Well today is Jan 27th and as some music fans will recall this is a major date in the history of Classical Music. Back about 258 years ago ( in 1756 AD ) marked the birth of Mozart and things were never the same again.
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms ( & Mozart ? )
Sort:
Bach is the king!! For me music development died at the end of Baroque until the birth of Heavy Metal but that's just my own little opinion.
So the composer I want to share is an early Renaissance one - Guillaume Dufay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Dufay
He is my favourite composer of the early Renaissance. The musical style is an awesome blend of remnants of Medieval musical ideology and what would later become full blown Renaissance polyphony - definitely one of my favourite composers and one of the very few I think deserves the term "genius" - enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LDHb_O8hM
MENGKESHI wrote:
Bach is the king!! For me music development died at the end of Baroque until the birth of Heavy Metal but that's just my own little opinion.
You forgot the romantic era, as well as the microcosms :)
VULPES_VULPES wrote:
MENGKESHI wrote:
Bach is the king!! For me music development died at the end of Baroque until the birth of Heavy Metal but that's just my own little opinion.
You forgot the romantic era, as well as the microcosms :)
I'm afraid I didn't forget - I like some Romantic music but nothing from that era comes anywhere near the level Bach was at IMO!
EDIT: I should say Bach and some of his predecessors/contemporaries
MENGKESHI wrote:
VULPES_VULPES wrote:
MENGKESHI wrote:
Bach is the king!! For me music development died at the end of Baroque until the birth of Heavy Metal but that's just my own little opinion.
You forgot the romantic era, as well as the microcosms :)
I'm afraid I didn't forget - I like some Romantic music but nothing from that era comes anywhere near the level Bach was at IMO!
EDIT: I should say Bach and some of his predecessors/contemporaries
Okay, if that's your opinion. I like bits and pieces of all sorts of eras.
I think more than any of the greats, Bach changed something. I'm convinced the roots of rock and jazz lie with him.
If Toccata is not rock, then what is it?
Jan 28, 2014
0
#108
rooperi wrote:
I think more than any of the greats, Bach changed something. I'm convinced the roots of rock and jazz lie with him.
If Toccata is not rock, then what is it?
Yep, it's ba rock, an early predecessor of prog rock.
Lol, took me a second....
- Yes, just my opinion - I know that many people disagree!! :)
rooperi
-I agree! And the "Dorian" Toccata is even "heavier" than the more well-known one IMO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1RcCAviaIo
And if you can use spotify, this is another really "metal-in-spirit" organ piece.
Johann Sebastian Bach – Leipziger Choräle ("Achtzehn Choräle Von Verschiedener Art"): "Nun Komm, Der Heiden Heiland" In Organo Pleno BWV 661
The "tune" here is actually in the bass - the counterpoint is all written around it!! I'd love to see any Romantic-era musician manage that!! :P
Jan 29, 2014
0
#111
MENGKESHI wrote:
The "tune" here is actually in the bass - the counterpoint is all written around it!! I'd love to see any Romantic-era musician manage that!! :P
Did they even know what a counterpoint is? 
Sred wrote:
MENGKESHI wrote:
The "tune" here is actually in the bass - the counterpoint is all written around it!! I'd love to see any Romantic-era musician manage that!! :P
Did they even know what a counterpoint is?
Sorry for the late reply! If they didn't then things were even worse than I thought! hehe JK. Mendelssohn certainly knew - he was also a great fan of Bach and actually I once learned that we have him to thank for promoting Bach's work and making it popular enough for us to be able to enjoy today. Here is my favourite of his organ works and the most Baroque-influenced one that I've heard:
Felix Mendelssohn – Felix Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in c minor, Op.37, No.1
It's a great piece to be sure (especially considering that I guess not many people were writing this kind of music at the time so Mendelssohn must have done all of his own studying and analysis etc.), but Bach is still really untouchable when it comes to weaving great tapestries of tonal linear music IMO
Felix Mendelssohn – Felix Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in c minor, Op.37, No.1
It's a great piece to be sure (especially considering that I guess not many people were writing this kind of music at the time so Mendelssohn must have done all of his own studying and analysis etc.), but Bach is still really untouchable when it comes to weaving great tapestries of tonal linear music IMO
Jan 31, 2014
0
#113
Mendelssohn deserves to be praised for bringing J.S. back to public attention when he was almost forgotten.
I just read your post #103 - see my post #30 
Jan 31, 2014
0
#114
Mengkeshi, thanks for Dufay hint, I didn't know him yet. To me that's closing a gap between Renaissance and the gothic stuff a la Perotin.
Sred wrote:
Mendelssohn deserves to be praised for bringing J.S. back to public attention when he was almost forgotten.
I just read your post #103 - see my post #30
Haha excellent - I hadn't read that! It seems there are a few of us that feel the same way about it!
No worries about Dufay - he is one of my favourite musicians so a pleasure to share!
Feb 1, 2014
0
#116
MENGKESHI wrote:
Bach is the king!! For me music development died at the end of Baroque until the birth of Heavy Metal but that's just my own little opinion.
