That One Special Piece

[EdgeleyRob]

There is a piece of music that is mysterious,mystical even sinister,scary and disturbing.
It is also peaceful,calming,magical,revelatory,powerful and challenging.
What I'm trying to say is it has everything.
It's about the world and all life (as Mahler ? said a Symphony should be).
The last 3 or 4 minutes are the answer to all the questions that come before,as those final E Major chords resonate in my brain I think yes Ralph,you're right,that's what life is all about,and I'm calm.

Bit of a ramble but I can't explain it any better,it is the answer to everything!

Symphony No 9

[richardfinegold]

There is a piece of music that is mysterious,mystical even sinister,scary and disturbing.
It is also peaceful,calming,magical,revelatory,powerful and challenging.
What I'm trying to say is it has everything.
It's about the world and all life (as Mahler ? said a Symphony should be).
The last 3 or 4 minutes are the answer to all the questions that come before,as those final E Major chords resonate in my brain I think yes Ralph,you're right,that's what life is all about,and I'm calm.

Bit of a ramble but I can't explain it any better,it is the answer to everything!

Symphony No 9

There are so many pieces that I can listen to when I am in that kind of mood and that make me feel better..it would be impossible to keep the list of works under 100.

[jayne lee wilson]

Seeing this thread I thought, oh that's impossible... but Edge's very personal post reminded me.... a music which is almost too painful to listen to. To face the truth it is offering up to me. And I'm drawn back, moth to the flame, to burn in its arms again, and understand. And often, I wish I didn't know the searing truth it reveals....

Suk: Asrael Symphony.



...The Price of Love - is Grief.

[ahinton]

All discs have insufficient space between movements and works

But at least most don't have applause between movements...

[Beef Oven!]

But at least most don't have applause between movements...

[BBMmk2]

I first knew the Elsa's Procession to the Minster, via Howard Snell's masterly transcription for brass band, which most certainly gave me goossebumps. Mahler's Symphony No.6, will always have a special place.

[Pabmusic]

Quite impossible to name one, but Elgar 1, Finzi Clarinet Concerto, Holst First Suite in E-flat, Dvorak New World, Beethoven Pastoral, RVW 5th, Barber Knoxville Summer of 1915, and Suk Fantastic Scherzo would all be there.

[Keraulophone]

Today it's Bruckner 8 (Celi), a defiant end to an often grim year.

Tomorrow it may be Purcell's 'Hear my Prayer, O Lord', after 'The Blue Danube' has flowed past.

[NatBalance]

Thanks for your contributions folks. I am listening to every piece mentioned and interested to read the reasons. Debussy's Jeux starts off sounding very simpliar to Holst's Neptune but of course continues to be unmistakably Debussy. They were contemporaries, I don't know if one was influence by the other, or even heard each other's music. It's easy to forget how difficult it was in those days to actually hear music. I guess folk would always have to pay to hear classical music, probably hear folk music for free, I don't know.

One piece has been chosen by two people but different singers chosen, and a very moving piece it is too. Two Mahler symphonies have been chosen and they are stupendously long. It'll take me a while to listen to those. I heard Mahler's 8th a few years ago at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (anybody here there?) and the ending of that piece I think is something everyone should experience at least once in their life, especially live, I was in tears. Petrenko made them encore the ending ….. heavens above what a powerfull ending, I was in tears again.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Debussy Jeux: written 1912, first performed 1913.
Holst Planets: written 1914 - 16, first public performance, November 1920 (30 months after Debussy's death).

[ahinton]

That's just the reaction that I'd expected and hoped for!...

[Beef Oven!]

That's just the reaction that I'd expected and hoped for!...

[ahinton]

At the risk of brief digression, I believe that I might have mentioned somewhere else on this forum that David Matthews once told me (and don't ask me how far his tongue might have been in his cheek at the time) that the ultimate accolade for a composer in terms of recognition is being invited to be a castaway on Desert Island Discs, which I countered by opining that said accolade would in fact be having a castaway choose one of one's works on that programme; so far, neither fate has befallen either of us but, in the higly unlikely event that the former should ever befall me, I would take the opportunity to express my dismay that David Dimbleby wanted to take Kirsty Young to the island as his luxury, though only in the sense that the notion of treating her as a luxury rather than as a necessity was what got my goat.

Now I'll get my coat and leave you all to resume discussion of the topic!...

[ahinton]

That wasn't!...

[Serial_Apologist]

At the risk of brief digression, I believe that I might have mentioned somewhere else on this forum that David Matthews once told me (and don't ask me how far his tongue might have been in his cheek at the time) that the ultimate accolade for a composer in terms of recognition is being invited to be a castaway on Desert Island Discs, which I countered by opining that said accolade would in fact be having a castaway choose one of one's works on that programme; so far, neither fate has befallen either of us but, in the higly unlikely event that the former should ever befall me, I would take the opportunity to express my dismay that David Dimbleby wanted to take Kirsty Young to the island as his luxury, though only in the sense that the notion of treating her as a luxury rather than as a necessity was what got my goat.

Now I'll get my coat and leave you all to resume discussion of the topic!...

To judge from the lengths of some of your own works, I would think that choosing one would be a good way to shorten the amount of wasted time on said island prior to rescue!