Classical music thread

[raphaël]

That's a thread i wanted to open since i started to roam around here. lol
I checked and saw some of you are into it. But I realized there's no real thread about it. So let's open one!
Hey, rap and metal have their own, now, why not classical?

Actually, it's not because as you know lots of anime use classical as OST. For instance, recently, I've been watching Mari-Mite which is constantly rythmed by chamber music.

Personnally my favorite styles would be russian and french music, from 1850 to 1950, basically. Like Stravinsky, Moussorgsky, Ravel ( my one and only ), Poulenc, then Bartok, Janacek, and lots of other. I've been playing the piano for quite a long time, so i'm into piano solo, like Chopin and Liszt as well.
That's why I also love Bach, Schubert ( except the lieder i found sort of boring), and of course Mozart ( his operas more than anything else again)

So what about you? Are you more symphony-fan, or chamber addict? Concertos freak, or sonatas otaku? Italian or German?

[Tancos]

Another piano player here, albeit one who was a late starter and is currently way out of practice. (Mostly I play hammered dulcimer and computer/sequencer these days) The largest part of my classical vinyl is nineteenth-century piano music -- Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, .... I also enjoy some early music and some twentieth-century composers, e.g., Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky, Janacek, Szymanowsky and others I'll remember after I post this.

[killmoms]

Beethoven and the later Romantics for me (especially Rachmaninoff).

[raphaël]

I see, 2 romantics...
Thanks for answering.

As for Beethoven, i think i prefer his violon sonatas.
Rachmaninov, let's see, his piano concertos are indeed a must-hear.

Tancos i'm glad we both like 20th century composers. Though i'm really not fond of Debussy who is way too "sassy" for me, compared to other french stuff...

Actually I'm right now listening to Janacek "Intimate letters" quatuor.


Back to what brings us here, I know a few popular manga based on classical music, and/or piano (like piano no mori, or nodame cantabile), but i'm not sure there's ever been any anime on that topic. Am I mistaken?
I mean I said you often hear some, but I don't think classical music has ever been the center of any anime so far.
Ballet has, a few times, though, but...

[Vexx]

You'll often hear classical "riffs" or any public domain music mixed into anime ... specific one that immediatly comes to mind is the ED for Tweeny Witches by Kotoko .... the extended version incorporates the Blue Danube into a bluezy rendition.

A lot of anime will piano (its cheap I guess) and you'll hear fragments snatched hither and yon from the classics. Rather like the old Looneytoons using classical music and bits of swing jazz.

I'm more of a "romantic" or "baroque" type I guess --- tougher for me to get into 20thC composers (though I like some of what Kronos Quartet did, for example ... I could get really perverse and include Spike Jones as a modern composer ).

I'm particularly fond of ethnic folk music and ancient music so my music collection looks pretty bizarre.

And no, I don't think I've seen any anime that actually revolved around the *making* or playing of classical music --- lots of 'art school' series, but not a 'music' school setting. hmmm, thats kind of odd since the japanese do expend a fair amount of energy on Western classical music.

[miaka]

Originally Posted by raphaël

I see, 2 romantics...

Back to what brings us here, I know a few popular manga based on classical music, and/or piano (like piano no mori, or nodame cantabile), but i'm not sure there's ever been any anime on that topic. Am I mistaken?
I mean I said you often hear some, but I don't think classical music has ever been the center of any anime so far.
Ballet has, a few times, though, but...

Yes there is... if your familiar with violinist of Hameln. Its character names are musical instrument and they play classical music like swan lake to fight a battle. Its not licensed so you can find it here.
Another anime that centered music is the piano. I am not so sure if it involves classical music since i haven't seen it but only heard it.

Lots of anime trying to revive classical music like in FMA there's chopin's music and currently blood+ Hagi's play OST are actually J.S. Bach's music

[raphaël]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I'm more of a "romantic" or "baroque" type I guess --- tougher for me to get into 20thC composers (though I like some of what Kronos Quartet did, for example ... I could get really perverse and include Spike Jones as a modern composer ).

I'm particularly fond of ethnic folk music and ancient music so my music collection looks pretty bizarre.

lmao. You're really going too far. ^^

I also love ethnic and ancient music ( Would you put Balinese"Gamelan" in that category, for instance? I'm so mad about it. I'd really like to get some good CD, i have one but it's a bit slow and "singy"...) a lot but i don't have any CDs.

I only heard Kronos Quartet in their participation on "Requiem for a Dream" OST. But I know they're touring quite a lot. I thought about seeing them in concert in Paris when they came, but tickets were sold out very quickly, and then, i realized i couldn't go that night anyway.


Thanks for the info, Miaka. I still think of "Hameln" as sort of a fantasy anime, though it's true classical music is omnipresent (at least in the first ep. i saw). And I checked on the reviews to that other series, and it looks like piano is just an "excuse" for a love story. lol
Thanks again anyway, that's the kind of post that justifies a thread, isn't it? ^^

[nanyahime]

Originally Posted by killmoms

Beethoven and the later Romantics for me (especially Rachmaninoff).

Rachmaninoff!!! I just got into him recently TvT. Glad someone mentioned him.

Hmmm... like many but favorite got to be Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. When I'm not in a nice mood those two HEAL me, haha. Also like Chopin and Debussy, especially when I'm writing papers as they're refreshing. Btw, anyone like Saint-Saens here?

