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Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 30, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The classical era was very short, typically starting with the death of Bach (1750) and ending with Beethoven's 3rd (1803). Lipinski would be a romantic composer, almost certainly, while Ornstein was more avant-garde. Listen to the piece you linked, there's little classical about it. This isn't just pedantry: if I asked you to play classical music, I'd accept romantic, even impressionistic, but this Allegro Barbaro, or the more famous one would barely count. I'd be upset if you played Schoenberg or Berg, because they aren't classical at all. God forbid you play Penderecki, I'd revoke your aux cable privileges.

Similarly, I'd be surprised if you played Zefiro Torna, because Monteverdi was too early to be Classical, or even Baroque.

Classical, or rather neoclassical, would be Stravinsky's Sonata for Two Pianos (I like the 2nd movement best), but not his Rite of Spring (linked elsewhere).

I am quite partial to Beethoven 5, but my favorite part isn't in the fantastic first movement, it's the transition from movement 3 to 4, and the recap of the same within m.4. There's nothing quite like landing on that C Major arpeggio in the full, glorious triumph or the brass section.

I'll suggest two pieces I haven't yet seen, from one composer you've heard of in the neoclassical style, and one you probably haven't that's either neoromantic or minimalist, depending on your tastes.

Stravinsky - Pulcinella Suite

Vladimir Martynov - Come In!

Seriously, check out Martynov's work. I can't recommend it enough.

One more minimalmist piece from the 21st century, Ludovico Einaudi - Fly. Another from Eric Whitacre, Cloudburst.

Most of this, but not all, is from my 20th century music history notes. I can transcribe the listening list later if there's interest.

Like it or not, the term "classical" has become the term used to describe all music that emanates from the European art tradition, from Gregorian Chant to John Cage and beyond. Several other terms to describe this overarching meta-genre have been proposed, but none have really stuck. Art Music and Legitimate Music come with the implication that other kinds of music are somehow of lesser value, and can be confusing to the general public. Professor Feinberg from the Great Courses Series uses the term European Concert Music, which is probably the best term from a purely semantic point of view (it comes from Europe, was intended to be performed publicly rather than privately [as with folk music], and doesn't contain any implied superiority), but it's a mouthful and hasn't been widely adopted. Furthermore, the term "classical" has also been widely used to describe music that comes out of similar traditions from other parts of the world, e.g. Indian Classical Music or Chinese Classical Music.

not classical

Indeed, it is "classical". Those are load bearing quotation marks!

listening list

Gladly!

Credit to my wife for keeping the syllabus in a nicely organized binder.

Impressionism: 1890 - 1920

Claude Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894)
Claude Debussy - Reflections in the Water (from Images 1905)
Claude Debussy - The Sunken Cathedral (#10 of Preludes, Book 1; 1909)
Lily Boulanger - In an Infinite Sadness (1916)
Lily Boulanger - Spring Morning (orchestral version; 1918)
Marion Bauer - "Druids" (m.2 of Three Impressions) (1917-1918)
Maurice Ravel - Water Games, or, Fountains (Jeux d'eau) (1901)
Maurice Ravel - Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2 (1912)

Four Revolutionary Works: c.1910
Bela Bartok - Allegro Barbaro (1911)
Igor Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps / The Rite of Spring (1913)
Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire / Pierrot in the Moonlight (1912)
Charles Ives - Fourth of July (1913)

Satie and 'Les Six': from 1920
Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No. 1 (1888)
Darius Milhaud - Sonatine for Clarinet and Piano (1927)
Germaine Tailleferre - Outdoor Games (1919)
Francis Poulenc - Festive Holiday (1943)
Francis Poulenc - Gloria (1959)

AURAL EXAM #1 INCLUDES ALL PRECEDING WORKS

Second Viennese School: 1900 - 1945
Anton Webern - Five Pieces for Orchestra (Op. 10; 1913)
Alban Berg - Wozzeck (1921)
Anton Webern - Wie bin ich Froh! / How Happy I Am (op. 25 #1; 1935)
Arnold Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra (Op. 31; 1928)
Alban Berg - Violin Concerto (1935)

Neo-Classicism: from 1920
Igor Stravinksy - Soldier's Tale (1917)
Igor Stravinksy - Pulcinella Suite (Orchestral version; 1920)
Igor Stravinksy - Symphony of Psalms (1930)
Igor Stravinksy - Sonata for Two Pianos
Bela Bartok - String Quartet #4 (1928)
Bela Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936)
Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra (1944)
Paul Hindemith - Nobilissima Visione (1938)

AURAL EXAM 2

Nationalism: 1900-1950
England
Ralph Vaugn Williams - The Lark Ascending (1914)
Ralph Vaughn Williams - Serenade to Music
Gustav Holst - Mars, from The Planets (1914-1917)
Rebecca Clarke - Passacaglia (1943)
Rebecca Clarke - The Aspidistra (1929)
Benjamin Britten - War Requiem (1961)
Benjamin Britten - Peter Grimes (1945)
Benjamin Britten - Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings (1943)
Russia
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Concerto #3 (1922)
Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony #5 (1944)
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony #5 (1937)
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet #8 (1960)
Germany
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana (1936)
Eastern Europe
Bela Bartok - Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm from Mikrokosmos Vol. VI (1926)
Zoltan Kodaly - Psalmus Hungaricus (1923)
South America
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Bachiana Brasileira No. 5 (1938)
Alberto Ginastera - Estancia (1941)
Spain
Manuel de Falla - Ritual Fire Dance from Love, the Magician (1915)
Mexico
Carlos Chavez - Sinfonia India (1936)

AURAL EXAM 3

United States - Nationalism Continued
George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings (1936)
Samuel Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947)
Aaron Copland - The Cat and the Mouse (c.1920)
Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)
Aaron Copland - The World Feels Dusty, from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1949)
Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (1944)
Aaron Copland - Hoe-Down from Rodeo (1942)
Leonard Bernstein - Candide Overture (1956)

The Second Avant-Garde: 1945 - 1975
John Cage - Root of an Unfocus (1944)
Elliot Carter - Woodwind Etude #7 (1950)
Mario Davidovsky - Synchronism No. 1 (1963)
Kryzystof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
George Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children (1970)

Minimalism, Neoromaniticism, and other current trends
Steve Reich - Come Out (1966)
Phillip Glass - Glassworks (1982)
Phillip Glass - Satyagraha (1980)
John Adams - Nixon in China (1987)
John Adams - Lollapalooza (1995)
Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 (1976)
John Corigliano - Pied Piper Fantasy (1980)
Gwyneth Walker - An American Concerto (1995)
Arvo Part - Fratres (1992)
Arvo Part - Rejoice, O Mother of God (1990)
Kryzystof Penderecki - Lacrimosa (1980)
Vladimir Martynov - Come In! (1988)
Eric Whitacre - When David Heard (1999)

AURAL EXAM 4

I only linked one song, because that's the only one that where I care about the performance. Listen to the Susan Pickett version of An American Concerto. The rest should be easily found through searches.

Going through, some of my favorites include the two John Adams works (I am the wife of Mao Tse-Tung, I speak according to the bo-OK, the bo-OK!), the Martynov I mentioned earlier, Fratres, and Satyagraha. I also quite liked Come Out, but I wouldn't call it classical music at all. It's recorded loops that slowly go out of sync (I let the bruise blood come out to show them, Come out to show them, Come out to show them).

That should keep you going for a while. I can do the 19th century list next, but it's going to be a lot more of what you've already had suggested. Yes, Beethoven 3 and 5 and 9, and Mahler and Wagner.

I think you’re confusing the Classical Period of classical music with classical music as an overarching genre. The latter encompasses everything from Gregorian chant to John Williams.

If I asked for Romantic music, or Impressionist music, or Avant Garde music, or Baroque music, I would be asking for music from those periods.