Maybe not many new ones totally unrecognized today, but recognized ones whose works are no longer being played and are known mainly to musicologists. With this proviso: that if artists of the last 300 years were all given the same opportunities to make their music known as more recent ones have been having, then more good musicians would be known better. So, in answer to a precise question my most precise answer would be: Probably much the same as now. Plenty of harpsichord, piano and violin music recordings from the 60s -70s … To make up for this, to some extent, there is a selection of Debussy compositions recorded by Debussy in rolls of pianola, in this Part I thread, and also here there is a selection of early 1920 – 1930 great tenors singing short pieces, mostly famous arias (do a search for “Caruso” with Ctrl+F)Īlso quite a bit of music, including opera snatches and also complete ones recorded in the 1950s – 60s. How could it be the ancient music played in the first great city ever: Sumerian Ur? I believe that Thomas Tallis, an English composer and organist, was of that period last century’s professional musicians and good composers (like Vaughan Williams) appreciated what he did in his day as being truly great music.īut most of the very old music will not be appreciated properly. I thought this Part I of the “classical” thread was closed so I have kept this thing going with some help from other music lovers in Part II, but it looks like it still is open for comments?Īnyway, I imagine that the one thing that would happen is that great musicians of let’s say 500 or 1000 or 5000 years ago would be playing a kind of music unfamiliar to most of us and practically impossible, in consequence, to compare fairly with music of the “modern” era, let’s say from the days of Bach and Vivaldi, more than three centuries ago, to the present … Well, there is Gregorian chanting back several centuries that it still is being sang, because the Catholic Church has been very determined to having it around, so there are people keen on this sort of thing that might be able to judge how good, or not so good a performance of it is. I still might be pleasantly surprised, who knows. OK, the deed is done, now let’s wait and see if anything more ever happens here. The way perhaps, as the old saying goes, “Angels play Bach to God (and Mozart to each other)”: However, this is my own favorite recording, because her playing is so simple, so clear and, well, so right. And of transcriptions for several different instruments, some scored by the likes of Brahms and some played by artists with names like Andrés Segovia on guitar, for example. I have recordings of this particular piece by some of the greatest performers of the XX Century, some still alive and playing today, some, sadly, no longer so on one, or even both counts. For more reference, she is a Virginian and hails from that state’s Appalachian Piedmont, in the USA. This second example is 17 minutes’ long and is from the breakout album that brought its then sixteen-year old performer to world attention and marked the start of her brilliant international career, one she is still at with continuing success. And without doing a lot of watching, at that: This first one is 24 minutes’ long and remarkable for the beautiful and sensitive playing, but more than that, also for the fact that, unlike what is common practice when playing chamber music, the two performers not only do not have the score in front of them, to help stay in sync, but the cellist keeps his eyes shut pretty much throughout, so it is up to the pianist to watch him, now and then, to keep both going together. If you dare go in there, then make sure the Ad Blocker is fully on, so you can enjoy all the beautiful notes, chords and melodies without having to consider toilet cleaning products as well. They are among my favorites, and the many ecstatic comments and their two million-plus views each might give some support to that. To open up proceedings, besides choosing a hard-hitting title I hope will provoke some people to react at all, here are two links to an equal number of not very long performances by good musicians, posted on YouTube. That conversation I just mentioned was completely off topic, but maintained enthusiastically by several of us, until KP blew her whistle and the concurrence adjourned sine die and in a hurry (although Wavy made up for that, to some extent, by starting a thread on PDQ Bach, also in “Fun Stuff”.) Now, I don’t expect this topic to set Woody’s on fire (although one never knows here.) But one discussion earlier on gives me a glimmer of hope this shan’t be a totally wasted effort. It’s been a slow day, and suddenly, as it nears its end, I ‘ve had this idea of “Classical Music” being a topic for a new thread in “Fun Stuff”.
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