Unsung Composers

Just curious about the members' other musical preferences (if any).   Do you have a specific type of music you listen to if it isn't "classical"?   

Believe it or not, I tend to listen to more Rock/Metal (more of the "progressive" vein I guess). 

I can't stand any pop music dating from after about 1920, but I quite like the old Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs. In my opinion, the 19th Century was the Golden Age for all types of music in the western world.
   

At the risk of embarrasing myself:
I never did, even as a kid, like so-called pop music. Never bought it, never listened to it. But, I have a real liking for music of the 1920's. Those were great tunes with great, literate lyrics. Less interest in the 30's and none in the 40's or later. Also the great tunes from the "Gay 90's" on to WW I. I have a well-worn book of sheet music from that era that I regularly play out of. As a sometimes playing for pay musician, I'm often having to play the so-called "standards". Needless to say, the vast majority of them were written from 1900 to 1950. The formulated, unoriginal, dull music written these days is unworthy. So I listen to a lot of noisy, scratchy transfers of the old heavy 78s. Fortunately, there's a large supply.

When driving long distances, sometimes classical is just too intense, and then another love get inserted into the cd player: band music, marches especially. Fillmore, King, Sousa -- great stuff!

I intensely loathe rock. It upsets me. It's just so ugly, loud, and I think boring. In the US, several car makers (Chevy, Ford) use that awful racket as background music in TV adverstising. For me, it's a real turn off, and when I needed a new pickup, I got a Toyota. We just had some local Fourth of July celebrations -- with rock bands. No rock band can ever produce the good feelings of a good concert band. But in America, the masses no longer have any musical taste left, and I am for sure in a distinct minority.

I really like the Frank Sinatra of the 1950s - such a magnificent voice, such great arrangements (often by Nelson Riddle) and such great interpretations of the songs chosen. Marvellous. Otherwise, I like pop singers who truly sing - but I can't be bothered to buy their albums because I always have so many classical items on my wants list!

Any kind of jazz, but particularly be-bop and cool, fusion rock from the '70's (Yes, ELP, Genesis) and just about any kind of music that preserves the spirit of Liszt, if not the letter.

I forgot to mention that I do enjoy listening to an old fashioned jazz band although jazz is not really my favorite form of chamber music. I don't care very much for big band jazz. At the age of around 12, I came across symphonies etc. by Haydn, Mozart and Mendelssohn on the wireless as we used to call it and lost any interest I might have had in the pop music of the day as exemplified by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc. etc. In fact I became a teenage rebel!

 
Eclectic, but with a pattern.

Solo guitar of all sorts, but especially acoustic "fingerstyle" guitar (Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, that sort of thing)
Classical jazz and fusion ensembles (Oregon, Pentangle, Weather Report, Passport, Caldera, Airto, etc)
Hot club and some big band, especially with great singers (Django, Joe Pass, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington)
Folk rock and delta-style blues (Cooder to Clapton, Dixon to Johnson, Hooker to Hiatt)
Brazilian guitar music (Gismonti, Assad brothers) and tango (Piazzolla)

In other words, if it features acoustic guitar or classical jazz/fusion, I like it.

And of course, the music I grew up with and loved (I'm still just a hippie at heart) -- Beatles to Bromberg, Pink Floyd to Hendrix, Cream to CSNY, Who to Zucchero.

With a special place for the singer-songwriter -- Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Loreena McKinnett, Secret Garden, etc.

I listen to classical about 75% of the time these days. But I still enjoy pulling out records from my "other" collection when feeling nostalgic, or after a night of wining and dining. I also tend to play LPs more than CDs. I like the sound better and the "ritual" still has an appeal to me. I like to actually sit down and listen to music every night.

My brother and I had a rare opportunity to visit not too long ago, and we decided (after a few beers) that we really *needed* to listen to every record by Ry Cooder that I own (which is pretty much all of them).

I don't have much interest in the current music scene, but I've kinda gotten into Dead Can Dance. Kinda "Loreena McKinnett from the dark side" stuff.

Uh, hate to say it, but I really dislike songs from the 20s. I don't own even one recording of that sort of music. Ditto country and bluegrass. I also have little tolerance for yodeling. No yodeling permitted in my house. Ever!

Not to answer my own thread, but I thought I'd explain my route to music...

I've probably liked most music with the exception of "Country," yet I probably have always had an affinity towards hard rock.  My brother started playing the guitar from the rock perspective, but when he went to college he started taking a classical guitar class.  I think this got him started on classical and as his brother, I naturally followed suit.

By the time I went to college (no, I wasn't in a guitar class) I joined Columbia House's classical section and quickly built up my collection.  It got hard to keep up with the mailings at the time so I stopped and only purchased albums periodically for the next several years.

Fast forward to 2008 when a friend introduced me to Dream Theater (a band that came into their own as I exited the rock/album purchase phase).  I loved it and went crazy buying similar progressive rock/metal artists.  I joined Emusic and after a while I realized what a bargain the classical music was (this has changed...different topic for a different day).  I started to renew my interest in classical...eventually joining this forum!

I continue to keep an interest in both of my favorite genres.  In fact, at work, I might go from a classical piece to a rock piece, etc etc.   (Today--  I started with Britten's "Peter Grimes"...then went to Dream Theater's "Falling Into Infinity"...followed by Peter Vasks (SP?) Symphony No. 3....etc. etc.)

