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Grex > Classicalmusic > #45: Most Popular Classical Music - acquiring a basic LP collection | |
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| 25 new of 194 responses total. |
coyote
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response 39 of 194:
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May 13 19:33 UTC 1999 |
I did listen to the last movement of the 5th symphony, and that bassline is
fascinating. I had honestly never noticed that before. I'm going to have
to start tuning my ear to the lower part of the orchestra more often :)
To add to this item's original topic, I'd like to suggest Roy Harris's 3rd
symphony. I hadn't heard it until very recently (on one of the LPs I picked
up from keesan in the auction), but since then I've discovered it popping up
all over, including on two other recordings that were already here at home!
On all of its liner notes, it's been called an "American classic".
Interesting. Anyways, I particularly like the Pastoral section and the
transition into that section. There are some incredible and unique woodwind
harmonies going on there, and later on some fascinating melody bits passed
around in the woodwind section. I'm calling them "bits" because they
never seem to fully complete a thought before stopping and letting another
instrument take over.
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md
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response 40 of 194:
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May 13 20:38 UTC 1999 |
Harris's 3rd symphony is a wonderful piece of music,
and you're right about those melody bits. There really
are no coherent themes in the piece, although you get
the impression they're trying to emerge in a couple of
places, My favorite part is the first section. I like the
way it starts with one voice (cellos), and then other voices
join in one at a time, first in unisons and octaves, then in
bare fifths, and eventually in multipart harmony. At the
end of the first section there's a spot where the violins
play an unaccompanied melodic line that rises to a
high note, then quickly drops through a series of steep
steps down to a low note which is audibly an open string.
The note is held briefly, then resolves to a chord, A jaw-
dropping effect. Believe it or not, Harris had a fairly
rigorous theory behind the whole thing.
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coyote
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response 41 of 194:
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May 14 21:10 UTC 1999 |
I can believe that, though the theory is probably way beyond me :) It'd be
worth checking at the library for a miniature score, though, just for fun.
In the last section of the piece, the predominant theme (although it's never
completed without interruption, as has been pointed out) seems suspiciously
familiar. Somebody was telling me that they had heard it as part of a Copland
piece. Is this true? Could it be some adaptation of a folktune? Or is it
familiar just because I might have heard it on the radio at some point?
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md
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response 42 of 194:
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May 15 03:20 UTC 1999 |
The whole thing sounded familiar to me from
the moment I first heard it. Its an American
thing, I think. Visitors not welcome.
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coyote
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response 43 of 194:
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May 16 01:16 UTC 1999 |
I went to the library today and, remarkably enough, they actually had the
score to this symphony -- how many public libraries can say that, I wonder?
I haven't really sat down with it yet, but I've followed along with it once.
They way Harris wrote the gurgling woodwind passages and the shimmery,
water-like string passages are pretty remarkable.
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md
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response 44 of 194:
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May 16 05:57 UTC 1999 |
I haven't looked at a score of Harris' 3rd
since I myself borrowed one from the music
library at school, ages a go, but I remember
thinking the same thing.
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coyote
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response 45 of 194:
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May 17 02:03 UTC 1999 |
(by the way, as this is a tad off the subject, are the parts in an orchestral
score written in concert pitch or the key of the instrument? Can it go either
way, depending on in what era the music was written?)
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davel
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response 46 of 194:
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May 17 21:20 UTC 1999 |
It's been a long time, and I always played concert-key instruments
myself, but ... I'm pretty sure that (say) trumpet or clarinet parts are
not written in concert key but in the key appropriate for the instrument.
(That's for the parts the players see; I don't know about the conductor's
score, & won't bother you with speculations.)
That said, after a certain level it's likely that the musician will sometimes
find himself asked to play along with something from someone else's music;
so players of those instruments are apt to learn at least some basic
on-the-fly transposition skills.
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keesan
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response 47 of 194:
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May 18 01:29 UTC 1999 |
When I played clarinet in an all-girls' junior high, which had no brass
instrument players, we had a lot of practice in transposing the cornet and
trumpet parts, which I think meant reading the line below (above?) the one
written and being creative with the sharps and flats.
