Well, from the Czech Republic some of the most famous e.g.

Antonin Leopold Dvorak (classic ;-)
Bedrich Smetana - Ma vlast)
Leos Janacek (well-known operas)
Bohuslav Martinu (20th century-progress: impres.---neoclass---jazz)

etc. composers from CZ here:
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katego...skladatel%C3%A9

And from all over the world e.g.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Petr Iljiè Èajkovskij (1840 - 1893)
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810 - 1849)
Ferenc Liszt (1811-1886)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

och and even more... find here:
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seznam...BEn%C3%A9_hudby

My favourite these days Franz Schubert and his Ave Maria

Check it out!

;-)

ravel's "sonatine" - first movement (modéré) will blow your mind well, hopefully. great classical piano
or his "pavane pour une infante défunte" (whatever that means..). try em out
as for soundtracks, "band of brothers" by michael kamen is just awesome. sorta in the same rack as "schindler's list"

"Morning Mood" Peer Gynt suite #1:Classic-cartoon-morning-goodness!

Check out your local library! Tons of CD's just WAITING for you there for FREE!

Brahms - Symphony No. 3 in F Major
Vivaldi - Spring from The Four Seasons

My fav: Joaquin Rodrigo - Concierto de Aranjuez

quote:

Originally posted by Michael19 Been listening to the schindlers list sound track and the SHine one.

Keep in mind that film music or contemporary orchestrated music is very different from classical music. Liking film soundtracks won't mean you'll like classical. And even then, it all varies from composer to composer. Classical tends to be more abstract, less direct, while film music is very thematic with obvious melodies, it's built as a mosaic of themes representing different emotions or different events that are pieced together much in the same way that the images of the film itself are. Some films do this subtly, while others are very obvious about it. A good example of this would be the Star Wars soundtrack (which is probably inspired by peter and the wolf). Every major character has their own melody, and factions or forces have their own melody as well (the jedi, the sith, the empire, the rebel alliance...). The whole soundtrack is composed of these same mixed melodies played at different speeds, different keys and with different instruments. Essentially, if you've seen the movie a couple of times, you can listen to the soundtrack and you'll know exactly where it is in the movie.

If you like this sort of music, I'd reccomend everything by John williams, which includes; all six star wars soundtracks (some of which include unreleased material), Harry Potter soundtracks (which sound faily similar to Star Wars in composition), Jurrassic Park, Forest Gump soundtrack by Alan Silvestri, Gladiator Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer (it's very warm and percussion-oriented, much different style than the above), Stargate soundtrack by David Arnold (the movie not the show), Independance Day Soundtrack also by David Arnold.

In classical music, I'd reccomend Brahams, he tends to compose big epic movie-like melodies. Very powerful stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael19 any fans out there? Only recently gotten into it a bit recently and was looking for some recommendations. Been listening to the schindlers list sound track and the SHine one. BOth very enjoyable.

As you would have known, the Shine soundtrack is mostly Rachmaninov's pieces - so try checking some of his music and progress from there. Rach is from the later Romantic period so check out some of the composers from that era - Brahms would be an obvious choice

Aquarian is spot on - check out the film composers that he has mentioned. And as a bonus, check out some Japanese composers as I believe their music is a great introduction to orchestrated contempoary music - they have a great balance of melody, harmony and texture.

Ryuichi Sakamoto
Joe Hisaishi
Nobuo Uematsu
Yoko Kanno
Kaoru Wada

___________________
" I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need "
American composer John Cage on his aesthetic of silence

Do you mean orchestral music?

___________________

www.jexmusic.com - My website

quote:

good example of this would be the Star Wars soundtrack (which is probably inspired by peter and the wolf

Could be inspired by peter and the wolf, but actually the whole star wars soundtrack or , maybe, a large part of it, is a shameless copy of Holst's "Planets" !!!(Which i highly recommend!!!).Generally, john Williams is a well known "Thief"...as well as Hans Zimmer(who i believe lacks any talent or whatsoever).I think that a less known but great soundtrack composer is Nino Rota, the musical genius behind Fellini's movies.Other good soundtrack composers are Basil Poledouris(Conan), Ennio Morricone(who does more than spaggheti westerns you know...) amd ofcourse Vangelis(although he is more "electronic" rather than classicist, his 90s works are more symphonic though...e.g. "Mythodea")

quote:

In classical music, I'd reccomend Brahams

Do you mean "Brahms"?Yes he is very good!

For classical music i'll strongly recommend an epic, romantic and powerfull symphonic suite which contains some very beautifull themes.

Rimsky-Korsakov- "Scheherazade"

In addition, i would suggest you to try th20th century american minimalist symphonic (classical) music , which actually is the ancestor of...well...trance and electronica in general!Famous composers are Philip Glass, Terry Riley, John Adams and Steve Reich.Lots of soundtracks by these lads.Here are Some albums

Philip Glass-"Koyaanisqatsi"
Philip Glass-"Symphonies no. 2 and 3"
Philip Glass- "North Star"
John Adams- "Road Movies"
John Adams- "On the Transmigration of Souls"
Steve Reich- "Exlusive Selection"
Steve Reich- "Different Trains-Electric Counterpoint"
Terry Riley- "In C"
Terry Riley- "A rainbow in Curved Air"
Terry Riley- "Cadenza in The Night Plain"

I'm a big fan of gregorian chants.

That's as classical as it gets

Whats the best version of Pachebel Canon?

Anyone heard Joolz Gianni's Saxaphone version?

Awesome!