Well, I got out for a bit with Dad. Panera and then coffee. Could have had coffee at Panera I guess, but Dad and I didn't. I'm on a third bottle of water in like an hour. Worried about my blood sugar or my lithium levels.

So I'm wondering if anyone tried any of the classical music. Just to give you some ideas... Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is a good piece for young people because it sounds a hell of a lot like metalcore... not bad for adults when you're in the mood to hit someone or f%*! either. Modal piece, a ballet, and a piece with a whole lot of motifs in it that never get developed too much. You don't care, but I'm always listening to it and stealing shit out of it to develop. It's called "quotation," unless you do it to a contemporary.

The Haydn I suggested, the Emmanuel Ax Piano Sonatas on Sony are pretty mature. They sound real airy-fairy but they're not. There is a lot of depth of feeling in there and some of the best sonata forms you're ever going to see. Ax does a real nice job highlighting the architecture, and the emotional content is very good, if obscured. Some of that is the nature of the compositions.

The Magic Flute is a comic or low Opera with some great occult overtones. Practicioners of Gardnerian will enjoy hearing Tamino pass his third degree and enter the halls of wisdom with his new wife. I have the Deutsche Grammaphon, re-released from like '65, and it's great. Once you've listened to it enough that you start to understand the German you'll start laughing out loud.

Goldberg Variations. The one I have is the 65 Glenn Gould that I got for like $7.99. The thing with Bach keyboard works is that it sounds like 3 or 4 people playing at once because of the overlapping lines. However, there are a lot of people out there who listen to Bach and just hear sixteenth notes, one after the other. I'm not sure if they're immature, or if Bach is just honestly boring to some people. Bach is tied for my first most loved composer with Haydn.

I described Agrippina pretty well. Let's see; I've got an Itzahk Perlman and Daniel Barinboin (?) CD of Violin and Piano Duets by Mozart. Great pieces of music, but I think the intonation of the recording is a little glitchy. I'm not big on Mozartian cadences either. I far prefer his Opera. However, I like this CD a lot and I've been going over it to help me with some problems in the duet I'm writing for cello and piano.

I've got that Kronos Quartet CD: Mugam Sayagi composed by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. I like Oasis and Apsheron Quintet, and find the rest of the CD horrible. Atonal or modal... hard to say... very hard to digest. I've listened to the whole CD five or six times and I'm still working out the motifs, which in plain language means I'm trying to figure out the tune. The form is coming clearer, but I haven't gotten it yet.

Then the Chanticleer, Sound in Spirit. Something here to please everyone. Something there to displease everyone.

Gregorian Chant. Buy it. Turn it on as much as possible. You'll be composing music in no time.

I'll be buying more CD's later this week. I am a slightly less than bottomless cup. For one thing, there is so much art music that I just don't like and I'm not recommending it here. I could give a steaming pile of shit about Mozart's or Beethoven's symphonies. Haydn's symphonies are good, but... I like his chamber music better.

The Horowitz recordings '65, Return to Russia, and the Last Recording have a lot of Chopin on them and the Chopin is wonderfully played. There is an arrangement of a Wagner piece on the last recording which is a real mind bender.

That leaves just a few people I've listened to: Berlioz... there is a very nice Symphonie Fantastique on Deustche Grammaphon. The thing about that piece is that it has that "Romantic period" shifting of harmony and melody in it, and after not having listened to it for a year I can't even remember the theme. Don't get the Damnation of Faust by Berlioz, it's awful.

Tchaikovsky... if it says ballet, then it's good. Get a good record label... Don't get one of the bargain bin ones. Tchaikovsky hated the Nutcracker, but I think he was just mad that everyone liked it better than everything else, the themes are really fun and the writing is incredible. I've heard it so many freaking times that I can't bear to hear it again, but it is good. Romeo and Juliet is a little less kitschy and very lush, and I think people would like that one. Other than that I don't like Tchaikovsky very much, but his 5th (?) Symphony gets a lot of play I think.

There's the Mendelssohn and Brahms symphonies which I don't recall too well, but what I recall was pretty blase. There is the New World Symphony by Dvorak, and I love the opening to the second movement in that. Moussorgsky has that Stravinsky feel, or actually vice versa because Moussorgsky came first and people might like Pictures at an Exhibition if they like that wicked sound.

I'll be back in a couple of hours on a different topic, and in a few days with more music. I know I'm repeating myself a little, but I'm trying not to repeat too much. Like most people I wonder if anyone reads. But I think probably, a few people do. Thanks for hanging in there with me people. I'm finally over the damn smokes. Took a 12 pack of beer and a lot of banging my head against the wall, but I'm smoke free... 13 days now. Later.