Lift your spirits with music

by **Peter O'Donnell** » 09/ 07/ 10 3:45 pm

Lift your spirits with music
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This is going to be a place for everyone to share their favourite music, I will keep the thread going but only to the extent necessary -- hopefully we'll get plenty of posts here and we can all enjoy the music that lifts your spirits. Try to pick something that matches the mood of the day as you see it, which will be interesting because this is a big country and the mood of the day can be quite different from one region to another. Today here, it is bright and breezy, and this is what got me thinking about this music.

Post what you like, other than head-banging acid rock, I can't really think of an excludable category here.

This will come as no surprise, but I will start off with the third movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto #15, a light-hearted piece that may be familiar to you from the movie Amadeus; it sounds basically like a Sunday in the park or the country with horses and carriages going past and I'm pretty sure that's what Mozart had in mind. This is from his younger composing period just before all the real "genius" work started to pour out, and perhaps this is one of the first signs of that, although even as a 14-year-old he managed a work (Piano Concerto No. 5) which stands up to the best of them. Most critics think of the "great" piano concertos as being the last ones from 19 to 27, but here already we are treated to the mature and sparkling virtuoso composer who was to become known as the greatest of the age; in fact none less than Haydn told Mozart's father that he was as great as Bach and would be known as such for hundreds of years -- all absolutely the case. I should conclude by giving Salieri a bit of a break, he wasn't the insane jealous prick that the movie said he was, apparently, he was a pretty fair composer in his own right and is being revived on the opera circuit. Good for him. He just happened to be there when Mozart blew into town, sort of like David Duval when Tiger Woods showed up.

Emjoy (dammit) ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGMVNpSbAUo

by **Peter O'Donnell** » 09/ 08/ 10 2:18 am

Well, since today is Rash Hashanah and the feast of trumpets, here's Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, First Movement, where the trumpet is the featured instrument. Since this is only a few minutes long, I have linked to another lively movement of this series, the familiar first movement of No. 4 ... Enjoy !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC1E4_im ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDrLX7FX ... re=related

by **backhoe** » 09/ 08/ 10 3:05 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3PQ5tGyNwc

Key Largo

by **Edward Kennedy** » 09/ 08/ 10 4:57 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KEwhLvIQrk&NR=1

by **RedDog** » 09/ 08/ 10 5:08 am

I loosely recall when Amadeus swept the Oscars (2 actors in the same film nominated for Best Actor!) and the producers accepted Best Picture Oscars stated something to the effect that they wished to thank "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, God and the Academy... in that order".

by **J.B. Stone** » 09/ 08/ 10 9:11 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6O9FB90kAU

by **Gerry T. Neal** » 09/ 08/ 10 10:15 am

Excellent thread idea Peter!

I also commend you on your excellent taste.

My favorite music is classical. Classical is a broad category, covering everything from opera to chamber music to full orchestra symphonies. Within classical, my favorite genre is the sacred oratorio. Handel's Messiah is an example. Bach's St. Matthew's Passion is another. My absolute favorite, however, is Haydn's The Creation. Haydn was the true master of classical music. He was Beethoven's (unappreciated) teacher, and perhaps the only composer other than himself that Mozart unquestionably respected and admired (he once earned an enemy of another composer, who had snottily said about part of one of Haydn's pieces "I wouldn't have written it that way", by responding "Neither would I - neither you nor I would have thought of it"). He wrote countless excellent string quartets and symphonies, but The Creation is his masterpiece.

This video contains the highlights of The Creation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5RHDwdaanQ

There is the unforgettable creation of light in the first day, the "the heavens declare the glories of God and the firmament displays His handiwork" chorus that brings the first Part to a close, and the love duet by Adam and Eve in the Garden in Part III.

Two other parts of The Creation that are especially good are "Von Diener Güt o Herr und Gott" from Part III (Adam, Eve, and the chorus of angels sing thanks to God):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZZ_lehq2q8

and the stretch of Part II that begins with "Und Die Engel" and ends with "Der Herr ist groß in seiner Macht":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zye7ELE ... 1&index=11

The Creation is music for all occasions. If you feel joyful and wish to praise your Creator, there is no better music. If you feel depressed, this music is the cure.

by **Peter O'Donnell** » 09/ 08/ 10 11:43 am

Thanks for posting, folks. If others would like to share, hold off a few days, we don't want to put all the good stuff in here all at once. I won't post anything new until about Monday now, as there is plenty here to keep visitors busy.

by **Edward Kennedy** » 09/ 08/ 10 3:34 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Wx8BRjzoI

by **Kate Shaw** » 09/ 08/ 10 5:38 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYMLMj-SibU&ob=av2e

Lovely to look at, fabulous to listen to: Il Divo, singing Amazing Grace!

Wait for it -- right after the piper, Carlos, the baritone, blows the back doors off the building.

by **LAR** » 09/ 08/ 10 5:57 pm

Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Try not to tap your foot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWGAxnsqPg&feature=fvst

by **Edward Kennedy** » 09/ 08/ 10 6:17 pm

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ ... FORM=LKVR1

by **RedDog** » 09/ 08/ 10 6:24 pm

I'll that Flatts & Scruggs and raise you one duet from Deliverance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N40d047u-L8&feature=fvst

by **ChangingColours** » 09/ 08/ 10 6:50 pm

With Ry Cooder being pretty much my all time favourite artist ... here are four perfect selections from him ... hope ya's enjoy.

Jesus on the mainline:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2FrFBceLuY

How can a poor man stand such times and live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6efQ_GyQW3o

Chain Gang (remake):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqW3zGeeIUU

Dark end of the street (remake):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-XeHmrNSoc

And yes, kudos to Peter on this thread!

by **Grig** » 09/ 08/ 10 7:41 pm

Anything Mozart.

Lift your spirits with music

Lift your spirits with music

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