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Music I never imagined myself listening to.

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
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I don't like string quartets. As a rule I think there's a special place in musical purgatory which is reserved for them along with heavy metal, non-dub and non-ska reggae, C&W, glam rock and opera.

I also dislike doom, gloom and tragedy in almost any art form, with perhaps novels being given a bit of leeway e.g. The Children of Hurin is gloom itself but I enjoy it thoroughly.

A few weeks ago I was fiddling about doing some paperwork with the radio on in the background. Shostakovitsch's No 15 string quartet was played. The composer said of this piece of music: "Play it so that flies drop dead in mid-air and the audience start leaving the hall from sheer boredom." You can imagine that it is not a barrel of laughs and yet I was greatly intrigued by it, to the point where I bought the CD. FWIW I see it as being humbly beautiful - if that makes any sense at all.

It's rapidly becoming one of my favourite bits of music. (OK, it's not the blues and it doesn't involve Keith Richards or Thelonius Monk but it is getting better with every listen.)

To make one thing clear: I'm not recommending this piece to anyone as I have no interest in making people bear a terrible grudge against me for the rest of their lives. I suppose the point is that instrumental music, being essentially highly abstract, produces completely unpredictable reactions in different people.

I hope that makes some sense. The whole thing is just weird.
 
Andy,
I see nothing wrong with musical tastes changing over time. I had a similar epiphany when I first heard Eva Cassidy on the radio. Up to then it was all prog rock, Genesis, Floyd, Zeppelin, Bowie, Dire Straits. Suddenly I realised how powerful a voice could be without shouting.

I dug out Shostakovitch's No 15 and it aint for me yet but good on you. Discovering new stuff no matter what it is must be good for the mind and soul.
 
Phil,

I do like that! I wonder if it would benefit from one of those Irish drums (bodhran?) playing along.

Andy,

yes, you've caught part of what I'm getting at. The other part is - and this is strange - I find myself liking something that I would normally have said I don't like. It's very rum.
 
I have to listen to this at least once a day. I haven't heard anyone play it on a guitar which is anywhere close to the original film sound track - Rob
 
Interesting lot you guys.

Pop music of any kind in my parents house was banned when I was a kid. I was doing 2 hours a day of classical piano practice. Naturally my friends influenced me as a kid and I got into rock etc, and also folk and country guitar. I did some guitar session work as a distraction from professional work in my 20s and loved it.

When I was about 35 I decided to take classical music studies on piano quite seriously, and at 40ish I decided to learn to play violin as well. (I'm not very talented at that!) String quartet music is just the same as being in a band really. It grows on you, especially if you can follow a score as well.

So I like nearly all forms of music (it's all derived from the same fundamentals), but things like rap and garage and techno rarely appeal. The advent of programmed sequenced music and autotune I think is a shame as fewer people seem able to play well these days.

Keep up the recommendations.
 
I don't know how diffuse this is going to be.

Stuff that I now like that I didn't:

Gilbert and Sullivan. Hated it when I was a youth (my father did it in am dram, when he wasn't running the empire). It's not bad actually, despite the librettist using a curious version of english (never stopped ABBA), and the composer being a bit of a hack.

Prog rock. Some of it was valid. But in my defence I was at the latter stages of punk ('punks nae deid'. 'Aye, but it smells like it'.) and very much New Romantic. So 50 minute drum solos, 'concept' albums. Pah. It didn't help that my band - or more correctly the band I was in - had a keybord player addicted to The Enid, and a drummer obsessed by King Crimson. We had a version of ELPs 'Fanfare'that went on longer than the original.

C&W. Dolly. That's all I have to say. A glorious confection. As artificial as candyfloss, but '9 to 5' is a work of genius.

