Classical Music Is for Everyone

First Things ^ | August 18, 2023 | George Leef

[1Old Pro]

I like that movie with Ravel - Bolero, with the sound off. :)

[dfwgator]

I also learned that if you ever hear someone playing “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms”, on a piano.....run for it!

[dfwgator]

[Texas resident]

Same here. I was out driving around Houston on a Saturday morning. I tuned my FM dial all the way to the left. It picked up the TV channel audio, so I am listening to Bugs Bunny cartoons without the visuals. That was when I figured out that those cartoons were sneaking in classical music for the kiddos.

[discostu]

That was part of the model of those. Music for the parents, and to claim it’s got “culture”, cartoon for the kids. And of course all the music was in the public domain, never underestimate the lure of free music. Because of that multiple generations got their introduction to classical from Bugs and the gang.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Or maybe this.....

[mewzilla]

Baroque is for everyone.

The rest is an acquired taste.

[MayflowerMadam]

Playing classical music on the piano is fun and challenging; it’s how I was trained. I admit I don’t particularly enjoy listening to it, though.

The old hymns from the 19th, and early 20th, centuries, and old-time gospel is what I prefer.

[SamAdams76]

For many years I found the music of Wagner ponderous.

The place to start with Wagner is with the overtures. Once they grow on you (and they will), you can then start exploring the rest. I would suggest Das Rheingold (first of the Ring cycle). It took years for me to truly appreciate all the full operas.

[Sirius Lee]

My favorite recording of his is ‘Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano.’

I used to play that number. Had the parts for the bass and drums, too. Then one day I woke up and didn't like flute music that much anymore. Or my flautist girlfriend.

Bolling wrote some interesting suites for guitar as well as violin and another piece for two pianos. Another for piano and orchestra...

It sort of falls under the category of "Jazzical". Chick Corea's Piano Concerto, Brubeck's "Brandenburg Gate", Bowfire's "Father Fugue", Templeton's "Bach Goes to Town", Ellington's "River Suite". Gershwin...

[Intolerant in NJ]

Much of the early use of classical music in radio, TV, and films was because it was easier and cheaper to use the music of old dead men than to hire new blood who could probably produce music no better. Thus the great theme from Richard Strauss's "A Hero's Life" opened "The Big Story", and the music of Rossini, Liszt, and Borodin carried "The Lone Ranger". The stirring finale of this piece by Rimsky Korsakov was used during the closing of one of the major early dramatic shows on TV......

[crusty old prospector]

I shall endeavor to try again. I tried Rossini’s Barbershop today.