[Theowne]

My favourite composer is Erik Satie just because the guy is a total nutcase and I love it. Sometimes I play his pieces and just pause to laugh at some of the instructions above the notes. Like in one piece you are instructed to play "in the morning, on an empty stomach". But then the weird thing is, after a while, some of it begins to make sense. Like one instruction is to "open your mind". Sounds funny at first, but when I'm playing it I can sort of see how it makes sense.....

Anyways, he's not an exceptional composer or anything, just a weird unconventional guy.

I also like Debussy, Chopin, Vaughn-Williams etc, the usual list along with the more traditional favourites. Holst & Beethoven are intriguing because they both had some level of influence from Indian mysticism (btw I like classical music from there as well). Not necessarily on their music, but just in general, and I find these kind of stories to be interesting.

Anyways....yeah, that's basically it. But I like contemporary orchestral stuff too (film scores) and the few orchestral anime scores. I don't like when people use the term "classical music" to refer to any symphonic music.

[shikatema]

I play the flute and in my opinion, if people always say "oh i love all music, except classical" then they really don't like all music at all. i mean, classical music STARTED music in the first place. without it there would BE no music. so anyone else saying that is a liar. And to love music is to appreciate all KINDS of music. it's not about how it sounds, it's how it moves, how it lives and how it thrives within us. that is what music is all about
MUSIC=LIFE

[wontaek]

Favorite composer: William Byrd

Currently member of Lafayette Chamber Singers ( Tenor ) : We sing those mean rhythmically and chromatically hard stuffs ( Hugo Wolf, Lauridsen, and Benjamin Britten are the ones people will more likely know about ) other choirs fear. WE also like to sing Rennaissance music ( especially those by Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Victoria, Palestrina, and Lassus ) as well.

Specialty: Choral music and any music more than 300 years old.

Recordings made: Several Gregorian Chant recordings with St. Joseph's College ( Rensselaer, Indiana ) Gregorian Institute

Musical Ambition: Become a choir director of a semi-professional choir.

[HelenHui]

Hmm. I don't listen to much classical, but I am a big fan of Yanni and HimeKame, both of whom specialize in new-age and easy instrumental listening.

[Mgz]

I like which ever tune that suits my taste and/or invoke my feelings. mostly film scores(such as "requiem of a dream") . I also like Bach, Bethoven and and Tchaikovsky

[Theowne]

So are there any Debussy fans here? Recently I'm going nuts over learning some of his more, uh, "poetic" pieces, like The first Arabesque, Claire de Lune, etc. nuts in that I keep trying to learn them all and can't restrain myself. They're not that hard but I'm distracting myself from the stuff I'm supposed to learning for my exam. >_>

[Papaya]

Originally Posted by Theowne

So are there any Debussy fans here? Recently I'm going nuts over learning some of his more, uh, "poetic" pieces, like The first Arabesque, Claire de Lune, etc. nuts in that I keep trying to learn them all and can't restrain myself. They're not that hard but I'm distracting myself from the stuff I'm supposed to learning for my exam. >_>

Clair De Lune is absolutely gorgeous. Played traditionally, it's very good. But it's also very open to interpretation. Your analogy of music to poetry is perfect for this piece.

I'm also in love with Franz Liszt. Liebestraum is...

wonderful.

[raphaël]

I sort of disliked Debussy, but lately I listened to his strings quartet. Let me tell you it's absolutely fabulous. It even influenced Ravel, who I literaly worship.

[wontaek]

One of my favorite chorale by Bach is the Komm, süsser Tod. Stokowski and Virgil Fox made nice arrangements of that chorale. This music was also used as opening music for SSI game Fantasy General.

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/K...astian_Bach%29

[H-man]

Ok, I don't know what kind of classical musik it is I like. But, you seemed good at this and I'm curious. Can you get ahold of Kajiura Yuki's music, listen to it and define what kind of classical music it is she has. Not all of her music follow the classical sound but a lot does. She's meda the OSTs for Mai HiME, Mai Otome, MADLAX, Noir etc.

[ujiuji]

Originally Posted by H-man

Ok, I don't know what kind of classical musik it is I like. But, you seemed good at this and I'm curious. Can you get ahold of Kajiura Yuki's music, listen to it and define what kind of classical music it is she has. Not all of her music follow the classical sound but a lot does. She's meda the OSTs for Mai HiME, Mai Otome, MADLAX, Noir etc.

Well I listened to one of my Noir OSTs today. I don't think she sounds like any particular style of classical music. At a stretch you could say some of the choral stuff sounds a little like Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and some of the accordian based stuff resembles Astor Piazzola's pieces with bandoneon. But to be honest, not really. I think she sounds like a good film music composer rather than a "classical style" one. Of course some twentieth / twenty first century "classical" composers have written music for films too so the distinction isn't rigid. I think I detected some flamenco & Middle Eastern influence in some of her pieces for Noir; probably reflects the globe-trotting nature of the plot. The use of the watch chimes always makes me think of the spagetti western "For a Few Dollars More" where watch chimes are also used significantly. Music there is by Ennio Morricone.

[raphaël]

Actually, I don't think there are different style of classical music. "classical" music just refers to 18th century. From Bach (back in the 17th century) to Mozart, who wasn't really "classical" in his time. Then music has been divided into periods. That's all.
Yet again, I may be wrong.

Then I completely agree with ujiuji about film music composers and the early 20th century.