Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm being moved from the music library to reference. This is making me weep buckets, as it's far and away the best department. For my successor who is entirely ignorant of classical music (as I was before I started there a year ago) I've made this handy crib sheet. And here I post it for anyone who's really bored and wants something to read. Yes.

The Great Music Library Crib Sheet

By Peter ‘Pompous’ Evans




Tricksy Composer Names:

Bax
Beethoven - (pronounced Behthoven)
Dvorak - (pronounced Vorjak)
Liszt - (pronounced List)
Rachmaninoff
Rimsky Korsakov
Saint-Saëns - (pronounced Sain-san, fast)
Igor Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan Williams (comes under ‘W’)


Song Structure Definitions

‘Movement’ – think of this as a ‘track’, its self contained and can occur on its own, but more frequently forms a symphony, sonata or cantata.

Vocal:

Cantata

Basically an old form of choral song - usually contains more than one movement. It features instrumental accompaniment.

Motet

Like a cantata but more pretentious. Frequently without any easily discernable form, it’s an ‘anything goes’ medium. Basically it’s the prog-rock of choral music. Not used after the 18th century owing to it being largely insufferable.

Oratorio

Think of Opera, but remove the costumes, stage, plot and people talking to each other and then make it a lot shorter – and you have an oratorio. They’re nearly always feature sacred material making them good for church choirs and can they feature orchestra, instrumental and choirs or soloists.

Opera

Staggeringly long, awesomely produced and very loud. There’s a reason why Meatloaf and Queen and others like to call their works ‘Rock Operas’. Usually features mythological topics, or the spicier bits of the bible. In the last hundred years they’ve mainly revolved around political and world changing events or domestic social drama.


Non Vocal:

First, the basic building blocks:

Sonata

A cantata without voice basically, so basically an instrumental non-vocal song.

Allegro

Something fast and purely instrumental, it’s usually spry and dancey.

Adagio

A slow and stately track, a little sad usually. Ever heard that mournful bit of the Platoon soundtrack? That’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ by Barber. It’s the Morrissey of music.

Minuet

Something you’d dance to in a ball-room, usually. It’s frequently delicate, stately and formal.

Scherzo

Right, think of the ballroom dance, but think of it BIGGER. Think of a full rocking orchestra playing slightly drunk, trying to play in a light hearted, jokey way. Has a big sounds, lots of stuff thrown in.

Rondo

Basically this contains variations on a ‘big tune’ that has driven the piece. Anything you find recognisable and hummable is expanded and gloriously writ-large in this one.

Now the different mediums:

Chamber

Written for a small group performing within a space that can fit inside a palace chamber – hence ‘chamber music’. The term usually doesn’t include solo performances, and more frequently revolves around a duo or a quartet. It’s the most social form of music, and frequently plays to private audiences, dances and balls. The music is tailored to the occasion, and frequently the tastes of the patron.
Concerto

A composition usually in three parts (tracks) that features a solo instrument backed by orchestra. Sometimes though rarely there are multiple solos for different instruments – chamber music meets orchestral basically.

Instrumental

One man or woman with his her instrument plays anything they like, simple as that.

Orchestral

It’s basically any music that includes a lot of instrumentals. Orchestras have many variations in composition. Some go all-string with violins, cellos, harps and bass. Others favour horn and brass. Most have a healthy balance. In the music section, the Orchestral Section usually features CDs that have several different composers, but are performed by one famous conductor or orchestra – the focus being on the performers rather than the composer.

Symphony

This is the big daddy of classical music and arguably the greatest thing in music ever that isn’t Aqua’s underwater-save-the-world-cartoon-epic ‘Cartoon Heroes’. Symphonies almost always consist of four movements. How do you write one?

Simply follow this tried and tested formula:

1: An opening sonata or allegro
2: A slow movement, usually an adagio
3: A minuet or scherzo
4: An allegro, rondo or sonata

So, in normal speech, what does that mean?

1: Fast, general piece
2: Slow, slightly sad piece
3: Dance! Dance! Dance! Either stately or boppy
4: Either repeat number 1 or a bigger piece that includes all the catchy bits

Congratulations! You can now write a symphony!

Until movie soundtracks came along, symphonies were all the rage. Then composers began to fall back into smaller sonatas and odd movements. Many great classical composers, to derision at the time, went on to do top movie soundtracks. In the early 1940’s the great Vaughan Williams cocked a snook at mockery and penned music for Powell & Pressburger’s ‘49th Parallel’ and kick-started the trend.

Era’s of Music:

Medieval (500–1400)

For a long while it was Gregorian chanting, chanting and yet more chanting that ruled the roost here. Entirely sacred music, mostly by monks. Anything more complicated was seen as heresy! Not until the end did instruments start poking their head above the parapet with lutes and harps providing madrigals and motets (songs and dances, basically.)

