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About my interests in music and composition
I have a MIDI program, to use as an aid in composing music. I've been improvising music for many years, and would like to use the MIDI system as a way to transform the improvising into sheet music.
My favorite composers are Bach and Beethoven. Other favorite composers include Palestrina, Wm. Byrd, Purcell, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schonberg, Copland, Gorecki.
These are some of my favorite pieces:
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Bach - The Art of Fugue [concerning
the Art of Fugue] Bach - Mass in B minor Bach - St. Anne Prelude and Fugue Bach - Cantatas # 4 & 80 Bach - Motet: Lobet den Herren alle Heiden Bach - Musical Offering [concerning the Musical Offering] Beethoven - Quartets: #14 op.131 (in C# m), #15 op.132 (in A m) Beethoven - Grosse Fuge op.133 [concerning the Grosse Fuge] Beethoven - Missa Solemnis, op. 123 Beethoven - Symphonies # 7 & 9 Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli (everything by him is uniformly excellent) |
Some other outstanding pieces that I recommend:
| Schutz, Heinrich - Sacred Cantata "O Herr, hilf" (on Masterpieces of
Music Before 1750; Haydn Society 9039) Gesualdo - Madrigal "Gia Piansi nel Dolore" Byrd, William - Motet "Attollite portas" Byrd, William - The Bells (especially the version for recorder consort) Purcell, Henry - Fantasias for Viols Corelli, Arcangelo - Concerto Grossi Op. 6 Vivaldi - Gloria Handel - Messiah Bach - St. Matthew Passion |
Mozart - Adagio and Fugue, KV 546 Mozart - Prelude to The Magic Flute Mozart - Symphonies # 40 & 41 Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Op. 109 and 110 Chopin - Fantasie Impromptu Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Gruenberg - Violin Concerto (played by Heifetz) Orff - Carmina Burana Shostakovich - 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 Gorecki - Symphony # 3 Part, Arvo - De Profundis |
Recent Discoveries
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Baroque and Renaissance music from Latin America For example: "New World Symphonies" performed by Ex Cathedra, dir. Jeffrey Skidmore. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008OP2L/qid=1152427483/104-9369000-7887102 The composers in this genre include: Juan de Padilla, Domenico Zipoli, Juan de Araujo. Songs by Gautier de Coincy (1177 - 1236) Particularly the recording: "Songs of Angels" by the New London Consort. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000069B6A/002-4782251-4514414 Janine Jansen's performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op.45, especially the version by Fritz Lehmann and the Berlin Philharmonic. Steven Reich - "Eight Lines", and "Proverb" Sigur Ros - (in the "post rock" genre) Many of their pieces have the qualities of classical music. http://www.amazon.com/Takk-Sigur-Ros/dp/B000AJJNPY/ |
NEW ~ Popular Music page: POPULAR MUSIC (rock, folk, jazz, world, etc.)
The Art of Fugue
The premier piece of the set is the final (unfinished) fugue. I place this as the crown of all western music. Three parts of the fugue, out of a theorized four, were completed - but he didn't live to finish it. Some feel that he let it end there on purpose, for some reason. Just before he died, instead of finishing the final fugue, he composed a chorale. If the final fugue represents a journey into the after-life, then this chorale could be thought of as music from the other side, and as the only piece worthy of being played after the final fugue. That chorale is sometimes called "Vor Deinen Thron Tret Ich Hiermit", and is also known as "Wenn wir in Hochsten Noten Sein".
The Art of Fugue was written without scoring - no particular instruments were assigned - so one can find recordings done on the piano (Charles Rosen), harpsichord (Gustav Leonhardt - on vinyl only, I think), chamber orchestra, string orchestra, brass ensemble, organ, etc. My favorite recording of the final fugue is by Arthur Winograd (MGM) on vinyl, but that recording is very scarce.
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Recordings on CD that I can recommend:
Karl Munchinger and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester; Decca 289-467-267-2. My all-around favorite. http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Art-Fugue-Musical-Offering/dp/B000050GK0/ The Emerson String Quartet; Deutsche Grammophon B0000908-02 The Canadian Brass; Sony Essential Classics SBK 89731. The Keller Quartet (ECM 1652) - some parts work well, others not as well. Neville Marriner (Phillips 442-556-2) - a bit bland at times, but good. Lukas Foss and the Sheffield Ensemble - quite lively, but very unusual in its orchestration, and in its freedom with the notes on certain tracks. Charles Rosen, piano; Sony ASIN: B0000029YM http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000029YM/103-5880444-0667019 |
One day, quite a while ago, I was walking through the quad of a university and heard one of the fugues being played inside a classroom. I looked in through the window and saw a room full of accordians playing it! True story!!
The Musical Offering
The Decca set also contains Munchinger's version of the Musical Offering, another great work from Bach's last years. Not as high, spiritually, but just as well done - perhaps more intriguing, to some ears, with its chromatic theme. It starts with a 3-part fugue, continues with a series of canons, and ends with an astounding 6-part fugue. (There is also a trio sonata performed with it.)
Munchinger does perhaps the best version I've ever heard of the beginning 3-part fugue, known as "Ricercar a 3". His version of the "Ricercar a 6" at the end is also excellent.
I like Markevich's (Angel) recording of the Canons and the final 6-part fugue even better, but that recording isn't available on CD as far as I know.
The Grosse Fuge
This is the most intense, earth-shattering, music I have ever heard. Cathartic. Apocalyptic.
It is one of a handfull of musical works that does not have a natural ending, in essence, the composer has to force it to end (as in this piece) or else simply doesn't finish it (as in Bach's final fugue).
The old vinyl recording by Klemperer has been re-issued on CD:
http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Mozart-Kleine-Nachtmusik-Concerto/dp/B000J3OHIE/
..... more later.....
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