Im a big Holst fan, i was once in a performance of the planets when i sung for my county years ago. I always appreciated the suite but something is so magical and moving about being in the middle of an orchestra and then taking part. I was a total mute after the performance.
And although im not relgious i really love Benjamin Britten's work. Whilst being a member of the same choir as i mentioned before, we sung Rejoice in the lamb. Absolute genius work, anyone who can play the organ to that or sing it needs a medal! 80 pages of tough work lol
I don't really have a 'favourite' composer as such but I would list Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn amongst my favourites from the Baroque to Classical era. Amongst English composers, Elgar, Vaughn-Williams and Walton are three of my favourites.
quote:Originally posted by robin99: What are your favourite composers? Mine is Mozart; I'm listening to the String Quartets now, and it's just sooo relaxing!
I quite like Vivaldi (when it's not on somebody's voicemail when I want to speak to someone about what's happening instead of hanging on interminably at premium rates.) Mozart's pretty good too for a little night music.
quote:Originally posted by robin99: What are your favourite composers? Mine is Mozart; I'm listening to the String Quartets now, and it's just sooo relaxing!
I quite like Vivaldi (when it's not on somebody's voicemail when I want to speak to someone about what's happening instead of hanging on interminably at premium rates.) Mozart's pretty good too for a little night music.
I like Mozarts "requiem" collection, not a barrel of laughs but the pathos is profound.
Sarson the French composer I like a lot "Carnival of the Animals".
quote:Originally posted by offhisface: Beethoven Bach Debussy Prokofiev
I can't include Wagner on moral grounds
Then you're missing out! It's like not reading Nietzsche cos the Nazis perverted the meaning- Wagner did die sometime before the Nazis turned up. 'Parsifal' is great stuff & I saw some of 'The Ring Cycle' in Birmingham a few years ago & it's mindblowing!!
"See you on doomsday!"- Sadegh Hedayat's suicide note
MRTIBBSAYS. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was one of the few black classical composers to catch the public's imagination the afro british composer next youll be saying you didnt know britain had a black queen your black british history is shocking.
"It Is Impossible To Defeat An Ignorant Man In Argument."
"Never Converse With An Idiot, For Someone May Walk By And Not Know Who The Idiot Is".!
Originally posted by MRTIBBS.: MRTIBBSAYS. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was one of the few black classical composers to catch the public's imagination the afro british composer next youll be saying you didnt know britain had a black queen your black british history is shocking.
England's first black queen, mother of the black prince
Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus:
"The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…all her limbs are well set and unmaimed, and nought is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father, and in all things she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us."
Four years later Prince Edward went to visit his bride-to-be and her family, and fell in live with her. She was betrothed to him and in 1327, when she was only 14, she arrived in England. The next year, when she was 15, they married and were crowned King and Queen in 1330 when she was heavily pregnant with her first child and only 17.
This first child was called Edward, like his father, but is better known as the Black Prince. Many say that he was called this because of the colour of his armour, but there are records that show that he was called 'black' when he was very small. The French called him 'Le Noir'.
Philippa was a remarkable woman. She was very wise and was known and loved by the English for her kindliness and restraint. She would travel with her husband on his campaigns and take her children as well. When the King was abroad she ruled in his absence. Queen's College in Oxford University was founded under her direction by her chaplain, Robert de Eglesfield in 1341 when she was 28. She brought many artists and scholars from Hainault who contributed to English culture.
When she died, Edward never really recovered, and she was much mourned by him and the country. King Edward had a beautiful sculpture made for her tomb which you can see today at Westminster Abbey.
"It Is Impossible To Defeat An Ignorant Man In Argument."
"Never Converse With An Idiot, For Someone May Walk By And Not Know Who The Idiot Is".!
