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.

Really enjoyed todays too.
Went back and listened to yesterdays again and then listened to the Purcell and liked that very much too.

Wow, I thought today’s was beautiful. Florence Price sounds like an amazing woman too.
I will definitely return to this piece.

I wasn't bothered about today's piece. I have a bit of a blind spot for big-sounding solo piano works for some unknown reason. I do like Price's symphonic stuff though, and love that she incorporates jazz and spiritual rhythms into classical pieces. My 11yo is currently rehearsing Juba Dance for orchestra and it's a joy to hear it practised on a good day.

I really liked the Fanatasie piece as well - alias and best and I also liked the weaving of different musical influences as well Isfuzzy.

And I have found the backstories of the female composers over the past few days very interesting.

The word that comes to mind is discovery!!

Turnoftheascrew - to enjoy your child’s piano practice is a complete joy!

Trumpet Concerto in D major - Telemann

I thought it was short and sweet. There was a lightness I didn’t expect. I must connect trumpets with loud noise. It sounded regal and familiar although I haven’t heart it before to my knowledge.

I thought the Telemann was pleasant enough, but it didn't especially grab me. Nothing to dislike at all, but no emotional response.

I thought this was beautiful, simple, perfect. I agree with Cherryana, there is a lovely lightness to this music. I'm listening to the other movements to the concerto which are also short and sweet.

I like how Clemency is giving a voice to lesser-known musical figures. There is a concerto by Telemann for viola that's on the list for later on in the year which is lovely too.

I thought today's was lovely too, agree about the lightness to it. I haven't read the notes yet, off to do that now.

Loved this. Went off and listened to a few similar pieces and discovered I like a bit of Baroque trumpet. Who knew?

@BestIsWest

Loved this. Went off and listened to a few similar pieces and discovered I like a bit of Baroque trumpet. Who knew?

who knew indeed?!

I loved it too! 🎺

Wagner: Die MeisterSinger von Nürnberg

I like this piece. The main theme is bright, joyful and majestic. The secondary theme is gentle and wistful. This was one of the first pieces I played as part of an orchestra, so it brings back happy memories.

The seemed very grand and majestic to me. I got interrupted every time I tried to listen to it though so my concentration wasn’t what it should have been.

Today's was ok, bright and breezy, but not especially memorable. I can't really recall any detail about the different themes and melodies even though I've only just listened.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew

Today's was ok, bright and breezy, but not especially memorable. I can't really recall any detail about the different themes and melodies even though I've only just listened.

Well that makes me feel better because I listened this morning but haven’t had chance to comment, and now that I have I find I can’t remember a thing about it!

I felt the same way about it. I kept drifting off and talking to my husband and usually I just listen. When I did give it some attention it seemed nice but it didn't hold me.

How funny.

It's nice to connect this piece, which i know some of, to what it actually is. I don't know. It's never appealed hugely and it still doesn't. I'm reminded of Clive James' dated comment that with Wagner, the memorable bits are never at the edges of the records. I think perhaps I would appreciate it more if I saw the opera? But then Swan Lake was a favourite piece for years until I saw some of the ballet and the dancing I'd imagined didn't happen - I haven't listened to it since.

It's not a particularly interesting piece. Pleasant enough but not very memorable. I like it because it brings me back to a particular time and place.

Allegri - Misereri

A piece I know well and love. The top C gives me shivers. It's so atmospheric. Also I am gobsmacked that Mozart transcribed this from memory after listening once!

It's a beautiful piece and it also gives me the shivers. It's funny. I remember learning that fact about Mozart a long time ago in music theory class, but have only just realised that this was the psalm that he transcribed.

Beautiful, haunting, ethereal.
This piece plays a central role in a book I read recently - A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe - so I’ve listened to it a few times in the last month. I’d never heard it before that.

Beautiful, I love this. I heard it sung live last year, although I didn’t remember that until I listened this morning.
I wasn’t moved by the Wagner yesterday.

I love this. I read a YouTube comment that said the high parts were originally sung by castrati, which took me down a rather odd wormhole.

Reread my post and want to clarify that I didn't love the whole castrati thing. Pretty heartbreaking.

Today’s gave me shivers too. It felt cleansing somehow.

I was imagining how powerful it must have been in that evening service, with the candles being extinguished one by one.