Getting into classical

Well, I have always been a huge fan of this genre of music, but only as a passing fancy. Like most other people, the only composers I know are the obvious greats, and the only songs I can remember by name are in the single digits. I am wanting to expand my tastes and general knowledge of this musical style, and would like some suggestions on what composers' music I should purchase, as I personally own no classical music on CD at all. I would like anyone on here to please suggest some names of composers to try out (Including the well-known ones, since I am still unfamiliar with particuler pieces by them), along with the best recorded versions of said compositions I can find. I like darker stuff as well, so if there are any obscure composers out there who may have stuff I like, list them as well.

I also am unaware of any modern day classical composers, so vasically what I am saying is: I am a mess, here. I love to listen to classical music, but I don't know any specifics or own any of it, so please help me, fellow proggers/classical fans!

Classical music like all other music isn't one genre. It starts in the Reinassance with many, many composers. My favorite of which is a guy named Josquin DePrez but the other really famous one (who I don't really like) is Palestrina. Now the vast majority of musicians including Jazz musicians and every pop musician's understanding of music theory doesn't even compare to these reinsannce guys who figured it out by themselves (Josquin may have been as advanced as a composer as Igor Stravinsky but he might just not have known what he was doing also). Next comes early Baroque. This is my least favorite time peroid (I like the Baroque just not early on) and this is Montverdi (bad opera composer but he was great for his time, but music got better over time), and Montverdi is by far the most famous composer of this time peroid and his most famous work is L'Orfeo. Next comes Middle and late Baroque and even if you don't think you've heard it YOU HAVE!

The two most famous composers (literally two of the most famous composers ever) are JS Bach and Handel. JS Bach has so many works it's really ridiculous (he's second or third most prolific composer ever next to Teleman who is by far the most prolific composer who ever lived). They are all great but generally considered his greatest works are his Fugues (they are incredible pieces of music and he could improvise them) and the most one is of course Tocatta and Fugue in D minor (you've heard this you really really have) and Little Fugue in G minor is my favorite (it's a truly great melody) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQSsw7EApCE . His Bradenburg Concertos are also very famous (not any one in specific rather the bunch captures a sound that we relate to the Baroque peroid) and his Mass's are some of the greatest choral music ever. And the greatest thing he contributed to music was the Well Tempered Clavier which was a specific way to tune insturments that we still use today. Handel's most famous work is an Oratorio (Opera with no production value and throughout history the only composer who was truly great at these was Handel) called The Messiah Chorus (It is just as famous if not more so than Beethoven's Fifth Symphony). His Water Music is also incredible famous which is technically a Horn Suite (he also wrote great fugues and the greatest Trumpet Concerto ever). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI (handel's Messiah) There are more great composers in this peroid than there are in every other one combined except for the tweinth century (because it is still not known who was great and who wasn't) so I could go on with the Baroque forever but I'm not going to (if you like this peroid Domenico Scarlatti and Teleman are worth checking out)

Next is the Classical. There are three names that stand well above the others. Haydn (I don't like him but he invented the forms of music they used so he's REALLY important and in all realistic terms the most influencial musician who ever lived) wrote over a hundred symphonies (ever time I state the number someone points out another to me so I'm not going to try) and 69 String Quartets (I probaly have the number wrong too but this is what a music teacher told me so I'm sticking to it). Mozart is basically the quintiesstial classical composer. He wrote 41 symphonies that he numbered and 30 or so others that he didn't . The 40th one is the best and most famous but they all have a consistent level of excellence no other musician truly achieved after him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC2ePGkmopg. His Piano Concertos are generally considered the best ever written (I'm a Rachmaninoff fan so I won't comment) and I like his 23rd especially (only because I saw a great vid with Leonard Berstein conducting). His Opera's are timeless and my favorite Operas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuKxL4LOqc (keep watching until she starts singing and you'll recognize it). He wrote ever form of music at the time so I could go forever but I'm just going to leave you with my favorite of his works his Requiem (no unlike the movie he did not write this on his deathbed but he was sick) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kV4qrrVdEg.

Beethoven is the other composer of the classical peroid (this is desputed cause he started Romantic music but he's generally clamped in this time peroid anyways). Beethoven began to go death when he was about 28 and he was a great musician before this but after is when he elevates himself to the generally considered great composer ever (I hate this term). His symphonies are second to none (2-9 are all masterpieces) and the most famous by far are the ninth and the fifth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhcR1ZS2hVo (the fifth and the most memerable opening ever) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-mp56aS2Y (ninth) but I love his seventh his sixth his eigth and his fourth basically all of them. His Piano Sonatas start as fairly dramatic pieces from the classical era but end with the greatest piano sonatas ever in my opinion. I can't find my favorite (his 31st) so I'll give you the most famous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk. His String Quartets are my favorite String Quartets along with another twenith century guy known as Shostakovich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l8UUUHUt0Y (they get more dramtic later on but this is the most famous). He had an opera, Fidelio, I love it most people don't. And that sums up Beethoven (he has countless other great pieces but like Mozart or Bach you could go on forever with his work). That sums up the classical also because there really are only three great composers and a bunch more mediocre ones.

