Oh hey there. I haven't been on in a while (mostly busy with real life stuff), but I'm always up to share some classical music I love to others. If piano pieces are what you want, OftenBen, here are a few pieces that I absolutely love: Ravel - Miroirs no. 3: Un barque sur l'ocean: This is a wonderful piece by ravel in a series of piano pieces, all of which are good, but this one is my favorite of the bunch. It's calm, melodic, meditative and very oceanic if I do say so myself. A wonderful piece by one of my favorite composers. Ravel - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand As a lefty, it is almost an obligation to post this wonderful piece by Ravel. Would you believe this piece was composed for famous Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's brother? Didn't even know he had a brother before discovering this piece! Paul Wittgenstein lost his hand in a war but still wanted to play piano, so he got Ravel to write this piece for him. Unfortunately Ravel was incredibly displeased at Paul when he performed it, because Paul decided to change a few things in the piece to make it more palatable to his musical tastes. This is a wonderful, heroic sounding piece, just like Paul. Alexander Scriabin - Piano Sonata no. 5 I've listened to a lot of versions of this piece, but Sultanov imo does it best. When I first listened to this I felt as if I was listening to some cosmic otherworldly music. Really amazing stuff here. Simeon Ten Holt - Canto Ostinato Got two hours? This piece is really something beautiful. Whenever I listen to this piece it's like my mind wanders through medieval labyrinths. It's a very minimal, meditative and almost transformative piece. My favorite part of the entire piece has to be section 88. A very dark and lonely sounding, but beautiful part. Unfortunately this isn't my favorite version, but it's the only one on youtube. The one I first listened to, and is my favorite, takes it much faster and spends more time repeating 88 quite a bit. Kasputin - Piano Sonata no. 8 This piece is very jazzy. Kasputin is a perfect blend of jazz and classical that is really worth a listen if you like either genre. Valentin Silvestrov - Last Love Silvestrov is a wonderful Ukrainian composer. His sixth symphony is one of my favorite symphonies of all time, but this isn't about symphonies, lol. This piece in particular is terrible. Yeah right; It's stunningly beautiful. As is this piece by him: He's well worth a listen to, but be forewarned, he is a modern composer. Other pieces by him might be a bit more inaccessible for those who dislike modern music, but if you give him a shot, I think you'll grow to like it. Try this piece: Walter Abendroth - Piano Concerto The stuff you find on youtube, I tell ya. I don't know much of anything about this guy, but I found this when randomly listening to obscure composers on youtube and really like it. Perhaps it's not Tchaikovsky, but I found it nice enough in any case. Granados - Valses Poeticos Very melodic and beautiful waltzes. Theodor Adorno - Piano Piece A very interesting dream-like piece. Debussy - Images I: Reflets dans l'eau Debussy is another favorite of mine, and this piece in particular is a favorite of mine. The first piece of his I ever listened to was his suite Bergamasque: Which is very beautiful and contains the famous Clair de Lune, which you've probably heard somewhere else before in a movie or game or maybe mentioned by someone in a book. A very beautiful piece. Steve Reich - Piano Counterpoint A beautiful minimalistic piece. Minimalism might not be for everyone, but this piece, among others by him, are really something great. Watching the work slowly alter, evolve and change is really something that's a treat to my ears. His Music for 18 Musiciansis also a minimalist masterpiece, albeit not entirely piano, though it plays an important part in the piece in any case: My favorite part has to be his section IIIA The piano is performed by Reich himself, btw. ...I think that's enough for now. I could go on, but I think that's enough piano tunes and places to search for more piano tunes... Well, actually, one more: Camille Saint Saens - The Swan The piano is mostly in the background compared to the violin that just tugs at your heartstrings, but I think it still belongs here. It's a very beautiful piece.
I am about to get my drivers license, and hopefully after that a job working as a school lunch helper in some public school. I'm actually pretty happy with how things are going so far. With this job (If I get it), I get about the same amount of vacation time as the students do, which gives me free time to pursue my interests, while also having the ability to work on other things and save up money for any investments. I live a peaceful life where no one bothers me for rent or noise complaints. I don't really care for college at the moment, since I don't wanna get in debt. Besides, I'd go to college to either study philosophy (something you can't really get employment from) or something in computers, which is a field that is replete with the do-it-yourself spirit. Everything I could want to learn about computers in a college, I could learn on my own. I don't have that tick-tocking feeling you have, but that might be because I have a rather odd view of life. I have hopes and dreams like everyone else, but I don't mind if I never achieve them. I came into this life with nothing. I didn't even ask to be brought into this world, and I get to experience all the joys and horrors this world has to offer at no discernible cost. There seems to be no purpose to life, so all I want to do is make myself happy, and it turns out that doesn't require fame, fortune, a lofty position or anything really. I have tons of books on my bookshelf, perhaps 50 years worth of books and many more I don't have but want, and I'm sure I'll never be able to read them all while I'm also listening to tons of great music, playing tons of neat games, watching tons of interesting videos, and doing lots of cool stuff. My only regret is not being able to experience all of it. And that regret goes away when I realize I experienced at least some of it. I'd like to one day create something really great, be it a game, or some music, or write some long novel or play, or do some poetry, or maybe all of the above, and release it in the public domain one day. I don't know what it is, but I want people to experience it and really feel something they've never felt before. I want it to be something that really makes you feel human. But if I don't ever get a chance to do that, well, no harm done. The only thing in life I'm particularly melancholic about is my love life. That's the one thing in life I feel really nervous about. It's even hard to explain what makes me so nervous, but I guess the best way to explain it would be a low self-esteem towards myself and being in a relationship with someone I love. I'll deal with that when it comes, if it comes, if I let it come. Aside from that, everything is just fine and I wish for life to remain in this same easy-going mode, which, given the fact that it's life, is no guarantee. It takes one war and draft and I'm in prison (Because I don't want to fight in a war and hurt people) or hiding in some foreign country. I haven't decided which one I'd do yet. Who knows what life has in store for me? I sure as hell don't.
In absolutely no order: 1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. An amazing, hilarious, and (imo) heart breaking classic. Alonso Quixano and Sancho Panza are some of my most favorite characters in Literature, and also my most favorite duo, second only to Mephistopheles and Faust, and speaking of which... 2. Faust (Goethe). This is perhaps one of the greatest works of art I have ever read. I wish I could read it in the Original German, as the english translation I read was beautifully crafted as it is. I mean, here's one of my favorite quotes ever: This is play of truly epic proportions. heaven and hell, love, death, ambition, regret, damnation, salvation... It has everything. 3. The Castle by Franz Kafka. A lot of people don't seem to love the Castle, but it's perhaps my most favorite Kafka work, and I've read everything he's ever done except Amerika. Something about the castle is very subliminal. If you asked me why I specifically prefer it over The Trial or any other of his amazing works, I couldn't really tell you. I think, however, that the Castle is Kafka at his purest. All of the characters are all so erratic and (imo) rat-like (best way to characterize them), and yet they feel so human in a darkly comedic fashion. It's so sad that this novel was never finished, ending in such a disappointing manner and with no ending, aside from a speculation of how it was supposed to end. 4.Ulysses by James Joyce. I bought this book mostly because I heard it was a difficult novel, and I LOVE challenges, and since I paid 12 bucks for it, I figured that would be the safety that would force me to read it. Little did I know, James Joyce and I are like brothers! I loved the Stream of Consciousness style of writing, I love the hilarity that the novel is soaked in, and I love the fact that he can make using the bathroom read like a poetic triumph of the human spirit. Stephen Dedalus is one of my favorite characters and someone I can relate to on a level not like any other character. I read Ulysses once a year, starting on Bloomsday. I loved Ulysses so much, I read most of his other works and can vouch for them as well, The only works of his I haven't read yet are his plays and Finnegans Wake, which I plan to read some day. 5.Symposium by Plato. A dialogue on Love that is so filled to the brim with content that I've read the dialogue more than 5 times in different translations and I still keep on finding new insights. If you think Plato was just a philosopher, reading the Symposium will convince you that if he didn't go into Philosophy, we would be praising him for creating some of the best plays ever written. He masterfully chooses each character, all of their words and actions carefully calculated with meaning and purpose. What seems like an unfinished conversation point or interruption actually is part of a larger point (most of the time very ironic and contradicting what certain characters say on love) It's also one of the most enjoyable dialogues to read because the subject matter is something that is always interesting to everyone. Aren't we all fascinated by love?Glitter is coined to meet the moment's rage;
