Re: New Thread: Classical Music Influences on Us

[KILLINFO@aol.com]

All,

I'm really enjoying this thread.

I have a number of favorite "symphonic" composers 
and a list of works that have "influenced" (?) me a great 
deal over the years -- some have already been mentioned,
some not, some are modern, some not (I really don't want to 
start any discussions about what "classical" really means).

Arvo Pärt 
Perpetum Mobile, Tabula Rasa, Litany, Te Deum, Kanon Pokajanen, 
Miserere (too many more to list -- I buy everything I can find by this guy)

Henryk Górecki
Symphony #3, String Quartet #1 and 2, 

Andrew Keeling
Hidden Streams, Meditato

John Adams
Shaker Loops, Violin Concerto, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, 
Christian Zeal and Activity, Common Tones in Simple Time, 
The Chairman Dances

Bartók 
Concerto for Orchestra

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lark Ascending, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Lou Harrison
La Koro Sutro, Elegiac Symphony

Eleni Karaindrou
Ulysses' Gaze (a soundtrack that doesn't need the film -- it knocks me out 
every time I hear it!)

Alan Hovaness (a real favorite)
Symphony #2 - Mysterious Mountain, Symphony #50 - Mt. St Helens, Symphony 
#20 
- City of Light

Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians, The Desert Music, Tehillim, Different Trains

Krzysztof Penderecki
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

Igor Stravinski
The Firebird Suite, The Rite of Spring (anything and everything by him) 
wow!

Oliver Messiaen
Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps

Johannes Brahms
Symphony #4 in E minor

Giacomo Puccini
Gianni Schicchi (O mio ba bino caro), Turandot (Nessun dorma)

Johann Pachelbel
Canon in D (I like best an uptempo version by Karl Münchinger and the 
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, not the sleepy, weepy version we most often 
hear)

There are a lot of others, many of the familiar and commonly heard ones 
like
Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Mozart and Sibelius are responsible for some of 
the  
most memorable melodies -- they are ones that have come down to us not 
only 
through the concert hall, but many have entered the western "psyche" 
through 
great old church hymns and such.

I liked thinking (and writing) about this. It made me dust off a few old 
records.

Thanks, to whomever, for suggesting it.

Ted Killian