(Part 3) Top products from r/classicalmusic

Wow, playing Carnegie Hall is quite the accomplishment!

> On a side note, OP, can you talk a bit about how you got through your perf. anxiety?

Sure! The first thing I did was read The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green. The whole book is great and he gives a lot of exercises you can practice in and out of performing that really help.

I would say the biggest thing that helped me besides all of the great exercises I learned from the book was the preparation routine I created for leading up to performances. The routine I'll go into below really helps me feel secure in my knowledge of the music, as well as helps to eliminate any unknowns I have, which seem to be a big part of what slips me up and makes me nervous.

If I'm giving a solo recital, for example, my first step is to give myself deadlines for 1) having my music learned, 2) having my music memorized, and 3) having my entire program ready to perform. It's different for everyone of course, but I typically want to have my music memorized a month before the performance and have my program ready to perform 2 weeks before.

In the weeks leading up to the performance, I do several things. 3 weeks before the performance, I start visualization. I go into a quiet room, close my eyes, and visualize the entire performance - how I feel 10 minutes beforehand in the Green Room, walking out on stage, what the stage looks like, what the audience sounds like, sitting down and tuning, starting the first piece, etc. Even if I don't really know what the stage looks like, it helps for me to visualize and truly feel myself getting amped up before and during my imaginary performance. I naturally find that, over time, I'm less anxious with each visualization.

2 weeks before, I play through my entire program every day. I cut an hour off of my practice time to do this so I don't tire myself out, but at that point, I should be prepared enough that I'm just hitting spots. One of the absolute biggest triggers for a memory slip or disaster performance is not being able to recover from a mistake, so when I run my program, I always play through my mistakes and then look at them later. A lot of the mistakes are just flukes - when you're playing for an hour, it'll happen. But, in my opinion, being able to recover from them is one of the most important skills a performing musician can have.

On performance day, I have my little routine I like to do. I go for a run in the morning, make my favorite breakfast, listen to some music for an hour or so, and then practice for a couple of hours throughout the day. Some people like to take the whole day off, but I like to keep busy.

About 30 minutes before, I'll go into a quiet space and meditate for 5-10 minutes. When I start to get anxious, I use the techniques I learned in The Inner Game - one of my favorites is, when my palms inevitably start to sweat, I observe that it's happening and remind myself, "Yes my palms are sweaty, and that's okay because it won't cause my hands to slip or play the wrong notes." They usually stop sweating at that point, but if they don't, I'm okay with it.

I've been doing this routine for years and, coupled with the techniques in the Inner Game, I have no anxiety on stage, just excitement and what I consider normal nerves. It's also worth noting that I perform a lot, so while I absolutely believe in this routine and it has helped me with every single one of my performances, I think a lot of it also has to do with me getting more seasoned as a performer.

This became a lot longer than I intended it to be! I hope it was helpful. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me. :)

A collection of thoughts

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As has been said

> Don’t be afraid to build up a giant stack of half formed ideas on top of your piano.

Beethoven is notorious for his sketch books, and for playing with and developing ideas for years and years and years after the initial thought.

The original ideas for the 5th symphony are junk, for example. but he kept playing with it

get this book for more on this

https://www.amazon.com/Beethovens-Sketches-Analysis-Style-Sketch-Books/dp/0486230422/

part of music is the actual musical architecture and structure of the music. This is covered in the subject of "musical form" but this goes deeper

see this short video by whitacre on the subject

"Discovering the Golden Brick"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwjqptQ5R-w

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for more general instruction on the basics and the bigger issues of music composition, see this YT channel by Alan Belkin

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQ0TcIbY_VEk_KC406pRpg

for a more popular music perspective, see Rick Beato and related channels

https://www.youtube.com/user/pegzch

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One of the longest traditions in music education is the making of arrangements and transcriptions of other people's music. This seems to far more effective if you do it by hand, and copy out all the parts yourself (again by hand)

Bach arranged Vivaldi, Mozart arranged Bach, Beethoven arranged Handel, etc.

If these masters did this as part of their own musical studies, maybe you could so this for your own education, using the music you admire most.

Even if it is arranging the music to a new key or mode (major to minor, etc)

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As a general thing I recommend books by Charles Rosen for music of the Classical era

https://www.amazon.com/Sonata-Forms-Revised-Charles-Rosen/dp/0393302199

https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Style-Mozart-Beethoven-Expanded/dp/0393317129/

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Probably the best place to start is by writing "etudes" which basically means "Studies" You could also call them "Experiments".

