Bad Ass Classical Music

[Nuzzolese]

Gustav Holst: Mars, Bringer of War; and Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity - both from The Planets Opus 32

Modest Mussorgsky: A Night on Bare Mountain

Serge Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 (The Montagues and Capulets)

Carl Orff: Introduction - Fortune, Empress of the World Nos. 1, 2 - From Carmina Burana

Max Richter: Last Days

Igor Stravinsky: Dance of the Young Girls; The Adoration of the Earth - Mock Abduction, from Le Sacre du Printemps

Camile Saint-Saens: Aquarium, from The Carnival of the Animals

Richard Wagner: Flight of the Valkyries

[Helvete]

Ah, excellent. I do really enjoy some classical music, but I never know what any of it is called! It's very hard to find out a lot of the stuff I like because:

1. Much of it is over a hundred years old
2. Some composers literally have HUNDREDS of pieces some with names only differing by a few numbers or letters
3. I'm really crap at knowing who composers are in the first place

So yes, thanks for these and any more recommendations would be appreciated! And I can't help but think of 'Intergalactic' when I hear Night on The Bare Mountain!

[Nuzzolese]

Ah, excellent. I do really enjoy some classical music, but I never know what any of it is called! It's very hard to find out a lot of the stuff I like because:

1. Much of it is over a hundred years old
2. Some composers literally have HUNDREDS of pieces some with names only differing by a few numbers or letters
3. I'm really crap at knowing who composers are in the first place

So yes, thanks for these and any more recommendations would be appreciated! And I can't help but think of 'Intergalactic' when I hear Night on The Bare Mountain!


I have the same troubles! And I can never remember what they're called either. Then it's hard to find it because it's not like you can hum a melody into google, right? I wish you could....

I love the Queen of the Night Solo from Mozart's Magic Flute. It's incredible. And I only know about it because I went to see it once. I didn't know what to call it other than that. Turns out it's an aria referred to as Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen. Like I can remember that!

Chances are, if you were impressed by it and you don't consider yourself a musical type, then other people were too, and it should be easy to locate.

[Helvete]

Yes, I am hardly a classical music aficionado but I do enjoy it.

Quite recently I was watching a war documentary from the 70s on TV and it was about the occupation of Holland, and it featured some classical song which had a very haunting opening to it. Having absolutely no idea what it was, I was able to locate the complete documentary on youtube, find the episode and the part where it was played. Took a few weeks for a reply but someone found it in the end!

Turns out it was Overture (Egmont Op 84) by Beethoven. Beethoven is of course very famous but this piece is over 200 years old and one of maybe 1000 of his works. So it's not like even knowing the composer would have helped find it.

I also enjoyed Symphony No. 7 - Allegretto also by Beethoven, featured in the film Knowing. Amazing piece I really love it. Something about classical music that I really enjoy is the emotions that can be conveyed by the music, so much more so than some of today's music.

I'm not so much into classical with the singing unless it's like the type in that Carl Orff you suggested. I like that, but not so much the ladi-da opera singing types.

[Nuzzolese]

Richard Strauss's tone poem, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(This is the piece that people think of when they think of 2001, a space odyssey)


Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110, the allegro molto movement


Carl Orff: Part Two, "In the Tavern" from Carmina Burana


Bela Bartok: String Quartet no 4, 5th movement


Edvard Grieg: In The Hall of the Mountain King


Igor Stravinsky: Psalm 38, versus 13 and 14 - from Symphony of Psalms


Mozart: Dies Irae - from Requiem


Antonio Vivaldi: Winter, from The Four Seasons


Igor Stravinsky: Infernal Dance of King Kastchei; and Finale from The Firebird Suite


Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies
Everyone knows these. The 9th is long, and it has slow parts, so some good exerpts are from the the fourth movement, which includes The Turkish March and the Ode to Joy choral part.

[Nuzzolese]

Yes, I am hardly a classical music aficionado but I do enjoy it.

Quite recently I was watching a war documentary from the 70s on TV and it was about the occupation of Holland, and it featured some classical song which had a very haunting opening to it. Having absolutely no idea what it was, I was able to locate the complete documentary on youtube, find the episode and the part where it was played. Took a few weeks for a reply but someone found it in the end!

Turns out it was Overture (Egmont Op 84) by Beethoven. Beethoven is of course very famous but this piece is over 200 years old and one of maybe 1000 of his works. So it's not like even knowing the composer would have helped find it.

I also enjoyed Symphony No. 7 - Allegretto also by Beethoven, featured in the film Knowing. Amazing piece I really love it. Something about classical music that I really enjoy is the emotions that can be conveyed by the music, so much more so than some of today's music.

I'm not so much into classical with the singing unless it's like the type in that Carl Orff you suggested. I like that, but not so much the ladi-da opera singing types.


If it's not Mozart, I HATE opera. With Mozart, at least he made his opera actually have songs that fit the melodies of the music. With operas like those by Puccini, the singing just replaces talking and every line of dialogue seems to have its own rise, crescendo, and falling tones. So annoying. And none of it seems to go with the music.


