# The TC Music Appreciation Class



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

I figured it would be fun to have a thread about anything pertaining to music appreciation. I'm always reading about someone's interesting take on this or that, who were influences on thus and such, what was going on with Beethoven when he wrote the 8th, etc. Well why not a thread for all of that stuff in general? So feel free to share whatever is on your mind. Here are the sorts of questions I'd like to ask to get us started:

Who have you discovered lately?
What have you learned about a certain piece lately?
Have you any interesting trivia to share?
Have you changed your mind about any composer's or individual works recently?
How are you expanding your horizons?
Would you like to give your critique of a certain recording?
What do you think of a certain conductor?
Who has the best recordings of this piece or that?

Class is now in session. :tiphat:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

This might be trivial, but to me it is a piece of the puzzle that helps me get deeper into Stravinsky's music.

Mahlerian mentioned that he holds Stravinsky's Threni in high regard. The first thing that struck me was that it reminded me of Xenakis' Oresteïa. Then, I was reminded of Schoenberg's later choral works, or even Webern, although I couldn't place it exactly, but I decided on Schoenberg's Psalm 150.

It turns out that I was not so far off, as Threni is Stravinsky's longest dodecaphonic work. I am not sure if there is a Xenakis connection, but Oresteïa dates from only 8 years later, so it is possible, but clearly the chorus influenced my perception. I think I am not the only one to hear it. In any case, by making this connection between composers I am familiar with, Schoenberg, Webern and Xenakis, I was better able to understand a composer I had not previously been as attuned to, Stravinsky.


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2014)

You want a thread which is to all intents and purposes a microcosm of the whole TC site?

Extraordinary.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

some guy said:


> You want a thread which is to all intents and purposes a microcosm of the whole TC site?
> 
> Extraordinary.


Hahahaha, yes you are right on the mark. Whatever you have learned today about music appreciation, post it.


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2014)

Tee hee. I did. (It was on a different thread, though.)


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Lukecash12 said:


> I figured it would be fun to have a thread about anything pertaining to music appreciation. I'm always reading about someone's interesting take on this or that, who were influences on thus and such, what was going on with Beethoven when he wrote the 8th, etc. Well why not a thread for all of that stuff in general? So feel free to share whatever is on your mind. Here are the sorts of questions I'd like to ask to get us started:
> 
> Who have you discovered lately?
> What have you learned about a certain piece lately?
> ...


I would generalize that different types of classical music (from all periods Medieval to the avant garde) would yield widely different levels of enjoyment, not least because of the quality varies by each period, by composers' talents but also by the performers. Your own preference plays a large part too.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

some guy said:


> You want a thread which is to all intents and purposes a microcosm of the whole TC site?
> 
> Extraordinary.


Nailed it. In fact, I'd take Lukecash12's idea a step further: get rid of all those other threads, move their content here, and have the whole site consist of a single thread.

So much more organized!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Recently I have spent a lot of time with Schönberg's piano concerto.

At first it just seemed like boring noise, but after three solid weeks of intense listening, I now consider it haunting and beautiful; a work of tremendous genius.

It's simply a matter of re-training one's brain to the different sounds employed here.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Recently I have spent a lot of time with Schönberg's piano concerto.
> 
> At first it just seemed like boring noise, but after three solid weeks of intense listening, I now consider it haunting and beautiful; a work of tremendous genius.
> 
> It's simply a matter of re-training one's brain to the different sounds employed here.


I'd put it another way... it is letting go of any and all preconceptions held up against this piece via your familiarity with other music which uses other means -- after all, the work now sounds to you, it seems, like many think it does and should, _while nothing about that recorded performance has changed at all_ 

If you consider all your experiential listening to date as a kind of undergraduate or graduate 'degree,' the very truthful maxim about 'once out of school it is time to unlearn half of what you learned in school.' applies here!

However it came about, I'm pleased you are now 'in' this 'haunting and beautiful' late late romantic / modern concerto. More treasure for you!


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