Let's take it back a couple hundred years...

I love classical music. It always surprises me when I hear that my peers, that is, my fellow generationers (I know it's not a word, but you get the point) do not get enjoyment out of the "old masters" so to speak.

Beethoven, Back, Mozart, Chopin, Handel, Haydn... the Liszt could go on.

(By the way, that was a music nerd joke, Franz Liszt was a classical pianist).

Anyway, when I was little, my Grandmom and my Aunt always played classical music for me. Both are classically trained pianists and I think I got my love for watching live performances from them. Nothing makes me happier than hearing one of them play from the other room during family gatherings and then going to watch as they dance along the ivory keys.

The first song I'm going to post is one of my favorite piano pieces:

This is Nocturne op.9 no.1 by Frederic Chopin. And the youtube video even comes with a nice sketch of the man. This is one of my favorites for a couple reasons, the first is because my Aunt Nadine plays it wonderfully and when I started being able to read music, I was able to listen to her play while watching the little black dots progress along the pages. I became her page turner. So when she played, I wasn't just the listener anymore, it was something we could do together.

Another reason is because of the story. I think that we have largely lost appreciation for a story without words. The wonderful thing about this type of music is that it paints a different picture in the mind of every listener and every player. For example, this particular pianist (the one in the recording I posted) will have a different interpretation of the piece than my Aunt will. That holds true for most classical (and also many contemporary) pieces. Each player can add their own emotions to the interpretation and, even though they didn't write the piece, they can make it somewhat their own.

Here is the next piece:

This is a piece by Samuel Barber called Adagio for Strings and I am convinced to this day that it is one of the top 5 most beautiful and moving pieces ever written. If conducted and performed well, the sound of the orchestra is breath taking. This particular recording was done to honor the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

See the emotion in the expressions and the movements of the conductor. He feels every note. He knows this music so well he barely even glances at his score. Notice how he plays each pause. As the orchestra begins to decrescendo, he takes advantage of the coming silence and anticipates the next part of the piece.

It really is quite a wonderful composition.

Another piano piece:

This is another Chopin: Scherzo no.2 op.31 and the performer in the video is actually a friend of mine's father. He is an excellent pianist and this is an excellent piece. Nothing much more I have to say about this.

One more piece, another full orchestral:

This is Beethoven's Symphony no.7, the first movement. No one has and ever will sound like Beethoven. It may be a little cliche, but Beethoven is my favorite classical composer. In my opinion, no one has ever quite been able to work an orchestra like he did.

And the man was deaf for most of his life! Freaking deaf!

How maddening to be a musical genius who can't hear his own sounds?

When I was younger, I used to have this CD that I listened to over and over in my room. My mom got it for me (I think, coulda been my Grandmom, I'm not sure) and it was called Beethoven Lives Upstairs. It followed the story of a young boy whose parents, as landlords of a building, had rented out the top floor to a tennent: Ludwig van Beethoven. As Beethoven's music played in the background, the little boy would voice his frustration with how loud Beethoven was. Always pounding away on the floor and on the keys, keeping him and his family up all hours of the day and night, waking the baby. Eventually, the boy learns that Beethoven is deaf and plays as loud as he can so that he can compose his music by literally feeling the vibrations.

Think about this:

Beethoven knew music so well that he could compose pieces without being able to actually hear them. He could look at the notes he was writing on the page and hear it in his head! The flutes, the first violins, the timpani; the pieces came together, sometimes, without their composer having ever heard them.

A true genius and a true madman. One of the first Mad Geniuses, if you ask me.

Whew! This was a long post. As you can see, I could go for pages and pages writing about this genre. Maybe next week I'll post about some more classical pieces?

Let me know what ya think.