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Grex > Music2 > #161: Non-classical music for people who like classical music - suggestions please |  |
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| 23 new of 122 responses total. |
keesan
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response 100 of 122:
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Jan 16 03:10 UTC 1999 |
Clannad in Concert was the one that was recommended. The Best of Altan.
I am enjoying some Music of the Andes, to which Jim is tapping his foot. The
Armenian folk music was interesting. Are there any groups that do recently
composed Peruvian or Indian music, that the library might have?
Clannad was something I can listen to while working because I don't know a
word of Irish. (Yet). If anyone wants, I can tape for them a selection of
folk music from the Balkans (Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania) and E.
Europe (Serbian/Croatian, Czech/Slovak, Hungarian).
I have not yet listened to Dead Can Dance, it will have to be when Jim is not
listening, judging from his reaction to Yes. While cooking?
Andes Music also has a beat but it is somewhat variable and is not louder than
the tune. Are there other folk dance musics that I might like besides Balkan,
Scandinavian, and British Isles? I like unusual beats, such as 7/8, 11/8.
What should I be listening to/for in Dead Can Dance? (How long were they
together?).
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krj
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response 101 of 122:
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Jan 16 04:57 UTC 1999 |
CLANNAD IN CONCERT is so one of their best albums, is too is too is too.
:) More to the point, it is the only pre-new-age Clannad album I found
in the library's holdings. It's a short recording because it dates
from about 1978, the LP era.
There are hardly ever good notes on CDs any more. I may have an article
on Maria Kalaniemi in one of my folk music magazines which I could
clone for keesan. The library also had Kalaniemi's first American
cd -- IHO, which you got, was her second.
(Now I'll have to pull out my copy of IHO to look for the Bulgarian-
sounding piece.) As to where she got her ideas: I'm pretty sure that
Kalaniemi, like Varttina, the Hedningarna singers, and many of the
current crop of Finnish performers, studied at the folk music school
of the Sibelius Academy.
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anderyn
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response 102 of 122:
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Jan 17 04:05 UTC 1999 |
Oh, okay, you like it. I'll give you that one. Ken. But I never did like
it much. But you know how much I don't like a lot of live recordings.
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orinoco
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response 103 of 122:
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Jan 17 04:09 UTC 1999 |
Re#97: Gospel is vocal pretty much by definition, AFAIK. I know there's plenty
of instrumental blues out there, but I don't know enough about blues to point
you in the right direction. I really have no idea about instrumental country:
I haven't heard any, but I barely listen to any country at all.
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coyote
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response 104 of 122:
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Jan 17 05:20 UTC 1999 |
Re #99: Oh, no! That's really too bad... I was looking forward to the next
time they came around on tour, too!
*sigh* Probably about the only non-"classical" group I've really enjoyed...
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krj
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response 105 of 122:
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Jan 17 05:43 UTC 1999 |
One could probably find some instrumental bluegrass recordings filed in
the country section. But bluegrass is the only instrumental country
which is coming into my mind.
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happyboy
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response 106 of 122:
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Jan 17 06:44 UTC 1999 |
mmmmm...lots of oldtimey stuff i have around here is
instrumental...it ain't bluegrass, pa... i also have some
pretty good instrumental stuff by bob wills and the texas
playboys.
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keesan
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response 107 of 122:
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Jan 20 02:19 UTC 1999 |
What genre would you call them? I like bluegrass, it is not too different
from the Irish stuff.
I listened to Dead Can Dance. It is a strange name for a group (do other
groups have a verb in their name) but quite appropriate. A very marked and
repetitive rhythm, and sepulchral (at at least very bass) tunes. The rhythm
seemed to repeat for four measures at a time, unlike new age music, which
repeats forever. How would you classify Dead Can Dance? What sorts of things
should I be listening for? The words are not intelligible enough to interfere
with my work (which involves thinking in two languages at once). What sort
of training did the group members have in music?
