Suggestions to help broaden musical knowledge

[Sarah2]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 8:51pm

Ok, so I know that many of you are performers or studying music so I thought it would be good to ask you. I play piano, sing, and will probably be studying music and I think that to progress I have to broaden my musical tastes and learn about all genres of music. I want to buy CD's that represent a variety of musical styles but am having trouble figuring out what I should get. So I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for each of these genres, or any other genre that you think would be important.
Opera, classical
Rock
Jazz
Soul, motown
Broadway (obviously I'm familiar with many musicals but I would like suggestions for maybe older musicals or stuff that is not currently on Broadway)

[phantom_tenor]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 9:37pm

as far as opera/classical goes, stock up on Mozart (basically anything he ever wrote, but with opera, Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute), Verdi (La Traviata, Rigoletto, Il Travatore, Aida), Puccini(La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly and maybe some Handel (Messiah?).

[Sarah2]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 10:48pm

Thank you :)

[Liz_Bennet]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:01pm

A very, very quick tour through Western classical music, in approximate chronological order:
Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier and Mass in b minor
Mozart, Symphonies 40 and 41 or Marriage of Figaro
Beethoven, Symphonies No. 3 and 5, Sonata in f minor, "Appassionata" and String Quartet op. 131
Schubert, Sonata in B flat and lieder (especially Winterreise)
Chopin, Ballades or Nocturnes
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde
Brahms, Symphony No. 4
Debussy, La Mer or Pelleas et Melisande or Preludes (the piano preludes, though the orchestral preludes are great too)
Stravinsky, Petrushka and Sacre du printemps (Rite of Spring)
Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire
Berg, Violin Concerto or Wozzeck
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5 or Quartet No. 8
Copland, Appalachian Spring

This is short, so I had to leave some of my favorite composers off, like Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Faure, and Bartok.

I highly recommend "The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection" by Ted Libby. It gives nice background information on some highlights of the repertoire and recommendations of good recordings.

Updated On: 7/13/05 at 11:01 PM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:10pm

phantom, I think I would disagree.....for someone NOT keen on opera yet, I'd probably start with Rossini, Italian Girl.....and Barber of Seville. Then Mozart, Magic Flute, Don G, Puccini and Verdi might scarer someone away if listeneed to too soon.
So many people go see Turnadot, or (God Forbid) first and are turned off to the genre

I'd definately get Acis and Galitea (possibly spelled wrong) by Handel, and would definately NOT have someone get Madame Butterfly for a long time.

My note to new people.......check out the opera at your library FIRST before you spend a lot of money on an opera.........

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:18pm

Get the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs. You'll never need another reference book to classical music again.

And TURANDOT, especially performed at the MET, is more likely to win converts to opera than just about any other, excepting LA BOHEME. Go, go, go!

Hans Sachs
Nuremberg, Germany

[Sarah2]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:20pm

I didn't say that I'm not keen on opera though. I like listening to music in the classical style but obviously am a bit of a newcomer to this genre and need a little help knowing what artists to listen to. I am on a bit of a limited budget right now though as I don't have a job, but I guess I could probably download some stuff on Limewire or something if its there...they have pretty much everything I think.

[Sarah2]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:21pm

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for any of the other types of music?

[Liz_Bennet]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:28pm

I personally find Puccini to be way sugary and often overblown, but he's popular because he is very accessible. He's generally firmly tonal. It depends on what you're looking for in opera, and what "scares you off." If you're looking for opera with lighter voices, then do start with Baroque opera like Handel, but beware that Baroque operas move slowly and don't put a premium on plot (not that many operas do).

I would recommend any Verdi or Mozart for a beginner in opera. And don't find Hans Sachs for a little bit longer, because Meistersinger is looonnng and probably only came across as a comedy to Wagner, its composer. The music is lovely, though (I played the Prelude with an orchestra with 8 horns- wow!).

And go SEE an opera- it's a totally different experience from just listening, and the Met can compete or surpass the biggest Broadway spectacles.

Oh, and Porgy and Bess! Listen to that; it's great!

