Category: Music

Stuff I already know: West Side Story. Not quite a musical, is it. My Fair Lady. Perfect musical, and astonishingly faithful to the play. Sweeney Todd. And Assassins. I don’t know other Sondheim pieces, but I’m sure they are excellent as well. Wicked. My wife’s fave, and I did not expect to fall in love […]

Stuff I want to know more about in boldface Dixieland Jazz Country Blues I got 7 CDs of anthologies, just need to rip them now Grateful Dead, Phish, those kinda guys I don’t think I’ll get it, but humour me James Brown Hendrix Chicago before they turned into mush Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd Love the […]

As a guide to contributors, this is what I already know in music, and what I’d like to know more of. The latter is in boldface. Classical Music. Perotin Stuff between Perotin and Ars Subtilior Ars Subtilior Stuff between Ars Subtilior and Corelli Liked Byrd. Freaked out by Vincenzo Galilei. Liked Schutz. Corelli Bach, Bach, […]

OP, I’ll go first. Kostas Makedonas, a fine Laïko (bouzouki pop) singer (Κώστας Μακεδόνας). One of his biggest hits was Μαργαριτάρια, “Pearls” (1994), which he duets the chorus of with Alkistis Protopsalti. It’s a great Zeibekiko, stern and catchy and melancholy, as all great zeibekikos should be. And the verse sings of the splendid arrogance […]

Originally Answered: Can you mention an upbeat and happy-sounding song that has a sad/depressing meaning? Australian anthems: Cold Chisel – Khe Sanh Rollicking strophic, jolly country rock song—about a Vietnam Vet adrift and addicted back home. A song dear to the heart of all Australians my age and up. Answered 2016-11-02 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-are-some-upbeat-songs-with-seriously-sad-or-depressing-lyrics/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Opprobrium is usually directed at the made-to-order Stalinist cantatas and film music. See for example Putting the Stalin in Shostakovich: pro-Soviet cantatas cause outrage. They are regarded as insincere, bombastic, and forced on him. People in the West know that they weren’t the kind of thing he took pride in, and prefer to ignore them. […]

Hello Curtis Lindsay. I’ve been upvoting you for a little while. In fact, because of you, I’m about to force myself to listen to *shudder* Chopin. (Michael Masiello will be pleased.) It’s about time I disagreed with you about something. I think OP’s dystopian scenario is not impossible. The thing about machine learning is, it […]

Yeah, the Ninth for me too. Not just for the finale: the first three movements are wonderful, and there’s sublimity in the Adagio. It’s hard to do favourites, and I love all the odd-numbered symphonies (apart from the 1st, which is still Mozart on Red Bull, as JM Cortese put it). The 5th and 7th […]

OP clarified in comments that he meant {7, 8, 9}; but of course this could be any of {8, 9, 10}, or {8, Lied von der Erde, 9}, or {Lied von der Erde, 9, 10}. Any of those are legit. The real grouping of symphonies that go together is {Lied von der Erde, 9, 10}. […]

Brian van der Spuy is quite right that the extensive orchestral palette is in line with Mahler’s desire to encompass the world in his symphonies. Howard Levitsky’s answer, featuring Gershwin’s car horns, is ironic, given the contemporary reaction to the cowbells in Mahler’s 6th: Gustav Mahler Pictures The cartoon’s caption reads: “Herr Gott! Daß ich […]