These would be shortish pieces where you try out different things. Thus if you do not know which way to go with something, you try them all or most of them, and flesh them out into separate things. Each is an experiment.

one idea might give a dozen experiments (major vs minor, slow vs fast, 3/4 vs 4/4 vs 5/4 = 12 combinations)

As experiments, not everything has to work. (but you might come back to it later)

Nothing has to be perfect, They are experiments

Later own, you experiment with ways to make it better. (see the Beethoven sketches again)

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part of the musical problem of form is to how to continue something in order to maintain interest, without it getting boring for a variety of factors. Traditional forms are solid solutions to the problem but you can come up with your own.

As an example, check out the old popular songs of John Denver (!) many of which do not follow a conventional common practice song format. What is he doing there?

Sorry for replying so late. It's generally regarded that Karajan's earlier stereo recordings (late 50s-60s) are his best, with some exceptions. His Beethoven set from the 60s is often considered one of the greatest of all time. If you like Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) then you might like this CD. Karajan's Mahler is generally regarded as excellent, any of it really; his Mahler 6th is what got me into the composer. If you like Tchaikovsky, in my opinion Karajan was authoritative in that music—here is a CD that I enjoy very much. Bruckner, again, take your pick. There's a live recording he made of Bruckner 8 that is well liked. Karajan made about 900 recordings so it's hard to even remember some of them, but mostly he excelled in the Romantic composers. I think he was underrated in Mozart. This CD has my favorite performance of Mozart's 40th, bar none. Hope this post was helpful.

We have evidence, but a lot of guesswork and experimentation has been performed. Yes, we have the evidence xiaopb lists, but we also have to figure out what to make of it.

Performance practice is a complex thing to discuss... If you want to do some reading, these are good places to start:

• The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. Great book by one of the guys who was part of the authentic performance revolution in the 60s.
  
  
• Early Music: A Very Short Introduction. A short book on the history of the "authentic performance" movement.
  
  
• Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance. What exactly is "authentic"? Is it achievable? Is authentic performance a fad, just fashionable nonesense? Are we really listening to "what Bach intended"? Very nice book.
  
  Edit:
  
  
• Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. Written by a very well read man, who is not afraid to share his opinions, and who has a particular way to write. Consider these two ideas: 1) historical performance is not very historical, it's modernist thinking 2) Performance is about actions and not about texts. What now?
  

With Schubert, oh yes I do! The Fischer-Dishkau/Demus recording of Winterreise is a real treasure. Even people who aren't keen on lieder may find it appealing:

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Winterreise-Dietrich-Fischer-Dieskau/dp/B000001GQE

Kleiber's rendition of the "Unfinished" symphony is the best I've heard:

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Symphonies-Nos-3-8/dp/B000001GXE/

And I love the Takacs Quartet's take on the 13th and 14th string quartets:

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-String-Quartets-Death-Maiden/dp/B000I5Y8W8/

Finally, the Emerson Quartet playing with Rostropovich (what a team-up!) for the String Quintet:

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-String-Quintet-d-956/dp/B000001GFA/

As for Mahler you can't go wrong with Rattle's recording of the 2nd Symphony or Bernstein's recording of the 5th. Bernstein playing Rhapsody in Blue is terrific as well. Hope this helps :-)

Hey! Thanks! You're not the first person to ask - here's my reply to the last person that did :) hope it helps!

The manuscript I use is the Warner Bros 75-page A3 manuscript pad, 18 Stave Landscape. You can order it from Amazon here.

Also, manuscript choice is surprisingly important - I was gutted several years ago when my favourite manuscript paper company Panopus went into liquidation. Took me a while to find a good alternative :)

I guess I don't get it. The Sacrificial Dance is muddy and disorganized (it almost sounds like the percussion are in their own world...) - I'd call it a disaster. Maybe because I've played the piece and have listened to it probably 1000 times, but meh...

They went balls to the wall with stereo separation, which is common with early stereo recordings.

I was in love with Dutoit's performance with Montreal, but the miking was really bad.

I discovered SFO's recording with Michael Tilson Thomas and I haven't turned back. Simply amazing. Great recording and great performance.

\> This composition was focused on the balance and elegance of the Classical era (like Mozart and Haydn).

It doesn't quite achieve that either, mind you. The following paragraphs sound harsh but aren't intended to be.

There are lot of what I would call mechanical mistakes. Take the second bar. You shift an E-major chord up a second to F#-major, all voices moving in parallel. And then you compound it by the F#-C# to B-F# parallel fifths in the cello, viola and second violin. You will not find anything like this in the body of works of Haydn or Mozart. It's just a simple violation of rules that cannot happen when you strive to write in the Classical style.

Aside from these types of formal issues, there is something that takes much longer to get right and it has to do with all these unwritten rules that you would find implemented in every Mozart and Haydn sonata movement. The second theme appears to be presented in bar 17 and it is according to the standard rules in the dominant. So far so good. The problem is that you are missing the transition from first to second theme. The first section is just a repeat and alternation of two-bar motives. The 16 bars entirely consist of three chords: B-major, E-major and F#-major. And then, after ending on the tonic B-major, you introduce the second theme in the dominant F# but you never established that key, and it needs to be.

According to classical rules it requires either a cadence on the dominant, often introduced via vi which in the case of B-major would be like a g#-minor chord with the third in the base but more correctly denoted as B^(6), or a half-cadence on the double-dominant C#-major. You have neither and you don't have a single reference to the new leading tone E#, and you kind of do need it to convincingly present the second theme in the new key.

Whole books have been written specifically about how Classical composers treated the sonata form. I recommend Charles Rosen's Sonata Form or The Classical Style by the same author. These are incredible books and eye-opening. I keep repeating this and a lot of people don't believe it but the Classical era was the height of formalism in music. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were the most comprehensively trained composers in history. They had to be. They knew everything that Bach did but in addition to that they had mastery of the far richer structural and harmonic principles and rules of the Classical era (which, actually, they created themselves). That's why a scholar such as Charles Rosen spend his whole life (well, apart from performing as a pianist) on studying what made Classical music Classical.

But not to worry. It seems this competition that you won is for young (as in teen) composers. I've taken part in various composition competitions myself decades ago (and never really won anything). You'll figure it out. But do get these Charles Rosen books. When I read them for the first time they elevated my appreciation and understanding of classical music to an entirely new level.

A basic music theory textbook sounds like what you're looking for; I think I used an older edition of this when I was in school.

If you're really interested in classical music, a basic history book might help as well. I'm a big fan of The Vintage Guide to Classical Music, which is interesting, informative, and very readable. It features chapters on a number of different composers and provides just the right amount of depth for a newcomer on each, ~20 pages each.

This is definitely not a rule for how to write music now, just a rule for how to write music in the style of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Haydn etc. If you're interested in Tonal (read: Common Practice) Harmony, here are a few good theory books used in Freshman/Sophomore college music curriculums (in my order of preference):

The Complete Musician


Techniques and Materials of Music


Harmony and Voice Leading


Tonal Harmony

I'm also a composer, and I tend to write more modally (and sometimes without a strict tonality), so I just teach these, I don't necessarily follow them in my own writing.

Get a free Spotify account and listen to the different recordings. Read reviews if you feel inclined. For Mozart's Requiem, you have to choose between recordings on modern instruments or period instruments, so it comes down to personal preference. On modern instruments usually the most recommended CDs are this, this, and this. Have fun finding something you like.

I read your comment and thought: "there are lots of commercially unknown orchestras with great recordings....". Then I went to the amazon page for the Beethoven collection pictured: http://amzn.com/B00012QMDG

Listen to the opening of Beet 5. Yuck. I'm not trying to be an elitist or anything. It just really really sucks even compared to other cheap CDs. Shit, you can get the entire 1963 Karajan Beethoven cycle used for about $15 on amazon: http://amzn.com/B000001GBQ

If you like classical music as background music while you work or whatever, fine. But if you want to hear it the way it's meant to be heard, you can do much better for the same amount of money.

EDIT:
I'll be constructive and recommend a few cheap and great recordings (buying used off amazon, nothing more than $5). Others might be able to do better....

Mozart Symphonies 40, 41

Mozart Symphonies 32, 35, 39

Beethoven 5, 7

Bach cello suites

Bach Brandenburg 1-3

Played this (and the Second Suite) in HS concert band. A terrific piece.

Was ecstatic when browsing the new Telarc CD releases back in the 80s when I found this release.

Does that make me a hipster?

Thanks for your help <3 I can't for the life of me find a torrent anywhere (which is what I was hoping for) I think this http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Flute-Mozart/dp/B0000041QO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1290634992&sr=1-1 is the correct CD, though. Seems to be at least.

Seconding the suites for band. They're some of my favorite works. This album is one of the best I own

I'd recommend the Norton History of Western Music; it's a fantastic textbook that covers just about everything you could ever need.

> ...I have definitely been wanting to pick up a book on orchestration.

Is this really what you meant to write? Orchestration won't do you much good if you can't compose convincingly for the piano. Get the Kostka book first and then move on to an orchestration book after you've got part writing under your belt.

I haven't tried beta blockers due to other health problems, but The Inner Game of Music helped me greatly. It takes a few months to really work through all of it properly, but now I can use that kick of adrenaline to perform even better. It's worth a read, even if you still decide to use beta blockers.

Try A History of Western Music. The book covers the whole history beginning with the middle ages, but you can skip to the last two chapters that cover the 19th and 20th centuries (which are pretty extensive).

This is a great book even though it is a bit dry:

http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Voice-Leading-Edward-Aldwell/dp/0495189758

I use this book all the time its great

Sorry, this got caught in the spam filter for some reason.

Personally I'd recommend Abbado or Marriner (which has the added bonus of having several completions for Schubert's unfinished and unbegun symphonies), supplemented with some classic Kleiber.

I would personally recommend the Moravec recording.

This is a pretty extenive book - it's expensive but just get the earlier editions.

Also just read tons of wikipedia articles and listen to a ton of music.

Search Amazon for:

A3 manuscript pad

Check this out at Amazon.co.uk
75-Page A3 Manuscript Pad, 18-Stave: (White Pad) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571527094/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_peNLDbZ7F45SH

A full 90% or more of recordings made by Philips, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon are studio recordings. In the golden era of the 1970's and 1980's when the bulk of such recordings were made, live recordings were quite rare.

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Magic-Flute-Evelyn-Lear/dp/B000001GXI/ref=sr_1_3

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Die-Zauberflote-Magic-Flute/dp/B000EGFV2C/ref=sr_1_5

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Die-Zauberfl%C3%B6te-Pilar-Lorengar/dp/B0000041QO/ref=sr_1_10

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Die-Zauberfl%C3%B6te-Magic-Flute/dp/B00000412K/ref=sr_1_12

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Die-Zauberfl%C3%B6te-Magic-Flute/dp/B000001G4V/ref=sr_1_14

For Shostakovich, [I'd Check this out]. Beyond meaty. (http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Remembered-Second-Elizabeth-Wilson/dp/0691128863/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373162263&sr=1-1&keywords=shostakovich)

You need the one published by the Penguins. Conducted by Sir Colin Davis

https://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-Davis-Penguin-Classics/dp/B00000AFQT

Try:

https://www.amazon.com/Schoenberg-Von-Heute-auf-Morgen/dp/B000001S32/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1526654849&sr=1-1&keywords=schoenberg+von+heute+cpo

AmazonSmile Link: Schoenberg: Von Heute auf Morgen

^Use AmazonSmile to donate 0.5% of your purchase price to a charity of your choice at no extra cost to you.

A History of Western Music

Norton Anthology of Western Music

I would recommend Michael Tilson Thomas' recording with the San Francisco Symphony. Clear, crisp, modern sound, but totally maintains the savagery. It's an exhilarating performance.

I don't know much about Nigel Kennedy, but the idea that the 'cult of authenticity' is ruining classical music has also been made extensively by musicologist Richard Taruskin in the book Text and Act, among other places. Taruskin makes some good arguments, I think, albeit in a polemical manner.

• Brahms: Die Klavierkonzerte; Fantasien Op. 116 - Emil Gilels, Eugen Jochum / Berliner Philharmoniker
  
  
• Strauss: Vier Letzte Lieder; 6 Orchesterlieder - Jessye Norman, Kurt Masur / Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
  
  
• Elgar: Cello Concerto; Sea Pictures - Jacqueline du Pré, Janet Baker, John Barbirolli / London Symphony
  
  
• Chopin: Nocturnes - Ivan Moravec
  
  
• Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 - Keith Jarrett