They almost got it right in 1992.
I am a huge soundtrack fan. A good score paints images and stories right into my mind – even when I haven’t seen the movie. Because soundtracks follow the great tradition started by Richard Wagner by using themes for moods, characters and places in the movie they have more of a "story structure" compared to normal classical music.
The score for "House of Flying Daggers" (which is a brilliant movie by the way) mixes symphonic elements with Chinese drums and flute. The mood ranges from total tranquillity and beauty to fierce battle scenes.
Highly recommended!
You can listen to excerpts on Amazon.com and obviously buy it there as well: Amazon.com: House of Flying Daggers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): MP3 Downloads
Click image for a larger Annie.
Her style, her voice and her artistic expression are highly impressive and electrifying. Madame Lennox also was a great (new) role model since her huge impact with Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" video and album.
Although she made many pop songs, that range from silly to raunchy she was never a consumerist blow up doll like Madonna.
Before iPods, before Computers, before CDs, before TV, before Magnetic Tapes, before Radios, before Records, before Phonograph cylinders … Music couldn’t be "saved" or "transmitted" from one place to another.
So people who liked music had to either learn an instruments or simply visit a concert.
It was not very easy to listen to a famous Tenor or Opera, unless you lived in the same city or were lucky enough that that person or performance would play in town.
So many great performances were only done once and never recorded. Today nothing is forgotten and has lead to a new phenomenon: that we listen and cling onto performers long dead. Living musicians have to compete against dead ones. So called "classics" hog shelf space and sales, it makes it hard for young musicians to make a living and achieve fame and stardom. They will always compared mercilessly with recordings from superstars …
Sometimes forgetting and "dying" is a good thing. It makes space for the new and young. But thanks to recordings certain moods or markets become the de factor standard for our ears. For example Steve Wonders’ "Happy Birthday" seems to be the one and only song for that occasion. There seem to be more and more established theme songs that cover our "emotional range" in private and movie moments.
Will future generations still be pestered by the Best of Rolling Stones, Best of Celine Dion and Best of Elton John?!
Raymond Scott was far far far ahead of his time. This song is from the 1950’s when he already experimented with electronic sounds. Add to this sound some heavy beats and it would perfectly electro pop modern.
A blast from the 80’s from the no future generation. Aside from the consumerist crowd of Thatcherism and Reaganomics there was an alternative scene, quite worried about the clash of humanity and technology.
Sometimes I wonder if they were right about the times we live in now?
One of the many great songs by Fatboy Slim. I just love the groove – it just makes me want to dance and have sex …
Yo-Yo Ma
Mstislav Rostropovich
Paul Tortelier (Masterclass)
Mischa Maisky
When people try to “get into” classical music they have to cope with so many different interpretations of the same piece.
Sometimes it takes some training to become a good listener and know your favorite piece of Bach or Mozart so well that you can “judge” different interpretations.
But don’t make the mistake looking for the perfect interpretation, look for the one that touches your soul. That’s the right one for you …
Here are four different interpretations of one of my favorite Bach pieces. Which one do you like best?
Since I am a city creature and sometimes even a romantic person therefore I love this song. 
Once I thought this is cool. I was such a moron.
But at least I can boast that I bought my first Beethoven record the same year I went bonker over break dancing.
Andrea Bocelli with Sarah Brightman …
… Christina Aguilera …
… and finally Elmo!
Andrea Bocelli is one of these people that make mere mortal feel even smaller. Already as a youngster we was a gifted musician – playing the piano, saxophone and the flute. He lost his sight as a kid thanks to a football hit on the head.
As an adult he studied law and got his doctor degree. But to pay for his education he sang in piano bars (where he also met his future wife and mother of his two kids) – which also launched his singing career.
Today he is an international star and sold millions of CDs. Most of his albums are quite kitschie – but his success is nevertheless impressive.
Still an amazing ballade. Just the right music for working long summer nights …
Living near Italy I never liked the sphagetti disco music, but Georgio is an exception, because he had a great and unique sound (which already was very "techno" and the video also has many images later seen in many rave clips).
Still … very Italian .. but he later made it big time in Hollywood.
Nevermind that "Mutter" is younger then her Daughter – but I just love the Magic Flute.
This is actually a performance by the The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden – Diana Damrau (Queen of the Night) and Dorothea Röschmann are obviously German.
