i’m no expert, but..
Sibelius- 2nd Symphony (Barbirolli, Halle orchestra)
Rodrigo- Concierto de Aranjuez, 2nd movement
Smetana- Vltava
Beethoven- 7th Symphony
Puccini- La Boheme
Rachmaninov- 3rd Piano Concerto
Verdi- La Traviata
Sibelius- Violin Concerto
Tavener- The Protecting Veil
Beethoven- 6th Symphony
_
Mozart- Marriage of Figaro
Bizet- Carmen
Bach- St Matthew Passion
Rachmaninov- Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Classical music is the real God.
What do you mean by lyrical music?
My friend and I argue about Bach and Debussy all the time. When he’s not talking about James Joyce he’s trying to start argument with me. Of course, I always win. Debussy is boring, and vastly overrated. Puts me to sleep.
I nearly always enjoy hearing Handel, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. I have limited knowledge of classical music, but I enjoy most of what I hear.
In terms of how to use it in film: It should be noticeable, but not so much so that it takes away from what is happening in the film. As with all music in film, it has to be able to be heard in the background, and cannot force itself into the foreground.
I mostly listen to post 1900 music
like twelve tone music. (Schomberg. Webern. Berg.) and early electronic music (1945-1980).
Simon,
Music with verbal singing and talking of a language.
I happen to like a wide range of classical music from Classic/Baroque up to the present day.
I’m as likely to be playing CDs Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos as Arvo Part.
I’m not terribly fond of most 12-tone things … more becausre there tend to be long sections where it feels as though the composer is amrking time until he thinks of an idea … but some early Copland pieces in that mode (such as Inscape) are fascinating.
I do find my favorite composers have quirky approaches & tend to come from eastern Europe or Russia: Janacek, Khatchaturian, Bartok, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofief, Borodin, but I also like quite a few British composers: Williams, Delius.
And I never once fell asleep listening to Debussy, especially La Mer.
I like it all: Monteverdi to Mozart, Bach to Berg, Schoenberg to Stockhausen, Wagner to Webern, Vivaldi to Verdi, Rossini to Ravel, Donizetti to Debussy, J. Strauss to R. Strauss, Lehar to Ligeti, Pergolesi to Prokofiev. I love, live and breathe, but mostly listen constantly to the stuff. In fact, I may now switch over to a classical music forum, for a change of pace (thunderous loud applause in the background – to which I respond with Ride of the Valkyries – or Walkure, if you prefer).
If you want good 20th century “classical” music check out the polish composer Penderecki, I always imagined his music would be perfect for a horror or thriller movie.
But in terms of your idea of classical I love Bizet
Most “impressionist” music puts me to sleep, although I appreciate it on a technical level. I like Shoenberg and the like, also.
I like Gustav Mahler’s symphonies and song cycles quite a bit. I like some Bach although he sometimes bores me. I like a lot of Handel, I like some Mozart (clarinet concerto, The Magic Flute, The Great Mass in C Minor), some Beethoven (the string quartets, the Moonlight sonata, Symphony nos. 7 and 9). In the 20th century I like Kurt Weill, Charles Ives, Alban Berg, and (more recently) Helmut Lachenmann. I like some isolated works here and there like the Blue Danube waltz or Pierrot Lunaire.
I can’t analyze it musicologically — it’s just a feeling it gives me — I know what I tend to like.
As far as conductors go, I like the really scary pseudo-Nazi ones — Wilhelm Fuchtwangler and Herbert von Karajan. They zealously guarded culture like a couple of hawks and made everything as hair-raising as possible. I also like, very different but just as great, Leonard Bernstein.
Isn’t opera lyrical Classical music?
I couldn’t really narrow my classical music taste down. My current favorite composer is Eric Whitacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xn_Qo_WXMg&feature=related (Eric Whitacre’s piece Sleep)
@ As It Were
I find it very interesting that you are put to sleep by Debussy and prefer Bach
@JUSTIN -… " the really scary pseudo-Nazi ones — Wilhelm Fuchtwangler and Herbert von Karajan."
Hair-raising I agree. A good counter would be Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2 Leningrad.
I don’t agree it’s boring, and neither overrated, maybe just acquired (or educated) taste. Music is music.
I grew up with my grandpa’s Symphony/ Big Marching Band LPs. I recall hearing War of 1812- those fucking cannons, or Stravinski’s Rite of Spring at home. Well, the famous ones were already mentioned. I don’t know much about classical music, though I have some in my collection, just few stuff that I like -
BACH-Brandenburg No. 5, 6 (Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields Orch.)
HANDEL – Water Music (Berlin Phil. Orch.)
DEBUSSY – Panorama (Boston Symph.)
BRITTEN – Suite on English Folk tunes
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH – Symphony. No. 9 – (Leonard Bernstein/NY)
COPLAND Billy the Kid/ Appalachian Spring – (San Francisco Symph.)
and several recordings by Arvo Part, Henry Gorecki, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, John Cage… hell, anything by Gershwin.
I think they’re all great, depends on the composition-chamber, piano concertos, horns,cello, flute, voice, Spanish guitar!
In film, Philip Glass’ composition to accompany Todd Browning’s DRACULA ‘31 was brilliant.
Does anybody know whose composition Takemitsu used for the scene in RAN (at the fall of Hidetora’s castle)? Or was that his own?
Simon – Most people tell me that. Bach’s music seems so much more human, and moving. I find Debussy to be sort of hollow (I seem to be the only one, though).
Noel – In terms of music theory I’m about as educated as one can get at my experience level, which is about a decade. Maybe I haven’t heard enough of Debussy, but what I have heard I have mostly disliked.
Yes Noel, luckily classical music is mostly apolitical.
Simon – I think the difference with Opera is that it has a narrative where as regular music like let’s say “Falling Slowly” is more just like poetry. But it really does not matter, by lyrical music, I meant to target just more contemporary music, like pop and rock.
@ASITWERE – Oh, I was just speaking in general. Actually, one of my ladyfriend used to play Debussy’s ‘Claire de Lune’ cd to cure her insomnia, so she can mostly agree with you.
“’ …check out the polish composer Penderecki, I always imagined his music would be perfect for a horror or thriller movie.”"
So did Kubrick!
Great pick on Penderecki – try him also in Lynch’s Inland Empire. According to the interview of Lynch on the DVD, he got inspired to do certain scenes by listening to Penderecki. Lutoslawski is great, too – but can’t think of a film that uses his music. Ligeti is another composer that Kubrick used to great effect in 2001. I love Kubrick’s use of music in his films – which is second to none…beginning of The Shining, anyone?
Noel: I am going to pull a RUS on you and say the Leningrad is No. 7 – a great work, too – as you mention.
AIW: Debussy is my favourite for 20th Century solo piano music – try the great Jean-Yves Thibaudet collections of piano works or either Geiseking or Michelangelo playing the Preludes. If that doesn’t move you – your heart is made of stone (or you are deaf). Since you like Bach, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Justin: There is a great line in Educating Rita (a fine, understated film with a great part for Michael Caine as a sad-sack English prof) where one of the characters is blasting music at full volume as the door to her suite opens and she says. “Don’t you just love Mahler?” Well, I do. I have just been listening to the wonderful 3rd movement of his 4th Symphony – mesmerzing! Love it all.
My first love as a kid was Richard Strauss tone poems – played Also Sprach Zarathustra way before 2001 and Ein Heldenleben over and over again. I have a life long love affair with his music.
I can be found almost anytime day or night – esp. when on this site – humming Wagner – perhaps my favourite composer. I live for the Ring cycle!!! I am trying to encourage Peter Jackson (don’t laugh!) to do a great screen adaptation – ala Lord of the Rings. That way, he would have both of the Ring cycles to his credit – are you listening, Peter?
For opera, along with Wagner and Verdi, I am a Mozart opera enthusiast. Love Magic Flute and have several versions of it – including Bergman’s glorious theatrical film.
Also an enthusiast of Viennese music frrom the wonderful Johann Strauss operettas and waltzes to Lehar and then the second Viennese school – esp. Berg. I must have lived there in another life (really).
@BOB- Good call on Shostakovich symphony No. 7. Yup, I sure was thinking of “To October” when I wrote 2 (lots of folks probably would not even call No. 2 exactly as symphony piece).
>>“’ …check out the polish composer Penderecki, I always imagined his music would be perfect for a horror or thriller movie.”"
So did Kubrick!<<
Beat me there by that much!
I love classical music, but no absolutely zero about it. The few pieces I have heard and know by name are in films I love. I guess I just don’t know where to start listening. I will listen to some suggestions on here, and see what I think.
Prokoviev’s “Lieutenant Kije Suite” (used in Woody Allen’s Love and Death) is also nice.
>>I love classical music, but no absolutely zero about it. The few pieces I have heard and know by name are in films I love. I guess I just don’t know where to start listening.<<
You just have to plunge in & start listening.