Although I think you should listen to Leo Delibe's Flower Duet from the opera, Lakme. It sounds very heavenly and angelic.


I also think you might like Gabriel Faure's Requiem. It has a chorus but it's so hauntingly beautiful. It's a mass for the dead.


Have you ever listened to Beethoven's 6th symphony? Just listen to the first movement, from the moment it begins, you will enjoy it I think.

[Caribou]

I was mad for Vivaldi's La Primavera when I was a littl'un.

[paul jones]

I haven't got any classical stuff but I was loaned Also sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss) once and liked it a lot

[Dorothy Wood]

aw, I love carmina burana. one of my favorite memories from high school is of getting the opportunity to play the entire professional version of the piece in my school's symphony orchestra. I was principal clarinet so most of my parts were just high punctuations and nothing too fun, but just sitting in the middle of all of it was magic.

anyway, good thread. I know nothing about classical music, but I love some of it so much, just can never remember anything beyond whatever I played in the symphony. and most of that was disney songs, which probably don't count. disney and aaron copeland. :/

[Documad]

Ah, you mean classical music used in films then? Is there any dramatic classical music that hasn't been used as a movie theme?

Around Christmas time I heard Beethoven on the radio and thought of Die Hard. I heard the Blue Danube the other day and THAT always makes me think of 2001. Sad to say. The Planets makes me think of Star Wars even though John Williams just ripped it off--it wasn't actually used in the film.

I listen to a lot of classical music, but I tend to listen to quiet stuff that can play in the background when I'm reading. Emotional music distracts me from reading.

[Nuzzolese]

Documad were you asking me if I was making a thread for classical music used in films? I wasn't, but a lot of these are used in films.

Your High School did all of Carmina Burana? Is that a tough piece for highschoolers?


Pergolesi's music for Stabat Mater is probably used in films a lot. It just sounds like one of those.


Tchaikovsky's music for Swan Lake is another one that I think is kind of badass. Not all ballet music is of stand-alone quality but this certainly is.

[Helvete]

I think she was trying to point out that nearly all 'bad ass classical' music has been used in films. Not sure if it has, but I guess that was she was saying.

Thinking back, I did actually grow up listening to quite a lot of classical music. Not through my parents but through school. I kinda went to a posh school where all the teachers loved classical and would play it during lessons and also show ballet and operas on video during rainy lunch hours. I should have taken more of an interest and played something, but I guess I never had the talent for music.

[Dorothy Wood]

Your High School did all of Carmina Burana? Is that a tough piece for highschoolers?





yes, but our orchestra and bel canto choir were really excellent. they were always winning awards. I was stuck over in band most of the time, but got to go over to the orchestra and practice one day a week. I loved the crap out of it. the orchestra director had been my middle school band director and people hated him because he was kind of a dick. he had good taste though and demanded the best. I was also the best clarinet player, so I didn't get yelled at much. oh boy, but once I was late to a concert we were doing at the mall and he got super angry with me and almost kicked me out. but instead gave my tuning duties (it was my job to tune the woodwinds) to the second in command. which was a big insult at the time.

I'm sorry...uh...none of this is interesting. just taking a stroll down memory lane, don't mind me.


I'm gonna go play my clarinet now. :cool:

[Nuzzolese]

Serge Prokofiev: Suggestion diabolique


Boulez: Messagesquisse II


Phillip Glass: Violin Concerto, Company Movement 2


Bela Bartok: music for strings, percussion, and celesta II/ allegro movement


I guess that's about it for now. I really hope that some of you check out the music I listed in this thread. It's worth it. :o (y)

I know I didn't label them all very well. I only know what it says on my MP3s, and how I refer to them. If you request it, I can try to find some more information about them, or a link to where you can hear it. Since I'm not a classical music person, I like sharing what I've come to appreciate in the realm of classical music that has an edge to it.

[gbsuey]

god, i LOVE Carmina burana-really fucking loud. I also can't stand opera but i was watching ......struggling to remember name...film after silence of the lambs...shit,gonna have to google-right-Hannibal, and the tune in that where he's cooking up the guys brain is just stunning. It's from Dantes' Nuovo Vite or based on it or something like that anyway but it's beautiful-will try and link it.

Ok it's called Vide cor Meum-based on Dantes' La Vite Nuovo-not sure if it's the coffee or the music but i'm shaking!!! Lush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3lHsxrdpTg)

[yeahwho]

When my grandfather died a few years ago I inherited a few thousand classical music CD's, literally 20+ archive boxes of classical music in my garage, full discographies of Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Bach, Brahms, Wagner... etc. Most every film soundtrack from 1945 till the mid-nineties.

Plus tons of World music and Musicals. It was really pretty cool and I'm extremely grateful for the gift but you know, I'm just not that into having it or listening to it. I'm too lazy to digitally convert them and it's been 3 years since I've even listened to any of them.

I am without a doubt culturally deprived.

[Brother McDuff]

Debussy - The "Clouds" movement from the 3 Nocturnes



wonderful for stargazing.