who is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
I love almost all "classical" music and if I had to choose an absolute favorite it would have to be Beethoven. His music just resonates with me more than any other orchestral music composer.
W.A. Mozart is a very close second, his music doesn't give me the shivers the way Beethoven's can, no matter how often I listen.
hugs & smiles
helen
I believe that my favorite piece is Bartok's 1st concerto in D something. I heard it on the radio once when I was a teenager, but never heard it again. Now and then I look for a recording, but haven't found it. Maybe I heard the name wrong.
Bartok is my favorite composer. The music feels grounded to me.
Other than that, I know I like to hear jascha heifetz play nearly anything. I need to listen to more.
I don't understand the terms and theory like you do, so I'll just say that I prefer any classical music that features piano or violin or cello. And I like kettle drums. Boom, Boom-Boom Boom-Boom.
Not a sophisticated answer, but as honest as I can be.
Peace,
Rebecca
Rebecca, listen to the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony - very cool timpani part
I like any classical music that puts pictures in my head, especially big lush songs that make me picture big lush fields. I don't like some guy plonking on a piano.
My favourite thing is Khachuturian, Sparticus - a ballet I'd fancy seeing. I'm also quite keen on debussey.
It's interesting that we throw so many genres of music into the classical bin! Typically it is instrumental music older than 40 years or so and not showing its way to the pop charts. I have so many favorites that it's hard to make a decision! But here's a quick shot:
My favorite symphony: Howard Hanson #2, commonly called his love symphony. Hanson is a modern composer with a melodic flair. The piece is replete with rich love melodies and contrasting horns that mellow into the groove. A part of this composition was included in the first Alien movie at the end to quell the tension and fear.
Piano: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is a top winner. We are all familiar with it. It is an American icon. It has memorable moving melodies and excitement. I'm also a huge fan of the Debussy Etudes for solo. This is a wonderful collection of piano at its best.
Shorts, not considered symphony: Barber's Schoold for Scoundrels. Contemporary music at its finest with exciting violins racing your heart beat.
Cello: This is the instrument that I play. My fav is the Saint Seans cello concerto. This is a dynamic piece that challenges the best musicians. It is exciting, refreshing, and deeply moving.
Chamber strings: Vivaldi's four seasons. An oldie but goodie. I love the violin solos in this series of pieces. The music is truly classical and very old in relative terms. The music of that time was not filled with personal expression by the musicians. Vibrato was not encouraged. Vivaldi highlighted the bright sounds of the strings and brought that style to its maximum conclusion. There is no better example of this style.
Quartet: The Shostakovich quartets. Modern. Not easy to remember or sing. And wonderful.
Overall composer: My fav is he who was the poor man's composer. Nearly everything he wrote was memorable on the first hearing. Each piece he wrote was stuffed with rich melodious strains featuring many instruments in the orchestra. Pyoter Tchaichovsky wrote indelible ballets, symphonies, shorts, and feature pieces. Any classical neophyte will instantly recognize more of what he wrote than nearly all other composers combined.
Cindi
Quote from: Cindi Jones on May 20, 2007, 03:37:32 PM
Overall composer: My fav is he who was the poor man's composer. Nearly everything he wrote was memorable on the first hearing. Each piece he wrote was stuffed with rich melodious strains featuring many instruments in the orchestra. Pyoter Tchaichovsky wrote indelible ballets, symphonies, shorts, and feature pieces. Any classical neophyte will instantly recognize more of what he wrote than nearly all other composers combined.
Cindi
Poor
Man's composer, Cindi?
I must take umbrage with that term. :'( It's bad enough that I
am poor, but a
man?
(just being silly)
I'm not an avid classical fan, but I must say that Chopin has always been a favourite of mine. I adore his Nocturnes and his Ballades. The deep reservoir of feeling in his compositions can at times, bring me to tears. My opinion;
Nocturne no.9 op.2
Ballade no.23 in G Minor
Minute Waltz
Excellent choices Yvonne for Chopin. I love those as well.
Rebecca, yes! "poor man's"! ;) I know you know what I meant.... for widespread consumption. Even someone who knows nothing about classical music can enjoy and remember the music.... someone like my daddy ;)
Cindi
Quote from: Zombies on May 20, 2007, 10:39:43 PM
Rachmaninoff is kinda neat. Favorite piece is Piano Concerto No. 2 part 2
Certainly Eric Carmen thought so using it as the main theme for the song "All By Myself".
He also used a theme from Rachmaninoff's symphony for another hit song.
I have to chose ONE? Can't.
Beethoven's symphonies, especially 3, 5, 7, and 9.
Anton Bruckner's dark brooding symphonies, especially 8 and 9.
Dvorak symphonies 7 and 8, and the haunting beautiful 2nd movement of the 9th.
The Mozart Requeim and later piano concertoes.
Brahms Symphony #4.
Ralph Vaughn Williams Symphony #3 and my absolute favorite piece of classical
music: "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis".
Dawn
For me, it's a tie between J.S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi (although there are so many other composers who are close seconds, like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky). Actually, it's nearly impossible to pick favorites among their pieces, but I'd go with Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Solo Violin, and Vivaldi's Summer Concerto from the Four Seasons.
tink :icon_chick:
Dawn... Vaughan Williams! Yes, I love those pieces. He also wrote a strings work called Variants of Dives and Lazurus. Williams was a hopeless romantic I believe. His melodies are so rich that it had to be for a lover.
Cindi
My favorite composer of all time is Béla Bartók.
Because his music is bold, vital, and brilliant. His rhythms get my blood flowing. His melodies sometimes ache with sadness, other times they're giving the finger to the world. He was not afraid of the weird or the dark side (Miraculous Mandarin). His piano book Mikrokosmos unleashed my abilities to play and invent new music on the piano, beginning with quartal chords and asymmetric Balkan folk rhythms. His six String Quartets are universally considered the ultimate in string quartets since those of Beethoven.
Bartók listened to the common people, recorded their old-time music before it disappeared, presented it to the world, and created an innovative new way of composing based on it. In 1905 he was traveling on ox-carts over rutted dirt roads into remote villages, using a hand-cranked wax cylinder phonograph to record folk music whose living memory extended back to the early 19th century, but most of which was much older. Traveling around like that was hard work, but his efforts yielded the richest archive of really old folk music ever recorded. To give this some perspective: Bartók included notes to his modernist setting of "New Hungarian Folksong" explaining that "new" means mid-19th century. The old ones are centuries old. He traveled to many nations and recorded their peasants' old music like this. By doing so he uncovered varieties of harmony, rhythms, and scales that allowed a radical departure from conventional classical music while still being rooted in the grassroots of the people. A feeling organically connected to music tradition, yet innovative. When he was in America toward the end of his life he asked to be taken to jazz clubs, where he would sit and watch pianists and take notes.
Bartók had superhuman sensory ability. He could hear sounds that no one else could hear in the stillness of midnight deep in the forest. The faint sounds of leaves and tiny nocturnal creatures. He composed whispers of music based on these subtle sounds and called it "night music." One night at a rural retreat in Vermont someone's cat was lost. From the house he could hear the cat, and he led a search party deep into the woods right to the tree which the cat had climbed up but couldn't get down. While there, he dug his hands into the carpet of decaying pine needles and contemplated aloud this amazing substance "composed of equal portions of life and death." He was acutely sensitive to the natural world that way.
I also think he was the sexiest man who ever lived. Those eyes... *swoon*
My favorite piece by him is something I'm practicing on the piano: "Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm" - the concluding portion of Mikrokosmos. Playing these intricate jewels on the piano intrigues me no end. The first one is a 9/8 Turkish karsilama rhythm that builds to a thunderous crescendo. The third one is in the style of Gershwin. The rhythm in the final one is like a furious Afro-Cuban 8, a familiar rhythm to rock-n-roll fans and the piece totally rocks. Bartók dedicated the "Six Dances" to a woman pianist, Harriet Cohen. I play them to commemorate her for first bringing this amazing music to people's ears.
And in Concerto for Orchestra he made clarinets and flutes laugh. It sounded like something you'd hear on a Looney Tunes soundtrack from around that time.
I like gasolina by daddy jankee. that dude's the best. u gotta buy his cd.
Quote from: Hidrix on May 24, 2007, 04:15:34 AM
I like gasolina by daddy jankee. that dude's the best. u gotta buy his cd.
??? ??? ??? ??? ??? >:( >:( >:( >:(
i don't think this is amusing at all. didn't you read what i wrote?
Quotewho is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
i'd suggest that you start a thread with
your kind of music, do you understand?
Quote from: Katia on May 24, 2007, 05:41:29 PM
Quote from: Hidrix on May 24, 2007, 04:15:34 AM
I like gasolina by daddy jankee. that dude's the best. u gotta buy his cd.
??? ??? ??? ??? ??? >:( >:( >:( >:(
i don't think this is amusing at all. didn't you read what i wrote?
Quotewho is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
i'd suggest that you start a thread with your kind of music, do you understand?
And you can't let it pass?
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 20, 2007, 01:59:14 PMI don't like some guy plonking on a piano.
I'll have you know I am not "some guy." Hmmph.
I am "some chick." :)
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 25, 2007, 10:04:42 AM
Quote from: Katia on May 24, 2007, 05:41:29 PM
Quote from: Hidrix on May 24, 2007, 04:15:34 AM
I like gasolina by daddy jankee. that dude's the best. u gotta buy his cd.
??? ??? ??? ??? ??? >:( >:( >:( >:(
i don't think this is amusing at all. didn't you read what i wrote?
Quotewho is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
i'd suggest that you start a thread with your kind of music, do you understand?
And you can't let it pass?
no i can't. he knows what he's supposed to post here; he just does it to annoy me. hidrix, do you think you've won? i wouldn't be too sure about that! >:(
Enough or I lock the thread. It was a harmless joke and a massive overreaction in my opinion.
edit: I should add, if you have a problem with an inappropriate post, report it and forum moderators will deal with it according to the rules.
Dennis
Not Mozart. His music has been used waaay too much in the past few years because of his 250th birthday. By classical. do you mean the classical period, or composers of what most people refer to as classical music?
One of my all-time favorite composers is probably Dario Marianelli, who wrote the music for the new Pride and Prejudice movie! Its beautiful stuff, mostly piano. It sounds classical.
Quote from: Hypatia on May 25, 2007, 12:14:53 PM
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 20, 2007, 01:59:14 PMI don't like some guy plonking on a piano.
I'll have you know I am not "some guy." Hmmph.
I am "some chick." :)
It's the plonking that riles.
Difficult question ;). There were so many talented composers in the classical world, but for me there is only one truly Great one, Beethoven. All his pieces are full of courage, despair, hope, anger, comfort. Every piece is as touching as the most heart-pouring letters directly from Beethoven. They move listeners to the very core. Besides the most popular pieces like Fur Elise and Moonlight sonata, the 5 th and 9th symphony. The pieces I love the most got to be the great piano sonata like: Pathetique, Appasionata, Waldstein Hammerclavier and the ground breaking Eroica symphony.
Quote from: Katia on May 24, 2007, 05:41:29 PM
??? ??? ??? ??? ??? >:( >:( >:( >:(
i don't think this is amusing at all. didn't you read what i wrote?
Quotewho is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
i'd suggest that you start a thread with your kind of music, do you understand?
What buffles me is your attitude Katia. A total opposite of what you posted on another topic that I called you on. >:D
Okay, let's stay on topic please, kitty cats, thank you.
tink :icon_chick:
Tchaikovsky and his master piece, Marche Slave. Its sounds are a mixture of real music. To me, it is a combination of success and failure; it indicates such sincerity and intelligence with modesty and candour with a touch of elegance. My observation is that Tchaikovsky always projects uniqueness in his pieces, yet his style is so far diverse or different to other composers, yet tantalizing and drawing to others.
Quit hatin on my favorite instrument.
Quote from: DawnL on May 20, 2007, 11:56:35 PM
Anton Bruckner's dark brooding symphonies, especially 8 and 9.
Yay Bruckner. I'm listening to the 7th as I type this. His music is dark and brooding like you say but ultimately uplifting. Symphonies 2-9 are all masterpieces; 00, 1 and 0 aren't bad either. I have recently been introduced to Richard Wetz who sounds a lot like Bruckner, well worth checking out.
I also love Robert Simpson, particularly his 11 symphonies. You can hear the influences of Vaughan Williams, Bartók, Bruckner and Nielsen (among others) but he has a very distinctive way of sculpting his music, concentrating a lot on continuous motion and large scale form. He's sometimes criticised as being academic and unemotional but once you 'get' what he's trying to do it's absolutely captivating.
