General Discussion

[Cassandra]

I wanna go! I wanna go! Countess, may I please come to your fancy shindig?

[Aarah]

@Union
I offer my sincerest apologies for upsetting you with my choice of invitation music. I can assure you that there will be no Bach playing on the night of the banquet, and dare I go as far as to say that I would be honoured, given your musical expertise, if you would advise on some exquisite symphonies from other composers that may befit an evening of fine dining and...drinking.

@Cassandra
My dear, of course you may attend. I am elated to add you to the list of vic...guests.

Guest List
Cassandra

[dremorababe]

Book me too!

[Aarah]

Great!

Guest List
Cassandra
Dremorababe

[Unionhack]

To briefly summarize why I despise Bach and all he stands for, he was essentially the spearhead for this thing called musical Common Practice. Bach was SO into the whole baroque thing (ugh baroque) that he put a lot of the standards that lame style of symphonic music purported into his works. Bach was technically proficient and a brilliant composer, but he put together a pieces that stuck to incredibly rigid practices and rules. So many people wanted to follow in his practices that Common Practice became the norm.

Essentially, this was how music was supposed to be written, and if you broke these rules you were a lesser composer who didn't grasp the finer art like others did.

That's just wrong. Incorrect. The entire point of music is self-expression and conveying emotions through what cannot be done through music alone. To regiment that, to tell someone that their work is fundamentally wrong because they didn't follow these practices, not only stifles the creativity of humanity; it's an honest-to-god crime against art. Baroque music and Bach can die in a fire. I'm so glad the tonal system was abolished.

When I had to take music theory during my first 2 years of college, it was really hard for me to wrap my brain around the concept that some of the music we could write was considered wrong. We would have these tests where we would be given a starting note and an ending note, and had to essentially write a 4-part harmony passage connecting the two according to the conventions of common practice. If you broke one of the rules, had a note go too high or jump around too much or whatever, you were docked.

That's not how you're supposed to teach music. That stuff comes from the heart.

It's because of all that, that I despise Bach.

...aaaaaaanyway

If you want my opinion on a decent classical composer, it's really, really hard to beat Gustav Holst. He's famous for his Planets suite (notably Mars, Bringer of War, my personal favorite), written between 1914 and 1916. I think that suite is one of the finest compilations of grand musical compositions. Playing Mars in the school orchestra is one of the high points of my musical career; it's just so intense and fun to play! I still get chills thinking about it.

You can also never go wrong with Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Marche Slave, The Queen of Spades), Dmitri Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Hamlet), Richard Strauss (Salome, Elektra), Erik Satie (Gymnopedies), Edvard Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite, including In the Hall of the Mountain King), Richard Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries), Johann Pachelbel (Canon in D Major), Johann Strauss II (Blue Danube), Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville), or Claude Debussy (Clair de Lune).

Holst, however, probably isn't a good fit for a laid-back gala. You could use Jupiter for a killer masquerade dance, but it's in a weird meter and hard to step to.

I REALLY didn't mean to go off the rails there, haha. I was like "eh I'll list like 5 composers I like" and then an hour later I had that behemoth of a list.

But yeah... don't play Bach and fully anticipate me to expect the entirety of the Oblivion Quest "Whodunit" to happen, and I'll go.

[Cassandra]

Claude Debussy (Clair de Lune)

This one is my very favourite.

[Unionhack]

Clair de Lune is so pretty. Lots of people use it to warm up for ballet.

If you love that one, you should check out the entirety of the work it belongs to; Suite bergamasque, of which Clair De Lune is only act 3. They also have Prelude, Menuet, and Passepied.

______

HEY REMEMBER HOW I SAID I WOULD DROP A METRIC #@&$-TON OF JAMS ON YOU GUYS IN GD A MONTH OR SO AGO

WELL NOW THAT I'M DONE BEING PATHETIC AND SAD ALL THE TIME I DECIDED TO DO THAT SO HERE HAVE A LINK

Also, have a clickable URL to the actual topic.

[MARS]

Chiming in to say that Felix Mendelsohn Bartholdy is my fav classical composer, along with his sister.

[Unionhack]

Ooooh, Mendelssohn! I love Midsummer Night's Dream.

[Aarah]

Indeed, the Arts are best free and expressive, and not stunted by rules.

I thank you for the recommendations.

I like Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy by Tchaikovsky played on the glass harp, for during dinner.

Pachelbel's Canon in D Major is perfect for the dancing portion of the evening.

Orff's O Fortuna is for the more...dramatic portion of the evening.

And Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the end of the night.

With no Bach (there must be harpsichord music though, this is essential) and with an anticipation that you will expect some kind game quest to occur, of which I have no idea why it is relevant to my evening, I will add you to the list.

[BetaB17]

Pumpkins are good anytime I say. It's not like we're setting up Christmas decorations. But maple leaves? And the name? I've been waiting for November to come and rear it's lil head first..

