For now, I’m trying to spend most of my time thinking and writing about the conjunction of AI and philosophy, because I think philosophers haven’t been stepping up enough on this. But I really enjoyed taking some time to think about Bach, over the past couple of days, before appearing on Evan Goldfine’s excellent podcast. So I thought I’d break up the AI diatribe here with a quick post about classical music…
A while ago, I made a playlist for some friends who wanted to gain some sense of the span of classical music, in terms of the chronological development of ‘Western classical art music’. I just had a quick look through this playlist, and I think it makes for a pretty good starting place, caveated in all the ways you can imagine for yourself. In other words, this playlist is of course limited by its length (only 20 pieces!) as well as many other things, including my various biases. Indeed, it also counts as a playlist of some of my favourite pieces and performances — often both at the same time!
Nonetheless, if you’re new to listening to classical music, or generally only listen to classical music from a small set of time periods or sub-genres, or haven’t spent much time thinking about how it might all ‘fit together’ in terms of development across time, then I think this playlist is a pretty good place to start.
So here’s a link, which should allow you to have a listen:
And here’s a quick list of the contents of this playlist, in case you can’t make the link work. Or in case you’re intrigued to know what I’ve included, but would rather spend a minute reading than 2 hours and 37 minutes listening!
Felix Virgo - Inviolata genitrix by Machaut
The Kyrie from the Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina
The Dixit Dominus from the 1610 Vespers by Monteverdi
The Dixit Dominus from Dixit Dominus by Handel
Les Barricades Mystérieuses by Couperin
The first movement of The Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach
Dove Sono from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
The final movement of Symphony No. 7 by Beethoven
Nacht und Träume by Schubert
Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras from Ein deutsches Requiem by Brahms
The Prelude to Act 1 from Die Meistersinger by Wagner
The first movement of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninoff
La cathédrale engloutie by Debussy
The first movement of the violin concerto by Berg
Not Even Summer Yet by Benjamin Britten
Waltz II from Jazz Suite No. 2 by Shostakovich
Beim Schlafengehen from Vier letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss
O Magnum Mysterium from Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël by Poulenc
The Great Train Race by Ian Clarke
Theseus Game by Harrison Birtwistle
Enjoy!
Thanks for this!