And to bring it mildly up to date (not too much obviously). I had to borrow a colleague's car to get up to either Inverness or Oban by 8.00am. Mine was in for what Porsche laughingly call a service, but is, in fact, a mechanism for decanting a few thousand pounds from my purse to theirs. Corp take over, so time of the essence. Radio 4 vanishes at many points in the Highlands. The only CD in the car was Eminem. First album. When I'd listened to it about 6 times I was almost starting to tolerate it.
 
Phil Pascoe":394nbgoe said:
But according to a woman I worked with whose husband was a college jazz tutor I am musically illiterate because I don't like jazz.
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According to my son's guitar teacher - one wrong note is a mistake, a whole string of them and it's jazz.

I come to music from an almost completely uneducated angle. I didn't gain much from music lessons at school - mostly through hating one of the teachers, but also because I wasn't interesting to them either as I didn't play anything. I spent quite a few years at Uni with friends who were quite accomplished musicians - a pianist, a violinist and a former NYO clarinet player. I tried quite hard to like Classical - went to concerts in Oxford and to the proms, but still don't really "get it".

I think what I like is perhaps as much about sound as music. Mostly weird stuff on a spectrum between folk/world/metal :lol:
 
I have one album, well CD, in my collection that was also in my father’s. Two of my children also have it on their phones and enjoy singing along almost as much as me. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel.
I would have been 8 when that was released.
At the same time Genesis were creating, what to me, was their best work. I saw them in Paris last week and although sad to see Phil Collins sitting down for the whole show I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I first saw them 40 years ago :shock:
 
No mention of Pink Floyd yet? Standards are slipping around here.
 
Mike G":fxhz7ixv said:
No mention of Pink Floyd yet? Standards are slipping around here.
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I remember seeing 'The Wall' film in '82, would it be? Under age and I think in Wakefield at a late night screening. An older friend was driving, and we ran over a hippy on the way out of the car park. Topped off the evening, really.

Other than that I have moved from antipathy to The Floyd to indifference.

Sorry. But you probably wouldn't like my stuff either.
 
I think that true musicality tends to transcend whatever genre a musician or composer is operating in.

Consider the much maligned prog rock. I would like to think that even haters of the genre (in my book the worst offenders being Yes and Genesis - but others love them) would admire ELP's third album which was imaginatively named Trilogy.

There are some genres where I think that what is characteristic is overpowering to extent that no composer or musician can break through it. I'm thinking principally of opera and heavy metal. FWIW it's worth I think that the way the first chord of The Real Me slams into existence on The Who's Quadrophrenia album renders the whole of heavy metal superfluous to requirements and the same band's Won't Get Fooled Again is probably what Wagner spent his whole working life vainly trying to move towards. (I know that nobody will agree with me but that's fine). One of the beauties of The Who is that they proved that you can have massive power without going down the HM route and at the same time retaining emotion and musicality.
 
I'd never heard any Shostakovich string quartets, so on the strength of your post, Andy, I have listened to no 15 and rather enjoyed it.

I'm not going to put a long list of other suggestions up, but I will offer a quick tip.

If you don't mind paying, or having your listening scattered with ads like goose droppings on a lawn, the obvious streaming services are all you need.

But many of us already have access to a huge library of streamed classical music, across all sub-genres and offering a good choice of interpretations and performers.

Here in Bristol our library service includes access to the Naxos music library. You just need the number of your library card and the PIN associated with it. Many other libraries do the same.

It's ideal for anyone wanting to dip into Shostakovich, or string quartets, or much more besides.
I've not checked everywhere but your local library service's website will have the details for your area.

For example, Wiltshire offers the same as Bristol. Cornwall offers the same, plus a second service, Medici.

Happy listening!
 
Andyp":1jmqjoxn said:
I have one album, well CD, in my collection that was also in my father’s. Two of my children also have it on their phones and enjoy singing along almost as much as me. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel.
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I saw S&G in Feyenoord Stadium in 1982. I didn't particularly like the actual track until then. I got extremely drunk with a crowd of Dutch merchant seamen in The Hague the night before - I don't remember getting back to the hotel, I don't remember having breakfast or even leaving the hotel at lunchtime. It did teach me not to drink lager, double brandies and double genevers at the same time for five hours after an already good night out.
 
