Pimp Me Old Tunes

I am not an ipod user so I don't know what's available on Itunes but try for 1) Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 2) Mendellsohn's violin concerto in E minor. As an in-between try jazz: Brubeck's album Take Five.

I haven't read the previous comment thread, so I'm not sure if these have already been suggested, but I'd point you to some of Bach's fugues. Good recordings are breathtakingly beautiful, and as a mathematician I find them fascinating intellectually.

I'd suggest you take a quick look at the Wikipedia article on fugues just to get a feel for the form:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue

And here's one recording of one of Bach's fugues that I found on iTunes after a few minutes of browsing:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=…

I generally prefer string recordings to organ ones, since it's much easier with strings to hear individual lines. But, if the sound isn't appealing, a quick search on iTunes will get you some organ versions.

I'm here first (maybe), so I'll risk the wrath of the true aficionados and throw out all the big-name cliche pieces:

I'd start with Beethoven's Ninth (the whole thing) if you haven't heard it. It's about an hour, but each movement is around 15-20 min.

Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin (which you've already heard a zillion times in United commercials)

Beethoven's seventh symphony, movement two. The rest isn't bad or anything, but the second movement is really, really good.

Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Rachamaninov

Piano Concerto #2 by Rachmaninov

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, movement one

Pictures at an Exhibition by Moussorgsky (orchestrated by Ravel)

Piano Concerto #1 by Tchiakovsky

Grieg, Piano Concerto in A Minor, op 16 (which I can't seem to find my recording of, but I think is the one I'm thinking of)

And what the hell, Holzt, The Planets

For some piano stuff,

Three sonatas by Beethoven: Pathetique, Appassionata and Moonlight (because the third movement is really cool).

Any collection of waltzes and nocturnes by Chopin

For a little bombast, you can try some Liszt. Hungarian Rhapsody #2 was a staple of many cartoons.

There are a zillion others really, but those are all good.

And Dvorak, symphony number 9 "From the New World"

(and now I've completely destroyed all classical music cred I never had anyways.)

I hadn't heard of the stuff recommended to you on your other blog and I consider myself a classical music lover.

I've decided that i-tunes isn't best place for classical music as it is really hard to find certain pieces on it. What's is mostly frustrating as they don't have a column for composer and artist counts as the soloist/orchestra not the composer.

I tried finding Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture but you have to buy a whole album and I don't know anything about the performers. If you do decide the get the whole thing, play it as loud as you would play Clash. Not quiet and soothing. 1812 is meant to have cannons firing and you are meant to jump out of your seat when you hear it!

You could try anything by Gershwin -yep he counts as classical in my eyes - "I've Got Rhythm" or "Rhapsody in Blue".

Also Eine Kliene Nachtmusic is available, but not immediately not if you search under Mozart!

Also I saw that there is stuff played by James Galway - he plays the flute - you could try "Mass in B minor" or "Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils" or "Peer Ghynt Suite"

Finally I would say get Beethoven's 9th symphony conducted by John Eliot Gardiner with the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique. Yeah, may be more opera voice and definitely a whole symphony and it is in German but nothing beats the impact of the last choral movement.

You could also get i-tunes classical 201 itunes essentials basic (I can't find their Classical 101). It has lots of classical pieces by different composers and that may help you decide yuck I don't like this or hmm, I could try listening to that again.

I don't know what kind of music you listen to now, but these are places to start. As I said under the Tchaikovsky, listen to them at the same volume as you would listen to rock. The dynamics are more dramatic than pop or rock - especially Beethoven - and can take some getting used to. The best way to listen to classical music though, other than in a concert, which has its own frustrations especially for someone not used to them, is loud on the stereo. And don't be afraid to dance and conduct to it either.

I second most of Aaron's suggestions, but if you're going to listen to any Chopin I've found his etudes to be pretty accessable (or at least "exciting" in the traditional sense). Get the Maurizio Pollini recordings. I find that it helps with the etudes to keep a physical piano in mind: by definition, an etude helps a pianist practice a certain skill, so I'd suggest that you think of them as each showcasing a particular acoustic/stylistic feature of the piano.

