Or, I should say, think they don’t like classics. I’m not in that category, but I know very little about classical music. And so, from my tiny collection, I’ll put up some of the ones I like. I’ll try and create a Spotify playlist later and will retrofit it here.
Gustav Holst – The Planets – Mars, the Bringer of War
Let’s start big. Headphones on or volume up on those speakers. I mean LOUD. This work was composed during WWI (c 1916). Today it sounds like a film score (it wasn’t), but I think it’s fair to say it was very influential on that genre. Even our own Mad Max.
Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
After the noise of war comes the quiet. And there’s nothing better than this. The solo violin soars and glides, like a bird over a green field on a warm English day.
It is beautiful. Just beautiful. I first heard it, would you believe, in one of my favourite Australian films: The Year My Voice Broke.
Initially written in 1914 (so another WWI era work), it was re-written and had it’s public debut in 1921. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustov Holst (above) were friends.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kingston – Pie Jesu
Speaking of beautiful. This is.
Klaatu　”The Loneliest of Creatures” “Prelude”
Stick with me here, it’s different but well worth it. This Canadian album (Hope) was recorded, anonymously, with the London Symphony Orchestra (!) in 1977. It came out with no hints as to who Klaatu were.
Sadly they had already been subjected to the silly rumour they were The Beatles, secretly re-united. The band wanted to just record and be left alone. They never really took off.
These two songs start off as a wistful ballad, but then quickly soars into a full blown classical-rock masterpiece with choir. If you listen carefully, it’s Science Fiction; the “creature” is on a space lighthouse. He’s the sole survivor of an arrogant civilisation which destroyed itself and their planet. He warns others to stay away from the ruins.
Some lovely stuff there, David. And I like the idea of looking beyond the big, ”obvious” composers if one is delving into classical music for the first time. interesting that both of your composers were born in the west of England and that their music hd an emotional directness that appealed to the British general public. You could add Edward Elgar to that list; I used to dismiss hi as merely the composer of Land Of Hope And Glory, and blamed him for the jingoism of the lyrics, but listen to, say, the Enigma Variations – I’d defy anyone not to be moved.