Can anyone suggest genres of recently-composed music that people who only
listen to classical and a bit of ethnic folk music might enjoy?  And/or list
the different genres of nonclassical music currently being listened to, with
a brief characterization of them - types of instruments, harmony, rhythm,
subject matter if vocal, history.  I would appreciate having this item linked
to music.  We are pretty ignorant and expect that there is some music out
there we would like, but don't know where to look for it (not on KOOL 107!).

122 responses total.

(Did you intend to post this in the Houseplants and Gardens
conference?)

No, of course not, I wondered where it had gone.  How to erase it here?
Kill 37 - 'you can't do that!'.

(( Gardening #37  :)  now linked as Music #161. ))

My first inclination is to point you at some of the recent deluge of 
Celtic folk albums, and some of the more acoustic side of the Scandinavian
stuff.  I'm guessing that Hedningarna and Hoven Droven are probably more
rock-influenced for your tastes, but you might like the Swedish band 
Vasen (all instrumental, heavy on the fiddles) or Triakel (mostly 
harmonium and voice).
 
To try out some Irish and Scottish music for free, listen to the 
Thistle and Shamrock program on NPR.  WUOM in Ann Arbor has picked 
it up recently, but I forget when they are airing it.

Ah, apparently I linked too soon.  keesan started another copy of this 
item, which is now music #162, after losing this one.  I'm going to 
freeze this.  I hope.

And apparently now that it is linked, I can't freeze/retire it,, 
and 'unlink' isn't a legal command.  Help...

Okay, here's a copy of the (my) one response to the item in the
Classical Music cf.  I will now kill the item in that conference
and then there'll only be this item in Houseplants and Music.
*Or will there*?

#1 of 2 by Michael Delizia (md) on Sun Dec 6 22:40:55 1998:

Well, I love classical music.  The non-classical music I currently
listen to includes:

Grover Washington Junior: Reed Seed.  An album dating from around 1980.
Jazz, saxophones, small ensemble, very cool.

The Byrds: The Byrds' Greatest Hits.  1960s folk rock.  Now-legendary
covers of a couple of Bob Dylan songs included.

The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet.  Album dating from around 1970.
Includes three of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs of all time:
Sympathy for the Devil, Street-Fighting Man, and Stray Cat Blues.

Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.  Recent release.
Female member of The Fugees solo album.  Brainy rap, as rap goes.

Various artists: Rain Forest.  A compliation of songs by performers
from tropical areas of the planet.  Sold at Caribou Coffee as promo
for their new "Rainforest Blend."  I bought it on a whim and got
hooked on the very first track, a song by an African group so upbeat
it makes the Spice Girls sound like Rachmaninov.

Various Artists: Swing Time.  Another promo album,  I picked it up
at Bed Bath & Beyond.  Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, et al.  My
favorite is "Leap Frog" by Les Brown and his Band of Reknown.  The
reason I bought this was for a dance at the local highschool, where
swing music and swing dancing have inexplicably come into vogue.
I almost didn't get it back.

That's it currently.  A few months ago it would've been all different.
I don't think the above have much in common.  I don't think there is
necessarily one kind of non-classical music that's more likely to
appeal to classical music lovers than another kind.

Okay, it's gone from the Classical Music cf, but it still exists
here as Item 162.  It should be killed before someone else responds
to it.  Hurry!

I retired the copy which was item #162 in Music.  Now, if md can link this back
 to classicalmusic, then I think we will have what keesan  originally intended.

Thanks to both of you for your efforts, what I was hoping to end up with was
an item in Classicalmusic which was linked to Music, is that what we ended
up with?  How does one retire a copy, I need to do that to some listings in
Classifieds that sold (or went into the dumpster).
Next time I go to the library I will look for your suggestions on CD.

This is now linked to Classical as Item 42.  

Sindi, I'll pull together some CDs to loan to you, if you'd like.

That is awfully nice of you, but maybe the library also has them, let me know
a few suggested titles to look for.  I went to Scandinavian dancing for a
while and like the fiddle music, but am curious as to what good new music is
around that is not designed mainly to be loud, or too easy listening.
I have heard some interesting stuff on the Ypsi station, recently composed
in the style of Indian classical music, by Germans.