Best to do? Go to a live performance of an orchestra or chamber music group. Don't try to intellectualize, just let the sounds and sights into your viscera. There's a wonderful DVD by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony on putting together a performance of a Tchaikowsky symphony, and there's the release of Leonard Bernstein's young people's concerts. I loved them both (and I am a classical musician).

Also try Rachmaninoff's Prelude in c sharp minor:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=…

I'm going to follow Aaron's lead and toss out some "obvious" choices, because I think these pieces are "the usual intro to classical music" for good reason -- they're less demanding and more readily appreciated than the stuff of which asswipes like ACD approve. Plenty of time for Schoenberg once Chad is hooked, I say. So:

Dvorak, New World Symphony

Prokofiev, Symphony #1 (the "classical" symphony)

Grieg, Pier Gynt Suite (highlights rather than the whole thing)

Satie, Piano music (you want the recordings by Daniel Varsano and Philippe Entremont, Sony Essential Classics -- in the absence of other recommendations, avoid anything with the word "relaxing" in the title!)

JS Bach, Lute Suites

Orff, Carmina Burana (highlights, not the whole thing)

Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture

Shostakovich, music from The Gadfly

Stick to your guns! Download some Drive By Truckers.....

But I do like Aaron Copeland's work a bit.

One little piece that's available on iTunes. It's by a composer from Paraguay, written for classical guitar:

Barrios (composer) - La Catedral (it consists of three parts)

It occurs to me that Chad may well have heard a lot of the things suggested so far, and be "immune" to them. So here are some ideas that might be a bit further off the beaten track, in the hope of finding something that floats Chad's boat:

Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, Spiegel im Spiegel

Philip Glass: Dance VIII, Violin Concerto (Adele Anthony's recording is the best I know), Wichita Vortex Sutra, Glasspiece#2 ('Facades')

John Cage: In A Landscape, Suite for Toy Piano (you really want Stephen Drury performing these, but Margaret Leng Tan is also good)

I'd recommend Rite of Spring (Stavinsky)

Instead of recommending music, I'll recommend a book - Beethoven or Bust: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Listening to Great Music by David Hurwitz. Ignore the Amazon reviews - the editorial review misses the point of the book, and the 1-star reader review is an expression of personal dominion, which is fine as an opinion.

For an introduction to classical music, I'm inclined to skip the entire 18th and 19th centuries---go straight to the moderns. Look for something with rhythm, percussion, and dissonance.

Steve Reich, "New York Counterpoint", a mesmerizing effect from clarinets and tape loops. If you like that, get "Electric Counterpoint" for the same technique on electric guitar.

Igor Stravinsky. You've already heard "Rite of Spring" if you've seen "Fantasia"; try it again, or get the choral "Symphony of Psalms".

Maurice Ravel: if you let the "Bolero" draw you in with its long buildup, the key change at the end can practically knock you over. But listen to "Rhapsodie Espagnole" first; it's similarly cathartic but requires less patience.

I'll second any mention of Rhapsody in Blue. For more lovely, hummable blends of classical and popular music, try Percy Grainger's "Lincolnshire Posy", which brings real emotion into English folk songs, and anything by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine tango composer.

For something quieter, get Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir. Start with the 4th movement, "Sanctus", which can really grab you by the throat, then go back and listen to the whole thing.

As you work your way back from "dissonant/exciting" to "pretty/romantic", try Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" and the bittersweet "Knoxville Summer of 1915" for soprano and orchestra; Paul Hindemith's "Metamorphoses on a Theme of Carl Maria von Weber"; and Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra".

When you've gotten some mileage out of the 20th century, skip back to the 18th and earlier. Start with the "Fandango" for harpsichord by (or, more correctly, long attributed to) Antonio Soler; then get some other Soler, then some Domenico Scarlatti harpsichord sonatas. I'd do that before listening to too much Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.

It occurs to me that Chad may well have heard a lot of the things suggested so far, and be "immune" to them.

