hightreason
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Quote:
At the risk of hijacking this thread I'll respond
While I certainly agree about challenging sparseness of many solo piano works (which are not chamber music.) I still think that chamber music presents the interplay of voices, melody, harmony etc. in a readily-intelligible way.
And the accessible works (most of the pre-20th century stuff is pretty accessible) provide easy to grasp melodies. In fact, of the composers that the OP mentioned (Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn) I think that all wrote some very hummable, tuneful chamber works.
Originally Posted by ukrneal /img/forum/go_quote.gif Interesting. I would almost NEVER recommend a chamber work. Although it is easier to hear the individual voices of a chamber work, they are usually harder (in my experience) for the neophyte to understand. Large scale works are easier in that sense, in that you can often follow a melody. By this logic, it would be easier to recommend a piano piece, but some can be very difficult if you don't understand enough. Most recommended symphonies have lots of recognizeable melodies and are large scale (read: loud) and this sometimes is an entrypoint. And there is no rule you have to listen to the whole symphony at once (or in order for that matter). Incidentally, I partly agree (shorter pieces), which is why I think Rossini overtures are one of the ideal ways to get familar with classical music. IN fact, I should add some Verdi overtures from Naxos to my list! |
At the risk of hijacking this thread I'll respond
While I certainly agree about challenging sparseness of many solo piano works (which are not chamber music.) I still think that chamber music presents the interplay of voices, melody, harmony etc. in a readily-intelligible way.
And the accessible works (most of the pre-20th century stuff is pretty accessible) provide easy to grasp melodies. In fact, of the composers that the OP mentioned (Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn) I think that all wrote some very hummable, tuneful chamber works.