Urizen said:
Bach- Toccata
Mozart - The magic flute
Pachelbel (spelling?) - Canon,
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Schubert - German dance
OK. I don't mean to sound like a dick, but it looks like someone has a "Best Of Classical Music" type of CD, and thinks this is really the best that the genre has to offer. Not that the pieces above are bad, but they're overplayed. It's as if someone asked you to name the best Iron Maiden song, and you answered "Run To The Hills". Sure it's good, but very few who really know Maiden would call it the best.
So allow me to deconstruct that list...
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"Bach- Tocatta"
A tocatta was a common type of composition in Bach's time. That would be like a modern band calling their song "Love Song".
Oh shit. Tesla did exactly that. Erm, alright ... that would be like a modern band calling their song "Pop Song".
Dammit. REM did exactly that. Anyway, you get the idea. Read
this to learn more about tocattas.
Bach wrote several tocattas (at least 7 that I know of). The piece you're talking about is almost certainly "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor", the most famous of the tocattas attributed to Bach. I say 'attributed' because I've read research by scholars which strongly indicates that this tocatta may not have been written by Bach. The publisher may have simply attributed it to Bach to make sure that the sheet music sold well. However, the piece does have many Bach-like moments, and the evidence is ultimately inconclusive. It's a good piece, whoever wrote it.
But if you want some better Bach, seek out the Goldberg Variations - a theme with 30 variations in which Bach displayed his entire bag of tricks.
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"Mozart - The magic flute"
It's a German opera, so let's use the German name: Die Zauberflöte. I agree it's Mozart's best opera, but you didn't really mean to recommend an entire opera, did you? I bet you're thinking of the most famous aria, sung by the Queen of the Night: "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen". The aria soars to some truly amazing high notes, culminating in a melody which prefigures the opening lick from Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine".
Oh all right ... I doubt Slash was influenced by Mozart when he wrote that lick. And they are actually closer to being inversions of each other. But when you've been listening to music for a long time, with classically trained ears like mine, inversions do sound similar.
I'd also recommend Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusic". The first movement is another one of those overplayed, really famous bits ... but after that comes three more movements which aren't nearly as famous, and are brilliant. The last in particular is noteworthy for a musical joke that should make you laugh out loud. When's the last time an instrumental piece did that? OK then, the last time that
wasn't Dream Theater?
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"Pachelbel (spelling?) - Canon,"
You got the spelling right. I'm impressed; most people don't. I even have trouble with it sometimes. And remember, I'm Mr. DICKtionary, so that's saying something.
Not a bad piece, but it's more famous than Jesus. Everyone has heard it. You can't avoid it. If you really want to hear it again, find a more entertaining version than the original. Like
this one, which everyone and their grandmother has seen, right? It's only one of the most-played videos in the history of YouTube, after all. Or find a copy of the Blues Traveler song "Hook", which uses the same chord progression and adds some biting satire about the music industry.
Speaking of which, I dare anyone to try and sing along with the third verse of "Hook". Those are some
fast lyrics. As a singer, I trip over my tongue every time my band plays that song.
Back to my denigration of recommending the Canon in D. If you want music from the Baroque period, try Vivaldi's "Four Seasons". You'll probably recognize the famous first movement, but give the whole thing a listen. It's quite good. If you're looking for heaviness, try the sixth movement.
I wish I could come up with a more obscure recommendation, but I'm really not a fan of Baroque music. I'm a classical guy. By that I mean the period from 1750 to 1825, which followed the Baroque period. The giants of that period were Haydn, Mozart and my favorite: Beethoven. Speaking of which...
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"Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata"
This is the one which makes me sure that these recommendations came from a cheap best-of-classical CD. Anyone who knows Beethoven knows there are dozens of better pieces. If you gotta listen to the Moonlight, forget the famous first movement. Skip straight to the third movement, which is some of Beethoven's heaviest piano work.
Many of Beethoven's more famous piano sonatas have nicknames. Beethoven himself only approved two of those: the Pathetique and the Hammerklavier. Check both of those out, plus the Appassionata, the Waldstein and the Tempest.