Yes. I'm not a total cretin-- I have heard the "1812 Overture" (it's the one with the cannons), and I can even recall a little of the tune. I am also aware of "Rhapsody in Blue" as the United commercial music, though I'll probably pick that up, because I'm sure tehre's more to it than that.

But slightly less obvious stuff would definitely be welcome. Also, again, shorter is better.

You can't go wrong with Copland's Appalachian Spring, or Rodeo, both of which you've heard way too often in commercials and incidental music. I'd also throw out Shostakovich's two Jazz Suites - if you only want a taste, the Waltz 2 of the Jazz Suite No. 2 is the one you'll most likely have heard elsewhere.

Those are both 20th century pieces and might me more to your likely. I'll also throw out Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, of which I'm currently trying to decide on a performance of, if anyone in the thread has a suggestion.

Fairly obvious choices, but short and among my favorites:

- Pachelbel Canon (Paillard Chamber Orchestra version, if possible)

- Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba"

Any Baroque and MOST Mozart, BUT NO OPERAS!!

I'm a big fan of the soundtrack to Fantasia. Disc 2 is better than disc 1 in my opinion, but I'm an uncultured heathen too, so don't take my word for it.

As an aside, I have no idea if it's available on ITMS.

I'm going to go against the trend here and recommend some more "modern" music that runs less of a risk of sounding cliched and is definitely not the kind of thing you hear on TV commercials. I don't think the performers matter that much for first time listeners -- most recordings that get on the market aren't bad enough to make a difference, but I'll include some of my favourite performances anyway.

Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra, 2nd and 4th movements (6 minutes and 4 minutes respectively). Reiner/Chicago Symphony and Boulez/Chicago Symphony are my preferred performances.

Schnittke, Concerto Grosso No. 2, 1st movement. 7 minutes. This is a set of twisted and sometimes noisy variations on "Silent Night".

Shostakovich, Violin Concerto No. 1, 2nd movement: Scherzo. 6 minutes. I'd recommend any of Oistrakh's recordings for this one.

Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5, 2nd movement. 5 minutes. Previn/Chicago Symphony or Previn/London Symphony

Leonard Bernstein, Serenade after Plato's Symposium, 5th movement: Socrates: Alcibiades. 10 minutes. This starts out slow but gets into a lively jazzy romp utterly suited to the Symposium's final drunken scene. Itzhak Perlman with the Boston Symphony does the "drunken violin" thing pretty well.

Steve Reich, New York Counterpoint for clarinet and tape. 11 minutes. Repetitive but strangely mesmerising.

For older and more "conventional" tunes, I'd recommend the following:

Richard Strauss, Don Juan. 16 minutes. Kempe/Staatskapelle Dresden

Dvorak, Cello Concerto, 1st movement. 15 minutes. Barnstorming romanticism of the best kind. Rostropovich is the best cellist for this.

Mendelssohn, String Octet, 4th movement. 6 minutes.

Mozart, Clarinet Concerto. All of the movements in this are irresistable.

I would also second all the Dvorak, Beethoven, Prokofiev symphonies mentioned by the others. The Prokofiev "classical" symphony in particular is very short -- none of the movements are more than 5 minutes long. And its humour is very accessible. Much as I love Beethoven's 9th, though, it is long, there's Opera Voice in the last movement, and most people who only listen to the choral part without understanding what went in the earlier movements tend to find it cliched. If you have to pick one movement from the 9th I'd suggest the second movement, which is also the shortest, and to some extent the least overwrought.

Oh, I see Ben M had recommended New York Counterpoint too. Glad that I'm not the only one who finds that piece strangely addictive...

John Adams, "Naive and Sentimental Music" is good. My favorite part of it is "Chain to the Rhythm", which is about ten minutes long. It has the advantage of not sounding like the soundtrack to either a commercial or a movie.

Steve Reich also tends to be good, so I'd agree with those suggestions above.

I am not normally a fan of classical music, so.

This is an interesting notion ... but I think it's ultimately futile.

To begin with - "classical music." Well, if we stay with what's usually called the "western classical tradition," then you're talking 800 years worth of stuff, and I'd guess it would take a few thousand CD's to hold it all without duplication.

