I don't get it. I dig orchestral or chamber-like or solo piano music by contemporary composers, but anything before Ravel, Debussy and Satie bores me to death. I find anything from earlier than 1900 totally corny and cheesy and void of any emotional content or any ability to tell me a story, even the greatest geniuses such as Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin... I KNOW their music is wonderful, but I just don't find anything interesting in it when I listen to it.

On the other hand give me a symphony by Takemitsu or a solo piano album by John Zorn or Ryuichi Sakamoto or Harold Budd, or a piece by Steve Reich or Philip Glass or Gavin Bryars, and I'll be totally crazy about it!

So it's not like some people who only dig popular music that I don't like the form of classical music in itself, or I wouldn't like contemporary composers either. It's just that when I listen to pre-1900 stuff it just sounds like a ridiculous cartoon soundtrack to me, and I don't understand why.

What y'all think?

You mentioned a "ridiculous cartoon soundtrack," which may be the key. Perhaps classic classical music is too ubiquitous? It permeates a lot of pop culture, but mostly through movies, television, cartoons, commercials, spoofs, music classes, etc. Maybe it's a feeling that you've "heard it all before" because, in a lot of cases, you have?

AlexdeParis said:

You mentioned a "ridiculous cartoon soundtrack," which may be the key. Perhaps classic classical music is too ubiquitous? It permeates a lot of pop culture, but mostly through movies, television, cartoons, commercials, spoofs, music classes, etc. Maybe it's a feeling that you've "heard it all before" because, in a lot of cases, you have?

I've wondered if it could be that, u may be correct, I may have associated it with too many cartoons, films soundtracks and ads and it may have taken away all of its emotional/intellectual content for me. On the other hand I'm not 100% sure cuz my folks used to listen to a lot of classical when I was a kid so I was more exposed to it at home than through pop culture recycling. My folks even took me to the opera a few times. And NO it's not a reaction against parental authority because they were also into jazz and so am I.

I'm the same.

I just find the works by the "masters" mostly cheesy and pomous. Of course, there's some good stuff there too (say, some Bach).

novabrkr said:

I'm the same.

I just find the works by the "masters" mostly cheesy and pomous. Of course, there's some good stuff there too (say, some Bach).

I guess u meant "pompous", that's also an adjective I'd have used.

So it's not just me

databank said:

I don't get it. I dig orchestral or chamber-like or solo piano music by contemporary composers, but anything before Ravel, Debussy and Satie bores me to death. I find anything from earlier than 1900 totally corny and cheesy and void of any emotional content or any ability to tell me a story, even the greatest geniuses such as Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin... I KNOW their music is wonderful, but I just don't find anything interesting in it when I listen to it.

On the other hand give me a symphony by Takemitsu or a solo piano album by John Zorn or Ryuichi Sakamoto or Harold Budd, or a piece by Steve Reich or Philip Glass or Gavin Bryars, and I'll be totally crazy about it!

So it's not like some people who only dig popular music that I don't like the form of classical music in itself, or I wouldn't like contemporary composers either. It's just that when I listen to pre-1900 stuff it just sounds like a ridiculous cartoon soundtrack to me, and I don't understand why.

What y'all think?

I wonder if you are just listening anachronistically? What I mean by that is that your modern ears

have been bombarded by contemporary musical expressions, i.e., the advent of jazz, for example.

So, when you listen to Mozart, you're not hearing anything "new." It is when classical composers

started incorporating chromaticism, jazz theory and creating new musical expressions (12 tone,

modes, etc), like Debussy, Ravel, and others did, you start to hear "new" music. My answer to

you is to expand your classical music palette.

Check out Wagner's Trisan un Isolde. Also check out Frederick Delius, Charles Ives, Nikolai

Rimsky-Korsakov, and definitely give Beethoven's last string quartets, especially the Grosse Fuge a

shot - trust me, modern musicians and scholars still marvel at its musical sophistication and I

promise you will not understand it at first!

Im convinced that BACH is pretty much the great great great great great grandfather of metal!!

Wow, there's such a thing?????!!!

duccichucka said:

databank said:

I don't get it. I dig orchestral or chamber-like or solo piano music by contemporary composers, but anything before Ravel, Debussy and Satie bores me to death. I find anything from earlier than 1900 totally corny and cheesy and void of any emotional content or any ability to tell me a story, even the greatest geniuses such as Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin... I KNOW their music is wonderful, but I just don't find anything interesting in it when I listen to it.

On the other hand give me a symphony by Takemitsu or a solo piano album by John Zorn or Ryuichi Sakamoto or Harold Budd, or a piece by Steve Reich or Philip Glass or Gavin Bryars, and I'll be totally crazy about it!

So it's not like some people who only dig popular music that I don't like the form of classical music in itself, or I wouldn't like contemporary composers either. It's just that when I listen to pre-1900 stuff it just sounds like a ridiculous cartoon soundtrack to me, and I don't understand why.

What y'all think?

I wonder if you are just listening anachronistically? What I mean by that is that your modern ears

have been bombarded by contemporary musical expressions, i.e., the advent of jazz, for example.

So, when you listen to Mozart, you're not hearing anything "new." It is when classical composers

started incorporating chromaticism, jazz theory and creating new musical expressions (12 tone,

modes, etc), like Debussy, Ravel, and others did, you start to hear "new" music. My answer to

you is to expand your classical music palette.

Check out Wagner's Trisan un Isolde. Also check out Frederick Delius, Charles Ives, Nikolai

Rimsky-Korsakov, and definitely give Beethoven's last string quartets, especially the Grosse Fuge a

shot - trust me, modern musicians and scholars still marvel at its musical sophistication and I

promise you will not understand it at first!

I'm gonna check it all out, thanks

alphastreet said:

You probably love Carl orff too Have you tried franz lizst?

^I know the name but not sure if I've ever heard the music. I'll check it out too, thanks

These are the names of the different styles of "classical music".

Medieval,

Renaissance,

Baroque,

Classical,

Romantic, &

20 century

The only reason why all music is defined as "classical music" is because of that nasty piece of work named, Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig was successful in high-jacking and defining all periods /style from his period of time. Yep, the Classical Period. It's a pet peeve of mine when people speak of these periods as if they are one.

I'm a lover of Baroque with a little Romantic thrown in. I love Leonard Bernstein interpretations of the masters, brilliant. Yet, his own composition's aren't up to snuff. The composure I like from the 20 century are...

Gabriel Faure'

Harry Partch

Henri Pousseur

Giacomo Puccini

Sergei Racmaninoff

After the earlier part of the 20th century... the works that followed (with some exceptions, for example Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue / Porky & Bess ) are blah to me.

[Edited 11/17/13 21:38pm]

TD3 said:

These are the names of the different styles of "classical music".

Medieval,

Renaissance,

Baroque,

Classical,

Romantic, &

20 century

The only reason why all music is defined as "classical music" is because of that nasty piece of work named, Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig was successful in high-jacking and defining all periods /style from his period of time. Yep, the Classical Period. It's a pet peeve of mine when people speak of these periods as if they are one.

I'm a lover of Baroque with a little Romantic thrown in. I love Leonard Bernstein interpretations of the masters, brilliant. Yet, his own composition's aren't up to snuff. The composure I like from the 20 century are...

Gabriel Faure'

Harry Partch

Henri Pousseur

Giacomo Puccini

Sergei Racmaninoff

After the earlier part of the 20th century... the works that followed (with some exceptions, for example Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue / Porky & Bess ) are blah to me.

[Edited 11/17/13 21:38pm]

What are you talking about? Beethoven's not responsible for this genre of music's metonym.