|
Grex > Music1 > #43: Music that makes you say, "Oh...my...god!" | |
|
| Author |
Message |
md
|
|
Music that makes you say, "Oh...my...god!"
| 
Nov 25 17:06 UTC 1991 |
Audio Philly described the finale of Saint-Saens' Third Symphony as
"ecstatic and epiphanic," and asked, "Who writes/wrote music like
this?"
Good question. Although I'm not sure I want the gates of heaven to
open up *every single time* I turn on the stereo, it would be nice
to know what classical pieces do this for everyone in case I'm in
the mood for something like that.
What are the classical pieces that knock you flat -- the big, loud,
stupendous, ecstatic, epiphanic, magnificent, showpieces where the
composer pulls out all the stops, doesn't give a hoot if the
critics call it bombastic or vulgar, and just pours it on? And on,
and on.
|
| 67 responses total. |
md
|
|
response 1 of 67:
|
Nov 25 17:06 UTC 1991 |
The finale of Saint-Saens' Third Symphony is a good example.
The fourth movement of Brahms's 1st symphony is in this category.
Mahler does this sort of thing well. The finale of his 8th
symphony comes to mind. What else of his?
Sibelius's 5th symphony is great for this, especially the last
movement.
Vaughan Williams's "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" tries to
answer the riddle of the universe, and comes close to succeeding.
Listening to it you feel in the presence of some supernatural
force.
The entrance of the full-stop organ about halfway through Vaughan
Williams's "Sinfonia Antartica" has a *shattering* effect on most
people. (The rest of the piece is fair-to-middling.)
The "sunrise" scene from Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe" can leave you
feeling post-orgasmic.
You get the idea...
|
tcc
|
|
response 2 of 67:
|
Nov 26 06:45 UTC 1991 |
Holst - "The Planets, Mars" has a tormented kind of vicious anger that forti-
ssimos in a studdering and shuddering 5/4 time, though even 5/4 it
doesn't seem to lose you as to its meter as other attempts at writ-
ing in the quinto-quarto time seem to. I like to blast this on the
stereo and pretend I'm a mad mad mad conductor.
I know you may not consider this 'classical' per se, even though much of the
music they've released is 'classical style'...
Mannheim Steamroller - "Fresh Aire 6, Rhodes:sunrise" This piece is almost
a perfect musical definition of an orgasm. Slow at first, rises,
plateaus, and peaks to denouement in ghostly voices. Although much
of the rest of the album is cartoonish type music, _Rhodes:Sunrise_
and _Nepenthe_ and the wonderfully colorful album make this a record
worth buying.
Neither is this one classical, but hey, can't have too cramped a style.
Yanni - "Chameleon Days, Marching Season" Vehemont, quick, albeit some may
say 'but it's New Age which makes it instantly Awful'. I like this
piece because it is bluntly emotional, it moves like your traveling,
and the tambric range is incredible. I like to close my eyes and
imagine myself running through a green fragrant forest feeling like
I'm on a mission.
Just a few for now.
|
mythago
|
|
response 3 of 67:
|
Nov 27 13:41 UTC 1991 |
(Why need stupdendous music be crashingly forceful?)
Vivaldi, the first movement of "La Stravaganza"
|
md
|
|
response 4 of 67:
|
Nov 27 14:47 UTC 1991 |
Excellent point. The last movement of Vaughan Williams's 6th symphony
is played absolutely pianissimo all the way through and it is indeed
"stupendous." Also, ever hear Holst's "Egdon Heath"?
|
md
|
|
response 5 of 67:
|
Nov 27 19:24 UTC 1991 |
Some more *quiet* music that makes you say, "Oh...my...god!" --
The finale of Shostakovich's 4th symphony goes from a series of
explosive fortissimo climaxes to a looooong pianissimo fadeout with
a pedal C in the bass (the longest pedal C in music, someone called
it), accompanied by a heartbeat-like throbbing chord above which
wisps of melody can be heard. The first time I heard it, I just
sat there staring for five minutes after it was over. I felt
almost paralyzed. Quite an experience.
In the third movement of his 10th symphony Shostakovich introduces
the "D. Sch." theme which was to haunt much of his later music. It
stands for D[mitri] Sch[ostakovitsch] in the German trans-
literation, and is played D, E-flat, C, B. Poor "D. Sch." takes
quite a beating in this movement. In the end, his personality is
reduced to a series of terrified little notes played (whispered,
almost) by a piccolo over an eerie chord in the strings. These
closing bars of the third movement are as stunning as they are
quiet. (But in the fourth movement "D. Sch." comes back with a
vengeance.)
The hushed closing minutes of Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms"
have a dreamy exalted quality that can put you in a kind of trance.
(But Igor's queer scansion in this piece annoys me no end:
"LAUdate doMINum"??)
The first movement of Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and
Celesta" is a *weird* chromatic fugue that begins and ends
pianissimo and makes you feel as if your brain is slowly being
pulled through a long, but very brilliant, math proof. The third
movement of the same piece is a quiet little number meant, I think,
to scare the shit out of everyone. After hearing it, you aren't
surprised to learn that Bartok was from Transylvania.
|
tcc
|
|
response 6 of 67:
|
Nov 28 03:30 UTC 1991 |
Never did hear "Egdon Heath", but I have a few LP's of his other various
string-only works, like "St. Paul Suite" -- of which is one of my favorites
to perform. It takes intense concentration -- playing 2/4 on top of 3/4,
syncopation in 6/8 while a 2/4 elongated syncopation sings out the melody on
top of two melodies ... besides being one of the only pieces of music I've
ever played that has "Duplets". (ie, two notes played on three beats, written
explicitly, like a "triplet" is ..)
|
md
|
|
response 7 of 67:
|
Dec 23 14:29 UTC 1991 |
I love almost everything I've heard of Holst's. "The Planets" is such
a familiar piece that I tend to forget about it, if you know what I mean,
but it's brilliant music. "Saturn" is an oh...my...god piece in its
own way. Also, the organ glissando at the climax of "Uranus" will
knock you out of your seat if you play it loud enough. If it's cross-
rhythms you like, I read somewhere once that Brahms, of all people, was
the master at this. One of his piano pieces has five against seven, or
something. (There are modern pieces that go way beyond that, of course.)
|
tcc
|
|
response 8 of 67:
|
Jan 6 07:58 UTC 1992 |
All the modern stuff that I've heard has almost always associated the
strange synchromesh of odd-even timings with 'twelve-tone method' composing.
If there ever were a worse atrocity inflicted on the musical world...
|
arabella
|
|
response 9 of 67:
|
Jan 30 17:29 UTC 1992 |
The "Sanctus" movement from Durufle's Requiem is a definite
oh...my...god... When I first heard it (performed it,
actually, with my high school choir) I thought the climax
of the movement must be the aural equivalent of a REAL
climax. Of course, I was pretty young then.
|
lnf
|
|
response 10 of 67:
|
Jul 7 00:34 UTC 1992 |
The two things that really do it for me are actually a type and a composer,
composer 1st. vavaldi especially his concertos for violins not one of my
favorite insturments but oh god yes most of his (vav) do it for me.
2nd for some reason (mybe it was my cathlioc upbringing) masses, especially
dark masses they just seem to bring visions of god/angels/demons/battles and
such mind much like the painting by S. DAHLI "SAN SALVADOR et ANTONIO
GAUDI error---> se disputant la Couronne de la Vierge---> san salvador and
antonio gaudi b battle for the crown of the virgin --goo godly stuff...
|
tcc
|
|
response 11 of 67:
|
Jul 31 15:14 UTC 1992 |
That didn't look like "Lines: 3" to me
|
aa8ij
|
|
response 12 of 67:
|
Oct 6 06:59 UTC 1992 |
I would like to get Enya's Shepard Moons (?). the track "Carribean blues"
er blue is one of those "oh..my..god pieces" Of course Enya herself is cause
for that same feeling. I feel as if she is singing right to my brain.
(so I am wierd).
|
krj
|
|
response 13 of 67:
|
Oct 8 01:40 UTC 1992 |
Haven't we been around this path before?
|
cwb
|
|
response 14 of 67:
|
Dec 17 05:55 UTC 1992 |
The second movement of the Brahms German requiem is an
oh-my-god, beginning as it does in a slow, stately
b-flat minor lush orchestral mode, proceeding
to a measured deadly bass and alto unison "all flesh turns to
grass and all that is made by man turns to
grass, and the grass withers and the blossom
falls" (very rough translation of the actual
German). The movement moves through this incredible melding of
melody and text, into and out of a waltz, then out of nowhere
comes this triumphant fugue that ends with all the
joy the beginning lacked.
The In Paradiso from the Durufle is another incredibly quiet
and gripping piece. It's in f-sharp (or g-flat)
major, scored for mostly strings and
the soprano section. Finally in the last bit, the chorus
gets to come in, split into something
like eight parts, singing a beautiful chordal
texture filled with sevenths and ninths. In fact the
last note that fades from a piano
to nothing is an f-sharp a-sharp c-sharp e f-sharp g-sharp chord
that never resolves. When the Festival Chorus
performed this with the Ann ARbor Symphony
last year, you could have heard a pin drop in
Hill when we finished.
The Sanctus from the Faure requiem. I'm not sure I've ever heard
joy and faith better expressed then the bass and
tenor Hosannah, accompanied by one of the only brass moments
in the piece that just leaps out of nowhere.
Alexander Nevsky by Prokofiev, all of it!
The first and last movements of the Janacek Sinfonietta. God but I
do love massed brass.
Enough for now. So could I get a job
writing liner notes?
|
steve
|
|
response 15 of 67:
|
Dec 18 03:07 UTC 1992 |
You might...
One of my favorites is Mozart's 24th symphony. Short, but wonderful.
