# Corny music



## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Many things are corny for me:

Ravel: Bolero (one ad eternum tune )
Verdi: La Traviata ( listened to it too many times)
Mozart: petite musique nocturne ( listened to it too many times)
Rachmaninov: piano 2nd concerto (whining)
Tchaikovsky: piano concerto no. 1 ( listened to it too many times)
Brahms: Hungarian dances. ( listened to it too many times)
Rossini: Overture of Le Barbiero di Seviglia, Guilelmo Tell ( listened to it too many times)
Notice that sometimes too many times, means 3 times!

Add your choices....and maybe you could explain why
...............................
And many others



Martin


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Beethoven's 5th symphony


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Rachmaninov's piano concertos and symphonies.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"
Beethoven: "Moonlight sonata, first movement"
Vivaldi: "Four Seasons, Spring, first movement"

All of them because of their overuse in pop culture as being representative of classical music as a whole.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
> Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"
> Beethoven: "Moonlight sonata, first movement"
> Vivaldi: "Four Seasons, Spring, first movement"
> ...


Who could forget the work of that great composer Anonymous: 'Minuet in G'.


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
> Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"
> Beethoven: "Moonlight sonata, first movement"
> Vivaldi: "Four Seasons, Spring, first movement"
> ...


In that case, here's a feast of corn for you: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Internet connection derp'd, resulting in unwanted double-post. Please accept my apologies.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Trout said:


> In that case, here's a feast of corn for you: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html


Page hasn't loaded yet, but I already feel dread welling up inside me...

EDIT: OH DEAR GOD


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)




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## Curiosity (Jul 10, 2011)

Trout said:


> In that case, here's a feast of corn for you: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html


"Classical is cool, kids! Especially when condensed into ten second highlight clips"


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

A lot of 19th century lieder about guys who think the world is ending because the girls they like aren't that into them can be eye roll-inducing, but I often like them anyway. (Winterreise, Wayfarer, etc.) I guess it's the text that is corny, more than the music.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Rodrigo's* _Concierto de Aranjuez_ - esp. the original version, I don't seem to mind arrangements (eg. Miles Davis' famous one, or our own Tommy Emmanuel's).

I think that it's a pity that this is always chosen if a group wants to do a guitar concerto live, because it's had it's due, virtually everyone on that planet knows it. I wish say Villa-Lobos' _Concerto for guitar and small orchestra _would get more of an outing, esp. since that was the piece that got me into V-L. Can't say the same for Rodrigo, his _Aranjuez_ has not encouraged me to venture any further into his output. Ironically, the V-L was on the "B side" of a vinyl LP I got cheap as chips a few years back, the Rodrigo was on the "A side," & I ended up listening much more to the former. I've now got the V-L work on CD with quite a few of his other things...


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Trout said:


> In that case, here's a feast of corn for you: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html


I guess you're right!!!! LOL

Martin


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The end of Copland's Billy the Kid is corny, up to 2'16", but it's supposed to be.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Maybe van Beethoven's fifth as VD mentioned but only because of that dagnet disco song and all of the ringtones and commercials and spanish soap operas; NOT because I've invested a whole and grand three listens to it...if ever I've read something I wish were an exaggeration it is the notion that '3 times' is a lot to have listened to a piece...using the same composer as an example: an average performance of the glorious 9th is about one hour. Just bringing this one piece to mind, I've listened to it at least a couple of hundred times; that's only a little more than eight days...the Tchai One; at least a hundred (ten of which, live)...the Rach 2, over a hundred (couple dozen live)...it just goes on and on and this goes down into the Mazurkas and Ballades and pretty much every piece has gotten well over 3 listens...even the ones I never cared for and only heard on the radio...sad to think of attention span having been reduced to such a place.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Yeah, kv466, the ubiquity of Beethoven's 5th symphony is obviously due to overexposure. During his lifetime, Beethoven's early period Septet was more popular than any of his symphonies. This apparently peeved him off to no end, but if he were around today, he might be of the opposite opinion, he might well not be happy with hearing those opening notes of the 5th ad nauseum all over the place (if he could hear, of course, poor fellow) & he might not be happy how today relatively fewer people know his chamber music...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Klavierspieler said:


> Who could forget the work of that great composer Anonymous: 'Minuet in G'.