If there's a definitive recording, specify it.

No such thing ... except in the opinion of the person recommending it.

...available on iTunes

... which of course eliminates 90%+ of both performances and repertoire.

The whole things strikes me as something like saying, "Look, I've never liked non-fiction; I only read novels. But I'll be sitting on a plane for a couple of hours tomorrow. Recommend some non-fiction that would change my mind. Oh, and here are the groundrules ...".

I wish you well ... I really do. I hope you find something that you like ...

1. Shostakovich 8th string quartett
2. Mozart divertimenti D-dur

The whole things strikes me as something like saying, "Look, I've never liked non-fiction; I only read novels. But I'll be sitting on a plane for a couple of hours tomorrow. Recommend some non-fiction that would change my mind. Oh, and here are the groundrules ...".

Oh, absolutely.
It's sort of fun, though. and I'll do my best to give whatever I end up picking a fair hearing.

Oh, one other thing -- I hope you plan to make this experiment iterative, because if you like *any* of the suggestions above, a second round of recommendations will be much more focused and likely to find more stuff you like.

You could try finding a classical* station and just having it on in the background until you hear something you like. I'd recommend BBC Radio 3 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/radio3) but I vaguely remember seeing something about copyright problems for webcast stuff outside the UK. I could be wrong, though. If you can, it's worth listening to the Proms, which are due to start in a few weeks and run to the middle of September; the range of music is pretty broad. Or listen to Late Junction (probably Late Afternoon Junction, given time differences), which plays a wide variety of musical styles, although it's aimed at a late night audience.

My own favourites are Bach (the pieces for solo violin, cello and piano), Monteverdi (try Selva Morale e Spirituale), Tallis (his motet Spem In Alium has forty vocal lines and is just stunning), Shostakovich (the string quartets), Bartok (ditto)...

Learning to like Classical music is like learning to like beer: you have to try the sweet popular stuff before you can try the complex stuff, I think. If you don't like it you aren't uncivilised or uncouth (drinking tea and playing cricket are the minimum criteria for civilisation and, er, couthfulness, obviously).

*"Western Classical Tradition" is better, as Scott Belyea wrote, but clumsier. Classical is the period when Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were active, roughly speaking.

As a follow-on to my earlier post, if I were to make a recommendation while recognizing the iTunes restriction, it would be "Go to iTunes, list all the classical items, and buy every 57th one until you run out of money."

That's a serious recommendation, by the way. I believe it would give you a broader overview than the recommendations of the (relatively small) number of people who posted here to mention specific pieces.

I find it a little strange that most of the recommendations so far were for "classical modern" pieces, which I find a lot harder to appreciate than music from the baroque and classical periods. I therefore would like to recommend:

Bach, Motets (especially "Jesu, meine Freude" and "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied")

Handel, German Arias (especially "Kuenft'ger Zeiten eitler Kummer", and very especially when sung by Arleen Auger) [I'd love to recommend lots and lots of Handel arias, but if you really can't stand opera, I'm not sure what of it you'd like]

Haydn, String quartet op. 76 no. 3 "Emperor"

Mozart, Requiem

Beethoven, Violin concerto

I'm not sure how your German and Latin are, but I'd think the music gets the point across even if you don't understand the words (although understanding them probably helps). Neither do I have any idea if these pieces are available via iTunes (insert appropriate expression of indignation about iTunes' barbarism here if they aren't).

I have to go sort of the other direction from most of you. I'm not sure that Stravinsky and Reich are the right things to recomend to a classical novice. I'm NOT a novice, and I'm not such a big fan of those... Basically, I disagree completely with Ben M.

I think that Rachmaninov's 2nd piano Concerto is a great piece as is Beethoven 9.

My addition is Bach Jesu Joy of Man's Desire, which I think is the loveliest melody in existance.

