What five pieces of music do you love the most? And why?

It IS rather sublime...and kind of funny.

Must have been great fun to play.

Ok, here are some others that could easily replace those:

Stan Getz, João Gilberto & Astrud Gilberto - Just one of those things (but these folk have a few others I could replace it with)
Beethoven - 9th (but there are several Beethovens I could add)
Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea
Beatles - I'm so tired
Brahms - Hungarian Dance (several of them)
Bach - Cello Suite No. 1
Richard Wagner -- Lohengrin Prelude to Act 3 (Joe already mentioned it, which is why I didn't but another one of the power classical pieces I love)
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture - Finale (speaking of noisy classical, but there are other Tchaikovsky pieces I love more e.g. several parts of The Nutcracker Suite)
Tiesto - Adagio for Strings (just the Parade of Athletes version)
Billie Holiday - Stormy Weather (but again, Lady day could be represented several times on any of my lists because anything she sings is powerful)
Mozart - Overture to the Marriage of Figaro
Grieg - Hall of the Mountain King
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (already mentioned, and I only really love the frenetic few minutes of piano that interupts the last Andante)
Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma

Here is one of mine. Why? Well, I find it unbearably beautiful....and I adored the film...it's an aria from La Wally, as performed in the film "Diva".

Another one from Diva:

Thankee, looking.

Bugger that...I love ALL of Rhapsody in Blue.

I love Billie's version of "Strange Fruit" (I have an early recording)...but this version is ok:

Here is Gerschwin performing it!!! (I prefer the versions I have on CD, but who cares?)

And...who can live without Summertime, and Georgia:

Loving the Bach!!! I love him anyway, and have probably heard this before, but it is lovely to sit and listen to now.

That's not just an aria from La Wally, it's the aria from La Wally. The rest of the opera is just so-so, and Catalani didn't write anything else of any great note, but that one aria -- "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana?" -- is the reason that opera companies still stage La Wally (albeit infrequently). The same can be said for other "one-hit operas" like Fedora and La Rondine.

e brown, I wanted to share it for those of you not familiar...it is magnificent

one of my earliest recollections in Argentina was listening to Latin American records that belonged to my parents.
One of my favorites was a song from Oaxaca Mexico called Las Amarillas
Stephen Hatfield, a choral arranger from Vancouver has made the tune very popular for choir contests...he says:

"Las Amarillas is in the southern Mexican style of the huapango. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the style is the 'floating down beat,' which can be felt most clearly in the Treble III part. Hot-blooded and haughty, a mixture of delight and disdain. The central paradox of performing this Latin piece is that the rhythms must be very incisive and exact, yet the precision must be combined with the devil-may-care festive attitude that prevents the precision from sounding clinical. "

Stephen Hatfield-choral arranger




my ham handed translation wabbit:

Volaron las amarillas calandrias de los nopales
The yellow larks flew from their cactuses

Ya no cantaran alegres los pajaros cadernales
No longer will the cardinals sing happily

A la tirana na na
their "tirana-na-na"

A la tirana na no
and "tirana-na-no"

Ya no cantaran alegres los pajaros cadernales
No longer will the cardinals sing happily



Eres chiquita y bonita y asi como eres te quiero
You are tiny and lovely, and that's why I love you

Pareces una rosita de las costas de Guerrero
You remind me of a little rose from the shores of Guerrero

A la tirana na na
A la tirana na no
Pareces una rosita de las costas de Guerrero

Yes, I researched La Wally after seeing Diva, thinking to buy it...and found that was the only decent aria.

This is what compilations are for!


But WHAT an aria!

Well, bugger...how did THAT happen!!


Strange Fruit for real:

Kewl!!!

‘Martian Hop” by The Ran-Dells
“In the year 2525” by Zager and Evans
“Hey Mr Spaceman” by the Byrds
“Space Oddity” by David Bowie
“Opening notes of Also Sprach Zarathustra” the theme from 2001

I'm not sure if there is a recurring theme here though..........

thanks for reminding me chumly

that pioneer spirit - I cannot deny (I love these words, this is how I still think of myself - as if I'm 17 and life is still ahead of me - which it IS!):

Blink 182 - Aliens Exist
Kurtis Blow - the breaks
Johnny Cash - cocaine blues
Juliet Simms - view form below
Hollywood Undead - Undead

Because this is a good variety

that was a groundbreaking album...i remember it well