(western) classical music discussion

[Minimalist]

I hope it is better than this.

[Rev. Rye]

Something (I don't know what, exactly) reminded me of this odd little piece:





It's Charles Ives' take on a bunch of old Civil War songs all cobbled together with a pacifist message, and, of course, the composer himself is performing. He's playing piano and singing. Ives' voice is tattered, and his piano playing is a bit desultory, but there's no denying his enthusiasm, and this is what keeps it listenable, and it's no wonder that the Kronos Quartet decided to keep his voice when they covered the piece on Black Angels. Ives himself stated that it "is not a song for pretty voices -- if the words are yelled out, regardless -- so much the better." It really seems to lose something when it's done for full orchestra and a proper choir. 

This seems to be one of the better takes on it, but it still seems less enthusiastic than the original:






The US Marine Band does a good version, but it's an instrumental version; whether that makes it better because the lyrics don't scan well, or worse because the lyrics are poignant regardless, I have no idea. However, there's this:





You might think it's folly to play classical music like this on just a pair of steel-string guitars, especially given how complicated Ives' music can get, but then again, it seems like he wasn't paying much more attention to his piano for that song than these two boys are to their guitars. The original recording seems almost like a piano-based early version of punk with some dissonant piano, so hearing it transposed to a more authentic punk idiom is intriguing. Remarkably, the general consensus in the comments section says that Ives would probably have enjoyed the performance.

[pocaracas]

So, this just cropped up in my youtube suggestions...

Way back in 1964, a young Pavarotti was already showing his awesome voice to the world!

[Edwardo Piet]

A truly unique classic:

[Rev. Rye]

A truly unique classic:

FUCK YEAH, STEVE REICH!

I actually have four recordings of that piece in my collection, the original ECM version, the Nonesuch re-recording, the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble version, and the Ensemble Signal recording. A couple weeks ago, I actually decided to do a Steve Reich-a-thon at work where I Chromecasted all his compositions in chronological order (or at least as close as possible because I have to work around a limit of about four hours per weekday less the time it takes for the telemarketer in the back room to actually leave.)

I also listened to the last Steve Reich CD in my Library's collection that I haven't listened to at this point. 






It's one of his less awesome works, but it's still fairly good.

Also, a few weeks ago, I woke up to find that somehow, my alarm clock radio actually started to use the radio. I don't remember when I tuned it to WFMT or what buttons I wound up pushing to have it actually play music while I was trying to get the alarm on snooze, but I heard this:

[Edwardo Piet]

Good for you!

[bennyboy]

I've never heard of Eugene List before, but what a nice performance of the piano part!

[Rev. Rye]

I've never heard of Eugene List before, but what a nice performance of the piano part!

And I had never heard of Louis Moreau Gottschalk until I heard it. At first I thought it was something by Tchaikovsky, but it turned out it was another guy, one who lived and died before Tchaikovsky made his name internationally or even premiered any of his best pieces. The fact that he's this obscure astonishes me to no end.

[bennyboy]

Yeah he sounds a lot like Tchaikovsky and Strauss had a baby, right?

[Rev. Rye]

A baby who lived and died before either parent had a career to speak of.... unless you’re thinking Johann and not Richard. Honestly, a better example of a second parent might be Brahms. I can at least remember some keyboard works by Brahms.