Ahh! The intro when played live to Won't get Fooled Again is a beaut. Even on the studio album, Who's Next it is an assault to the senses when played loud, very loud. Would love to have seen the frenetic drumming of Keith Moon.

As for Floyd, Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals is where they begun and ended for me. The Wall passed my by. I think I have an early live album somewhere, Relics, must dig it out when next in the UK.

I guess my tastes have nOt really moved on from the 70s and 80s.
The only classical stuff on my phone is Vivaldi'S four seasons
 
I find myself listening to a four disc CD transferred to my iPhone and bluetoothed to my workshop speakers called British Light Classical.

Anyone who grew up in the 50s and early 60s would probably recognise at least 75% of the pieces played. They were constantly on the BBC Light Programme.

They include theme tunes to Workers Playtime, In Town Tonight, The Archers, Dick Barton - Special Agent, Top of the Form, Children's Favourites and loads of others. Elizabethan Serenade, Coronation Scot, Westminster Waltz are just some of the others many written to provide a rhythmical and melodic background in the factories to encourage workers to maintain productivity after the war.

I try not to go all wistful while I'm fettling my CNC router. ;)
 
I saw Genesis twice on the We Can't Dance tour. It's very difficult to beat live music - both in the audience and on stage. There is something about the energy of it. Many of my friends find it weird that I can be deeply into classical piano music, and at the same time like heavy and progressive rock, pop songs and so on, but to me music is music. I admire really good singers (I am not good) and virtuosic musicians, irrespective of instrument. That said, steel drums should be put in the nearest crusher. 8-)
 
As a student I helped out a friend with a PA/lighting company. One of the stranger weekends away involved staying in a converted water mill with an entire steel band. It was kind of fun. The highlight of my short lived sound career was that I can say that for one night only I was sound engineer for Humphrey Lyttelton. Now that is music I never imagined myself listening to - but the man himself was a real gentleman, and very patient although I barely knew what I was doing !
 
I 'got into' opera in my late teens...late '60's. My mate, Alan, was a bit of an electronics whizz and had made his own stereo portable cassette that ran of the 12v in the car. Plus amp and speakers, of course. Sony Walkman was but a dream in the mind of Sony-San.

We'd play short bursts of Wagner belting up the A5 to Snowdon for a weekends worth of climbing. Happy Days.
 
Andyp":26w71cue said:
Ahh! The intro when played live to Won't get Fooled Again is a beaut. Even on the studio album, Who's Next it is an assault to the senses when played loud, very loud.
Click to expand...
Some years ago I played that to my son who'd never heard the proper, longer version, the one where RD screams. I turned the wick up on the amp just before so it was reasonably loud :eusa-whistle:

He was impressed :eusa-dance: - Rob
 
AndyT":aphraay8 said:
I'd never heard any Shostakovich string quartets, so on the strength of your post, Andy, I have listened to no 15 and rather enjoyed it.
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I'm glad that you liked it and even more glad that that means that as a result of listening to it, you won't be coming at my throat with a rusty chisel. :D

But here's the key question related to the subjective nature of how we each react to a piece of music. I can only catch it in the words "humble beauty" and I would be very interested to know how would you sum up your response to it.
 
Phil Pascoe":xod7onf7 said:
I never really liked The Who, but I met Roger Daltrey briefly - he is a star, a really nice guy.
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It took me years before I got what they were about and the reason was that I first tried to listen to them at the age of about 15. Many years later I decided to give them another bash and suddenly got it. I believe that it is because they were writing what was effectively grown up music and as a kid, I just didn't get it. I did always love the drumming though.
 
AJB Temple":2tl60yc1 said:
I saw Genesis twice on the We Can't Dance tour. It's very difficult to beat live music - both in the audience and on stage. There is something about the energy of it. Many of my friends find it weird that I can be deeply into classical piano music, and at the same time like heavy and progressive rock, pop songs and so on, but to me music is music. I admire really good singers (I am not good) and virtuosic musicians, irrespective of instrument. That said, steel drums should be put in the nearest crusher. 8-)
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It's curious that although I could never appreciate Genesis, I think that the solo work by one of them was really quite good. I think that one of the songs which I liked a lot was called The Living Years.
 
Tiresias":12kcq4bc said:
C&W. Dolly. That's all I have to say. A glorious confection. As artificial as candyfloss, but '9 to 5' is a work of genius.
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I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.

Dolly Parton
 
Andy Kev.":3hle9xb8 said:
It's curious that although I could never appreciate Genesis, I think that the solo work by one of them was really quite good. I think that one of the songs which I liked a lot was called The Living Years.
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Mike Rutherford and his band Mike and the Mechanics. That song seems like an ode for anyone who has had a fractured relationship with their father.
 
Phil Pascoe":13l41uwk said:
Tiresias":13l41uwk said:
C&W. Dolly. That's all I have to say. A glorious confection. As artificial as candyfloss, but '9 to 5' is a work of genius.
Click to expand...

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.

Dolly Parton
Click to expand...

Isn't there one where she was asked how long it took to do her hair, and she said I don't know because I'm not there at the time?
 
Phil Pascoe":nwp9v2dy said:
Andyp":nwp9v2dy said:
AJB Temple":nwp9v2dy said:
So I like nearly all forms of music (it's all derived from the same fundamentals), /quote]

Indeed, there are only 12 notes after all. :)
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Except jazz gets them all in the wrong order. :lol:
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No! That was Eric Morecambe! :D
 
Phil Pascoe":11tgmrzz said:
Andyp":11tgmrzz said:
AJB Temple":11tgmrzz said:
So I like nearly all forms of music (it's all derived from the same fundamentals), /quote]

Indeed, there are only 12 notes after all. :)
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Click to expand...

Except jazz gets them all in the wrong order. :lol:
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The piece that turned me onto jazz in a sort of Road To Damascus moment was Moanin' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

If you like the blues, you'll get it, if you don't, you won't.
 
AJB Temple":1iz9wgw5 said:
That said, steel drums should be put in the nearest crusher. 8-)
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I disagree. They're great in the right context...hot sun, swaying coconut palms on a Caribbean beach, dusky maidens and a cold Red Stripe in your hand :D - Rob
 
Have a listen to this chaps, wounderfull joy filled music.

[youtubessl]XN8pSTaIcFE[/youtubessl]

Pete
 
Andy Kev.":3b4g0bav said:
The piece that turned me onto jazz in a sort of Road To Damascus moment was Moanin' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

If you like the blues, you'll get it, if you don't, you won't.
Click to expand...

not that my dislike of jazz needed reinforcing, but it succeeded. :lol:
 
Phil Pascoe":1rybhyf8 said:
Andy Kev.":1rybhyf8 said:
The piece that turned me onto jazz in a sort of Road To Damascus moment was Moanin' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

If you like the blues, you'll get it, if you don't, you won't.
Click to expand...

not that my dislike of jazz needed reinforcing, but it succeeded. :lol:
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How about some Japinese death jazz Phil?

[youtubessl]axzOcH9KhN0[/youtubessl]

Pete
 
Phil Pascoe":3dgrt008 said:
Andy Kev.":3dgrt008 said:
The piece that turned me onto jazz in a sort of Road To Damascus moment was Moanin' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

If you like the blues, you'll get it, if you don't, you won't.
Click to expand...

not that my dislike of jazz needed reinforcing, but it succeeded. :lol:
Click to expand...
:D That made oi larf, that did.
 
I enjoyed the Art Blakey piece, but do I remember it correctly as the title music for a TV series in the 60s/70s?
 
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