bigmoog wrote:just had a look at my classical music collection...
one particular gem, is a mono recording I own of the great albert schweitzer playing Bach's toccata and fugue in d minor...absolutely stunning
there's plenty on you tube
I have that one on CD myself - but BM does perhaps own the vinyl
well the one Im taking about is Vinyl (phillips-'classical favourites' series, mono circa mid 60's)...'Toccatas, Fugues, Preludes-Albert Schweitzer'
I also have various interpretations of This Bach organ piece.....Leopold Stokowski..etc..on vinyl....emi, decca etc........but Schweitzer is the most sympathetic imho.........
For me Bach compares to looking at beautiful fractal patterns. There's not much emotion in this, but it is worthwhile nevertheless... Works good for getting a clear mind again after feeling muddled and down. It's the musical version of having a tidy desk. Steve Reich's music takes me to the same space.
Listening to TD to me is about experiencing atmospherics. No way any Bach composition could create the Rubycon world for example. Even if Bach had had the instruments, he wouldn't have been able to create something similar because of his completely different mindset about music. His musical imagination was just different.
Michael66 wrote:For me Bach compares to looking at beautiful fractal patterns. There's not much emotion in this, but it is worthwhile nevertheless... Works good for getting a clear mind again after feeling muddled and down. It's the musical version of having a tidy desk. Steve Reich's music takes me to the same space.
Listening to TD to me is about experiencing atmospherics. No way any Bach composition could create the Rubycon world for example. Even if Bach had had the instruments, he wouldn't have been able to create something similar because of his completely different mindset about music. His musical imagination was just different.
What an excellent post Michael! It's a great description that works perfectly for me.
I do think Bach is a genius and love his music. The attraction for me is that he sets strict rules and then works out how to work within them and occasionally bend them.
The closest TD got to that were in their early sequencing days, but that was only one element of their music.
Michael66 wrote:Logos for me is also a bit Bach-like in its sequences, but Part I is where they also got err... "close" to a certain Steve Reich composition.
Michael66 wrote:Logos for me is also a bit Bach-like in its sequences, but Part I is where they also got err... "close" to a certain Steve Reich composition.
Music for 18 Musicians
Has TD ever commented on this? Or Mr. Reich?
Steve has...but I'm not going to repeat his comments here
71 dB wrote:The works of J. S. Bach alone are greater than Edgar Froese's achievements.
I totally disagree. I'm not moved by Bach-music.
Most of people on this planet aren't. You simply haven't learned to apprecite it. J. S. Bach was one of the greatest geniuses in music history who's music is among the most sophisticated ever, the culmination of baroque music.
You can't present a subjective judgement of quality, no matter how many likes it, as a fact - or that I am incomplete person, because I don't get the Bach concept.
I don't like (most) classical music for a number of reasons, and I don't intend to force myself to like it.
jacob wrote:You can't present a subjective judgement of quality, no matter how many likes it, as a fact - or that I am incomplete person, because I don't get the Bach concept.
I don't like (most) classical music for a number of reasons, and I don't intend to force myself to like it.
The music of J. S. Bach (1685-1750) has been tested by time and it is considered universally brilliant. So, my subjective opinion means nothing.
You are a complete person, even if you didn't like any music. Nobody gets all concepts in the world.
All I am saying is that if someone has curiosity, money and time, classical music is an endless sourse of breathtaking treasures. I was 27 years old when I realised this. I was 36 when I discovered Tangerine Dream. It takes time!
24db wrote:I don't like Bach, it might be fantastically composed but it moves me about as much as euro-vision finallists
but it has been tested by time and it is considered universally brilliant.
Couldn't care less....music is about 'you', not faceless panels, history, or people telling you you should like it. All IMHO
btw I'm not saying Bach is rubbish, I'm just saying 'I' don't like 99% of his stuff, I should add that I don't like Mozart either
I agree with what you say.
All our ears might look the same but they certainly don`t like to listen to the same music. wouldn`t the world be boring if we all liked what we were told to like because someone is fantastic. I can appriciate when someone is a musical genius or is a fantastic writer or even a great cook but it doesnt mean I have to like whatever they are doing.
It's wrong to tell others what they should and shouldn't like, but just like most great works of art or literature, most music works at several levels: the basic aesthetic level (which Andy mentions above) is you either like it or you don't.
However, in the same way that the book 'Animal Farm' can be read as a story about a bunch of farmyard animals, or an incisive critique of communism or 'Alice in Wonderland' can be a childish fantasy or a witty commentary on the trials and tribulations of growing into adulthood, Bach's music reflects magnificently on what was going on in the world at that time. He used new technology (the harpsichord or the latest church organs for example) and was a pioneer in composing for those instruments. The language and proportioning systems he used are reflected in the Art and Architecture of the time too (look at the ornamentation of Baroque churches in Bavaria for example).
I find the comparison with TD fascinating in this regard. The self imposed limitations of Bach's vocabulary are echoed by the technological limitations of the early synths and sequencers IMHO. The results may not have been intentionally similar to Bach, but they are similar to my ears nonetheless, (and Edgar and Johannes have referred to Bach on numerous occasions as someone they admire).
So: No one is right or wrong for understanding some of the academic background of some music, but I for one gain a lot of pleasure in delving a little deeper now and again and trying to understand more of the back ground.