I would bet Maria learned something about Balkan folk music, at least
the rhythms, and it sounded a lot like Bulgarian folkdance. I will listen
again. The library will not let me take out any more CDs until I return most
of what I have, 18 was way over the limit. (I also got Bukhara Crossroads
of Asia, and some Corelli and Bach). Have to decide what to record before
they are all overdue. Maybe one piece from each of the recommended groups
for times that I feel like listening to something different, and probably most
or all of Maria and Bach.
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anderyn
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response 108 of 122:
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Jan 20 14:52 UTC 1999 |
Keesan,
I dug into my music collection and found something you might like.
It's a RealWorld CD of a group called Trisan, which consists of
Joji Hirota (Japanese percussionist), Pol Brennan (Irish pianist,
guitarist, flutist... from Clannad, originally), and Guo Yue (Chinese,
plays bamboo flute) -- I got it out of the library originally, and fell
in love with it -- all three musicians are classically trained in their
own traditions, and they have written some neat songs that meld all
three -- mostly instrumental, though there are a few vocal tracks. I
ordered a copy from Schoolkids several years ago (it was put out in
1992, I think) and I can recommend it highly. Seems that no one else
has heard of it, though.
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keesan
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response 109 of 122:
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Jan 20 17:19 UTC 1999 |
San being the Japanese for something like 'honored sir'? In Japanese class
I was Keesan-san. Tri for three? Thanks, will look for it after I get the
number of CDs that I have out back down to under six. (I was going to record
them first but the tape player is not working, suddenly, or it could be the
receiver circuits, too much odd music?). Small world in music now.
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scott
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response 110 of 122:
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Jan 20 22:53 UTC 1999 |
-san is like "Mr.", or "person". It's pretty neutral. "-sama" usually
translates to "lord", at least in old stuff (not sure about now). "-chan"
is how you refer to your kids, and "-kun" is pretty intimate...
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keesan
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response 111 of 122:
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Jan 25 00:57 UTC 1999 |
Ken, I listened to Maria again and identified the track that sounded
Bulgarian. It is number 7, Sofias flykt. I did not read the list of tracks
to identify it. Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. The rest sounds
Scandinavian. Interesting rhythms in teh Bulgarian one and I think also in
a few of the others. 7/8, etc. The Inca music has some pieces with 5 measure
repeated units. Hungarian music repeats 6 measures. Dvorak has some unusual
combinations of rhythms. Most folk and classical W. European music is pretty
predictable as far as beats/measure or measures/phrase: 2/4 3/4 and 4
measures/phrase or some multiple. Are there any folk traditions or other
classical or other composers who play/write in 5/8, 13/8, 5 measures/phrase,
etc? I have not analyzed the Armenian or Indian or Iranian music yet.
Balkan music (Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian) has 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8, 13/8.
Fun to dance to.
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orinoco
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response 112 of 122:
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Jan 25 19:31 UTC 1999 |
Bartok uses some folk songs (Hungarian, I presume, but I may be wrong) in 5/8
and 7/8 as melodies in a few pieces.
From what I've heard about traditional Indian music, I think it tends to have
irregular groups of 2 and 3 beats; things like 3/8 - 3/8 - 2/8 - 2/8, which
adds up to 5/4 if you think of it as one big measure. On the other hand, most
of the recordings of Indian music I've heard sounded like they were in
straight 4/4 or 3/4, so I'm not so sure how common that sort of irregular
rhythm is.
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omni
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response 113 of 122:
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Jan 26 09:18 UTC 1999 |
Go get "The Songs of India" by Ravi Shankar. He explains the different
rhythm patterns. Very informative. Even more is reading his autobio.
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keesan
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response 114 of 122:
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Jan 27 18:34 UTC 1999 |
I wonder whether the gypsy musicians, originally from India, helped spread
the 5/4 type of rhythm to the Balkans and Hungary, where it is common.