We were pretty much bottom level but you cannot run an orchestra without
someone playing the brass parts. It got to be normal after a while (like
wearing those glasses that make things look upside down for a while).
I can now use this talent to play Bach Well-Tempered Klavier pieces that have
7 sharps or flats in a key with fewer of them.
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albaugh
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response 48 of 194:
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May 18 18:25 UTC 1999 |
Hmmm, clarinets are pitched in Bb, as are all trumpets and cornets you'd find
in a school band, so there would be no need to transpose.
Full concert scores show the conductor the same music the player sees, so
there is no need to mentally transpose. However, condensed ("piano") scores
of 3 or 4 staves will be in concert pitch.
Regardless, it *is* a very good skill to learn, transposing (on the fly).
French horn players are habitually forced to do it, as most old parts were
written for Eb horn, whereas now horns are pitched in F, but no one is going
to go back and write out F horn parts for them! :-)
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coyote
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response 49 of 194:
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May 21 01:47 UTC 1999 |
Right, I knew that each individual player's part was written in the correct
key, being a French Horn player myself (and having played other
instruments in the past). It was the conductor's score that I was curious
about, as I was looking at some of the chords in the Harris score and I
wasn't sure whether I'd need to transpose or not. It appears that I will.
And, yes, transposition is a very necessary skill to have to play French
Horn, especially in pieces originally written for natural horn. For
example, I played in a Mozart opera fairly recently where every movement (is
that the correct term when speaking of opera?) was in a different key.
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kottos
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response 50 of 194:
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May 21 22:58 UTC 1999 |
Although, some contemporary composers do write their scores at sounding pitch.
But they usually state if they have done so in the preface page. It can be
frustrating if you have spent ages analysing a piece and then find out that
you shouldn't have transposed parts of it!
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davel
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response 51 of 194:
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May 22 01:11 UTC 1999 |
Operas have acts, scenes, and whatnot. I'm not sure what units you're
thinking of, but I don't think "movement" is correct.
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coyote
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response 52 of 194:
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May 24 00:05 UTC 1999 |
The units I mean include each area, duet, trio, recitative, orchestral
interlude, etc. Anything with music attached. I'm pretty sure 'movement'
isn't the right word, too. The sad part is, I did thing of the word just
a little while ago, but I forgot it again.
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davel
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response 53 of 194:
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May 26 01:04 UTC 1999 |
s/area/aria ??
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coyote
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response 54 of 194:
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Jun 2 01:32 UTC 1999 |
*laugh* Yes, precisely...
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keesan
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response 55 of 194:
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Aug 17 17:18 UTC 1999 |
I have typed up and uploaded to my home directory a list entitled RECORDS.99
which you are all welcome to read if someone will tell me how to change the
read permission so it is readable. Please suggest what I should remove from
or add to my collection. And let me know the names and dates of those
composers who were referred to on the jackets simply by their last names
(alongside a detailed biography of the performers). This is only the baroque
and later part of the collection, and is intentionally heavy on baroque, also
Haydn and Dvorak and Mendelssohn - did I miss any of their better works?
In cases where there are three of something it was intentional, either I could
not choose between them or a piece was combined with something else.
Brahms Symphony No 3 may end up there in triplicate for such reasons.
The list is of performances, not of records (some of which are therefore found
scattered about under different composers). The Murray Hill is a 16 volume
set which I will probably not keep, of lesser known performances, that was
being discarded at Kiwanis - anyone want it for a starter set?
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davel
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response 56 of 194:
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Aug 20 10:44 UTC 1999 |
Your file is world-readable, Sindi. (Unless you do something to make it
otherwise, files you create will normally be so.)
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keesan
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response 57 of 194:
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Aug 20 13:56 UTC 1999 |
Thank you. Can anyone fill in the names and dates of any of the composer in
/a/k/e/keesan/RECORDS.99? And suggest any good works that I have missed?
And how do I change whether a file is readable or writable?
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rcurl
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response 58 of 194:
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Aug 20 16:34 UTC 1999 |
With the unix command chmod. You can look it up with the command
man chmod at a unix prompt. The format is, for example,
chmod 644 <filename>
The number is a string of octal numbers. The first place (6) is
permission for you, the second (4) for the group, and the last (4)
for all others.