Sindi, I play (a bit of) hammered dulcimer, so I'm seeing quite a lot
of stuff built around that; & there are a lot of people out there with
recordings you might like.  The largest bulk falls into traditional &
modern folk genres, but there's a fair amount of classical- based stuff
that I (at least) enjoy.  (Some of this is commercially available;
a lot is more-or-less self-distributed.)

I liked Bolling's classical jazz.  Where would I look for other
classical-based stuff for other instruments?  Are there particular composers
to look for?  I will check the library's folk section.

Oops.  Someone linked it again before it got killed in Plants.

Another direction to look in... there's a decent number of bands with a big
big classical influence who often get lumped into the Goth category for some
reason, probably 'cause nobody knows where to put them. Off the top of my head
I'm thinking of Dead Can Dance and Never The Bride, and maybe Rasputina.
Dead Can Dance has influences from all over the place; mostly ethnic folk and
medaeval music is what it sounds like to me. I haven't heard very much Never
The Bride, but what I've heard sounds pretty classical - Piano, vocals, and
cello.
I honestly don't know whether you'd like Rasputina or not, but I have to plug
them 'cause they're one of my favorite bands right now. They're an electric
cello trio, and their sound drifts quite a bit - their first album, _Thanks
For the Ether_ was more acoustic, and their second, _How We Quit the Forest_
is much 'harder' and more electric-sounding. They also act more like a typical
Goth band, and can be a little offensive at times, but... okay, I'm just going
to stop making disclaimers. They're really, really good, and with a distinct
classical influence, and...yeah. Listen to _Thanks For the Ether_, I'm
guessing you'll like it.

I'll ask Liza the Resident Goth Expert for some more reccomendations.

Thanks again, can you define what Goth music is, if that is possible?  I had
not heard of it until now.
        I find that the New Age music played just before midnight on the radio
puts me to sleep (is that intentional)?  It all seems rather repetitious, but
is some of it better than other parts?  Our neighbor has been trying to point
out why some jazz is better than others.

Some of it is indeed quite good, but ... most of it puts me to sleep, too.
Possibly it's no accident that they play it late at night.

Some jazz is better than others.  Simply put, almost any jazz is better than
Kenny G...  At least, that's my not-so-humble opinion.

My neighbor has the same opinion of Kenny G, who I only heard of because we
were given a free copy of him at Kiwanis, which we use to test CD players,
and then someone who bought a player said he was her favorite.  He apparently
sings one note for 45 minutes (a bit boring in my opinion).  Can you recommend
any good jazz music that is less random-sounding than average?

Re defining goth: I was afraid you were going to ask something like that:)
The only thing goth bands really have in common with each other is their
generally dark mood. The bands I reccomended in #17 are all an etheral, kinda'
melancholy sort of dark. There are also goth bands who are loud, angry, and
obnoxious sorts of dark. It really depends. 
Meaning "go get some goth music" was probably not a good reccomendation. :)

  No, but the pointer to Dead Can Dance was probably a good one..
  Perhaps Cocteau Twins might also fit the bill -- I'm trying to think
  of music that's lush, layered, and atmospheric..

Would Borders have anything in this category that I could listen to?
I should go take a look, with a list of the above suggestions.

Yes, I'd highly recommend Dead Can Dance as well.  They have a very broad
range of styles, however, so just picking up one album might not show you what
all they do.  My two personal favorite albums are probably "Into the
Labyrinth" and "Aion", which both have very different characters, but I like
all of their albums (at least the ones that I own).

Do they play traditional instruments or electronic ones? Or both?

  Virtually all traditional instruments.  From a pretty wide variety
  of traditions, too..

I'll re-endorse the Dead Can Dance recommendations. Even Bruce (my 
husband who doesn't like much *modern* music) liked them. They're a very
lush sound, very layered....

I just copied down the suggestions and will check for them at Borders and/or
the library and report back.  Celtic, folk-rock and folk, hammered dulcimer,
and Goth (did I miss any?).  krj, I appreciate your offer of lending CDs but
would be afraid to damage them (somehow I don't worry about library stuff).
We have some library books due today, so will be going into town.