The genuine lives on from age to age
I do... Then again, I'm a bit of a special case. I try to stay away from porn videos because every time I watch a video, I always end up thinking: Who are their parents? Would they have wanted them to do that? What caused them to do this? Do they really enjoy doing what they do? Do they enjoy being known by millions of people for this, while millions of other people hate them and their profession as something artless and disgusting (And a lot of it is artless)? In short, I cannot live with myself knowing I might have watched someone being exploited and demeaned (unless of course that person enjoys that). It's funny; People often like to mock hentai and doujins, a kind of erotic manga made by small or not so small groups/artists, for being extreme and bizarre, but the good majority of it is quite tame, the normal stuff being tamer than most normal porn. Since it's fictional, the characters are oftentimes more affectionate towards one another than the two (or more) actors in porn videos who are paid to get on stage and fuck. Of course, since it's fictional, you can also get really depraved stuff, and because the nature of the Internet amplifies the extremes, most of the time that's all you ever see if you just skim around. But no one is harmed in the making of these works of erotica, no one is exploited or used, and many of the artists doing these works are quite talented in their own right, some having a complete mastery over anatomy (And others mess with it for the purpose of making appealing characters, which takes talent to pull off well), lighting, scenery, and color (For the few that do full color works): all of the essentials that a good artist was expected to master a couple of centuries ago (I don't know how modern art is, given that all I see of modern art is conceptual pieces). I personally find this kind of porn much more ethical, or rather, I feel a lot better viewing this kind of porn. Anyways, Me, personally, I like to limit myself. I perhaps view porn one day, and perhaps skip the next day or two, and then watch porn the next day, and then skip a few days. I do this as a means to make things more pleasurable and to avoid things like what the author goes through.(but c’mon, who would look at pictures when there are videos?)
Watching movies, I guess. For whatever reason I can't stand movies. I can count the number of movies I've seen in a year on one hand (This year: 5, all anime related actually), and I only really care about three directors: Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa and David Lynch. Some other people who have managed to earn a kind of respect are Kubrick, Del Toro, and I've been meaning to watch a film by Jan Švankmajer. That's about it. I don't discount the artistic merit of the medium, and if I dig deep enough, I know I'll find tons of movies that are fantastic with great directors and all that, but for some reason the medium doesn't appeal to me, and I loathe the current age of movies (You ever seen a movie trailer today? To me they all look and sound the same), which has slowly creeped into the world of video games and making that all the more unfun for me. Another thing I really hate is shoes. Of any kind. As a child I loved to walk with my bare feet and hated shoes. A part of it might have been the fact that I always had trouble tying them, but even I never found a pair that was as good and comfortable as my own two feet. I don't get people who collect them and all that stuff. I had a teacher who claimed to have a rather sizable shoe collection, and I get personal enjoyment and everyone has their own interests that I won't/can't judge them for or anything, but I still wonder why. Nowadays I get used to it and wear shoes and socks and all that, and I get that walking barefooted is a dumb idea what with all the sharp stuff around, but I'll avoid wearing shoes as much as I can. I suppose lastly is driving. I dislike driving very much. I dislike the idea of being behind the wheel of a machine that can kill someone so easily. My mother was run over by a car (She survived the accident, and while she has back problems that persist to this day, she's okay). The guy behind the wheel was talking on a cell phone. That is probably a good enough reason for a person to not like cars anymore (On another note, I kinda don't like cell phones either), but in any case I feel nervous driving and feel that I never have a good enough view of the outside. But, this is something you have to do, so I drive. I'd rather ride a bicycle, but sometimes you just can't. I'd rather walk, but sometimes you gotta be somewhere at this or that time. Public transportation is good in theory, but unreliable. So a car it is. I drive, but not with much pleasure. I think that's about it.
