Just Curious...Trad. Classical Composers?

[brightoffski]

Just wondering, this topic may or may not have been previously covered, but I would be interested to find out the classical music tastes of Opethians... So, if you're are into classical music, list favourite composers...pieces etc... and any other thoughts...

I will get the thread weaving...

Favorite Composers:

Claude Debussy
Sergei Rachmaninov

Favorite Pieces:

Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

 

[brightoffski]

Whoops...I accidently posted the damn thing before I finished. I could edit it, but I will reply to myself instead and make it look like someone has responded.

More favorite pieces:

Debussy - La fille aux cheveux de lin

Rachmaninov -

Piano Concerto No. 1
Trio Elegiaque No. 2

Debussy's music has some intrinsic quality that I can really appreciate and relate to, it is kind of like he takes an impressionist style of approach. The music takes on several forms, but it never actually describes anything? Does that make any sense?

I like Rachmaninov because I see, in my limited experience, parallels to Opeth, in that it is beautiful, technical music with a dark and at times, melancholy feel. Damn, maybe if Sergei was still around Opeth could employ him on keyboards...

I don't really have broad experience with classical music and I basically stumbled across my current collection. One for the future could possibly be Sibelius whom I recently acquired by accident...it seems up my alley so far...Can anyone encourage me here?

 

[terrymx]

doesn;t look like anybody seem to be interest. i don't know anything about classical music, but i like instrumental stuff wherever i find it. usually from game. ok, i'm lame.

 

[D Mullholand]

Yeah, classical rules ! I'm mostly into the modern/contemporary composers, but appreciate the Goldies Oldies Bach & some of Mozart as well. Here are some of my favourites :

Dmitri Shostakovich - the first that got me into classical. Shostakovich has this trademark sound - he uses really ugly dissonances and his music is always a fest of irony and a play of sincerity/bluff with the listener. Mostly the music is really dark, chaotic and devastated. Sometimes he goes into lyrical mode, but it's so fragile that you expect it to break into defensive irony at any moment. At times he inserts mindless mock-marches which lead nowhere, or displays nervous breakdown and tragedies masked as banality... I can write on and on about this...

Sergei Prokofiev - especially the piano sonatas, can be beautiful and tense at the same time, with lots of weird rhythms. For the headbangers here - check out his Piano Sonata N 3 - it's short, but very much 'metal'.

Arnold Schoenberg - dark, extreme, surreal and very emotional, despite the fact that most of his music is based on the 12-tone system he himself invented. Everyone must hear 'Pierrot Lunaire'.

I've been getting into others like Ligeti, Messiaen, Scriabin, Stravinsky but didn't hear enough yet to describe.

D Mullholand
----------------------
NP: Mercyful Fate - In the Shadows

 

[Lina]

I've gone on this rant many times before, but here I go again. The first person who says they like Bach is OFF THE BOARD! Liking Bach is akin to liking Britney Spears. Both wrote emotionless music because they were being paid.

Not surprisingly, the later composers, which have been mentioned so far, wrote and performed out of an almost maniacal compulsion to do so -- much like Opeth. The music was first and foremost to satisfy them -- if others liked it, so be it.

I love Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, late Beethoven...mainly Romantic era stuff. Debussy is starting to cross the line into the more modern stuff that I just can't get into. It's like when I go to a museum and see a big blue canvas that's supposedly "art," and I think, "I could've done that." When every note is dissonant and there's no time signature, etc, it just starts to sound like random pounding.

I played classical piano very seriously growing up, and Opeth is the first band that has ever interested my ear, the first band that made me employ all those dreadful years of theory lessons. I'm so thankful.

 

[S4R]

Classical music is too often neglected. I think it may be that people are intimidated by it, just an observation. For the record my favorite composers are Mozart, and Brahms.

 

[Mr. Black]

i like (now there could be some dubious spelling in this list as my cds are at home, so i apolgise) Orff, Faruv, Rachmaninov, Mussorsky, Verdi and Motzart (choral stuff, not so much the operas)...and others. Elgar's Dream of Gerontious is a must of any Opeth fan

 

[Jack]

Ahem...perhaps Wagner and Tchaivosky.

Metalbite Webzine

 

[brightoffski]

Originally posted by D Mullholand

Dmitri Shostakovich - the first that got me into classical. Shostakovich has this trademark sound - he uses really ugly dissonances and his music is always a fest of irony and a play of sincerity/bluff with the listener. Mostly the music is really dark, chaotic and devastated. Sometimes he goes into lyrical mode, but it's so fragile that you expect it to break into defensive irony at any moment. At times he inserts mindless mock-marches which lead nowhere, or displays nervous breakdown and tragedies masked as banality... I can write on and on about this...

Wow, that is quite an intense description, it seems befitting of the music from what you have said...
I am interested, but it takes me SO LONG to "fully discover" classical stuff, I will probably won't be investing in anything new until I have "fully worked" my current collection.

 

[brightoffski]

Originally posted by Lina
I've gone on this rant many times before, but here I go again. The first person who says they like Bach is OFF THE BOARD! Liking Bach is akin to liking Britney Spears. Both wrote emotionless music because they were being paid.

Which Bach? (I am only being a pain) Wasn't there like a whole dynasty of these guys? Or am I thinking of another family of musical Germans?
I have never heard any member of the Bach clan knowlingly...Maybe Britney Spears is faintly keeping the Bach bloodline in existence? Who knows...

Not surprisingly, the later composers, which have been mentioned so far, wrote and performed out of an almost maniacal compulsion to do so -- much like Opeth. The music was first and foremost to satisfy them -- if others liked it, so be it.

I love Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, late Beethoven...mainly Romantic era stuff. Debussy is starting to cross the line into the more modern stuff that I just can't get into. It's like when I go to a museum and see a big blue canvas that's supposedly "art," and I think, "I could've done that." When every note is dissonant and there's no time signature, etc, it just starts to sound like random pounding.

Chopin is another I can *see myself liking* but haven't really explored much... Debussy certainly is different, maybe because I have no technical music sense at all, I don't get preoccupied with any "abnormalities"...who knows. I have heard a lot of people say this about Debussy though.

I played classical piano very seriously growing up, and Opeth is the first band that has ever interested my ear, the first band that made me employ all those dreadful years of theory lessons. I'm so thankful.

That's cool, I have never learnt a musical instrument, it is something that I hope to do one day though... I have been hinting at getting the unused piano at my parents house to be relocated to somewhere in the vicinity of my room...

 

[justus x]

Likening Bach to Britney Spears is ridiculous.

I would continue on in a condescending and insulting manner, but that gets done to death these days.

 

[Wolff]

Originally posted by brightoffski
Which Bach? (I am only being a pain) Wasn't there like a whole dynasty of these guys? Or am I thinking of another family of musical Germans?

There was only one Bach (the Skid Row guy doesn't count). You're probably thinking of the Strauss-es.

 

[Wolff]

My fave classical composers are:
Beethoven, Berlioz, Bellini (I like opera), Chopin, Puccini (the biggest whoremonger amongs them all), Rossini, Stravinsky, Verdi, Vivaldi and above all Wagner.

 

[HoserHellspawn]

Frank Vincent Zappa.

The Yellow Shark album comes to mind, and in particular, it's arrangements of "The Dogbreath Variations", "Uncle Meat", and "G-Spot Tornado".

I also particularly enjoy "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

 

[JesusChristPose]

I love classical music, especially Tchaikovsky (4,5,6 symphonies, 1812 overture, Swan lake, numerous others)...I do believe that he was the heavy metal composer of his day.

I also enjoy many others...

Rachmaninoff - esp 2nd symphony
Mahler - The Titan
Beethoven - esp 3 & 5 symphonies
Mozart
...so many more...

 

[Lina]

actually, there were a few composers in the Bach family, but I'm thinking of the main guy, Johan Sebastian.

I forgot to mention Liszt and Schumann. They're good too.

 

[Hannu Mutanen]

I have not enough insight into classical music to have a completely accurate picture of what this undeniaby vast field actually encompasses, but the gems I have found are things I do actually cherish. Thus far, my favourites are:

Stravinsky - especially The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, which are excuisite and powerful pieces of work.

Bartok - Allegro Barbaro, which was actually brought to my attention through ELP's incorporation of it to their track "The barbarian."

Sibelius is also magnificent, especially "Finlandia." Awe-inspiring.

Various soundtrack composers, in the forefront being:

Wojciech Kilar, especially "Dracula" and "The ninth gate"

Ennio Morricone, with all the magnificent spaghetti-western compositions

Danny Elfman and his works for Tim Burton's films.

 

[_Transparent_]

i dont have a clue about classical music, but i listen to it sometimes anyway, i have a few compilation cds. but when i do listen to it i feel the back of my head ache a bit.

 

[idun]

I like classical music, especially Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven for they made some very beautiful piano tracks which are very skillful (e.g. beethovens moonlight sonata)... but i also like Mozart, Dvorak( especially the symphony from the new world), Verdi...

 

[Misanthrope]

Any of the fellow guitar players out there should take a long hard look at the Lute concerts by J.S. Bach
Just so damn amazing, of course chances are you need like 4 years of classical guitar training to even attempt to play those but still a great thing to listen in awe