I used to rely on music to get me through tedious projects. In college and then in the first few years at my job I listened to my favorite cd’s so many times that I no longer needed to play the disks to hear the music. There was a period of about ten years in which I always had some piece of music stuck in my head – entire symphonies sometimes. I needed a few years of silence to compensate.
I’m starting to miss music again – classical music in particular. And it’ll be a few years before I can really share my love of music with Gabe, but it’s already something I’m looking forward to.
Nursing turns out to be a good opportunity for reading; and I’ve also now got a radio set up at my nursing spot on the couch. I’ve got my favorite news station pinpointed on the dial, and a classical station.
This weekend – and it has taken the entire three-day weekend – the classical station has been playing through a list of the top 100 classical pieces, as picked by their listeners. There is a ton of wonderful stuff on that list. Just this morning, Gabe and I listened to Beetoven’s 6th and 7th symphonies, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
Sadly, there is almost nothing written in the past 100 years on the list. I would have included Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, at the very least. Or Holst’s Planets. Come on, where’s Mars?! I can remember hearing that performed live back in highschool; the sound rolled off the stage in magnificent waves. But this list picked by radio listeners, many of which I suspect are little old ladies who prefer their music to be toothless and calming. The Four Seasons is pretty and all, but there is banjo music I would listen to before intentionally seeking it out. (And that’s not to belittle banjo music, which I actually do quite enjoy!) At least Orff’s Carmina Burana made the list.
At any rate, I had a blast humming along and telling Gabe all about Beetoven this morning as we had our tea and milk.
I am unfamiliar with twenty or so of the pieces on their top 100, so I’m going to keep the list for reference. Here it is. . .
1. Symphony #9 (Beethoven)
2. Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
3. Egmont Overture (Beethoven)
4. Canon in D (Pachelbel)
5. New World Symphony #9 (Dvorak)
6. Symphony #5 (Beethoven)
7. Adagio For Strings (Barber)
8. Symphony #7 (Beethoven)
9. 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky)
10. Pastoral Symphony #6 (Beethoven)
11. Moldau (Smetana)
12. Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin)
13. Bolero (Ravel)
14. Appalachian Spring (Copland)
15. Piano Concerto #2 (Rachmaninov)
16. Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)
17. Rage over a lost penny (Beethoven)
18. Fur Elise (Beethoven)
19. Piano Concerto #1 (Tchaikovsky)
20. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Bach)
21. Messiah (Handel)
22. Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)
23. Clair de Lune (Debussy)
24. Meditation from Thajs (Massenet)
25. Symphony #1 (Mahler)
26. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Rachmaninov)
27. Symphony #1 (Brahms)
28. Symphonie Fantastique (Berlioz)
29. O Carmina Burana (Orff)
30. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Serenade #13 (Mozart)
31. Fanfare for the Common Man (Copland)
32. Blue Danube Waltz (Strauss)
33. Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
34. Trout Theme & Variations (Schubert)
35. Brandenburg Concerto #5 (Bach)
36. Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams)
37. Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky)
38. Piano Concerto in a-minor (Grieg)
39. Finlandia (Sibelius)
40. Unfinished Symphony #8 (Schubert)
41. Brandenburg Concerto #3 (Bach)
42. Eroica Symphony #3 (Beethoven)
43. Jupiter Symphony #41 (Mozart)
44. Water Music Suite (Handel)
45. Carmen (Bizet)
46. Magic Flute Overture (Mozart)
47. Moonlight Sonata #14 (Beethoven)
48. Piano Concerto #21 (Mozart)
49. Warsaw Concerto (Addinsell)
50. William Tell Overture (Rossini)
51. Piano Concerto #3 (Rachmaninov)
52. Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo)
53. Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)
54. Pathetique Symphony #6 (Tchaikovsky)
55. Piano Concerto #5 (Beethoven)
56. Ancient Airs and Dances (Respighi)
57. Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky)
58. Nessun Dorma (Puccini)
59. Symphony #4 (Tchaikovsky)
60. Hebrides Overture (Mendelssohn)
61. Symphony #40 (Mozart)
62. Peer Gynt Suite (Grieg)
63. Symphony #8 (Dvorak)
64. Pie Jesu from Requiem (Faure)
65. Air on the G String (Bach)
66. Danse Macabre (Saint-Saens)
67. Piano Concerto #2 (Brahms)
68. Heroic Polonaise #6 (Chopin)
69. Intermezzo from Cavaleria Rusticana (Mascagni)
70. Organ Symphony #3 (Saint-Saens)
71. Jupiter, the bringer of jollity (Holst)
72. Piano Concerto #2 (Chopin)
73. Prelude and Fugue in g#minor (Bach)
74. Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)
75. Romance #2 (Beethoven)
76. Romeo & Juliet (Tchaikovsky)
77. Symphony #4 (Brahms)
78. Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis (Vaughan Williams)
79. Violin Concerto in D (Tchaikovsky)
80. Brandenburg Concerto #4 (Bach)
81. Don Giovanni Overture (Mozart)
82. Eclogue (Finzi)
83. Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner)
84. Italian Symphony #4 (Mendelssohn)
85. Piano Concerto #4 (Saint-Saens)
86. Pomp and Circumstance (Elgar)
87. American String Quartet (Dvorak)
88. Barber of Seville overture (Rossini)
89. Candide Overture (Bernstein)
90. Enigma Variations (Elgar)
91. Fantasia on Greensleeves (Vaughan Williams)
92. Fantastic Scherzo (Suk)
93. Fledermaus overture (Strauss)
94. Florida Suite (Delius)
95. Goldberg Variations (Bach)
96. Grand Canyon Suite (Grofe)
97. In the Steppes of Central Asia (Borodin)
98. London Symphony #104 (Haydn)
99. Marriage of Figaro Overture (Mozart)
100. Nocturne in E Flat (Schubert)
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3 comments:
I beg to differ but if you are listening to music, then Gabriel is listening to music. You are already sharing music together. He is a sponge soaking up life faster than we can imagine. Love-OPA Clay
An impressive list - although who in their right mind would rate Beethoven's 5th over his 6th and 7th? Heresy.
There was a time when I didn't appreciate Vivaldi, and thought of him as "Bach Lite". Over the years, however, he has grown on me, and although "The Four Seasons" is clearly overplayed, I think it's more than just "pretty". Give it a chance. And keep playing good music for Gabe!
:) Thanks Bill. I don't feel like I can really take credit for exposing him to music until I can tell him about it. . . but I'm secretly hoping that early exposure will give him a love for good tunes.
Dad! Haha! I love your handle. reminds me of my Ultima V days playing as "Navillus" since you had claimed "Sullivan". Robert backwards is terrific! Ellehcim just doesn't roll nicely off the tongue.
Guess what played on the radio twice in the two days after they finished the top 100? The Stinkin' Four Seasons. I must grudgingly admit that it is a great piece of music. *grumble*
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