Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday (Part 1)

[MamaNewtNewt]

This thread is for the 50 bookers (or in fact anyone else who wants to join in!) who are reading Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday by Clemency Burton-Hill.

The author has selected one piece of music for each day in the year, and includes a brief overview of the piece and the composer to provide some context. There's a playlist on Spotify and we can share links to each piece of music for those without access to Spotify.

I think most of us are planning on (roughly) sticking to the daily setup but feel free to read / listen ahead although the discussions are likely to stay around the music for the current date.

Thanks to @TheTurn0fTheScrew for bringing this book to our attention on the thread. Really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.

Thanks, Mama, I'm in! Have been enjoying it so far.

Ooh! Haven't bought it yet but really liked the sound of it.

Yay, thanks for setting this up @MamaNewtNewt

I really loved the Beethoven Cavatina today. I’ve always been a particular fan of his strings arrangements, although have never played strings myself (played several wind instruments —mostly terribly— ) I like that the snippets in the book are not too long to read, as it makes it easy to fit in, but obviously can look up further for pieces of particular interest.

Really hoping I do manage to stick with this.

Hi all! I'm in. I did a similar "snippet a day" thing to read Vasari's Lives in 2020, which worked really well, so I'm up for it. My husband is also interested in joining in as he doesn't really "do" classical music and would like to learn about it.

I agree about today's being great. I can't believe he composed it when he was fully deaf. I just can't conceive of how that is even possible. I mean he just used sounds in his imagination or memories and was able to fit them together in an amazingly complex way AND make this understandable to musicians.

I also like the fact she isn't just going for the more obvious choices too. I haven't heard any of the pieces she's selected so far before.

Hello, I am doing this.

I happened upon the 'How to Fail Podcast' on the 30 December and feel like my life has been changed because of that random click. I heard about Clemency Burton Hill and her story and was so incredibly moved by it all. My book came straight away and I was able to start this on the 1 January.

I found the piece of music today sad.

I thought Hilde's piece of music from 1000 years ago was amazing and then I read her morality play.

I know nothing about classical music and am a complete beginner. I am so excited for this year long journey.

Love the sound of this, off to catch up with what I’ve missed.

Coming over from the 50 Books thread to sign up. Will catch up on days 1-4 later...

I think the thing about being truly musical is that loss of hearing isn’t necessarily a hinderance, cause you can look at musical notation and know in your head how it sounds in much the same way that once you can read written words you look at them and know what they mean. My biggest struggles with music have always been reading it - it’s a real struggle for me as it takes me a good chunk of time to “decode” it - all the elements from the notes themselves upwards. There is no way that a piece of written music will ever mean anything to me on its own, and in fact I usually need to listen to someone else playing a piece before I can be sure that I have it right. But for truly musical people, it’s just like reading a book and knowing how it should sound - does that make sense?

I really love the sound of this - I’m not really sure how much I’ll contribute as I know zilch but I’d like to follow along.

Just caught up with the first four days. Enjoyed them all. I’m another who knows next to nothing about classical music but I do know that I like choral works so I loved the first two.

Signing in. Thank you for starting the thread @MamaNewtNewt

I don’t know very much about classical music at all. As I said on the 50 book thread, I switched to Classic FM in the car/ background in the kitchen when DD was born and I was being all precious first born about her listening exposure. Previously I’d had one or two (of the more obvious) pieces I knew and enjoyed but I’ve always wanted to know a little more.

I’m still on the free kindle sample of the book, if anyone wanted to try for a while and see how they get on before committing to buy! I think it has a good few more days yet.

Of the pieces so far the Chopin has maybe done the least for me, though I’ve enjoyed them all.

@TheAnswerIsCake thanks that is helpful. I mean as someone who isn't musical at all I still think it's amazing but I think I kinda get the mechanics now.

For those who don't know much about classical music I'm one of you 😊 I reckon by the end of the year we will at least know more than we do right now.

Just to add in a snippet for the Hildegard of Bingen fans - the recording that really started it all off was called 'A Feather on the Breath of God', by Gothic Voices, and featuring the superb Emma Kirkby. I just went to get it off my shelf and to my astonishment it was first released in 1985....still seems like yesterday

Anyway, the opening track, Columba aspexit, completely bowled me over then, and it still does. The CD sold so massively that it basically guaranteed the future of the record label (Hyperion). Annoyingly, it doesn't seem to be on Spotify but I'd really recommend it to anyone who wants to hear more.

Also, Emma Kirkby is a fantastic singer. So pure and crystalline. She's most famous for early music but any of her recordings are great, really - Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart....

@AliasGrape

Of the pieces so far the Chopin has maybe done the least for me, though I’ve enjoyed them all.

I think I'd have to agree and Chopin is probably one of the composers I'm most familiar with, and have generally liked. I love Chopin Piano Concerto #1, Opus 11 (Romanze), or the tune from the music box in the film Splash as I generally know it

Ah lovely idea, thanks for the thread. I'm catching up tomorrow as it's my day off.

Hello, and big thanks to @MamaNewtNewt for the thread - what a lovely idea.

I feel like an awful philistine, but the Hildegard von Bingen didn't really do it for me. The melody was lovely, but TBH with plainsong I can get a little bored. My problem, not hers. And she sounds like a force of nature.

The Beethoven today though - stunning. So rich and warm and uplifting, whilst being very quiet and restrained in parts. It's staggering that he wrote this when deaf. Keen to listen to the quartet in full now.

I didn't love the Bach but the Bingen blew me away

Hope I've got the right playlist... I need to buy the book [counts pennies]

PermanentTemporary I'm not using a dedicated playlist, so I can pick and choose recordings. Perhaps that's where I went wrong with the Hildegard - I chose a very plainsong version. I preferred the Kronos quartet version, as even a stripped back accompaniment adds so much. If you don't fancy getting the book I'm sure we can tip you off on the piece of the day .

The playlist I am using on Spotify looks like this.

If you can get the book the insights are so beautiful and carefully crafted.

That's the playlist I'm using too. Here is the link: open.spotify.com/playlist/0GHTAITHgzLCDwWZYjxzOP?si=IAfyjzWcRyq0wronzRsIew

I've succumbed and bought it