Quote from: Fer on May 26, 2007, 01:14:37 PM
Difficult question ;). There were so many talented composers in the classical world, but for me there is only one truly Great one, Beethoven. All his pieces are full of courage, despair, hope, anger, comfort. Every piece is as touching as the most heart-pouring letters directly from Beethoven. They move listeners to the very core. Besides the most popular pieces like Fur Elise and Moonlight sonata, the 5 th and 9th symphony. The pieces I love the most got to be the great piano sonata like: Pathetique, Appasionata, Waldstein Hammerclavier and the ground breaking Eroica symphony.
i like him very much too. personally i think that Beethoven's last sonata no.32 in C minor, is one of the greatest pieces ever composed for the piano, the first movement the allegro is in sonata form with fugal elements, the second movement the adagio is again a variation of progressive rhythmic foreshortening, the arietta is particularly moving and leaves one in wonder at Beethoven's genius. certainly it is not an unnoticed piece being regarded as the fitting culmination of Beethoven's sonatas. :) what do you think about this?
Quote from: Hypatia on May 27, 2007, 02:09:23 PM
Quit hatin on my favorite instrument.
Depends on whether you plonk it or tickle it like a nineteenth century prostitute...one is good at the other bad.
Quote from: Katia on May 20, 2007, 05:42:12 AM
who is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
Funny you should say "no other genres" since most of the composers you mention would be considered 'romatic' composers of the late 19th, early 20th century. Not classical in the sense of haydn and mozart.
but then what do I know? I'm a 20th century gal ;D
Lala
Quote from: space_kat on June 01, 2007, 02:56:24 AM
Quote from: Katia on May 20, 2007, 05:42:12 AM
who is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
Funny you should say "no other genres" since most of the composers you mention would be considered 'romatic' composers of the late 19th, early 20th century. Not classical in the sense of haydn and mozart.
but then what do I know? I'm a 20th century gal ;D
Lala
Boom da boom boom boom!
yea... anything older than we are and still lingers must be classical right? ;) Indeed there are a wonderful collection of genres, periods, styles, and everything else that we pile into the "classical" bin. And here, we have at least twenty different names for rock. I tell ya... we as a society don't keep in touch with the arts. It is not healthy. It's through the arts that we engage the human spirit. We free our thinking. It's sort of more important that football in my way of thinking.
Cindi
It's nice to see you drop in Space kitty. We've missed you sorely.
Hm... It's a hard one. I love both Vivaldi and Handel.
Obviously I love Baroque. :D
Handel's Water Music, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons are both amazing... Of course there are so many other pieces I love, but I have a hard time choosing between the two composers.
Quote from: space_kat on June 01, 2007, 02:56:24 AM
Quote from: Katia on May 20, 2007, 05:42:12 AM
who is your favorite classical composer, please no other genres, and why? the composers that i am struggling to pick between are dvorak, prokofiev, and shostakovich. i like dvorak for his melody and folk sound, prokofiev for his orchestration, and shostakovich for his modernity and the intimacy in his quartets which i like much more than his orchestral pieces. and you?
Funny you should say "no other genres" since most of the composers you mention would be considered 'romatic' composers of the late 19th, early 20th century. Not classical in the sense of haydn and mozart.
but then what do I know? I'm a 20th century gal ;D
Lala
i've missed you. :)
I'm going to answer this as though you are asking for people who write in the "Classical" style.
My all time favourite composer is André Segovia, who composed for guitar. My favourite of all his pieces is Estudio Sin Luz because it was what inspired me to become a classical guitarist. Sadly, due to a birth defect, I can no longer play, but that piece of music, with its melancholy and hope, lives in my heart and plays as my soulsong.
Frank Zappa, American Composer, 1940-1993.
because it's great music.
Theme from Sinister Footwear, parts II & III.
tmw
Quote from: Cindi Jones on May 20, 2007, 03:37:32 PM
...so many genres of music into the classical bin! Typically it is instrumental music older than 40 years or so and not showing its way to the pop charts.
