FREE/BARGAIN — Media Deals (non-eBook/non-audiobook)

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Manabi

This is the first month I had trouble choosing. I'm curious about Fry's Santa Claus Symphony, but ultimately went with the Tchaikovsky. Dual piano arrangements of those pieces is pretty neat.

I've eliminated Fry. I'm leaning toward Tchaikovsky, but am still considering Handel.

There are no wrong choices--except to make no choice.

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I've eliminated Fry. I'm leaning toward Tchaikovsky, but am still considering Handel.

There are no wrong choices--except to make no choice.

You did see that the Handel edition was "Highlights," right? Isn't that like the musical equivalent of an "Abridged" version? I thought you liked abridgements as much as Dracula likes extra garlic on his fries.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

You did see that the Handel edition was "Highlights," right? Isn't that like the musical equivalent of an "Abridged" version? I thought you liked abridgements as much as Dracula likes extra garlic on his fries.

Well, I don't remember saying that, and I sure don't believe it, as far as books/audiobooks are concerned, at least. Sometimes books/audiobooks are just too long for me, given my level of interest in the subjects.

Highlights of musicians? You know, I never had given it much thought until this Handel album was offered. If they are giving the truly best--the highlights--then I don't mind that, either. But, if it's a composer or composition that I really love, I want an album with all of the music included.

BTW--I listened to the Handel album using my free Spotify account. Some pieces I liked, some I didn't. The ones that I didn't like were what I guess you'd call opera--men and women singing. The nod went to Tchaikovsky on this particular giveaway.

I think that I'll end up buying Handel by the piece.

And your decision?

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I've eliminated Fry. I'm leaning toward Tchaikovsky, but am still considering Handel.

There are no wrong choices--except to make no choice.

I found a version of Fry's symphony on Youtube later on (not the Naxos release, but another orchestra). I didn't like it much, so I think I made the right choice.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Manabi

I found a version of Fry's symphony on Youtube later on (not the Naxos release, but another orchestra). I didn't like it much, so I think I made the right choice.

I didn't even recognize Fry's name, but assumed that he was an American composer, because of the album being one in Naxos' "American Classics" series.

I'm trying to think of a popular American classical composer, and I'm drawing a blank! Of course, Europe and Russia had many, many years to produce great composers, while the U.S. is comparatively a very young country.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I didn't even recognize Fry's name, but assumed that he was an American composer, because of the album being one in Naxos' "American Classics" series.

I'm trying to think of a popular American classical composer, and I'm drawing a blank! Of course, Europe and Russia had many, many years to produce great composers, while the U.S. is comparatively a very young country.

Aaron Copland is who I thought of. I discovered that Wikipedia has a list of American classical composers. I find it interesting that Pachelbel's son moved to the American colonies, so he's on the list. Not many of his works survived, apparently.

I think I had heard of Fry before, but was not familiar with his works.

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

And your decision?

I went with Handel.

[Red Falcon]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I didn't even recognize Fry's name, but assumed that he was an American composer, because of the album being one in Naxos' "American Classics" series.

I'm trying to think of a popular American classical composer, and I'm drawing a blank! Of course, Europe and Russia had many, many years to produce great composers, while the U.S. is comparatively a very young country.

George Gershwin
Charles Ives
Aaron Copland
Leonard Bernstein
John Adams
Philip Glass

These are the ones off the top of my head that I can think of. The first 4 are more in the Traditional Classical Music vein. The other two are of the Modern School that is trying to break down the traditional Classical Musical idiom and create something new. To my ears most Modern Classical Music sounds like chalk on a blackboard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono...ical_composers

http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/2...-Composers.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvScDWCA4GY

[Red Falcon]

I went with the Fry as I already own the Tchaikovsky one and a complete Handel's Messiah.

Somebody mentioned that the Handel album was only highlights. In a work like this that is nearly 3 hours long the excerpt albums usually give you the bits that truly stand out. That being said hearing the full work in all it's power and majesty done live in NYC a few years ago was one of the greatest experiences in my life. Hearing close to 2000 thousand other people trying to sing along with the choruses was mind blowing.

Most of the free pieces offered are movements from longer works. If you enjoyed the free piece I recommend you listen to the full work to get the full scope of what the composer was doing.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Aaron Copland is who I thought of. I discovered that Wikipedia has a list of American classical composers. I find it interesting that Pachelbel's son moved to the American colonies, so he's on the list. Not many of his works survived, apparently.

I think I had heard of Fry before, but was not familiar with his works.

