Hobbies - Do You Have Any?

[GRH]

Well, you mention classical, and that's one area that I often forget of my musical collection. I don't consider myself "well-versed" in classical, but I have a decent collection nonetheless. Quite a bit of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as some of the composers you mentioned among others.

I can't forget, classical music laid the roots for EVERY form of modern music that we enjoy today. So with that in mind, I enjoy classical.

[smc]

Originally Posted by GRH

Well, you mention classical, and that's one area that I often forget of my musical collection. I don't consider myself "well-versed" in classical, but I have a decent collection nonetheless. Quite a bit of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as some of the composers you mentioned among others.

I can't forget, classical music laid the roots for EVERY form of modern music that we enjoy today. So with that in mind, I enjoy classical.

Your last point made me think of the scene in the film "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (which is a really funny movie!) where Beethoven is let loose at the San Dimas Mall in California, finds himself in a store that sells electric organs, and begins improvising some crazy "modern" music through which some of his late piano sonatas come through, at least to the iniated ear.

Originally Posted by GRH

I can't forget, classical music laid the roots for EVERY form of modern music that we enjoy today. So with that in mind, I enjoy classical.

Not sure I'd entirely agree with that. I doubt there's much classical influence on blues and jazz (or not, in the case of jazz, until after WW2) and it's probably difficult to say how much classical and european folk music influenced each other as they more or less come from the same source. Not that I've got anything against classical - I just don't listen to it very much.

[smc]

Originally Posted by Natalie_J

Not sure I'd entirely agree with that. I doubt there's much classical influence on blues and jazz (or not, in the case of jazz, until after WW2) and it's probably difficult to say how much classical and european folk music influenced each other as they more or less come from the same source. Not that I've got anything against classical - I just don't listen to it very much.

Natalie, if we had some time together and I could get past drooling over how sexy you look (how's that for a nice cross-thread reference to your pics elsewhere?), I could play things for you that would show you precisely where classical music influenced jazz. For instance, the late Beethoven piano sonatas introduce new rhythmic structures that later show up in ragtime. W.C. Handy's blues from St. Louis have the structures of the minuets from Haydn's middle-period symphonies. Duke Ellington wrote big suites of jazz that follow classical forms in many respects.

American blues come primarily from Mali, in Africa, with little classical influence.

As for the European folk music and classical music, one need only listen to the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok to hear how they are intertwined. Or listen to Mahler's symphonies; he used l?ndler (folk dances) from Bohemia and Germany throughout his symphonies. These are but a few of dozens and dozens of examples.

What do you say? Is it a date?

Originally Posted by smc

What do you say? Is it a date?

Sounds divine! If I'm ever in the US or you're in the UK we'll have to give it a go (even if I count myself as more of a rock chick really)

Actually, not mentioning Ellington was a big oversight on my part - I was thinking more of the Jazz players who came after WW2 who had some classical training (like Miles) or had played in Army bands.

As for folk music, I was going to mention Bartok, but as you already said, I decided there were too many examples to go into specifics. A great number of Russian composers borrowed heavily from folk music as well, I believe. In the development of modern music, the European folk music that crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers of the US sowed the seeds of a lot of it, especially once it got mixed up with the blues...

[smc]

Originally Posted by Natalie_J

Sounds divine! If I'm ever in the US or you're in the UK we'll have to give it a go (even if I count myself as more of a rock chick really)

Actually, not mentioning Ellington was a big oversight on my part - I was thinking more of the Jazz players who came after WW2 who had some classical training (like Miles) or had played in Army bands.

As for folk music, I was going to mention Bartok, but as you already said, I decided there were too many examples to go into specifics. A great number of Russian composers borrowed heavily from folk music as well, I believe. In the development of modern music, the European folk music that crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers of the US sowed the seeds of a lot of it, especially once it got mixed up with the blues...

I truly think we could have a wonderful time exploring all this stuff. It's really too bad that these kinds of connections across the globe via the Internet rarely turn into anything more. But I've made enough new friends on the forum in the UK that I may just have to make a special trip, and bring CDs for our "date", Natalie.