For me it’s often amusing when I hear the Zauberflöte sung / performed in "ungerman" accents – but this one in "fine and pure arian art" …
Bert Kaempfert is the King of Easy Listening – his themes are smooth, without any edges or deep expression. It’s niceness pure.
I dunno if this is purely trivial music for supermarkets and elevators – or some form of art.
They certainly don’t make music like that anymore – purely instrumental themes are a forgotten art in pop music.
Don’t we all love little fluffy clouds? Especially 5 am in the morning, still drugged and excited from a whole night of clubbing and dancing? That was the good unhealthy life back then …
Some nostalgic summer music – I think only Germans can make a depressing reggae summer song with loads of Weltschmerz.
Ideal was part of the so called Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) – but was never as popular like Nena or Trio (remember Da Da Da?).
Philip Glass is one of the few soundtrack composers that is famous for his movie and classical work as well.
His style is hypnotic, often a bit weird and unusual compared to music from great soundtrack composers like John Williams or classical ones like Beethoven. But he certainly is unique – and therefore not for everybody.
I personally love his hypnotic violin waves and delicate themes. It’s an almost surreal music – I guess that is why it was chosen for Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and later for Mishima (1985).
The Mishima soundtrack is a permanent item on my play lists for now over twenty year – and I am still loving it.
Click to play “November 25: The Last Day” (which is very similar to the Main Title):
Click to play “1937: Saint Sebastian”:
Click to play “Kyoko’s House (”Stage Blood Is Not Enough”)”:
Once again this music is not “easy listening”, but it’s well worth exploring. If you only want to buy one Philip Glass CD ever – than I recommend “Mishima”.
More? Philip Glass @ Wikipedia and Philip Glass @ Amazon.com
I love soundtracks. It when it comes to composers the late Jerry Goldsmith is a God amongst the Giants of classic soundtrack makers.
He has created many memorable themes and great orchestral scores for many famous and not so famous movies. This Maestro produced soundtracks like mortal men like you and me breathe.
His “Planet of the Apes” soundtrack is one of the most unusual tracks you can find. Strangely harmonic, yet disturbingly creepy. I still think that the movie itself would only be half as good without the soundtrack.
Click to play “Main Title”
Click to play “The Revelation”
It certainly isn’t “easy listening” – it’s actually very demanding music. But if you listen to it with your headphones on in the dark you suddenly will find yourself in an amazing vision of your own. This music inspires wild and bizarre images in your mind … or maybe nightmares …
More? “Planet of the Apes” @ Wikipedia
Still one of the quintessential 80’s pop songs in style and content. Although it seems neither the Russians nor the Americans have learned any lessons from this?
Karlheinz Stockhausen died last year. Even 50 years after his career started in Germany his music is as provoking as ever. Stockhausen hardly is Easy Listening – and many of his ideas will remind you rather of crazy performance art instead of ’serious’ classical music.
But we should never underestimate the impact of Stockhausen – many fellow artists have been inspired by him: Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk (obviously), Björk and the Beatles.
Stockhausen is one of these people who expand the boundaries of of culture further ahead. They add a new noise or new variation to the mix. As with all cultural experiments “they don’t make any sense” – because we often create the “sense” afterwards or it takes other artists to “smooth” the rough edges of the “new idea” and make it more acceptable to the masses.
So here are some of Stockhausen’s innovations and compositions – don’t expect them to be easy on you …
There are not many pop songs in my life that I have admired and liked since my childhood. It is a weird sounding arrangements – not the usual 80’s candy pop – the piece has some twists and turns as well. Plus the lyrics raise well above the usual ‘I love you’ moaning of pop music.
The video above was pretty innovative back then – and once again pretty weird. But like I said – pretty much impressed me almost 30 years ago and I think it’s still something worth remembering today.
There are not many German bands that achieved such a cult status like Kraftwerk. Today electronic music is everywhere – with any cheap computer you can create Kraftwerk-like music. But there is more to Kraftwerk than simply beeps and zaps.
The first big song ‘Autobahn’ from 1974:
Starting 1974 (with Autobahn) till 1986 (Electric Café) they released a string of albums that defined the electronic music scene for decades to come. Many great artists like Bowie were big fans and many house & techo musicians were heavily influenced by their sound.
