Listening Lists:


The following listening list has been compiled by my former music history professor, composer, and friend, Andrew Rudin. He kindly included youtube performances of his listening suggestions, and some notes. If you do not see a composer listed at the beginning of the selection, it will still be the previous composer's work (except in the case of the ancient music, where the actual composer is unknown). (Please forgive the underlining, which I tried to edit out, but could not)


AN HISTORICAL LISTENING LIST


ANCIENT GREECE

Hymn to Apollo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bydqNRYgbuc&t=128s

NOTE: Very few examples survive of the music of Classical Greece, and while the fragments we do have make the words very clear, how to interpret their musical notation remains problematic and largely conjecture. This realization is such a conjecture. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ THE MEDIEVAL AGE

Gregorian Chant: Dies Irae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsn9LWh230k

NOTE:The first 8 notes, which recur several times during the course of this piece, became the universal symbol in music of Death, and are quoted in works by Berlioz, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Mahler and many others.


Gregorian Chant: Victimae Paschali Laudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ8zVV9G310


Perotin: Viderunt Omnes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdhKvj7BLXI


Machaut: Notre Dame Mass: Kyrie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GgkAM8crbU ______________________________________________________________________________

THE RENAISSANCE

Tallis: Spem in Alium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmH1nZSGIyY

NOTE: This motet is one of the most elaborate of its time, written in 40 parts: Eight 5-voice choirs.


Monteverdi: Tocatta (Overture) to. Orfeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjpFi9bn1do


Scene from Orfeo “Tu se morta”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Wo-3DtI34

NOTE: Orfeo is the first of Monteverdi’s. operas, which he called “Drama per Musica”: Drama through music. At its first performance, it is reported that strong men wept. It is also notable for being the first work in which the composer specified the exact instrumentation for each episode. In this scene, a messenger brings the tragic news that Orfeo’s bride, Eurydice, has been killed by a poisonous snake. Orfeo vows to journey to the underworld and try, through the persuasiveness of his singing, to win her back.


Madrigal: Zefiro Torna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq49rymjvNg


Sancta Maria (from the Vespers of 1610

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6JM7oLRJE THE BAROQUE ERA


Handel: Zadok the Priest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gyXNuLQ8Y

NOTE: Though Handel was German, he lived most of his life in England. This Anthem became the traditional coronation anthem for the crowning of England’s monarch.


Bach: Cum Sancto Spirito (from Mass in B Minor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VisIHV57b40


Cantata no . 78, Jesu Der Du Miene Seele

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2li6c3D01g


Prelude & Fugue No 1 in C major (The Well-Tempered Clavier)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLSz55UXOLU


Concerto for 2 violins, final movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkciz_yYYI&t=12s ______________________________________________________________________________

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

Haydn: Symphony no. 104, first movement [NOTE: Yes, he did write more than one hundred symphonies.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VyRTZItqYk


String Quartet no. “The Joke”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZo9FoajL4A

NOTE: Haydn is said to have been the “Father of the Symphony”, and of the string quartet, of which he wrote 68. The “joke” in this particular piece comes at the end, when Haydn tries to fool the audience as to when it is actually over.


Mozart: Scene from the film “Amadeus”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ciFTP_KRy4


Overture to The Marriage of Figaro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp6UAGN_Ir4


Concerto No. 23 for Piano in A major, third movement

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

NOTE: Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos, mostly for himself to play when he was on tour.


The Magic Flute [start at 8:14 & continue to 22:00 or 32:00 for complete scene]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ciFTP_KRy4

NOTE: Mozart wrote this for the entertainment of the general public, not for the court theatre. It is one of the first such works written in German (though sung here in Swedish), and in the form of a.”Singspiel”, which has spoken dialogue between the numbers, much like our musical comedies. There are no subtitles, but I think you’ll totally get what’s happening even without them.


THE ROMANTIC ERA

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 “Waldstein”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NiaXfv2yGs


Symphony No . 5, movements 4 & 5 (Scherzo & Finale)

[start at 19:31- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHOYvIhLxo

NOTE: The Scherzo, instead of ending, goes instead into a wonderfully mysterious transition passage, which crescendos into the triumphant Finale, and the entrance of trombones, for the first time ever in a symphony. Beethoven wrote only 9 symphonies and few composers after him have dared to go beyond that number.


Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (final movement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j-qf5790T8


String Quartet Op. 59. No. 3, final movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6j3lmyNjNU

NOTE: Beethoven wrote 16 String Quartets and the final 5 are considered to contain his most profound thoughts. .


Schubert: impromptu op. 90 no. 3

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

NOTE: Schubert was most famous for his many songs for voice and piano, but he brings that same sense of singing even to his writing for piano.


