Ceol na Soul

A Classical Music Blog.

[violaboss]

I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)

stereotypical delightful classical music:

battalia a 10 in d major (biber)

brandenburg concerto no. 5

brandenburg concerto no. 3

symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)

if you need to chill:

rondo alla turca

fur elise

anitra’s dance

in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)

if you need to sleep:

moonlight sonata

swan lake

corral nocturne

if you need to wake up:

morning mood

summer (from the four seasons)

buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)

if you are feeling very proud:

pomp and circumstance

symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)

1812 overture

symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)

american (dvořák)

if you feel really excited:

hoedown (copland)

bacchanale

spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)

la gazza ladra

death and the maiden (schubert)

if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:

dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)

winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)

symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)

symphony no. 5 (beethoven)

totentanz (liszt)

quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)

young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

if you want to cry for a really long time:

fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)

adagio for strings (barber)

violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)

aase’s death

andante festivo

if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:

an american in paris (gershwin)

if you want chills:

danse macabre

russian easter overture

if you want to study:

eine kleine nachtmusik

bolero (ravel)

serenade for strings (elgar)

scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)

pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)

if you really want to dance:

capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)

blue danube

le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)

radetzky march

if you want to start bouncing in your chair:

hopak (mussorgsky)

les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)

if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:

hungarian dance no. 1

hungarian dance no. 5

if you want to hear suspense within music:

firebird

in the hall of the mountain king

ride of the valkyries

night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)

if you want a jazzy/classical feel:

rhapsody in blue

if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:

introduction and rondo capriccioso

unfinished symphony (schubert)

symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)

canon in d (pachelbel)

if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:

st. paul’s suite

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

l’arlésienne suite

pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:

symphony no. 40 (mozart)

cello suite no. 1 (bach)

polovtsian dances

enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)

perpetuum mobile

pieces that just sound really cool:

scherzo tarantelle

dance of the goblins

caprice no. 24 (paganini)

new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology​)

if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):

concerto for two violins (bach)

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)

violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

cello concerto in c (haydn)

piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)

and if you really just hate classical music in general:

4′33″ (cage)

a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!

also, thank you to viola-ology and iwillsavemyworld for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!

[ceolnasoul]

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Saint-Saens - Bacchanale 

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Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (Ballet for Martha) 

"O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge; Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends And northward reaches in that violet wedge Of Adirondacks!" - Hart Crane.

Commission by choreographer and dancer Martha Graham with funds from the Coolidge Foundation, originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as Ballet for Martha. Shortly before the premiere, Graham suggested Appalachian Spring, a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, "The Dance" from a collection of poems in his book "The Bridge."

Completed 1944 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was first performed October 30, 1944, in Washington, D.C with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. Originally scored for 13 instruments, expanded version scored for 2 each flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and trombones, an extensive percussion battery of tympani, xylophone, snare drum, bass drum, long drum, wood block, claves, glockenspiel, triangle, plus harp, pianoforte, and strings.

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Luigi Denza - Funiculì, Funiculà.

Lyrics written by Peppino Turco.

A famous Neapolitan song written in 1880, it has been duplicated, plagiarised, and been used in several Disney productions. Funiculi, Funicula was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable car atop Mount Vesuvius, which was to be destroyed later by the mountain's sudden eruption in 1944. 

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Bach - Bourrée in E Minor

Bourrée in E Minor is a popular lute piece, the fifth movement from Suite in E minor for Lute, BWV 996 (BC L166) written by Johann Sebastian Bach. This piece is arguably one of the most famous pieces among guitarists.

A bourrée was a type of dance that originated in France with quick duple meter and an upbeat. Though the bourrée was popular as a social dance and shown in theatrical ballets during the reign of Louis XIV of France, the Bourrée in E minor was not intended for dancing. Nonetheless, some of the elements of the dance are incorporated in the piece. Bach wrote his lute pieces in a traditional score rather than in lute tablature, and some believe that Bach played his lute pieces on the keyboard. No original script of the Suite in E minor for Lute by Bach is known to exist. However, in the collection of one of Bach's pupils, Johann Ludwig Krebs, there is one piece ("Praeludio - con la Suite da Gio: Bast. Bach") that has written "aufs Lauten Werck" ("for the lute-harpsichord") in unidentified handwriting. Some argue that despite this reference, the piece was meant to be played on the lute as demonstrated by the texture. Others argue that since the piece was written in E minor, it would be incompatible with the baroque lute which was tuned to D minor. Nevertheless, it may be played with other string instruments, such as the guitar, mandola or mandocello, and keyboard instruments, and it is especially well-known among guitarists. The tempo of the piece should be fairly quick and smooth, since it was written to be a dance. It also demonstrates counterpoint, as the two voices move independently of one another. Furthermore, the Bourrée in E minor demonstrates binary form.

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Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre

The composition is based upon a poem by Henri Cazalis, on an old French superstition: Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence, Striking with his heel a tomb, Death at midnight plays a dance-tune, Zig, zig, zig, on his violin. The winter wind blows and the night is dark; Moans are heard in the linden trees. Through the gloom, white skeletons pass, Running and leaping in their shrouds. Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking, The bones of the dancers are heard to crack— But hist! of a sudden they quit the round, They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed. According to the ancient superstition, "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death has the power to call forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle (represented by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning). His skeletons dance for him until the first break of dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year. The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times to signify the clock striking midnight, accompanied by soft chords from the string section. This then leads to the eerie E flat and A chords (also known as a tritone or the "Devil's chord") played by a solo violin, representing death on his fiddle. After which the main theme is heard on a solo flute and is followed by a descending scale on the solo violin. The rest of the orchestra, particularly the lower instruments of the string section, then joins in on the descending scale. The main theme and the scale is then heard throughout the various sections of the orchestra until it breaks to the solo violin and the harp playing the scale. The piece becomes more energetic and climaxes at this point; the full orchestra playing with strong dynamics.Towards the end of the piece, there is another violin solo, now modulating, which is then joined by the rest of the orchestra. The final section, a pianissimo, represents the dawn breaking and the skeletons returning to their graves. The piece makes particular use of the xylophone in a particular theme to imitate the sounds of rattling bones. Saint-Saëns uses a similar motif in the Fossils part of his Carnival of the Animals.

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Yann Tiersen - L'Autre Valse D'Amelie

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Sahashi Toshihiko  - Youen Naru Kizuna no Hibiki 

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Saint-Saens - Bacchanale 

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Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas, written in 1896-97. Subtitled "Scherzo after a ballad by Goethe," the piece was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 poem of the same name. By far the most performed and recorded of Dukas's works, its notable appearance in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film Fantasia has led to the piece to becoming widely known to audiences outside the classical concert hall.

The instrumentation of the piece consists of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon (or contrabass sarrusophone), four horns, two trumpets (in C), two cornets, three trombones, timpani, glockenspiel, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, harp and strings. The formidable glockenspiel part is usually handled by a percussionist playing a special keyed glockenspiel.

The work earned widespread critical approval, especially from contemporary French critics. Writing in Gil Blas in 1903, Claude Debussy noted of Dukas's style, "One may say that this emotional evocation is constructive, that it builds up a beauty like that of perfect architectural lines set in the colored spaces of the air and sky, mingling in a total, definite harmony."

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Schumann - Traumerei

Kinderszenen (original spelling Kinderscenen, "Scenes from Childhood"), Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version. Robert Polansky has discussed the unused movements.

In 1974, Eric Sams noted that there was no known complete manuscript of Kinderszenen. Schumann had originally labeled this work Leichte Stücke (Easy Pieces). Likewise, the section titles were only added after the completion of the music, and Schumann described the titles as "nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation". Timothy Taylor has discussed Schumann's choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music in 19th century culture and economics.

Traumerei is the seventh piece.

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Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, it is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano.

The first edition of the score is headed Sonata quasi una fantasia, a title this work shares with its companion piece, Op. 27, No. 1. Grove Music Online translates the Italian title as "sonata in the manner of a fantasy".

The name "Moonlight Sonata" has its origins in remarks by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. Within ten years, the name "Moonlight Sonata" ("Mondscheinsonate" in German) was being used in German and English publications. Later in the nineteenth century, it could be said that the sonata was "universally known" by that name.

Many critics have objected to the subjective, Romantic nature of the title "Moonlight", which has at times been called "a misleading approach to a movement with almost the character of a funeral march" and "absurd". Other critics have approved of the sobriquet, finding it evocative or in line with their own associations with the work. Gramophone founder Compton Mackenzie found the title "harmless", remarking that "it is silly for austere critics to work themselves up into a state of almost hysterical rage with poor Rellstab", adding that "What these austere critics fail to grasp is that unless the general public had responded to the suggestion of moonlight in this music Rellstab's remark would long ago have been forgotten."

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Edvard Grieg - Morning Mood 

Sometimes abbreviated to Morning, is a composition belonging to Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt, Op. 23, written in 1875 as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play of the same name, and was also included as the first of four movements in Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46. Along with In the Hall of the Mountain King, Morning Mood is one of Grieg's best known works and is often used in films, television commercials, and shows (most notably cartoons.)

