My son, chosen and loved

We live in a world where meaning is becoming lost beneath piles of distractions. As our technologies expand, things like a mother's loving advice to her son during a nature walk, expressed in terms of timeless wisdom, are being replaced by physical and emotional distances and electronic diversions. But we are still human, and in our souls will forever be a yearning for nourishment that occasionally, at least, fights through all of the distractions and requests meaningful activity.

"My son, chosen and loved, Let your mother share your wounds"

Thus begins Henryk Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, a timely source of catharsis for today's person. The initial critical response to this symphony was negative, and it focused on Gorecki's break from his previous, avant-garde style. How ultimately fitting.

Naxos Catalogue No. 8.550822

Magnum Opus

The term "magnum opus" is reserved for an artist's greatest achievement. In some cases, the artist, the public, and critics all agree upon the work that is worthy of such distinction; in others, it takes over 200 years before a consensus begins to emerge, informed by the composer's place in the repertoire; and in yet other cases, there is no consensus, and there need not be one. If you, however, are looking for one great work to introduce you to a composer, then you couldn't do much better than to refer to this list, which I compiled based on scrupulous research.

I must give credit to the editors at http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best-classic-top10.html. Their classical music lists are well-informed, and I agreed with nearly all of their 39 choices for a composer's "top work."

Adams, John - Nixon in China
Albeniz, Isaac - Iberia
Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni - Oboe Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9, No. 2
Bach, Carl Philippe Emanuel - 6 Hamburg Symphonies, Wq. 182
Bach, Johann Sebastian - Mass in B Minor
Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich - Tamara
Barber, Samuel - Adagio for Strings
Bartok, Bela - Concerto for Orchestra
Bax, Arnold - Tintagel
Beach, Amy Marcy Cheney - Symphony in E Minor "Gaelic"
Beethoven, Ludwig von - Symphony No. 9 "Choral"
Bellini, Vincenzo - Norma
Berg, Alban - Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"
Berio, Luciano - Sequenza I for Flute solo
Berlioz, Hector - Symphonie Fantastique
Bernstein, Leonard - Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story"
Berwald, Franz Adolf - Symphony No. 3 "Singuliere"
Bizet, Georges - Carmen
Boccherini, Luigi - String Quintet in E Major, Op. 11, No. 5
Borodin, Alexander - Symphony No. 2
Boulez, Pierre - Le marteau sans maitre
Brahms, Johannes - Symphony No. 4
Britten, Benjamin - War Requiem
Bruch, Max - Violin Concerto No. 1
Bruckner, Anton - Symphony No. 7
Buxtehude, Dietrich - Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne for Organ in C Major, BuxWV137
Byrd, William - My Ladye Nevells Booke
Cage, John - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Carter, Elliott - String Quartet No. 2
Chabrier, Emmanuel - Espana
Chausson, Ernest - Poeme for Violin and Orchestra
Chopin, Frederic - Preludes, Op. 28
Copland, Aaron - Appalachian Spring
Corelli, Arcangelo - Concerti grossi, Op. 6
Couperin, Francois - Pieces de clavicin, Book 3, Ordre 13 in B Minor
Debussy, Claude - La Mer
Delibes, Leo - Lakme
Delius, Frederick - On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Donizetti, Gaetano - Lucia di Lammermoor
Dowland, John - Lachrimae
Dufay, Guillaume - Mass "Se La Face ay pale"
Dukas, Paul - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Dvorak, Antonin - Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Elgar, Edward - Cello Concerto in E Minor
Enescu, George - Romanian Rhapsodies
Falla, Manuel de - El amor brujo
Faure, Gabriel - Requiem
Franck, Cesar Auguste - Violin Sonata in A Major
Gabrieli, Giovanni - In Ecclesiis
Gershwin, George - Rhapsody in Blue
Gesualdo, Carlo - Madrigals, Book VI
Gibbons, Orlando - First Set of Madrigals and Mottets
Glass, Philip - Einstein on the Beach
Glazunov, Alexander - Violin Concerto in A Minor
Glinka, Mikhail - Russlin and Ludmilla
Gluck, Christoph von - Orpheus and Eurydice
Gorecki, Henryk - Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"
Gounod, Charles Francois - Faust
Grainger, Percy - Lincolnshire Posy
Granados, Enrique - Goyescas
Grieg, Edvard - Piano Concerto in A Minor
Handel, George Frideric - Messiah
Haydn, Franz Joseph - The Creation
Hildegard of Bingen - Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum
Hindemith, Paul - Mathis der Maler (Symphony)
Holst, Gustav - The Planets
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk - Piano Concerto No. 2
Ives, Charles - Three Places in New England
Janacek, Leos - Glagolitic Mass
Josquin Desprez - Missa Pange Lingua
Kabalevsky, Dmitri - The Comedians, for small orchestra (suite)
Khachaturian, Aram - Gayane
Kodaly, Zoltan - Hary Janos Suite
Korngold, Erich - Violin Concerto in D Major
Kreisler, Fritz - Liebesleid
Lalo, Edouardo - Symphonie espagnole
Lassus, Orlande de - Penitential Psalms of David
Lehar, Franz - Die lustige Witwe
Leoncavallo, Ruggiero - I Pagliacci
Leonin - Viderunt Omnes
Ligeti, Gyorgy - Atmospheres
Liszt, Franz - Piano Sonata in B Minor
Lully, Jean-Baptiste - Atys
Machaut, Guillaume de - Messe de Nostre Dame
Mahler, Gustav - Symphony No. 5
Martinu, Bohuslav - Double Concerto for 2 String Orchestras, Piano & Timpani
Mascagni, Pietro - Cavalleria Rusticana
Massenet, Jules - Werther
Mendelssohn, Felix - Midsummer Night's Dream Incidental Music
Messiaen, Olivier - Quartet for the End of Time
Meyerbeer, Giacomo - Les Huguenots
Milhaud, Darius - La Creation du Monde
Monteverdi, Claudio - Vespro della Beata Vergine
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Don Giovanni
Mussorgsky, Modest - Pictures at an Exhibition
Nielsen, Carl - Symphony No. 5
Offenbach, Jacques - The Tales of Hoffman
Pachelbel, Johann - Canon and Gigue in D Major
Paganini, Nicolo - Caprices for Solo Violin
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da - Missa Papae Marcelli
Part, Arvo - Tabula Rasa
Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista - Stabat Mater
Perotin - Beata Viscera
Piazzolla, Astor - Tango Suite for Two Guitars
Poulenc, Francis - Flute Sonata
Prokofiev, Sergei - Symphony No. 5
Puccini, Giacomo - La Boheme
Purcell, Henry - Dido and Aeneas
Rachmaninov, Sergei - Piano Concerto No. 2
Rameau, Jean-Philippe - Castor et Pollux
Rautavaara, Einojuhani - Cantus Arcticus "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra"
Ravel, Maurice - Daphnis et Chloe
Reger, Max - Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor
Respighi, Ottorino - Pines of Rome
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai - Scheherazade
Rodrigo, Joaquin - Concierto de Aranjuez
Rossini, Gioachino - The Barber of Seville
Saint-Saens, Camille - Symphony No. 3 "Organ"
Sarasate, Pablo Martin de - Zigeunerweisen
Satie, Erik - 3 Gymnopedies
Scarlatti, Domenico - Sonata in E, K.380, L.23 "Cortege"
Schnittke, Alfred - Concerto Grosso No. 1
Schoenberg, Arnold - Verklarte Nacht
Schubert, Franz - Winterreise
Schumann, Clara Josephine - Trio for Piano and Strings in G Minor
Schumann, Robert - Piano Concerto in A Minor
Schutz, Heinrich - Symphoniae Sacrae III, Op. 12
Scriabin, Alexander - Piano Sonata No. 5
Shostakovich, Dmitri - Symphony No. 10
Sibelius, Jean - Symphony No. 2
Smetana, Bedrich - Ma Vlast
Stockhausen, Karlheinz - Kontakte
Strauss, Johann, Jr. - The Blue Danube Waltz
Strauss, Richard - Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Stravinsky, Igor - The Rite of Spring
Tallis, Thomas - Spem in alium
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich - Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Telemann, Georg Philipp - Overture-Suite for Recorder, Strings and Basso Continuo in A Minor, TV 55 no a 2
Tippett, Michael - A Child of Our Time
Vaughan Williams, Ralph - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Verdi, Giuseppe - Otello
Victoria, Tomas Luis de - O Magnum Mysterium
Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
Vivaldi, Antonio - Four Seasons
Wagner, Richard - Tristan und Isolde
Walton, William - Symphony No. 1
Weber, Carl Maria von - Der Freischutz
Webern, Anton - Five Movements for String Quartet
Wieniawski, Henryk - Violin Concerto No. 2
Wolf, Hugo - Morike Lieder

