a dose of music: a classical injection - part 1

At the typical conservatory, and any other classical institution for that matter, musicians are often bombarded with the oh-so fateful questions, "What is the future of classical music?" and "Where is it going," which are usually, and almost always followed by this seemingly recent and overly stressed idea of "outreach" for musicians. I don't have a problem with outreach, in fact I think its a great idea depending on how its carried out, but I also have issues with it, which deserves an entry unto its own. Regardless, this led me think about why it seems people aren't interested in classical music. The reasons are many, but I decided that one, which I might be able to address myself, is the matter of exposure. I think it often gets a bad rap because people don't know what to listen to, and their idea of classical music instantly shoots to some sort of Mozart Symphony or similar type of piece. This isn't a bad thing, since Mozart was obviously a genius, and wrote great music, but sometimes, I'll admit it, it gets a little boring. The average joe just hasn't heard a lot of whats out there, and there is indeed A LOT out there...good, exciting stuff. Sometimes since classical music (and I use the word 'classical' out of the literal time period sense) tends to be long, people don't want to hear it and lose interest quickly, mostly due to our quick pace of life these days. Pop music is short, gets to the point, and I'll admit, can be very powerful. But....If you like pop music, and most people do, classical music has the same punch, in fact is, almost always, so much greater, because it takes much longer to lead up to a climax, which makes it all that much more rewarding. Not only is the music is so much more rewarding once it gets there, but the music is written so much better...in other words, it uses more than just the four basic triad chords that a pop piece might use. So I decided that, as a duty I felt to myself and to help expose those desperately seeking juicy classical music, a periodical classical music listening suggestion blog entry was necessary. Whatever I might be listening to, whether it be popular/famous, or (more preferably) not, I'll share it, and hopefully if anyone is indeed reading out there, you might go find it somewhere, and take a listen.

For today's "dose" I decided to choose Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma, or Pines of Rome. This is one of those more well-known pieces, so you may already know it, as it was used in Fantasia 2000, but its a good one to start with. This piece is great; its not too long, it follows a story (so you can at least imagine whats going on during the piece), good harmonies, and has a great punch at the end. Gotta love brass. You can read more about it at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pines_Of_Rome