# Fifty Years Ago



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

At about this time in the summer, at a nearby arts center, I attended a concert of mixed chamber music that included instrumental selections, Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon and Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge. I still remember the concert with great fondness -- and wish I could go back in time and attend again.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

About 50 years ago I'd have no doubt been playing football in the park or riding my bike down the street. I wish I could go back in time too and not have to deal with all the crap of being an adult. I'd also have a month left of my summer holiday rather than a week.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

I’m not even quite 50, but I do recall as a child hearing the Israel Philharmonic in Jerusalem at an outdoor concert in 1983. All I cared about hearing was Ravel’s Bolero, one of the few pieces I knew. I impatiently sat through the first work on the program, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. I still remember the sound of the soaring strings in the first movement against the backdrop of the lit walls of Jerusalem in the night sky.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Fify years ago, I was raising two children and embarking on a career as a real estate appraiser. Never listened to classical music back then.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

50 years ago I was in my first year of music school.


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Fifty years ago I didn’t listen to classical music, because I didn’t exist.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Fifty year ago I was probably listening to Brahms or Beethoven or maybe a Verdi or Puccini opera. Probably. I don't remember as I was one year old but those were some of dad's favourite composers so he might have played them while I was lying around.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I started playing snare drum in school in 1971. I was listening to the pop music of the day on the radio. Carpenters, Chicago, Beatles, pseudo jazz a la Herb Alpert. My mom's stepfather gave me a real jazz record called Buddy Rich vs Max Roach. It may still be in my parents' basement? They've been in the same house since 1964. My mom takes such good care of the place it still looks brand new!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

50 years ago I bought my first real, grown-up stereo. I'd been saving from my job of mowing people's grass. It was an Electrovoice FM receiver, with matching EV speakers, a Garrard turntable, and a pair of Koss Pro-4AA headphones. The Sony open real tape recorder came a few months later. Dang, I loved that system and thought it was the greatest thing ever. Sonically opened the doors to a vast amount of music.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Fifty years ago it was 1971 and I was three. All my memories from that time are fuzzy. One thing I remember is that I used to like to go outside and play with bugs; let the beetles crawl all over my hands and watch how they move.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Fifty years ago, I was in highschool. I had just bought my first LP record (Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge over troubled water). My interest in classical music only started about 15 years after that.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

50 years ago I was just off the back of an "Annus horribilis"; chicken pox, mumps, measles and German measles all within a 15-month period. Flunked school as a consequence, although the fact I hated that school contributed equally. So the Summer Term of 1971 saw me starting a new school.

I wasn't much into music at that time, but remember listening to this, a 'hand-me-down' from one of my brothers, over and over again:


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

50 years ago, me and some mates formed a band in order to get girls. I thought I was cool with my £6 second hand guitar and my Noddy Holder hair. Somewhat unexpectedly I found out I could write crappy and no doubt derivative pop songs which ultimately led me down a different musical path.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

^ I think your music still make crappy pop songs. When will you get it together?


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> ^ I think your music still make crappy pop songs. When will you get it together?


I look forward to meeting you in a dark alley. We can't all write catchy money spinning numbers like 'Study no5'.... Besides are you saying you _can't _dance to my 2nd Symphony, what's the matter with you man?


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

mikeh375 said:


> I look forward to meeting you in a dark alley. We can't all write catchy numbers like 'Study no5'....


Well judging from your age, it may not be a favourable result to you if we do.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> 50 years ago I was in my first year of music school.


Actually, August of 1971 I was about to start my second year of college. The music I discovered during this period included the Concentus Musicus Wien/Harnoncourt recording of the *Bach* _B Minor Mass_; *Erik Satie*'s solo piano music, mainly the _Trois Gymnopédies_ by Aldo Ciccolini; and in general, the primary classical music canon.

View attachment 158058


View attachment 158057


Before music school I had been playing bass in jazz and R&B bands.

*Karlheinz Stockhausen* was also a discovery, _Stimmung_, _Kontakte_, and the _Klavierstücke_ recording by Aloys Kontarsky; *Bartok* the _Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion_ also by the Kontarsky brothers.

View attachment 158059


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Well judging from your age, it may not be a favourable result to you if we do.


I was going to challenge you to see who could write the most convincing CP fugue (in the dark!!!!), so perhaps the result mightn't have been too bad for me.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Fifty years ago I turned six. I was listening to classical music because my mother did. I know she had an LP of Holst The Planets, but I don't know what else. And I know BBC Radio was on often. 

I was more concerned with my Matchbox cars and making them do a loop on that plastic track.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

senza sordino said:


> Fifty years ago I turned six. I was listening to classical music because my mother did. I know she had an LP of Holst The Planets, but I don't know what else. And I know BBC Radio was on often.
> 
> I was more concerned with my Matchbox cars and making them do a loop on that plastic track.


Ditto Senza. I had tons of Matchbox / Hot Wheels track. My mam used to moan as it went down the stairs and into the living room.


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## PuerAzaelis (Jul 28, 2021)

Merl said:


> Ditto Senza. I had tons of Matchbox / Hot Wheels track. My mam used to moan as it went down the stairs and into the living room.


I had the Evil Knievel toy and the Six Million Dollar Man figure


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

..Action Man and Lego...tons of it.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

senza sordino said:


> Fifty years ago I turned six. I was listening to classical music because my mother did. I know she had an LP of Holst The Planets, but I don't know what else. And I know BBC Radio was on often....


My mother played the 1812 Overture, over, and over .... and over, again. I think it was one of three LPs that came with the new HiFi Dad bought her. Nat King Cole and Simin and Garfunkel being the others.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

mikeh375 said:


> ..Action Man and Lego...tons of it.


Yep, loved Lego. I still have a lot of it and have acquired quite a bit more. If I don't get Grandkids soon, I'm just going to have to start playing with it and take my wife's comments on the chin.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Chilham said:


> Yep, loved Lego. I still have a lot of it and have acquired quite a bit more. If I don't get Grandkids soon, I'm just going to have to start playing with it and take my wife's comments on the chin.


When I was in kindergarten we had playtime and for some reason I really wanted to play with the Lincoln Logs but I never could get to them fast enough before some other kid would get to them first. When I had kids of my own I made sure to buy them Lincoln Logs and I think I had more fun playing with them than they did.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Fifty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper will have had taught the band how to play, 30 years into the future.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Art Rock said:


> Fifty years ago, I was in highschool. I had just bought my first LP record (Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge over troubled water). My interest in classical music only started about 15 years after that.


I started High School in 1971, but as I had an older brother (four years older), my tastes in music were a bit more sophisticated than those of my peers.

I'll go just a tad further off topic.

1971 was a stellar year for Rock and Pop music.

Naturally, you have to include most of the music from 1970; release dates of songs and albums don't necessarily coincide with a song or album's trajectory of being heard.

Of course, there's Bridge Over Troubled Water, released in January 1970, a perfect personal example for you of an album's acceptance, sales, and time of true impact.

The rest of *1970*, for me, had some incredible albums, many of which I still listen to today.

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Chicago II
Hey Jude
Déjà Vu
McCartney
Benefit (Jethro Tull)
Let It Be
Woodstock
John Barleycorn Must Die (Traffic)
Jesus Christ Superstar
Atom Heart Mother (Pink Floyd)
Led Zeppelin III
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Tea for the Tillerman
All Things Must Pass
Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Spirit)
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

*And then, there was 1971*.

Chicago III
Tapestry
The Yes Album
Aqualung
Ram
Tarkus
Imagine
Focus II (Moving Waves)
Madman Across the Water	
Led Zeppelin IV
Fragile
The Concert for Bangladesh


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

^

I’ve always been jealous of people who were around in that era when all this great music was hot off the press.

Isn’t interesting that the golden age of rock (1955-85) arguably is exactly contemporaneous with the golden age of classical recordings?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

pianozach said:


> Of course, there's Bridge Over Troubled Water, released in January 1970, a perfect personal example for you of an album's acceptance, sales, and time of true impact.
> 
> The rest of *1970*, for me, had some incredible albums, many of which I still listen to today.
> 
> ...


These were my picks of these two years:

1970 Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
1970 Abraxas - Santana
1970 Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
1970 Present from Nancy - Supersister
1970 Trespass - Genesis
1970 Loaded - The Velvet Underground
1971 Songs of Love and Hate - Leonard Cohen
1971 Blue - Joni Mitchell
1971 Who's Next - The Who
1971 Look at Yourself - Uriah Heep
1971 To the Highest Bidder - Supersister
1971 American Pie - Don McLean
1971 Meddle - Pink Floyd
1971 Focus II (Moving Waves) - Focus
1971 Nursery Cryme - Genesis
1971 Song of the Marching Children - Earth and Fire
1971 Hunky Dory - David Bowie

For me the peak is more in the 1973-1975 range - possibly because I really got interested in pop/rock in 1973.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Fifty years ago I was waiting to start my sophomore year in college. My roommate (for all four years as it turned out) had had a handful of classical albums - I liked the Brandenburgs the most - but I don’t recall having purchased any myself. But that started in the fall - romantic concerto warhorses and Beethoven symphonies. Then more and more and more . . .


Edit: SanAntone - we should meet. I bought my first Harnoncourt albums in my sophomore year: the Bach B Minor and the Orchestra Suites.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Fifty years ago, I was a fetus. My parents tell me that during a performance of the musical HAIR, the cast came into the audience and blessed me in her very pregnant belly.....

.....it's been downhill ever since.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> ^
> 
> I've always been jealous of people who were around in that era when all this great music was hot off the press.
> 
> Isn't interesting that the golden age of rock (1955-85) arguably is exactly contemporaneous with the golden age of classical recordings?


I rather liked 90s rock. As for 90s classical recordings, uh, there was a golden age of Mozart compilations?

(and to be fair some big advances in HIP recordings, and some classics from the big names of the day, like Abbado and Boulez)


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Olias said:


> Fifty years ago, I was a fetus. My parents tell me that during a performance of the musical HAIR, the cast came into the audience and blessed me in her very pregnant belly.....


We are almost the same age then, but my parents were not hippies and didn't attend HAIR, so I don't think I got to listen to that much music in the womb.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> ^
> 
> I've always been jealous of people who were around in that era when all this great music was hot off the press.
> 
> Isn't interesting that the golden age of rock (1955-85) arguably is exactly contemporaneous with the golden age of classical recordings?


This all depends. In my case, as a high-end "Gen Xer" I guess you could say that I caught the tail end of the era you describe (I was a teenager in the early 1980s). Even so, with the exception of the Beatles, I never liked much Rock music. Like other boys my age, I had the stereo system complete with cinder block rack, but while they were blasting rap music and heavy metal, I was blasting Richard Strauss' _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ and Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_; so in essence, _Zarathustra_ and _Rite_ was my own heavy metal and rap music it that it coincided with my adolescent, coming-of-age state of rebellion and identity crisis.















In those days, I relied heavily on CBS and RCA budget lines of reissues from the "Golden Age" to which you speak. Though I didn't know it back then, I was building the foundation to a classical music collection that featured the finest musicians and orchestras that the United States (and maybe the world) had to offer with the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Arturo Toscanini, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner, Vladimir Horowitz, Rudolf Serkin, Glenn Gould, Isaac Stern, Jascha Heifetz, and many others in my arsenal.

On the other hand, the late 1990s through the 2000s also ushered in a very important phase of in my classical music experience because of NAXOS and especially the _American Classics_ series. Ives, Copland, and Barber were well-recorded during the "Golden Age", as was Bernstein who recorded his own compositions himself. Other very fine American composers such as Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, William Schuman, Walter Piston, Alan Hovhaness, Lou Harrison, Ned Rorem, George Frederick McKay, Paul Creston, Ulysses Kay, George Rochberg, Adolphus Hailstork, Joseph Schwantner, Elliott Carter, and Ellen Taafe Zwillich were only very occasionally recorded by the likes of those "Golden Age" conductors; and what recordings were made were almost never reissued, so that the recordings I found of things such as William Schuman's lovely _Song of Orpheus_; Alan Hovhaness' loud and wild, _Symphony #19 "Vishnu"_, and Schwantner's reverent _New Morning for the World_; were things I was lucky enough to stumble upon in at a yard sale, a flea market, thrift shop, a used record store, or used book store.






















With the exception of Scott Joplin, African-American composers such as William Grant Still,Florence Price, Ulysses Kay, and Adophus Hailstork were almost never recorded unless it was part of a _Black Composers_ series; likewise American women composers such as Gloria Coates, Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwillich, and (again) Florence Price were also almost never recorded unless it was part of a _Best of Woman Composers_ sort of thing. This situation has also changed for the better.

So, yeah, the "Golden Age" was great, but the 1990s and 2000s has been pretty great too, in that NAXOS and some other classical music labels have delivered so much more variety in regards to our own American musical heritage.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

On Topic: Classical Music in 1971 (cut 'n' paste 'n' edit from Wikipedia)

*1971 Premieres*

György Ligeti,	Concert românesc
Karlheinz Stockhausen,	Sternklang
Karlheinz Stockhausen,	Trans

*Compositions*

Malcolm Arnold - Viola Concerto with small orchestra
Gavin Bryars - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Elliott Carter - String Quartet No. 3
George Crumb - Lux Aeterna for soprano, bass flute/soprano recorder, sitar, and percussion (two players)
George Crumb - Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano
Mario Davidovsky - Chacona for violin, cello, and piano
Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel
Lorenzo Ferrero - Primavera che non vi rincresca
Jørgen Jersild - Three Danish Romances
Mauricio Kagel - Staatstheater
Ladislav Kupkovic - Klanginvasion auf Bonn
Helmut Lachenmann - Gran Torso for string quartets
Jean Langlais - Concerto for Organ no 3 "Reaction"
Luigi Nono - Ein Gespenst geht um in der Welt
Arvo Pärt - Symphony No. 3
Steve Reich - Drumming
Aulis Sallinen - Symphony No.1
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Sternklang
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Trans
Iannis Xenakis - Antikhthon, ballet for orchestra
Iannis Xenakis - Aroura, for string ensemble of 12 players
Iannis Xenakis - Charisma, for clarinet and cello
Iannis Xenakis - Mikka, for violin
Iannis Xenakis - Persépolis, 8-track tape music

*Opera*

Alberto Ginastera - Beatrix Cenci 
Hans Werner Henze - Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer
Lee Hoiby - Summer and Smoke
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Yerma

I can confidently say that I've likely never heard ANY of these works, although I HAVE heard of several of the composers.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Feldman - Rothko Chapel is essential listening. (and no, it's not six hours long)

Reich - Drumming as well, though you need minimalism tolerance.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Brahmsianhorn said:


> I've always been jealous of people who were around in that era when all this great music was hot off the press.


It was an incredibly creative and free time for rock music for a short few years. So many bands churning out melodious music and everybody had their own sound for the most part. My ear was always glued to the radio. I didn't have any money to buy albums prior to the mid 70s so I had to settle for a K-tel compilation record of two minute edit versions of the hot tunes.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Fifty years ago I was one year away from attending my first three gigs (a bit of a cheat as they were in 1972) they were funded by working a paper round in the mornings and twice a week evening collecting for a charity lotto company - carrying cash as a 13/14 year old would be unthinkable these days.

Slade/ Sleaze Band - Dundee Caird Hall

Groundhogs/ Stray / Gentle Giant - Dundee Caird Hall

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Greens Playhouse, Glasgow.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Malx said:


> Fifty years ago I was one year away from attending my first three gigs (a bit of a cheat as they were in 1972) they were funded by working a paper round in the mornings and twice a week evening collecting for a charity lotto company - carrying cash as a 13/14 year old would be unthinkable these days.
> 
> Slade/ Sleaze Band - Dundee Caird Hall
> 
> ...


*17 November 1972
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Greens Playhouse, Glasgow

Setlist*

Hoedown (Aaron Copland cover)
Tarkus
The Endless Enigma
The Sheriff
Take a Pebble
Lucky Man
Piano Improvisation
Take a Pebble
Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky cover)
Nutrocker (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky cover)
Blue Rondo à la Turk (The Dave Brubeck Quartet cover)

Damn.


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