Originally Posted by Red Falcon

George Gershwin
Charles Ives
Aaron Copland
Leonard Bernstein
John Adams
Philip Glass

These are the ones off the top of my head that I can think of. The first 4 are more in the Traditional Classical Music vein. The other two are of the Modern School that is trying to break down the traditional Classical Musical idiom and create something new. To my ears most Modern Classical Music sounds like chalk on a blackboard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono...ical_composers

http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/2...-Composers.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvScDWCA4GY

D'oh! I don't know why I didn't think of George Gershwin with his Porgy and Bess and all those works. And I actually read a book about him when I was a child! I think that he had a brother who was a composer, too, but not of the caliber, or at least popularity of his brother. I cannot even recall his name at the moment.

I don't know exactly what the demarcations are for "classical music," but if you throw in composers known for motion picture scores, the list becomes quite long. Rodgers and Hammerstein is the first one to come to mind. I think that some of the ones that you listed might be, too?

Hopefully, we will get offers of freebies from some good American composers before long. Wouldn't it would be great to get a whole album, like Naxos offers a couple of times a month!

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

D'oh! I don't know why I didn't think of George Gershwin with his Porgy and Bess and all those works. And I actually read a book about him when I was a child! I think that he had a brother who was a composer, too, but not of the caliber, or at least popularity of his brother. I cannot even recall his name at the moment.

I don't know exactly what the demarcations are for "classical music," but if you throw in composers known for motion picture scores, the list becomes quite long. Rodgers and Hammerstein is the first one to come to mind. I think that some of the ones that you listed might be, too?

Hopefully, we will get offers of freebies from some good American composers before long. Wouldn't it would be great to get a whole album, like Naxos offers a couple of times a month!

The biggest reason Gershwin isn't included in most compilations like this is that most (if not all, I'm not sure) of his work still has copyright protection. Also, over the years there has been debate whether Gershwin's music categorizes as Classical or Jazz. That seems to have died away and I suspect that by the time his music is in the public domain it will be remembered as classical, if for no other reason that most people think of classical music as "really old music."

[GtrsRGr8]

For those of you who were interested in the free Handel album, but decided to go with another one of Naxos' choices of free albums, I have run across Handel's Messiah album elsewhere for only $2.19.

This album is performed by the world-famous London Philharmonic Orchestra, and their choir. And, folks, this is no "highlights" album--there are 43 tracks on it!

One downside that I see from the Naxos offering, is that this album is formatted in MP3, whereas the Naxos album is in the flac format. But, I cannot distinguish the difference, personally, and doubt that I'll ever be able to.

I'm grabbing this album. I mentioned that I was considering the Naxos Handel album. But the one off-putting thing about it was the presence of so much opera (or opera-style) music (I like some of it, but most I don't) on the few number of tracks that the album has. With this album, there are so many tracks that even after I cull out the ones with singing that I don't like, I will still have a huge number of tracks to listen it--for pennies per track!

You can get it at Amazon.

I can't wait to listen to it!

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

The biggest reason Gershwin isn't included in most compilations like this is that most (if not all, I'm not sure) of his work still has copyright protection. Also, over the years there has been debate whether Gershwin's music categorizes as Classical or Jazz. That seems to have died away and I suspect that by the time his music is in the public domain it will be remembered as classical, if for no other reason that most people think of classical music as "really old music."

That's depressing. In a few years, people will be considering me a classic. ha

Thanks for the information. Of course, I should have thought about the copyright protection. However, I wouldn't have been sure about the years that he did his compositions; it seems like in was in the early 1900's--maybe the 10's, 20's, and early 30's. It's been a long time that I read, as a child, that book about him.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

The biggest reason Gershwin isn't included in most compilations like this is that most (if not all, I'm not sure) of his work still has copyright protection. Also, over the years there has been debate whether Gershwin's music categorizes as Classical or Jazz. That seems to have died away and I suspect that by the time his music is in the public domain it will be remembered as classical, if for no other reason that most people think of classical music as "really old music."

I'd put Gershwin in the Broadway/popular category--he and brother Ira gave us standards like "Embraceable You," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Fascinating Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "I Got Rhythm."

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I'd put Gershwin in the Broadway/popular category--he and brother Ira gave us standards like "Embraceable You," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Fascinating Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "I Got Rhythm."

You get my point, then. A lot of American composers of that time straddled the line, stylistically. No one questions whether Ravel or Stravinsky (contemporaries) are classical music. The Gershwins definitely had Jazz influences in their music ("I Got Rhythm" is a classic example) so some would argue whether their music should be considered Classical or Jazz. I think it is largely irrelevant now days. Most people would consider his orchestral arrangements as Classical. Shorter compositions might be termed Jazz or Popular.

Stage performance material sometimes gets its own classification or other times is lumped in with others. "Porgy & Bess" was a stage performance but is generally today classified as an English opera, which is a subset of classical. Ballets by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are similarly classical music. In contrast, we also have "Jazz Musicals" and "Rock Operas."

It probably goes without saying that this is a particularly favorite topic of mine, so I could go on for days. I'll stop blabbering on about it now before the All-Powerful Hand of the Moderator descends.