This is one of the newer pieces – a theme song for the Expo 2000 in Hannover:
Their synthesizer music sounded so different from eletro pop, disco or synthesizer artists like Jean Michel Jarre or Tomita. Kraftwerk didn’t try to make electronic music ‘nice’ or more like old instruments. They quite liked the harsh purity of their machines.
‘Taschenrechner’ (Pocket Calculator) from ‘Computer World’:
But also Kraftwerks minimal lyrics about the digital future were right on target (from ‘Computer World’ the song ‘Computer Love’):
Computer love
Computer love
Another lonely night
Stare at the TV screen
I don’t know what to do
I need a rendezvous
Computer love
Computer love
I call this number
For a data date
I don’t know what to do
I need a rendezvous
Computer love
Computer love
Their use of computer animation for music videos and cover art was state of the art at the time. Also their usage of robot like makeup and later real robots for their live performances just pushed the Kraftwerk-style further ahead.
Kraftwerk’s last album ‘Tour de France’ in 2003 was certainly in line with their style – but it was no longer a unique experience, since techno, house music, trip hop and electronica all were built on the Kraftwerk sound and therefore Kraftwerk itself was just another bleep on the market. Nevertheless it was good music.
One cultural note: Kraftwerk has always released it’s albums in German and in English for the foreign market. I consider their German albums and lyrics the original versions.
German dudes singing in English with a terrible accent might have been avantgarde in the 70’s and 80’s to non-german ears – but for me their songs in German are often rather melancholic or satirical. It rather feels like a commentary on the Zeitgeist and the Zukunft (future) instead of trying to be arty farty.
But I guess that gets lost in translation.
I wonder if Beethoven had an arguing couple in mind, when he wrote his 5th symphony? Just watch and enjoy.
It’s more like a party or summer anthem … but never mind. I think she is cute and so is the song. It has this wonderful ignorant candy attitude to life … everything is gonna be good … somehow …
What a great gift! Queen gives you a free song – and wants you to donate some money to fight AIDS. Now that’s what I call a great deal!
From the official website:
It has not been that closely a guarded secret that Queen and Paul Rodgers have been in the recording studio for their first sessions together following their successful world tour of 2005/2006. Indeed, both Paul and Brian have been quoted on their websites as being "quietly excited" about the music that has been produced from this creative union.
Spurred on by their commitments as Ambassadors to Nelson Mandela’s 46664 HIV AIDS global campaign, on which the spotlight will fall December 1 with a World Aids Day awareness and fundraising concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, Brian, Roger and Paul have announced they have rushed to finish a track specially written for 46664 by Roger and have it available as a free download in time for this coming Saturday’s benefit concert.
The track, Roger’s "Say It’s Not True", originally came to light for the launch of the 46664 campaign back in November 2003. Roger wrote the song as a gift to Nelson Mandela (or ‘Madiba’, as he is fondly known), and performed it live for him for the first time with Brian and Dave Stewart at the inaugural 46664 concert in Cape Town that month. The song carries the message that HIV AIDS is something that can affect any one of us.
I like the song. But I also like the whole idea.
Thanks to Zichi for sending me this link.
What a guy! He had magic! He had power! He had an incredible voice! He rocked the audience! Queen’s performance for Live Aid shows you all you need to know about the power that was known as Freddy Mercury:
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]
Aids killed Freddy way too soon. Why do we also loose the good people first?
More? his last last appearance and a tribute to Freddy Mercury. Plus his detailed Wikipedia entry.
I still remember my utter surprise when I listened to this album for the very first time. It was pure avantgarde at that time: minimalist electronic sounds and voice arrangements, intellectual lyrics and themes. A harsh contrast to the candy pop of the 80’s.
Also her performances (like in this song ‘O, Superman‘) were most amazing and unusual: video performance art, using computers on stage, special instruments and projections. Laurie Anderson certainly greatly influenced pop and was one of the rare creature ahead of her time.
More? Wikipedia and her official website
One of the great modern Masters of classical music. His music was unique, ethereal and maybe eternal. After Stanley Kubrick used some of his work in 2001 – A Space Odyssey he became famous.
If you are looking for music that sends you tripping or on a meditation about the universe than get some of Ligeti’s tracks. It is hardly easy listening, it requires some dedication from the listener – but it’s worth the extra effort-
Click the player below and listen to some of his mystic music.
