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Getting straight As and saying yes to authority, anyone with a high rank; history has taught me something else, where good men are silenced and killed. It taught me that the real world will never make sense unless you force it to.

Discovered Stravinsky's Firebird Suite the other day. Beautiful stuff (IMO).





Pretty.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

I've been listening to Mahler's "Titan" Symphony a lot recently, it might currently be my favourite symphony to listen to all the way through (there're individual movements from other symphonies I like more though).

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Recently got introduced to Mendelssohn's Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (crazy to think he was only 17 when he wrote it. ).

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Rediscovered the much underrated soundtrack to the much underrated movie "Conan the Barbarian" the other day, thought I'd share.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Since then, I've listened to it a lot more, and it's really grown on me. Probably one of the finest finales in music (IMO anyway, though I know it's one shared by many others).

Speaking of great finales:

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Just sharing some recent-ish discoveries from the anime world.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Angel of Doom



Giant Robo (<- ridiculously overlooked OVA) - Cataclysm Over Paris

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hey. I don't really have that much to add because you're all that much more comprehensive and erudite than myself as regards the whole classical music thing. And probably music in general. Although I will say that I absolutely love the Moonlight Sonata and Für Elise. Also Toccata and Fugue, and totally not just because it is the BGM when you fight Sho on Battle Arena Toshinden.

However, I have a question for you, DC. If you mention Nobuo Uematsu as having classical stylings, what are your opinions on Motoi Sakuraba? (I mean more from Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile in particular, not the synth/prog-rock stuff he seems fond of in later discographies. Though there's also plenty of that in the earlier stuff, I just think it's better.)

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We are beyond our own ability to define ourselves - we can only describe what we think we are.

I haven't played any of those games (though I'm sure I've got an old pirated copy of Star Ocean 2 lying around somewhere), so initially my opinion on Motoi Sakabura was "Who dat?"

I just had a bit of a listen to some of his stuff on youtube though, and for whatever my opinion's worth his stuff for the Star Ocean games seems like it might be orchestrate-able (to invent a term). So as far as that goes I'd say he probably has 'classical stylings' (even though I must admit it didn't really do anything for me). His stuff for Valkyrie Profile was more up my street, but probably less overtly classically minded - in fact it reminded me a lot of the weird techno-rock-classical mix the Secret of Mana soundtracks have.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

I'm heavily into opera, particularly Rossini and Meyerbeer. I love those whizzing, whirling ensembles, with everyone going ninety miles to the hour, and the lines flickering like lightning. Here are some of my favourites:

Rossini:
Cenerentola sextet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB14yuKef1s

Ricciardo e Zoraide quartet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnEirxsVuuI

Armida trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145PWYNLqpc

Bianca & Falliero quartet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IphF5TCJZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fskib472dYA


Meyerbeer:
The Blessing of the Swords: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSu2tCLfWKI
The love duet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmet9gV3NPA; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCzyEAbF-J4

Dinorah trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuTdHAD35SY

I also like Offenbach a lot, with his catchy rhythms. The scene in La Vie Parisienne in which all the guests get absolutely plastered is brilliant. Donizetti, Verdi, & Gounod are also very good. And Mozart, of course!

I went through a passionate Wagner phase a few years ago, but I'm really not sure about him; there are some extraordinary, deeply moving moments, but the operas are very slow and heavy (six hours!), and I don't like his personality. I'm also allergic to Tristan!

As for non-operatic classical music -I can't come to terms with Bach; everybody says he's a genius, but I find him very dry and arid. I'm not so keen on slow movements - I tend to get bored and have difficulty following the music (which may have something to do with being left-ear dominant).

I like the Russians (Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev), Mendelssohn, Haydn (who makes me laugh), Beethoven. Berlioz is absolutely fantastic - very imaginative. So I like exciting music with lots of colour and energy!

According to a blog I read on "Masaru Emoto's Water Crystal Experiment" the words "Thank You" pasted onto a bottle of water created frozen crystallized structures that were similar in appearance to those created when exposing water to Bach's Goldberg Variations - composed out of gratitude toward the person it was named after.

Thank you:

Bach:

Does the music sound grateful?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6984208089899995423#docid=5927842760047474056

Thank you for listening!

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Just sharing a couple of recent-ish discoveries.

Aaron Copland - The Promise of Living



John Foulds - April, England

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Promise of Living -

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It's one of my absolute favourites.

_________________
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins