# Works or Pieces that changed your way or feeling to understand the Classical Music



## hombre777 (May 27, 2015)

HI, 
Im looking for Works or Pieces that changed your way or feeling to understand the Classical Music ,


This week Im starting listening almost J.S Bach.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Etenraku (arr. Hidemaro Konoye)
Ryusuke Numajiri/Tokyo SO

I went ga-ga-ku when I heard this :lol::devil:


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## Le Peel (May 15, 2015)

I was unable to enjoy string quartets until I heard Haydn Op 76, No. 3 "Emperor".


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Before I heard *Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, Glass' Violin Concerto no. 1* and *Michael Nyman's Water Dances* I had no isea that music could sound like that!


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Penderecki's _Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima_ helped me broaden my idea of what music is. There's no melody, harmony, or rhythm, but it is still undeniably music.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

When I studied the piano as a kid, my teachers gave me the embarrassingly false impression that piano composers like Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich were, chronologically speaking, the last composers of classical music before it died out. For many years, I actually thought these Russian/Soviet romantics represented the ultimate horizon of musical innovation. Then, I accidentally stumbled upon the Soviet avant-garde piano music of Roslavets, Mosolov, Lourié, etc., and within a year, all of my preconceptions of what counts as great music were shattered. Not only did I learn that classical is alive and well today, but that it has also yielded far more innovation than I could have ever imagined.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Too many to list*

There are so many that it is impossible for me to list them all.

Links to some entries in other threads that I have made that may be relevant to this one.

http://www.talkclassical.com/30123-survival-fittest.html?highlight=Schubert#post589322

http://www.talkclassical.com/22451-why-do-people-consider.html?highlight=beethoven#post384763

When I was a teenager I discovered the Persichetti _Symphony for Band_. It made a deep impression on me because of Persichetti's innovated use of percussion.

Hillary Hahn's brilliant recording of the Schoenberg _Violin Concerto_.

There are many others.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

calvinpv said:


> When I studied the piano as a kid, my teachers gave me the embarrassingly false impression that piano composers like Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich were, chronologically speaking, the last composers of classical music before it died out. For many years, I actually thought these Russian/Soviet romantics represented the ultimate horizon of musical innovation. Then, I accidentally stumbled upon the Soviet avant-garde piano music of Roslavets, Mosolov, Lourié, etc., and within a year, all of my preconceptions of what counts as great music were shattered. Not only did I learn that classical is alive and well today, but that it has also yielded far more innovation than I could have ever imagined.


Reading your post reminded me of one very important incident. When I was a kid I took piano lessons. The first time I played Prokofiev and I was introduced to 20th century harmonies, it blew me away.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Debussy's La Mer made a huge impression on me when I first heard it at a concert in my early teens. I'd never heard anything like it before. Strangely, La Mer itself didn't become one of my favorite pieces, and still isn't really, but it let me know that there was a whole world radically different sounds beyond Brahms and co.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Most recently hearing Schoenberg's "Suite for 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano, Op. 29" at work playing at random on my iPod when I was barely paying attention was a mind opener. It struck me as a musical animated discussion I could almost comprehend -- a wonderful experience. 

I don't want to give the impression I am now a rabid modernist because of it. I still enjoy more the traditional forms as much, but this was quite a horizon expander.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

_(Prefatory Opinion on Thread: I think this is an excellent thread topic. Primarily, the way previous members have responded -- e.g., [This work] changed how I ... -- presents a particularly intriguing discussion. So, thanks OP and others. Sadly, however, judging the response, looks like it won't last long.)_

When I heard *Ives'* Concord Sonata (and shortly thereafter, his Fourth Symphony), I realized that memory and conscious can be written into notes. Not my memory. Not specific instances. But the composer's tendencies, perceptions, observations, recollections -- all this can be put into musical form, because that is what is perceived by him or her. Not words or pictures or smells, but just sound.

