The random comments on random music

[acroyear]

well, its not so random this time.  my playlist has been orchestral music all day (baroque, classical, romantic, impressionistic, 20th century neo-classical and neo-romantic, and film scores)

one can't really "randomize" classical music the way one can randomize a rock or 80s list and think of it as a decent (or crappy) DJ.

so instead, i'll spend a bit of space and waste a bit of time on 10 of my favorate orchestral pieces out of my collection...

1. Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
   
   Possibly the first definitive piece of 20th century music, by a composer who never wrote anything like it again.  You'll see that a lot with some of these composers, I think.  I'm not entirely sure whether or not the riot in Paris had anything to do with that. ;-)
   
   Like most of my generation, I discovered this through seeing Fantasia, and later finding out there was a lot more to the music (and in a different order) than just what the film used.  My mom, and most historical literature on music, would always describe it using the term "atonal", as if this was a bad thing or something.  I simply hear it as different.  But maybe that comes with hearing it so young, with such vivid imagery to go with it.
   
   When I was a senior in high school, I challenged myself with this piece.  I walked to the George Mason University Library, 2nd floor, pulled out the conductor's score and the LP, plopped it on with the headphones, and tested my ability to read music by following along.  I only got lost twice. :D
   
   I have 4 versions of this (Fantasia 1940, Fantasia 1984, Bernstein/NYPO 1973, and Bernstein/Israeli Philharmonic 1984).  I've long since stopped seeing dinosaurs in my head...
   
   
2. Shostakovitch: Symphony Number 9
   
   The great one that finally broke the Curse of the Ninth...(well, there were others).  There is appearantly a political history behind it (Shostakovitch often defied The Party, and more directly Stalin, during the war years), but Bernstein taught that you could look at it as a humorous attack of the "concept" of the ninth symphony having to be a "great" one.
   
   It totally dodges the trend of being choralistic and bombast and instead mocks the genre.  As the first movement progresses, the trombones are constantly trying to get a fanfare started, and never quite take the rest of the brass with them, thus the winds and later strings simply keep thier nice jaunty little march going, leaving the brass behind in the dust.
   
   The other movements also are the exact opposite of the "typical" (post-Beethovan) ninth, in being short, textured pieces, almost more akin to Haydn than to Beethovan.  No big coral number, no dramatic hymn of victory to celebrate the end of the War.  Just a nice little piece of music.
   
   The influences of politics can be as detrimental to the development of music as the over-influences of money, but occasionally Dimitri would dare to cut through the b.s. and produce works of astounding quality simply by defying all expectation.
   
   I have Bernstein and the NYPO doing this twice.  Once on CD, once on the Young Person's Concerts dvd.
   
   
3. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
   
   Never really heard this, except excerpts used in commercials and the like, until Fantasia 2000.  Its certainly the best segment of the sequel, dedicating itself to the music, the city of New York, and the Line of sheer artwork that is Al Hirshfeld.
   
   Its one of the few "classical" pieces I like that use the piano, but maybe that's because the piano is playing Jazz rather than "Chopin".  I'm not a huge fan of romantic-era piano styles.
   
   The piece itself is relatively simple, just variations on three themes, with piano solos as the links.
   
   I have Bernstein playing this with the NYPO (appearantly conducting while he plays), and the Fantasia 2000 version.  Gershwin himself never really "recorded" this in any high quality format that's worth listening to, but he DID record it in the sense of making player-piano rolls of this and other works, which you can get on CD.
   
   
4. Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)
   
   Considered by some to be the beginning of modern music.  I discovered Debussy through Bernstein's Young Persons Concerts, one specifically on Impressionism in music (though Debussy himself hated the term).  Looking for other things like La Mer, I gave a CD of other orchestral works a try and simply adored it.  The sound is very unusual in that sometimes it follows normal tonality rules and other times is purely impressionist in musical terms (impressionism in music refers to a particular scale - one of entirely whole notes, so it goes, say C, D, E, F#, G#, A#, C).  The rules still manage to fit other "standard" rules of harmony in that it makes parallel fifths almost impossible to do.  ;-)
   
   I have Bernstein, Charles Munch, and Stokowski performing this and other Debussy works.  Oddly enough, I still don't have a copy of his most famous work, Clair de lune, other than the "lost" version for the proposed next stage of Fantasia on the dvd.
   
