Preferences and Caveat:

Because of my knowledge of German, and because of my interest in literature and music, a number of the vocal works listed and described here, especially opera, will be German ones. Although there is a strong German operatic tradition extending to contemporary works, this emphasis is solely my personal one.

Not being a scholar in the subject, there's no pretense that the information represented here are in any sense complete. But I do hope to point out some unusual and out-of-the-mainstream works and composers, often as I discover them.

And now a final caveat: These descriptions and opinions are those of a musical amateur, in the true sense of the Latin "amat", not of a professional or one very knowledgeable in the structure and complexity of music. Music has great meaning to me, but I'd probably be written off by the Milton Babbitt of "Who Cares if You Listen?" (in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, ed. by Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, Da Capo Press, 1998).

Getting Started:

How does one begin listening to and liking classical music? In New York in the 1960s, there were many classical radio stations offering a large variety, including several full-length opera broadcasts per week. Each week then, I would peruse Cue Magazine, which listed the selections to be broadcast, and decide which to listen to, and which to record on my reel-to-reel Telefunken tape recorder.

One notable all-night program was "Listening with Watson" on WNCN, with the idiosyncratic Bill Watson. He might play a long work like Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and then play it again. His program was also difficult to record from because, unlike other announcers/hosts with their standard intro, you could never tell when he would launch the next selection.

Sadly, the quantity and quality of classical music being broadcast has declined severely. Here in the Boston area, WGBH upholds the standard, while self-serving "Classical 102.5 WCRB" has become mostly a musical joke (i.e., classical Muzak). When WCRB decided that it would no longer carry the Met Opera broadcasts, I sent a letter to the CEO (see WCRB letter ).

Contemporary Music:

I always had a liking for 20th-century music, and tried to convince others to do the same. The Berg Violin Concerto became my vehicle.

Also back in the 1960s, when I was a graduate student at Columbia, there were contemporary music concerts at McMillan Hall. They were cutting-edge, and sometimes hard to listen to. I remember prominent names like Charles Wuorinen, Harvey Sollberger and Gunther Schuller from that time. Sollberger in particular would do things to a flute that sounded like abuse of instruments.

But the music was fascinating, and I remembered going often. The concert series, which actually extended over decades, was nicely catalogued by The Group for Contemporary Music (apparently the site no longer exists).

That big CD Collection:

Yes, I've accumulated a substantial CD collection over time. One might well ask: "If you listened to all your CDs one after another, how long would it take? And does it make sense to have all these CDs, and to acquire more, if it would take so long to hear them all?"

But then, when stimulated by a newspaper review or other reference, I want to listen to a particular work at that moment, and can go to the CD collection to put it on the player, it all makes perfect sense.

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Music in Nature (Biomusic)

Do birds sing tonally or atonally? Music in nature has fascinated many composers, particular examples being Olivier Messiaen (not only "Catalogue d'Oiseaux", but in just about all of his works), and George Crumb ("Vox Balaenae"). Cardinals (one pictured at the left) have a very distinctive timbre that makes their singing easy to recognize, and also have a large repertoire of different songs. I don't yet know. but would love to understand, why they choose one song over all the rest. Some links on the subject of music in nature follow below. Sound samples will show birds singing the famous opening of Beethoven's 5th symphony (white-breasted wood wren), or a minor scale. Science News Online: Music Without Borders Insect and bird sounds Bird Songs. Songs and calls of some New York State birds. Recorded bird songs Note: It may be necessary to play the sound samples again after they've loaded completely; they appear fragmented while loading. Some recent books (Notes added 5/17/05): "Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music" - F. Schuyler Mathews; Applewood Books, Bedford, Massachusetts. The fifteenth impression of the 1904 book. Descriptions of the songs of a large number of birds, with examples in musical notation. "The Music of Wild Birds" - Judy Pelikan; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004. A guide to fifty birds and their songs, drawn from the F. Schuyler Mathews book, with illustrations by the author. "The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong" - Donald Kroodsma; Houghton Mifflin, 2005. "Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song" - David Rothenberg; Basic, 2005. This book has its own fascinating website: http://www.whybirdssing.com/ Top