# What's Your Taste in Music, Michael?



## michael walsh (Sep 6, 2009)

As purists all know the term 'classical' relates to a particular period; dates on a calendar, which though wonderful exclude most of what I would describe as 'good music'. 

I feel no need to categorise myself other than in whimsical thought. I do sometimes ponder though, as I might a difficult crossword, how I might describe in a sentence my taste in music? The term 'good' falls short. 

From Vivaldi to Hans Zimmer; Andre Rieu, Edith Piaf, Amalia Rodriguez; Russian folk ... some but not all of Wagner, John Field to Morricone; salon ... the zither; I love it all. It would be far less encyclopaediac if I were to simply say what I detest; rap, garage, karaoke, head-banging discordant assaults on the senses, etc.

It still leaves me with the problem of finding a suitable answer: 'What's your tastes in music, Michael?'


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## Mirror Image (Apr 20, 2009)

Composers:

Ravel
Debussy
Vaughan Williams
Bartok
Bruckner
Mahler
Brahms
Berlioz
Stravinsky
Delius
Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Barber
Langgaard
Mendelssohn
Poulenc
Saint-Saens
Copland
Dvorak
Smetana
Suk
Bax
Finzi
Sibelius
Rimsky-Korsakov
Scriabin
Nielsen
Beethoven
Strauss, R.
Liszt
Rachmaninov
Holst
Gershwin
McKay, George Frederick
Hindemith
Elgar
Tchaikovsky
Balakirev
De Falla
Britten
Grieg
Stanford
Walton
Glazunov
Roussel
Janacek
Howells
Parry
Rubbra
Diamond
Novak
Still, William Grant
Zemlinsky
Bantock
Alwyn
Myaskovsky
Korngold
Arnold
Ireland, John
Hovhaness
Schonberg (pre 12-tone)

Jazz:

Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Bill Frisell, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Clark, Sonny Rollins, Fred Hirsch, Eliane Elias, Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Benny Golson, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Dave Brubeck, Terje Rypdal, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce, Johnny Griffin, Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson, Curtis Fuller, John Abercrombie, Marc Johnson, Paul Motian, Tomasz Stanko, Woody Shaw, Horace Silver, Blue Mitchell, Elmo Hope, Hampton Hawes, Renee Rosnes, Art Taylor, Joe Locke, Geoffrey Keezer, Brad Mehldau, etc.

I think this pretty much sums up my tastes.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

michael walsh said:


> From Vivaldi to Hans Zimmer; Andre Rieu, Edith Piaf, Amalia Rodriguez; Russian folk ... some but not all of Wagner, John Field to Morricone; salon ... the zither; I love it all. It would be far less encyclopaediac if I were to simply say what I detest; rap, garage, karaoke, head-banging discordant assaults on the senses, etc.
> 
> It still leaves me with the problem of finding a suitable answer: 'What's your tastes in music, Michael?'


"Serious" is a good word, but that leaves out Mozart's _A Musical Joke_, doesn't it?

I've always hated the term "art music" because it implies that other forms of music are not art. Perhaps the term "academic" might best be suited for what we call classical or good -- but then what of Charles Ives? You can't win.

Eclectic/esoteric? Maybe that would work. E/E music then.

By the way, I find it it amusing I do like some of the genre's on your list of don't likes. I enjoy a good headbanging and I feel certain Beethoven was the first headbanger. I'm also certain there is a lot of classical music with discordant assaults on the senses. Actually much of metal music is modal, not discordant. But granted a lot of the newer garbage IS discordant. I'd bet I like a lot of your etc. category too. For me, country and the more mundane forms of pop would be in my don't likes. Also reggae tends to drive me nuts. Rap is not so bad until the illiterate moron starts blabbing over the music.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I'm mainly into classical (especially C20th) & jazz. I'm also interested in folk music, though I haven't collected a great deal of it. I also like some other styles like Edith Piaf who was mentioned above & Barbara (Monique Serf). As far as the lighter or easy listening classical goes, I'm not a fan of Andre Rieu but I can stomach Mantovani, especially since his orchestrators were excellent. I like some Australian rock bands, but haven't listened to any of them in depth, but I can't really stand the types of music other people have mentioned, like rap, metal, house, etc. Techno & reggae are ok, but they do get repetitive after a while.


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## michael walsh (Sep 6, 2009)

Beethoven the first headbanger (Or Haydn (The Surprise Symphony?). An amusing thought. Perhaps we all have our moments of whimsey. My cunning plan ... please don't tell anyone: I am going to hire a hall and advertise a musical event that'll blow the wax out of your ear 'oles. You like heavy metal? You're sure going to like this.

