Since we had way too much traffic for me post post this on Tuesday, here is the beer I opened when terribly sad faces at FOX News announced that Obama had a mathematical lock on the election.
***
It appears that not everybody is willing to concede that Bach’s Prelude to the Cello Suite #1 is the greatest piece of music written by man. In the interest of fairness I will post alternative suggestions from the comments, starting with Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations in 1981.
***Update***
Gould part two:
Rick Taylor
Via TBogg, Redstate is on the warpath.
The rest of it, together with TBogg’s commentary and artwork is hilarious; I can’t stop laughing. Clown-shoes would be overly generous.
MattF
I’ll vote for that double violin concerto by the same guy. Just sends me into a sort of euphoric trance.
Egilsson
Come on, everyone knows that Pachabel’s Canon in D Major is the most beautiful piece of music ever.
There are CDs out there called "Pachabel’s Greatest Hit" which consist of 9 variations of this music, because it is so beautiful.
If you aren’t right about this, maybe you aren’t right about… OBAMA!
I shoulda voted for McCain…
Brian
ack…. it’s not complete. no resolution! how can i fall asleep now?
You going to post Mass in B minor next?
libarbarian
Its nice music, but it’s no Rick Astley
Bob In Pacifica
When they announced Obama as a winner I sipped on a glass of Bushmill’s. Then yesterday I got together with my political friend and did it right with a Jameson’s.
Music? "Chocolate City".
phil
Seconded.
Svensker
Bach in general. He is celestial, true music of the spheres.
Glen Gould? I hadn’t heard (or seen) the 1981 stuff and I do like it better than his earlier work. You have to be in the mood for Gould. You don’t have to be in the mood for Bach — that would like having to be in the mood for breathing.
Incertus
Amy and I wound up drinking red wine that night, but we still have a bottle of St. Bernardus Abbey Ale waiting to pop open, when we get a free moment together.
I’m so glad that RedState and the rest are doing this as well, if only for selfish reasons. I was wondering how I’d keep my blog production up, but they seem to be a never-ending source of mock-worthy material.
Dave L
Brian –
Here’s your resolution – last five variations, and Aria da Capo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtt1msnwlZQ
SGEW
Ahh. Thank you, Tim, for th’ Gould on this beautiful* Thursday morning. A perfect little piece of music to match the calm after the storm.
I gotta say that I sure missed th’ comments here over the past four days (I’ve been awful busy! Just got a full night’s sleep for the first time in a week, and whoa boy did it feel good). Hope the election was as good for all o’ y’all as it was for me.
Just wanted to say that the commenters here at BJ have been so very important to me over the past few months: everyone’s** thoughtful and reasoned support for Sen. Obama really helped convince me that the polls were right and that we could really pull off the election. If a putatively "conservative" site’s crew could articulate some of the most deeply convincing reasons to vote Dem, I figgered, then surely we can get Barack over 270. So a big h/t to y’all: many of those reasons made their way into my countless GOTV conversations. Know ye all that your efforts here had real, actual effects upon hundreds of Americans in VA, OH, PA, and even GA who would never read a blog’s comment threads!
Balloon Juice, FTW!
*Actually, it’s kind of a gloomy, overcast day here in NYC . . . but we can transcend the weather – si se puede!
**Almost everyone. Trolls (actual or spoof) do not count.
Punchy
Where to begin?
1) Mr. Brownstone, G’n’R
2) Killing in the Name of, Rage
3) Fire and Rain, James Taylor
4) No Vaseline, Ice Cube
5) Fast as a Shark, Accept
SeanH
Moonlight Sonata in my book, but I’m a sad-song kind of guy.
otto
Oh, you made me comment here. I always read, but never comment.
I’m no classical music fan, but that Gould piece is my absolute favorite piece of piano music.
Aaron Baker
I have a soft spot for the first movement of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. I would describe it as astringent Romanticism.
SGEW
Oh, also re: alternative music selections:
"Reclamation," Fugazi
"Amazing Grace," Ani Difranco
And, cause I’m a big sucker for sappy music, Mozart’s Requiem (particularly Lacrimosa).
Laura W
Just got a forward from a friend of a truly gorgeous series of Obama photos from Nov 5 Boston Globe. Wowza!
