I Love Classical Music, but..

Florence Price (1887-1953)

[quote]Price was something of a musical prodigy – she gave her first performance when she was only 4 years old, and wrote her first composition when she was 11. She was a well-respected teacher, and was appointed head of music at Clark Atlanta University. Amongst her many achievements, Price had her 'Symphony in E minor' performed by the Chicago Symphony in 1933, which made her the first African-American woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra.

R1 Do you personally have a favorite piece by hers? Explain why

It is classical music!

Why don’t you expand to jazz? A good primer is “What Is This Thing Called Jazz?” by Eric Porter.

R3 R4 funny, but I am being serious.

My exposure to Florence Price was through a local chamber music group, where I first heard her works. I loved what I heard, so I followed up with listening to some pieces on Spotify. I can't point to a specific piece that is the best representation of her work.

I thought she was especially interesting because she was a black woman, and a composer in the early 50s. I thought that made her extraordinary and worth listening to.

I've also listened to all the standard composers and pieces, I doubted, when I read OP, that she would be mentioned.

R6 Thank you! I have listened to a few of her works, but I can't remember which. One I know I did not like. I will relisten.

I did attend a debate on whether she was actually as talented as people are now claiming or if she is just being remembered because she is a black woman. It was very interesting and both sides made excellent points. It was very civil and very informative.

The conclusion was it was up to the listener, in the way some people prefer Bruckner over Mahler.

I also want to listen to more of Xian Xinghai, who was Chinese composer.

The great composer Scott Joplin has pieces deemed 'classical' by many. His Opera, Treemonisha gets revived every so often. My Favorite is 'Solace- A Mexican serenade'. It is in my burial instructions to play at my memorial service. Please to enjoy this version from Perlman/Previn

R9 Thank you!

Grieg, Sibelius, and when I want to get into a flow state, the oddly hypnotic and lyrical Alan Hovhaness.

I have been listening/watching The Yellow River Cantata by Xian Xinghai.

So beautiful and sad. It was Chairman Mao's favorite piece of music.

Rameau. Lully. Cavalli. Monteverdi.

I like the Phuck You Symphony

R2 - My favorite piece by Florence Price: her piano sonata that won the Wanamaker Prize in the 1920s.

Here it is performed by Althea Waites who obtained a copy of the manuscript from the Library of Congress (it had never been published) and gave us its first recording. Thanks to Ms. Waites, G. Schirmer published it about 20 years ago.

Try listening to some of Samuel Barber’s great music. Nashville, Summer 1915 is a masterpiece. Other pieces include his Essays for orchestra, Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, and his String Quartet (of course).

Poulenc, especially his piano and ballet music.

I love Shostakovich symphonies 7 and 5. 7 is by far the most melodic and romantic IMO of his works. Prokofiev piano concertos are decent. No 3 is very melodic.

If you like Mahler, you’ll probably like Richard Strauss’s tone poems (the smaller ones like Till Eulinspeigel or Don Juan or Death & Transfiguration, then the bigger ones like Also Sprach Zarathustra or Alpine Symphony), and also his first two operas and his Four Last Songs. His music is slightly more daring than Mahler, but those works still have definable climaxes, and glorious tonal resolutions vs most later 20th century music (even most Shost or Prok). Strauss operas after Elektra tend to meander with the drama, but some people like them.

I’m surprised you aren’t yet into Ravel if you like other turn of the century music like Mahler or Rachmaninov. There are some popular collections of his solo piano works and his G maj piano concerto. It’s jazzy, but generally tonal and the second movement is super well-known and kinda standardly romantic.

As a general recommendation, if you like piano music, the solo piano music of Rach and even Chopin & Liszt is all pretty nice and interesting. Rach Etudes Tableux are wonderful. Finally, early Scriabin might be up your alley as well. His first 4 piano sonatas are very tonal and dreamy. His later music gets a bit crazy, but let me know if you want a list of his early hits. Scriabin might be my favorite piano composer of all time.

Also, if you’re into opera, I hope you’ve delved into Puccini’s hits, who made some of the same romantic, loud, world-ending type of music that Mahler, Strauss and Rach made around the same time. If you like to conduct to yourself like I do, they’re all quite a workout lol.

Anything by Hildegard von Bingen

Since we're entering October, how about some LIGETI to scare any would-be trick-or-treaters off your lawn?

Glad you’re listening to Mendelssohn! Here is a crowd-pleaser for you. Interestingly enough, Felix Mendelssohn wrote his best music as a teenager.

Schubert is AMAZING! Everything he composed is pure gold. Let’s start with LITERALLY his greatest:

I played this piece about 25 years ago. A rather odd piece by Ned Rorem. It includes a jazz combo.

I think of these pieces like this, as palate cleansers. After playing a few of these, you’re ready to go back to the master composers and make you thankful for their great talent.

[quote]I also listen to contemporary music like Nat King Cole, Edith Piaf, Doris Day, and Paul Robeson.

Do you think it's 1952?

con·tem·po·rar·y

/kənˈtempəˌrerē/

adjective

belonging to or occurring in the present.

Pardon my grammatical error at R23. I edited and apparently forgot to proofread.

I'm not the OP, but they are relatively contemporary when. you are speaking of 18th and 19th century artists. I knew what he or she meant.

R26 I didn't say I didn't know what he or she meant. Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker would also be relatively contemporary, according to what you're saying, but no one would call them contemporary artists.

They are contemporary. Contemporary Music is considered 1945 to present.

r16, I like Barber's "Summer Music" as well.

R29 - YES! Can’t believe I forgot to mention Summer Music. It’s up there among his best.

I listen to classical shit when I need to relax and destress after a grueling day at the office or when my family and boyfriend bitch at me for too long.

I listen to classical music while driving home from work in LA traffic. It's quite soothing actually. I only wish classical music pieces didn't have such inaccessible titles.

Here's a recommendation:

Howard Hanson's Symphony #6.

I saw a performance of it about 15 years ago and loved it.

It has a dynamite final movement.

You’ve got to mix up the classical radio stations you listen to for a bigger variety of music: I like Radio Swiss Classic, Venice Classic Radio Bartok Radio from Hungary, Accent 4 from France

I hate that kind of shit

OP, please take time to listen to these gems!!

One fascinating composer is Nikolai Kapustin, who grew up in the Soviet era in Russia, trained classically in that system and then played in a jazz orchestra in Moscow. He writes out music (mostly for solo piano) that sounds like jazz on steroids, but is not improvised.

I’m a Stravinsky guy myself and even get away with playing some of it at the jukebox at a popular gay bar around the corner.