Classical inspires the soul

The special thing about this piece is that there's no chord progression: there's only one chord. Like the touch of a cold winter gale gently rocking wind chimes in the still of winter, this piece displays a sense of eternity and timelessness as it expounds upon the profound depths of a single moment, frozen in time, yet lasting forever. - James Becker 

I was up ridiculously early this morning and I stood at my sliding glass doors with them open. The sun was just coming up and everyone was still asleep and this came on shuffle and it blew my mind. I watched birds fly over the orange and blue sky with total silence around my other than this song. One of the most beautiful moments in my life. - Chiara Keating

These inspired lines by James and Chiara are for the video below

Harp and the Harpsichord

Bach: Johann Sebastian Bach. German Composer. Among the bosses of Western Classical Music.

Harpsichord: A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. The harpsichord had fallen out of popularity during the mid 18th century in favour of the fortepiano and keyboard. This is what it looks like:

Harp: The harp is a hand-plucked string instrument, usually triangular in shape, in which the plane of the strings is perpendicular to the soundboard. This is how it appears:

There are several compositions by Bach that I feel would do better without the use of the Harpsichord. Let us see

Sweet violin 'noyse'

The King's Noyse is a violin ensemble from North America founded by David Douglass [website]. I came across their music on YouTube and enjoyed the sounds.

They play 'renaissance-style'. If you don't know about renaissance, imagine a cool cultural period between the 14th and 17th century with magnificent advances in science and art. So what is this style?

"the King's Noyse plays in a manner almost certainly followed by Renaissance fiddlers, playing from memory or improvising on standardized bass lines such as those

Many moods in a melody

Image Courtesy

In the first three minutes of today's piece, you will get introduced to variety, massive variety.

Le festin d'Esope by Charles Valentin-Alkan is a singular theme surrounded by various styles. Moods of love and hate and anger around the same tune. You will identify this tune very early, and you will recognise it again as the music plays along. This process will sharpen your ear to sound.

You will see how the same child can be adorned in different clothes.
What this will do for you is help you identify in music, a main tune, and understand how 'things' play around it. You will even wait for the main tune to come back after the playing is done.
In time, you will understand the moods.

Music and mood

Winter, by Alexei Savrasov

Mood is consistency.
And often that.

Often, music sends you to some thought. Then, as the music plays, you are lost in that thought.

I use Alfred Schnittke's 'Story of an unknown actor' to drive home this thought. It is scored for a film of the same name. [Music at end of article, you may play now and read further].

Alfred was a Russian classical composer who used his talents in films. And the music he made

A note of suggestion

Composer Erik Satie's music inspired the modern day ambient music - that is music characterised by mood and atmosphere; it is music that is consistent and doesn't jump at you. You can listen to it straightaway even as you read this story. However, I'd like you to pay attention to what wikipedia calls mild dissonances in the music. This means that even though the music is consistent, and sets an ambience, some of the swaras (notes) very subtly

Soothing classical music

There is something soothing about 'uniform' classical music -- music that is mostly consistent throughout its running length. It stays peaceful, or sad or mellow. It is not mellow one instant and joyous the another. Which is why it is consistent music. You may be fans of lounge music, much of which sticks to a theme and relaxes you; it is consistent. Likewise in classical music, there is a repertoire that doesn't jump at you. You are assured that the soothing/mellow/sad or joyous quality will persist throughout the running time.

Early on, you are informed by the composer