Berlioz: Romeo & Juliet, Ballroom Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx26KXmagp4


Bizet: Carmen (final scene)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puQ85aLEc5w&list=RDpuQ85aLEc5w&start_radio=1&t=34

NOTE: realistic depiction of sex and violence did not begin in the late 20th century, as this famous work demonstrates.


Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor (3rd movement)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idJHl9rB7Cc


Wagner: Das Rhinegold, Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rzjp6sBr


Siegfried’s Funeral March

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkOiKy6sXfM


Mahler: Symphony No. 10 Finale (begin at 54: 30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMN_DWY9RX8&t=1615s


THE IMPRESSIONISTS

Ravel: Tzigane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dn3_ReGPyM


Daybreak. (from Daphnis et Chloe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0boaBa6QM


Debussy: Afternoon of a Faun

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


Footsteps in the snow (Piano prelude)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKfuanIfdU ______________________________________________________________________________

THE 20TH CENTURY

Ives: The Unanswered Question

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBiL0VEttZw

An explanation by Leonard Bernstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pNHpoXg2VY


Copland: Appalachian Spring

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


Stravinsky: A Soldier’s Tale, Royal March

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SO7TjTYwU0


Prokofiev: Cadenza from Piano Concerto No. 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn1rNaQ2YYk


Varese: Ionisation

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


Bartok: String Quartet No. 4, movt. 4 (Scherzo pizzicato)

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz6A1Ni0ESM


Schonberg: Pierrot Lunaire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ala_vGjv-YI


Walton: Façade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlLHC7mtgLI

NOTE: Rap, Hip-Hop, and such are not really all that new an idea.


Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations on a Theme by Henry Purcell)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbvhU22uAM


INTO THE FUTURE

Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVrwm67LIas


Kamala Sankaram: Ololyga (the composer is performing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58CjQo6Sgk


Rudin: Il Giuoco (The Game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ6sg3sj3Ng&t=143s


Rudin: A Birthday Bagatelle

https://www.reverbnation.com/andrewrudin/song/12864956-a-birthday-bagatelle

NOTE: The familiar tune is played 5 times: first, heard backwards (retrograde); second, heard upside down (or inverted); third, heard as usual, but each phrase answered by its inversion; then fourth, regular version combined with backwards version; and finally heard in a pointillisitic version with the notes scattered in different octaves.


And here is my original listening list for a few more goodies!!


Mrs. Everill's Listening List


Baroque Era (1600-1750)


Bach – Brandenburg Concerto #3

Bach - Solo Cello Suite #1 in G

Vivaldi - Four Seasons - Spring

Handel - Messiah - Any three movements - list:


Classical Era (1730-1820)


Mozart – Symphonies No. 40 

Beethoven - Sonata #3 for Cello and Piano

Beethoven – Symphony Nos. 5 

Any Beethoven Opus 18 String Quartet


Romantic (1820-1900)

Dvorak Cello Concerto

Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 “Italian” (Buy CD or DRM free MP3 or Berliner Philharmoniker & Herbert von Karajan - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3, "Scottish" & No. 4, "Italian")

Schubert Unfinished Symphony

Schumann Symphony #4

Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet

Brahms – Symphony No. 4 

Dvorak – Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” 

Liszt - Les Preludes

Debussy - La Mer

Debussy - Cello Sonata

Ravel - String Quartet

Mussorsky - Pictures At an Exhibition

Mahler - Symphony #1 First Movement


Modern


Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphoses

Shostakovitch - String Quartet #1 - one movement of your choice

Stravinsky - Firebird OR Rite of Spring

Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet

Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

Varese - Ionisation





The Delaware Symphony Orchestra (Mrs. Everill's orchestra :) ) was  nominated for a Latin Grammy for the recording with the LA Guitar Quartet we did in spring of '09 -


DSO  released its latest recording on Naxos (2018): https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573603


Some reviews of Cheryl Everill and Kathleen Hastings for their Brahms Double Concerto performance with the Newark Symphony Orchestra:



from the newarkpostonline.com


"Soloists Kathleen Hastings, violin and Cheryl Everill, cello, must have rehearsed a lot to play so perfectly together in some of the many passages where they had to play the same fast patterns of runs and arpeggios. They also ended the first movement’s furious finale on a dime. ...... The third movement was my favorite, with the cello’s brilliant attack on the motive which it then passed to the orchestra."


and from deartsinfo.blogspot.com


"Kathleen Hastings, violin and Cheryl Everill, cello were soloists in the Double Concerto for violin and cello by Johannes Brahms. Their smooth ensemble and the chiaroscuro contrast between soloists and orchestra was a pleasure to hear."