#copland

salt lake city, utah 1980

rehearsal, "billy the kid"

Appalachian Spring (Aaron Copland):

1 Submission

Last win - Keyboard Partita no. 2 (JS Bach)

GO APPALACHIAN SPRING GO. how does it have no propaganda. i will not do this any sort of justice. have you ever experienced spring? how rain falls for the first time? how ice melts back into the river and flows into the town and washes away the cold depths of winter? have you ever heard a symphony so grand. so celebratory of this one all encompassing instance in nature? yes it is a river. yes it is the town. it is you. it is aaron himself. it is leonard bernstein the director.it is the folk songs that get passed down and sung bc the winter is over at last - and when we find ourselves in the place just right we'll be in the valley of love & delight. ily Appalachian Spring doppio movinento was 12th on my wrapped this year :)

The Planets Suite (Gustav Holst):

2 Submissions

Last win – Bye

The Bakshi Lord of the Rings set "Mithrandir" to the theme from Jupiter! It's very touching :)

honestly magical. dramatic start, Jupiter both breaks my heart and makes me feel alive, the fading chorus at the end is like floating away into space. I don’t have a favourite recording. However I should mention that Melodica Men did a wonderful rendition of Jupiter that I’d like to share (they did Mars too but I like this more):

I know I'm too late for Pride Month. And I wasn't planning on posting much this year related to Pride, mostly because the category of "queer composers" includes a large span of styles and eras where the sexuality or gender identity may not necessarily be relevant to the music.

However (at the very least here in America) the political atmosphere has made queerness "controversial" again, and whenever there's a vocal effort to erase queerness and insist upon a heteronormative view of culture, history, biology, psychology, morality, etc. it only ever leads to real world harm for all of us.

So I don't think Pride Month should end just because the corporate calendar is ready for the next marketable holiday or season; don't be afraid to say "Gay" or "Trans" or "Queer", we exist and have always existed and here are some contributions to classical music history (with a few significant Jazz composers).

This list is a mix, mostly music by LGBT composers (either those who self-identify, or those who were alive before the category was articulated but evidence shows they could be classified as "queer"), and some that are on queer subjects (i.e. the only Bach piece here is an aria he wrote for a cantata where the sun god Phoebus (Apollo) mourns the death of his lover Hyacinth, and accepts that through love he is never truly dead).

YouTube Links: Copland 3, Beach Gaelic

Submitter's Comments:

Copland 3 (1 submittal)

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Beach Gaelic (1 submittal)