The hall will be packed with hairy peeps quite ratcheted up with fevered expectancy. The curtains will rise and there, in all its glory, one of the great orchestras of our world. 

Lock the doors, the hairy hordes are not going to escape this one. 'Right lads! (raise the baton): The fourth movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Let it rip. Now that, my friends, is head-banging music at its very best


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## purple99 (Apr 8, 2008)

'High art' isn't a bad expression. You can make clear there's nothing wrong with 'low art' if you want. Some of my best wives have been low artists. Complexity's another pointer. Pop music - very, very good pop music - often consists of three chords, simple lyrics, a couple of guitars, and a drum kit. Kids do it in their dad's garage, to his deep displeasure. Songs last a few minutes. Classical music is nearly always more complex. Longer, harmonically a thousand times richer, huge orchestral forces, embedded in a culture of aesthetics and politics going back to the Greeks. That's different from kids in the garage.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Simple lyrics? This is not always an indicator. I will grant that some composers like John Dowland created richly complex lyrics - but so did Bob Dylan. Try reading Handel's librettos or Beethoven's version of Ode to Joy. They just repeat phrases over and over - The Hallelujia chorus being a prime example.

Also complexity is not always an indicator as there are many less popular (not surprisingly) pop groups that use counterpoint, developement, and a wide array of unusual instruments. However I agree this is not the norm. Most pop music these days seems to be really created by producers in the studio or on a laptop.


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## purple99 (Apr 8, 2008)

Weston said:


> Simple lyrics? This is not always an indicator. I will grant that some composers like John Dowland created richly complex lyrics - but so did Bob Dylan. Try reading Handel's librettos or Beethoven's version of Ode to Joy. They just repeat phrases over and over - The Hallelujia chorus being a prime example.
> 
> Also complexity is not always an indicator as there are many less popular (not surprisingly) pop groups that use counterpoint, developement, and a wide array of unusual instruments. However I agree this is not the norm. Most pop music these days seems to be really created by producers in the studio or on a laptop.


You're right, there are exceptions. I was thinking of the average ipod on the average London bus. The classical music ipod will tend to contain music:


of greater harmonic complexity 
employing larger forces, i.e. more instruments and voices
with more substantial or 'poetic' lyrics 
self-consciously embedded in a high art culture going back to the Greeks

I stress that's not to criticise pop music or those who love it or play it. Many people start off with pop music, become dissatisfied with it, and move to richer sound.

Further factors are profit-making and celebrity culture. The CD labels are trying all the time to shift more classical music CDs and may use pop music marketing and branding techniques within the classical music sphere to raise profit margins. There's a big such operation underway in LA at the moment surrounding Dudamel.

But however much they try it never really takes off. If only classical musicians could be persuaded to take more illegal drugs, get into fights in nightclubs, and appear on 'Big Brother'.... Give it time.....


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## danae (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm curious: based on all these definitions and terms ("high music", "art music" etc...), how would someone explain the fact that even the most common and simple medieval secular dances (you know, the ones that people danced in the fields after work, or in the inns after drinking pints of wine), even these are considered now "classical music"?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

danae said:


> I'm curious: based on all these definitions and terms ("high music", "art music" etc...), how would someone explain the fact that even the most common and simple medieval secular dances (you know, the ones that people danced in the fields after work, or in the inns after drinking pints of wine), even these are considered now "classical music"?


Are they? This kind of music usually is considered as traditional/folk/early music.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Aramis said:


> Are they? This kind of music usually is considered as traditional/folk/early music.


Yeah, but you're probably more likely to find such music in the classical section of a cd shop. I've even found music of French chanson singer Barbara (Monique Serf) there...


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## Padawan (Aug 27, 2009)

Within the Classical realm the breakdown is currently:

50% Romantic
30% Twentieth Century
11% Classical
7% Baroque

Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin
Dvořák, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, Haydn
Smetana, Bizet, Brahms, Grieg, Smetana, Rimsky-Korsakov
Wagner, Strauss, J. Jr., Strauss, R., Rachmaninoff, Lalo, de Falla
Rodrigo, J., Granados, E., Rossini, , Ravel, Mussorgsky

Outside of classical music, I would categorize my taste as eclectic: R & B mostly, and a little Classic Rock, Disco, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Rap (Old School). Can't listen to metal or country.


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