   
5. Patrick Doyle: Upon the King, Henry V Soundtrack
   
   In the movie, its the background for the prayer of the King the night before Agincourt.  A repeating 4 note pattern english horn and a droning bassoon sets a pulse for the strings to dance around to produce a macabre bookend around a dark and sinister variation of the "Non Nobis" theme.  The reprise of the drone pattern builds to a frenzy as Henry embraces his humanity and his humility His King.
   
   And what have kings, that privates have not too,
   Save ceremony
   
   
6. Bach: A Musical Offering
   
   One in which my interest was driven by a book, specifically Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.  Hofstadter uses Bach's music and his compositional style as a demonstration of a formal system and how the rules by which he worked applied even when working on a theme that broke all the rules of tonality he knew.
   
   The King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, gave Bach a melody line to improvise by, a melody line containing significant chromatic intervals.  Bach improved successfully, on what may have been his first performance on the newly invented "Pianoforte", and two weeks later produced the score of the improv along with 12 other pieces on the same theme.  Its not known how it was received.
   
   History, of course, is fascinated by the work, though its harmonic style and melody line keep it from being played with most Bach works (like in a church, for example).  Its very much a piece in its own.  Aside from the darker moments of some Mozart operas, such harmonies wouldn't be tried again for 75 years.
   
   
7. Holst: The Planets: Neptune
   
   The final movement of his 1905 work that gave Holst rather instant celebrity, for which he would repay his new fans by never writing a work like it again.  Most citations of the work in modern times tend to use Mars, Venus, or Jupiter, but Neptune is the real hidden beauty.  A very etherial piece centered around strong vibratto in the strings, a unique use of multiple harps, some very dark low chords from the basses and low brass, and a faint and delicate chorus drone, around which the winds pass their melodic lines.
   
   Very much a "to sleep, perchance to dream..." work.
   
   I only have Bernstein's NYPO version of this, and its not considered the best, but naturally there's a lot of debate as to which is...
   
   
8. Howard Shore: Caras Galadhon from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Complete score)
   
   The original soundtrack release only included 4 minutes of this tremendous piece, an incredible example of how subtle one can infuse a strong melody into a work while still not drowning out the vocal performance that's the key to a film.  One key moment is during Galadriel's speech, where as it pans across the Fellowship's faces, the violins and upper winds hold the same note while the bassoons and lower strings change the key, toggling back and forth between grief and (survivor's) guilt.
   
   To my ears, this piece is a symphony's Adagio movement, a long one if you cross-cut it with the Gifts of Galadriel segment that comes later in the film, putting all of Lorien into a single piece.  One of these days, I might cut a version that way...
   
   
9. Ben Bartlett: Gentle Giant from Walking With [Prehistoric] Beasts
   
   From the BBC sequel to Walking with Dinosaurs.  This work accompanies the migration of a young Indricotherium, the largest land mammal ever.  The work is a fantastic exercise in variations on a theme, a theme that owes a little to a Bruckner symphony.  The theme instead of being the core melody, is a drone around which lots of playful augmentation until finally a full fanfare is unleashed.  Its not a very "happy" piece, but then it was a harsh world the creature lived in and Bartlett captures that pain beautifully.
   
   
10. Mahler: Symphony Number 7
    
    Popularly called "The Song of the Night" (though never by Mahler himself), this 5 movement symphony is a program music piece about a rough night's sleep.  Some call the finale a "let-down" compared with the pieces that lead up to it, but i think it is rather fine in its own right.  Its not quite in the same style as the others, but then again, its meant to represent the dawning of a new day.  When Mahler actually writes music that embodies hope in the future (as opposed to the depression and finality he pours into his 6th and 9th symphonies), accept it!
    
    The core French Horn melody of the second movement seems to have inspired James Horner's Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn theme.  The movement is inspired by Rembrandt's The Night Watch, which seems to be a very inspiration painting as it has also been the theme of works By Ayreon and King Crimson.
    
    I only have Bernstein's NYPO version of this, though he's recorded it two other times as well.