Baggins vs. Bach
Comments: 24
How can it be that in any list of favourite classical music the top 20 results contain The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and no Bach?
Talk about interesting times….
•••
Posted to General Rants • 2004.04.13 (Tue) • 09:17
Comments
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.04.13, 10:17
huh?
12 Shore: The Lord of the Rings
13 Beethoven: Symphony No.9
14 Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme of Tallis
15 Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 (Organ)
16 Pachelbel: Canon in D
17 Barber: Adagio for strings
18 Ungar: The Ashokan Farewell
19 Sibelius: Finlandia
20 Holst: The Planets SuiteHow bizarre is that? Love both 17 and 18, but can’t figure out how they ended up neighbors on this list. 18 being of course the theme people remember from the Ken Burn’s Civil War series. I know it myself from years of contradancing. But still.
And who the heck is that number 8 Jenkins? OK, I’m probably a philastine.
Posted by Kristen 2004.04.13, 10:55
Hmmmm, I recognise a lot of music from listening to it but I don’t know the composers or titles. I can’t tell how many of these 20 I know without listening to them. Guess I know what today’s soundtrack will be, if I can find them all somewhere.
Posted by ACJ 2004.04.13, 12:01
This makes me sad. Very sad indeed. :(
Posted by Jeff 2004.04.13, 12:57
First of all, have you listened to the soundtracks from the films on their own? They really are remarkable works of music.
Secondly, it is a list of favorite classical music, not best classical music. I’d imagine that there are a lot of people, like me, who do not usually listen to much classical music, but have become enthralled with Shore’s score for the films. Thus that list should not be a guide of what the best music is. Rather, it should tell us what people are listening to now.
I will admit it is an interesting result, but it is not a complete surprise to me. It shouldn’t make anyone sad, either. The music is quite excellent on it’s own.
Instead of beating Shore up with elitism, people should be patting him on the back for brining classical music to many people who would not normally listen to it.
Posted by Jolyon 2004.04.13, 17:12
Re Lord of the Rings, Jeff’s comments that this was a collection of popular music are correct, though one would probably be compelled to say that Shore is to Music what Jack Vettriano[1] is to Fine Art.
However, I doubt very much that anybody has suddenly started listening to classical music as a result of the LOTR soundtrack.
Schubert? Not good value for money - didn’t finish things. Bach? Er, a bit too difficult. Haydn? Like Mozart only not so good.
A little surprising not to have Tchaikovsky in a list of this sort, though.
[1] BTW, did anyone see the recent South Bank Show (UK telly) about Vettriano, the Most Popular Artist in the UK Ever, apparently? He was rather an engaging fellow who seemed, at one or two points, to be on the very edge of saying that his work was cr*p. That would, of course, have dented his enormous sales, so as a canny Scot from a poor background he was not about to blurt it out. But you were not left in that much doubt.
Posted by jh 2004.04.13, 22:21
OK, that’s a good point about it being a list of favourites and not “best” but even so, I would have thought maybe the aria from The Goldberg Variations or Prelude No. 1 in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier would have made it into at least the top 20.
I’m sorry if I came across as elitist (although I am a bit —- though quite without reason let me be the first to say). I listen to my share of film music (Carter Burwell is a favourite). I haven’t listened to Shore’s LoTR but he’s done some excellent work, so I certainly don’t have anything against him.
I guess I felt a bit sad for my beloved Bach because he’s really all I listen to these days (although I’m starting to get out a bit more ;-).
Anyway, to be honest I’ve heard less than half the pieces in that top 20 list —- so who’s the philistine here?
Posted by Noah 2004.04.13, 23:55
Just more proof that movie scores are the pop tunes of the classical world! Hey, this was a poll of FM radio listeners, right?
Posted by Jeff 2004.04.14, 00:42
Your marginal elitism can be forgiven. I too can be like that in other areas. I am not an avid listener of classical music, thus I can’t really judge Shore compared to others. I am also quite a big Tolkien fan and thus I’m probably greatly biased in this issue.
Anyway, I encourage you to listen to the three LoTR soundtracks. They are indeed quite excellent, in my opinion
Maybe I should search out some of the other music on this list. I might like it.
Posted by Naomi 2004.04.14, 00:56
I am a classical music lover/elitist and I am thrilled that Bach is not on there. I cannot stand his music. I am disappointed to find Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 on there, but Rachmaninov being number 1, rather than Mozart, makes up for it, I guess.
Posted by Curmudgeon 2004.04.14, 02:56
16 Pachabel Canon?!?!?!? 17 Barber Adagio !!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!???????choke gag spit “…thrilled that Bach is not on there. I cannot stand his music.”
People are idiots, I truly love them all.
(Seriously, music appreciation is so completely subjective and ever-changing. Most of these works I enjoyed at one time but have heard them played/used TO DEATH! What are you gonna’ do? Live and let live, it’s just a list.)
Posted by kev 2004.04.14, 02:58
not to be a pain, but isn’t bach considered baroque and not classical? an emphasis on technicalaties vs flowing emotion?
Posted by Mr. X 2004.04.14, 03:35
And people think Kenny G. is Jazz and don’t know who Sonny Rollins is.
