Why didn't I see this post sooner! Jesus! LOL
Well, as a classical musician (piano since 5, and percussion since 7 - attended Interlochen Arts Camp 95-98 and Interlochen Arts Academy 95-99 and now debating whether or not to do classical music as my career....here goes ( you lucky people get to put up with this!)
My classical composer favorites range anywhere from the Gregorian Chant stuff to the modern composer, including my own Doctoral Candidate brother at The Julliard School, Matthew Fuerst.
Frankly, as a percussionist, I prefer the more late Romantic or 20th Century Composers the most. They write more percussion and to me, have some of the greatest score writing I have heard.
Take for instance Mahler. Gustav Mahler. The man is a genius. What he did for Classical music is what Led Zeppelin did for Rock. He revolutionized it bigtime! Ya ya, you think how. Well for many reasons. For the first time, symphonies were written in a grand massive scale. I mean huge! Yea, I know you say, Beethoven wrote huge symphonies. True, but nothing like Mahler. Let me explain.
First of all, Mahler incorporated HUGE orchestras in his writing. Including in one of his later symphonies a full 14 piece Horn section!! He also use two timpani players in his pieces, which was unheard of, save for Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique. With that, the offstage brass band in the last movement of his second symphony the Ressurection. Another point about that...during that section, in the scoring, the Brass Band is in a different tempo and time signature than the Orchestra. It fits, when you listen, as it sounds like they are playing in time. BUt when you look at the score, it is bizzare - for back then - two different time signatures.
Also included in this is group would be Stravinsky. Igor Stravinsky. The man behind the messed up writings. His Rite of Spring was booed and turned down at the premiere. It was so out there! For 1914, it was wierdest thing anyone ever heard, especially with the scantilly clad ballet dancers. He used such disonant writings in his piece that it blew everyone away. Though, to me, is writing is fantastic! That is considered a masterpiece today.
But to sum it all up, my favorite composer would have to be Dmitri Shostakovich. I swear, if I was gay, I was his gay lover in the old days. This man, for one, had his life on the line by Stalin. Stalin pretty much told him what he could and couldn't write. The famous fifth symphony was said to be anti-communism in Stalin's eyes. And he threatened Shostakovich to shape up or else he would die. The 4th mvt of that sympohony was too slow and had to be sped up, but now adays, orchestras play it at the right tempo. His score writing is phenominal. Great brass parts. Interesting string parts. And of course, he KNEW how to write percussion.
The 7th Symphony subtitled "Leningrad" is a portrait of the Nazi's siezing Leningrad. It is very descriptive and you can hear them marching into Leningrad and taking it over. (Incidentally, Shostakovich uses a theme from Bartok's 4th mvt of his Concerto for Orchestra to use as the theme for the Nazi's march that repeats over and over for a whole 10 minutes).
His 10th Symphony, was a portrait of Stalin. After Stalin died, Shostakovich was free to write whatever he wished. And the second mvt, is a very strict portait of his anger for Stalin, and his hatred (check it out!)
His 11th Symphony, subtitled "The Year: 1905" is a depicition of the Russian Revolution, the tzar being overthrown. This is my favorite piece. It was one of the last pieces I did at Interlochen. And everyone cried at the end. It is so powerful. In the second mvt, the citizens go to pay homage to the tzar (which is very true) and they didn't know he wasn't home. A trumpet call sounds and these guards surround some 200-300 citizens and masacre all of them. (and it is pictured so perfectly in the music).
I know I went on, and I could go on longer. Classical music is my passion, my life. But for the sake of your eyes, I will end here. If you'd like to discuss more about this, email me
U2Interlochen@aol.com
Latas
