Category: Music

It has the same reality as a story does, or a theory. It belongs in the Ideosphere. Actually, the term I’ve heard used is Noosphere; but the early notions of noosphere that Wikipedia enumerates are kinda loony. But it’s a mental construct, the kind of thing that Dawkins actually had in mind when he first […]

The Canzonas and Sonatas by Giovanni Gabrieli. No contest: it’s the music of the spheres. https://youtube.com/watch?v=m-Yfrbm-NDA Answered 2017-02-20 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-stately-music/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Symphonies: The 5th is the standard introduction to Shostakovich. The 9th is small, but has all the hallmarks of true Shostakovich. It’s how I got started. The 7th is populist (rat-tat-tat-tat-tat), but its slow movement is sublime. The 24 Preludes and Fugues have something for everybody. Answered 2016-12-19 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Where-should-I-start-with-Shostakovich/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

I got a related question in my feed a few weeks back. I passed, but I kept thinking I should answer. Yesterday, Tamar and I had stopped off on the way to a work Xmas BBQ, for her to pick up cheese and for me to pick up caffeine. The shopping centre blasts out Christmas […]

I am on a lifelong mission to annoy Victoria Weaver by saying: MAHLER!!!! But if I’m to be completely honest, it’s Bach. Mahler, because of the cathartic emotional extremes, the amazing orchestrations, the largescale forms, the cogent narratives. Bach above Mahler, because of the sublime joining of intellect and passion, and (I hate to admit) […]

I was going to write my own question: What kind of music makes you want to do a Snoopy Dance? The answer for me is Dixieland Jazz. Don’t even care what the song is; the Dionysian untrammelled polyphonic joy of it just makes me want to stick my snout in the air, spread my arms, […]

When I was in university doing computer science (because that’s how old I am), I had a Dutch lecturer, Tobias Ruighaver (now retired). At the end of his course, I arranged the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus for the instruments I had handy (violin, bassoon, me singing), and someone else presented him with some Heineken. The […]

First, thanks to Victoria Weaver for her assembled works of Glass, which I will be working through. Now, if I were a horrible human being, I would answer this question with something like this: MAHLER!!! Because he’s technically 20th century!!! In your FACE, Victoria! WAKEY-WAKEY!!! Ahem. But I am not a horrible human being. And […]

Inexplicably, OP, you’ve A2A’d me. I played in school orchestra, and gave that up for university. I did have my dreams crushed later, with academia. And for all that it’s the worst thing to have happened in my life, I would not take it back. It’s made me who I am. So I don’t know […]