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oddie
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response 115 of 122:
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May 28 16:59 UTC 1999 |
Well, there hasn't been much activity in this item for a while and
I'm not sure if anyone is still interested in discussing it, but if you like
both folk music and classical music you might enjoy the Kronos Quartet CD
'Pieces of Africa.' It's a bunch of pieces by current African composers
for string quartet, but is influenced quite a lot by traditional African
music. I like it a lot. But then I like almost all of Kronos' CDs that I have
heard, especially _Short Stories_ and _White Man Sleeps_.
Just my thoughts on the matter...
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cwb
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response 116 of 122:
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Aug 3 14:59 UTC 2000 |
Here are some suggestions for the classical music lover wanting to widen
her tastes.
In the jazz realm, try Kurt Elling, a marvelous vocalist. I would in
particular recommend his third album 'At the Green Mill' or something
very like that. He plays with rhythm in a neat manner and his voice is
truly his instrument, as central as the content of his songs, both
original and cover.
Michael Hedges was definitely a guitarist who could appeal both
intellectually and spiritually through his music. I'd recommend the
albums "Taproot" and "Aerial Boundaries" as most likely to appeal.
You could also try a group called Raphael with their two albums of
"music to disappear in." This is probably classed as newage (rhymes
with sewage), but of style it is head and shoulders above the pack, with
an interesting translation of the "In Paradiso" from the Faure requiem
into newage synthe-pop. I use this music frequently when doing massage;
I love it a lot, it's also fine meditation music.
The Jethrow Tull album with North Sea Oil on it is called Storm Watch,
and it is a neat album, though Songs From the Wood is still my favorite
Tull album.
Finally, I would disagree with denigrating Yes's 90125 album for those
looking for their classical influences. It is true the complexity of
the music changed from earlier releases, but it is still rich, though
perhaps further removed from classical sources, one can still hear them.
And for rhythmic interest the song Changes has a neat intro, as does
the song Leave It.
I had several more, but 115 responses drove some of them out of my head.
Oh wait, did anyone mention Ennya?
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other
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response 117 of 122:
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Aug 3 18:12 UTC 2000 |
How could you forget the Moody Blues? Albums actually recorded with the
London Philharmonic, etc...?
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brighn
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response 118 of 122:
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Aug 3 19:39 UTC 2000 |
For that matter, Metallica recently released an album of hits with classical
backing (the closest heavy metal might ever come to "muzak metal").
And ELP did Pictures at an Exhibition, or somesuch...
Putting classical instruments in pop music seemed popular in early 80s "New
Wave." The obvious example is ABC's Lexicon of Love, but others include
Communards, Art of Noise, and Eurythmics, plus (later) Sundays and the genre
that followed from that.
Musak meets pop meets classical meets moog has St. Etienne as one of its finer
examples... the music is hopelessly vapid and confusingly complex at once,
one of my quirkier favorites.
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tpryan
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response 119 of 122:
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Aug 4 03:25 UTC 2000 |
Deep Purple did something akin to "Music for two unfriendly groups
of instruments" with a classical orchestra.
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lumen
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response 120 of 122:
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Aug 4 06:14 UTC 2000 |
resp:118 classical meets Moog.. reminds me of Wendy Carlos. Definitely
a different instrumentation scheme.
In that vein, I would think even Kraftwerk would be worthy of
consideration, although I have only _The Mix_ for observation. Some
music critics consider their form to be a bit more classical in
structure than pop (i.e., folk), so I would make it a recommendation.
My father-in-law is a classical enthusiast and loves "Switched on
Bach," so I am going to see what he thinks of this German programming
band.
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brighn
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response 121 of 122:
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Aug 4 14:39 UTC 2000 |
St Etienne is more on the pop end, with those other influences in there.
A friend of mine loaned me a very rare Weird Al/Wendy Carlos rendition of
Peter and the Wolf, but it was fairly inaccessible to me... too weird.
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orinoco
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response 122 of 122:
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Sep 8 16:16 UTC 2000 |
ELP's version of "pictures at an exhibition, or somesuch" is definitely more
on the side of "somesuch." They delete most of my favorite movements, add
new (fairly dreadful) sections, etc. Given how faithful some of their
classical arrangements are, I was amazed at how much they butchered this one.
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