DrDave
@Rick Taylor:
So nice to see the Jackals eating their own young.
Could not have possibly happened to a nicer group of folks.
tom
Bach’s B Minor Mass is one of the best pieces ever written IMO.
This performance of the opening chorus is by the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig.
mike
Very close, but it’s Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 that is the finest product of and best justification for Western civilization. (Honorable mention: Ode to Joy.)
Clor
@SGEW:
I loved singing Mozart’s Requiem. I’m also partial to Mendelssohn’s Elijah, espcially the Octet.
Pat
So Tim, was it when they initially called Ohio (then pulled that back), then called Ohio again? Or some other state…
I remember one of the stations saying "Since Obama has Ohio, find McCain’s route to 270". They went through the machinations – "ok, then give him this one", and they ended up at 266.
Just want to nail the moment down here. There were so many fine ones that night.
Dennis - SGMM
@Rick Taylor:
"The purges will continue until morale improves."
Jeff Berardi
Me and Frank Zappa vote for Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring.
Krista
Wow! Thanks for that link Laura!
I loved the one of him and Michelle (my heavens, he IS a good-looking man, isn’t he?), and the one of the giant rally in St. Louis.
And the one of his girls running to meet him as he steps off the plane – too sweet.
Doctor Science
On Tuesday night I celebrated with Rogue Chocolate Stout. Two great tastes that are *fabulous* together. In my youth I always expected stout to taste like chocolate, so this is for me the Platonic Ideal of beer. So rich, complex, and full-flavored that a spoon might stand up in it.
My husband had Arrogant Bastard Ale. I tasted it and it’s beautifully complex and bitter, but it doesn’t go at *all* well with the chocolate stout, so after that we stuck with our own.
robertdsc
I know next to nothing about classical music, but some of the selections shared do really well for my Metallica-induced deaf ears. Thanks.
Pastafarian
What, no love for Rick Astley?
Tymannosourus
I’ll take Ave Maria FTW, which has somehow withstood its nonstop use in churches everywhere.
Also, the depressed looks on the faces of "fox and friends" and the republicans watching McCain’s concession speech will fuel my dreams for at least 2 and 1/2 more years.
JGabriel
Rick Taylor, Quoting Redstate:
I’ve been predicting a Republican "Pure-than-thou" death spiral for months:
.
Brian
ah… thanks. resolution…
for a "perfect" piece of music not sure you could do better than the 2nd movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.
4tehlulz
then they have hate sex
FIN
DrDave
@Jeff Berardi:
I vote for Frank Zappa’s Son of Orange County/More Trouble Every Day.
Halcyon
Any claim of the greatest music ever that doesn’t include Barber’s Adagio for Strings is seriously incomplete.
JGabriel
4tehlulz:
And ten seconds later?
.
Larry Schussler
After hearing Rosalyn Tureck and Angela Hewitt play Bach, I gave my once treasured Glenn Gould recordings away.
Dennis - SGMM
@DrDave:
Dynamo Hum
JL
@Pat: My favorite comment came from BBC where one announcer was explaining to another one why FOX kept calling states early for Obama, (such as Ohio). The announcer said that FOX was the conservative station and they just wanted to get it over with.
Dr. Swanger
Bach Cello Suite No. 1 is right up there, but during this election season I think the best piece has been Dvořak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World." It describes hope out of trouble as well as anything I have in my rotation.
The Other Steve
I am so please to hear that RedState plans to purge the Republican party of the unfaithful pragmatic bourgeois hordes!
VIVA LE REVOLUTION!
AkaDad
According to the GOP Obama is a Socialist, and since he won in a landslide, America clearly supports Socialism.
Clor
Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria is so much better than Schubert’s, in my humble opinion. Chanticleer’s performance is the most famous, but I prefer women choirs like this one. The soaring soprano notes just send shivers through me.
Jeff Berardi
@DrDave
"Well, you can cool it,you can heat it . . .
’cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘n all that phony stuff on sports ‘n all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way the newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so"
Are we sure this was written four decades ago? Could have been four days ago…
The version on "Roxy & Elsewhere" with the two drummers (and a percussionist to boot!) is the best I’ve heard…
Tymannosourus
I’ll also take Clair de Lune by Debussy.
