Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

@frogman 

And yet Wordsworth was a great poet. The Beethoven of English poetry, in that he began the Romantic era for poetry. It's amazing the way the arts correspond with similar changes around the same time. Late in the 19th century we have Impressionistic music and art. Maybe in writing too, if we count Rimbaud. 

@stuartk 

Here's another one for you to try on your journey into classical music. "Nights in the Garden of Spain" by perhaps the most famous Spanish composer, Manuel de Falla. Like many composers in the early 20th century he wrote music that was tied to his countries identity. Sibelius did so in Finland. Dvorak in whatever the Czech Republic was called then. Aaron Copland in America. Anyway, this is a lovely piece. I chose a selection with Martha Argerich, one of the greatest living pianists.

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

@audio-b-dog , 

**** It's amazing the way the arts correspond with similar changes around the same time. ****

All good art reflects the time of its creation.  What defines its validity is how well it reflects that time.  Whether we like what it is reflecting is an entirely different matter.

@frogman 

When I was studying poetry with Gary Snyder back in the mid-sixties, we had a discussion about why poets no longer wrote in rhyme and meter. He talked about artists tapping into the music of their society. He quoted an Arab saying, "When a music of a society dies, the society dies." The implication is that the music of the society is the foundation of the society. As an artist, one needs to understand their society's music and tap into it.

I read about Rachmaninoff being upset that he was writing Romantic music in the twentieth century alongside "modern" composers like Stravinsky. Rachmaninoff was a great composer, I think, and I have read music critics say that he did incorporate modern elements into his music. The same story with Sibelius who is one of my favorite composers, despite the fact that he wrote in the late Romantic style while Stravinsky and other modern composers were changing the structure of music.

Here is an absolutely beautiful piece of music by Sibelius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5xJAOlXdUI

@audio-b-dog 

Thanks for recommending Martha Argerich. I'm sorry -- should have stated earler that I've never been a fan of the orchestra. Perhaps if I had a dedicated room and a system that could present such recordings more realistically, I'd grow to appreciate the sound. Nevertheless, I do enjoy solo Classical piano, so I will seek out Argerich in that context.