What music are you listening to right now!?!?

[LannyC]

Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 45 (Farewell), Presto, Adagio

I'm sure every Austrian must know the story behind the walkout!

There's a PDQ Bach "Howdy" Symphony, where the stage starts empty and gradually fills with musicians.

 

[J. A.]

If teachers tell it to their students (like I do), they'll know it.

There's another quite funny story (but not true) about his Surprise symphony which I tell my students as well. You can tell that they like to listen to that symphony.

 

[LannyC]

Aw...you mean it wasn't really to wake the snoring Emperor?

 

[J. A.]

Not really. The story I know is about waking the audience in general.

There's no proof that it really was his intention.

 

[LannyC]

Ah. I'd been taught as a child that Papa Haydn had become so annoyed at his boss dozing off during after-dinner concerts, that he wrote the Surprise to jolt him awake. It's a good story, nicht?

 

[J. A.]

Of course it is. There must be a few variations. The one I've heard, was that he wanted to play a hoax on the people who started sleeping while they should be listening to his concerts. In German, it's called "Symphonie mit dem Paukenschlag" (symphony with the kettledrum stroke) for obvious reasons.
Btw: it's one of his London symphonies, so he wasn't working for Esterhazy at the time when he wrote it.

 

[LannyC]

Ah, then it must have been the none-too-bright George III.

 

[J. A.]

Nope. He wasn' t working for anybody at that time. He was invited by a German impresario to visit London.

 

[Hayles66]

My heart will go on by Celine Dion What a great song! brings back the film straight away! Amazing what songs visualise for you!

 

[LannyC]

Fusion is...Barry Miles, a direct-to-disk LP from 1977. Barry Miles pretty much invented fusion, and this album is excellent, both musically and sonically.

 

[J. A.]

Georg Friedrich Händel - Sarabande

Found it by chance when I was searching through my Dropbox files.

 

[LannyC]

Of course, that Sarabande was Handel's contribution to the huge number of works based upon the ancient La Folia melody.

I have a very interesting (and fun) LP of Folia variations, some authentic and others original and playful, by Gregorio Paniagua. Here's a sample:

 

[J. A.]

Herbert Grönemeyer - Der Weg (The Way)

Grönemeyer is a German musician and actor.
This is a song he wrote after his wife had died of cancer.

Here's the refrain, translated to English:

You flooded every room with sun, you turned around every frustration.
Nordic noble your gentle goodness, your untamed pride. Life isn't fair.

 

[KevinJS]

The best of Jon and Vangelis. Here's one of the tracks from the CD.

Great collaborations from the former frontman of Yes, Jon Anderson and the incredible Greek keyboard player/composer, Vangelis.

Amazing stuff.

 

[J. A.]

The (currently) last post in the Official Recorded Music thread reminded me of something my daughter was carrying together for her project work about Haydn, more than six years ago. When you're listening to his music, you might not know that he was influenced by the folk music of Burgenland at that time. As an example that may be well known, with the world cup in Brazil going on right now: Germany has one of Haydns tunes as it's national anthem. Haydn's melody originates from a tune the Burgenland Croats sung. Here's the only version I could find on youtube:

Another one of his melodies comes from a folk song in German: "Es steht ein Baum im tiefen Tal". Also the only version I could find (but it's not necessary to listen to the whole song):

Haydn used this tune in his oratorio "The Creation". "Mit Würd' und Hoheit angetan" is the title of the aria: