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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 19: How do you keep a retard in suspense? +...

Tell me:  How do you keep a retard in suspense?[Hmmm...  Why would Dumbo begin a diary with such an offensive joke?  He must have some ulterior motive...]We'll get the answer to this and many other...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 20: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

Let's do things differently this time.  Let's go STRAIGHT to the music and then talk about it afterwards (or while you're listening.)Prelude to the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner, conducted...

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Thursday Classical Music Opus 26: Music a la Mode

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, by Raiph Vaughan Williams. Performers unknown.There is no ice cream with this music.  Although you are quite welcome to go grab a scoop while you listen to the...

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Thursday Classical Music Opus 27: Alternate Scales

I heard this in fifth or third grade, I think.  Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, by Claude Debussy, performers unknown.  We had a teacher that used to hold up pictures of fauns (little satyr guys...

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Classical Music S. 2: The Pedal Point

As I sit here writing this paragraph, I can hear birds singing outside my window. What makes this bird song musical? Quite simply, the fact that it's changing. If the bird were just singing the same...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 32: Bartok - The Music of the Night

Ah!  The children of the night!  What beautiful music they make!  [Spoken in my scariest Bela Lugosi voice.]Oh, does that scare you too much?  Imagine Gary Oldman's voice, then.Sadly for any vampire...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 40: Tchaikovsky Symphony #4

Last year we did the Tchaikovsky #6, the Pathetique Symphony, all four movements, over the course of three weeks.  And some people moaned, because Tchaikovsky brings out the snob in people.  It's...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 46: Mozart Symphony #41, "The Jupiter Symphony"

Woody Allen once said that Mozart's Symphony 41 proved the existence of God.Did he really?  It's a nice quote but I can't verify it.  Googling it comes up with a host of sites paraphrasing it exactly...

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Thursday Classical Music Opus 45: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

On the right, we have a famous painting of composer Johann Sebastian Bach.  My first thought when seeing that painting is, what a very big man to write such tiny, tiny music!  What is that, a napkin...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 50: Mozart and the Cadence

Just a little something to throw out there so we have a diary.  I've deliberately absented myself for the last three weeks and was on the verge of doing so this week, but I got the sudden idea for...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 52: Mozart's Requiem

"Our riches, being in our brains, die with us...unless of course someone chops off our head, in which case, we won't need them anyway."-W. A. MozartMozart as Goth music. Check this one out.Lacrymosa,...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 54: Sonata-allegro... DA CAPO!

What is this?  An Italian lesson?  Well, maybe just a little.  Da Capo is Italian and means "From the beginning." In music, it means going back to the beginning and repeating the previous material.So...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 55: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

If I've put off covering Beethoven's Fifth for more than a year, it's not because it's not great music or because it's difficult to discuss.  It's just hard to find something to say that hasn't already...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 56: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (finale)

Last week, Bluegrass50 told us that the following (30 second clip) is his favorite part of the Beethoven Fifth Symphony.  It's interesting to pull things like this out of context; they become more...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 59: Beethoven Symphony #7, the finale

The great Dailykos Beethoven Festival of 2011 continues!  And it may continue over into 2012!This is the third and last installment on our three-part diary on the Beethoven Symphony #7.  As I've noted...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 62: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Beethoven's  Ninth Symphony.  One of the crown jewels of civilization.That's the third time I've said that now.  The funny thing is, that's not a controversial or unduly hyperbolic statement....

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 77: Szymanowski Violin Concerto #1

Violin soloist Nicola Benedetti"All the birds pay tribute to me for today I wed a goddess. And now we stand by the lake in crimson blossom in flowing tears of joy, with rapture and fear, burning in...

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A 3:2 Man In A 2:1 World — Frequency Ratios are the Nuts and Bolts of Music...

Recently I visited a diary that had nothing to do with any of my interests or skills (probably a familiar experience for most of us).  In this case, it was the diary title that caught my eye; this...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 80: Post your favorite FUGUE!

This is going to be one of those audience participation days (I hope).  So, let's all POST YOUR FAVORITE FUGUE! (Or sort-of-like-a-fugue thing).Here's one of my favorites.Polka and Fugue (from...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 82: Schubert's String Quartet #15 in G

The Ninth Wave by Ivan AivazofskyI used to have fun searching for the right artwork for my diaries, especially with the Romantic pieces.  For today's work, the Schubert String Quartet #15, I looked for...

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Thursday Classical Music OPUS 97: Antonin Dvorak, Harry Burleigh, and...

This started out to be a diary about Antonin Dvorak's String Quartet #12, "The American Quartet," but it became too content heavy, so I'm going to leave it like this, as a prelude to next week, and...

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Morning Open Thread

Welcome to Morning Open Thread, a daily post with a MOTley crew of hosts who choose the topic for the day's posting. We support our community, invite and share ideas, and encourage thoughtful,...

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