Ho well…
Posted by Ben 2004.04.14, 07:24
Most of what appears on that list is not surprising at all. Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Pachabell, Sibelius, Holst, Barber all are well known favorites in the “classical” music genre. The Saint-Saens piece is a fairly well known piece, but I’m surprised it would end up on a top 20 favorites list, especially considering other overplayed pieces like the Nutcracker, the 4 seasons, the clair de lune, etc.
I agree with Jeremy in terms of suprise of Bach’s abscence. Air on the G string, Jesu Meine Freude, toccata and fugue in D minor are surely well known, but I suppose they must not be at the top of some people’s list at the moment.
I do have to add , though, that anyone who listens to this type of music much at all knows the sheer volume of music written in the last several hundred years. And to create a top 20 list of composers/pieces would be different on every group you asked.
I think it would be interesting to see a list a favorite “classical” artists along with the composers list.
Posted by Curmudgeon 2004.04.14, 07:27
Kev- On the contrary, Grout’s “A History of Western Music” 3rd Edition has this to say…”One trait common to all Baroque composers was the effort they made to express, or rather represent, a wide range of ideas and feelings with the utmost vividness and vehemence by means of music” (pg.298).
“Baroque” is a subset of “Classical”, just as most of the composers in the list would be classified as the subset “Romantic”. Cheers!
Posted by Stephen 2004.04.14, 10:41
I am surprised that so many people consider LotR and other soundtrack music to be “classical” when they are nowhere close. This annoys me. For example, people who say that Hans Zimmer makes “classical” music. That doesn’t make sense, does it? It’s like when people label trance music as “techno.” Yes, I like Bach, and yes, I like Howard Shore’s music, Hans Zimmer’s music and so forth. But bach is the only “classical” composer out of the three (even though he really is Baroque).
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.04.14, 13:36
Very interesting reading. I suppose that another thing to consider is what the list says about what that radio program is playing for its listeners. Maybe they throw in some “easy listening” stuff like Ashoken Farewell. Out of all of the list, that’s the only thing I really have a problem with. I can deal with considering soundtracks being a variety of symphonic music - variations, development etc. But a little fiddle piece from the Catskills? I think not.
Posted by jtt 2004.04.14, 13:46
I must say that i am not in the least surprised the list contained Shore’s LoTR—wether a best of or popular list.
People are fabulously short-sighted and when preparing a “best of” list for anything it becomes most clear. Next year LoTR will track down to the top 20, and the year after that probably lower. In subsequent years, if the music REALLY holds up, it will move back higher, eventually reaching equilibrium with the other music. Sure there will always be movement but within an understandable range.
This is so much the same as polling for “All-time best movie” or anything else. in mid-nineties this would have put Jurasic park in the top three—but check a list now. Or better yet, compare polls today with anything that CNN polled in the last year and give yourself a good laugh.
Posted by Naomi 2004.04.15, 01:22
“16 Pachabel Canon?!?!?!? 17 Barber Adagio !!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!???????choke gag spit “cthrilled that Bach is not on there. I cannot stand his music.”
People are idiots, I truly love them all.
(Seriously, music appreciation is so completely subjective and ever-changing. Most of these works I enjoyed at one time but have heard them played/used TO DEATH! What are you gonna’ do? Live and let live, it’s just a list.)”
I’ve played Bach pieces one too many times and am not a fan of Baroque in general. Too repetitive, especially for the violin. What really annoys me is how everyone always claims Bach as their favourite because he is the only composer that they know. I wish more people would explore other composers like Sarasate or Puccini.
I don’t think that list really represents classical “favourites.” I believe it just lists the songs that most people know or have “heard of.”
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.04.15, 03:29
Maybe a better measure would be “most requested” pieces? Nah, it’s all a horse race, just idle categorization of things we see around us.
Posted by bayibhyap 2004.04.25, 14:17
Did this list result from a survey? You know how surveys are - leave generous margins for tolerance! Lord of the Rings - popular, yes. But a classic? no, indeed. God forbid!
Posted by liz 2005.05.09, 21:02
hay any one here done tee music i am doing a talk on the style of mozarts operas and different characteristics of the classical period like art and gov’t any ideas?? I am one of the lucky ones… lol oh well back to the drawing bord.
Posted by liz 2005.05.09, 21:04
hay any one here done tee music i am doing a talk on the style of mozarts operas and different characteristics of the classical period like art and gov’t any ideas?? I am one of the lucky ones… lol oh well back to the drawing bord.
Posted by liz 2005.05.09, 21:11
we are playing lord of the rings in band… it is good… but not in the classical erra. i meen i dont think anyone could write something that was like a pease written in 1750… it all has to do with the style of the time. LOTR doesnt change key enoph to be classical. sorry that was my teacher talking i hate that
Posted by angela 2005.09.21, 10:36
The major difference between LOTR and any classical music for that matter, is that the soundtrack, and the movie - which was excellent by the way - was intended for the general public, and as we know, classical music was composed mainly for the nobility. To compare the validity of the two is like comparing apples and oranges. There are more important things in life to worry about.
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
