HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: chrisi@lloyd.Camex.COM (Chris Ischay)
Subject: Re: Music to calm down by
Organization: Camex Inc., Boston MA
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:21:38 GMT

In article <3344@voodoo.UUCP> das@voodoo.boeing.com (Deb Schwartz) writes:
>At work these days, I seem to be in a constant state of stress, and have
>been thinking that some soothing music might help greatly.  I love classical
>music, but don't have a whole lot of exposure to it.  I would greatly
>appreciate recommendations for music that has a calming effect.

I have a few suggestions, all certified by personal use over many years %^)

None of them are exactly classical music, though.  As some have pointed
out, build&release is kind of built in to a lot of classical music.  I
thought the chant suggestion was a good one.  

"Music for Airports" by Brian Eno.  My all time number one favorite disc
for calming.  I don't know if it's available, but it's worth seeking out,
even in a used LP.  It uses slow-moving beautiful sonorities of voice,
piano, and has the advantage that it works great as background music at a
low level outside your attention just as nicely as it does if you use it
for meditation.  It's the kind of music you put on and people start
flocking over to the box to see what's on.

"Persian Surgery Dervishes" by Terry Riley.  This is a two-album set,
probably again not easy to find.  Riley alone on organ, with what
contraptions and repeaters and so on I got no idea.  It works best at a low
level, but the sound to me is what I imagine the healthy and calm nervous
system sounds like.  I know that sounds too new-agey, but hey.  It's
gorgeous, very calming.  Just don't play it loud.

"Yaz Kaz."  I can't even say if this is the name of the composer, the album,
both or what.  I don't have the album at hand.  It is the music Sankai Juku
used to use for their dances, and it's got an oriental feel to it.  Very
calming.

"Music for Zen Meditation."  I think the instruments are clarinet, shakuhachi
and koto.  I might be wrong.  Don't know if it's available.  As the name
suggests, it works great for meditation.  It's also perfect background
music.

"Sangkala."  Again, group or album title?  Don't know.  This is sort of
gamelan orchestra meets Steve Reich.  It's got a world music feel, the
group is Indonesian, and it's got a beautiful and delicate flute voice that
winds its way through something that sounds to this unschooled ear like
gamelan music.

Background music comment: I find calming often works best when the sound is
out of my direct focus of attention.  Background music got a bad reputation
because of Muzak in elevators and shopping malls.  I don't think it's bad,
or a misuse of music intended for another purpose.  If it works.  Maybe you
might find a lot of music that revs you up when you play it loud and pay
attention winds you down if it just sort of tinkles along in the
background.

Chris Ischay
chrisi@camex.com
From: Bill_P_Pearce@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: More Haydn
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 22:15:55 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

  In article <1992Nov16.022625.20883@nuscc.nus.sg> reference is made
to the Dorati set of Haydn symphonies.  For what it's worth, I have
owned the lp's (in 10 volumes) for some years and love them.  I can't
say I have done any extensive comparative listening to Haydn symhony
recordings (I don't have another complete set - just individual ones
by Szell, Davis, Bruno Walter, Beecham, Klemperer and others) but the
Dorati ones have always sounded fine to me.  It is a wonderful treasure-
house of music, I think - and one of the reasons I posted my opinion
about the marvellous variety of Haydn's music recently.  I keep finding
new things in these volumes - like No. 34 in D Minor, which I just
listened to recently - with a beautiful adagio opening movement.  I have
certain favorites among the symphonies, but I try to make sure I don't
listen to them only at the expense of the others by putting each lp I
listen to at the back of the volumes, so that there will be some rotation
in listening to them -- anyway, I haven't found any of the symphonies that
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: ssc@nwu.edu (Steven Chung)
Subject: Re: Music to quiet down...
Originator: schung@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 04:13:23 GMT


Perhaps Bach's Goldberg Variations?  Yes music is about the generation and
relief of tension, but some of it has a better cleansing effect.  That
story about Count Kaiserling's insomnia might not be apocryphal...

At any rate, I'd recommend Glenn Gould's 1955 recording.

Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: dwong@chopsuey.pico (David G. Wong - VIP user)
Subject: Re: Brahms Violin Concerto
Reply-To: dwong@chopsuey.pico
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:42:52 GMT

In article 1725@pta.pyramid.com.au, chieu@pta.pyramid.com.au (Chieu Tran) writes:
>zorro@picasso.ocis.temple.edu (John Grabowski) writes:
>
>>Can anyone out there recommend a really passionate performance of the Brahms
>>Violin Concerto.  I've already heard Stern/Ormandy on CBS and Perlman/Giulini
>>on Angel, plus a few by relatively obscure East European orchestra whose names
>>escape me now.  They are all lacking for some reason or other.  I've also heard
>>a live TV version by Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, and am tempted to get her
>>studio recording, but I've found she's not as exciting in the studio.
>
>>Also, a friend whose musical opinion I respect says Anna-Sophie Mutter's with
>>von Karajan on DG is disappointing as well.  I thought that would be 
>>definitive.
>
>>Any suggestions?
>
>I have the Krebbers/Haitink with the Concertgebouw Orchestra on Philips
>and like it very much.  The performance is spontaneous and exciting, yet
>tender and poetic, particularly in the slow passages.
>-- 
>      -m-------  Chieu Tran                UUCP: pyramid!pta!chieu
>    ---mmm-----  Pyramid Technology Corp.  INTERNET: chieu@pta.pyramid.com.au
>  -----mmmmm---  403 Pacific Highway       VOICE: +61 2 901 5333
>-------mmmmmmm-  Artarmon 2064 Australia   FAX: +61 2 906 4353


don't forget the violin GOD, Heifetz's recording!

Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: dcoder@u.washington.edu
Subject: Shostakovich preludes and fugues
Reply-To: dave@nucleus.immunol.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 22:41:52 GMT

I got the Keith Jarret recording of these on the basis of a local review. A  
delight on several fronts: performance, recording, and contents are remarkable.  
("This is wonderful! But, I don't like Shostakovich!?", said one friend.)
There seem to be several other recordings--is anyone familiar with them?  
Although Jarret does a stellar job, there are parts that I could imagine done  
differently (perhaps more cleanly).

Dave Coder
dcoder@u.washington.edu
From: ronthal-adam@yale.edu (Adam Ronthal)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Brahms
Date: 16 Nov 1992 19:21:36 -0500
Organization: Yale University Science & Engineering UNIX(tm), New Haven, CT 06520-2158
NNTP-Posting-Host: minerva.cis.yale.edu

My all time favorite Brahms piece is the Horn Trio.  In fact, this is one 
of my favorite pieces of music in general.

Adam

-- 
   /|\  /|~\   Adam M. Ronthal BR'94    |    ronthal-adam@yale.edu	
  /-| \/ |_/   P.O. Box 607 Yale Stn.   |    ronthal@minerva.cis.yale.edu
 /  |    | \   New Haven, CT   06520    |    ronthal@pop.cis.yale.edu

Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: dwong@chopsuey.pico (David G. Wong - VIP user)
Subject: Re: Brahms
Reply-To: dwong@chopsuey.pico
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 23:50:49 GMT

In article 62493@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU, hurben@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Mike Hurben) writes:
>In article <BxL30t.8FM@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> kldawkin@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Kiwi) writes:
>>I've been dying to ask this question, and right now I feel the time is
>>right. Don't ask why. Anyway, my question is this: Are there other
>>people out there who think (as I do) that Brahms is highly overrated?
>>That's not to say he didn't write great music... but I don't think
>>he wrote a *lot* of great music. The strange thing about Brahms
>>is that although I like a great deal of music from his time
>>(music of contemporaries such as Liszt, Wagner, Bruch, Saint-Saens,
>>Balakirev, etc.) I simply can't get into his music at all. 
>>I would quite gladly be proven wrong, and I'd love it if people could
>>post some suggestions to get me going. I have heard all the symphonies
>>and I am unimpressed, as well as both piano concerti, the violin
>>concerto, the double concerto, all of opp 117, 118, both major overtures,
>>and some of the Hungarian dances. And other things which
>>I forget.
>>
>>
>>So... help out!
>>
>>Kyle.
>>   ,------------------------------.,---------------------------------.   \._,
>>  /   7   ,7  o             o     / kldawkins@cayley.waterloo.edu    /   < /
>> /   /--<'   /   /  ,  /   /     / kldawkins@descartes.waterloo.edu /     ' 
>>/  -'    `--'`--'`-'`-'`--'`-   / kldawkins@napier.waterloo.edu    /    /7 
>>`------------------------------'`---------------------------------'    //  NZ!
>>"Don't call me God. Call me Pope so I have something to aspire to."    '
>
>Well, I cannot help you out.  I must confess to feeling exactly as you do.  
>While I realize that Brahms was an outstanding composer, he has not done much
>for me.  I first came across his music about the same time that I discovered
>Mozart and Beethoven.  I promptly went out and bought all his symphonies and 
>piano concerti, not to mention the famous short pieces...overtures, Haydn 
>variations, etc...
>
>Then I met Mr. Mahler and Mr. Wagner and all hell broke loose.  I have not been
>the same since.  A few months ago I went back and listened to most of my Brahms,
>and I did enjoy it...but it did not induce the huge emotional catharsis that I
>am now a glutton for.  But there is much that I have not heard...such as all
>of the violin concerto, or the German Requiem.  Also, the little chamber music
>that I have heard I liked, so I would like to hear some more.
>
>This is not to insult the Brahms faithful out there.  I would like nothing more
>than to have some music of his grab me by the throat and make me beg...
>
>Any recommendations?