Quote from: Amphissa on Wednesday 08 July 2009, 00:09


I also have little tolerance for yodeling. No yodeling permitted in my house. Ever!

You'd better have some to fight off invaders from Mars! ;)

I'm glad that Tim Burton finally found a use for Slim Whitman! ;D

I love show sound track albums for long car journeys: all the Lloyd Webber and Schönberg/Boublil stuff. Also some pop from 60s, 70s and 80s: Abba, ELO - that sort of thing. The key component, of course, is melody. If there's a good melody then I'll love it.

I sing in a choir with a very eclectic range of repertoire; a recent concert followed Aquarius from "Hair" with Bruckner's Locus Iste and we're currently learning songs by Purcell, Oscar Peterson and Leonard Cohen together with the usual John Rutter. That's really broadened my singing tastes, too. It's interesting that I can enjoy singing music which I wouldn't necessarily listen to!

I'm afraid that I loathe most variants of jazz with a passion - it seems such a self indulgent form of music.

 
So, Mark, do you do YouTube? Are there any choral videos on YouTube that you would like to recommend?

Have you heard this? It has been a huge hit on YouTube. The opening is really quite creative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw&fmt=18 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw&fmt=18)

Personally, I rather prefer the less regimented vocal ensemble pieces, like this one from a group of college kids that I think is rather fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9hjYLkTMg&fmt=18 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9hjYLkTMg&fmt=18)

No Amphissa, the Stuart Singers (http://www.stuartsingers.com) don't do YouTube! we certainly aren't up to the standard of the group in the first clip - what a great opening to the number. You can hear us attempting a little piece of Raff, here (http://www.raff.org/support/audio/op198_01.m3u), if you're really brave. It was the most difficult thing we've ever tried...

Quote from: Mark Thomas on Thursday 09 July 2009, 07:46
I'm afraid that I loathe most variants of jazz with a passion - it seems such a self indulgent form of music.

Mark - I must not comprehend or understand your use of self-indulgent. If the common use is used as meaning as "one too ready to satisfy their own desires" than almost every classical composer falls into that category and every other artist for that matter. In some ways jazz can be a higher expression than classical. The impromptu nature of the genre tests the abilities of even the most skilled players. Many people can play notes written on paper but few are gifted to transcend those notes to take you to greater heights. I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of jazz. I personally think much of it is brilliant, but I also confess some of it is rubbish (kind of like classical music).

Kevin

Not only that, Mark, but without jazz, we wouldn't have scat singing.  And without scat singing, would My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth by P.D.Q. Bach be nearly as funny as it is?

I described much jazz as a self-indulgent art form because it always comes across to me as music making which is inward-looking, aimed primarily at satisfying the performers, rather than their listeners. I have been to so many mixed-style concerts (jazz, country, popular, folk, classical etc.) over the years where the jazz performers have stood out in their self-absorption and lack of connection with their audience. I'm not saying, of course, that many jazz players aren't brilliant, or that jazz is unpopular, merely that it does nothing for me and that one of the reasons is what comes across to me as the smug air of self-satisfaction at their own cleverness radiated by some jazz performers.

But it's only my opinion.

PDQ Bach is, on the other hand, a true unsung!

Did I mention Steely Dan?  Becker and Fagen forever!  (Or at least until all my dime dancin' is through...)

 
Well, Mark, maybe you've been listening to the wrong jazz musicians, or maybe we just have completely different perspectives on music. I listen primarily to classical music these days, have associated with orchestras and classical musicians in large cities as well as smaller regional orchestras, been involved in recruiting conductors and attended countless concerts (as have you).

I am also a former musician myself (in an earlier life). And my experience has been much different from yours.

For one thing, my opinion is that jazz musicians (not new age pop dudes, but real jazz musicians) have a far better command of their instrument and a far deeper understanding of music than most classical musicians. But I've never noticed them being disconnected from their audience. In fact, I would say that, in my experience, it is just the other way around. It is, more often than not, the classical musicians who are smug, distant and lacking in connection to their audience. They play lots of notes that were written down by somebody else, they are unable to invest much in the way of personal self into the playing, usually show no emotion and rarely even move in their chairs. And when soloists do invest much personality into their performances, they are criticized for it.

From my experience, classical musicians are often arrogant and condescending toward audiences -- they especially condemn audiences as ignorant for loving Rachmaninoff and disliking modern music. On the other hand, jazz musicians often talk with the audience, they listen to the music their companions are playing, they dig into it and enjoy playing.

After seeing your note, I thought immediately of George Gershwin and Wynton Marsalis and Edgar Meyer and Count Basie and Duke Ellington's band, as well as many contemporary jazz musicians that I've had the pleasure to meet. To the person, every jazz musician I've ever talked to thrives on the audience energy. (And by the way, I'd put the Duke's brass up against any classical orchestra brass section in the world.)

All that said, I don't really listen to the new age stuff and so-called "smooth jazz." If that is what you were referring to as jazz, I can sure agree with you on that.

It's been a while since I've been to the (hopefully only temporarily defunct) Jazz Bakery, but I'm in total agreement with you, Dave, although I must say that the classical musicians I've seen recently are much more personable and "audience friendly" than they were in the past.  The jazz musicians were much chattier and communicated directly with their audience during their sets.

I listen to a lot of soundtrack material.  Within the genre I especially enjoy composers such as Rozsa, Korngold, RVW, and Previn who were involved with film and classical.
Thomas