jmc's classics
I have seen some videos on YouTube of flashbombs of Bach's music. A flashbomb is when a group of performers in public start playing music of a piece of music. Check it out it is interesting!
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I have my cable TV with Charter or Spectrum as the like to be called. I am not crazy about Charter. There has been a Light Classic Channel. I now have a Roku for my cable TV. I have also found a Classical Masterpieces channel which has whole works. I recommend these two channels. They have standard favorites. but also more obscure composers and obscure works by known composers. I am always discovering new works. I have been listening to Vermont Public Radio which has a good classical selection and I am in St. Louisvpr.net
I heard on the news that the first LP is being released again. It was released on June 21 1948 an this is the 70th anniversary of the release. It was of of Mendelssohn's Violin concerto in E Mendelssohn wrote another one earlier in his career which is not as popular. It featured Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic and Nathan Millstein on the violin. It is being re-released in vinyl. It was on the Columbia label which is now Sony Classics.
Vinyl is making a comeback, Some people say the quality is better. I can't tell. Columbia records was originally connected with CBS Boradcasting. They are now two separate companies. There was a legend about the "Curse of the Ninth" Beethoven wrote 9 Symphonies plus an unfinished 10th and a Wellington Symphony. Schubert stopped at nine. His Eith is called "Unfinished" Bruckner wrote an unfinished Ninth Symphony. Mahler wrote nine completed symphonies and an incomplete 10th. Dvorak stopped at nine. His Ninth is his most famous. His Seventh and eight are also popular. His early ones are not as popular.
Mahler wrote several song cycles. His Second, Third, Fourth and Eigth symphonies all make use of choral and soloists. So does Beethoven's Ninth. His song cycle Das lied von der Erde is a symphony in all but name. He disguised is as a song cycle. It is a setting of Chinese poems set to music. Many recent composers such as Shostakovich have wrote more that 10 symphonies. Haydn and Mozart wrote many. Haydn stops at 102. Mozart wrote 41. His final symphony. #41 named Jupiter was one of the first symphonies that I remember as a child. Haydn was born in 1732 the same year as George Washoington the Father of our country. Haydn is considered to be the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet" he was instrumental in the development of both genres. Both Mozart and Haydn were friends.. Mozart and Beethoven were Hayden's students. I like Dvorak's seventh and eight Symphonies plus his String serenade which is my favorite Dvorak work. The Ninth is called "From the New World" He spent time in America in Iowa and used some American themes in it. there are similar melodies in this work to the Negro Spiritual "Goin Home" in the work. This song was not published until 1922, 18 years after Dvorak's death. He wrote it in 1892 in Spillville Iowa which had a large Czech community. There is also a Dvork museum there which I have yet to visit. American composer Alan Hovhannes(1911-2000) wrote around 60 symphonies. He was also conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He was born in Somerville MA (a surburb of Boston) to parents of Scottish and Armenian decent.It looks like the curse of the ninth is not vlid today. Handel (185-1758) is know mainly for his oratorio Messiah and the Halleluja Chorus. There are many other parts of that work that are just as great. For unto us a child is born, And he shall purify and The Glory of the Lord are some more excellent parts of this oratorio. Halleluja and For un to us a child is born are heard around Christmas. this was one of the first classical pieces that I remember. He also wrote the Royal Fireworks Music and the Water Music which are popular.
Handel was born the same year as J.S. Bach. He spent most of his career in England. He was employed by the Prince/ elector of Hanover (an ancestor of the current British Monarch) who would eventually become King George l id England. He studied in Italy and wrote Italian Operas which were in rage in England in the early 18th century. He wrote oratorios of which Messiah is one of them. an oratorio a piece of music for orchestra, chorus and soloists. They were popular in the Baroque era. One of his operas which is now popular is Acis and Galatea based on Greek Mythology. In the 18th and early centuries there was an revised interest in Classical Greek and Roman Culture. I have heard this piece recently. The chorus "Happy are we" seems funny! I have previously listed some funny classical pieces that are funny. Here is another one. I am not in to Greek and Roman Mythology. Many of the operas from that era are based on mythology. So are a lot of Wagner's operas which are based on German myths and legends. Check this piece out on YouTube. |
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