Ror sophisticated Mahler listener like you.  How about the German Requiem and also
the violin concerto?  BTW, have you played or sit thru the complete production of
Wagner's RING before?  I think you may change your mind about Brahms once you have
done that.

d. wong





Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Subject: Re: MOZART HELP PLEASE!
Reply-To: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 16:54:56 GMT

In article <7536.382.uupcb@travel.com> brad.dekoter@travel.com (Brad Dekoter)  writes:
> 
>1. What year did Mozart die? 

1791

>2. What is the largest selling classical recording in history? 

I believe it is Switched-On Bach

>3. Who wrote the "Elvira Madigan" theme? 

I don't know the theme, so I can't help you here.


--
Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.     "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings 
gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu       to be seriously considered as a means of 
N2GPZ in ham radio circles        communication. The device is inherently of
72355,1226 on CI$                 no value to us." -Western Union memo, 1877
From: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Considering 4'33''
Date: 23 Nov 92 03:08:15 GMT
Reply-To: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Organization: Digital Systems Co,  Atlanta, Ga

In article <1992Nov21.022011.21101@nuscc.nus.sg> smoliar@iss.nus.sg (Stephen Smoliar) writes:
>In article <1ed3spINNriv@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> diarmuid@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Diarmuid
>Pigott) writes:
>>
>>BTW The first, and still one of the only pieces of Cage I have disliked is
>>HPSCHD. For totally emotional reasons to boot. I got my exciting
>>nonesuch recording (lower case on cover complete with the computer printout)
>>and read that he'd done the things he did because he hated the sound of the
>>harpsichord. 
>>
>Are you saying you dislike this work because Cage said he hated the sound of
>the harpsichord?  How much time did you put into LISTENING to the performance?
>Did you REALLY feel that Cage used this composition to vent that hatred?  I
>feel quite the opposite.  I feel that Cage undertook to work with something
>he had disliked so that his improved knowledge would cultivate a better
>attitude.  [...]

I think there were several other things going on, too.

One was that Cage had begun developing an interest in Mozart, and
that is a part of HPSCHD.  (He believed Mozart's music tended
towards variety and multiplicity of ideas, in contrast to his
impression of Beethoven's music.)

Another is that through HPSCHD, for the most part, he became
disinterested in the idea of computer music that did not involve
human intervention/interaction in its realization.  (He told me
this himself.)


Cheers,

--Mark Gresham

dscatl!mgresham@gatech.edu

==========================


Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: smitra@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Sami Mitra)
Subject: Re: Name that Opera
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 14:58:11 GMT

In article <Nov20.033055.50452@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> hurben@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Mike Hurben) writes:
>I will have to flaunt my ignorance of the Italians in public...
>
>What is the opera featured at the end of 'The Godfather, III' ???
>
>
If my memory serves me right and if I can somehow
extrapolate from all the blood and gore at the end of the
film...the opera was Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

				Sami Mitra
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: mozart/handel - messiah
From: phoogenboom@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 22 Nov 92 17:25:11 EST
Organization: Wesleyan University

