on 2011-04-05 dscanland Said:

I am working on some major changes to the Album/Artist pages. I'll add this into the requirements. Thanks Charles.
Not Rated

on 2011-04-05 SolitaryMan Said:

True enough.
Not Rated

on 2011-04-05 CharlesMartel Said:

You should do it SM. Classical music suffers from the weird notion that it requires some ability or understanding to appreciate it. But it is music, like any other. If you like it, you like it and anyone can explain in a review why they like a piece of music.
Rating: 7/10

on 2011-04-04 SolitaryMan Said:

I've been tempted to review some classical music, but I fear my ignorance towards the genre as a whole (I'm merely a dabbler, but can appreciate much of the genre given a chance) would leave me disqualified. It definitely has a place at ME though. In a way, classical was the original DIY, indie-brand of music, was it not? :p
Not Rated

on 2011-04-04 CharlesMartel Said:

I have reviewed other classical albums (I think Albinoni's Oboe Concertos was the first) and have a few more in the pipeline, including some surprising ones (check out Hildegard von Bingen - marvellous stuff). I think not enough attention is paid to some of the really fantastic music which is out there of all different genres. Incidentally, there is no "classical" option on the list of genres. Can that be corrected?
Rating: 7/10

on 2011-04-04 dscanland Said:

Just may be the first Classical Post on Music Emissions. Thanks for giving us some class ;)
Not Rated

Review:

on 2011-04-03 CharlesMartel Said:

Of course, most people who have heard "Variation 9, Nimrod" will know it. For one thing, it is always played at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. Most who have heard it probably cannot identify it, but that is the way things are with classical music these days. It seems we only get to know of classical music through film scores, TV series or TV advertisements and then try to find out what the music was afterwards. This sort of involuntary absorption of music, non-consensual and random, is hardly the way to appreciate any genre.

Edward Elgar was an imperial British composer of the early twentieth century. Born in Worcester, he had a background typical for a middle-class man in the late Victorian era brought up in a county town in an otherwise largely rural area. His was an era when Britain ruled the waves and much of the world with it. As such, he is not considered very politically correct these days, a bit jingoistic. That is a shame and Elgar should not be written off because of the prejudices of his age. That would be like writing off the Rolling Stones as a product of the Cold War. Elgar was not patriotic in a chauvinistic way. He was just proud to be British. He did not put anyone down - we are not talking Wagner here, for instance - he just displayed pride in being British by concentrating on almost purely British themes in his music. And those themes were deeply rooted in his upbringing and his surroundings.

"The Enigma Variations" themselves are a series of fourteen relatively short pieces which, according to Elgar, are each dedicated to one of his circle of friends. Though they are not necessarily named, there are enough clues in the subtitles of each (usually the initials of the person), to give an identity to most of them. The initials of the first variation indicate it was dedicated to Elgar's wife, Caroline Alice Elgar; the second is dedicated to amateur pianist and colleague Hew David Steuart-Powell; the third is for the amateur actor Richard Baxter Townsend; the fourth is to William Meath Baker; the fifth is to Richard Penrose Arnold, son of the poet Matthew Arnold; for the sixth, Ysobel is most likely Elgar's viola pupil, Isobel Fitton; the seventh is for architect Arthur Troyte Griffiths; the eighth is for Winifred Norbury; the ninth has caused some debate but is now believed to be dedicated to Augustus J. Jaeger; the tenth is to Dora Penny, step-daughter of William Meath Baker and sister-in-law of Richard Baxter Townsend; the eleventh is to George Robertson Sinclair, organist at Hereford Cathedral, near Elgar's hometown of Worcester; the twelfth is to the cellist, Basil G. Nevinson; and the fourteenth is for Elgar himself, the initials spelling his wife's nickname for him.

That only leaves the thirteenth which is unattributed - an enigma within an enigma perhaps. Various suggestions have been put forward but the most likely candidates seem to be either Lady Mary Lygon or Helen Weaver, formerly Elgar's fiancee.

So, now you know that piece of stirring British music "Nimrod", go listen to the rest. You won't be disappointed - try the "Coronation March", written for the Coronation of King Edward VII, for instance or the rest of the Variations. Edward Elgar deserves a decent honest, open-minded hearing and a long-overdue re-evaluation of his place in musical history.
Rating: 7/10