosions and sex...

Thursday

I've thrown a lot at you in the past week so I'm not going to give any new listening material today.  Here's a list of what we've covered so far:

Intro)Warsaw Village Band - At My Mother's
Intro)Chopin - Raindrop Prelude
1)Beethoven - Symphony no. 9 in D minor, Opus 125. First movement
2)Beethoven - String Quartet C# minor, Op.131-7. Allegro
3)Franz Liszt's 'Un Sospiro'
4)Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
5)Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Suggested listening
     A)Gubaidulina - Seven Words
     B)Mussorgsky's - Night on Bald Mountain
     C)Fantomas - Delirium Cordia
6)Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
Suggested listening
     A)Beethoven - String Quartet Opus 132, Movement 3

     B)Ralph Von Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Tallis

     C)Sigur Ros - Track 3 from the album ()

 

Please feel free to contact me re: questions you'd like answered or music you've enjoyed thus far and would like to hear more of. Peter.m.valente@gmail.com or follow me on twitter with the button on the top-right of the blog.

Stay Tuned Tomorrow for Friday Fun...

Happy Hump Day!!! Time for beautiful music...

7) Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight 2004
     Richter is a contemporary classical composer.  There has been some debate among music scholars as to whether or not his work should be considered classical but I definitely consider it classical.  The hardest thing for a lot of music scholars to get over is the fact that the form of many of his pieces is so simple.  This piece, for instance, is basically one chord progression repeating with a new voice added each time. The musical form is definitely classical though, and is actually called a "Canon." 

'Canon: a musical form in which a tune is imitated by individual parts at regular intervals; known as a round when each part is continuously repeated. In simple examples, such as "London Bridge is Falling Down," the successive voices enter at a same pitch and at the same speed.  In more elaborate examples, such as the canons in J.S. Bach's keyboard work [optional listening] known as the Goldberg Variation, the voices may enter at different pitches and present the tune at different speeds or even backwards or upside down (in inversion). ' -Enjoythemusic.com

If you give another listen to the famous classic Pachelbel's Canon in D major which was written more than 300 years ago, you will clearly notice the same repetitive form.  If you give a listen to the work of post-rock band Godspeed you! black emperor [optional listening] you will also notice the same form although you will probably end up in an electric guitar-induced frenzy (Godspeed is DEFINITELY NOT classical because the conception of their songs is entirely organic and by ear and not at all rooted in any written tradition).  To me it is clear that Richter's work is art music from a written tradition (aka classical music).  Richter has released albums, done film and television scores.  This piece is riveting.

Suggested listening for those looking to weep over gorgeous string music:

A)Beethoven - String Quartet Opus 132, Movement 3

B)Ralf Von Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Tallis

C)And today's arguably popular selection: Sigur Ros - Track 3 from the album ()

The Horror!

DC residents please notice on the left that I have added a special section for my recommendations of upcoming concerts in the DC area. Use it!

Alright, before we get started with Spooky Tuesday I want to address a couple of very good questions which Sarah brought up.

First of all she is wondering why Wikipedia makes a distinction between popular and folk music but in my first post I seem to make no such distinction.  What I meant when I said "Popular music is folk music or  music for consumption." is that popular music is derived from folk music.  For example blues and rock and Jazz all come from aural folk traditions.  Technically, they are not always one and the same, it's more of a ven diagram situation (my mother would be proud). The important thing is that neither of them is classical.  Linus and Lucy is Jazz which, too keep a very long story very short, comes from African American Folk music (though it wouldn't exist if Creole musicians in New Orleans hadn't been kicked out of white orchestras and forced to take their brass and woodwind skills to the streets).

Second, the fact that this blog primarily deals with just the past 200 years is entirely a ME thing and not a historical thing... I simply don't enjoy as much of the music from before then so I wouldn't make a good teacher of it.

Finally, "How did Beethoven manage to write crazy amazing music after he became deaf?"  Haha he is a real hero.  It's a combination of things.  His ear was trained from as early as he could walk to recognize what different notes on the page sound like in relation to each other without having to play them.  What that means is that he, like many musicians trained from a young age could look at a piece of music and hear it in his head.  That's the intellectual component.  What amazes me most is that he managed to keep such a keen mastery of orchestration, harmony, and dynamics (in other words what instruments sound good with each other, what different combination of notes sound like when played simultaneously, and the use of volume in composition).  In his own words, spoken directly to a prince: "What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself.  There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven."

Alright!! Now on with the listening...

5) In the first half of the twentieth century something horrible called 12 tone music happened.

6) Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 1959 - (I chose this youtube because it's hilarious)
     In the aftermath of 12 tone music, composers of the twentieth century were able to take much greater liberties with dissonance than they had previously been able to.  Threnody is an example of how composers pushed the sonic envelope to reach new emotional territory.  Fun fact, Threnody was not composed with Hiroshima in mind.  It was not written as "programmed" music (music with  explicit meaning or representation) but the commissioner of the piece gave it that name after it had been composed.  Seems apt though.  This shit is horrifying.  It has been used in many films.  Check out these pictures of the conductor's score:

  Not exactly what you think of when someone says "sheet music" eh?  Believe it or not it is easier for a conductor to follow those scores than it would be to follow the regular music.

Suggested listening for the brave who REALLY like to get scared out of their pants:

A)Sofia Gubaidulina is one of my favorite composers.  She lived in the 20th century and was an understudy of Shostakovich.  I can't find any of my favorites of hers online but here's an example, and if you like it I can always get you more (play this LOUD):

B)Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. Mussorgsky is my favorite composer.

 

C)Delirium Cordia - a single track concept album by super group Fantomas representing the theme of surgery without anesthesia.  It may seem a bit metal at first but I would erg the brave to stick with it because it has a really interesting integration of many traditions from around the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow for heart-wrenching music that will make you cry...

