music!

classical

• madrigals of carlo gesualdo - incredible music, nicely collated in a playlist with the lyrics in the closed captions. click here
• music by Orlando Gibbons - a fave of Glenn Gould...some really brilliant english renaissance keyboard music + choral stuff.
• speaking of glenn gould, his 1981 recording of the Goldberg Variations is like,,, SO perfect. like seriously. i have it on CD, i've listened to it countless times...i don't think this is improvable!
• L'âme en bourgeon, written by Claire Delbos. The text is taken from Cécile Sauvage's collection of poems of the same name, which can be found in the book Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature - if you don't have a copy I can take some pictures or something. Please do email me. The music is just sublime. I really think Claire Delbos was an immensely talented composer whose tragic death (alongside her being a woman) has hindered her discovery. Listen here.
• I won't bore you now but Olivier Messiaen, my favourite composer was A GENIUS!! you must listen to his work...I'd recommend for beginners Hymne, Turangalîla-Symphonie, L'Ascension and Quatuor pour le fin du temps. I think it's best to become aquainted with the general sound of Messiaen's music before listening to his two - in my opinion - greatest works: Catalogue d'Oiseaux and Saint François d'Assise. Look in the 'written material' section of my 'recommendations' page for reading recommendations on Messiaen.
• I could go on forever about composers I like but in my YouTube channel description I've given a summary: 'my favourite composers comprise a list similar in length to some masterwork of Russian literature, but they include Messiaen, Durlet, Medtner, Schönberg, Matsudaira (Yoritsune), Saariaho, Rădulescu and Ravel. oh, and Bach of course. and Schumann. and Liszt.'

popular

• I suppose this one will be controversial among the kind of person I associate with but whatever...Taylor Swift's albums Folklore and Evermore are really brilliant and mean so much to me. I understand criticism of her as a person (billionaire, private jets, etc. etc.) but I feel like a lot of people unfairly hate her music because it's 'generic' (popular) - these two albums I believe are her two best, most meaningful albums...I totally get people not liking, say, Blank Space because they don't like pop but surely everybody can appreciate the art of these two albums...like oh my God the LYRICS...and the storytelling...AND THE PRODUCTION?? - and they acheive all of this without sacrificing listenability and catchiness...I'm obsessed, aren't I?!
• If I had to choose five favourite albums of popular music, they'd be Taylor Swift's Folklore and Evermore, The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, Lana Del Rey's Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and Time 'n' Place by Kero Kero Bonito.

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