In article <1992Nov21.225358.7271@Princeton.EDU>, roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:
> In article <1992Nov21.210951.18576@msc.cornell.edu> tan@lynx.msc.cornell.edu.UUCP (David Tan,Box 219 Baker Lab,54810,2720402) writes:
>>From article <92325.172728IO21145@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, by <IO21145@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>:
>>> I was wondering if anyone has ever seen references to a
>>> revison of the "Messiah" by W.A. Mozart?
> 
>>It's really a "reorchestration."  The orchestral parts have been augmented,
>>most obviously by adding clarinets (which did not, of course, exist in Handel's
>>time) and French Horns. 
> 
> This does not, of course, explain Handel's Overture for Two Clarinets
> and Horn, or the aria he wrote with clarinet obbligato in one of his
> operas.  Clarinets were invented around 1700.
> 
> Mozart did more than add horns and clarinets (and flutes and bassoons).
> He shortened "The trumpet shall sound", replaced another aria with a
> recitative, and filled out the string textures, too.
> 
> Roger

First of all thank you for substantiating my earlier comment.  Second of all I
now recall that there is evidence that horns doubled the trumpet parts (in at
least one of the performances under Handel).  Third of all and most
importantly, I believe that any changes Mozart made from the usual form of
Messiah were nonetheless to use music composed by Handel for inclusion in the
oratorio at one or another of the performances (that is to say that the
recitative Mozart used was used by Handel at one point to replace the aria in
question as well).  Aside form the deletions in "the Trumpet Shall Sound," 
the one exception to this is the B section of "But Who May Abide" which was
originally much less florid and for Bass.  It was rewritten for the castrato
Guadagni in the better known version (Guadagni was a castrato) and afterwards
that version was also performed by female singers.  Handel NEVER assigned that
version to a Bass, however, as Mozart did.

Peter Hoogenboom
phoogenb@ucs.indiana.edu
From: vnguyen@husc11.harvard.edu (Vinh Nguyen)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Brahms Violin Concerto
Date: 15 Nov 92 20:22:51 GMT
Reply-To: vnguyen@husc11.harvard.edu
Originator: vnguyen@husc11.harvard.edu

In article <1992Nov15.153350.9061@cronkite.ocis.temple.edu>,
 zorro@picasso.ocis.temple.edu (John Grabowski) writes:

> Can anyone out there recommend a really passionate performance of the Brahms
> Violin Concerto.  I've already heard Stern/Ormandy on CBS and Perlman/Giulini
> on Angel, plus a few by relatively obscure East European orchestra whose names
> escape me now. They are all lacking for some reason or other. I've also heard
> a live TV version by Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, and am tempted to get her
> studio recording, but I've found she's not as exciting in the studio.
> 
> Also, a friend whose musical opinion I respect says Anna-Sophie Mutter's with
> von Karajan on DG is disappointing as well.  I thought that would be 
> definitive.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> John
> zorro@picasso.ocis.temple.edu
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Try Heifetz/Reiner on RCA coupled with the Heifetz/Much Beethoven.
It would be a bargain at top price if the Brahms were to stand alone.
Heifetz is at his dazzling fiery self as usual -- the total antithesis
to the sonambulism of Perlman/Giulini on EMI -- perhaps not to everyone's
taste, but fine with mine.  Sparks really fly in the rondo! :-)

Vinh Nguyen
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: timothy@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Timothy Plattner)
Subject: Re: Bernstein's Tchiakovsky Sixth, again
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 19:48:08 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.163325.2030@visual.com> rwh@visual.com (Rob Holzel) writes:
>
>
>After all the talk here about the Bernstein DG recording of the
>Tchaikovsky Sixth, I finally decided to take the plunge and check
>it out.  
>
>First things first:  WOW.

Interestingly enough,  the LA Phil was playing the 6th this weekend under
the direction of Zubin Mehta and I went to both performances.  

I must say that I have been irrevocably spoiled on this work, however,  because
the Bernstein recording was the first that I heard or owned.  I can barely
enjoy any other performances of it because they all seem way too fast and way
too superficial.  I almost wish that I had learned another performance before
the Bernstein as I would have been able to enjoy other performances, and I
would have been able to see how incredible this recording is.  Unfortunately,
I can only seem to enjoy the Lenny edition,  and I consider it the "correct"
way of playing the piece, not just an incredible reading of it.

