Some of My Favorite Classical Music
By Andy Heath
In my humble view, nothing soothes and inspires like great classical music. I'm going to share a few of my favorites with you today, in no particular order:
Zadok the Priest - Handel
This is a coronation anthem written by G.F. Handel. It's one of my favorites because it has such pomp to it, and you can feel the grandiose nature of the piece when you listen to it. It starts out with the lyrics:
Zadok the Priest
And Nathan the Prophet
Anointed Solomon King
What language to use at a coronation! In our own United States, we have no such ceremonies, the closest being our less formal presidential inaugurations. But then, in England, coronations are much rarer than our inaugurations. They generally occur once a generation. So it makes sense that all the pomp and circumstance surrounding such an occasion would be reflected by a great piece such as this.
Requiem - W.A. Mozart
Haunting, beautiful, exciting, romantic, spiritual! These are only some of the words that reflect one of Mozart’s darkest pieces, a piece that he never even finished. One of his students had to go in behind him and finish the piece for him after he died. If you have never seen the movie Amadeus, I would recommend you watch it at some point. Mozart's Requiem, a funeral mass, is a featured part of the film. The whole piece is about a dozen movements or so, and takes about an hour to perform. My favorite parts of the piece are the Introit and the Dies Irae.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - J.S. Bach
Not to be cliché, but this is a wonderful piece that most people think of being Halloween music. The toccata comes first, followed by Bach's fugue, the latter of which is my favorite.
O Sacred Head Now Wounded
Yes, I've actually written a blog post about this piece as well. It's hauntingly beautiful and was originally a chorale by J.S. Bach. Bach supposedly had "rules" that he followed in writing chorales that have come to be known as four-part voice leading. To be honest, I'm not sure he ever wrote those rules down, and I think it was more a situation where music theorists studied his chorales and said, "He never did this, and he never did this, and he never did this…" Still, four-part voice leading is interesting study for all the musicians out there that will ever study music theory.
Gloria - Vivaldi
I had the opportunity to sing this half hour piece with several movements when I was in high school. I don't know why, but I have always liked it. I would not call it "hauntingly beautiful" like I have said about some of the other pieces on this list - except for the second movement, Et En Terra Pax Hominibus. One thing I did not like about this piece is that there are no male soloists written into the work. When I was in high school, I had quite an ego and would have loved to have a solo! But in a way it's good that there are none because the choral director would NEVER have given me one.
There are so many pieces of music that I absolutely love. I hope you have the chance to listen to some of these if you have not heard them. They're inspiring and uplifting. They put me in a good mood, and I do enjoy them from time to time.
I will listen to Madonna and Cher as much as anyone else, but the great classics never leave us, and for that reason we can enjoy them as long as human beings exist.