Renaissance (1400–1600)

Hey, somebody’s invented the song! Gosh! And now we have instruments! Nearly always sacred again, but this time proper bigger choral works are invented, with different rules and exciting new ideas. Big names are William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, Palestrina and John Tavener. The Brits do surprising well here.

Baroque (1600–1760)

Everything is stately, formal, and usually on the lighter scale – very little bass. For the first time, instruments on their own without voices become popular. Chamber music crops up here, as does concerti. The big stars are George Handel, Vivaldi, the Bach family but mainly JS Bach and Henry Purcell. European Kings go mad sponsoring musicians. Handel’s ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’ marries pyrotechnics with music for the first time, something budding rock bands make note of.

Classical (1730–1820)

The Golden Age when the symphony gets invented – most of the composers regarded as absolute geniuses are from this time, such as Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and so on. This is where the rules are refined and everything’s tidied up. As it was an age of reason, so is the music. Rules are shared and then pushed. What’s more, music begins to move outside of the elite and is no longer dominated by the church. Opera begins to become very popular.

Romantic (1815–1910)

Not quite what you may think it means. Romance in this case is getting closer to nature rather than the science and theory and rule of classical. Music designed to really make you feel and bring you towards some sort of general spiritual awareness. Pastoral themes, nationalism both good and bad and human nature are the heavily mined subjects. Mahler, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Dvorak and Liszt are the heavy hitters. There’s an explosion in the number of composers here.

Impressionist (1890–1940)

Like the paintings, it doesn’t rely on story or statement, rather than the gentle nudging of emotions and feelings. It’s telling that it sort of combined with blues to form jazz. Debussy, Ravel and Delius were of the more delicate side. Vaughan Williams and Bax were heavier and more emotionally punchy. Stravinsky's unhinged work ‘Rite of Spring’ actually caused riots in Paris it was so different – defying all the rules previously thought sacred.

20th-century (1900–2000)

Anything goes here; though atonal (which means without a tune) seems to be quite big. Cage does shrieking scary things. John Adams writes an opera about Richard Nixon and has entire orchestras of violins play rippling eddies of sound. Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland prove that America can have great composers too. The main thrust though is in movie soundtracks, not to be sniffed at either. Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone, Nina Rota, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and Michael Horner all produce their own work of genius. Who will be remembered a hundred years hence? Only time, will tell. Etc.

And there you have it!

*flashes back to music theory exams*

*starts gently rocking, chewing knuckles*

Good work that man!

There must have been non-sacred music in the medieval period ( "profane music"? ), even if it was just Viking drinking shanties or something. Do we just not have any of it surviving, or does it not get recorded because it's all Viking drinking shanties and therefore scary and strange?

I am now picturing drunk Vikings being bossed about in cramped studio by a self important producer's PA. The vikings are rowdy but embarrassed when reprimanded and then shuffling their feet, looking at the floor and muttering about wanting more ale and having villages to pillage anyway.
Good work Pete, thanks for sharing.

Probably not recorded because everyone at the time took exception to the drinking songs being combined with knocking said audience on the head and stealing their daughters.

The profane poetry came along with Piers Plowman in recorded form I think. But there were lusty madrigals and the like before then, just not until the end. There certainly was in Roman Britain, but the bulk of medieval Europe was basically Footloose with John Lithgow.

Brilliant, Pete - thanks for that.

Long live King Pete! Lord of forum content!

So why the fuck are they moving you to another department?

BO

Shucks, thenks Davpaz.

Hmm, still incredibly quiet in this here children's dept, and there is literally nothing to do. I shall expand my guide with a "Pete Love's..." music list I think.

Grim, they move us to another department on principle every eight months or so. In theory so that we can be experienced in all departments. In practice, it annoys and results in everyone being confused as to what they're doing when asked enquiries by the public.

I don't know how I can cope without being in the position of being fiercely protective of music stock and promoting live bands to be honest.

Smashing summary young Mr Pete.

I fucking hate that, and Barber is a shit composer as well.

Anyone that says they like this deserves a one way trip to Cuba, to be hooded and forced to listen to it over and over again whilst they get shocked from a car battery and waterboarded. Concurrently.

cf. "Ride of the Valkyries"

Pete is that arsey boy in the library who Lisa Simpson has a crush on.

Have you ever said 'Pffff... that's young adult!' to anyone, Pete?

Langdon Olger.

Adagio for Strings is overused. I like it though

We never saw him, did we? This was an older boy, and we see him a bit later with one of Lisa's friends riding off together on his bicycle.