[Aarah]

Why November?

[VirtualWeasel]

Claude Debussy (Clair de Lune)

This one is my very favourite.

Never finish on Debussy. Always finish on the Bach.

***C U L T U R E D***

[Aarah]

I really want to waffle on, but there is no "The Waffle on about Crap Thread."
Oh well, this small amount in here has helped a bit.

[Cassandra]

Why can't you waffle here?

What is waffling, anyway?

[BetaB17]

I really wanted to make a "Things that I do that make no god damn sense!" thread, but for obvious reasons, I chose against it

Also waffles are the true mvp of the breakfast world, just thought I should add that truth

[The SheoDovah]

Why do I get the feeling that I would be the VIP of that thread? It's not my darn fault that I'm a limited edition and that the world refuses to match my logic. Stupid world! In fact, I'll build my own world. A bigger, better, more friendly world! Ruled by fear of combustible lemons! What? Better then nukes. At least your corpses would be lemon fresh. Granted, burnt lemon fresh but still lemon fresh.


Regarding classical music, I am partial to it. Beethoven, Andrew Rieu, basically whatever CD i play at the bookshop when i do my voluntary shift. I am a cultured man, unlike the peasents. *Scoffs* Ha. Haha. Royston, fetch me my pointing stick!

............

Right, i'm a poor man. No handservant for Dovah. *plays world smallest volin*

[Unionhack]

Also totally of note is Jacob Gade. He wrote one of my favorite pieces, Tango Jalousie, in 1925. It's so intense and passionate to begin, and then nice and soft as it resolves to the latter half.

I could throw classical recommendations to you guys all day. You just really need to sit down one day and experience the entire Planets Suite in one sitting, it's really something else.

[The SheoDovah]

I kinda prefer the big classical music. The ones that kinda are overused for epic moments or holy [&@%!] moments etc.. Such as O fortuna. Though, I do love William's Tell overture. The lone ranger version of it is quite surperb. Adigo for Strings is often used for sad moments or dramatic sad ones. E.g. Spilling a cuppa would be something i would use the song for as a dramatic sad moment.

Classical tends to get overlooked by a lot of folks but it is very varied. From relaxing to perfect score of certain scenes. Andrew Rieu, i think, tends to do the proms at BBC and he recently or may be another composer that did it, the iconic film ones.

Games need to use classical music more.

#MakegamesClassical

[Unionhack]

Fun fact about the Planets suite by Holst, George Lucas had originally wanted to use the suite as the soundtrack for the original Star Wars movie; Mars was supposed to be the original theme for Vader and the Empire in general.

Because the works hadn't yet entered public domain at the time (the copyright laws mandating its passage into public domain were passed in 1977, the very same year Star Wars was released), he couldn't, so he instead hired out up-and-coming composer John Williams and basically told him "Hey, you know Planets by Holst? Yeah, make it as close to that as you can."

And that's how we have the Star Wars soundtrack!

[Aarah]

^Hey, those are some interesting facts right there!

I'm glad that Holst's music wasn't in the public domain, as we would have missed out on Williams' work.
Plus, he may not have gone on to produce so many more wonderful pieces for so many other films.

[Wolfborn]

You can also never go wrong with Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Marche Slave, The Queen of Spades), Dmitri Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Hamlet), Richard Strauss (Salome, Elektra), Erik Satie (Gymnopedies), Edvard Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite, including In the Hall of the Mountain King), Richard Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries), Johann Pachelbel (Canon in D Major), Johann Strauss II (Blue Danube), Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville), or Claude Debussy (Clair de Lune).

I'm familiar with about half of these, and yes, I do enjoy them a lot. I might have to give a listen to some of the ones on this list that I haven't heard before. I also remember listening to (at least some of) Holst's Planets when I were but a wee little lad in grade school; I haven't listened to them since but I do remember what I heard was very interesting.

Another of my particular favourite pieces of classical music is Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From the New World" (aka "The New World Symphony").

[Aarah]

Halloween Coins are a go!

@Union
You want to keep your purple winner cotm coins, or would you like Halloween coins?

Also I made some new titles for the mods to make them more personalised.

[The SheoDovah]

*Stashes away the precious dragon coins* These are... wait, i did the gollum jokes a while back. Darn you, past Sheodovah! You foiled my joke schedule! *shakes fist*

Guess I have the pumpkins or whatever it is ye have for us peasents, countess. Also, that game of Numberwang, still need me for the Countess Von Aarah presents: That's Bloody Numberwang? I have all the numbers. This is Numberwang.

[Aarah]

There will be no Numberwang at my banquet! It is a classy affair!

I've only got three confirmed guests thus far. Are you attending?

Do you want the pumpkin coins? The Grand Masters with special coins get left as they are, because they have to each be changed individually (like the mods do) and also I don't know who all the GMs are, but if you agree to come to the banquet, then I will change em' for you. (this is not blackmail, btw. honest.)