Apart from classical

Discussion in 'Classical Music' started by Rodrigo de Sá, Jun 26, 2007.

  1. Rodrigo de Sá

    Rodrigo de Sá This club's crushing bore

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    This occurred to me after listening to Jacques Brel and - you'll be amazed - Françoise Hardy.

    I like Brel very much. I usually don't care for pop music, but Chançon Française is an exception, and I am very fond of some songs. Le plat pays; Ne me quitte pas; Le Port d'Amsterdam.
    I was also very moved by Mon ami la Rose, by Hardy. I cannot help myself liking Edith Piaff or Amália Rodrigues. I also am very fond of some Irish doleful tunes.

    So what do you, people from this forum, like besides classic?
     
    Rodrigo de Sá, Jun 26, 2007
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  2. Rodrigo de Sá

    lordsummit moderate mod

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    Ooh what a question?
    Ok Jazz rather a lot, particularly hard-bop and the stuff leading into that. Find it gets a bit unsatisfying when it gets to the jazz- funk-fusion stuff. All a bit noodly.
    Rock and Pop, yes please, but I've always been more interested in bands that are way out and whacky, or those that have genuinely created something different. My collection goes from Everly Brothers to Aphex Twin electronica for instance.
     
    lordsummit, Jun 26, 2007
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  3. Rodrigo de Sá

    Czechchris

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    Genuinely innovative rock music like Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa and the avant-garde of Laurie Anderson.
    Jazz (in the form of Miles Davis).
     
    Czechchris, Jun 26, 2007
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  4. Rodrigo de Sá

    tones compulsive cantater

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    Like Rodrigo, I also enjoy the chansons of Brel, Montand and the like. They have a bittersweet quality that no English language genre comes near. I am also partial to jazz and the traditional music of my native sod (Ireland), and courtesy of years as a stagehand in an amateur opera company in Melbourne, musicals. I have a pathological detestation of nearly all rock/pop, but I'm grateful for it as it helps pay for my classical.
     
    tones, Jun 26, 2007
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  5. Rodrigo de Sá

    Marc

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    I'm not that much into jazz. Although, recently I heard a slow jazzy version of The Police's Roxanne, and I kinda liked it.
    Honestly, 99% of the music I listen to is classical. But I do have a tangled amount of favourites in pop music, like:

    Jacques Brel. Great, formidable, magnifique. Man, songs like 'Amsterdam' or 'La ville s'endormait'!
    The Beatles (a gift to the world, he spoke unctuous ;))
    The Who ('Pinball Wizard'!)
    The Doors ('Riders On The Storm')
    Leonard Cohen ('Chelsea Hotel #2' is one my all-time favourites)
    Velvet Underground ('New Age'; I have it on a live 2LP, sung by mr. Lou Reed himself. Awesome.)
    ABBA (since I fell in love with Agnetha, when I was eight years old :D. 'The Day Before You Came' is a Masterpiece, IMHO.)
    Sex Pistols (well, .... :D)
    Joy Division (they made me aware of my 'Unknown Pleasures')
    The Smiths ('There Is A Light That Never Goes Out')
    Madonna (well, .... :D :D)
    R.E.M. (especially the albums 'Fables Of The Reconstruction / Reconstruction Of The Fables', 'Life's Rich Pageant' and 'Document').

    That'll be all, folks!
    (For the moment, that is)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2007
    Marc, Jun 26, 2007
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  6. Rodrigo de Sá

    bat Connoisseur Par Excelence

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    Catchy tunes - songs that you remember even if you don't want to. Lennon (and sometimes McCartney) wrote many good ones in the 60s that are still unsurpassed. The Beatles was at its best just incredible. I have been exploring Brel for some time. Is any one familiar with Serge Gainsbourg's music?

    Yeah, Sex Pistols. RdS, get some Sex Pistols, you'll like it. I'd love to hear Sex Pistols on harpsichord.
     
    bat, Jun 26, 2007
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  7. Rodrigo de Sá

    Marc

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    'Anarchy In The UK': I am an Antichrist! .... played by Leonhardt?

    How sweet that would be!

    :D

    Popular topic, this one.
    New York, London, Paris, Munich,
    everybody talks about .... Pop Music!
     
    Marc, Jun 26, 2007
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  8. Rodrigo de Sá

    Joe

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    Iggy and the Stooges
    The Velvet Underground
    The Kinks
    Jimi Hendrix
    The Smiths
    Julian H Cope
    Early blues of the Robert Johnson variety
    The New York Dolls
    The Rolling Stones
    The La's
    Scott Walker
    Fairport Convention
    Half Man, Half Biscuit
    Lee 'Scratch' Perry
    Western Swing

    and shedloads of other stuff.

    I also like classical music (of the more tuneful variety) but cannot find it in me to like the harpischord. In fact, if anyone would like a copy of Kenneth Gilbert 'doing' Couperin, it's theirs for the asking.
     
    Joe, Jun 26, 2007
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  9. Rodrigo de Sá

    Marc

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    Yeah, I do like those, too. I'm not like everybody else is my favourite Kinks song.

    It must be 25 years ago today, when I first heard Golden Brown of The Stranglers, I thought: "WOW! That's a great sound!"
    First, I was only able to like it as an accompanying instrument. But now I'm getting old and grey :cry:, something must have happened, because nowadays I do appreciate it very much as a solo instrument, too.

