Explain naming of classical music to me please.

[TipseyTorvey]

I occasionally love listening to classical music but despite some botched attempts to learn how to play anyself (piano and flute grade 2), I don't really know much about it. I occasionally hear the most beautiful pieces on the radio but when I try to listen to hear what it's called it's usually something totally impossible to remember like Bach symphony in e minor second string. I've made that up obviously but why don't the songs have names I can remember like 'where sheep may safely graze'(like that one) and how does an ignoramus like me find music to listen to? I've bought compilations etc but is there some kind of naming convention I'm missing?

Mendelssohn wrote some amazing stuff. Love Fingal's Cave

I love to listen to classical music and I've so enjoyed reading this thread. I get my fix on Radio 3, I don't listen to Classic FM because I don't like those annoying adverts. Debussy, Elgar and Vaughan Williams are my favourites though.

I went to my first live classical music concert at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last year. The highlight for me was the Elgar Cello Concerto - featuring Shekhu Kennar Mason (who played cello at Harry and Meghan's wedding). Just wonderful.

For those who are interested I highly recommend Clemency Burton-Hill’s book Year of Wonder - written like a page-per-day diary, each day featuring a different musical work with a couple of paragraphs to introduce it. There’s huge variety in what she has chosen - from the greatest and most famous composers to one-hit wonders whose one hit is nevertheless worth listening to.

This piece pops up everywhere, and is a good start to Sunday

Honest, with all the tech nowdays, people "don't know they're born" (a saying I've picked up from somewhere). "Back in the day" if you wanted to get the name of a piece it was a trip to a record shop and an embarrassing humming/whistling/dah-dahing to an equally embarrassed assistant.

And if they weren't embarrassed they were uber-snooty ....

Typo below fingal's cave after the cave not the Dave

DGRossetti, was thinking that too!

I used to think it the height of sophistication that my dad had an actual dictionary of first/famous lines of music. You had to be able to hum at sight to use it!

Thank you for the recommendation of the Burton-Hill book; it looks excellent.

I used to think it the height of sophistication that my dad had an actual dictionary of first/famous lines of music. You had to be able to hum at sight to use it

One of my treats to myself when I started earning was the (looks in cover) £19.99 Oxford Dictionary of Quotations - quite a wedge in 1986.

Had no idea about a musical dictionary - which would have been a godsend as I can play by sight (mini stealth boast).

As part of our Uni course, we had to prepare and deliver a lecture on a tutor-chosen subject. My friend was given "G.E.C." and bought in a tape of "The Enigma Variations IX " to play as the auditorium filled ... which is the level of educated pun our head of course appreciated .

My friend's dad worked for GEC, or I'd be scratching my head at that!

I used to work in a store selling sheet music and was at the receiving end of the humming

For swoopy strings you might like Barber's Adagio for Strings. Not the William Orbit remix though!

If you want a bit of modern try some Arvo Part, or some James MacMillan, they're both worth exploring...

Back in the 80s there were a series of LPs on a theme of "The classical bits" which were basically a compilation of all the pieces which turn up in adverts, films and TV shows. So the Hovis theme, Old Spice, British Airways, plus faux-classical like Chi Mai (ask your parents ...) and the like.

A sort of vinyl version of "The Bluffers Guide to Classical Music"

I'm yet another person who has abandoned Radio 4 (2 years of speculation on Brexit and 'what might happen') for Radio 3. I wonder how many of us there are? I know R4 listener figures have fallen a lot in the past 2 years. (not being able to take any more of John Humphreys is another reason of course).

If you like Bach, try Handel...Messiah is spectacular, also Israel in Egypt
For piano, Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto (music from the film Brief Encounter)

My current favourite is Haydn's Nelson Mass.

For rippling piano, this is the one!
Chopin Piano concerto No 1, Romanze

fingal's cave after the cave not the Dave

I quite liked the thought of it being named after an actual Dave, rather than all those pieces which named after faux Daves...

Seems there are a few of us deserting r4! Such a shame, it has been the soundtrack to my life for the last 10 years, but I feel even the comedy isn’t what it was.

I’ve tried r3, but feel like classic FM is a bit more ‘accessible’ - maybe I should give it another go though?

Glad I'm not the only one who can't bear R4 at the moment! Constantly find myself driven from wherever dh is, since he's got R4 or TV news with the endless wretched B-word, on virtually all day long.
My soothing escape is mostly Classic FM. I know a lot of people are sniffy about it, but that doesn't bother me.

I often spend ages on YouTube, usually after listening to various versions of something I'm trying to learn (piano) - it's quite an education to compare them, some are light years better than others - and then go off down sundry lovely 'rabbit holes' as mentioned by a pp.

Tonight Matthew I'm very much enjoying flightywomanssuggestion of barbers adagio strings. Absolutely lovely! Thank you for that. On the radio 4 brexit overdose thing I read a great article on the ft recently about how brexit has destroyed dinner parties because it doesn't matter what you try to discuss, whether wine or House prices someone will always pipe up with Brexit and everyone falls out. As a person that used to love a good debate I feel thats so true now. Unlike many other though I am blessed with a functional Anderson shelter so I'll be fine with my windup radio and classic fm when it all goes tits up 😂.