Fine. Stop whining. I'll give you more than nicknames. Aside from the nicknames, Ludwig's piano sonatas are referred to by one of two numbers. They are numbered from 1 to 32 in the order they were published. They also have Opus numbers, which indicate where they fit in the larger Beethoven publishing chronology.
Pathetique: Sonata #8, Opus 13
Tempest: Sonata #17, Opus 31 part 2
Waldstein: Sonata #21, Opus 53
Appasionata: Sonata#23, Opus 57
Hammerklavier: Sonata #29, Opus 106
Of course, we're still in the area of the famous stuff. Being a Beethoven expert, I'd be remiss if I didn't point you toward some more obscure jewels among the piano sonatas. #18 (Opus 31 part 3) is nicknamed "The Hunt" and is quite good. But my favorite is #31, Opus 110 (no nickname). That one is truly sublime.
The piano sonatas are the best place to start with Beethoven. The man himself was a piano virtuoso, and his early sonatas (like the Pathetique) are believed to be based on his own improvisations. When he was in his 20s, he was probably the best piano player on the planet. Throughout his career, he used the piano as the means for improving his compositional skill. Improvements in his artistry showed up in his piano music before any other genre.
However, we all know he's most famous for his 9 symphonies. Get all 9, they're worth it. But if you want the best first, here's the order from best to worst in my opinion: 3 9 5 7 6 4 1 8 2.
Then try some of his string quartets. The later ones are the best -
here's a list of them. But be warned - you've never heard music like this before. These quartets require that you open your mind to appreciate them; they will not come to you. They are not at all "commercially accessible". But if you relax, you may be enlightened. There's no other way to describe their effect. They are, in fact, the only pieces of music which human language does not have the power to describe.
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"Schubert - German dance"
Schubert wrote literally dozens of pieces which he called German dances. I suspect your cheap best-of-classical CD has the one which Stanley Kubrick used in the movie "Barry Lyndon". Forget that. Get yourself a copy of Schubert's song
Der Erlkönig. That song always sends chills down my spine. And it's definitely heavy. That doesn't mean it's loud and bombastic. It starts quietly but powerful and menacing, then builds. A good comparison (in terms of musical mood, not subject matter) would be to Maiden's "The Longest Day". The start of that song isn't loud, but it's definitely heavy.
Aside from that, I find Schubert overrated. Find some Stravinsky or Tchaikovsky or Wagner instead. And don't forget "Transfigured Night" by Schoenberg. I think the original German title of that one is "Verklarte Nacht", but I'm getting tired enough now that I'm not gonna bother looking it up to confirm my memory and get the umlauts in the right place. Hopefully you Germans can figure it out. Remember, I'm American - we'll be polite to the rest of you when it's not too much trouble, but we really don't care about you in the long run, unless you have oil, in which case we'll start a war to get it regardless of the consequences, even if such a war is the dumbest military mistake since Pickett's Charge. Back to Schoenberg now. Get that "Transfigured Night" but ignore the rest of his stuff. After he wrote that, he lost his mind and the rest of his music is incomprehensible crap. Unless you're one of those black metal fans, since I also consider black metal to be incomprehensible crap. But at least it's crap with heavy guitars, so it's still better than Schoenberg.
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A final note, mainly for Urizen, whose choices I have criticized. Dude, I honestly don't mean to insult you with this post. I'm just sayin' that your recommendations seem to suggest a superficial knowledge of classical music. That's not bad - everyone has to start somewhere. Keep digging deeper into it. You'll find plenty of gems that aren't painfully overplayed.
. However, a lot of people (including myself) say that my music taste is far too limited (since even with metal, I'm fairly selective). So, in an effort to broaden my musical taste, I have decided to expand into classical. This might seem like an odd choice for a purist metalhead, but if you think about it, the two aren't really so far apart. Classical music is something which I do not dislike (like commercial pop, for example, which I despise), and I think that it could very well appeal to me if I started to properly listen to it.
I'll give some of those a try, thanks for the help all of you.