Let's hear it for Lenny!
-tim
From: inr@eccles.caltech.edu (I. Neill Reid)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Brahms violin concerto (summary)
Date: 18 Nov 1992 20:59 PST
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: eccles.caltech.edu
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <1992Nov18.161245.11594@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>, velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francois Velde) writes...
>Here is a summary of opinions expressed on the Brahms violin concerto
>performances.  I include only positive opinions. Trashed were: 
>Perlman/Giulini, Salerno-Sonnenberg, Mutter-Karajan, Nigel (Kennedy?).
>Especially praised were: Ginette Neveu, Heifetz, Grumiaux.
> 
>Which brings a question: is there any DDD version (aside from the 
>spurious Neveu recording) that measures up to these giants? This is
>for those of us who came to age in the CD age, and haven't the fervor
>to sift through the noise of a re-mastered 78 for that divine sound.
> 
>Which brings another question: why do netters prefer the older versions?
>Are there no good violinists around anymore, or is there some built-in
>bias? For example, were those the first versions you heard?
> 
> 

 I'll add a late vote for the Heifetz - and that's certainly the 
first version of the work that I _remember_ hearing (as a re-issue!),
but I'm sure it's not the first that I heard. Why go for the older
versions? Probably because each performer is an individual - I don't
listen to much in the way of solo violin music, but Heifetz and 
Grumiaux (and, to a lesser extent, Stern) are almost instantly
recogniseable. Especially Heifetz. I certainly can't say the same
for Kennedy/Mutter/Perlman etc. - which is not to say that all of the
great performances were made 30+ years ago (Kennedy's Elgar recording
is a match for the famous Menuhin/Elgar reading, for example) - but maybe
all the great _recogniseable_ performances were.

(How often does a preference for Heifetz go with a preference for Toscanini?)
(- or Heifetz/Grumiaux with Toscanini/Walter?) 

  Neill Reid - inr@eccles.caltech.edu
From: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Schickele (was: Re: The worst composer ever)
Date: 23 Nov 92 20:50:19 GMT
Reply-To: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)
Organization: Digital Systems Co,  Atlanta, Ga

In article <By5soo.94n@ns1.nodak.edu> griffith@plains.NoDak.edu (John Griffith) writes:
>
>I have heard reviews that comment Shickele's own "real" music is not as good
>as the spoofs he comes up with as his alter ego.  I personally cannot recall
>hearing anything "real" by him (but I know I have) and I really enjoy his
>PDQ stuff.

Peter Shickele's "real" music is published by Theodore Presser,
as is the P.D.Q. Bach music.  A catalog of either is available.

First, one must note that Shickele did some early arranging for
Joan Baez; did music for "Oh, Calcutta!"; and did the filmscore
for "Silent Running."

Phil Glass is said to have a great respect for Shickele from his
days at Julliard.  (Take that as you will, Glass fans/detractors.)

I cannot say much about Schickele's concert works, though I have
seen some of his small choral octavos and choral sets.  Very
workable, though not often "wow!" music from the "visual"
examination point, but sometimes humorous itself.  (Example:
"Go for Broke" commissioned and performed last year by the Dale
Warland Singers, recently avaiable from Presser.  Funny
story/lyrics, and music that adequately supports it.

Shickele does fret about the fact that once the public views you
as a humorist, it is difficult to get them to accept the fact that
you sometimes don't write music that is "funny" -- they have come
to expect it.  With all his serious output, however, he has,
indeed, not yet come out with a *major* serious work that has
markedly changed that public image.  (One which Dan Akroyd
successfully achieved his role in "Driving Miss Daisy," for example.)


Cheers,

--Mark Gresham

dscatl!mgresham@gatech.edu

==========================
From: abrocke1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Aaron Brockett)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: tonality and modern music
Date: 20 Nov 92 01:58:29 GMT
Organization: Swarthmore College

In article <1ee6dkINNsmf@calvin.usc.edu>, alves@calvin.usc.edu (William
Alves) writes:

--lots of discussion deleted

> However, the point is taken. A close look at the world's music is recommended
> for anyone who thinks that a lot of features of music are universal. I
> would certainly say that harmonic progressions, counterpoint, and diatoni-
> cism are NOT universal -- far from it. However, the sense of having a single
> pitch class center, while not completely universal, is the rule rather than
> the exception.
> 
> Bill Alves
> 

An interesting comment on this by someone quite steeped in 'atonal' music:

George Crumb was in a class of mine a couple of months ago and we were
asking him questions. I asked him whether he thought there was any use left
in tonality. He said that he thought that traditional triadic tonality was
pretty much dead, but that tonally centered music is definitely the most
natural kind; someone just needed to invent a fresh system.

--Aaron
Brockett
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical