|
Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
|
|
64 members (accordeur, BWV846, Animisha, benkeys, Anglagard44, brdwyguy, 15 invisible),
2,292
guests, and
409
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 6,562
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 6,562 |
If one was to resonate with a living composer, wouldn't that make more sense? True. That is why I would have to say that I resonate most with myself, even though virtually everything I compose never makes it out of my head and into actual notation (a fact for which the world should breathe a grateful sigh). Darling, We should move our relationship onto the next level. When, oh when will you trust me enough to share at least something by yourself? Even as an audio recording? Really though. I'm SO curious to listen to something by you...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 17,277
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 17,277 |
I've resonated with different composers through my life - and rarely is it from their piano/keyboard music either. My first phase (before I learnt to play piano) was J.Strauss Jnr. - simply because the movie "The Great Waltz" was my first intro to classical music. Until then, the only music I heard was ethnic and pop (both Western and 'other') - and only what relatives brought to play in the car (cassette tapes). The amazing sounds of the orchestra, and their funny instruments fascinated me - not to mention the sight & sound of a group of people singing in harmony (in the movie, the choral version of The Blue Danube as J.S. originally conceived it was performed). Then came Beethoven - because it was his piano music I first heard, via an imported series of Austrian TV programs (in b/w) of the complete sonata cycle played by Paul Badura-Skoda and Jörg Demus. No spoken introduction, and titles in German, of course, but as I knew hardly any English then (let alone German), that didn't matter . The amazing feats of virtuosity from the two pianists, and the sounds they got out of that strange black instrument (Bösendorfer, I think - all I can remember was that the name on the fallboard was unpronounceable...) were mesmerizing. I even sacrificed my sleep to stay up for those programs, which the national TV broadcaster apparently used to fill up the time before close-down at midnight . (I was eight or nine then). And when I started learning the piano at ten, my uncle introduced me to lots more Beethoven from his LP collection - his complete piano sonatas (Wilhelm Backhaus) and symphonies (Otto Klemperer), which he transferred onto cassette tape for me, when I went to boarding school. But Mozart (introduced to me by my first piano teacher) was starting to make inroads into my affection - via his symphonies, starting with his 'great' G minor, which I couldn't get out of my head after I first heard it.... Mozart stayed a constant through my life ever since, first to listen to (symphonies), then to play for myself (after his juvenile pieces as a beginner, starting the sonatas with K545, which is still in my memorized rep), going on to his vocal music (masses and operas and songs) and chamber music. I later went through a Sibelius phase after visiting Finland, a Grieg phase (after visiting Norway), almost a Nielsen phase (Denmark), then Mahler (after an angst-ridden phase ). But even through all that, Mozart was still the one I always turned to when I was happy, sad, inspired, bored, fed up with life, fearing for my life.......
If music be the food of love, play on!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 9,395
9000 Post Club Member
|
9000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 9,395 |
If one was to resonate with a living composer, wouldn't that make more sense? True. That is why I would have to say that I resonate most with myself, even though virtually everything I compose never makes it out of my head and into actual notation (a fact for which the world should breathe a grateful sigh). Darling, We should move our relationship onto the next level. When, oh when will you trust me enough to share at least something by yourself? Even as an audio recording? Really though. I'm SO curious to listen to something by you... Well, I figure it's like that line "traveling hopefully is a better thing than to arrive". Similarly, being curious is a better thing than to know. Or, said differently, it is better to simply imagine how dismal and awful my compositions might be, rather than to know for certain. In a way, that concept of preferring the process of getting there over being at the destination is related to what I like do with composing. It's more fun to keep the material in flux as ideas in my imagination rather than to have the horrible experience of attempting to nail it down in "real" time and space. But you never know - I do sometimes toy with the idea of dropping something into the Composers Lounge, for everyone to ridicule, or for them to gape at like an accident on the side of the road. The most recent possibility (something that has even started finding its way into Finale) is a piano piece restricted to middle C, D, and E alone. With no octave displacements. It's basically an extremely dreary catalog of different ways to juxtapose those three tones, somewhat like a book of rudimentary percussion exercises. It's so simple-minded and dumb that it would make Einaudi seem as complex as Boulez in comparison. Sounds like fun, eh?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 9,395
9000 Post Club Member
|
9000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 9,395 |
I'm not sure if I could pick one honestly. I do my best to find the resonance of the composer I'm playing at the moment. Exactly. The premise seems questionable: why would or should there be a single composer a musician resonates with? Sure, I imagine most of us have various composers we may feel closer to than others, over time. But I can't think of any good reason why I would want to narrow it down to one, or even a few. My usual impulse is to try widen my "resonance" with composers to include more of them and their music, rather than to restrict it.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,334
5000 Post Club Member
|
5000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,334 |
Since childhood (and still) D. Shostakovich Bach. Handel. Thelonious Monk Ornette Coleman
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 12,370
PW Gold Subscriber Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
PW Gold Subscriber Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 12,370 |
There are many composers I love, to listen to as well as play, but the more I learn about Chopin... his life and his music, the more I resonate with Chopin. This is not a matter of narrowing down choices, but a feeling, like others have expressed when discussing resonation and their selection, that he wrote for me. It comes from deep in the soul.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,601
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,601 |
Paul Hindemith, especially Ludus Tonalis.
(Naw, just kidding.) OK, confession time. Who else (besides me) who never heard of this piece thought at first that it said "Tonails"? Back on topic: Chopin, easily. Well....like some of you said, it varies and at times it's been Scriabin, Scott Joplin, or my old teacher, Seymour Bernstein, but it always comes back to Chopin.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6,444
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6,444 |
For me it's a tie between Bach and Beethoven. There's so much depth in both and there is so much the music teaches me. Playing each of their pieces is like biting into a huge, complex sandwich with many flavors, aromas, textures and colors.
I happen to be working on pieces by Bach (Chaconne for the left hand) and Beethoven (Opus 110 and 54) right now. Now that's happiness!
Best regards,
Deborah
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,064
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,064 |
For a long time I would have said Chopin--but now I think I have to say Mendelssohn--especially as no one has mentioned him yet.
1989 Baldwin R
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,302
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,302 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 7,060
7000 Post Club Member
|
7000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 7,060 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,746
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,746 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,453
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,453 |
For a long time I would have said Chopin--but now I think I have to say Mendelssohn--especially as no one has mentioned him yet. Oh yes, definitely Mendelssohn too.
Music is my best friend.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,453
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 6,453 |
Music is my best friend.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 452
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 452 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 78
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 78 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,610
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,610 |
Currently Granados. Unfortunately he did not write many easy pieces. Someday, within my life time, I would like to play Goyascas. However, I like his dances too which are more approachable. Every time I listen to Alicia D plays his pieces, I'm totally affected. It's out of the world. Maybe I get over the crush soon go back to Chopin / Beethoven. Who knows.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 124
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 124 |
Brahms for me as well.
Last edited by Eldridge; 05/16/15 11:55 PM.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 156
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 156 |
Schubert has been my favourite composer for quite some time now. Beethoven and Chopin also resonates with me.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 816
500 Post Club Member
|
500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 816 |
Liszt definitely takes the first place.
Others who also highly resonate with me, but to a lesser degree than Liszt, would be Godowsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and - Sorabji. Yes, Sorabji... many have criticized the OC, his most magnificent work, saying that "the music comes from nowhere and goes nowhere" and so forth. It makes me feel like I'm the only one in the world who understands what he meant with his music, and that it's not "just noise".
|
|
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
Forums43
Topics223,403
Posts3,349,419
Members111,636
|
Most Online15,252 Mar 21st, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|