The Romantic Manifesto and Music Preferences
I was given The Romantic Manifesto for my birthday, and I was reading the essay "Art and Cognition." As a musician, the section on the nature of music was especially fascinating to me.
"Music is experienced as if it had the power to reach man's emotions directly (41)."
"Music communicates emotions, which one grasps, but does not actually feel; what one feels is a suggestion, a kind of distant, disassociated, depersonalized emotion- until and unless it unites with one's own sense of life (42)."
One of the ideas I was intrigued by most was her statement here:
"Until a conceptual vocabulary is discovered and defined, no objectively valid criterion of esthetic judgement is possible in the field of music (46, italics original)."
This leads me to a question and informal survey for all of you: what is your favorite piece of music (or musician), and what emotions do they inspire in you? How does this unite with your sense of life?
My favorite piece of classical music that I play routinely as a violinist is Bach's E-Major Concerto. It is triumphant, disciplined, and although it goes through some minor sections, it always returns to its wonderful, glorious theme. It makes me feel so alive.
I am expecting a wide range of answers here, since there is no "objective" criterion. (Feel free to discuss this, too - is there, isn't there, how would we define objective criterion, etc.)
"Music is experienced as if it had the power to reach man's emotions directly (41)."
"Music communicates emotions, which one grasps, but does not actually feel; what one feels is a suggestion, a kind of distant, disassociated, depersonalized emotion- until and unless it unites with one's own sense of life (42)."
One of the ideas I was intrigued by most was her statement here:
"Until a conceptual vocabulary is discovered and defined, no objectively valid criterion of esthetic judgement is possible in the field of music (46, italics original)."
This leads me to a question and informal survey for all of you: what is your favorite piece of music (or musician), and what emotions do they inspire in you? How does this unite with your sense of life?
My favorite piece of classical music that I play routinely as a violinist is Bach's E-Major Concerto. It is triumphant, disciplined, and although it goes through some minor sections, it always returns to its wonderful, glorious theme. It makes me feel so alive.
I am expecting a wide range of answers here, since there is no "objective" criterion. (Feel free to discuss this, too - is there, isn't there, how would we define objective criterion, etc.)
Previous comments...
I will also agree with the Yes proponents here; there is an imaginative complexity, layering multiple song-worthy lines, wheels within wheels.
Our national anthemn as music just sits there and says ho hum.
Sibelius's Finlandia makes you you want to jump up salute and brings tears to your eyes. That's what music is all about. Star Spangled Banner may have history but it doesn't gladden the heart and the soul. Finlandia does all of that and serves as a fitting funeral finale
Ode to the Common Man sucks just from the title and is fitting for the new USSA insultingly socialist to the core. i can't imagine as a soldier dying for such cRap.
Bach's Goldberg Variations
Mahler Symphony #1 It was my theme music when I DJ'd classical at U Michigan
Rodrigo "Concierto Heroico" almost everything
Beethoven SOnatas, Sym's # 3,5,9 Chistof von Dohnanyi conducting the Cleveland
BUt I change, Love Rachmannoff Preludes
Casals, Horowitz, Andras Schiff
Texas Swing, Jazz, Bluegrass
Music is the love and feeling of motion and emotion in the body expressed in dance and voice.
Philosophers love music!
JS Bach
Mozart
Wagner
Beethoven
Rolling Stones 40 licks
Bob Seger Hits
ZZ Top Hits
Traveling Wilburys
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Simple Minds: Glittering Prize
Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chron 1)
The Cars: Hits
Roy Orbison: In Dreams: Hits
Movie: Dirty Dancing
Movie: Stand By Me
Movie: The Commitments
AC/DC Back In Black
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
The Who: Best of
Swing Collection (various artists, Benny Goodman et al)
Blondie: Best
Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense
2nd South Carolina String Band (Civil War era music)
78th Frazer Highlander Pipe Band (Being Scots Irish I love the pipes!)
George Thorogood and the Destroyers: Baddest of
Jimi Hendrix: The Essential vol 1
Greatest Hits of the 60s Vol 2 (various artists)
The Animals: Best of
Iron Butterfly: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita
Three Dog Night: Best of
U2: Joshua Tree
Neil Diamond: Greatest
War: Best of
Elvis Presley: 30 #1 Hits
Ricky Nelson: Greatest Hits
Two months from now the list may be considerably different.
That was such a cool time to be in college. And then Disco came along and ruined it.
Also, listen to some of the 70's Renaissance albums with Annie Haslam's singing. The most beautiful voice I've ever heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNrnh...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB3Io...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgrUb...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1q6... (discussion): music begins @ 6:26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-DgS...
Additional favorites are Respighi’s “Pines of Rome”, but especially the last segment “Pines of the Appian Way”. (I have a tendency to like bombast.) More favorites are Ravel’s “La Valse”, the wonderful double fugue from “Schwanda the Bagpiper”, Dukas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, and the opening to R. Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra”. This last I consider, from a musical analytical standpoint, one of the treasures of Western music, truly embodying “multum in parvo”, being the simplest of themes with the maximum of effect. It’s a travesty that it is used so much in the popular culture for the most banal reasons.
Not to be forgotten is Rachmaninoff’s FIRST symphony, part of the last movement of which always conjures up the scene from AS where Dagny is racing to the oil fields, only to find them in flames, and her first view of what became known as “Wyatt’s Torch”.
One must also consider the performance of the music: The first time I heard an old recording of Luisa Tetrazzini singing “Caro nome” it brought me to tears. The aria itself is again the simplest of themes: a descending major scale. This wasn’t even original to Verdi, the old carol “Joy to the World” does the same thing. But her accuracy, beauty, and artistry elevated it far beyond anything commonplace.
I’ll close now, or I’ll go on for another ten pages. Thanks for introducing one of my favorite topics!