Actually its by Christian Petzold.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Aaron Copland's "The Lincoln Portrait" as narrated by James Earl Jones is both corny and extremely cool/inspiring. The government is sorely in need of a listen to it right now.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^I don't know if you already knew this, but *Copland's *_Lincoln Portrait _was basically blacklisted/banned sometime during the mid c20th (probably the McCarthy "witchhunt" era) as it was said to speak too strongly to "liberal" or left-leaning democratic values, etc. It probably also didn't help that the composer was an avowed Communist at that time...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Sid James said:


> ^^I don't know if you already knew this, but *Copland's *_Lincoln Portrait _was basically blacklisted/banned sometime during the mid c20th (probably the McCarthy "witchhunt" era) as it was said to speak too strongly to "liberal" or left-leaning democratic values, etc. It probably also didn't help that the composer was an avowed Communist at that time...


I didn't know that! That's outrageous!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^ Yes, hard to understand today, it's now seen as quite "patriotic" and politically not really a hot potato of any kind. I remember reading it was to be played at the inauguration of one of the presidents of the time (forget which one), but someone pulled the plug on that plan, it was seen to be too "political" or "risky" a statement to make (probably in relation to what was going on politically in the USA during that time)...


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Many things are corny for me:
> 
> Ravel: Bolero (one ad eternum tune )
> Verdi: La Traviata ( listened to it too many times)
> ...


I don't think music that's popular and perhaps played too much in relation to other works could be called corny......or perhaps I'm missing something!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

A lot of PDQ Bach is hilarious, but some of it is just plain corny.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Trout said:


> In that case, here's a feast of corn for you: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html


I think you have mentionned the "corniest" in the world! Bravo! Good exercise! LOL

Martin


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> I think you have mentionned the "corniest" in the world! Bravo! Good exercise! LOL
> 
> Martin


Oops! wrong quote!

Martin, absent minded


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Kopachris said:


> Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
> Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"
> Beethoven: "Moonlight sonata, first movement"
> Vivaldi: "Four Seasons, Spring, first movement"
> ...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Aaron Copland's "The Lincoln Portrait" as narrated by James Earl Jones is both corny and extremely cool/inspiring. The government is sorely in need of a listen to it right now.


At one point, I owned a version narrated by Henry Fonda, Copland conducting the London SO (Also included Fanfare for the Common Man and an Appalachian Spring "concert suite"). That's a Corny trio right there. I remember hearing the Lincoln Portrait with Bernstein conducting, Copland narrating (I think it was for Copland's 75th or 80th birthday). And who could forhet Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf narrating the Licnoln Portrait... Never heard it, but I did see the CD cover once.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I guess corniness is in the ear of the listener. Some of these pieces have become so hackneyed it's hard to hear them without cynicism. But there are plenty of people in America, not just young ones, who don't know diddly sqat about classical music who might find them great if they just gave them a chance !
Howard Hanson's shamelessly schmaltzy "Romantic" symphony (no 2) is sort of corny, yet I've always found it an endearing piece . And It hasn't even been played to death.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Hmm, there are lots of pieces here that are naturally corny through overuse. I'd be interested to see if there are any pieces y'all think are corny which aren't in the general public consciousness. I'll see if I can find an example of my own... Oh, I know one!  BRB...

EDIT: Now, this one _is_ rather popular, but I'll qualify by saying that I didn't actually hear this for the first time until I was at least 16 - so it was completely unfamiliar - but I utterly _detested_ it from that very first experience. Whenever I hear this, I find it _sooo_ unbelievably corny (which is _precisely_ the word for it, by the way!) that I experience traumatic pain in my soul.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

polednice said:


> edit: Now, this one _is_ rather popular, but i'll qualify by saying that i didn't actually hear this for the first time until i was at least 16 - so it was completely unfamiliar - but i utterly _detested_ it from that very first experience. Whenever i hear this, i find it _sooo_ unbelievably corny (which is _precisely_ the word for it, by the way!) that i experience traumatic pain in my soul.