The Moar You Know
@4tehlulz:
I CAN’T UNSEE IT
JGabriel
Halcyon:
Seconded.
Though I’m also partial to Yo La Tengo’s "Blue Line Swinger".
.
Octavian
Glenn Gould was the man, and while he’s famous for his interpretations of Bach, I actually prefer some of his Beethoven performances, especially the "Tempest" sonata.
evap
What’s the beer, Tim? I can’t tell from the picture.
I drank an Ale to the Chief at around 1 a.m. Delicious!
Comrade Stuck
It is at the top of my list too, but my vote for No. 1 would go to Barbers Adagio For Strings. REcently bought the choirestrial version from REal Networks and it’s fantastico.
libarbarian
We could be seeing a real tussle between the "elites" and the "netroots/base" of the GOP.
gnomedad (fmr. Nixon Hailfire Palin)
Ron Paravonian’s Pachelbel Rant is a must-see.
eglenn
Really partial to the 1959 recording of "Rhapsody In Blue" by Bernstein.
Also, in other news, Faux Noise craps its pants at this announcement…
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Dennis – SGMM:
But you can’t discount "Penguin in Bondage".
Pastafarian
I second SGEW’s nomination of the Requiem.
charlotte
Beethoven’s 9th — Start to finish.
The Leper List is hysterical — I get the feeling Malkin does not drink enough of anything.
eglenn
Except the Kool-Aid™.
cleek
all of these are better than any 250 year old piano music.
"drink enough of anything"
oh great… now i’m gonna be singing Lost Horizons for the next 8 hours.
JGabriel
(Removed by author, cause it was a joke EGlenn got to first.)
.
jibeaux
@ Dennis
That’s really nice, but the philosophy actually seems to be "the purges will continue until we have a bigger conservative movement", and it’s the awsum.
Anyway, I came here to ask a real question about the inauguration. Has anyone ever been to one? I did some googling, and there’s all these private ticket vendors selling parade route tickets for $1000 and all sorts of total nonsense. I would appreciate any tips on how would a normal person go about planning a trip to the inauguration, because I’m planning. Accomodations are not a problem, just all the other logistics unique to this kind of event. I’m guessing there’s going to be a couple dozen other people there, too. Cheers.
Comrade Stuck
Heard George Bush is going to give a talk today to senior advisers about the new incoming prez and Commander in Chief.
Shorter version of the briefing might include —Lawyer up Bitches.
Original Lee
Part of the reason why Pachebel’s Canon is so famous is because it is the one piece of music that Pachebel wrote that is memorable – it’s kinda the first member of the One Hit Wonder Club.
Yo Yo Ma and Bach … made for each other!
I have so many "most sublime pieces" because my top 10 changes with my mood, but if anybody wants to add to their list, Brahms Symphony #1 is definitely up there for me. Also Kiri Te Kanawa singing "Porgi amor" from "The Marriage of Figaro."
Cassidy
I had a blueberry lager on election night, by name of wild blue. It was a little too sweet, but not bad.
Now that I’m out of Oklahoma I can drink my favorite, Fat Tire Amber. I’ve waited 4 long years to have that again.
Alistair Frasier and Paul Machlis…violin and piano. Beautiful is an understatement.
canuckistani
One more vote for Gould’s 81 recording of the Goldberg Variations, although just about anything by Bach is a contender. Mass in B-Minor and St. Matthew’s Passion are pretty f’n awesome too, and nicely refute the critics who claim that Bach is all mechanical and soulless.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@eglenn:
Oh, I was hoping for that!
Gibbs, not Rhapsody. Not that Rhapsody isn’t good, especially the Phillippe Entremont/Eugene Ormandy version; it’s just not on my top ten lisst.
Tim F.
It’s my beer. I brewed it in October. The champagne bottle is there because you can put a beer cap on champagne bottles, so I make a point of including a few in each of my bottlings.
canuckistani
A bullet is the only solution now.
grendelkhan
Ah, someone beat me to posting the Pachelbel Rant.
Count me as a fan of Invention No. 4, as played by Gould. Forty-seven seconds of brilliance.
And for sheer classical exuberance, Vivaldi’s "Summer", as played by a guy with a guitar and a girl with a violin. I loved it.
