Let's have some fun... or not.

The other day I was on youtube looking at videos of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as you do. There's all sorts of amazing things on there and for some reason I had never before seen the two clips of him conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, with pieces by Berlioz and Prokofiev. They're very exciting clips, he's dancing and pulling silly faces and generally flailing about as he usually does. On top of that, the music sounds amazing.

But as we all know, people on the internet like to complain. Now, I have nothing against people who don't like Yannick, I can understand that he may be a bit too much for some people. But the comments on one of the videos were seriously some of the most hilarious and jaw-dropping things I've ever read on the internet. Most people there weren't complaining about his movements (though some were) but about his outfit. For the record, Yannick was wearing a black suit with a black t-shirt underneath. But for these 'serious' lovers of classical music this was disrespectful, you just simply cannot conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in anything less than a tuxedo, you know. One person even called it "offensive".

These type of comments are one of the reasons why I started this blog. I know I'm not a particularly good writer or have some unique insight into music, but so many people in classical music are simply too serious which can get a bit annoying. Is it really THAT important that a conductor is wearing -shock horror- a black t-shirt? Really? Is it really more worthwhile to bitch about this rather than listen to the music (or laugh at the hilarious faces Yannick pulls)? There is a person on that stage LOVING what he is doing, drawing the orchestra in with his incredible excitement and skill and some people decide to complain about his outfit?

So in honour of Yannick and not-being-uptight I will bring you some classical music videos that are not only beautiful but also a bit offbeat, to maybe laugh at and definitely enjoy:

Requiems

Today I want to talk about Requiems. They used to be my most-hated classical genre, I didn't get the attraction, they just made me nervous. But then I realised that really, requiems are pretty much the most badass thing in the world. They're the perfect excuse for a composer to write REALLY LOUD things because you can't go "Oh no, day of wrath!" quietly, right?

Requiems are an interesting medium anyway, because they generally have the same structure. They can have the Introit (Requiem Aeternam), Kyrie, Gradual, Tract, Sequence (Dies Irae), Offertory, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Communion, Pie Jesu, Libera Me and In Paradisum. All these sections have set lyrics, from Latin church texts (apart from the Kyrie which is in Greek), used in Mass. There's some obvious exceptions to this though, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem was the first requiem set in vernacular (in this case, German) text, and is still one of the few. Britten's War Requiem not only uses the Latin texts, but also poems by Wilfred Owen.

Now, because there's quite a few versions of the Dies Irae I'm posting here, it might be worthwhile explaining a bit more about that piece in particular. The Dies Irae is quite a late hymn, it was written in the 13th century, probably by Thomas of Celano and it describes the day of judgment. It's actually no longer a part of the Roman Rite Mass, because apparently it's too dark and medieval. They might have a point though, the opening words are "Dies irae! Dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla" which means "The day of wrath! that day will dissolve the world in ashes". Needless to say, these words have inspired a lot of music.


1. Camille Saint-Saëns, the Dies Irae from his Requiem (written in 1878). I never liked organs before I heard this requiem, maybe because I imagine that Saint-Saëns finished writing his requiem and thought "OH CRAP, I FOROT THE ORGAN" so added in a few random chords really loudly so no one else could possibly forget about organs. I like the random chords though, and it's a beautiful piece of music. I listen to it a lot to calm me down and cheer me up (I know requiems shouldn't be cheerful, but c'mon the organ's pretty hilarious!).


2. Giuseppe Verdi, the Dies Irae from his Requiem (1874). BAM BAM BAM BAM! If I was a zombie, this would definitely be my preferred 'here-I-am-I'm-gonna-eat-everyone' music.


3. György Ligeti's Requiem (1963-65) (this is part 2 out of 3, this requiem does not have the same structure the others do). Now this is something else, this requiem is actually not loud at all but it is without a doubt the creepiest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. There's a minimal amount of instruments used, it's mostly voices doing creepy things like screaming and ehm, being creepy. I don't know how else to describe it, I find it an incredibly beautiful but deeply disturbing piece of music. Essential listening.


4. Antonín Dvořák, the Dies Irae from his Requiem (1890). I kind of fear that all these Dies Irae's will sound alike to you, but I hope they won't. Dvorak's requiem is probably the one I listen to most, I find it incredibly comforting and powerful, sort of a friendly kick in the behind.


5. Benjamin Britten's second part of Libera Me, from his War Requiem (1961/62). Britten is one of those composers who I really want to learn more about and hear more by. This War Requiem is an exceptional piece of music, it's almost painfully moving.


6. The Dies Irae from Hector Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts (1837). I really want to see this live someday because I imagine it'll be the loudest thing in the world, it's scored for a massive orchestra and usually performed with a choir of about 400. Here's a video of a performance at the BBC Proms with Sir Colin Davies, look at how massive the choir is and how many percussionists there are! Of course the music is amazing and actually very moving as well, not just loud, but I do like to emphasize loudness because I consider it a very good thing.

Because a lot of these requiems (except those by Ligeti and Saint-Saëns) are around 90 minutes, which is rather long, I've only posted relatively short pieces of each. If you like what you hear (and keep in mind, I do tend to post the loudest bits, so if it's a bit too much, don't discount requiems straight away) please please check out the rest of these pieces, you can find pretty much anything on youtube. And if you're really intereseting, some other requiems to listen to are Brahms' German Requiem, Fauré's Requiem and Rossini's Petite Messe Solemnelle (not officially a requiem, but it sort of is). Also, some of you might like Mozart's effort, but that's the only requiem that just doesn't sound right to me.. it's almost good, but not quite.

Hope you enjoy!