The Classical Music thread

[Caversham Green]

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I'm not actually that big a fan of Mozart, I find it a bit too clinical,

Picking out just this bit, I think Mozart's music was very much 'of its time'. Given they were near contemporaries, a comparison with Beethoven's stuff shows how much passion and movement LvB put into his music, and just how much of a shock he must have been at the time.

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Not much about the relationship between classical and Christmas so far, so I thought I'd throw this in.

I'm particularly fond of modal scales outwith the ones that have been dominant in most music ever since somewhere in the 17th century.

The aforementioned Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of my favourite composers,was a particular fan too and reinterpreted a lot of of early English music (by early I mean 16th century) into pieces for orchestra, or often smaller ensembles. The reinterpretations were a mixture of 16th century religious choral music (Thomas Tallis primarily) and English folksong, which were written in those different modal scales.

What appears to be one such piece is the hauntingly beautiful 'Herefordshire Carol' - the date of the original folk carol can't be established but it gives a flavour of what those modal progressions sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpyd6fP1HA



The other absolute favourite of mine is 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen' - again, undated, but probably 16th century in origin. It's the last verse that does it for me in particular. The basses and tenors (the mens' voices) sing the verse, while the sopranos and altos (the boys' voices) perform this wonderful choral descant over the top - spine-tingling stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcXhyFA8BwQ



Just to give a taster of Thomas Tallis (not a Christmas carol though!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cQoE4yb7NM



Finally, having given all these a recent listen, it struck me that I recognised something in them that related to a previous post!

I had commended Sibelius's 2nd Symphony, particularly the second movement - written at the very start of the 20th century, it nevertheless has several parts that reflect the less obvious modes. It's a bit Christmassy because when the high woodwinds come in, it's the soundtrack of driving in the dark, in snow to me :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uONK9yUyRq0

Can't talk about Christmas music without mentioning Prokofiev's troika from Lieutenant Kije - ably borrowed by Greg lake for one of my favourite Christmas singles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GUzJ7fQBtg

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I should add that I was going to try and explain the theory of modes in more detail as it helps to understand why the music sounds the way it does, but I soon realised my ambition exceeded my rather hazy and tenuous memory of Higher Music too long ago.

I sort of vaguely understand it but have no idea how to explain it in simple terms other than when you hear something in a different mode, you just know straight away - it just sounds different in its entirety. Essentially the gaps in pitch between the notes in a scale are different for every mode, but I think there's more to it than that.

I suspect Peevemor would probably do a far better job

I'm not sure if it's exactly what you mean (I'm not technically minded as far as music is concerned), but 'Valse Triste' by Sibelius is a real conflict of moods - the generally happy waltz timing done in a key that give a sad feel to it.

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If we are talking opera, I'll throw John Adams into the mix. He's an American composer, maybe in his seventies now, who wrote music in a very particular style - it's Marmite, I suspect you either like it or you don't, but you recognise it straight away.

Possibly his best opera was Nixon in China, a view on the-then groundbreaking visit of President Richard Nixon to China in 1972, a huge shift in power relations during the throes of the Cold War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4us9pD3PB0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzAUyt_LYlU

From what I've heard of Adams he's very much like Marmite to me - can't make up my mind if I like it or not.