r/classicalmusic

as I write I'm listening to Opus 1, the man really got it from the start? what is your favorite piece from this period? mine in Symphony #2 (recommended recording: Dohnanyi)

I was listening to a pop singer in McDonalds background music the other day and found it hard to ignore a less than subtle "change in keys" (a half-step up). It got me wondering, as someone not well-educated in music, how orchestras deal with the kind of real "key changes" that were common before equal temperament came about on pianos, where keys had their own character due to difference in tone intervals.

When orchestras play with a pianist, do they consciously adopt equal temperament? Does this happen in Baroque, Classical, or Romantic music? Or is it a non-issue? Are there some instruments that struggle to play in equal temperament?

Do you have this problem?

Classical pieces tend to be long. I can say "I like it" or "It's phenomenal" or "The whole piece is kind of meh, but the third movement rocks"... or "Not my cup of tea". But I seem unable to properly describe my experience while listening to a whole piece and I feel this is not just my problem, and it's what makes listening to classical music kind of lonely experience. It's hard to put into words experience of complex sounds. I remember reading Murakami's "South of the Border, West of the Sun" in which 2 main characters, a guy and a girl, would listen together to a recording of Beethoven's 6th symphony, which they eventually learned by heart. It was a physical vinyl record, so they even knew exactly the imperfections and noises on the record, and which noise comes when, which helped them orient within a piece, etc...

But to come to such deep knowledge of a single work and be able to coherently speak about it, they had to listen to the same piece over and over. And they did it together, in an intimate fashion, while talking about it, etc... so they were exactly on the same page.

But when you listen alone, and when you can pick among thousands of freely available works on YouTube, it seems hard to properly describe your experience, and even harder to find someone with whom you'll be on the same page regarding certain piece of music... (In sense "you know, after that noise, when the whole orchestra kicks in, this is amazing, you know, right")

But the ability to talk meaningfully about the piece requires not only "knowing it like the back of your hand", but also having much wider experience and exposure to multiple other works, so that you can make meaningful comparisons and critical remarks. And yes, you can get there, but I guess it takes a lot of time, and the journey is quite lonely.

What's your take on all this?

I hardly ever go to the theater since there's barely any baroque performances, but the other day I went with my family to watch Bizet's Carmen and holy shit, people just couldn't let the damn orchestra finish playing before enthusiastically clapping like maniacs. We get it, you love going to operas and you love showing everyone you know when each act ends, but please keep your fucking hands separated till the last note has faded.

I couldn't even enjoy the last five seconds because people would start clapping before the last note. It was crazy. I wish opera houses would enforce audience behavior because while I understand the passion, it's incredibly disruptive

I don't know if this is the best place to do this but I'm looking for a classical music piece, except I don't have its title, its composer, or even an extract. I have more details though. I found an extract of this piece on Instagram reels but I can't find the reel or the account that posted it.

I'm pretty sure it was a female composer and the piece was about angels. I thought the title was something with symphony and angel but searching it only gave me other pieces. I think it might have been an atonal piece and if not atonal something similar, quite experimental for its time. I'd say early 20th century but it might be mid 20th century as well or even late 19th century but most likely 20th century.

Angels were definitely mentionned but maybe not directly in the title, I remember comments talking about how the piece sounded the way "biblically accurate" angels would sound.

It intrigued me because it sounded really unique and there was this atmosphere of mysticism around it. I think it said the composer was a woman, making the piece even more pioneering, but I might remember that wrong. Can't remember how her name sounded, which nationality, but most likely european or from the US.

All of this is a bit vague so I don't have high hopes but I thought I'd try anyway. I obviously searched key words like female composer, atonal, angels, on google and youtube but none of the result were what I was looking for.

Of course it is best to hear it live, but for those of us who live in a cultural desert, what do you recommend? Classical sounds tinny out of my computer and radio reception is not good unless I am in my car. The Bose speakers in my car let me know what I am missing.

hello all, I have made an aleatoric generator, I tend to write a lot aleatoric and I always missed an actual tool that lets me create svg easily, I am not a fan of figma (similar software) I kept making different version of this tool to help me with notation, and I think it's a quite nice tool right now, I am not exactly the best at coding, but It work fine,

if you would like to use it https://pio008.github.io/aleatoric-vector-studio/
any feedback or help with the code it's welcome

I’ll start: Paganini is wildly overrated. He was a flashy virtuoso, but an amateur composer.

A few beers in, I'm listening to Holtz, the planets

Earlier I listened to 'Pictures at an exhibition' by Mussorgsky ... i had to learn about that at school

What should I listen to now?

I’m looking for a trance track from around 1999-2000. It used the melody of Grieg’s ‘Åses død (The Death of Åse)’, featured humming or Gregorian-style choir, and had a dark, almost occult atmosphere. I heard it on a commercial CD compilation around 2000. Does anyone recognize it?

I don't want to get into opinions about Hurwitz as a critic on recordings and stick to the topic at hand. This is one of the rare times I disagree with just about every word he says here. Some of it just next level denial.

Both original works and piano transcriptions from other composers.

Mozart is more catchy and more pleasant to listen to. Do you agree?

I am trying to broaden my knowledge on classical music and I would love to find some newer artists.

I’m not too picky, but I would love to listen to some of your top picks!

Subject says it all. Happy 4th of July to those who are celebrating!

You should listen to it.

Frank Martin (Swiss, 1890-1974, pronounced "Mar-TAN"). Deeply religious, moving from French late romantic to serialism. I was lucky to perform in it some years ago, and it makes me weep even now. I think "Le Mystère de la Nativité" is supposedly a greater piece but the only cd I can find so far is $60 (!)

So I listen to classical/academic music a lot, generally, but solo piano is my favourite subgenre, as I also play the instrument. I've long listened to and played a few of Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Wörter, and they're wonderful, generally quite accesible music. Today I wanted to check out his sonatas, and honestly I'm finding them quite mediocre.

Did he compose most of them early in his career? Why do they seem so behind and the melodies so much less inspired than in the LoW?