We can *never* be friends.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Corny to some people now, *Polednice*, but back in his day, Debussy's tendency to end pieces without having them strictly resolve (in terms of returning to the tonic, etc.) did ruffle quite a few feathers (even when he was a student at Paris Conservatoire). So maybe "corny" now in 2011, but not so say a hundred years ago or more. I don't know if that piece - the _Arabesque_ - tonally resolves or not, etc. but I just love it. I tend to like relaxing music like that, but I also like the kind of intense stuff as well. His piano music is my favourite aspect of his output, followed by his other smaller scale things, but also _Jeux_...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Sid James said:


> Corny to some people now, *Polednice*, but back in his day, Debussy's tendency to end pieces without having them strictly resolve (in terms of returning to the tonic, etc.) did ruffle quite a few feathers (even when he was a student at Paris Conservatoire). So maybe "corny" now in 2011, but not so say a hundred years ago or more. I don't know if that piece - the _Arabesque_ - tonally resolves or not, etc. but I just love it. I tend to like relaxing music like that, but I also like the kind of intense stuff as well. His piano music is my favourite aspect of his output, followed by his other smaller scale things, but also _Jeux_...


Well, I've never got to the ending to know whether its lack of resolution redeems it. It's the horrific opening theme that makes me want to shred my internal organs to a swelling, haemorrhaging mass.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Corny to some people now, *Polednice*, but back in his day, Debussy's tendency to end pieces without having them strictly resolve (in terms of returning to the tonic, etc.) did ruffle quite a few feathers (even when he was a student at Paris Conservatoire). So maybe "corny" now in 2011, but not so say a hundred years ago or more. I don't know if that piece - the _Arabesque_ - tonally resolves or not, etc. but I just love it. I tend to like relaxing music like that, but I also like the kind of intense stuff as well. His piano music is my favourite aspect of his output, followed by his other smaller scale things, but also _Jeux_...


What about "La Mer" or the String quartet, Sid?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Well, I've never got to the ending to know whether its lack of resolution redeems it. It's the horrific opening theme that makes me want to shred my internal organs to a swelling, haemorrhaging mass.


I'm another who always liked the piece, is it too pretty for you Poly?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> I'm another who always liked the piece, is it too pretty for you Poly?


Perhaps! If that is the case, then it's a superficial, shallow blonde who struts into every room with pink leather hot-pants. Her lack of personality and openness to every person of the opposite sex is precisely what attracts people to her as an apparently emotionless, easy target for ephemeral physical pleasure.

Gimme a big, rugged man over that any day!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Perhaps! If that is the case, then it's a superficial, shallow blonde who struts into every room with pink leather hot-pants. Her lack of personality and openness to every person of the opposite sex is precisely what attracts people to her as an apparently emotionless, easy target for ephemeral physical pleasure.
> 
> Gimme a big, rugged man over that any day!


Well, she has pretty eyes that hint at a characteristic depth, confirmed once you get to know her, but you'd dismiss her for as being vapid due to other deterrents that stick out to you as a result of some key preferences. Now I wouldn't make the same saving comments for Anton Rubinsteins Melody in F, that's more like you describe...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

And here it is:






Actually I kind of like it, its so sappy, but I have bad taste.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> Well, she has pretty eyes that hint at a characteristic depth, confirmed once you get to know her, but you'd dismiss her for as being vapid due to other deterrents that stick out to you as a result of some key preferences.


No she doesn't. You're looking at the wrong woman - I'm talking about the one stood next to her on the left. Her eyes are utterly hollow - they lack even surface depth. They are balls of mascara. The concept of 'getting to know her' is entirely irrelevant, as there is nothing to know. She is privileged financially and socially, acquiring everything she needs on her father's credit card or on looks. She has never had the need to build character. Anybody with a yearning for even low-intelligence conversation would dismiss her outright. Indeed, all the men who see her want her only for limited use to then be discarded - no one wants to be burdened with this high-maintenance, low-reward woman for life.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Okay, you win...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

But as for your Rubinstein lady, she's a different lass all together! Sure, when you first glance at her, you think she might be another typical, air-headed brunette with a fake-tan and no personality, but she has a signature swagger as she moves around the room that says: "yes, I'm a total bint, but I _know_ it, and I'm in control." She laughs knowingly. She coyly looks at you, making you sweat, and you feel powerless. Sure, she's a total b***h and you hate her, but she at least has some brain cells.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> Okay, you win...


There was never any question of that!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Polednice, would you do *this*... "creature" the honor of even a description?


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)




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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Ravellian said:


>


Here we go with the best music.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

How about pieces that were _meant_ to be corny, such as Mozart's "A Musical Joke?" (Which is one of my favorite Mozart pieces precisely because it was meant to be corny.)


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> How about pieces that were _meant_ to be corny, such as Mozart's "A Musical Joke?" (Which is one of my favorite Mozart pieces precisely because it was meant to be corny.)


I loved that piece before I even understood what the intent of the composer was, back when I was 11. I can't think of any others of that stature.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*@ clavichorder *- Yes, I like Debussy's string quartet (as well as his other chamber works, eg. sonatas). With _La Mer_, it's only the final movement that grabs me, everything else is like a prelude to that. The reason being, I had the final movement along with other Debussy short pieces & excerpts on a CBS "Debussy's Greatest Hits" tape ages ago. So now, after all those years, I still think of it's concluding _Dialogue of the wind and the sea_ as the only "meat" in _La Mer_. Maestro Bernstein's full-on pumped up on steroids delivery on that tape kind of made me think like that as well, no doubt.

*@ Polednice* - Since you seem to not like blondes, probably better if you never hear Debussy's _The Girl with the Flaxen Hair_ (_La fille aux cheveux de lin_), from the first book of his _Preludes_ for solo piano :lol: ...


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Poled... er, _some people_... shouldn't throw stones _when they live in Brahms houses._


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> Polednice, would you do *this*... "creature" the honor of even a description?


I hope you'll forgive me for being so late with my apt personifications - it was 3am, and I decided to listen to the pains of my body and go to sleep!

So, what of this river flowing in me...

Quite clearly a woman again (the bad ones always are). Except this one is is hated by _everyone_. She used to be quite beautiful, with the suggestion of an actual personality, and still is if you don't know her. But she's been with so many people - always promising a deep, loving relationship - and time and time again has proven herself to be self-centred, interested only in superficiality. The other women at least don't pretend about how shallow they are - this one is just a big fake.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Pretty much anything nationalistic or swelling with patriotism. There's no faker value.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

regressivetransphobe said:


> Pretty much anything nationalistic or swelling with patriotism. There's no faker value.


Such as: countless sets of variations on "God Save the Queen" and the last bit of the 1812 Overture, which has become fairly synonymous with American patriotism, even though it depicts Russian patriotism (I'd like to know if it was still played in America during the Cold War).


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> Such as: countless sets of variations on "God Save the Queen" and the last bit of the 1812 Overture, which has become fairly synonymous with American patriotism, even though it depicts Russian patriotism (I'd like to know if it was still played in America during the Cold War).


I kind of find "Variations on America" (America here is "My Country 'tis of thee", words set to the music of God Save the Queen) by Ives (the organ version, NOT the sappy orchestration by William Schumann) to be rather enjoyable and certainly inventive...

I can't on this computer, but if you search YouTube for a documentary from 1944 called "Arturo Toscanini: Hymn of Nations" (or words to that effect), you will be treated to 20 minutes of very sappy music by Verdi (edited by Toscanini in 1943) that was written around 1860, that sort of sews together many patriotic hymns.

What is particularly noteworthy about this documentary, is that Maerstro Toscanini "added" the anthems of the US and the USSR (_The Internationale_, actually) at the end of the Verdi piece to honour the "allies" that conquered facism (sic). The US department that sponsored the documentary later cut the Soviet piece out. YouTube has *both *the "official" documentary (though the one I found has an annoying 20-secoind break in it as the 4th reel of the feature gets spooled up), and the performance "uncensored". You can also find a separate clip featuring the "censored" bit lasting a shade under two minutes, played with astounding verve by the NBC Symphony.

Corny: absolutely. A must listen, though!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

This work trumps all those said:






All I can think about when listening to this are pies flying through the air.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> This work trumps all those said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Both Kabalevsky and Khachaturian are kind of corny, especially at their most accessible. This does sound like a cartoon. But I kind of enjoyed it!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)




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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Huillunsoitaja, in my book I'll have you trumped with this work:


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I always imagine this being the soundtrack to a cowboy film.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Huillunsoitaja, in my book I'll have you trumped with this work:


Aww whats corny about Kaddish?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> Aww whats corny about Kaddish?


Violadude, this is probably based on very superficial prejudice against narrator and a sampling of the text which takes itself so seriously, I've only just sampled the work after having heard about it. Now, if you were to prove me wrong, I would have no problem with that .


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

itywltmt said:


> I can't on this computer, but if you search YouTube for a documentary from 1944 called "Arturo Toscanini: Hymn of Nations" (or words to that effect), you will be treated to 20 minutes of very sappy music by Verdi (edited by Toscanini in 1943) that was written around 1860, that sort of sews together many patriotic hymns.


Here is the "censored" version... The video opens with the overture to _La Forza del Destino_, then the corn starts popping...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

itywltmt said:


> You can also find a separate clip featuring the "censored" bit lasting a shade under two minutes, played with astounding verve by the NBC Symphony.


Here it is...


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Since some heartless fiend mentioned Debussy's lovely Arabesque, let me post something by Debussy that deserves to be in this thread.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

violadude said:


> Aww whats corny about Kaddish?





clavichorder said:


> Violadude, this is probably based on very superficial prejudice against narrator and a sampling of the text which takes itself so seriously, I've only just sampled the work after having heard about it. Now, if you were to prove me wrong, I would have no problem with that .


Bernstein was himself not happy with the text of his_ Kaddish Symphony _and revised it a number of times. I think there is some validity to the opinion that NOTHING, music or anything else, can express the horrors of the Holocaust, which this work refers to at least indirectly. However, even if it's a flawed work, I think it's an important one in terms of serving the memory of those who died in the Holocaust, as well as the dedicatee of the work, President John F. Kennedy. & basically, I think this is a very solid symphony, & interesting in terms of Bernstein incorporating some of the newer techniques of the time, allied with his usual talent at giving memorable tunes as well as having a strong sense of drama, the theatrical aspect...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

I think Kaddish illustrates well one of my long-maintained convictions: I have immense respect for Leonard Bernstein as an overall musician: as a pianist, as a conductor and (more than anything else) as a _raconteur _and overall lecturer - what we would call in French _un vulgarisateur_, somebody who makes things understood to the common person.

As a composer, I find too many of Lenny's works are pretentous, and his symphonies top the list IMO. I am careful not to paint all of his compositions with a broiad brush - I find his _Serenade _for violin and orchestra to be a gem, and his _Mass _(albeit pretentious in moments) is an amazing feat as a composition and a "performance experience", and it does achieve the aim of providing a spiritual experience for the listener.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^ I agree with what you're generally saying, but I don't have a problem with the "pretentious" aspect of his symphonies. To me, they're no more like that than say symphonies by Mahler & Shostakovich - in fact, I'd say Bernstein kind of came out of the same tradition, making grand statements about history, world events, using choral/vocal elements, etc. But yes, some of his concert works kind of hang together better than the others, and the _Serenade for solo violin, strings and percussion _which you mention is one such example (I've read that it's his finest & most satisfying concert work, and knowing it myself, I can agree with that, but I also like his symphonies, though they're not as solidly/highly cohesive in comparison)...


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