My friends, my Romans, my countrymen! Lend me your ears, for today we will be cruising through some badass classical music to get you through this self-distancing!
“But Nemi,” you say, “classical music? Is that not the boring noodle-y notes that I listen to to get homework done, or to fall asleep?”
“BLASPHEMY!” I say.
Absolute nonsense, for classical music is all the things that music can be! Exciting! Fun! Colorful! So full of angst that you will want to keel over and die of pneumonia like a fair maiden from the 1800s! So today, my friends, I will be introducing some classical music for the folk who are tired of being cooped up in their houses, to get them bopping along to some classical bops.
Before we get into it, a short guide to classical music titles
Op. does not stand for “Original Poster” :( It stands for “Opus Number” which tells us in which order the pieces were written. For example, “Tchaikovsky Op. 35” means it’s the 35th piece he wrote.
Sometimes the Key Signature will be told in the title. I won't do that here, because it is really not useful to listeners. Unless you want to analyse it or something.
Most pieces have multiple “movements” which means the composer decided to release many small pieces under the same title. So, you can say, “Tchaikovsky Op. 35 Movement III,” to specify which part you’re speaking of. Occasionally, you’ll hear the movements referred to by their tempo markings (how fast the movement is). So, you can also say “Tchaikovsky Op. 35 Allegro Vivacissimo,” which means, “Tchaikovsky Op. 35 Very Fast.”
This is all very long winded, but the farther you get from the old composers, the more and more sensible, shorter names you see attached to their pieces (See: Lick Quartet)
I’ve made a Spotify Playlist if you’d rather not read too much. Even if you will read all the way down, listen to the Spotify recordings, because they’re oftentimes better.
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Kreisler: Tambourin Chinois, Op. 3
To start off this list, we have a piece that is commonly performed as an encore piece by solo violinists - it's the Tambourin Chinois. It's quite short, and at just under four minutes you'll be wishing that this blazingly fast percussive piece was longer. Kreisler was inspired by the sound of a Chinese drum, and of course, the immediate reaction was, "let's make a violin sound like a drum!" And, of course, because he is Kreisler, that is exactly what he did.
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Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11
This is the first of Tchaikovsky's three string quartets (which are all amazing in their own right) but this one is especially wonderful to me. Starting off with a tense and long first movement, the piece moves flawlessly into the second movement - which is my (and literally everyone else’s) favorite. Apparently, the second movement was performed for Helen Keller, who felt the vibrations of the music and liked it a lot. The third movement is reminiscent of something that came out of a pirate movie, with lots of jaunty rhythms and melodies. As is customary, the piece finishes off its fourth movement with a fast and exciting finale.
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Sarasate: Spanish Dances, Op 23: No. 2. Zapateado
Another piece that you’ll be wishing was longer, again at just under four minutes. This breathlessly fast piece is part of Sarasate’s set of Spanish Dances, and just like Tambourin Chinois, it seems to want to use the violin as a drum rather than as a stringed instrument. Peppered with the notoriously hard left hand pizzicato technique, this piece is hard to play, and even harder to take off repeat.
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Moszkowski: Suite for Two Violins and Piano, Op. 71
A composer who was known more when he was alive then when after he was dead… a strange legacy did Moszkowski leave behind. But his pieces are no less awesome for it! This piece starts off with a heart-shatteringly emotional first movement (my favorite), followed by two softer movements. The fourth movement caps it off in a jarringly fast finale.
(this is only the first movement but the playlist has the whole thing)
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Shostakovitch: String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110
Shostakovitch was a Soviet composer who lived during the time of Stalin's rule - meaning that every note he wrote was under watch. Unable to take the stress, he contemplated suicide, and wrote this piece, thinking it would be his last. Fortunately, he did not kill himself and went on to write many more pieces, but the sorrow and frustration is still woven through every note of every movement of this piece.
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Nielsen: Wind Quintet, Op. 43
So far on this list we've had mostly string pieces. As such is most of classical music repertoire, unfortunately for woodwind players like me. But this does not mean there isn't good woodwind music out there!!! This is, of course, the prime example. All four movements of this quintet showcase the power of woodwinds beautifully. The second movement is especially nice (because it's my favorite :p).