In any event, an excellent guide. I often have Classic FM on in the car to help sooth me through traffic jams.

This is great. I'm really into Bach, myself.

When I got my first grade 1 teaching observation I went to HMV in London and bought the complete works of Bach box set. It's a glorious thing.

Classical music generally doesn't have enough synthesisers or drum machines.

Not always though

Did that include the choral stuff?

I periodically try listening to classical music after hearing a bit on some film or something or other. This time I tried listening to Beethoven after hearing some and really liking it (Beethoven's 7th Symphony). The part I'd already heard was great and then the rest of it came on. It just sounded like the most twee, inane rubbish. Honestly I tried a few times and it did nothing for me. It was like listening to the full-length version of a favourite TV theme and immediately wishing you hadn't.

I'm not sure whether to conclude that classical music is simply beyond the grasp of my intellect or just that I've already heard a lot of the best bits on telly or in films.

The simple answer is not to listen Beethoven's 7th again.

There's nothing wrong in just listening to bits you like and skipping things you don't, which is why I think Classic FM is great as it gets people listening who otherwise wouldn't.

How about going to a popular classics concert and hear stuff live?

That's actually something I wouldn't mind doing.

Markg! I agree with Kern.

Hmm, well first I’d be forced to ask what you’ve been listening to classical music on. Although a fair bit of it has tunes that can withstand low bit-rates or bad stereos, a lot of it is in the detail. When I upgraded from my old computer speakers to new, better Active ones and more importantly got some high quality canalphones, I found a lot more layers.

And then you can have bad performances of great music, or unsuitable conducting. One of the surprising things I found is how different a conductor can make a piece of music, in timing and pace and emphasis. It really can change things. Sort of like the differences between Soft Cell and Marilyn Manson both covering the original Tainted Love.

As Seb Hunter said in his excellently amusing ‘Heavy Metal rocker attempting to get into classical music’ sort of book, the first thought to ditch is that you must like all classical music. You won’t. I still can’t stand Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – which everyone assures me is genius. Most Delius is just fay, twee noodlings to me as well. And I don’t think Mozart has quite as much punch for me as some of the ‘lesser greats’.

Beethoven clearly is a genius though, so you’re wrong there I’m afraid. His first couple of symphonies are good but not great, after that it’s just genius.

If you have money to spend or access (ah ha!) to a music library, I’d recommend checking out some of Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Dvorak. Their music is rich, flowing and evocative of landscapes and moods. There’s a direction, a surge to their works.

Gustav Holst – The Planets (natch)

Dvorak – Slavonic Dances or His fifth symphony (Hovis ad.)

Vaughan Williams – A Theme on Thomas Tallis’s Fantasia (most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard) or his London Symphony (listen carefully, it conjures from dawn to midnight in London, all the sounds are there, from street vendors to Chinatown to the chimes of Big Ben)

I've only been to a couple, but they've both been great. I should go to more.

If you'd like to find some near you, try this site. You just choose a town or city and it tells you what's playing nearby:

http://www.concert-diary.com

With regards to Beethoven, Gary Oldman in Leon has it right, The Big B man does great starts but then becomes boring very fast.

Access to live classical music seems to be much harder than it used to be, I remember as a kid being taken with the rest of the choir I sang in (I was a soloist as a child fact fans) to see the Liverpool Philamonic and Kenneth Baker run through some classics including the always great children's favourite 'Peter and the Wolf'. I also remember at Primary school being taken to a number of concerts where there would be selections from 'The Animals' or 'The Sorcerers Apprentice'. I didn't go to some very posh private school, it was just a small village primary school. The closest we get today is Bill Bailey's guide to the Orchestra (which is fantastic). There is nothing better than a live orchestra, no sound like it but it can be very expensive, I looked at going to some of the Proms concerts last year and they where something like 30 quid a ticket (having said that I've just looked at the Sheffield City Hall Classical Music schedule and tickets seem to be 15 quid across the board this year, the selection of concerts seems to be much more limited than last year however).

Someone mentioned Choral works previously, I've just got hold of a copy of Joby Talbot's (he previously of The Divine Comedy and League of Gentlemen) 'Path of Miracles' and it is brilliant, well worth seeking out if you like that kind of things. Agreed that Barber's Adagio is completely effed out from over use but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is brilliant. If you like mournful then you should definitely look out for Goreki's 3rd symphony, so beloved of ambient house types, it is haunting and moving.

You'll find that with a lot of music. Parts of the composition have been carefully picked to suit the mood of that particular moment in film, and don't necessarily translate to a good purely-musical listening in the slightest. Much the same as enjoying playing the music yourself, but not finding it interesting in the slightest to listen to a recording; or playing a track in Guitar Hero but hating that band.

