Quote: (01-08-2013 06:29 PM)Caligula Wrote:
thedude, do you have any recommendations for getting into classical music? I've listened to it a lot but sense that something is missing, I don't understand it very well. Any resources or books?
That recommendation for Music Appreciation is good. You'll notice most people in the class are just doing it for the college credits. Let the teacher know you're genuinely interested in learning about music and they will be ELATED.
I started out in classical guitar when I was 11. I didn't know shit about classical music but I was exposed to it through my parents. I couldn't tell you the difference between any composers and I didn't have a lot of interest in it.
I can't tell you why it "clicked", but one day I was listening to the 1st Chopin piano concerto. Hell, most composers consider it very poorly orchestrated, but some of the themes are haunting. Anyway, it stuck like a mofo. So I got into Chopin and spent countless hours listening to every Prelude, Etude, Nocturne, Mazurkas, Polonaises, Rondos, Scherzos, EVERYTHING. Couldn't get enough.
Chopin is Romantic, so I started checking out other Romantics. Still not a big fan of Schumann, but I like Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn.
At some point I discovered Beethoven and that was life changing. Beethoven is a giant. They're considered trite and overplayed, but start with his 3rd, 5th, and 7th symphonies. Check out his piano sonatas ( Moonlight Sonata, Pathetique, Pastoral, Tempest) These are the best known pieces and a great starting point. His string quartets are also very good.
Bach is a whole other species. Bach composed for churches and, while I'm not a religious man, I consider his music straight from God. Check out the Brandenburg concertos, the Well tempered clavier, the violin and cellos sonatas and partidas, and if you have some serious time to devote, listen to the Goldberg variations as much as you can.
This is a very basic start. There is a goddamn treasure bank of classical music that I'm sure either myself or Tenderman could wax ecstatic on. I can't imagine going a lifetime without listening to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto or his 6th symphony. Mendelssohns octet and violin concerto. Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mahler, Stravinsky, Mozart, Vivaldi, Scarlatti...
When you're listening to this stuff, listen with INTENTION. Most people listen to classical music as background; I've never understood this. Listen to the music the way you'd listen to your grandparents tell a story. Notice the details and background notes. Classical music requires an attention span, but like an old muscle that gets some long-needed exercise, it feels amazing when you use it. Some pieces are challenging to listen to (Bach's goldberg variations) but when you start to get to "know" a piece after the 3rd or 4th time listening to it, certain themes pop out at you and it's this long process of peeling back the layers; every time you'll hear something new. No other music on earth provides this experience.