Each octal number represents a binary number. 6 = 110, 4 = 100, etc. A 1
in the first place is an "on" for read permission; a 1 in the second place
is an "on" for write permission; a 1 in the last place is an "on" for
execution permission (for programs).
Thus, 644 is personal read and write permission, but only read permission
for others. 600 would produce a file depermitted for all others.
The rules are a trifle different for directories.
In your directory you see 644 written as -rw-r--r--, where rw- is the same
as 110, and r-- is 100. Directories have to be executable, so you will see
the x at the end, e.g., drwx--x--x = 711 is the permission for a directory
that you have complete access to but others cannot read but they can read
files in the directory (if you give them the file name). The common
directory permission is 755, which allows others to read the directory
file list as well as read files in the directory.
(I wrote this tutorial to remind myself of the rules!)
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keesan
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response 59 of 194:
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Aug 20 23:26 UTC 1999 |
This is beyond me. I discovered that I can read and write to files in my home
directory, and read but not write to those in Jim's. If I ever need to make
my files unreadable I will figure this out. Or not post private info there.
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krj
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response 60 of 194:
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Aug 21 08:27 UTC 1999 |
Two personal favorites which I don't find in keesan's list:
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (not the entire ballet, which I find tedious)
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oddie
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response 61 of 194:
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Aug 23 05:03 UTC 1999 |
Keesan, there is another way of using `chmod' which I find easier.
Instead of the octal numbers you use a three-part code.
The first part of the code contains a combination of: `u' for the owner
(yourself), `g' for the owner's group, `o' for everyone not in the group.
On a system like Grex, you can probably just lump `o' and `g' together
to refer to all users excluding the owner.
The first part can also be simply `a' to refer to everyone with an account
on the system.
The second part is either `+' to enable the permission or `-' to take
it away.
The third character stands for which permission: `r' for read, `w' for write,
or `x' for execute. There are a couple of others too, but they probably aren't
important to anyone except programmers and admins.
The most common cases would be:
chmod a+r <file> ; to make the file readable by all
chmod og-r <file> ; to make the file readable by only the owner
(you are taking read permissions away from the `g'roup
and `o'thers; it doesn't matter to the command whether
they had them in the first place or not)
chmod a+w <file> ; to make the file writable by all (probably not
a good idea)
chmod og-w <file> ; to make the file writable by only the owner
I hope this was helpful.
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coyote
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response 62 of 194:
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Aug 23 17:15 UTC 1999 |
Here is some of the composer info you wanted, and a few personal
recommendations--none of them are baroque, but perhaps you'll give them a
listen.
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704)
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Chopin wrote many sets of wonderful solo piano music, and I'd recommend
listening to his Etudes, Ballades, and Nocturnes for a start.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Debussy wrote some Nocturnes as well, but his are for orchestra. Give
them a listen.
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Georges Enesco (1881-1955)
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Faure wrote some fantastic chamber music. One of my favorites is his
opus 120 trio for violin, cello, and piano.
Christoph Gluck (1714-1797)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Try the Piano Concerto (A minor, I believe).
Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967)
Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Modest Mossorgsky (1839-1881)
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)
Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
I love Rachmaninoff's music. Some things to try are his other piano
concerti (there are four in all), the preludes for piano, and symphony
no. 2
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Respighi wrote a whole "Roman triptych", which consists of The Pines
of Rome, The Fountains of Romes, and Roman Festivals. My favorite of
them is The Pines of Rome.
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Johann Strauss the Younger (1825-1899)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
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keesan
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response 63 of 194:
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Aug 26 04:07 UTC 1999 |
Many thanks for all the information about changing read and write permssions,
and all those dates and suggestions. I print-screened it all (Yes I know how
to extract an item but it is too much work). I have all nine Beethoven
Symphonies, two of most of them, and have sung the Ninth, just forgot to list
them for some reason.
Kiwanis has classical LPs for 10 and 25 cents, so I just borrowed $5.60
worth to test out and see if I can tell apart the same piece played by
different performers. Most are in excellent condition. The more expensive
LPs ( up to a dollar) tend to be more recent popular stuff. You would not
believe the number of records of Tijuana Brass! (Also in the ten cent area).
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