In prder to reduce strain on your budget, check out the used or close-out bins at your local music stores. If you know the composers of the pieces used the movies you mentioned, check out other pieces by them. Of you know you like works with organ, for instance, check out works for organ or works that use the organ prominently. Like the look of the label? … oh, why not try it out? Amazon has new & used copies from $1.99 … ? Order a few.
Listen to your local classical music station – witha notepad handy to jot down titles.
Back in the day when I was first exploring there were budget label LPs that could be had for a buck or two. I used all the above impulse-buy suggestions. Budget CD labels are farther & fewer between but the Naxos label is a good one; their CDs are in the $5 range.
Also, a great many film composers have also created work for the concert hall … check out their compositions.
I don’t agree, Harry. There’s nothing worse than a bad or pedestrian performance of a great work. Unfortunately, the less you know about classical music, the harder it is to get into and like it.
However, most of what appears on the Duetsche Grammophon label (the spines of the CD’s are bright yellow) is very good.
Buy Cluadio Arraus’ Beethoven sonatas, I assure you, that will cuase you to become interested in piano. If you don’t want to buy them all buy Appassionata, Patehique (8, forgot how to spell it) and his all hailed Moonlight.
I know nothing of classical music either but a while ago I discover mozart’s requiem mass and thought it was one of the greatest things I ever heard
To MICHEL: If you loved Mozart’s Requiem, I heartily recommend seeing the (mostly fictitious) film “Amadeus”. While playing very loosely with the facts of Mozart’s life, it is still a wonderful way for someone new to his music, and it would seem in your case all classical music, to get a gimps of the state of classical music in the late 18th century Europe.
I wish there were more well made docu-dramas of great composers. There are some, but the list is short. I came here tonight looking for a 1 hour bio-pic on Charles Ives made in the late 1970’s “A Good Dissonance Like a Man”, but alas it is not here. There are 2 VHS copies for sale by private vendors on Amazon but the asking price is $40 and I can’t afford that at this time.
Having spent 16 years of my life as a music librarian/recording technician in a liberal arts college I amassed a considerable wealth of knowledge about every kind of music of every age known to man (more or less). In retirement I still seek out the new and unusual musicians and composers, some older ones unjustly neglected, and living musicians creating a new landscape for the intrepid music lover.
Personally, I like Ashkenazy’s Appassionata and Pathetique better than Arrau’s. It’s crisp, clear and powerful, without too much melodrama. There’s plenty of drama infused in the music without the musician having to add to much coloring of his/her own. That said, I also really enjoy Ivo Pogorelich’s interpretation of Beethoven – or any other composer, for that matter.
As much as I enjoy pre-20th century classical music, more often than not my ears crave 12-tone works. I love Schoenberg, Shostokovich, Stravinsky, (all the S’s…) Berg, Webern, Messiaen, Arvo Part, Louis Andriessen, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Chopin
By classical I mean music composed around the very early 1900s and before. I know, technically there are subdivisions within subdivisions within subliminal divisions of instrumental music.
So, lets talk about it!
What do you think about it?
Why do you like it better than lyrical music? (if you do)
Do you think it is boring a repetitive and overrated?
What kind of classical music do you like?
What composers and instrument players do you like?
What piece would you like to be used and how in a film?
I suppose I will start, I won’t say what I think about it because frankly, I don’t know.
I like piano, orchestral just does not do it for me, although a little is good for a bit of concerto. I like the compositions of the obviouses, Beethoven, Chopin (I bet you never would have guessed) and on a smaller scale Liszt, Rachmaninov and Bach. To be more simplistic I will just do the basic list your top 10:
1. 14 Sonata, third movement – Beethoven – Arrau
2. 24 Prelude, No. 4 – Chopin – Cortot
3. 8 Sonata, first movement – Beethoven Arrau
4. Nocturne No. 20 – Chopin
5. 12 Etude No. 12 – Chopin – Horowtiz
6. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Liszt – Cortot
7. 2 Sonata in G minor – Liszt – Argerich
8. 3 Concerto, 1 movement – Rachmaninov – Horowitz
9. 1 Concerto, 1 movement – Tchaikovsky – Horowitz
10. Sonata in B minor – Liszt
And I think that the cadenza of Rachmaninovs 3rd Concerto would be epic to have in a battle sequence!
I have always preferred instrumental music to lyrical, not to say I do not like lyrical, I do. Do I think it is superior to lyrical music? Possibly, I think it is much more artistic but I guess it is sort of like the argument against voice over in films, it really does not matter to me that much though.
Have fun!