Also, Holtz The Planets, Mars and Jupiter. (Montreal Symphony recording, if possible)

I find it interesting that people consider Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" to be a classical piece. It really ought to be classified as a jazz piece, as at its debut performance all the parts had been scored except the piano part, which Gershwin improvised himself, and Whiteman's "orchestra" was more of a pop band than anything else. If you're going to throw this in, then I would actually recommend Marcus Roberts' recording of the piece, as he has also improvised the piano voice, updating the rhythmic patterns to incorporate many styles of improvised music from New Orleans' blues to Afro-Cuban and more.

In terms of 'contemporary' composers, I would suggest possibly Aaron Copland, or Bela Bartok, although naming specific pieces and recordings would be something I couldn't do.

Classical music moves me deeply, but sometimes I enjoy it in the same sense that I would enjoy listening to a movie soundtrack. That is, certain parts of certain works conjour up images and emotions associated with action, adventure, lachrymosity, or triumph. With that, I recommend the following:

Holst, Mars: The Bringer of War
Holst, Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity
Mozart, Requiem in D Minor
Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Spring and Summer

I'm going to stick to the tried and true as well...good, robust music

- The romance from Mozart's Piano Concerto 20
- Shostakovich - festive overture. also the allegro from symphony 10
- Stravinsky - the firebird
- schubert - string quintet in C major
- the lakme flower duet. has the opera voice, I guess, but it's impossible not to like. Sickly sweet.

I think you may like:
La Musica Notturna Delle Strade Di Madrid, No. 6, Op. 30 [String Quintet In C]- by Boccherini

Like a lot of younger people who like classical music, movie soundtracks were my vector. I heard this piece off the Master & Commander soundtrack, which has a lot of other good pieces that made an impression to me. Often I play classical music to study, but if it makes it out of the study background music playlist, I consider it good.

I'm a pop fan, and I try to get into classical music, too. I've found the complete preludes by Rachmaninov very good. Their length scarcely exceeds that of pop songs, and their structure is usually not too complicated. I know I shouldn't judge classical music by these standards, but it matters when you're used to simple pop. I especcially liked Nr.5/Nr.6 (G-minor/E Flat major)

Short pieces with memorable tunes:

Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian Easter Festival
Sibelius, Finlandia
Adams, The Chairman Dances
Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Part, Fratres

Georg and Brian, you're dead right (amen on the Mozart Requiem and Rach 2). But I think you've illustrated an important point of music appreciation: many people tend to like *one or two* of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods (loosely defined!), but only a few lucky people like *all* of them. As a consequence, I think a lot of people give up on classical music because the first stuff they hear, following the tastes of one radio station or one friend or one ensemble, doesn't do it for them.

I grew up in a Mozart and Liszt household, which went in one ear and out the other. I changed my mind when I found Ravel and Bartok---and, much later, Reich and Adams, and later Bach and Palestrina.

So, Chad---if you don't like your first few 20th-century composers, leap over Georg's or Brian's lists, rather than slogging through the whole Shostakovich/Stravinsky/Bartok catalogue hoping for a spark. If you like that direction better, I'll also put in a second vote (with Wowbagger) for Mozart's clarinet concerto.

The trouble with "Rhapsody in Blue" is that it's only enjoyable until you've been put on hold by United Airlines for an hour.

Anyway, you're overwhelmed by recommendations so I won't add any more. Well, I can't resist one: Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time".

Anyhow, mostly I wanted to say the following: I like a lot of classical music (well, in particular 20th century stuff that isn't so "classical"), but I find that I enjoy it more by orders of magnitude when I see it live. I can listen to and enjoy popular music at the same time as working or reading, but classical music often takes more active concentration if I am to truly enjoy it. If I go the symphony I can do this without feeling a need to try to do other things simultaneously, and it can be very enjoyable and rewarding. On the other hand if I'm at home, almost always I'll be listening to rock or pop or occasionally jazz.

I also really resent the attitude that those who enjoy popular music are philistines; it's not something I expect anyone to think, but I've heard it several times recently. The funny thing is, the people I know who have the deepest awareness of music, its theory and history, tend to have really diverse taste, and are as likely to talk enthusiastically about the Beatles or the Pixies as about Schubert or Stravinsky. It's a sign of musical narrow-mindedness to avoid good popular music. It's even more telling when some such people don't even listen to more recent "classical" music. After all, sheer counting suggests that there should be about as many musical geniuses alive today as there have been in all past centuries. (I'm not going to try to put error bars on that, but at least at a rough level it seems true.)