More? Wikipedia entry
Rarely I have heard such a sweet, intoxicating and fascinating blend of Arabic and European melodies and instruments. Please visit the great Tania Eshaghoff and simply wait till the music starts to flow from her website to your ears. A musical special journey awaits you …
Thanks to Edosan for another great link.
More? Wikipedia entry or simply buy this great music.
‘Old school’ European music is often still very confusing to me, especially all the different forms of choir music.
I often have a hard time figuring out the differences between a Motet (started 13th century and survived until the late 19th century), a Chanson (mostly french lyrics, started 14th century) and a Madrigal (Italian origin, mostly secular topics, started 13th century, but was mostly popular around the 16th).
So much about history. But I am still looking for same audio examples about the real differences. Any takers? So far I have found this brilliant map of early European music.
Meanwhile, click and listen to some Madrigal:
Forget all your trashy New Age CD, filled with terribly harmonious synthesizer rap. Dive into Overtone singing – especially by the great Maestro David Hykes.
Click player and below to get some Overtone:
Overtone music is hardly new: Tibetan monks do it, Mongolian throat singers do it as well – Yodelling actually is using some similar techniques. Gregorian chants sound similar, but don’t create that eerie and fascinating ‘deep sound’.
If you want to meditate, fall asleep or totally relax there is hardly anything more soothing (apart from singing whales).
Many nations have developed their own complex music systems, which are very different from the currently dominant European sounds. Bali – like India and China – has many unique and so called ‘exotic’ sounds to offer.
Since I heard Gamelan music the first time in the movie ‘The Year of Living Dangerously‘ I was hooked. The sound blew me away. It was hypnotic, weird, yet filled and magical by it’s own harmonic system. Pure fascination.
Compared to so called classical western music Gamelan is stone old – going back at least to the 12th century.
More? Wikipedia entry, Gamelan performance (music and dance)
The other famous form of Balinese music is the Kecak dance (strangely developed with the help of a German painter).
Compared to the soothing Gamelan music this is pure stress, pulsing aggression and unusual harmony to western ears. But I like it. It has a power and expressiveness hardly found in any other music (I know of).
Make sure your speakers are down if you listen to this in the Office. Or crank them up to the max if you are at home.
More? Wikipedia entry, Kecak video from the great movie Baraka, another Kecak dance and Monkey Fire Dance full Moon Ritual
Johannes Brahms is less known then other teutonic giants like Beethoven, Mozart or Bach. Still his work was highly influential and his huge body of work is a ‘Delikatesse’ for any lover of classical music.
The following piece invokes for me a blissful vision of heaven and filled with singing angels – without any Kitsch and religious overtones. Just me, myself and I – floating in clouds, gentle beings all around and eternal love in the air. I wish all religious and spiritual music would be so careful, sweet and gentle.
Since Leonardo requested a posting about the great Bach I have tried to wrap my tiny mind around the Genius of this Giant. To be honest: I think you have to be a composer, a philosopher, a musician and a mathematician to really really really appreciate the depth of this Maestro. And he created a massive amount of ‘notes’. To know Bach means to spent days and weeks listening to a huge amount of music.
He is part of a great period of Germanic enlightenment: Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn – and many more. It was a time of restless Teutonic renewal and overall change in Europe (Age of Enlightenment). The period that laid the foundation for modern day democratic and humanitarian Europe. But it was also an age of wild romantic compassion and insight.
Cantata BWV 208 – Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!
You can feel still some old medieval Europe in Bach’s music – the devout churchgoing citizens. But these citizens are different, because they are slowly grabbing power from the old institutions like Holy-Mother Church and blue blooded Aristocracy.
Toccata And Fugue In D Minor For Organ BWV 565
Bach’s music is often very ‘churchy’ – but you can also find many intimate and passionate pieces that rival Beethoven’s later achievements in spirit and emotion.
Many of Beethoven’s compositions were deemed too erotic and too emotional in their days. But you already can hear that intimacy in Bach’s music – albeit not as explosive as "Freude schöner Götterfunken!".
Suite No. 1 For Solo-Cello In G-Major
More? Wikipedia and the Bach.org website.
PS: Leonardo – sorry, that’s all I can write from a personal perspective. I am simply not genius enough to drill through this Mountain.
PPS: Anyone else out there with some more personal insights on Bach?