Why I like music...
Music is great in so many ways.
Music is a universal language. It inspires common human feelings and bridges gaps between cultures that spoken languages can’t. It brings people together and creates communities.
Many travelers – even to this very day – take musical instruments with them on trips. In the early days of exploration music could help “set” the mood, expressing the fact the visitors came in peace out of curiosity and were not a threat.
Many travelers – even to this very day – take musical instruments with them on trips. In the early days of exploration music could help “set” the mood, expressing the fact the visitors came in peace out of curiosity and were not a threat.
According to biomusicologists, music entered the world from the time animals started to roam the earth. Most notably the songs of birds and humpback whales have inspired many of our own composers.
Music inspires and evokes emotion in a healthy way. It touches our emotional being and evokes moods and feelings that are sometimes difficult to express.
Music creates ambiance. You can use music to enhance any environment. That’s why it’s used in movies and at sporting events as well as parties.
Music is spiritual. Music is of the spirit and inspirational to the spirit. All religions use music to help express spiritual values, and all religions use music to uplift the spirit.
When Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was crushed in a thousand miles of Antarctic pack ice in November 1915, he allowed each of his crew to take 2lb of possessions from it, including their boots.
Only one exception was made to this rule: he let his meteorologist Leonard Hussey also salvage his banjo from the sinking ship. Even Hussey was surprised by that decision, but "the boss" was adamant: "It will be vital mental medicine," he said. And so it proved. Music, as Shackleton well knew, was as good a defence as anything against cold and dark and oblivion.
Music sparks the imagination. It invokes mental imagery and inner scenery that opens the mind to amazing insights.
I’m sometimes amazed by the ability of great music to reveal new things. It intensifies with repetition – like memories whose pleasure and significance grow with the passing of time.
I'd find it really hard to pick my top ten pieces of music. Perhaps I need to warm up to that by picking my favourite songs in each sub-genre of music!
Why I like music (continued)...
Here's my first quick attempt at some top ten favourites, although I'm sure are lots of people I've forgotten...
Favourite female singers
Favourite male singers
Favourite bands
Here's my first quick attempt at some top ten favourites, although I'm sure are lots of people I've forgotten...
Favourite female singers
Madeleine Peyroux
Stacey Kent
Corinne Bailey Rae
Norah Jones
Cara Dillon
KT Tunstall
Diana Krall
Billie Holiday
Gwyneth Herbert
Ella Fitzgerald
Favourite male singers
James Brown
Paul Weller
John Legend
Van Morrison
Bill Withers
Stevie Wonder
Sting
Marvin Gaye
Ray Lamontagne
Paul Simon
Favourite bands
Crowded House
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Foo Fighters
Goldfrapp
Maroon 5
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
The Gotan Project
Blondie
Pearl Jam
The Rolling Stones
Why I like classical music...
In a previous post, I've shared some thoughts on why music's so important. My favourite bits of classical music are truly great works of art. My definition for that is something whose pleasure and significance with repetition. Something you can live with for life and still find new things in it.
At this moment in time, these make the final cut of my top ten musical works are:
At this moment in time, these make the final cut of my top ten musical works are:
Richard Wagner’s Overture to Tannhauser
I love the cascading strings, the march that comes in, the solemnity of the trumpets. It has such power and provides me with inexhaustible pleasure.
Handel: Messiah
Mozart once said, “Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt.” That’s quite a complement. Handel has such control - knowing when to hold back because restraint is important, and when to turn up the power of the music to full notch.
He works to the utmost to convey the emotion of a text and his word painting is part of that. Perhaps the most famous and oft-quoted example of the technique is in, "Every valley shall be exalted", the tenor aria early in Part I of Messiah. On the lyric "...and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain". The notes climb, descend and alternate together with the text.
I also really like Serse - Accompagnato: Frondi tenere.
J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott
Bach’s St. Matthew Passion shows human achievement at its greatest and most humbling. I also really like the cello suites.
He works to the utmost to convey the emotion of a text and his word painting is part of that. Perhaps the most famous and oft-quoted example of the technique is in, "Every valley shall be exalted", the tenor aria early in Part I of Messiah. On the lyric "...and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain". The notes climb, descend and alternate together with the text.
I also really like Serse - Accompagnato: Frondi tenere.
J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott
Bach’s St. Matthew Passion shows human achievement at its greatest and most humbling. I also really like the cello suites.
Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
There is something so very English about The Lark Ascending. The softness and warmth of the French horns coming in evoking a delicate pastoral scene. The violin has a whimsicality and complete sense of freedom. Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis comes a close second.
Mozart’s Requiem, Mass No. 19 in D minor, Sequenx: Lacrimosa
Mozart’s Requiem, Mass No. 19 in D minor, Sequenx: Lacrimosa
Mozart's Requiem is one of the most personal, impassioned and profound of his works, despite the fact that the composer died leaving it unfinished.
Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor
Gustav Mahler’s 2nd symphony – The Resurrection Symphony.
Mahler’s second begins with doubt and ends in massive optimism. The grand choral finale is outstanding.
Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture
The Hebrides Overture captures the restlessness of the sea perfectly. It conveys a sense of excitement with danger lurking. Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Midsummer Night's Dream are also pretty amazing too. Fingal’s Cave overture of the Hebrides Overture holds a special place in my heart though as its the home of my ancestors.
Allegri Miserere
The unaccompanied choral setting of the Miserere ("Have Mercy on Me, O God") from Psalm 51 is truly beautiful. It was composed for the Sistine Chapel in the 1630s for the Tenebrae Holy Week service, as candles were extinguished one by one, leaving the faithful in darkness. More than a century later, Mozart marvelled at it. The sound of a boy treble, soaring to a top C, is near miraculous. It’s so beautiful that the Vatican even banned it at one point.
Piazzolla’s Milonga Del Angel
There is a languidness and playfulness about Piazzolla’s Milonga Del Angel. I particularly love the version by Yo-Yo Ma. The Libertango is also pretty amazing too.
No doubt there are gaping omissions in this list, but it’s a good start for a desert island long list!