    Harpsichord?
    Véhément!!
    :punk:
     
    Marc, Jun 26, 2007
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  10. Rodrigo de Sá

    Rodrigo de Sá This club's crushing bore

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    I'd like to sharethis.
    The lyrics are:

    on est bien peu de chose
    et mon amie la rose me l'a dit ce matin
    à l'aurore je suis née
    baptisée de rosée
    je me suis épanouie
    heureuse et amoureuse
    aux rayons du soleil
    me suis fermée la nuit
    me suis réveillée vieille

    pourtant j'étais très belle
    oui, j'étais la plus belle
    des fleurs de ton jardin

    on est bien peu de chose
    et mon amie la rose me l'a dit ce matin
    vois le Dieu qui m'a faite
    me fait courber la tête
    et je sens que je tombe
    et je sens que je tombe
    mon coeur est presque nu
    j'ai le pied dans la tombe
    déjà je ne suis plus

    tu m'admirais hier
    et je serai poussière
    pour toujours demain

    on est bien peu de chose
    et mon amie la rose est morte ce matin
    la lune cette nuit
    a veillé mon amie
    moi, en rêve, j'ai vu
    éblouissante et nue
    son âme qui dansait
    bien au-delà des nues
    et qui me souriait

    crois celui qui peut croire
    moi, j'ai besoin d'espoir
    sinon je ne suis rien

    ou bien si peu de chose
    c'est mon amie la rose
    qui l'a dit hier matin.

    Call me sentimental, but I find it moving in the extreme.
     
    Rodrigo de Sá, Jun 26, 2007
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  11. Rodrigo de Sá

    eisenach

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    Now what about Jake Thackray? A very cunning chansonist, Brassens admirer and franco-phile/phone.
     
    eisenach, Jun 26, 2007
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  12. Rodrigo de Sá

    tones compulsive cantater

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    I know very little about him, having heard only a couple of songs that could be described as "comedy". No more cunning than, say, Tom Lehrer (but then, who was?).

    Comedy! Now there's a thought - I love all of Flanders and Swann, all of Lehrer and bits of Weird Al Yankowitz, not to mention the Comedian Harmonists and the Austrian cabarettist Georg Kreisler, who may (or may not) have written the original "Poisoning pigeons in the park" (Taubenvergiften). This is a marvellous record of Kreisler's:

    http://www.amazon.de/alten-bösen-Li...7473812?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1182930363&sr=1-3

    The Der Musikkritiker number is worth the price alone.
     
    tones, Jun 27, 2007
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  13. Rodrigo de Sá

    narabdela

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    On the comedy theme, anyone remember Victor Borge, achingly funny comedian and world class concert pianist?
     
    narabdela, Jun 27, 2007
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  14. Rodrigo de Sá

    Rodrigo de Sá This club's crushing bore

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    no comments on the link I provided. didn't you like it? the poem alone is rather beautiful.
     
    Rodrigo de Sá, Jun 27, 2007
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  15. Rodrigo de Sá

    tones compulsive cantater

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    Not sure that I would have called him a "world-class concert pianist", but he certainly was very funny.
     
    tones, Jun 27, 2007
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  16. Rodrigo de Sá

    bat Connoisseur Par Excelence

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    We want english translation first!
     
    bat, Jun 27, 2007
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  17. Rodrigo de Sá

    Marc

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    Let's give it a try. My french is very very bad, but I have a (rather old) dictionary, which isn't complete. Please forgive me when it's not accurate or poetic enough.

    My friend the rose

    So close to nothing we are;
    and my friend, the rose, told me so this morning.
    At dawn I was born,
    baptized with drops of dew,
    I woke up and then I grew,
    happy and in love
    with the rays of sunlight.
    Then at night I fell asleep,
    and when waking up I had grown old!

    But still, I was very pretty;
    yes, I was the prettiest
    among the flowers in your garden!

    So close to nothing we are;
    and my friend, the rose, told me so this morning.
    Look, God who created me
    makes my head bend to the ground!
    And I know that I'm falling,
    Yes I know that I'm falling!
    My heart is almost naked,
    I'm at the edge of my grave,
    I'm already half gone away.

    Yesterday you admired me,
    But tomorrow I will be
    nothing but dust for ever.

    So close to nothing we are;
    and my friend, the rose, died this morning.
    The moon at night,
    Stood by my friend,
    I was dreaming, and I saw,
    sparkling and naked,
    that her soul was dancing
    far beyond the clouds,
    and she was smiling at me.

    Believe who wants to believe,
    I need to keep my hope
    unless I am but nothing ....

    .... or so close to nothing.
    Like my friend, the rose, told me yesterday morning.
     
    Marc, Jun 27, 2007
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  18. Rodrigo de Sá

    bat Connoisseur Par Excelence

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    Impressive, thanks.
    Btw, did you know that the following 70s chartbuster is Brel's:


    Isn't it a perfect composition?

    AND HOW ABOUT THIS: EVEN MORE PERFECT! THE NO1 SONG OF ALL TIME!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2007
    bat, Jun 27, 2007
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  19. Rodrigo de Sá

    Rodrigo de Sá This club's crushing bore

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    Very good translation, I think, and you managed to keep the poetic feeling of the text. Congrats and thank you.
     
    Rodrigo de Sá, Jun 28, 2007
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  20. Rodrigo de Sá

    bat Connoisseur Par Excelence

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    There is poetic feeling but it cannot touch this:



    The most perfect lyrics I know. Extreme beauty.
     
    bat, Jul 2, 2007
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