Whats playing on your system today?

@n80, I actually listen to Classical a lot (especially the Baroque era), but don't usually comment on it here. While fairly knowledgeable about Popular (non-Classical) music, I can be viewed as a dilettante in regard to the serious stuff.

The title I posted about is not just the 9th, but all nine of Beethoven's symphonies, in a little boxset. Listening to them all back-to-back is interesting: one becomes more aware of the composer's "tricks" (not said in the pejorative sense ;-); the frequent use of dynamic swells leading to a staccato chord punctuation. I actually prefer Mozart as a symphony composer; his are more different from one another, and he wrote far more of them.

But to me, J.S. Bach is THE composer's composer. I am of course not alone in holding that opinion. I was introduced to JSB by a songwriter I was recording with in '74-'75, the only genius I've known. He was a music major first at San Jose State College and then The University of California at Riverside, and possessed perfect pitch. Learning to sing a Fugue---as I was required to do in our work---was the hardest thing I've ever done. It also instilled in me a low tolerance for "flat" singing, and out-of-tune guitars. Both are far more common than you would think!