The piece depicts the rising of the sun during Act IV, Scene 4 of Ibsen's play, which finds the eponymous hero stranded in the Moroccan desert after his companions took his yacht and abandoned him there while he slept. The scene begins with the following description:

A grove of palms and acacias at dawn. PEER GYNT is up a tree, protecting himself with a broken-off branch from a swarm of apes.

As the Peer Gynt Suites take their pieces out of the original context of the play, Morning Mood is not widely known in its original setting, and images of Grieg's Scandinavian origins more frequently spring to the minds of its listeners than those of the desert it was written to depict.

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Toshihiko Sahashi -Rekishi wa Kataru 

Toshihiko Sahashi is an accomplished Japanese composer. He graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986. Sahashi has composed music for various anime series (including OVAs, movies, and drama CDs), video games, movies, dramas, and musicals. His song "You and I, Unfulfilled Feelings" is often used on the American comedy-drama Scrubs.

The style of his composition is richly symphonic and classical (occasionally jazz). The use of sophisticated compositional techniques, as well as complicated harmony writing such as fugue can be often heard in his work, demonstrating his solid training in the western classical music. He also uses keyboard instruments to deliver more sentimental soundtracks to a good effect.

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Michiru Oshima - Keiji 

A Japanese composer who has worked on several video game, movie, and television titles. The music for Fullmetal Alchemist was composed and arranged by Michiru Oshima, who won the 5th Tokyo Anime Award in the category "Best Music" for Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa. TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 1 was released on March 24, 2004 in Japan and contained thirty-three tracks, including several of the background sounds used during key points in the main series and the first opening and ending theme songs. Although never released officially, a version of the Russian track "Brothers" (Russian: Братья, Bratja; Japanese: Burācha) from this CD has been recorded in English by Vic Mignogna, the voice actor who played Edward Elric in the English dubbed version. TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 2 was released on December 15, 2004 and contained thirty tracks. TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Original Soundtrack 3, released on May 18, 2005 contained twenty-seven tracks.

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Arnaud - Bugler's Dream

Leo Arnaud was a French-American composer of film scores, best known for Bugler's Dream, which is used as the theme by television networks presenting the Olympic Games in the United States.

The composer studied composition at conservatories in Lyon and Paris with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d'Indy. After playing as a jazz trombonist in France using the name Leo Vauchant and arranging for the Jack Hylton band in England from 1928 to 1930, he immigrated to the United States in 1931. He worked in Hollywood as an arranger for Fred Waring before joining MGM as an arranger, composer, and orchestrator from 1936 to 1966.

"Bugler's Dream" is very well known, especially by Americans, as theme music for the Olympic Games from its use in ABC's and NBC's television coverage of the games. It is considered to be a symbol of the Olympics. Arnaud's piece is very stately, beginning with a timpani cadence that is soon joined by a distinctive theme in brass.

Arnaud was commissioned by conductor Felix Slatkin to create a piece for his album Charge! in 1958. For this, he wrote "The Charge Suite", published by Shawnee Press, which included "Bugler's Dream". ABC began using the composition as the theme to their coverage of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and in future Olympics. It was also used as the title piece for the series ABC's Wide World of Sports. NBC went with an alternate theme in 1988 when it obtained the rights to the Summer Olympics in Seoul, but brought "Bugler's Dream" back in 1992 for their broadcast of the Barcelona Olympics.

For the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, composer John Williams wrote "Olympic Fanfare and Theme," which is played in a medley with "Bugler's Dream." It consists of Williams's arrangement of "Bugler's Dream" which is similar to Arnaud's original but with a repeat of the theme with a full orchestra, followed by Williams's composition. Williams's arrangement of Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" as well as "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" are both commonly used in recent Olympic coverage by NBC.

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Fučík - Entrance of the Gladiators. 

Julius  Fučík  was a Czech composer and conductor of military bands.

Fučík spent most of his life as the leader of military brass bands. He became a prolific composer, with over 400 marches, polkas, and waltzes to his name. As most of his work was for military bands, he is sometimes known as the "Bohemian Sousa".

Today his marches are still played as patriotic music in the Czech Republic. However, his worldwide reputation rests on one work: his Opus 68 march, the Entrance of the Gladiators (Vjezd gladiátorů), which is universally recognized, often under the title Thunder and Blazes, as one of the most popular theme tunes for circus clowns.

Another composition, The Florentiner March, is not as popular as Entrance of the Gladiators, but it is regularly performed and recorded by wind ensembles.

Fučík was the uncle of the journalist Julius Fučík, executed by the Nazi regime.