Let the Games Begin: The Classical Music Draft, Part I

[Sachsen]

sachsen, do we get a paragraph or two to lobby for our draft choices?

No one's stopping ya ;)

[YankHibee]

Rather surprised this hasn't gone yet, especially because it might have been hinted at earlier...I'll now take Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barber_of_Seville

I think this was the first opera I attended as a kid, and even as a child, I enjoyed it.

[Sachsen]

This last draft was painful to make. So many good selections have to be left out. But in the end, I realized I hadn't picked anything written in the last 50-60 years, and so went with a work written by an Armenian-Scottish-American in 1970.

"Free rhythmless vibrational passages, each string player playing independently, suggest waves in a vast ocean sky. Undersea mountains rise and fall in horns, trombones, and tuba. Music of whales also rises and falls like mountain ranges. Song of whale emerges like a giant mythical sea bird. Man does not exist, has not yet been born in the solemn oneness of Nature."

The above words were written by the composer, to describe this work, featuring some of the most majestic soloists on Earth: humpbacked whales...


http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/images/humpbacks4_300_small.jpg


And God Created Great Whales for orchestra and whalesong, by Alan Hovhaness

Best to listen to this work with the lights out and your eyes closed. Imagine yourself hovering, tossed gently by the underwater currents, in the midst of the ocean... and suddenly... out of the gloom... a gigantic THING appears, moving gracefully through the waves. And another... and another... and suddenly -- they begin to SING to each other...

I dare you to listen to this and not get goosebumps. In fact, it's almost downright frightening in places. Awe-inspiringly so.

[Sachsen]

I'm going to bed. I won't update the Big Board again until the end.

DoctorD, Haole, Norsk Troll, Iceblink, scottinkc, Karl K, sachsen, Smiley321, and sardus_pater are finished.

PENDING PICKS:
Ghost: 5,8,9,10
GringoTex: 6-10
Michael K.: 6-10
Sbry: 6-10
NGV: 8-10
YankHibee: 8-10
Panfilo: 9-10

EDIT: I sent a PM to all those with picks remaining. Hopefully we can commence voting before the weekend.

[Norsk Troll]

And God Created Great Whales for orchestra and whalesong, by Alan Hovhaness.When waffling over my last pick, if I had gone American, it was down to Copland, Hovhaness or one other composer not yet picked. It wasn't the same Hovhaness piece, but you're not alone in thinking of him.

[DoctorD]

Rather surprised this hasn't gone yet, especially because it might have been hinted at earlier...I'll now take Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barber_of_Seville

I think this was the first opera I attended as a kid, and even as a child, I enjoyed it.Great Bugs Bunny flick as well!

[Iceblink]

Sachsen, when you update the final big board... make sure you include my 8th pick. You skipped it when you put my 9th pick in.

I'm pretty sure I've made all 10.

Thanks.

[scottinkc]

am I the only one taking this thing a little TOO seriously???

While probably not as seriously as you, I found that this little draft has made me rethink some music that I'd always considered my favorites. For example: I had intended to choose a certain late-Romantic composer's 80+ minute symphony. When I actually sat down to re-listen to it, I found that there was only about 25 minutes that I actually liked, and the rest I had found pretty boring.

I can't believe Yanni hasn't been taken yet.

or Kenny G, or that guy with the pan pipes ...

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

I thought of this about 2 hours after I made my Cosi pick. Would have been a better Mozart choice for me.

And God Created Great Whales for orchestra and whalesong, by Alan Hovhaness

I've always wondered how they get the whale into the concert hall.

[DoctorD]

or Kenny G, or that guy with the pan pipes ...
The there's that other guy that I don't want to mention for fear some fool will take him. You know, the New Age guy who never met a song in 3, 6, 9, or 12/8 time he didn't like.

[Sachsen]

Sachsen, when you update the final big board... make sure you include my 8th pick. You skipped it when you put my 9th pick in.

I'm pretty sure I've made all 10.

Thanks.

Got it, thanks.

[Sachsen]

bmurphyfl has graciously agreed to be the collector and counter of votes. He will be away from his computer on Saturday and Sunday. I propose we allow those who have not completed their picks have another day or two to get them in, and then we start voting. We'll have the results Monday, probably.

[Panfilo]

I seriously had trouble with this pick.

I wanted something different

Something that had not been done yet.

While watching an old tape of the 86' WC game between France and Brazil. It came to me.

These anthems are freakin' brilliant and one of the most recognizable pieces of music there is.

I couldn't make up my mind on which one to do, but remembering that someone had already taken 1812 Overture. I decided to make this my

9th Pick- "Hino Nacional Brasileiro" Music by Francisco Manoel da Silva and words by Joaquim Osorio Duque Estrada.

I just can't imagine a Verde Amarella game without listening to this song.

For some reason it just resonates Brasil. Even though it is strongly influence by Italian music.

