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Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 15 2009, 18:45 I would like to ask all of the classical music experts in here to help me identify a piece of music. It's from the short documentary at the end of the Best of Night of the Proms, Volume 2 (which features Mike playing TB). I'm not sure whether it's a classical music composition or something from a movie score, and I'm not even sure that it's one piece - there are a couple of sudden and complete changes of tempo and mood. I don't think it was composed especially for the short doc: it sounds too orchestrally complex to be an original composition written for the DVD. As the music was ripped directly from the DVD, I included everything that's in there. So the music stops at 2:38 (when you hear an except from the choir's rehearsals of "You're the Voice" and some orchestra players tuning up...), resumes at about 3:34 and goes on to the very end, where there's a 10-second comment from James Brown before going onstage at NotP in 2004. Please download the piece here and let me know what you think... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: June 15 2009, 19:56 Ugo, this is almost certainly early Wagner - the thundering orchestration reminds me of Tannhauser in places. (It isn't Tannhauser, and you can also rule out "The Flying Dutchman", "Parsifal", and The Ring Cycle, all of which I own.) Confusingly, after the first bit of music stops, around the talking section, there's a snatch from Dvorak's Cello Concerto. You could maybe ask Alan D - I seem to remember he's particularly fond of Wagner and may recognize this. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 16 2009, 07:56 Thanks very much for your answer, Daniel. Indeed I suspected that it may be one of the late Romantics such as Wagner or Rachmaninoff, but as I don't have anything by either of them it would've been obviously difficult for me to recognize a particular piece. I also said that it sounded like a film score because powerful orchestrations are so very common in today's Hollywood film scores... heck, even some bits of Music of the Spheres sound Wagnerian! I think that the excerpt from Dvorak is actually played by a cellist in the orchestra during the 'tuning up' bit - I don't think it's part of the main orchestral music. Should I send a PM to Alan about this? AFAIK he doesn't post here on this board very often. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: June 16 2009, 10:10 Quote (Ugo @ June 16 2009, 07:56) Should I send a PM to Alan about this? AFAIK he doesn't post here on this board very often. Ugo, I'm glad I helped, even if I don't have a definite answer for you. I forgot to say that you can rule out Tristan and Isolde,as well, which I also own. If it is Wagner, that leaves five. possibilities: 1) Die Feen, 2) Das Liebesverbot, 3) Rienzi, 4) Lohengrin, and 5) The Mastersingers. I suspect it's not Rienzi or Lohengrin; I know characteristic music from both of these, and as Wagner even in his early work was fairly repetitive with musical leitmotifs, I'd have expected to recognize snippets in the orchestral music you uploaded. Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, I'd plump for The Mastersingers, as it's the one popular Wagner opera I don't know or own. (One of these days I'll get it! As for Alan, why not send him a message? He may even rejoin the discussions. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 16 2009, 10:18 The Mastersingers would seem very appropriate as a choice, considering the context that I found the piece in: a documentary about a show which features very famous singers. However, I hope I may get to hear Alan's opinion - I've e-mailed him. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Gladstoner Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: May 2008 Posted: June 16 2009, 12:41 THANK YOU (for asking the question)! I've had this piece trapped in my head for the longest time with no way of finding out what it is. At least I now have a sample of it in an MP3 file to go with. I'd too suspected that it was by Wagner, or someone influenced by him. I don't think it is from the Wagner works mentioned above, since the theme is so different from any of them (at least to my ear). I once heard it on the classical music station long ago, so I doubt it's a movie theme. I remembered it being a rather lengthy piece (or perhaps I was impatient at the time). I also though I once heard bits of it used in a cartoon, but any Google searching came up with "What's Opera, Doc?" millions of times.   -------------- You don't find great music. It finds you. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 16 2009, 16:18 @ Gladstoner: thanks for your post. Listen carefully to the mp3 (which is the whole soundtrack of the short doc at the end of the NotP 2 DVD) and see if you come up with something... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: June 16 2009, 20:33 Quote (Gladstoner @ June 16 2009, 12:41) I'd too suspected that it was by Wagner, or someone influenced by him. I don't think it is from the Wagner works mentioned above, since the theme is so different from any of them (at least to my ear). Gladstoner, The Mastersingers has the reputation of being the one Wagner opera that non-Wagnerians can enjoy; so your perception of its being Wagnerian but "different" probably adds to the argument that it's The Mastersingers! Maybe I'll buy the opera in the near-term and will be able to give you a definite answer! Back to top

Gladstoner Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: May 2008 Posted: June 23 2009, 03:24 Ok, the piece is "Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZgte0ObLw -------------- You don't find great music. It finds you. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: June 23 2009, 07:55 Thanks very very much, Gladstoner. It is indeed. At first listening I thought it didn't sound like Liszt (because I normally associate him with his fantastically virtuosistic piano stuff), but then what do I know of Liszt? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: June 23 2009, 07:57 Liszt and Wagner were very close: both musically and personally (they were linked by marriage). So that explains the Wagnerian sound. Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: June 23 2009, 21:43 Nice to have you here gladstoner, love the mastersingers, wagner and listz, classical music i can enjoy! deb Back to top

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