???
well, then, ich <bin> das: L Shankar, Aberi Raga [ragam, tanam & pallavi]. It's in 6 3/4 time (which is a little bit like 3_cubed).
tMw
Cheng, you should listen to the Francescatti version of the Vitali. Its with orchestra and, imho, blows aways all the rest.
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 29, 2007, 01:10:15 PM
Quote from: Hypatia on May 27, 2007, 02:09:23 PM
Quit hatin on my favorite instrument.
Depends on whether you plonk it or tickle it like a nineteenth century prostitute...one is good at the other bad.
Now THAT is funny. Debussy
was a bit of a whore.
Speaking of smoking frogs, I like Edgard Varèse, Hyperprism.
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 29, 2007, 01:10:15 PM
Quote from: Hypatia on May 27, 2007, 02:09:23 PM
Quit hatin on my favorite instrument.
Depends on whether you plonk it or tickle it like a nineteenth century prostitute...one is good at the other bad.
You should hear my rendition of "Heliotrope Bouquet" - a beautiful, sensuous piece that was composed in a New Orleans whorehouse (only a few years after the 19th century ended).
Quote from: Hypatia on June 16, 2007, 08:50:55 AM
Quote from: Pica Pica on May 29, 2007, 01:10:15 PM
Quote from: Hypatia on May 27, 2007, 02:09:23 PM
Quit hatin on my favorite instrument.
Depends on whether you plonk it or tickle it like a nineteenth century prostitute...one is good at the other bad.
You should hear my rendition of "Heliotrope Bouquet" - a beautiful, sensuous piece that was composed in a New Orleans whorehouse (only a few years after the 19th century ended).
beautiful and sensuous, that sounds like a good bit of pyanna
I learnt classical piano for a few years when I was a teenager and didnt really enjoy it very much. My music teacher said I had too much passion or something as I hit the keys very hard at times. I did enjoy listening to classical composers like Bach and others though! There was a favourite piece of Bachs I used to enjoy playing on the piano. I cant remember which one it was. But I can remember how to play it still. Which is good.
Charles Ives, the first symphony.
Absolutely anything by Anton Bruckner, but especially the symphonies (especially #6!) and the Mass in E minor.
Mozart's Concertos for French horn, but then, really, any Mozart.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, just because.
I love Renaissance choral music.
Handel, Vivaldi, Bach are beloved.
Rossini's overtures.
Montiverdi's Orfeo.
Right now I'm listening to Vivaldi's Concerto in G Major for recorder and strings, and the largo is gorgeous.
Okay, I can't pick favorites. ???
Quote from: Natalie Carole on July 27, 2007, 01:16:59 AM
I havnt missed you. Go back to Space!
Hmmmmmmmm.....
tink :icon_chick:
He da man!
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fw3.rz-berlin.mpg.de%2Fcmp%2Fbartok_9.jpg&hash=a164bca0dab2af42593bae40a6fb3ec742bf1e0f)
Ő a férfi!
Quote from: Tink on July 27, 2007, 01:30:41 AM
Quote from: Natalie Carole on July 27, 2007, 01:16:59 AM
I havnt missed you. Go back to Space!
Hmmmmmmmm.....
tink :icon_chick:
Sorry I was sought of joking when I said that. I can see how it was wrong to put it like that though! I do miss her posts and her personality. It was one of the things that attracted me to this sight. I do feel a little bit like a Space Kat myself sometimes. Anyway yeah I miss her too..
I removed my post of that.
Now I will crawl back to the rock I hide under!
we all have rock crawling moments >:D <--- he's saying, "ahh ha ha haaa"
Quote from: Natalie Carole on July 30, 2007, 12:11:08 AM
Quote from: Tink on July 27, 2007, 01:30:41 AM
Quote from: Natalie Carole on July 27, 2007, 01:16:59 AM
I havnt missed you. Go back to Space!
Hmmmmmmmm.....
tink :icon_chick:
Sorry I was sought of joking when I said that. I can see how it was wrong to put it like that though! I do miss her posts and her personality. It was one of the things that attracted me to this sight. I do feel a little bit like a Space Kat myself sometimes. Anyway yeah I miss her too..
I removed my post of that.
Now I will crawl back to the rock I hide under!
I see. I was just wondering, but now, because of your explanation, I realize that it was all a joke. Good for everyone! :)
tink :icon_chick: