The Music Thread

The Music Thread

KevinJS

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I've had this one running on iPadForums for a while, and thought that members here might like to join in.

I know we already have a thread for posting what you are listening to on your phone, but the intention of this one is a bit different. It's not so much about what you are listening to as why are you listening to it.

What is the back story? What is interesting about the composition, or the composer? What is special about this piece of music, either in historical or personal terms? Include as much or as little information as you want. I'll start with a cut and paste job of one of my own posts.

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For years, I laboured under the misapprehension that Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" was the first commercially available CD. I was wrong. It was actually the first album to sell more copies on CD than it did on vinyl. Whatever the truth may be, it's a fine album.

So what was the first commercially available CD?

It was Abba's "The Visitors" which I'm listening to right now.


It is unfortunate that this was the band's last album. They had taken the world by storm after a somewhat shaky start as the winners of 1974's Eurovision Song Contest, a competition which is infamous for cutting short the musical careers of its winners.

In fact, Eurovision was not their start. They were quite well established in Sweden as performers who actually performed in Swedish, rather than English, as was more fashionable.

However, as fame caught hold, they succumbed to temptation, switched to English, and enjoyed a brilliant, if short, career as the original supergroup. They are credited with the invention of the music video. After being somewhat less than pleased at the performance of studio musicians on the BBCs Top Of The Pops they swore never to appear again on the show live, and instead supplied a video to accompany their seemingly never ending string of hits.

For me, The Visitors is far away from the pop roots of the group. The music, while instantly recognizable as Abba, has a thoughtful quality about it. The album was produced as the marriages of the band's members were dissolving, and political influences of the time also coloured the writing, resulting in a darker experience than was found in earlier albums. As always, the vocals of Agnatha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are clear and powerful, backed up by some superb musicianship from Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvæus.
 
For me it's Rock music and always has been, I like the rock music from way back, Rainbow, White Snake, Guns N Roses, Nazareth to name a few, I just never tire of hearing certain tracks over and over again, in particular the voice of Dan Mccafferty never fails to stir, me, He might be belting out some heavy duty rock or it might be his melodic side and he does both equally well, Which ever it is its magic.
 
For me.. classic rock. Aerosmith, The Eagles, Chicago, Rush, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, etc. There is just something about that era of rock & roll that captivates me and I never get tired of listening to it. Perhaps it's because this is the type of music that I grew up with.
 
I know where both of you are coming from. One of the first albums I ever bought was Deep Purple In Rock. Right now I'm listening to a live version of Child In Time from that album. The founders of two of Ivy's favourites had their roots in that band.

Rush is my favourite group of all time, and one of their tracks, Jacob's Ladder from Permanent Waves is inspired by Ma Vlast (My Land or My Country) by the Czech composer Smetna.

The GREAT rock bands were (and are) capable of putting out some incredibly melodic music as well as belting it out.
 
The GREAT rock bands were (and are) capable of putting out some incredibly melodic music as well as belting it out.
So true, Take Axel Rose of G N R, A friend of my hubby once described him as Him that wails like a banshee....But had he listened to Patience and Don't Cry maybe he would have had different take on him.
 
I feel there is a lot of "Art" in the old Rock & Roll.. listen to the instrumental at the end of Hotel California, by The Eagles, and you'll see what I mean. I must have listened to that song for two days straight the first time I heard it. And, the opening instrumentals of many of AC/DC songs.. simply amazing.
 
I feel there is a lot of "Art" in the old Rock & Roll.. listen to the instrumental at the end of Hotel California, by The Eagles, and you'll see what I mean. I must have listened to that song for two days straight the first time I heard it. And, the opening instrumentals of many of AC/DC songs.. simply amazing.

Now I just HAVE to listen to Hell Freezes Over.

"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation."
 
I feel there is a lot of "Art" in the old Rock & Roll.. listen to the instrumental at the end of Hotel California, by The Eagles, and you'll see what I mean. I must have listened to that song for two days straight the first time I heard it. And, the opening instrumentals of many of AC/DC songs.. simply amazing.
Another favorite track of mine is G N R's November Rain, The orchestral combined with Slash's always amazing guitar playing just gets me every time I play it, It's a master piece.
 
For me it's Rock music and always has been, I like the rock music from way back, Rainbow, White Snake, Guns N Roses, Nazareth to name a few, I just never tire of hearing certain tracks over and over again, in particular the voice of Dan Mccafferty never fails to stir, me, He might be belting out some heavy duty rock or it might be his melodic side and he does both equally well, Which ever it is its magic.

Saturday night belting out full blast,
I bet you neighbours must love you, fantastic,
While they are sitting there watching reruns of coronation street.


Gregory lsaacs r.i.p.
 
At the end of the Second World War there was very different treatment meted out to members of the defeated German hierarchy. With the Cold War already ramping up, America and Russia set about rounding up as many of Germany's rocket scientists as possible, offering them lucrative deals in return for uprooting and moving house. There was a roughly 50/50 split between the Peenemunde workers who ended up in Kazakhstan and those who ended up working for NASA. Luckily, America got von Neumann and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

So much for science. Art found itself under a far different, and much less pleasant, scrutiny. The Nazi party's favourite conductor, Herbert von Karajan, for example, had to undergo some quite stringent checks to ensure he had shed any sympathy towards his former benefactors before he was allowed to commence his work with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Similarly, Karl Orff came under scrutiny, and managed to convince his detractors that he had, in fact, been a member of a group that had attempted to spread anti-Nazi propaganda during the war. Whether that was true or not is difficult to ascertain, but regardless, Orff's name will forever be associated with his most famous work, Carmina Burana, which I'm listening to now. There can be few who are not familiar with at least part of the work. The opening, O Fortuna, which is reprised as a crashing finale, is one of those pieces that seems to pop up everywhere. It was most famously used in the movie The Omen, unfortunately. As far as I'm concerned, a piece of music that celebrates all that is good about life suddenly became associated with evil. It deserved better treatment.

The version I'm listening to is that conducted by Riccardo Muti with the Philharmonia Orchestra. It is notable in that it does not suffer from any attempt to artificially elevate or lower the volume. If it's meant to be soft, you have to strain to hear it. If it's meant to be loud, it tries to knock you over. The piece calls for a massive percussion section, 3 soloists, several choirs and a large orchestra.

I also have a couple of other versions including Seiji Ozawa's DVD version with the Berlin Phil. Kathleen Battle's incredible voice makes this my favourite. Here she is with Stetit Puella, from the section of the music entitled Cour D'Amours.

 
I just discovered something as I was listening to a piece written by a friend of mine.

The piece is called Arctic Circle and can be found here

It is from an album called Alberta.

Screen Shot 2016-10-17 at 11.28.08 PM.png


I hope anyone who follows the link enjoys the music as much as I do. I don't really see myself as "inspiring", but clearly there is one person who thinks differently.
 
"Stabat Mater Dolorosa"

The sorrowful mother stood weeping.

There are some pieces of music to which I keep returning. Stabat Mater by Karl Jenkins is one of them. Although the lyrics are clearly of religious inspiration, I don't find that they detract from the power and passion of the music. And while the general theme is of sadness, I find it uplifting and hopeful.

Jenkins is perhaps better known for his Adiemus project, which consisted of 5 albums using a syllabic structure devoid of actual language, in which the human voice became simply a musical instrument. There can be few who have not heard the piece "Adiemus" from the first of those albums, since it was extensively used in television advertising.

He is also father to Kathleen Jenkins, whose marvellous voice is well known.

 
Why is the official length of a music CD set at 74 minutes? Everyone knows that the format is capable of reliably holding and playing 80 minutes, so what prompted Sony and Philips to insist on 74 minutes as the maximum?

One possible answer is "The Ninth."

And in the above statement you have one of music's anchors. Few people would have trouble figuring out "which" Ninth I'm referring to. One of the great pieces, if not THE greatest piece ever composed.

It is probably not true that the length of a CD is based on the length of the performance of Beethoven's Choral symphony, since the length can vary quite dramatically depending on the conductor, but it's a good story.

Beethoven insisted on conducting the first performance himself. The performance took place in Vienna in 1824. By this time, the composer was completely deaf, and was aided by having a conductor off stage from whom the orchestra were taking their direction. At the end of the performance, the composer continued to "conduct" the orchestra, completely oblivious to the thunderous applause taking place behind him. One of the members of the orchestra turned him round to receive his applause.

It's easy to see why Stanley Kubrick chose the piece as one of the central themes of The Clockwork Orange. No other piece seems "important" enough to insinuate itself into the strange psyche of the central character.

Almost 200 years after its composition, the piece remains one of the most important, instantly recognizable pieces ever written, and I'm confident in predicting that it will remain so for the next 200 years, and beyond.

 
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