I think this weird attitude of snobbishness against anything but classical music comes only from people who are desperate to find some way to view themselves as superior.

It's even more telling when some such people don't even listen to more recent "classical" music.

That particular flamewar's always lurking around this sort of thing, isn't it.

I'm just tickled that a classical music post on a physics blog gets forty comments. I think all of the suggestions above are excellent. One genre of vocal music that doesn't have the "opera voice" is early music. Check out recordings by the King's Singers, Anonymous 4, or the Tallis Scholars. They do not use heavy vibrato.

Hey Scott,

You beat me to it.

Chad,

I was going to suggest that if you like lyrical music you might want to try plain chant. Another group to look out for Ensemble Organum - they are similar to Anon 4. It is similar to the Monk Chants that were popular a few years ago. Um was that here or in the UK?

But hearing plain chant live in a medivial church it the best way to experience it. There is nothing like that soaring sound.

Some choirs which avoid heavy vibrato are the Cambridge Singers and Monteverdi Choir. They do more modern stuff. Also Ton Koopman and his group on period instruments is very clean.

I can attest to the fact there aren't any problems with listening to most BBC radio shows - I listen to it all the time. I actually like Mike Harding's Folk Show, but that is a whole different genre of music.

Do let us know if you find anything you like.

Cat

Bach Suites for Cello (Rostropovich or yo-yo ma)

Brandenberg Concertos by Bach

4 Seasons by Vivalldi

Avoid right of spring and anything calling it self modern. Also avoid things that are described as playing with "seldom used harmonies" or some such similar. It generaly means they sound awful, there is a reason they are seldom used.

and avoid harpsicords like the plauge (well, maybe not that badly...my dad likes them and i have had a violent back reaction..they are ok as accompiament when they get drowned out....anything that is just them....*shudder*...again there is a reason the piano replaced them)

The Faces of Love by Jake Heggie- I'd look specifically at Eve-Song and Paper Wings. This is some of the best modern music I've come across. It's not strictly classical (it has alot of jazz and theatre influence), so there isn't nearly as much of the 'opera voice'. Tell us what you think when you finish listening. Heggie's fun- if you can listen to Route to the Sky without dying of laughter than you're doing better than I. BTW, Eve Song is about Eve as a modern woman. Paper Wings was commissioned by Frederica von Stade for her daughter Lisa- it's based on true stories. There is some opera voice, but less than normal.

I'm not sure that Stravinsky and Reich are the right things to recomend to a classical novice. I'm NOT a novice, and I'm not such a big fan of those

That's sort of the point. People who like old-school symphonic music aren't necessarily fans of different styles; but for people who haven't been blown away by Beethoven and Brahms, it's worth trying something different.

And it's not as if modern music is automatically difficult or inaccessible. I mean, Varese or Messiaen are, sure; but Glass' music is all over in movie soundtracks and Adams' music is in Civ 4. This is music that's very accessible -- arguably more accessible to a pop-trained ear than "traditional" classical music.

Concur with Mike and Ben about why I recommended modern pieces together with the old classics. Given that many familiar old tunes that Chad would have heard in passing have made no impression on him, it's just as well to introduce him to a side of western art music that's very different from the stereotypical representations of classical music.

Speaking of BBC Radio 3, they have an excellent series of programmes introducing various well-known classical music pieces. They are available for free (Realplayer stream), and are targeted towards novices, so there is no jargon in the analysis. I'd highly recommend them to anyone who's ever felt they could not "understand" any of those works.

Somebody will probably say it doesn't count as classical music, but my wife got me interested in the early-20th-century wind-band works of Percy Grainger, which are short and exciting and sometimes kind of bizarre. Many are based on his studies of British and Irish folk music, and he's probably best known today for unearthing and re-popularizing the old tune now known as "Danny Boy" (arranged by him in a slightly less treacly manner than you might expect as "Irish Tune from County Derry"). But other pieces like "Shepherd's Hey" and "The Gum Suckers March" are more fun. iTunes has a pretty good cross-section of his stuff for sale.

