Korean Job Discussion Forums

SPINOZA · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Location: $eoul

What's your favorite Classical piece?

Mine: Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Beautiful yet utterly miserable - good stuff.

If you know loads about classical music, try to just state your all-time favorite if possible. I hate lists.

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6. Pablo Casals, not Yo-Yo Ma.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

The 7th is great. Beethoven wrote it to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. Too bad we never had a composer of his calibre to celebrate the defeat of Hitler. I just love the final movement of the 7th. Breath taking. Especially live.

Bach's Mass in B is amazing. Modern, Britten's War Requiem I'm partial too.

flotsam · Joined: 28 Mar 2006

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita #2 in D minor for Solo Violin

Don't know anything like it.

holeinthesky · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Location: Sadang.

Too difficult, couldnt choose between these two masterpieces.

-Beehtoven~ Violin Concerto in D. Op.61 (many people will probably recognise the second half of this piece which is often extracted as an excerpt)
-Johannes Brahms ~Ein Deutsches Requiem (especially segment II Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras, which means, "all flesh is as grass")

I personally get a lot more out of a piece if I have researched it and understand the context in which it was written, its allusions, metaphors, meaning, and the psychological/physical/spiritual state of the composer when the piece was written.

For example, Mozart wrote a Requiem (mourning/death composition) which many think is just as good, if not better than Brahm's.... Mozart was on his death bed while he wrote the Lacrimosa movement in his own Requiem.

In fact, that makes 3 pieces that I can not choose between!
I love drum and base, and strangely enough hiphop is my most listened to genre, but if I was stuck on a desert island I would take classical with me. A good composition, is just magic, the essence of musical passion...

cwemory · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Location: Gunpo, Korea

Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (BWV 1047) in F major
I'm still amazed at how an unvalved trumpet could handle the rapid passagework. A horn is now usually substituted for the trumpet.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

tomato · Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:57 am Post subject:

Spinoza, can you tolerate a list if I set up categories and try to choose one from each category?

most beautiful lyrical melody:
the theme from Swan Lake

In junior high school, they showed a movie of Swan Lake in music class.
I was glad the lights were out so no one could see me crying.

most stimulating contrapuntal composition:
Bach "Little" g minor fugue

best two-voice counterpoint:
Bach, two-part inventions
Bach, short pieces from Anna Magdalena's Notebook

favorite baroque chamber composition:
Vivaldi, concerto in b minor for 4 violins
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major
(Sorry, can't break the tie!)

cutest melody in a minor key:
the last movement of the Mozart c minor piano concerto

favorite symphony:
Mendelssohn, "Scottish" Symphony
Franck, Symphony in d minor
(Sorry, I can't break this tie, either.)

favorite opera:
Puccini, Turandot

favorite Renaissance composition:
Praetorius, Terpishore

favorite Chopin nocturne:
It's one that you haven't heard:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/pentatonika/noctcm1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/pentatonika/noctcm1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/pentatonika/noctcm1.jpg

When Chopin was on his deathbed, he told a publisher to gather up all his unpublished works and destroy them.
Then what did the publisher do? He gathered up all Chopin's works and published them!
And I'm glad he did.

favorite modern composition:
Janacek, Sinfonietta
Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
(Hard to decide between these two.)

favorite intermediate piano composition:
Clementi sonatinas
Burgmuller album
(Another close one.)

favorite beginner book for violin:
Wallingford Riegger, Begin With Pieces

flotsam · Joined: 28 Mar 2006

Well, I'm glad you did Tomato..will be checking all of the ones(most of them) I don't know out.

seoulunitarian · Joined: 06 Jul 2004

Definitely Chopin's Nocturne in C Minor.

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

Bach .... Baderine (is that right?)

and

Ravel ..... Bolero

boy do i love htat.

ticktock · Joined: 14 Apr 2005

Bach: Brandenburg concertos - personal favourite no.3 in G major

Massenet: Meditation religieuse

Stunning masterpieces and very soul stirring but frequently used in commercials in Korea which upsets me... Rolling Eyes

Some of the pieces metioned by the posters are really interesting and will definitely be listening to some of them!

Great post OP!

huck · Joined: 19 Jan 2003

I dunno nuthin' about yo' fancy classical stuff...

but if it counts, I've always loved Pachelbel's "Canon in D".

tiger fancini · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Location: Testicles for Eyes

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, best listened to with a horrendous hangover, played at maximum volume on this sound system....

tomato · Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:50 am Post subject:

Khyber, is this what you mean?

I played second violin in that piece.
When I play anything by Bach, I always think I have the melody.
Same way with Hindemith.

I did a report on Ravel's Bolero for Orchestration class.
I thought that that would be a good composition to study in Orchestration class because most of the variations vary nothing BUT the orchestration.

At the primiere, a woman stood up and shouted, "The man is a lunatic!"
Ravel smiles and nodded and said, "She understands the piece perfectly!"