Kevin's Watch

I have recently been listening to a lot of Bach's works and am amazed at the diversity of his music. "Sleepers Awake" is my favorite piece of music in the world.

I am also a big fan of Debussy's works, especially "the Sunken Cathedral."

Anyone else out there have a favorite Bach or Debussy piece?

I've not heard much by Debussey, but I like lots of Bach.

Some particular favorites would be Art of the Fugue and Music for the Unaccompanied Violin.

What can I say? Bach's my favorite composer. Everything he wrote was a masterpiece--pure genius. I have his violin sonatas and partitas, Art of Fugue, Mass in B Minor, Brandenburg Concertos, Magnificat, Organ Toccatas and Passacalia, St. Matthew Passion, and, my personal favorite, Musical Offering.

I plan on getting the suites for solo cello and the Goldberg variations.

Last time I was at Borders they had some Bach cd's on sale. I picked up his cello and lute suites at $5 a pop. The lute suites are played on guitar rather than lute, however...

Maybe Fisty would know how similar or disimilar a lute and a guitar would sound?

My favorite work of Bach's is the Goldberg Variations, particularly as performed by Glenn Gould in his 1981 recording: he transformed a straightforward piano piece into a profound and deeply personal musical journey. Bach scholars and purists may hate Gould's way with the music, but that's their problem, heh. As far as I'm concerned, Gould was in a class by himself when it came to Bach.

I also love Gould's recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The clarity of Gould's playing is beautiful to my ears--and clarity is always welcome in this monumental work.

As for Debussy, I'm not really a devotee of his music, but I do have his 12 Etudes as played by Mitsuko Uchida, which I like a lot. It's perfect rainy afternoon music.

Matrixman wrote:he transformed a straightforward piano piece into a profound and deeply personal musical journey.

The work has always had emotional content and great range; it just needed to be realized. I like his playing--just not his off-key humming! But I think the good outweighs the bad, as, like you said, his style had a great clarity, even during he contrapuntal passages. Indeed, during an era of heavy, grandiose Bach playing, Gould’s style was refreshing and revelatory.

I suppose Debussy is an aquired taste for some. I have seen several movies lately that have had Claire De Lune as part of the music score. Still. Sunken Cathedral is still one of my faves. Isao Tomita's version of that was played in Escape from New York. I don't really care for La Mer though.

But I love just about everything Bach. I love the intricacies and complexities and I some times wonder while I am listening how one person could even play some of the piano or organ pieces. Of course this is coming from someone who only knows how to play the radio, and that sometimes badly!

Try Bach's Music for Unaccompanied Violin. It is awesome (in the true sense of the word) that one violin, played by one person could produce music like that.

I am not familiar with Debussey. Do you have any specific recordings you could recommend to a Debussey novice? Or is there, perhaps, a specific conductor noted for directing his music (like Bernstein directing Mahler pieces)?

Sony has a classical "Greatest Hits" series.
It is a good representative sampling done by some very good artists and orchestras such as the London Symphony, etc. There is another Debussy Greatest Hits by another label but that entire Sony series is very good and much better quality than the others. I know they sell those at Borders also. I am going to check out the Bach CDs ther this weekend.

:::admitting my shallowness:::

Although I was a Music Education major, with voice as my instrument, I usually only listen to symphonic music in conjunction with a performance of ballet or opera.

That said, I would have to say that Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun would be my favorite Debussy piece.

I don't have a lot of either Bach or Debussy but I do like Debussy's Claire de Lune.

Menolly wrote: That said, I would have to say that Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun would be my favorite Debussy piece.

I have heard that one! My music appreciation prof played that for us. It's a good piece of music.

And I was told by someone tonight that I have probably heard Claire de Lune a million times in movie soundtracks and the like, and just never knew what it was.

Matrixman -- thanks for the recommendation. And your post in the other thread about how you now associate Beethoven's Fifth with white polyester suits -- classic!!

Duchess, I took your advice and visited Borders and picked up two Bach
CD's , Violin Sonatas and Violin Solos. I can't wait to hear them.

I like them both--especially Bach's violin music.

I like Mozart and (God, I know I will butcher his name) Rimsy Korsaka(?) "The Flight of the BumbleBee" composer.

I think it's Rimsky-Korsakof very good also. Mozart was another musical genius whose music is very moving to me. I even like Don Giovanni, one of his opera's. I ahve seen it several times. You have very good taste, as do we all.[/u]

Another symphonic recomendation from me would be Borodin's Polovtsian Dances.

I also really like Stravinsky's The Firebird. The whole piece, not the suite. I used the fanfare from The Firebird as my wedding march.

That's very cool...
Duchess, you were right, the unaccompanied violin works are just awesome. I also followed our neo-classicst's advice about the Gould recordings and I now share the same opinion. What can I say, Bach has become a magnificent obsession with me as I now own about 30 Bach cd's.

30 Bach CDs? Wow! There are just a handful of Bach's works that I tend to concentrate on.

Rimsky-Korsakov has always been on the periphery of my classical music listening. I do like the Russian Easter Festival Overture, though. Er, I think he composed that.

I don't think I've heard anything by Borodin. Thanks for the recommendation, Menolly. And hey, why not use Stravinsky for your wedding march? Dare to be different!

And while we're on Russian composers, I should mention to duchess the other classical piece that the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack introduced me to: Modest Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain, reworked of course as the groooovy Night On Disco Mountain.

oh gawd, did you have to mention disco?

I should have said..

That's the Way uh huh uh huh to ruin a thread about the most beautiful music in the world....