I will never tire of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending.

I think I will, cheers.

Inspired by this thread, I was going to walk home listening to Beethoven's 3rd, which is his best symphony in my opinion. Anyway, whilst scrolling through iPod, I thought "Dammit, I'd rather listen to Guns n Roses". So I played Appetite for Destruction for the gillionth time.

Heavy Metal > Classical Music

99% of classical music is shite. Olden timey people only listened to it because they didn't know better.

See you in Manchester?

Better.

Er, 99% of classical?

Shut the fuck up. You knew what I meant. I hate trying to post on a bloody iPhone.

BUT IT FUCKING ISN'T.

Overused, yes,

Brilliant?

Not in a fucking country fucking mile. No, fucking, way, at all. It might make a "Best of..." album, maybe, but only one put together by some clueless shit.

Fucking hell.

You sir can stand in the corner of wrongness. Go on, STAND THERE. FACING THE WALL.

I think Malia was attacked by a recording of Adagio as a small child, thereby forming the horror that persists in to adulthood

Ooh! Ten minute training break.

Barber's adagio is very good, but lacks for any depth. It is overplayed however, you're totally correct. Barber's other stuff is better, he's pretty good at chamber music for instance. I do prefer his rival, Copland, however. His Lincoln Portrait (with the voice of Henry Fonda!) sends shivers up my spine.

People who don't acknowledge the awesome of classical are clods.

Tiësto helped Adagio for Strings along, IMO

I entered my favourite piece of classical music into the Beex Song Wars.
Here it is, by the London Phil:


It's got a sneaky note from the previous track at the beginning for the first few seconds.

(Bach)


yeah. I was actually suprised just how much vocal stuff he wrote. I certainly prefer the instrumental stuff, personally. One fav I found on it that I'd never heard before was a version of Brandenburg Concerto number 4 (the best one) but with harpsichord instead of violin.

I think at one point the great man was churning out an oratorio a week!

Went to see some overtures at St. David's Hall, first time I'd seen the Cardiff Philharmonic. Included Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Vaughan William's The Wasps, Bernstein's Candide and Gershwin's Girl Crazy, Rossini's Italian Girl in Algiers, Beethoven's Egmont and Tchaikovsky's 1812.

In a word, disappointing.

1812 was sort of flaccid and lacked drive. A lot of the pieces were competent but a little ho-hum with the only really transporting moments were Offenbach, some of The Wasps, a good big bandy swing Girl Crazy and some great wind section performances throughout. I'm almost worried about going to see what they do to my fave piece, Vaughan William's Theme of Fantasia in late March.

The main issue though, aside from a suspicion of Cardiff "Hey! How about we throw in the Doctor Who theme tune?!" Philharmonic, are the two fat fucking bovine girls sat a couple of seats behind me who noisily unwrapped each individual Cadbury's Chocolate Eclair in a loud rustly manner and fell into occasional whispering throughout the entire run.

SPECIAL HELL.

I was surprised at how many people bought sweets in. What, you can't go an hour and a half without stuffing your face full of something? Fucking Cardiffians. That'll teach me for buying a five pound seat. I'm now listening to Alisha's Attic to cheer myself up.

There is a splendid episode of Fear on Four where a music appreciation teacher miurders one of his students (played by the actress who plays Linda Snell Archers fans) as he has identified her as the person who coughs on his favourite recording.

That's what you must now do Pete, the BeeX demands it.

This thread will do, as I can't find a proms specific one.


Watched my second one today.

The disco one.

My first?

Well it's only my favourite piece of classical music ever. Holst! Planets!

I love the whole thing, but Mars and Jupiter, just bloody do it for me! Every single time!

Aside Maggie Aderin-Pocock has lost a tonne of weight.

I just had to stop what I was doing and listen to Jupiter. Just because of the previous post

And now I'm tearing up at the "I vow to thee my country" bit

And to chase away the stupid tears I had to listen to Mars.

Now I want to blow up the death star (John Williams is such a thief!)

And now I'm listening to the 1812 Overture, and contrary to MaliA it's very good. I love a good story told through music and this, Peter and the Wolf, and William Tell share my top 3 on that front.

YouTube has auto played Ravel's Balero!

Which is amazing as I was considering playing it as one of next choices

Speaking of Prokofiev, YouTube has just served up Dance of the Knights which gets a thumbs up from me

Motzart s The Marriage of Figaro is next, given I Issued to live 2 minutes away from his square (which is a triangle - https://maps.app.goo.gl/v8C5N9tko5zw5nMr8) it would be rude not to

Oh shit now I'm watching a John Williams concert