This particular performance is also really fun to watch because of how they block the performers throughout the piece :)
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Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op. 35
Ah this piece. Possibly my favorite classical piece ever, and for good reason. Tchaikovsky wrote this piece when he was recovering from depression, and he conveys all of these complex emotions in the piece. He did not play the violin, so he asked his lover, the violinist Iosif Kotek, to help him. So, there in Switzerland, the piece took bloom. It was originally meant to be dedicated to his lover, but it was not, for Tchaikovsky wanted to keep his homosexuality a secret from the public.
The first movement is soft and big and emotional, followed by an even softer and introspective second movement. The third movement is my favorite - a fast paced and percussive section where the violin really becomes the star of the show.
Originally received badly by many critics, it has now grown to become one of the most well loved and most commonly performed concertos in existence.
This is Janine Jansen’s version, the normal version.
And this is the version where they tried to play the entire orchestral part on one violin.
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Dahl: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra
Of course me being the saxophonist had to include something saxophone related on here, didn't I?
The saxophone, originally created to be the bridge between the brass and woodwind sections, has been shunned from the orchestra because of how quickly it attached itself to jazz. Nevertheless, some composers decided to compose for it, because they liked it's unique sound, or they were commissioned by classical saxophonists who rose up against all odds. Here is one such piece.
Borrowing rhythmically from Jazz and stylistically from the radical compositions of Stravinsky, this concerto will have you riveted from start to finish.
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Rimsky-Korsakov: Clarinet Concerto
Here we go, this one's a little bit more digestible. This time to showcase the warm, mellow tone of the clarinet! It's quite a short concerto, with a run time of around eight minutes, and only a few themes. But Rimsky-Korsakov does not mess around, and as a result, every second of this concerto is mind-blowingly pretty (it's also composed for wind ensemble which makes me automatically biased).
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Vaughan-Williams: Suite For Viola and Orchestra
Ah the Viola. History's most ridiculed instrument. The alto voice of the orchestra, given the filler parts, and so easy were those parts that even the most incompetent of musicians were able to play them. I suppose Vaughan-Williams had enough of that, because this piece rips every single viola stereotype to shreds, with eight movements that showcase the viola in almost every way possible. Emotional melodies, percussive strokes, swathes of that glorious C-string, all of this will have you questioning whether or not my introduction to this paragraph is true.
This piece has been done both for viola and orchestra and for viola and piano, both versions are in the playlist.
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Bruce: Cymbeline
And here's where we enter the part of the list where the composers are still alive!!! Enough of old dead men. All of David Bruce's music has a sort of newish spark to it, but it's still grounded enough so that it doesn't float off away into strange-contemporary-music-land. That's why he's one of my favorite composers. This piece is off his newest album, and it's composed for the mandolin, of all instruments. Bruce's fun and folksy composing style, coupled with Avi Avital's virtuosic playing make this piece perfect to listen to literally anywhere.
(This is only the second movement, the whole thing is in the playlist)
David Bruce also has a YouTube channel where he talks about musical theory, and does experiments with groups of composers! You can check that out here.
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Glass: Glassworks I. Opening
If you're still hell bent on falling asleep to a piece, this is the one you should fall asleep to. Phillip Glass's works focus around one thing: variety in repetition. Two opposing rhythms, both with the same basic shape, gets you this piece - a lopsided, lulling wavelike pattern that's sure to take you for a ride as much as it puts you to sleep.
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Deustcher: Siren Sounds Waltz
Well my friends, it is time to question all of your life choices. I’ve saved the best for last, and this last piece is composed by not only the only woman on this list (history is cruel) but also the only teenager on this list (this is where you question your life choices). Alma Deustcher is known in the modern day classical world for trying to bring beauty and melody back to a genre where dissonance and ugliness are currently the accepted norm, and goddamnit has she succeeded in her pieces.
In this piece, as she says at the beginning of its performance at her Carnegie Hall debut,(CARNEGIE HALL DEBUT!!!!!) she “took some ugly sounds from the modern world, and [she] tried to turn them into something more beautiful, through music.” So sit back, relax, and let your faith in modern classical music get repaired by Alma Deustcher and her magical Siren Sounds Waltz.
This piece has been scored both for orchestra and solo piano, but only the solo piano version is in the playlist, for the orchestral version has not been recorded. Orchestral version is above.
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For easy listening, I’ve compiled a playlist of my favorite recordings of all of these pieces in a Spotify Playlist. I hope this was a good introduction to classical music! And I hope I've given you something to listen to over the next few months as we ride out this virus. For now,
Anemone out ;)
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