#also unrelated but it’s rosa the otter’s birthday today!!! very exciting times

[autism-disco]

(innocent completely question)

what are your opinions on classical music? For example, Mozart 😁?

ok so sadly i haven’t actually listened to that much mozart specifically or at least not consciously? his music is pretty good but sometimes the fact that he’s a child prodigy makes me feel rather insecure as is the case for all those fuckin five year olds playing concertos like what the hell man

to clarify before i get fully into this rant, i’m specifically talking about western classical music because i don’t think i know enough to talk about other areas of the world’s classical music, as incredible as it is. i love me an erhu, and i’ve studied indian classical music at school and it’s great, i just haven’t gotten round to listening to much of it in my own free time.

i think it’s quite hard to pin down my feelings on classical music specifically because i’m not all that good at differentiating between classical and romantic yknow? baroque is more obvious at least in terms of concertos (admittedly that’s the only type i’ve studied) because of the harpsichord but i really need to listen to more baroque stuff. and like any music genre, classical music is very broad but is always kind of condensed into just “classical” which i feel like doesn’t really do it justice? so take like idk, claire de lune by debussy (i know that one’s a romantic one shut up shut up) (romantic the type period for clarification) is a beautiful piece of music which is well renowned for that. it’s incredible, it’s heart wrenching and it’s just lovely. then on the contrary you have pieces like the miraculous mandarin by bartók which are somewhat unsettling in places but still magnificently composed. in any other scenario i don’t see how these pieces could be classed as the same genre but they still are.

it’s also difficult to define classical music because is it the style or is it the time period? people still write classical-style music in the modern day- take more modern composers like shostakovich, he’s an arguably classical composer who died in 1975! similar goes for bartók actually. and karl jenkins- benedictus from the armed man mass for peace is literally all you hear on classic fm!! but he’s still kickin!! also my guy john rutter

speaking of time periods, i think that it’s interesting that in a majority of kinda western music studies we just begin with like classical or baroque. at least at a more simple level, we don’t really look into renaissance music as much as i personally would like to. me and my brother have an ongoing joke about greensleeves which is such a famous piece of music but by time period definitions would not be classical. i think it’s also interesting to point out folk music here- some folk songs have existed for so long and are still played by folk bands to this day! i mean obviously the issue with music predating the baroque/classical era is that it wasn’t written down quite as much as far as i’m aware- especially for folk music, it’s very much an oral tradition.

another qualm i have with classical music is that it can be quite inaccessible to get into. if you’re not in a choir or don’t play in an orchestra it can be challenging to actually find classical music because there’s just so much of it! of course the radio can help with this- things like BBC radio 3 and classic fm can be a little repetitive in what they play but it’s good stuff. however, they both have much more chilled out classical music, which of course is fine, but if you’re wanting to explore beyond that which i think is where the appeal might lie for the average person, you can struggle a little. streaming services do provide good access to classical music, but honestly in my opinion it can be quite stressful and overwhelming to actually manage partly because half the names of pieces are just “opus 12 in d major” or something similar. i mean this of course stems from the fact that classical music wasn’t designed for streaming services obviously, and i’m not suggesting we like rename pieces or something like that i think that would be a bit silly. obviously another way to get into classical music is to go and watch concerts, but they’re not exactly affordable for many people which sucks. i want everyone to experience zadok live at least once in their lives (yes it’s for the coronation no i don’t like the monarchy however i do not care it’s incredible i actually sang zadok with like a whole accumulation of choirs and it actually changed me as a person!!) but it’s just unrealistic for so many people because of the prices.

to a very simplified extent, you can divide classical music into the different time periods (although see the issues above), and into if it’s orchestral or choral. of course many choral pieces are accompanied by an orchestra, but it’s at least some semblance of a dividing line.

although i do play an orchestral instrument in an orchestra (baritone the brass one), i haven’t actually performed that many classical orchestral pieces myself, save for like mozart’s “the magic flute” and such. choral music on the other hand. oh boy.

the first piece of classical music i remember doing would be fauré requiem i believe? it was either fauré or rutter i don’t fully remember. fauré requiem is very good, but at the time i didn’t really appreciate it because i was like 7 or 8 and i wanted to keep doing things like sheep sheep sheep or the amazon maurice and his educated rhodents play (it was incredible). listening back though i see why it’s so well renowned.

in case you didn’t know, a requiem is a mass for the dead, with the main phrase of any requiem “requiem eternam” translating to “grant them rest eternal” if i remember correctly. i think this is captured incredibly in mozart’s requiem, which is the most recent requiem that i’ve sang. the opening captures the mood very clearly, and we go on to get incredible pieces like rex tremendae and dies irae. and then of course, there’s the rightfully famous lacrimosa, which i urgently need to sing as a cathedral choir at some point.

a potentially(??) less well known classical piece that i’ve performed is stainer’s crucifixion. now i’m not a religious man. but the chorus from the throne of his cross is one of the most exciting pieces i’d sang at the time, especially early on and the “they shouted against me bit”. it’s like jd from heathers meant to be yours vibes and it’s jesus on the cross. the rest of it is pretty nice as well, a couple of the bits weren’t as engaging but also a lot of was soloists (who were very good by the way)

i’m slightly afraid this’ll be an unpopular opinion but i did hadyn’s creation a year or so ago now and honestly? i wasn’t a huge fan. the bits that weren’t the choruses just kind of dragged on a bit in places, i mean it is the entirety of genesis but yeah. the best bit was absolutely the despairing cursing rage attends their rapid fall/a new created world springs up at god’s command combo. although that top a(?) nearly killed me i’m so glad i don’t have to actually sing soprano anymore and can just do it occasionally for the silly. but yeah, i feel like i was disappointed from the beginning when the orchestral “chaos” was like the most orderly chaos properly. i wanted more dissonance to fill the cathedral, man!

i’ve done a couple of pieces from handel’s messiah, well specifically three, and they were pretty fun i guess? they were probably some of the most challenging pieces i’ve done in a while, the tenor line on hallelujah is so unnecessarily weird and difficult?? handel just hated tenors i think (based)

the most recent one that i’ve done if i recall correctly is one i mentioned earlier: karl jenkins’ armed man- a mass for peace. this is one of the ones i again didn’t perform all of- we did kyrie, sanctus, benedictus, and agnus dei. i really enjoyed them all honestly! the contrast between them really portrays the ideas of war and peace very well. we didn’t do the ending random english one, which i think is for the best because ending on the word peace (parcem) is a rather beautiful sentiment.

there are, of course, a lot of other pieces i enjoy that i haven’t performed, both choral and orchestral and piano which i realise now should sort of have its own category. i can’t name them all, the one that instantly comes to mind is liebesleid but that’s just thanks to your lie in april (which honestly was a pretty good way to discover some new pieces!). i’m working on compiling a playlist of them completely, so if anyone is interested in that i can keep you posted.

i probably have more to say but it’s nearly been an hour and i really should sleep. if you’ve gotten this far thank you for reading all of that or scrolling to the bottom of this post!

tldr; i enjoy classical music and mozart is pretty neat