[Panfilo]

Ok

10th pick- "Fantaisie-Impromptu" by Frederic Chopin


Fabulous piano piece by one of the masters of the genre.

He shockingly hated the piece.

Too bad, because it is f'n brilliant.

I still think Liszt is the best on piano, but Chopin deserved a spot on my list.

[NGV]

Finally, a chance to get back to the draft.

For my eighth selection, I choose the Intermezzo Op. 118, No.2 in A major by Johannes Brahms.

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwnzpq/pics/brahmsa.jpg

This piece, written a few years before the end of the composer's life, is possibly my favorite keyboard work of the Romantic era. It's pretty well known, but not as well known as it should be (mostly due to the unmemorable title, I think).

The whole piece is beautiful, but above all the stunning middle section in F# minor (featuring Brahms' trademark three-against-two rhythm). There's no virtuosity here, and none needed - just master craftsmanship and pure poetry.

I don't have a particular recording to suggest, but make sure to find an interpretation that's slow, has some rubato, and lets the music breathe. The worst thing you can do with Brahms is play like a machine.

Picks nine and ten will be up tomorrow.

[scottinkc]

So are we supposed to vote now, or what?

[Sachsen]

So are we supposed to vote now, or what?

I'll update the Big Board tonight. Let's commence voting at 11:31am Greenwich Mean Time on Sunday, Oct. 1.

In the meantime, let's start shilling for votes! Try to convince me why your draft deserves my vote.

[Sachsen]

Summary of my draft:

1. G. Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
2. W.A. Mozart Die Zauberflöte
3. J.S. Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier
4. L.v. Beethoven Symphony No. 6
5. Hildegard v. Bingen Symphonia armonie celestium revelationem
6. G. Holst The Planets Suite
7. A. Borodin In the Steppes of Central Asia
8. J. Sibelius Violin Concerto
9. O. Respighi The Pines of Rome
10. A. Hovhaness And God Created Great Whales

It's a little top-heavy on the 20th century, like so:
Pre-1700 - 1
1700-1750 - 1
1750-1800 - 1
1800-1850 - 1
1850-1900 - 1
1900-1950 - 4
1950-2006 - 1

That was a little surprising to me; I guess I like the music from the first half of the last century even more than I thought. I wanted to take a Latin composer - either from Spain or from South or Central America, but it didn't work out. Also wanted a Frenchman and probably would have picked Saint-Saëns but Smiley321 beat me to him, so I decided to pick composers that hadn't been drafted yet with my last two selections. That said, I think I'm pretty diverse nationally:
American - 2
German/Austrian - 4
English - 1
Russian - 1
Finnish - 1
Italian - 1

I've got the oldest work and the first female composer picked (Hildegard) in one pick, and the only person to select two works with recorded animal sounds in them! I've got a symphony, a concerto, an opera, a religious work, a few tone poems, and the genre-busting Rhapsody in Blue. I didn't duplicate any composers (a raspberry to those of you who picked multiple Beethoven and Bach.) ;)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a vote for my draft is a vote for truth, justice, and the American way. Amen.

[NGV]

For my ninth pick I take The Marriage of Figaro by W.A. Mozart.

http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/fgp11/images/LE_NOZZE_DI_FIGARO_K492-1.gif

Not much introduction should be needed for this one - it's my favorite opera, and a work of genius from the overture (pictured above) to the end.

[NGV]

And for my last pick, I take Nymphes de Bois (Deploration sur la mort de Johannes Ockeghem) by Josquin Des Prez.

http://www.ac-dijon.fr/pedago/music/bac2001/chansons/nympnot3.gif

An incredible piece by (in my opinion) the greatest composer of the Renaissance. Set to a poem by Jean Molinet, this motet-chanson is a lament for the death of the famous composer Johannes Ockeghem. The first part of the piece consists of lush harmonies and imitative counterpoint, and employs the "Requiem aeternam" plainchant as a cantus firmus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_firmus) in the tenor voice. That part is extraordinary in its own right, but for me the most powerful part of the piece is the end. There, the music becomes austere and the tenor drops out, accompanying the text:

Clothe yourself in deepest mourning,
Josquin, Brumel, Pierchon, Compère,
And from your eyes shed a flood of tears;
For your good father now is lost.

The musical setting of the names of the mourners (Josquin and three other composers) is particularly moving, as is that of the "Requiescat in pace, Amen" that closes the piece. In the five hundred years since this piece was composed, I don't know of any music that has surpassed it as an expression of mourning.

[Norsk Troll]

In the meantime, let's start shilling for votes! Try to convince me why your draft deserves my vote.My program speaks for itself.

1. L.v. Beethoven Symphony No. 9
2. R. Wagner Tristan und Isolde
3. G. Mahler Symphony No. 8
4. E. Grieg Incidental Music to Peer Gynt
5. P.I. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
6. G. Verdi Otello
7. R. Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
8. R. Strauss Der Rosenklavier
9. G. Puccini La Bohème
10. M. Ravel Daphnis et Chloe