# need some help



## psyco (Oct 14, 2008)

hi everyone im new here, and i dont know anything about classical music(besides the small amounts i picked up from music class at school)

i play both guitar and piano, poorly.

im a male from England and am 19 years old, for my age i consider myself fairly open minded about my musical tastes. and until recently(a year or so) i never really took a great deal of interest in music, primarily due to a lack of confidence and general laziness. from a young age i hated music, because my only exposure was the top 40 and as i reached my early teen years the internet became popular/fast enough to the point where it was useful and i suddenly became aware of a seemingly inherent taste in music(almost everything and everything that wasn't pop) initially the popular metal acts of the late to early 2000's, as i stumbled around the internet i discovered plenty of fairly small and niche metal sub-genres. my now main interests surround power/gothic/symphonic metal artists/bands, though far from limited to those genres i currently own approximately 140gigs(21,000mp3's) of music ranging from the early metal bands of the 80's(witch i don't consider "heavy" at all), alternative rock acts, death and black metal.

only pure instrumental artists i enjoy are The Black Mages, Apocalyptica and Buckethead.
oppositely Van Canto, an a cappella band.

i learned at school that the difference in major and minor are minor sounds doomy or apocalyptic. so ive come to the conclusion that i like classical music in minor keys.

but ive come here after i found out the name of a classical piece featured in 



 the piece included in the track is beethoven - moonlight sonata(at around the 3rd minute). and after a few months of searching for like similar pieces, ive come up fairly empty handed.

there are 3 peices i know of that fit my need as best i can,
beethoven - moonlight sonata
beethoven - fur elise
mozart - lacrimosa

so my question is, what other classical pieces would you recommend to someone like me? given my full musical background. thanks

P.S it felt unnecessary to post this too in the introductions section

EDIT: 



 this is Epica a perfect fusion between gothic metal and symphonic metal, with almost every element of metal as it stands today. indeed they are epic


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## Zombo (Oct 5, 2008)

If you like symphonic bands, check out Therion, Haggard, Winds.

You mentionned Mozart and Beethoven. So I think you should stick to the classics for now: Haydn, Vivaldi, Bach, etc... but also for later periods - Brahms, Dvorak, Mahler

Get a feel for the popular composers then you can decide what genre you like best.


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## psyco (Oct 14, 2008)

theres genres of classical music:-/ what genre would those 3 i mentioned be?


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

There are genres of Metal aren't there?


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## Mr Salek (Apr 11, 2006)

mozart is classical (a term used within the genre to describe music written from around 1750 - 1830) and beethoven is classical / early romantic depending when the piece was written as he was a pioneer and pushed music onwards.

if you want music that sounds apocalyptic, i recommend any dies irae which is a movement in a requiem (such as mozart's where the lachrymosa also comes from). composers that spring to mind are verdi and karl jenkins.

also try out some beethoven symphonies. the second movements of number 3 and 7 seem to fit your criteria as does his egmont overture. i'm no expert on them but his late string quartets and quintets should also have movements with a similar feeling.

most of these pieces are very well known and performed so they should all be on youtube.

hope that's of some help.


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## Zombo (Oct 5, 2008)

early Beethoven (pre 3rd symphony) is classical
late Beethoven (3rd symphony onward) is romantic

Mozart is classical.


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## Isabelle (Oct 16, 2008)

We have some similairites in music taste, but probably also a lot of differences, I also listen to metal but not the symphonic kind.. but.. I also have a strong preference for music in minor and what I haven´t seen mentioned a lot in this topic are opera aria´s. If you like classical singing voices and drama I reccommend dying scenes for most opera´s, but I made you a list of the ones I like (I also like to sing pretty much all of the mentioned ones).
Of all these you can find many versions on youtube, you can see which voice and interpretation suits your taste best (I put first composers name, then opera name, then aria name).

Purcell - Dido and Aeneas - When I am laid in earth 
Purcell - Dido and Aeneas - Thanks to these lonesome vales
Verdi - La Traviata - Addio del Passato 
Verdi - La Traviata - A fors e lui 
Puccini - Manon Lescaut - Sola, Perduta, Abbandonata 

Actually I can´t think of any now but I know the list of aria´s I like is much, much longer then this, really much much longer, so I´ll post more later if you like these.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

You may like the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor. It's all over Youtube as well.


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## Isabelle (Oct 16, 2008)

Just remembered: the Lacrimosa from Verdi´s requiem is extremely beautiful to my opinion.


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## Ciel_Rouge (May 16, 2008)

Hi psyco,

I like this Epica of yours  It is a perfect expression of the longing for classical in the metal genre. It is sort of amazing how this genre got from guitars to quasi-operatic female vocals. And I like this one a lot. I also often tend to think that the heavy guitar "bang"is closely related to the string "bang" from classical. I suppose you might also like the Coriolan Overture by Beethoven:


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## psyco (Oct 14, 2008)

thanks guys, keep the suggestions coming.

@Ciel_Rouge, i agree it is amazing(both that it works and that it sounds outstanding, would never have believed it till i heard it with my own ears), but alot of gothic bands use orchestras(or at least a violin), in either studio work of for live performances, all the way from within temptation and thy sins of thy beloved to cradle of filth.

though while im speaking about bazaar things that work amazingly well, check out Stolen Babies, much more of a grunge sound, but with a accordion, chello(or double bass im not sure), violins and a piano.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Have you looked at some of Chopin's piano works - specifically the Ballade No. 1?
Saint Saens Piano Concerto no. 2 is very beautiful as well.

For the more modern combination, search for Presto from Summer of Vivaldi's four seasons or Toccata and Fugue by Bach. I've heard some pretty good techno remixes of those.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

airad2 said:


> For the more modern combination, search for Presto from Summer of Vivaldi's four seasons or Toccata and Fugue by Bach. I've heard some pretty good techno remixes of those.


Which is actually quite ironic to say, the both being Baroque.

These all should be on youtube.


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## Ciel_Rouge (May 16, 2008)

Regarding rock adaptations of Beethoven, check this out:


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## SPR (Nov 12, 2008)

OK, this is out of left field - but I thought this was great...

you just have to admire what the violin can do....






Ooh! Ohh.... and lets not forget Funtwo doing Bach!


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