That is what impressed upon the composer's mind. *Sound *and *music *is what resided and dominated their mind. And Ives was one of the more blatant and quirky writers that illustrated (to me) this obscure and albeit subjective revelation.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

This may sound silly, but for me it was when I started to actually appreciate absolute music. Or, music that's just music.

What do I mean? As a kid, growing up, all my family and friends loved popular music for the beat or the simple melody, but above all else was the lyrics. I started taking piano lessons, and so was drawn in by, say, more Romantic works that had fun titles that gave me impressions of what the music was "supposed" to be "about" [i.e. simple pieces from lesson books called "Sailboats" or "Snake Charmer" or whatever]. When I started listening to classical music, I was automatically drawn into programatic music of the Romantic era, otherwise music that had nicknames, like some of Beethoven's popular works. So for a long time, I loved music that told stories or painted pictures.

It wasn't until I heard Liszt's Piano Sonata in b minor that I actually understood the power of music just by itself, without any impressions or nicknames, without being told "how" to view it. After that work, I went back through the music I already knew and started to listen to them from a fairer lens, where I'd judge the music for itself rather than for whatever story was slapped onto it. Not saying that programatic music isn't good, but I did lose my interest and love for a lot of gimmicky pieces in favor of pieces that I think deserve the attention I give them.

Even though the Liszt Sonata is about 165 years old, by opening my mind to absolute music, I've been inclined to explore more contemporary works that I know I would have rolled my eyes at about 5 years ago, and I've been enjoying my musical journey ever since


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

My first "atonal" piece I heard was Schoenberg's Piano Concerto and that changed my life in a good way many years ago.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Albert7 said:


> My first "atonal" piece I heard was Schoenberg's Piano Concerto and that changed my life in a good way many years ago.


Words, my friend, more words! Describe in detail!

(Why are so many people here quick to share their opinion, though *entirely devoid of reflection and development*? Am I the only one that meanders, rants, and EXPLAINS? Let us change that!)

Why did it "_change[] your life in a *good* way,_" I may ask.


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## thwolfe (Jun 13, 2015)

Beethoven's string quartet #12, op. 127. In 9th grade I would walk into school with this in my headphones, and it was the first piece - to use a bit of a cliche - that felt intoxicating to me. I credit this and, to a smaller extent, Schumann's Dichterliebe as two of the pieces that set the cornerstone of my engagement with classical music.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

thwolfe said:


> Beethoven's string quartet #12, op. 127. In 9th grade I would walk into school with this in my headphones, and it was the first piece - to use a bit of a cliche - that felt intoxicating to me. I credit this and, to a smaller extent, Schumann's Dichterliebe as two of the pieces that set the cornerstone of my engagement with classical music.


Beethoven's Op. 127 string quartet No. 12 and Op. 109 piano sonata No. 30 were the works that really fascinated me and made me start checking out classical music seriously. The opening of each piece sounded so fresh, modern, new, otherworldly, ... so different from the prejudice about the genre (tame, polite, every piece sounds similar, etc.) I had before.


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## BlackKeys (May 12, 2015)

Even though I have been studying piano since I was 6, I never had a true understanding of the music I was playing. I just went through the the curriculum and learned the pieces I was supposed to learn. It was when I started learning Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A Major and Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor where I really started to love the music I played and that compelled me to look much more into the world of classical.

Every new piece I listen to changes and enhances my understanding of classical music, whether that be Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture (one of the early pieces I fell in love with), or Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto (which I am currently immersing myself in because I find it so fascinating).


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## pavelissa (Aug 4, 2015)

It was very interesting to read how you come to appreciate classical music. My journey has been more or less the same. I especially find interesting your use of the term 'absolute music' for classical music. Moreover I really appreciate your psychological exploration of how you used to (and most people do ) perceive music in terms of images and labels and the term absolute music as a contrast to that pictorial way of perceiving music is very informative.


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