  Judging from the condition of many discs I've checked out of the 
  Ann Arbor public library you're not the only one who doesn't worry
  about scratching them..

RE #30 I had the same problem as you with library CD's, mcnally -- they have
been notorious for skipping parts of songs and sometimes getting stuck and
sounding like something from a science fiction movie.  Guess there are a lot
of library patrons who don't treat library property with TLC.  (Same goes for
all the library books and magazines which have pictures of naked people ripped
out of them.)

Call me an old fogey, but I'd highly recommend the "classic" Blood, Sweat,
and Tears and Chicago albums.  The Moody Blues did some nice stuff also.

OK, you're an old fogey.  :)   For albaugh: if you like the old BS&T and 
Chicago stuff, as my wife and I do, you might want to look for another
jazz-rock band from the same period called Chase, named for its leader
Bill Chase.   http://www.great-music.com/chase/chase.htm

Well, we got to the library ten minutes before closing, and I tried looking
in the electronic catalog for the various suggested categories and titles.
Found Never a Bride but nothing else except for some plain dulcimer Christmas
music, and they were closing before I figured out how to locate Never a Bride
on the shelf, so I got out some classical music from Iran and some harpsichord
music and some other folk and classical music and went to Borders.  First time
I ever actually walked into their music dept.  I figured out how to use their
touch screen after a while, and after several tries realized that Rasputina
is a performer and Never a Bride an album (you have to do three separate
searches for song, album, and performer) and guessed at the category (I think
it was rock).  They had Rasputina and Dead Can Dance but not Never a Bride
(no longer published, since 1995) and lots of folk music but not the
recommended Scandinavian stuff (only the nonrecommended band).  I then figured
out how to use the listening areas (first two were apparently broken) but
could not hear much over the loud and insistent background music.  Listened
to a few things randomly in a few categories until the noise drove me away.
Does anyone actually go to Borders to buy classical music?  They don't seem
to play anything that is not mainly loud percussion.
        I will look for Never a Bride at the library, and perhaps Ken would
not mind taping me a few things, and the library might want to order some
Scandinavian folk music.
        We have a book out currently with several pages cut out of it, all of
them seem to be scantily clad women (judging from the smaller BW versions of
the same things near the end).  You would think they could have just bought
a Playboy magazine rather than cutting up a photography book.

BTW, the 1970's group Chase had only one major hit ("Get It On"), and three
years later Bill Chase and other members of the band were killed in a plane
crash.

Many classical music lovers also love movie music.  Bernard
Hermann, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith.  Did you know that
Rudolph Steiner, who composed the famous Gone with the Wind 
theme, also composed the famous theme to A Summer Place two 
decades later?  Did you know that the music for Our Town, 
The Red Pony, and Something Wild was all composed by Aaron 
Copland?  Or that the music to the movie Scott of the Antarctic 
was made into a symphony (Sinfonia Antartica) by its composer, 
Ralph Vaughn Williams?  Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for 
On the Waterfront, but *Elmer* Berstein wrote the celebrated 
jazz-influenced score to The Man with the Golden Arm (among 
many others).

(Are you sure it isn't Max Steiner, rather than Rudolph Steiner?)

In point of fact, I'm a classical music lover who also loves
movie music. My favorite film score composers are probably
Bernard Hermann and Nino Rota. Hermann did the scores for
"Citizen Kane", various Hitchcock films ("Vertigo", "Psycho",
"Marnie", etc.), Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451", Scorsese's
"Taxi Driver". Rota is most famous for "The Godfather" and
his scores for numerous Fellini films.

One of my favorite film scores of all time is Prokofiev's
score for "Alexander Nevsky", later arranged as a suite for
orchestra and chorus.

Prokofiev also wrote movie music.  The one that comes to mind (in the
suite drawn from the score) is _Lieutenant_Kije_.  (I've never heard the
original score played, just the suite in various arrangements ...
starting with *playing* it in jr. high school band.)

Yes, Max Steiner is definitely the film composer.  Rudolf Steiner,
I believe, was an anarchist theorist.  Probably composed atonal
music on the side.  Speaking of which, the first atonal score used
in a popular feature film was the one for Fantastic Voyage.

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