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Posted

Define "classical music". :)

It's very broad, and some people mean older orchestral instead of modern "classical" music.

I'd say, look into Edgard Varese, John Cage, and Richard Wagner. Those are some of my favorites :)

Posted

If you like Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Bartok, you'd probably enjoy composers such as Copland, Ives, (early) Webern, and, since you enjoy Holst, likely Mahler, Strauss, and Wagner.

It's hard to recommend composers similar to Paganini, since he mostly composed solo works, but I really enjoy Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Chopin, which I were definitely influenced by Paganini. Bach literally influenced everybody, so I can't really make any specific recommendations there.

Personally, I absolutely love Romantic (Chopin and Mendelssohn) and Impressionist (Debussy and Ravel) composers.

EDIT: Pictures at Exhibition is phenomenal.

Posted

Personally, I like to skip the classical period entirely and listen to Baroque and early Romantic. Baroque music, which shares alot of similarities with early VG music, is usually what I prefer to listen to if i'm in the mood for some non-pop music and i'm not already listening to Brahms. The best of the best of the three b's.

Just as long as it's not Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Overplayed to the point of aversion.

Posted
Baroque music, which shares alot of similarities with early VG music, is usually what I prefer to listen to...

FYI, both the pipe organ and the NES were tradtionally written with three musical lines -- organ sheet music is printed on three staves. This is probably why those similarities exist.

All of the greats covered in your average undergrad music history class are put there for a reason. Pachelbel, JS Bach, Gluck, JC Bach, CPE Back, Sammartini, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Wagner, Strauss (his Alpine Symphony is an amazing "sunrise"), Berlioz, and Bartok are all worth your time. DrumUltima touched on modern minimalism which is great -- I just heard a John Adams piece that was outstanding.

As for more modern work, I'd avoid twelve tone serialism (the 2nd Viennese School and their ilk) for a while -- they are extremely difficult to enjoy unless you know how the pieces are constructed.

If I were to recommend one piece for you, it would be Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The piece is amazing -- especially the beheading during the march to the scaffold, and the outstanding use of the Dies Irae motive in the final movement.

Posted

I've always enjoyed Samuel (?) Hazo's work, and it's delightfully percussive. Cichy's divertimento for winds and percussion is also pretty good. The Tuba Mirum movement of requiem dies irae is also good, and sounds pretty violent. Vox populi by danielpour is interesting, I like it, but it may not be "violent" enough.

Hope that helps

Posted

Going for ones that haven't been mentioned yet:

I recommend Gabriel Fauré (particularly his

, his
, and his
), Astor Piazzolla (particularly
),
, Roy Harris, Maurice Duruflé,
(the Tallis Scholars are usually the definitive group to go for on recordings of pieces of this era, not just Tallis works),
,
, Erich Korngold (for
as well as classical works, basically the guy John Williams ripped off :P), Johannes Brahms (particularly
), Edvard Grieg (particularly the
),
, Arvo
, Anton Bruckner (my theory professor would kill me if I didn't include him),
Ravel, Benjamin Britten (particularly his
, I recommend the recording conducted by the composer himself), Jean Sibelius, etc.
Posted
I LOVE Steve Reich!!! Steve Reich!!!

I'm a big minimalism fan in general, though Phillip Glass tends to rub me the wrong way. But yeah. Reich, John Adams, David Lang, Joseph Schwatner, all composers I'm into right now. I'll post more when I think of them. There are a lot

grumblegrumblePERCUSSIONISTSgrumblegrumble

:smile:

anyway, some favorites of mine have already been mentioned, but definitely check out (Richard) Strauss - Don Juan and Salome especially. His "tone poems" have some of the most bizarre orchestrations ever.

also debussy's nuages, erik satie, john zorn, ligeti, penderecki (earlier stuff), and schoenberg

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