I've been brooding about this while reading these comments, and, while I can second most of the classical recommendations above, here's one that hasn't been mentioned:

Dead Can Dance's album a passage in time. It's pretty much entirely an Early Music cover album, AND it's nearly certain to be on iTunes.

And when you get back, we can figure out the best versions of the originals.

I agree with the comments on the early music. A lot of it is much more pop-y than a lot of other classical music. And a lot of it is truely dance-able, if that counts for anything. Anonymous 4 is a good choice. (I also have the advantage that I'm on the same campus as Chad, so I can lend him physical CDs if he wants...)

On the more-modern classical music sub-thread, I agree that Copeland and Glass are accessable. However, those were not the original recomendations. Reich and Stravinsky are (IMHO) NOT accessible. Pop music is (almost entirely) tonal. In fact, it's almost entirely very simply tonal, in a single key, with a few chords. Complex tonalities are not going to be easy on the pop-trained ear.

Also, to anon, who said that there should be the same number of geniuses alive today as at any time, I agree however, 1) those error bars that you mentioned make it so that that number may well be 0. And 2) in this age, those musical geniuses are at least as likely to go into pop or jazz or some other type of music as classical. I would consider the "musical geniuses" of the 20th century to include Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk etc and John Lennon and the like just as much as Stravinsky and Glass.

This is an unusual suggestion, bur since you are looking for short and not necessarily sweet, you may want to get your hands on a recording of Anton Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6. They total around ten minutes and there is an incredible variety of sound and expression in them.

Also, to anon, who said that there should be the same number of geniuses alive today as at any time, I agree however, 1) those error bars that you mentioned make it so that that number may well be 0.

I rather doubt it, unless you're using a much stricter criterion for genius than I am....

And 2) in this age, those musical geniuses are at least as likely to go into pop or jazz or some other type of music as classical. I would consider the "musical geniuses" of the 20th century to include Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk etc and John Lennon and the like just as much as Stravinsky and Glass.

Oh, undoubtedly.

As for Stravinsky's alleged "inaccessibility", I just don't see it. I mean, there are bits of the Star Wars soundtrack that sound disturbingly similar to parts of The Rite of Spring (particularly the "Jawa" music, if I recall correctly). And anyone who has watched a few Hitchcock films is bound to have heard some interesting modern music by Bernard Herrmann. I think the unlistenability of the great modern composers is highly exaggerated.

In my experience people are much more likely to have a negative reaction to Glass than to Stravinsky, because they might find the repetitiveness boring.

Then again, it depends on the period of Stravinsky (there's a huge difference between Rite of Spring and his atonal works). And regarding the film music comment of Star Wars, etc.- generally the context that such music is used in is either that of horror, weirdness, or death, which increases the general discomfort most people feel when listening to Stravinsky and Reich. It's hard not to be uncomfortable when you're expecting an axe murderer to head towards you at any moment. I think people have to get away from that to understand modern music, however cool I might think it is (and I really really think the stuff that is coming out right now is amazing).

I may be repeating, but what the hell -

- J.S. Bach, Violin Concerto in A minor
- Mendelssohn, Italian Symphony and Reformation Symphony
- Saint-Saens, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)

It's a good start.

If you're willing to risk "opera voice" (I hate listening to opera, unless I'm in attendance at the spectacle, in which case it's invariably thrilling), consider Shostakovich's The Rake's Progress. It's fairly short and sweet. You might also consider (and whether this is classical or not is a matter of opinion) The Seven Deadly Sins. The original Lotte Lenya performance in German is my favorite, but there's a lot to be said for Marianne Faithful's version. If you'd like to go for the full avant-garde non-opera voice, grab a copy of the Kronos Quartet's Howl U.S.A.. I don't care much for the Harry Partch piece on there, but the others are just lovely.

Harry Partch - Daphne of the Dunes!!!