u/Stunning-Hand6627

Probably his ability to turn sacred music into sunny frivolous masterworks, and also his experimentalist and progressive approaches to the Concerto form like his L’estro armonico, and other collections of Concerto like the contest of harmony and invention.

I listened to a lot of the Buxtehude fugues I was given earlier, and my favorite out of them was the B-Flat fugue. It had some sort of baroque frivolity that sounded like something by Couperin.

After being suggested Handel, I want some suggestions for fugues by him that aren’t explicitly stated Fugue (some can be too). Like maybe interesting fugues to listen to inside his major works. Any suggestion is appreciated, thanks!

I saw the post about if Bach didn’t exist, who would it be, and Buxtehude was mentioned.

Are there any fugues that would make for interesting listening that you would suggest by him? Thanks!

I’m trying to stay away from like the journalist style archetype like Jan Swafford because his books aren’t published by university presses, and published by more mainstream houses. I’m looking for more biographies or books about specific styles or “histories of” by California press or Oxford press or any more scholarly press that doesn’t publish fiction novels, and strictly publishes nonfiction “scholarly books” by experts.

I know I’m a dry personality if I enjoy that stuff more, I just love the security of those types of books because they are universally agreed-upon by classical music enthusiasts and experts.

Me and a friend were talking, and sometimes joking, about Ambroise Thomas’s reputation. And how nobody really cares about him except for French opera people with Mignon, and Hamlet (and the former’s overture). But they were extremely popular in their day, and I’m curious about what your choices are that have taken a similar succumbing from opera-comique falling out of fashion

(Yes, I understand Hamlet is a grand opera, mainly talking Mignon)

I’m asking out of pure curiosity if you guys have ever had any paranormal encounters at this locally notorious bridge. It is known as the oldest bridge in South Carolina, and has a history of a slave being obliterated to death by a rock and being kept inside the tomb. Also the Native American history of the area as long as other urban legends about truck noises. Have you guys been/investigated there before af night, and how did it go?

Any interesting fact you’d share about him. Mine I would share was that he was an internationally famous cellist before he even started his operatic career. He played with Liszt, Rubinstein, Gottschalk, Mendelssohn and more.

The main world of Madrigals are kind of a new discovery for me so I’m wondering what composers you love to fall back on in that realm.

My picks would be Gesualdo, Marenzio, Morley, and Sweelinck. Who do you go to when you want to listen to madrigals?

I know there are no personal recollections of him because he’s quite dead now but he has been a crucial part of my path into the world of classical music since I was 8.

You can spot a serious musician from his early set of character pieces to his salon polkas he wrote while trying to build a career. And also elevating the polka like Chopin did the mazurka. And also to his early swedish tone poems, through to his operatic output that has almost cult-status in Czechia. To his chamber masterpieces like the piano Trio and the string Quartets. Dont forget Ma Vlast. The second quartet is one the most psychologically disturbed quartets at the end of the 19th century as he was approaching his final days with tertiary neurosyphilis. Arnold Schoenberg admired it.

This is probably my fifth post in this subreddit that I’ve made about him, but the guy deserves credit whenever he can get it.

Feel free to add your comments on my paragraph about him!

I’ve heard great things about Rossini, Rachmaninov, Verdi, Bruckner, and Braunfels. But I’m wondering if there’s anyone else you would’ve added to the conversation. Thanks!

I am most interested by:

- Philippe de Vitry for his day job and pioneering Ars Nova

- Saint Yared for the time he lived in, and developing an Ethiopian culture

- Leonin for helping develop organum

And Guido d’Arezzo for inventing the notation system we use today

What about you?

There are tons of people in the classical music community who rave about specific Rossini singers and I Iove his music without ever worrying about specific singers.

I do want to know which singers a lot of people enjoy so I can dive into specific recordings to understand how Rossini writes for the voice, and also get to know the certain operas that the singers championed

Mine are:
The clarinet concerto, 2nd movement
Divertimento K 563, Final Movement
The opening of his famous piano quintet
Second movement of his last piano concerto
Bei mannern from Die Zauberflote
And the marriage of figaro overture

How about you?

Why?? It is so unfair. They developed what we now know as polyphony and now theyre dead???

I would probably conduct either Aida, Der Freischutz, or Meyerbeer. What about you?

One of my thoughts was Bartok’s 3rd piano concerto written for his wife as a farewell to the world before dying of leukemia.

Also Shostakovich’s eighth Quartet to some extent.

Any more gripping works in this vein I can give a shot?

I began getting my curiosity peaked about Ancient Egypt after hearing some… “interesting aspects” of it. But I also have heard a lot of interesting tales and incidents in Ancient History like the story about the pharoah who got eaten by a hippopotamus and the obvious King Tut and Cleopatra stuff. But are there any other interesting tales and aspects of this context of history that I would enjoy hearing about, and will also help me understand the broader context of this period of history. Any responses will be appreciated. Thanks!

My favorite to celebrate his birthday yoday are his two operas Ruslan and Ludmilla and his grand opera A Life for the Tsar. One of the most important examples of nationalistic opera.

Another one is Kamarinskaya, which influenced the development of Russian classical music to some extent by being heavily based on a russian folk song.

Also wrote some Spanish overtures that predate Rimsky’s interest in Spanish music. Also the french spain enthusiasts like Bizet, Chabrier, and Lalo

What are yours?