Dixon Hill 4,229 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I've been in a strange state of mind for the last several days. I'm sort of coming out of it tonight, and while letting my mind wander I found myself wondering if, among all of the music that I know and love, I could pick an ultimate favorite. I, like most of us, usually give cop-out answers to such questions, saying that it changes too frequently or that it's just impossible to choose. Let's try. I think it offers some insight into ourselves, maybe. I don't know. It doesn't matter how you go about deciding. The specifics of what we look for in music, our taste, etc., don't matter. But I think we all know what touches us beyond the rest. I've still failed to pick one piece, but narrowing it down to these few is a good start. The results are not particularly surprising, after all. What say you, JWFan? Can you make such a difficult choice and get it down to just one? Muad'Dib and Glóin the Dark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glóin the Dark 1,068 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Mahler's Symphony No. 6. It's not so much that this is my undisputed ultimate favourite piece, but rather that it, uniquely, is always one of the top candidates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 1,394 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 My favorite changes constantly. To ask me for just one favorite is like asking me which side of the Earth always faces the sun. It's not that it's difficult to come up with a response - it's that there is no response that adequately answers the question. In some sense, when I listen to a "good" piece of music (i.e., one of the ones I'd at least consider a contender), that one becomes my favorite in that moment. If I'm listening to "The Asteroid Field", I may be intellectually aware that I also love "The Map Room: Dawn", but all I'll want to listen to in that moment is "The Asteroid Field." Once it's over, if I listen to "The Map Room: Dawn", I'll be struck by how foolish I was, because this is now clearly my favorite. Same goes for "Adventures on Earth", or the finale to "The Firebird", or Goldsmith's "Soarin'", or "Journey to the Island", or any number o/f other great pieces of music. It may not be the answer you're looking for, but it's the truth about how my brain works. mrbellamy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,442 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Jessica by The Allman Brothers. That was easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,484 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Ahh, the good old desert island lists...i would limit it to film music because to include it all would be a futile endeavor: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBard 71 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I say it is possible to narrow it down to just one song. You simply divide amongst the genres of music out there. Or did you just mean one song overall regardless of genre? At any rate, it's a loophole that I shall exploit in this challenge.Favorite piece of Romantic Era music: Favorite piece of Classic Rock: ...... ......I'm beginning to see a pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,229 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 among all of the music that I know and love, I could pick an ultimate favorite.No genre "loopholes" please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkissimo 1,971 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 edit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 5,520 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I can't pick a single favourite musical work, or even a single favourite musical piece. But I can pick a definitive favourite musical "section", although it's a matter of interpretation as well. The coda itself is one of my top favourites as it is. But Celibidache (in multiple performances, not just this one - which is not the same I have on CD) takes it at half time by emphasising the "ticking" of the violas to keep the momentum, and elevates it beyond anything else I've ever heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 2,084 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I'm not 100% sure that this would be my absolute #1, but given the playcount recently, it's probably the best candidate I have.For a personal connection, we were driving around the Grand Canyon in 2004, and I was playing this score (the actual CD, back then...) while looking over the amazing expanse. The second half of this cue particularly has a special meaning for me, and I think it's possibly the best 3 minutes of music JNH has ever written.Interesting to see the variance in tastes here - I've always found 'Stored Memories...' goes by without much happening. It's not even in my A.I. playlist. I'm sure there are more recent candidates too, but they haven't had the last 11 years to potentially drop out of my consciousness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 My first impulse was to say there's no way. It's too hard to narrow it down to just one.But then, only a second later, I realized that's not the case. The first piece that jumped to mind was the first piece for a reason. No matter how much music I encounter, I've still never heard the equal to the variety, the power, the sadness, the inspiration, the scope, the nearly operatic magnitude of "Adventures on Earth." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,355 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Impossible to pick just one but for me there is a consistent pattern - great structure, tanscendence, epic, technicolor, grand gestures, ingenutity, timelessness (deals with the big questions), orchestrational brilliance, dramatic, etc. (I mean the complete Planets - not just Mars...the whole thing has such quality and variety) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Score 557 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Limited to film music, my favourite single piece is probably "Luke and Leia", although it is a concert piece. If we mean literally "film music" as "music used in the film", then I would probably pick the whole ending sequence of E.T. . If we extend to ALL kinds of music, for me it is impossible to narrow it down to a single piece. Maybe, just for the sake of the game, I would say Beethoven's 9th symphony, for the musical quality, its message and its role in the history of music.But so much music has been written, with such different scopes and features... just think of Beethoven's 5th symphony (plus, for example, most of his piano sonatas and string quartets), Tchaikovsky's 6th (plus 4th, 5th and some other orchestral works such as Francesca da Rimini and the ballets), Mahler's 5th and 6th, or pieces such as Chopin's Ballades, Wagner's Ring Tetralogy (at least, parts of it!), Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Rachmaninov's piano concerto n.3, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Bartok's "music for strings, celesta and percussion", Janacek's Glagolitic Mass, Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, and I could go on forever (also including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schubert and many others)... how can one pick a single "best" piece? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_vader 407 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 This is difficult but I can get it down to four. The Planets Suite - Holst<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OYdzb6TZW7M"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The Star Wars Trilogy - Williams<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yJJlP1X4V_s"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Shore Beethoven's 5th/7th Symphonies <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7jh-E5m01wY"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pKOpdt9PYXU"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 27,216 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 #1 here: http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21160 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkgyver 1,638 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 The Breaking Of The Fellowship.Nothing comes as close to perfection as this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBard 71 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 among all of the music that I know and love, I could pick an ultimate favorite.No genre "loopholes" please!Very well, Mr. Strict. I will always choose to listen to this no matter which music I voluntarily (or forced to) choose from: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,229 Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I believe my original post is bullshit, and this is all that matters. I'm not sure there's ever been such a direct, immaculate musical utterance. Makes me shrug my shoulders at 99% of the notes I've written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig 1,000 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I believe my original post is bullshit, and this is all that matters. I'm not sure there's ever been such a direct, immaculate musical utterance. Makes me shrug my shoulders at 99% of the notes I've written.Gorgeous. Thank goodness Pärt is Eastern European/Russian. Composers in Western Europe and North America have in recent decades been hiding behind a facade of intellectualism that cranks out reams of really awful music, or what you yourself have called "tonal wankery". The vast majority of classical composers I've met believe that major and minor chords should not be part of a composer's vocabulary. And these same composers rant and rave that the public has no interest in the state of contemporary classical music. Hmm...This is not to slam atonal music, but only the elitism that has become part of it. Williams is one composer who knows how to combine both tonal and atonal in a perfect marriage, and I wish more composers would try to do the same, but alas.Again, thank goodness for Pärt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muad'Dib 1,514 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 These two would be a nice start for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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