Does anyone else on MA like this kind of music?
I am very much into all of it - particularly Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, and also Bruckner, Mahler and Wagner. And, although his music is more modern than Romantic, I also love Shostakovich, and I do consider his 5th Symphony to be one of the greatest symphonies ever written. Such emotional power.
Interestingly, I often find myself preferring this kind of music over the earlier stuff from the main classical period - I.E. Mozart and Beethoven, although don't get me wrong, I'm a classical music fan and I love their music too, but in a different way.
I find the orchestral textures, lush and expressive emotive melodies, and overlapping of instruments, among other things, to be things which really draw me to Romantic music. Which is why I often prefer Romantic Symphonies to Classical Symphonies - they're less predictable, for one, more interesting melodically, and also, when I listen to them they frequently remind me of film music, which I am certain they heavily inspired. Just take Gustav Holst and his "The Planets", for example - a clear influence on generations of film composers. (yes, 'The Planets' is an orchestral suite, not a symphony per se, but the overall style is the main point - this isn't only about symphonies)
And, going on from this, while I don't usually place too much stock in what people on YouTube generally say, some users commented on a video for Rachmaninoff's 1st Symphony that they could hear the scores for Avatar, Troy, and Pirates of the Caribbean in that one piece of music - just the first movement, no less. Having listened to it myself, I don't specifically think of those films in particular, but it's obvious that his music in general as well as that one symphony, much like a great deal of pieces from the Romantic period, was hugely influential on film music...epic, sweeping, operatic, brooding...whatever have you.
I don't want this thread to become a list, so please, when you're posting about your favourite composers who play this musical style (I'm open to extending it all the way into the 20th century as well, since many composers from that time also wrote emotive and epic melodic music in addition to weird atonal music), do give reasons for why you like A, B, or C, and expand upon them.
Don't think there's been a thread specifically dealing with this stuff before (as in, music from this era and onwards rather than all classical music), so here's hoping it proves interesting! (It's especially telling that, IMO, a lot of this music also had a huge influence on a great deal of heavy metal.)
|