Longer and amazing is his Divermento in E Flat. And perhaps my single
favorite peice of music is the 4th Hayden Quartet, "The Hunt". I find
any of the above wonderful to go to sleep by.
|
cwb
|
|
response 16 of 67:
|
Dec 19 19:37 UTC 1992 |
ER, uh so do I, but perhaps for a different reason. <smile>
|
raven
|
|
response 17 of 67:
|
Apr 17 18:39 UTC 1993 |
I'm glad to see there are other requiem lovers out there so I don't have
to feel like some kind of morbid weirdo. The first movement of Verdi's
requiem does it for me, the brass sounds like dancing flames really erie.
And ofcouse there is the Mozart requiem and C Minor mass, both overplayed,
but still amazing pieces of music along with ofcourse his D Minor and
C Minor piano concertos. Beethoven's late piano sonatas are also wonderful
dense pieces of music that make you wonder how mere humans can compose
such things, Opus 110 & 11 in C Minor & A Flat Major. There is also a
Shostikovitch string quartet from the end of WWII in which almost all the
movements are in Largo that is really moving but I don't remeber which
quartet it is offhand.
|
steve
|
|
response 18 of 67:
|
Apr 17 19:07 UTC 1993 |
Another vote for the piano concertos. I'd have to include the No 17
Hayden quartet in there as well.
|
md
|
|
response 19 of 67:
|
Mar 4 20:25 UTC 1994 |
As mentioned above, Sibelius' 5th Symphony. The famous horn theme
in the third movement, along with the woodwind theme played over
this horn theme (all starting at 1:15 on track 3 of the Simon
Rattle CD), is one of the symphonic passages that give Sibelius
his reputation for soul-uplifting grandeur. It's a stunning
episode, a real knockout. Interestingly, it's the product of some
artifice on the composer's part that's as mathematically rigid as
a serialist composition.
The horns repeat a sequence of 12 notes, CGC-BGB-AGA-BGB, three
notes to the measure, while the basses grunt out a note on the
first beat of each measure. These bass notes are the 12 notes of
the horn theme at 1/3 speed, sounded together with the horns like
this:
Basses C G C B G B A G A B G B C
Horns CGC BGB AGA BGB CGC BGB AGA BGB CGC BGB AGA BGB C
You don't actually hear it that way, unless you're listening for
it. What you do hear is a big heavy almost clumsy-sounding series
of notes in the bass, like a mountain trying to sing along with an
angelic choir swirling around its summit. Everything is
unpredictable, a little tilted, a little off; and those angels
just keep on singing, unperturbed. An astonishing effect. Turn
the volume up to just below the annoying level, and the person in
the next room is guaranteed to say, "Wow! What's that?"
|
albaugh
|
|
response 20 of 67:
|
Mar 6 10:12 UTC 1994 |
Mussorgsky's "Great Gate at Kiev", the "finale" of his "Pictures at an
Exhibition" suite, has always kicked serious butt for me. I'll admit to a
prejudice for winds - especially brass - being a woodwind and sometimes brass
player myself. And Wagner's "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" from
Lohengrin is especially effective in its building climax, especially in a
rendition such as the U-M Band's from the glory days.
|
gerund
|
|
response 21 of 67:
|
Mar 8 08:50 UTC 1994 |
re 20: you're talking about Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition
I take it?
|
rcurl
|
|
response 22 of 67:
|
Mar 8 16:22 UTC 1994 |
Item 84 #18.
|
albaugh
|
|
response 23 of 67:
|
Mar 13 07:42 UTC 1994 |
Re #21: Yes, indeed, Ravel's orchestral arrangement is the one. I have a
recording of the suite played on piano, as originally "scored," and while
it's interesting to hear, a piano just doens't have the range of timbres that
a full orchestra does.
|
gerund
|
|
response 24 of 67:
|
Mar 22 10:15 UTC 1994 |
Well that's good. I thought it could have been a very *sad* version of the
music transcribed by Leopold Stokowski. By sad I mean terrible. I bought
that record, London Treasury STS 15558, thinking he was mearly conducting
Ravel's version. Well, I have to say I was disappointed and I hated it.
But Back to the Subject:
Stravinsky will be my entry for 'Oh My God', believe it or not for his
Symphony in Three Movements, First Movement. The first Stravisky I heard,
and on the radio. I rushed out to get a recording. Ok, age may have caused
the 'Oh My God' reaction to wear off, but it is still a favorite of mine.
On the other end of the 'Oh My God' extreme:
Lately I've been drawn almost Spiritually to Debussy's Danses sacree et
profane for Harp and Strings. Something about it, particularly the first
part. I know Debussy was commissioned to write it as an examination
piece, but something about it says to me that Debussy put more into it
than just some difficulties for a harp exam. It takes more than just a
good harp to make this music live.
oh, I almost forgot:
My Odyssey recording of Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue.
This whole tape is amazing. I put it on in the car and turn the radio up.
When Excerpts from "Catfish Row" (Porgy and Bess): Jazzbo Brown first
starts playing I *swear* people do a double take of my car at the stop
lights. And God help me when I'm speeding down the expressway with that
tape playing. I'm almost sure to break the speed limit!
|