I welcome comments challenging the works I've decided to include here.

Johann Pachelbel

When Johann Pachelbel was 25 years old (in the year 1678), he began working as an organist at a Protestant church in Erfurt, Germany, called Predigerkirche ("Preacher's Church"). He remained there for 12 years. During this time, he composed his now-famous Canon in D.

Predigerkirche's official website has many photos ("Bilder") of the church that you can view here. Seeing the beauty of the architecture and of the organ, it is not hard to imagine how Pachelbel was inspired to compose music of such elegance and optimism. I like to think of the Canon in D as a timeless artifact containing something of the essence of the church and of Pachelbel's experiences working there.

Vivaldi's Tour

The Baroque era is the earliest period of classical music from which music is still widely listened to and performed today (although there definitely remains interest in Renaissance as well as earlier music). Most of the famous Baroque composers all lived around the same time. Below is a time line showing when they lived.


All of these composers passed away before the United States of America was born. And during their lives, people still got around either on foot or on horses or by small boat. I wonder which Vivaldi would be more surprised to discover were he to tour the world of the 21st century: (1) the modern system of ground transportation, or (2) his music being rated and discussed on youtube. I imagine the latter would be the more amazing discovery.

Here is one of my favorite works by Vivaldi. I particularly like the third movement (2:45 - 4:35). (I might not have discovered this and many other works without the Internet.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZqcpMRLis

Zipf's Law

In response to a comment I received for the post "What's on the Radio?, Part 2," yes, the data is largely Zipfian.

Zipf's Law is an empirical law that states that given some collection of natural language utterances, the frequency of any word is inversely proportional to its frequency rank. This means that in a body of text such as all the words contained in this blog, the most frequent word ("the") should appear about twice as often as the second most frequent word; the second most frequent word should appear about twice as often as the fourth most frequent word; and so on.

Something that has intrigued statisticians for decades is the fact that many types of data besides natural language data also can be well approximated by Zipfian distributions. The test to see if some data is Zipfian is to plot the logarithm of the frequency by the logarithm of the rank. If the resulting data points tend to fall along a straight line, then the data is Zipfian.

In this case, which is only analogous to the natural language domain, frequency of words is replaced by airtime of composers. We see in the scatter plot above that the data is in fact Zipfian for a large range of values.