So the composer I want to share is an early Renaissance one - Guillaume Dufay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Dufay
He is my favourite composer of the early Renaissance. The musical style is an awesome blend of remnants of Medieval musical ideology and what would later become full blown Renaissance polyphony - definitely one of my favourite composers and one of the very few I think deserves the term "genius" - enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LDHb_O8hM
--- Thanks for the post and the info Mengkeshi. Respectfully I must disagree with your position tho. I mean I mentioned Mozart earlier and what about Beethoven ( not even his Ninth ? ). I'm also a fan of other types of music and I have a thread on the go for Early Rock as well ( hmm, that also gets me to thinking about Jazz plus the Blues, etc ).
cabadenwurt wrote:
--- Thanks for the post and the info Mengkeshi. Respectfully I must disagree with your position tho. I mean I mentioned Mozart earlier and what about Beethoven ( not even his Ninth ? ). I'm also a fan of other types of music and I have a thread on the go for Early Rock as well ( hmm, that also gets me to thinking about Jazz plus the Blues, etc ).
No worries cabadenwurt! You are not the only one! :)
Yes, I'm afraid I am afraid I am going to stick to my guns and say that both Mozart and Beethoven are not anywhere near the level of Bach IMO. I know that is sacrilege to some, and I am not saying this to be offensive about them (they are both better than me!) but to pretend that they had the same understanding of music as Bach is just not giving justice to Bach - so I have to be honest! I'll put it this way - I'm entirely confident that Bach had the technical skill to write anything that Mozart or Beethoven wrote but definitely not vice versa!
Post-Baroque music becomes more and more self-indulgent and less skillful the the longer time goes on in my opinion - the music starts to have less and less linear parts, this is hidden by the fact that they start using more instruments. So in a large symphonic orchestra playing a late-romantic piece etc. often there are no more than 4 actual parts of music (often not even well co-ordinated together!). But each part is played by tens of instruments so it sounds impressive. To me it's kind of like a chess player who slams his pieces down hard on the board - it may look impressive but it doesn't change the fact that his chess skills are lacking! On the other hand I once analysed the first Kyrie from Bach Mass in B Minor - if I remember correctly (don't flame me if I'm wrong - it was 10 years ago!) it had something like 13 linear parts going - not all sounding at the same time but still very independent and well-controlled!
That's why I really believe in the potential of metal - in terms of music theory it is still far behind what the Baroque guys were doing but it's on the right lines and is a genre in its infancy! I like the fact that it is a small group of musicians sometimes all playing linear parts (apart from the bass) . Also they write their own music - I can't believe people are still making careers from re-recording Beethoven's symphonies and other famous pieces for the 10,000th time! Also, in metal they've figured out what was cool and exciting in the Baroque - fast virtuoso string instruments, high male voice, certain chord progressions that actually work well and other musical tricks eg. hear the cycle of 5ths and tonic pedals, attempts at linear part writing etc in the following 2 tracks. It still has a long way to go in terms of theory and counterpoint but I think if metal is still here in 100-200 years, there is a chance that it may have developed enough to become one of the great genres along with Renaissance & Baroque! Just my 2p! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ0GpQQV1T8 (3:39 fast guitar cycle of 5ths)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5Ndkwkyv8 (opening theme tonic pedal / linear lead writing in bridge + chorus)
This guy is also a virtuoso guitarist who is famous for his neo(pseudo) Baroque stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUwxDsb424 (includes another cycle of 5ths and ends with secondary dominant chord progression)
EDIT: Sorry about the wall of text
Feb 5, 2014
0
#118
Thanks for the post.
I've been poor in the memory department again ( re Feb 3rd ).
Feb 5, 2014
0
#119
cabadenwurt wrote:
Thanks for the post.
I've been poor in the memory department again ( re Feb 3rd ).
--- Febuary 3rd, 1809 was the date of birth of Felix Mendelssohn. As mentioned here previously, Mendelsson revived interest in the music of Bach ( a terrific success all on it's own ).
No worries! This is something I feel very passionate about so I am always happy to bore everyone to death with long walls-of-text, thanks for putting up with it! 
Before I finish, "Albinoni's" Adagio is a case-in-point for comparison of the quality of styles - the story goes that the theme was Baroque (by Albinoni) but it was developed by a 20th Century guy - personally I feel the potential was lost but to be fair the guy who wrote most of it isn't regarded as one of the great 20th Century composers...
For balance, here's one of my favourite modern "classical" pieces of music - Ravel's Daphnis & Chloe - hard to deny that the orchestration is amazing:
Berliner Philharmoniker – Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé / Troisième partie - Lever du jour
EDIT: Happy Birthday Mendelssohn! A great achievement indeed! :)
Well, Schubert was a Bohemian artist wasn't he?
--- Thanks for the post, good point !
Yesterday was an important date for Classical Music with Beethoven being born on December 16th, 1770 ( another Composer who passed away somewhat young at age 56 ).