And thanks, SGEW, for that version of Amazing Freaking Grace. Catchy!
JGabriel
jibeaux:
Win.
.
Punchy
alternative shorter: buy a very reliable paper shredder
In other completely surprising news, BTD is back just excoriating Dems again on TalkLeft. Just enough of a team player thru Nov. 4, now he’s back accusing Josh Marshall of CDS. And it will slowly circle downwards, as he decends into a hellish pit of hating, blaming, hating, banning, bitching, then aplogizing, banning, bitching, until JM goes Kos on his ass.
TheFountainHead
In my mind’s eye, BTD has always been a very flamboyantly gay Jabba the Hutt.
YMMV.
Aldorossi
I’m not one for "absolutely best and most beautiful" arguments, as mood and circumstance tend to color my choice at any given moment.
With that in mind, I’ll throw Schubert’s String Quartet #15 in G in the pot. It’s really a players piece, and you have the find right musicians because it can be performed badly, but when you find a good one, it’s a beautiful journey. Especially the first movement, for it’s minimalism, and how it uses the context of the rhythm and chord changes to give great emotional weight to each lingering note.
SGEW
I’ve been to only one inauguration (2000), and, believe me, it was not "normal."
I have a feeling that this inauguration isn’t going to be "normal" either. Heh. I have no idea what it’s going to be like (besides HUUUUUGE!). The USSS and the DC police are gonna have some work to do between now and January – we’ll have to wait and see what it’s going to look like.
As of now, I would recommend avoiding anyone selling "tickets" or anything (unless you can actually snag a legit one, natch, but good fucking luck).
Blue Raven
Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin performing Ave Maria. Ma on melody. Perfection.
Figure the folks who are giving Obama his first intelligence briefing are going to be relieved to talk to someone who has some?
jibeaux
No, the inauguration definitely will not be "normal", it was the me who was the "normal", and that’s definitely debatable but that was the hypothetical, anyway. I’m absolutely not buying any of those ridiculous tickets, but what sort of events might be worth trying to do, how would you look for tickets (someone suggested Congresscritters, which isn’t bad but now I wish I’d volunteered for the campaign), assuming that you can’t get into anything special at all, what would you do? Just go into DC and whoop and holler? That might be enough for me, actually.
Uli Kunkel
There’s no accounting for taste. Gould’s popularity has always baffled me, and when I’m not feeling charitable I chalk it up his "rebel" brand based on eccentric massacring of tempo and dynamics.
Perahia doing Bach’s 3rd Concerto, M3.
DrDave
@Dennis – SGMM:
Don’t forget Peaches en Regalia
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
When the networks announced Obama’s victory, I poured myself a generous tumbler of The Balvenie Double Wood (neat, of course).
As to music, Handel’s "Halleluia Chorus" immediately came into my head.
Since nobody has mentioned the great Wolfgang in the "most beautiful music" list, I nominate Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp (K 313 for you Kochel catalog fans), particularly the 2nd movement
Jack H.
Any of Bach’s solo instrumental stuff is fantastic, but John Williams playing the E minor Lute Suite (BWV 996) might be my favorite.
Sarcastro
Popular Choice: Für Elise – Beethoven
Music geek Choice: The Hut On Hen’s Legs – Mussorgsky
Indy Rock Choice: Don’t Want To Know If You’re Lonely – Hüsker Dü
Uli Kunkel
Jack H: have you heard Paul O’Dette’s disc? — tasty.
slag
Sorry, but in no way can the piano compete with the utterly mellifluous cello. It’s a matter of physical law.
Uli Kunkel
Slag, my sphincter beats them both. And I can do smoke rings.
Egilsson
Too much classical now.
Top 5 guitar riff songs of all time:
1) Money for Nothing
2) Sweet Home Alabama (Skynyrd has a lot of great riff songs)
3) Jumping Jack Flash
4) Cocaine / Layla
5) Sweet Child of Mine
Boy, this is a tough one. Not having an AC/DC song on the list is tricky.
Jack H.
Hey Uli – No I haven’t heard that recording, but I love his Dowland series.
Pascal Monteilhet plays an interesting version of BWV1007 on the theorbe for a change of pace.
Uli Kunkel
Jack H:
Haven’t heard it, and it’s resisting my efforts at finding it for listening/purchase online.
Dave
Woody Allen: "For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg tried on their wedding night."
Svensker
Victoria de los Angeles doing the Bachianas Brasileiras. Effortless, passionate, piercingly beautiful.
lieinveigleobfuscate
Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious.
ChristianPinko
I spent election night surfing the Web, unsuccessfully trying to write a test, and listening to Haydn’s London symphony. For my money, Haydn’s is the music of democracy and reason.
Richard
Agree with the composer, Bach, but Prelude to the Cello Suite #1 is pretty thin compared to these two (I can’t pick a greatest among them):
Brandenburg Concerto #2, Allegro (first movement) – perhaps the most transcendentally joyful piece of music ever written.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3QEUfyVvJc
Chaconne from Violin Sonata #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRhSUXf_7aI
Screamin' Demon
"Trouble Every Day" from Freak Out!
Best song of the sixties. Seriously.
"Blo’ ya harmonica, son!"
Richard
To those who mentioned Pachelbel’s Canon (pro or con) I offer arguably the best interpretation ever: Pachelbel’s Loose Cannon by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yflWG-e38OU
JGabriel
sildan
Best piece of music ever written by man: Gorecki’s third symphony. No competition. Though Glass’s score to Kundun and Part’s Tabula Rasa are up there. Also, Perotin’s Beata Viscera.
NonWonderDog (НеинтереснаяСобака)
@Screamin’ Demon:
"Outrage at Valdez" from The Yellow Shark
Seriously.
Dennis - SGMM
@DrDave:
Or the nuanced complexity of "Let’s Make the Water Turn Black."
rea
Best song ever? The only part of the repetoire Leontyne Price and Janis Joplin had in common–Gershwin’s Summertime
rea
OMG, I briefly roomed with Paul 30 years ago–had no idea what became of him. Apart from the grey in his beard, he seems to look exactly the same . . .
Jon Swift
I would like to recommend my own very conservative choice: Purcell’s Dido’s Lament. Here is a performance by Jessye Norman. I would like to dedicate this to Sen. McCain:
When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in, in thy breast.
When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in, in thy breast.
Remember me, remember me, but ah!
Forget my fate.
matt
Bach’s Dmin Chaconne is of course great (on guitar too).
But I’d like to start a late push for Beethoven’s Op. 131 string quartet.
Sasha
I see your Prelude to Cello Concerto #1 and raise you Asturias (Leyenda).
diakron
Dead Reckoning? A favorite of mine, still have a few in the fridge. Refreshing enough (despite its body) to be a year-round beer, and I wish they’d do it.
Edit: Never mind, saw that it’s a homebrew. Never judge a beer by its glass.
JSC
Well, I’m probably bring up the rear on this thread, but for you late viewers, try listening to these while sipping some Woodford’s Reserve:
Bach’s Goldberg Variations — Peralta
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Vol. 1 — Hewitt
Bach’s Chaconne in Partita #2 for solo violin — Milstein (an entire human life from birth through death in 13+ minutes)
Mozart’s 2nd Movement from Piano Concerto #2 ("Elvira Madigan") — Uchida or Brendel
Mozart Piano Sonatas #309, 310, 311 — aw, hell, all of ’em –Uchida
Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues (the greatest piece of 20th Century piano music) — Nicolayaev or Jarrett
Handel’s Concerto Grosso in C ("Alexander’s Feast") HWV 318 — McGegan
matt
JSC,
I just discovered Uchida last month, and weirdly enough, her #309 was paused from earlier playing as I read your comment.
Personally I prefer Shostakovich’s string quartets to the preludes and fugues, but these are quibbles, right?
aarrgghh
JGabriel @ 35:
isn’t it obvious? she eats him.
aarrgghh
my contribution:
saint-saens, "Introduction and Rondo for Violin & Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 28"
my track is performed by charles makerras & the london symphony orchestra
Wile E. Quixote
Rhapsody in Blue as played by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Every time I listen to this I’m blown away. I think that if I spent the rest of my life learning to play the piano, and as my final achievement played all the way through Rhapsody without flaw that I would die a happy man and consider my life to have been well lived.
JSC
Matt,
Great minds think alike. I’ll have to try those string quartets.
Best regards,
Jim