Rock Stars Are Forever

     I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude for the enthusiastic support this project has garnered from my peers.  If all goes according to plan the Kennedy Center and Strathmore will be inundated with new patrons in the coming months.  Also, Sarah has given me some initial questions which I will be addressing in tomorrow's post.  For now: enjoy the lesson...

3) Franz Liszt's 'Un Sospiro' (Italian for "A sigh") 1848.
     Liszt is arguably the greatest pianist ever to live (Although Art Tatum aint bad).  This piece comes from his: "Three Etudes for Piano." An Etude is a piece meant both for study to improve one's technique, but also for concert performance.  Liszts hands were enormous and he often memorized his pieces making it difficult for others to play or learn some of his pieces.  He had the 'rockstar' personality and enjoyed packing concert halls and whimsical courtship of ladies.

"After [his tour of Europe in] 1842, 'Listomania' swept across Europe. The reception Liszt enjoyed as a result can only be described as hysterical. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. Helping fuel this atmosphere was the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence. Many witnesses later testified that Liszt's playing raised the mood of audiences to a level of mystical ecstasy." - Walker, Virtuoso Years, 289.

4) Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 1901
     A concerto is written for a full orchestra plus a soloist instrument (in this case piano).  Rachmaninov also had gargantuan hands.  He was a Russian romantic composer of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth.  I consider Russian symphonic music from the late romantic period (late nineteenth/early twentieth century) to be among the most brilliant art in existence.  That is a personal opinion.  Fun fact about Rachmaninov is that he once recorded in Richmond, Indiana (the small town in which Sarah and I attended undergrad)!!!

     This particular movement of this piece was the inspiration for the song "Space Dimentia" by the rock band Muse (popular music).  That is an extremely kick-ass song (not a personal opinion, a fact).  See if you can hear the similarities in two places:  The piano right before the drums kick in, matches the intro to the concerto and the vocal line in the breakdown (2:10 Muse) matches the melody being passed between the horns and violin at around the 1:40 mark in the concerto recording.

Stay tuned to get scared out of your goddamn mind with spooky tuesday...

My dear, Linus and Lucy is not classical... haha!  It seems we have a starting point:)  Before we go any further I want to clarify that for the purposes of this discussion that when I refer to "classical music" I am only referring to Western Classical Music and not the classical traditions of other parts of the world (don't even get me started on how the originally Carnatic musician Ilayaraja has arguably spanned a broader musical scope than any other living  musician).  Anyway, just because something uses piano or violin, etc... does not mean it is classical.  For example this gorgeous track by Tom Waits is still pop music. An overly simplified way of thinking about it is this: there is popular music and there is art music.  Classical music is music which is now considered art music.  Popular music is folk music or  music for consumption. Classical music is music for the sake of music (or I should say for the intellect, for the engaged listener, god anyway I say it I sound like a super douche and am going to catch flack). One is not better or worse than the other. Even 500 years ago there was the same distinction.

Before I proceed please note that each piece linked in this blog has been carefully selected for your appreciation and unless noted otherwise should be listened to and considered in full if this lesson is to achieve its desired goal.

 
Linus and Lucy is music of a folk tradition. Here is a breathtaking example of Polish folk music traditions and here is an example (not a great performance) of Chopin in which he draws on the old Polish folk traditions to create art music.  One of the main differences which usually (though not always) separates the two traditions is that folk music is an aural tradition whereas classical is written.  That is to say musics like Jazz, though now well documented on paper, evolved and were originally passed down by ear whereas classical music is a tradition which has always relied on the written page to evolve and continue.

Throughout the coming weeks I will post some of my favorite classical pieces.  They will be from varied genre's, styles, and time periods.  It will be a lot to chew on but give them a good listen and let me know what you liked the most/least and why and that will be our jump-off point for this learning experience (all of this will be from the past 200 years.  Some really interesting stuff from the 20th and even 21st century later in the week.  For music from before 1800 I am capable and willing to give you all the history you want but I generally don't enjoy it so it would be hard for me to help YOU enjoy it)

 Lesson 1 (since you mentioned Beethoven...)

1) Beethoven Symphony no. 9 in D minor, Opus 125. First movement.  1824

    To dissect the name of the piece a bit:  Symphony indicates that it is a work for full orchestra (almost always without singers or words of any sort, although in the 4th movement of this very piece there are 4 soloist singers and a choir.  There are always exceptions to the rules).  Number 9 indicates that it's the 9th symphony he wrote.  The piece is in the key of D minor.  Opus 125 indicates that it was the 125th piece of music that he published.  First movement - usually there are 4 movements in a symphony.  A good analogy is if a symphony is an album, a movement is a song.  The movements are usually in different keys and different tempos and forms.

Side note, he wrote this piece towards the end of his life while completely deaf.  I particularly like the very end - another word for very end in classical music is "Coda."  As the story goes, after this piece premiered (on May 7th my birthday!) the crowd roared.  Beethoven could not hear it though and when somebody pointed behind him and he turned around and saw the audience's response he wept.  Who really knows if it's true?

Q: Didn't the fact that Beethoven was going deaf for the second half of his life have a psychological impact on the composer?
A: Yes

2) Beethoven-String Quartet C# minor, Op.131-7. Allegro

    The word Allegro indicates tempo, C# minor is the key that the piece is in.  Op. 131-7 just means opus 131, movement 7.  This is one of the very last pieces (if not the last) which Beethoven ever wrote.  This is the seventh movement although string quartets typically have only 4 movements.  Beethoven was cool like that.  Again he was totally deaf when he wrote this.

Stay Tuned for Rock Stars and Promiscuity coming up...