The Romantic Era is overall my least favorite era. There are way more great composers than the Classical but all of their great work together wouldn't rival Beethoven or Mozart. I just name a few. This is the start of Russian classical music with a group named the five. The undisputed greatest amongst them is Modest Mussorgsky (one of my personal favorite composers) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE. Korsakov was also a great composer but the other three are now considered overrated (Balakriev is pretty good now) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y41DykcpgRg (Korsakov's most famous piece). Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the other Russian who is the most famous musician of the romantic era. He struggled with music much more than other composers (and his sexuality) but in return you got a great composer (he started the whole great ballet thing which will be greatly continued in the twenith century) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHYwVfN3wY4. He also had the Overture of 1812 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkS9THHjp38&feature=related. And various other works that are remembered.

In Western Europe you have Johannes Brahmns and sometimes known as Beethoven 2 (he's jokingly called this amogst classical teachers and such). He was very strict in his form and he didn't write a symphony for a long time so he ended up writing only 4. There are great and sometimes said to rival Beethoven's but this is rubbish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju7jb1rkyK0. He also wrote many other works but his symphonies are much widelier remembered. Mauler is another guy with symphonies (and he is a favorite of the non musician classical listener and I'm only saying this because I really really don't want to use Pseudo Intellectual). He wrote 10 (actually 9) and he started the curse of nine sypmhonies. A composer can only write nine sypmhonies before he dies (started with Beethoven) so he skipped 9 as a number but then died after his symphony entitled Mauler's Tenth. There are many many more musicians on Brahmns and Maulers level but they are pretty much the two most famous. Oh darn I'm forgetting one :P. Antoin Dvorak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlci-kCEaKE (you'll recognize this from Jaws yes John Williams steals everything. Schubert would've been the best composer of this ear (having a mind like mozart unfortunatly he was a fairly bad pianist and he wrote things he actually couldn't play on piano which a composer was NOT suppose to do). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdhRYMY6IEc He wrote songs quite a bit like rock songs but classical songs and that's his first published one (I think) oh and he couldn't play the piano section.

In the Opera world you have three huge names. Wagner (I like his music but i HATE him because he spurred a really horrible trend in music called nothing other Wagnerism) was the main inspiration for the Lord of the Rings. Alot of classically trained musicians love Wagner more than any other composer. Verdi wrote a bunch of famous operas which I like none of. And finally Pucchini who took Wagner and Verdi and combined them. I like him the most. Here's a section of La Boheme (the most played opera) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk5t-Qb63RE (I can't find my favorite scene so here's my second).

Next are the virtuosos. What Shredders did to guitar in the eighties these guys did to Piano (and Paganini to Violin). Chopin and Liszt are by far the two most famous. I'll just post a Chopin piece (funeral March)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5UrVdvk1Ao All guitarists Violinists and most musicians in generally have heard of Paganini and he wrote 24 great caprices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXKkDt7cjQY this is the hardest to play.

Finally we hit the twenith century. This is by far my most favorite time peroid. Starts with Claude Debussy (he wrote the most beautiful music ever and here's proof) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKPBtZ0Zzok. So many of his works are great that I could go on forever so I won't except one of his works Prelude to the Afternoon With a Faun was turned into a Ballet by the same name but better. Albaun Berg was another prominent composer who wrote an opera (and many other things) which is really the only moderately played opera of the twenith century. He imploys twelve tone (the worst trend music has ever taken peroid) so listen to it with an open mind I won't post it because you really need to listen to the whole thing to get it. Russians grew to the greatest musicians in the world with a couple composers The most famous and best twenith century composer is of course Stravinsky. His Rite of Spring Aaron Copeland (one of the greatest American composers) said is the Ninth Symphony of the twenith century. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjX3oAwv_Fs Stravinsky wrote many other great pieces and my favorite is his Symphony of the Psalms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGTyPJDd2OQ but he had three ballets which were all incredibly orginaly and a Violin Concerto that is awesome. Bartok was the second most famous composer of the twenith century (he was part of the to be soviet Empire but he was Hungarian not Russian and I only like very select works from Bartok http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHZt6ITdSto. He was the first ethnomusicologist also if you were curious where that came from (I didn't know what it was until I found out about him). The other two Russians are Prokofiev (Peter and the Wolf but) and Shostakovich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDCukzReks (Prokofiev's Ballet Romeo and Juliet). Shostakovich's most famous piece is Jazz Suite 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KMo3jr_x20 but his symphony's and String Quartets are truly great also. I'll end this with Revell's worst piece and only because his worst is his most famous (he publically apologized for this piece) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4J5j74VPw. There are many other great twenith century composers but that is part of the problem I could keep going so I'll stop here because this is more like an essay. I'm sorry I just like this kind of music alot and I seriously doubt anyone will read all of this.

This is a Harmonic arpeggios decending down the phyrigian mode in tectonic halfsteps and I get to say stuff like that because I have a BA in Music Theory - Micheal Angelo Batio

Exodizer wrote: