Music Collection

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Has anyone found any good music lately? Any new discoveries or appreciations? I'm curious, because, since 2012, I've been collecting all kinds of music, going for as complete a collection as I can of a number of artists. As such, I feel I have quite an extensive library. Some I've found to like even more than I did originally, others I didn't expect to like as much but came off as quite a surprise. I'd sure like to know others' experiences.

So what have you found?

[Raven]

That's a good topic.

Recently, a Mongolian band named Khusugtun have caught my attention. Their music is amazing. Some of it might be religious/spiritual in nature, not entirely positive or supportive of whatever their message might be, but just as music it is downright amazing. Here is a youtube link: https://youtu.be/oUxyh1HTssU

Also, this French guy who could imitate all sorts of different instruments and play music "with himself." Start with: https://youtu.be/dQ9Yzr3Lehg     and maybe then:     https://youtu.be/dQ9Yzr3Lehg

Of course, I'm always listening to a lot of fiddle-type music.

Justin, what's got your attention lately in music?

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Elvis Costello and Van Morrison. Also currently listening to the complete studio work of Lou Reed and David Bowie.

Really, I have so much music that I have a couple external hard drives set aside to keep space free on my computer. I'm constantly collecting and playing stuff on my iPod.

I can't say, though, that I have a whole lot in the way of world music, though I am quite fond of it. Yes, I have a good number of classical pieces, but nothing like that Mongolian band. Shame. They really are good.

[Raven]

Well, as you probably remember I'm very much a lover of fiddle music.
This video is always good for a fiddle and accordion pick-me-up:
https://youtu.be/fEGxWWctBtw

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

One of the most interesting developments with fiddles is the way rock bands can incorporate them into the act without sounding disjointed. Take, for example, the progressive rock band Kansas (I'm big into progressive rock):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q-9P0Y0e2s

[Raven]

Speaking of music, I just read this article. It's very interesting:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2016/issue-43-march-3-2016/messy-secrets-of-perfect-pitch.html?share=9iiOSaVXTxPFK6OUky7ORkFlEciMvFBv

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Yes, it is. Here's another article I've been holding onto, regarding the spiritual connections of punk rock, of all things:
http://christandpopculture.com/punk-rocks-prophetic-profane-outsider-community/

[Raven]

A friend recently asked me for some suggestions on music, and this is a list I just threw together for him:

Ewan Dobson, Time 2
https://youtu.be/eXqPYte8tvc

Julie Fowlis, Scottish Puirt a Beul, vocal dance music.
https://youtu.be/k3UydfYggEU

Shane Cook and Jake Charron, Ontario Tunes
Shane lives near where I'm from and I've had the fortune to jam with him over the years.
https://youtu.be/u9N-ZlnOVnk

Hurdy Gurdy, anyone?
https://youtu.be/QHmML7bu-iM

Stan Rogers, one of the greatest folk singers to have ever written a song.
https://youtu.be/fT-aEcPgkuA

Traditional Swedish tunes on Nyckelharpa
https://youtu.be/38G1uYgU7_A

Time for some comic relief:
https://youtu.be/uXMuWi0dUBc

A fiddle game as played in Pembroke, Ontario where the judge calls out a key and the fiddler has to respond by playing the first part of a tune in that key, and no one can repeat a tune that's already been played.
https://youtu.be/nKf7eh-eXcE

Roma music, anyone?
https://youtu.be/VqwPDWF0Mwc
or
https://youtu.be/zxmuJEnT0wc

Or Gypsy jazz,
https://youtu.be/jjc832n1bVU

Kate Rusby, one of the great English folk singers:
https://youtu.be/95WeNwF5448

Booker White, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues
https://youtu.be/bsMpHHSLSlc

Tony MacMahon, masterful performance on the Irish button box.
https://youtu.be/cdXRX9VEqaQ

Scottish master fiddler and accordionist brothers Phil and Johnny Cunningham:
https://youtu.be/fEGxWWctBtw

Annbjorg Lien on the Norwegian Hardingfele or Hardanger fiddle (typically with 8 or nine strings).
https://youtu.be/0ioX9-UGboc

Chinese Er Hu:
https://youtu.be/SL3BXzJoVQ4


Pierre Schryer, the McDades, and Tiffany Fewster (great Ontario step dancer)
https://youtu.be/mLkduWb4XJ0

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Boy, this is an old topic - as of this post, it's more than two years old! I think I'll make another topic (unless those wiser than I advise against it) where I'd like to discuss some of my favorite music, and I'd also like others to join along with me. But this one I'd like to keep around for discussing new stuff that you've found lately, because it's always coming in. Has anything come your way recently?

On the popular music side, I've discovered Graham Parker. He's sort of a proto-new wave artist, his style predating those more well-known like Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. It's some pretty funky stuff, blending the angst of punk with the good time fun of pub rock in his first three albums, then he goes completely new wave for the fourth onwards, although it might be a disservice to pigeonhole him to just a single brand. If you like new wave or any artist like him, you should check him out.

It's a funny thing - sometimes in the past, I've said I like all genres of music while being rather murky on the full extent of that phrase. However, I'm really starting to take it seriously and branch out into stuff outside my own comfort zone; however, there are some things I tend to avoid entirely due to both personal preference and content, like most black/doom metal (where Satanism tends to be taken seriously in some cases) and hardcore gangsta rap (when the n-word and misogyny comes into frequent use). I'm starting to take stock of more 90's/00's artists, where before I hade stayed mostly confined to the past (the late 50's through some of the 90's). Some years back, I even started picking up jazz artists, and, when I was going through some serious anxiety episodes, I began amassing classical music.

Strangely enough, my taste in movies ended up piquing an interest where I never thought there would be. It was the latest Mission: Impossible movie at the time - Rogue Nation - a definite crowd pleaser, and I think that series just keeps getting better and better; I remember even thinking that that is how they should do a G. I. Joe movie if they put their mind to it (yes, I'm still nostalgically attached somewhat to things like that, but not so much anymore as it used to be). The part that had the most significant effect on me was somewhere around the middle, where they were attempting to foil an assassination attempt on a foreign diplomat. It wasn't the action, however - it was the music. See, this assassination was taking place during a performance of Puccini's Turandot, and while I was definitely suspensefully (is that a word?) glued to my seat, I was entranced by what I was hearing, and I thought to myself that I'd actually like to add that to my collection, as it was actually more interesting than I had originally gave it credit for. Well, some time later, I ended up purchasing a copy of Turandot on the iTunes Store, and while I won't say that I was "blown away", it definitely stuck with me deep enough that from then on, I began to slowly come to a sincere appreciation of opera. I had only heard bits and pieces of opera before, and no one I know had ever expressed a fondness for it before (not even my music teachers, to my knowledge), but it was a surprise that I'm quite fond of.

Thus, my current opera collection is small but slowly growing, with:
-2 copies of Puccini's Turandot, the first (the original one I bought) featuring José Carreras and Montserrat Caballé from 1977, and the second (my most recent purchase from last night) being the 1972 version featuring Luciano Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland
-Verdi's La Traviata, the 1983 production again featuring Pavarotti and Sutherland
-Rossini's Guillaume Tell, the 1973 production featuring Gabriel Bacquier and Montserrat Caballé
-Rossini's The Barber of Seville from 1983 performed my the Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner and featuring Thomas Allen, Agnes Balta and Francisco Araiza
-Mozart's The Magic Flute, the 1955 production by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Böhm and featuring Hilda Gueden, Wilma Lipp, Léopold Simoneau and Walter Berry

I did have a couple others I got from the library, but I deleted them to go after some more prestigious performances. For instance, I also had Mozart's Don Giovanni under the 1997 production conducted by Sir Georg Solti, but what I really want is the 1959 version under Carlo Maria Giulini. Well, I'll get it someday - I don't want to go spending too much money per month, after all.

So, that's my story. What's yours?

UPDATE: Oh, how could I forget? I also happen to have a complete (as in the entirety) studio recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by James Levine. I tell you, it's quite a treasure to have that, especially in its complete form. I just spent some time properly breaking it down into four separate entries on my iTunes account, as listening to all 15 hours in one go can be pretty taxing. Better to take it one part at a time.

[Raven]

I can't say that I've listened to much music in the past few months — especially much of anything new.
But I have been exposed to opera. My dad was an opera singer and of course enjoyed opera. I went and saw a performance of Madame Butterfly as a kid. My dad enjoys Wagner. I've played at least one piece from opera on the violin, just solo. Nevertheless, despite this exposure, I've never done much listening to opera although certain melodies can be nice. When it comes to trained voices, I tend to gravitate more to a broadway style, I.e. Les Miserables or something along those lines.