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Classical music pieces

Messianic Israelite

Active Member
Hi all. I've been trying to improve my palate of musical taste recently and have been trying to listen to more classical music. Are there any classical pieces that you could recommend I listen to? I tend not to really like Beethoven. Actually, I like listening to film music such as Hans Zimmer, and video games music too but the ones that sound professional, done by a proper orchestrate. Recently I've been listening to opera pieces such as Nisi Dominus - Cum Dederit de Antonio Vilvadi. Anything that I can listen to while studying the Bible, which means nothing that is irritating.

Any recommendations would be gladly appreciated. I'll check them out.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Although it may not be to your liking, it has been said that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is the greatest piece of Classical music ever written. It has also been said that if Beethoven had not written the Ninth Symphony then his Eight Symphony would have been the greatest; and if he had not written the Eight, then his Seventh...well, you get the picture. I tend to agree. However, Haydn, Verdi, Mahler, and Mendelssohn are good listens.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
The scope of classical music is very wide, i like most and when i lived in the UK had a season ticket to the Halle Orchestra.

How about classical with a modern slant Yo Yo Ma is really good in my opinion (just love cello)



Or more modern still, classical crossover


Or classical trance

 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Hi all. I've been trying to improve my palate of musical taste recently and have been trying to listen to more classical music. Are there any classical pieces that you could recommend I listen to? I tend not to really like Beethoven. Actually, I like listening to film music such as Hans Zimmer, and video games music too but the ones that sound professional, done by a proper orchestrate. Recently I've been listening to opera pieces such as Nisi Dominus - Cum Dederit de Antonio Vilvadi. Anything that I can listen to while studying the Bible, which means nothing that is irritating.

Any recommendations would be gladly appreciated. I'll check them out.
My advise is lowbrow....don't improve your taste...broaden what you find enjoyable
Check out movie music composers.
It's not only quite listenable, there's also the beauty of how it works with the movie.
Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Vertigo, Twisted Nerve, etc)
Danny Elfman (Darkman, Batman, Big Fish, etc)
Carter Burwell (Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Rob Roy, Barton Fink, etc)
James Horner (Aliens....the memorable one for me)
Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, etc, etc.)

Sure, they can be over the top....but sometimes we need that....& a theremin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnPJRJbVEIg
 
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exchemist

Veteran Member
Hi all. I've been trying to improve my palate of musical taste recently and have been trying to listen to more classical music. Are there any classical pieces that you could recommend I listen to? I tend not to really like Beethoven. Actually, I like listening to film music such as Hans Zimmer, and video games music too but the ones that sound professional, done by a proper orchestrate. Recently I've been listening to opera pieces such as Nisi Dominus - Cum Dederit de Antonio Vilvadi. Anything that I can listen to while studying the Bible, which means nothing that is irritating.

Any recommendations would be gladly appreciated. I'll check them out.
I can suggest quite a few choral things I have enjoyed singing.

To start with, at 1hr 14:17 on this recording of Bach's St John Passion, there is a fantastic syncopated fugue, my favourite piece in the whole work:
.

You can also see the fierce energy of Harnoncourt the conductor, as he motivates the choir to bring it to life.

Still with Bach, you could try this:
,

the Agnus Dei from the Mass in B Minor (an old Janet Baker/Klemperer recording).

This setting of Ave Maris Stella from Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers is also very beautiful, especially the majestic slow last verse, with full 8 part choral harmony, after the preceding verses for smaller groups. It starts at 1:01 on this Gardiner recording, which was actual made in St Mark's Venice, the church for which it was composed:

And the final doxology (Gloria Patri) is quite ethereally magical. It starts at 1:23:30. (I actually thought about having this played at my wife's funeral - she died not long after our choir sang the Vespers. Though in the end I went for some things from Bach's Magnificat which we had had sung at our wedding.)

On which subject, organ music is not everyone's thing but we had the fugue from this at our wedding:

The whole thing is good but the fugue starts at 10:09.
 
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Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Although it may not be to your liking, it has been said that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is the greatest piece of Classical music ever written. It has also been said that if Beethoven had not written the Ninth Symphony then his Eight Symphony would have been the greatest; and if he had not written the Eight, then his Seventh...well, you get the picture. I tend to agree. However, Haydn, Verdi, Mahler, and Mendelssohn are good listens.
It'll never be the same since the movie, A Clockwork Orange.
(Performed by Wendy Carlos.)
Nuthin better'n a bit'o Ludwig van, some Vellocette, & me droogs do'n a little of the old ultra-violence...
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
It'll never be the same since the movie, A Clockwork Orange.
(Performed by Wendy Carlos.)
Nuthin better'n a bit'o Ludwig van, some Vellocette, & me droogs do'n a little of the old ultra-violence...


Thank goodness we were exposed classical music through Bugs Bunny cartoons...

BTW, I had to watch that movie twice before I understood the plot and the dialogue. British movies (and most British TV shows) should come with subtitles.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Thank goodness we were exposed classical music through Bugs Bunny cartoons...

BTW, I had to watch that movie twice before I understood the plot and the dialogue. British movies (and most British TV shows) should come with subtitles.
It helped that I knew enuf basic Russian to catch the slang.
Although one was really obscure...."Velocette", their drug of choice.
Velocette is a British motorcycle, & its name comes from the Italian
word, veloce, which translates as "speed".
I only knew because I once owned & rode a Velocette....a rare bike.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Hi all. I've been trying to improve my palate of musical taste recently and have been trying to listen to more classical music. Are there any classical pieces that you could recommend I listen to? I tend not to really like Beethoven. Actually, I like listening to film music such as Hans Zimmer, and video games music too but the ones that sound professional, done by a proper orchestrate. Recently I've been listening to opera pieces such as Nisi Dominus - Cum Dederit de Antonio Vilvadi. Anything that I can listen to while studying the Bible, which means nothing that is irritating.

Any recommendations would be gladly appreciated. I'll check them out.
As you've already written off Beethoven (whose music I play daily on my piano), one of my top favourites, it's hard to know what to suggest.

But here's one, slightly odd...try the Penguin Café Orchestra, and in particular "Now Nothing" and "Numbers 1-4"
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
And for when you have been studying for too long and need just a little pick me up.

it starts out mellow enough, it reminds me of Vivaldi:

 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Here's a little something to cheer anyone up: the Hornpipe from Handel's Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 7:

Baroque music is never far from dance, but in this case it actually is one.
 
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