I got turned away from classical for the longest time because of these composers (With the exception of Beethoven and Bach, whom I've always liked). I was about to give up classical as something I'd never understand until I found out about Erik Satie: http://youtu.be/atejQh9cXWI This started it all. This piece, all of his pieces were so different from all other classical pieces I've ever listened to; This was no surprise as Satie never quite liked romanticism and the previous classical composers and their ways. He had an entirely different style, one that was a kind of predessecor to other musical genres (Muzak, "furniture music" and ambient of the likes of Brian Eno and friends). I suppose this is my Number 1. Here's a good documentary on Erik Satie: http://youtu.be/rCacoDnHGe4 After Erik Satie, I wanted to look for similar artists, and many people have told me that he hung out with Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and they composed in a musical style inspired by the paintings of the impressionist painters, which is what they called themselves: Debussy: http://youtu.be/ZdBjJZ0sAJQ Ravel: http://youtu.be/amGl9Qmgu7E These are my numbers 2 and 3. After a while, I wanted to go back to the ones I disliked and see if I liked them now, at this point, I found a composer named Gustav Mahler: http://youtu.be/URKGIa0b_jI Now, this was some really heavy stuff. I went to listen to all of hy symphonies and all of them were great, and even moreso, all of them had that "link" I couldn't find in Mozart or the other usual folks. I guess at this point, I was well on my way to becoming addicted to classical. This is my number 4. After Mahler, I better appreciated Mozart and friends but I still didn't like them, I just put away my issues with them. I wanted to go more modern, as it seemed that has never let me down. Enter Stravinsky and Shostakovich and my numbers 5 and 6: Stravinsky: http://youtu.be/aGFRwKQqbk4 Shostakovich: http://youtu.be/ogJFXqYEYd8 From here, I wanted to go even more modern, to see what's going on so far, an I discovered Alfred Schnittke, my number 7, and oh man, was this a real mindscrew: http://youtu.be/xNKWoo9Fe40 If you want to take a gander at the abyss, this guy will help you there. All of his works are so deliciously dark and demonic. Very excellent. From here I went to the Minimalists: Steve Reich: http://youtu.be/fx27voOtpNs Terry Riley: http://youtu.be/BHBvoBti_eg I find it harder and harder to write. I don't know who said it, but someone said writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I'll just leave it to you to hear them and let them speak for themselves. Those are my numbers 8 and 9. Long ago, I found out about John Cage and his radical 4'33'' and the more avante-garde classical at the time. I liked a lot of it, but there was one composer in particular that stood far out from the rest, and that guy was Morton Feldman: http://youtu.be/MR4o9sjA1EE http://youtu.be/x-9QcADiekY http://youtu.be/myIvdeQH8hQ This guy... He was a lot like Satie. He spend most of his time in music school arguing with his teachers about what music should be like. I found a kindred spirit in him. I never got classical music before when it was all Mozart and Schubert and Haydn so on. His music is so quiet, so meaningful, so sad. It's quite avante-garde, so it takes some buffering time for someone used to only Mozart or Beethoven, or even Mahler, Satie, Reich and everyone else on my list, to get into him but his work, imo, is really something special from all the other composers I've ever listened to. He's my number 10 favorite composer. And now, some honorable mentions: Perotin, a very OLD composer: http://youtu.be/bpgaEFmdFcM This is a funny quirk. I actually like Medieval composers/Gregorian chant because they were actually similar to modern composers in a certain sense (Hard to explain, since I'm not musically educated). Somehwere along the line, composers like Mozart and Beethoven, the classical and romantic periods, changed their musical style. Arvo Part: http://youtu.be/PzSlmWQuHFw Modern composer, and very excellent. John Luther Adams: http://youtu.be/g6wX1c-Zk9Q Inspired by Morton Feldman and the natural areas of Alaska, so naturally, I'd like his work. Very beautiful stuff. Simeon Ten Holt: http://youtu.be/f7yeIWne0iw This piece is magnificent. This is my number 11, if I could add in a number 11. IT's a strange piece that just makes you want to reflect the longer you listen to it. It's a really amazing song. And for now, that is it, because this is already a long list, but at least I gave you some recommendations that are more on the modern side, which I think more people should look into, as there's a lot of neat stuff there waiting to be found and enjoyed. As always, this is all my opinion, I have no musical background and the likes