Classic F.M

[Odds]

Composed by Allegri in 1638 especially for the Vatican, where he was a singer in the Sistene Chapel. It was only sung during Passiontide and the music scores were carefully locked away so no-one else could use it. It was regarded as so special that the Pope ordered that only 3 copies ever left the Vatican: one for the Padre Martini, one for the King of Portugal and one for Holy Roman Emperor.

Thankfully, Classic FM is one of the many places you can hear this glorious music anytime you like...

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

I do like choral works, but maybe only one piece at a time.
And I'm always fascinated by the ability of vocalists to hit the right note.
I appreciate it's like playing an instrument, or riding a bike, it's muscle memory. But to be able to train your vocal chords, the shape of your throat, mouth, etc, or their ability to be trained, is amazing.

 

[Odds]

I said earlier in the thread i'm not big on Choral works but some, like the Miserere, have an indefinable quality that makes you listen, despite not really understanding the depth of the music, and feel it resonate...i think the polyphony may have something to do with it. A similar quality in literature has a way of directing consciousness within and without simultaneously, like a stereo switching between speakers. In the Kalavala, for instance, two speakers are used in the old Finnish tradition of storytelling, where one starts the sentence and the other continues, which may sound confusing but has the effect of resonating a deeper truth within the story told. Siberian throat singers are the best example i can think of that combine the two artforms.

 

[Odds]

One of the all-time great movie soundtracks by Basil Poledouris. The opening title still makes the hair at the back of my neck stand up...

..."let me tell you of the days of high adventure."

The full version still has an epic quality from the early days of Hollywood when men were men, buckles were swashed and women screamed way too much.

 

[Brigadier]

The full version still has an epic quality from the early days of Hollywood when men were men, buckles were swashed and women screamed way too much.

If you think that is a phenomenon of days past, you clearly have not experienced the "joys" of a "bottomless Prosecco afternoon"

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

I love the sound of drumming groups. It's as much about the anticipation of what's to come next as it is the excitement of what's just happened.
Unlike choral music I could sit and listen to drumming groups all day.
The difference the timpani make to any orchestral sound is enormous.
Here's just one example of a drumming group. There's loads about.

The military style groups usually provide a stunning visual display as well as the musical performance.

 

[Odds]

The Taiko drummers of Sado Island, Japan, take some beating...

When their honourable ancestors sounded the drum for war, nobody could ignore the call.

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

The Taiko drummers of Sado Island, Japan, take some beating...

I see what you did there.

And stop it, I have things to do. If you post examples of such music I'm bound to sit and watch/listen.

 

[Odds]

I see what you did there.

And stop it, I have things to do. If you post examples of such music I'm bound to sit and watch/listen.

I know, right. I'm fighting the urge to watch Conan the Barbarian again. Made do with the soundtrack, but i can still match the tune to the scene.

 

[Mrs Ten Names]

I know, right. I'm fighting the urge to watch Conan the Barbarian again. Made do with the soundtrack, but i can still match the tune to the scene.

I must be a barbarian. It's not my kind of film at all.

 

[Odds]

In Autumn, the composer uses a complex, dual ritornello form with the thematic material shared by the soloist. In addition, there are some "surround sound" effects to imitate the sound of the hunters, as short themes are rapidly exchanged across the sound stage. To show the interplay of the soloist and the ripieno, Other innovative compositional elements include moving the rhapsodic adagio for solo violin into the first movement, then providing a second adagio for harpsichord as the middle movement with muted strings. A pianissimo ending concludes the rollicking third movement.

Carla Moore plays an 18th century violin by Johann Georg Thir, Vienna, Austria, 1754, one of only a few violins in the world to have remained completely in its original, unaltered form. In the 19th and 20th centuries, almost all baroque violins were modernized which dramatically changes the sound: this is the original sound.

 

[JonathanM]

In Autumn, the composer uses a complex, dual ritornello form with the thematic material shared by the soloist.

I've never been a fan of The Four Seasons.

There's only one tiny snatch that I really love. The half a minute or so of Winter starting at the 30 second point.

 

[JonathanM]

How do you follow up the innovative classic of the Fifth symphony?
With the Sixth. Obviously.

I heard someone on the Proms once say that even though they are so utterly different, they are actually closely related. They were written at the same time and debuted at the same concert. The argument made was that they use a lot of the same devices, but in the Fifth the music is condensed, dark and fiery, whereas in the much longer Sixth symphony the music is optimistic, expansive and languid; reflecting two sides of Beethoven's character. I have never thought this myself, but it's an interesting take.

 

[Odds]

Beethoven began the Fifth, then started the Sixth a year later; completing both in 1808, so i imagine he was in a similar frame of mind after the turmoil he went through at the turn of the century, revealed in the Heiligenstadt Testament written to his brothers Carl and Johann at Heiligenstadt in 1802. Although he never actually showed it to anyone, it could be said that the 5th symphony expresses the dark time he went through and the 6th became his acceptance through an enduring love of nature. Both sides of his temperament being the dichotomy of the ultimate Romantic.