[phantom_tenor]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 2:30am

I can't say ANY verdi is a great choice for beginners in opera. Certainly something like La Traviata, but something along the lines of Otello, or La Forza del Destino would probably be a little heavy, and hard to follow or appreciate for newcomers.
I certainly don't think Puccini would scare newcomers away. Puccini is a composer who panders to human emotions, and there aren't alot of people around who wouldn't recognise Puccini's most popular melodies, nessun dorma, un bel di vedrimo, che gelida manina, vissi d'arte, e lucevan le stelle, etc etc.
La Boheme is a great opera to start on, becuase it contains universally appreciated music, relatable characters and a heartbreaking plot,
marriage of figaro and baber of seville are also good choices, for their fun, brilliant music and hilarious characters and situations.

Opera singers i recommend are pretty obvious choices, but i will anyway

Sopranos
Renata Tebaldi
Maria Callas
Maria Freni
Sumi Jo

Mezzos
Cecilia Bartoli
Renata Babak


Tenors
Placido Domingo
Jussi Bjoerling
Franco Corelli
di Stefano
a young Jose Carreras
Roberto Alagna

Baritones
Dietrich Fischer-Deiskau
Robert Merril
Sherrill Milnes
Leo Nucci
(please, do not listen to bryn terfel, one of the most overrated and technically bad opera singers of all time.)

and i don't particularly care for basses, so i have none to list.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 2:53am

When you get your first opera cd ( I second Marriage of Figaro or Traviata) make sure you have the time to sit and listen to the whole thing with the libretto in hand. Dim the lights and just concentrate on the music. Don't put it in while you are on-line, playing a video game or doing laundry. Take the time to get to know the piece. Listen for recurring leitmotifs and themes. It is a bit of work when you first start, but stay with it. Pretty soon you will be humming the music all the time.

[Over_the_Moon]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:18am

I was going to talk about opera, but I pretty much second what everyone else has said...

Straying to another genre... rock is a pretty broad term. And what one person considers "rock," another might not.

No one's music collection is complete without the doors. Also try looking into the Beatles... download some on limewire or bearshare to see which CD is best suited for your tastes. If you're including the "punk" scene in your "rock" genre, I'd suggest the Sex Pistols, but that's just me. Also try the Pixies.

Some less famous, sort of indi-rock bands that you might want to explore are LeTigre and Tegan and Sara.

Then again, I wouldn't call myself a music expert, so don't take my word for anything. Just some suggestions.

As for jazz, I'm a big Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong fan. I also enjoy Miles Davis on occasion.

Another genre you may want to look into is folk music and the like. It's different from just about anything else.

Have fun.

[jczelyph]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:20am

Certainly don't start with Pierrot Lunaire. It is perhaps the most hideous piece of music ever to be unleashed on the world. Sure, it represented a new era of composition, and is perhaps the prime example of sprechstimme/sprechgesang (speech-singing) but it is decidedly unforgiving for the listener, especially an ingenue in the world of classical recordings. This is a loathsome piece, and its artistic merits do not qualify it for a place on this list, a list which is primarily to introduce the reader to alternative genres of music. This piece is far too hideous to do anything but a disservice for the novice.

Ugh.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 3:21am

Given the dozens, even hundreds of operas available on DVD/VHS I would certainly recommend that you rent a few and watch them rather than simply listening to the recordings (although that can certainly be enjoyable as well). This will give you a much better sense of the story and characters than simply listening and reading the libretto. Opera is so much more than pretty music and sounds and lovely singing -- pay attention to the English translation of the libretto as well (nearly all DVDs and videos are subtitled) to get a deeper appreciation of how the words and music fit together. I studied opera for years and it can be truly a transcendent experience in the hands of truly outstanding interpretive artists (Callas comes to mind immediately).

As for where to start, the basic standard repertoire of most opera houses in the world -- Aida, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, La Boheme, Rigoletto, Tosca, La Traviata, Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), Marriage of Figaro -- are all fine. There's a reason these operas have been continually done season after season for 100+ years all over the world and are still the highest grossing productions for most companies. They're all very tuneful and extremely accessible musically (and feature the "greatest hits" of the opera world), and have very interesting and easy-to-follow plots.

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess also is an excellent "starter" opera -- it's a brilliant hybrid of opera, jazz and musical theatre writing which would make for a good introduction to opera for those not used to it (and it's also in English with several spoken scenes, which means you wouldn't have to be quite as reliant on the libretto to be able to follow what's going on in the story).

Updated On: 7/14/05 at 03:21 AM