# Yin and Yang Playlists



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

The Chinese concept of Yin and Yang is a fascinating compound of opposites:


dark/light
negative/positive
cold/warm
closed/open
passive/active
introvert/extrovert
and the list goes on and on....


The idea for this thread is to come up with a list of music that plays with this idea. You might choose to alternate every work yin-yang-yin-yang or you might choose to do all yin and then all yang. As you come up with your playlist, feel free to give any notes or reasons why you chose things. You could also list pieces that have a good swing and balance of yin and yang within the same piece. The end goal of each playlist would be to have a balance of the two forces of yin and yang.

Anyhoo, have fun!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Good thread idea! 

Yin cold = Sibelius Symphony No. 4/Yang hot = Scriabin Vers la Flamme
Yin dark = Mahler Symphony No. 7/Yang light = Lauridsen Lux Aeturna
Yin frightening = Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain/Yang comforting = Brahms German Requiem
Yin wet = Debussy La Mer/Yang dry = Grofé Grand Canyon Suite
Yin passive = Chopin Nocturnes/Yang active = Chopin Polonaise
Yin introvert = Mompou Cançons No.5/Yang extrovert = Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies

Broad generalities! There could also be such a thing as Yin hot (something that smolders) or Yang cold (something suggesting the breaking up of ice or a blizzard), and the movement of the natural forces of nature in the Sibelius 4th might also fit that category. It can be difficult to clearly categorize some works, because each one is already a combination of yin and yang, passive and active energies.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

"*Yin rest*" - "*Yang activity*"

1. Shostakovich: Fugue in A major, op. 87/7
2. Ginastera: Piano Concerto #1, op. 28 (IV. Toccata concertanta)
3. Ornstein: Cello Sonata #2, SO 613
4. Rebel: Les Élémens (I. Le cahos)
5. Bozza: Jour d'été à la montagne (I. Pastorale)
6. Honegger: Symphony #5 "Di Tre Re" (I. Grave) 
7. d'Indy: String Quartet #3 in D-flat major, op. 96 (I. Entrée en Sonate)
8. Milhaud: Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, op. 157b (I. Ouverture)


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I've heard an analysis before stating Mozart is Yin and Beethoven is Yang. i think it's a befitting illustration.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

If there's a composer whose music should be on a Yin/Yang list, then this composer should be Isang Yun!


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Here's my playlist on YouTube: 
_(consisting of 15 pieces for a total duration of about 1 hour and 45 minutes):_

*My Yin/Yang Playlist*

I went with shorter works/movements and played around with the ideas of Darkness/Light, Introversion/Extroversion, Cold/Heat, and Passivity/Activity.

The only piece that requires explanation is the Chopin etude which has both Yin and Yang in the same piece, otherwise the list alternates yin-yang throughout.

I hope you like it!

_Prokofiev: Violin Concerto, No.1, 1. Andantino
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto, No.1, 1. Allegro brioso
Adams: Two Fanfares for Orchestra - Tromba Lontana
Adams: Two Fanfares for Orchestra - Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Chopin: Etude, Op.10, No.3
Joplin: Solace
Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
Pärt: Fratres
Xenakis: Jonchaies
Murail: Winter Fragments
Richter: Vivaldi Recomposed -- Summer, Part 3
Schubert: Wintereisse -- Leiermann
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro: "Voi Che Sapete"
Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No.1, 2. Aase's Death
Grieg: Wedding Day at Troldgaugen_


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I just finished a post on the "Listening Now" thread concerning my listening tonight to Roman Haubenstock-Ramati's "Mobile For Shakespeare", one of four works on a disc of that title from hat[now]ART. I hadn't thought of the yin-yang thing at the time, but Haubenstock-Ramati accomplishes such in his music, and the contrasting is quite evident in his "Mobile for Shakespeare" which utilizes texts of two Shakespeare sonnets, 53 and 54, which in themselves are rather yin-yangy.

I once designed a set for Shakespeare's _As You Like It _which featured a huge circular yin-yang pattern on the floor. Indeed that play is quite a study in contrasts, so the image to me seemed appropriate for the particular production. Earlier I had designed the sound for a different production of that same play. The music I used derived from the English pastoral school, and the entire production had a rather traditional, English romantic flavor. I suspect that could be a yin. Music by Bridge, Holst, Vaughn Williams, John Ireland.

Some years before that I did a sound design for _Macbeth_, featuring only music by Beethoven. If the warm, delightful comedy _As You Like It_ is a yin, the dark, tragic _Macbeth_ is definitely a yang. And the Beethoven music, which included the opening of the Ninth Symphony and the second movement of the Seventh, is certainly yang to the English pastoralists' yin.

So I'll leave that be as my playlist: yin = English pastoralist music, yang = Beethoven. Take from that what you will.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

I'm going with the first thing that springs to mind immediately for each:

yin - Debussy, _Afternoon of a Faun_

yang - Holst, _The Planets_, "Jupiter"

(By the way, this reminds me of a thread I started awhile back about whether music had gender, and from which I suffered severe second-degree burns, as it turned out. Not that I'm bitter.)


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Totenfeier said:


> (By the way, this reminds me of a thread I started awhile back about whether music had gender, and from which I suffered severe second-degree burns, as it turned out. Not that I'm bitter.)


LOL, I can only imagine! (You'll notice I omitted any gender in this one. Didn't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole)


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