I subscribed to them before. This is a great acquisition. I listen to 75% classical 20% broadway and 5% other stuff.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Acquires Classical Music Service Primephonic, Will Launch Dedicated Classical Music App
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I didn’t expect to see so many people on Macrumors excited about classical music. Classical is one of the genres I like.
Same. I could count on one hand the number of people I know in real life who have the same appreciation for it that I do.
I really enjoy some rock, folk, blues and jazz but have had some difficulty getting into classical. So many classical styles (probably not the correct word to use) to choose from. Any suggestions from classical fans who can recall their early exploration days would be welcome.
I suspect that a separate classical music app from Apple will be great for those who choose to rent music from Apple. My fear is that the new classical music features will not be available to those who rip their own CDs and don't subscribe to Apple Music. People who likely to care about new classical music-specific features are also likely to have sizeable CD collections - those people are likely to left with a tough choice - stick with iTunes or get classical music features by renting. Urghh.
I have spent many hours on the phone trying to detail the issues regarding tagging classical content. Recently, on iOS, things went downhill when some albums listed composers as 'Unknown'. Thankfully this has now been resolved but, I'm hoping Apple are now reacting to a long-standing criticism of all streaming services in this respect. Hopefully, it may even bring programme notes to give more of an album 'feel'.
Where to start! Try this. It's an album I first heard as a child and, surprisingly, it's still here on Apple Music. If I can offer some gentle advice? Make sure you play at the right level - listen and don't try to do anything else. Just focus on the music. Let me know how you get on. The scope is vast so just keep trying different things if this doesn't work for you.
Care to post a link to this album?Agreed, 100%. Right now I am listening to the Psalterium Currens on Apple Music (sadly they have from Psalm 50), and it's so relaxing, majestic, outside of time and space.... can't wait to see what this service will offer. There is so much more than Beethoven or Mozart (not that there is anything wrong with listening to those two !)
Sure.
Psalms 57-105:
psalms 106-150:
Some penitential psalms and lauds:
Hopefully you’ll enjoy them!
I love Spotify for Classical
There is a ton of Classical Music on Spotify - and one of the reasons I switched from the Apple Music subscription to a Spotify Subscription.
I have a feeling this is also the main reason for this acquisition by Apple - to be more competitive in this segment?
Meanwhile the Big Sur / Monterey "Music App" for local music and purchased / CD's has been going "down hill" and is missing features (see this post) when compared to Mojave / iTunes
FWIW - the 3 albums 👍 posted in the above thread by @yaxomoxay are easy to find on Spotify
Totally agree 👍 - I have a lot of old Classical CD's and they are no longer available - it would be nice if Apple would beef up support of these in the Music App too
In Canada a good way to start liking classical music is to listen to CBC radio programs “Tempo”, “About Time”, “Backstage Pass”, ”Choral Concert”,…
Classical music is very nuanced. It can sound good or bad on a lousy sound system. Classical music sounds good using Air Pods Max.
Yes -- if they insist on privileging their metadata over my metadata, stomping mine out, which seems likely, then -- as with Apple Music now -- at any given time I have to be either 100% in their system or 100% in my system.
For a long time my avatar here has been the cover of a CD collection -- Sony released three big boxed sets of basically everything Leonard Bernstein conducted for Columbia Records, a little short of 200 CDs altogether, and the cornerstone of my collection. I've ripped all but half a dozen, and that's literally thousands of tracks I've edited the metadata for, for consistency and accuracy, in order to work will in the iTunes environment.
Apple Music says -- "So what? Our crap metadata might be crap metadata, but it's Our Official Metadata and it stomps yours. The second you log into Apple, your metadata is toast, and remains so until the second you log out again."
My gateway drug was the orchestral works of George Gershwin. That led to Ravel, which led to Debussy. There's someone in this thread going by "Mackie Messer," which is German for "Mack the Knife," the song from Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera," which you should check out (the "Donmar Warehouse" production with Tom Hollander if you're into punk, the one with Lotte Lenya if not so much; the Broadway version from the 1950s is a G-rated whitewash, even if it does have a pre-Gomez John Astin singing the wedding song). Weill is in the unusual position of having a song covered by The Doors ("Alabama Song"). Erik Satie has a lot of lovely introspective works for solo piano, one of them transcribed for rock band (!) by Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
Look for Bernstein's "Candide," either the original cast album from 1955 or the late studio recording with the late Jerry Hadley. It was a little too serious for Broadway and a little too comic for anywhere else, and the only thing everyone agrees it got right was Bernstein's music. The overture's my second-favorite Bernstein work.
I should also mention that there is a fantastic recording of the tragic and autobiographical eighth quartet of Dmitri Shostakovich by the Kronos Quartet, which I first heard when I was about thirty and which sealed my fate as a Shostakovich addict.
Last edited:
Where to start... where to start... I grew up playing and listening to classical, so musically it's my mother tongue.
There are different styles, both by historical era and by national and linguistic cultures. Historically,
- Renaissance, basically pre-1600 (includes medieval; classical roots are in medieval church music)
- Baroque, 1600-1750; interesting composers include J.S. Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, many more
- Classical, 1750 - 1800; interesting composers include Mozart, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Clementi, and more
- Romantic, 1800 - 1900; Beethoven is transitional from Classical to Romantic, but key composers include Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Mahler, and many others
- After 1900, can't possibly classify. Between 1900 and World War I, Schoenberg broke away from traditional harmony, Stravinsky revolutionized use of rhythm and meter; Debussy decided he didn't want to be influenced by anybody. The World Wars broke a lot of cultural trends generally: in music, much of Europe went to more academic structure, America went towards minimalism, and those who didn't want to go any of these directions became neo-classical, neo-romantic, or picked up influence of jazz. The wars also drove a huge migration of musicians from Europe to America, where many became involved with Hollywood movie scores.
Useful terms:
- Common Practice era - 1600 to 1850 - most music was written in major or minor keys, using a set of standard forms.
- Sonata form applies to both individual movements and entire works.
- Sonata form for a movement is in three parts: exposition, development, and recapitulation. There may be an introduction, as well as an ending section known as a coda. Exposition is a statement of two contrasting themes, and the whole exposition may be repeated before moving to development. Development plays with those these, stating them in different keys or rhythms, and possibly playing them against each other. Recapitulation restates the two themes, although usually not in a simple repetitive way.
- Sonata form for a work means that the work is in three or four movements. First movement is typically in sonata form; second and third movements are dances; last movement may be in sonata form, but may also be theme and variations, fantasy, rondo, or whatever the composer wants to do. Sonata form applies to symphonies, concertos (typically three movements), solo or chamber music. (Chamber music is most often trio or quartet, but essentially anything from two people to less than an orchestra.)
Newer forms in the Romantic era include:
- Nocturne, music for walking in evening or night, originated by John Field and popularized by Chopin
- "Lied" or German art song - originated by Schubert
- Scherzo (Italian for "joke") - originated by Beethoven as a dance movement played too fast for dancing
- Tone poem and other forms - essentially story-telling with music, no voice
- Impressionism - Debussy and Ravel
The romantic era also saw nationalism develop in music:
- Chopin (Polish) introduced new dance forms, the Mazurka and the Polonaise
- Grieg (Norway)
- Sibelius (Finland)
- Dvorak and Janacek (Czech)
- Liszt and Bartok (Hungary)
- Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, early Stravinsky (Russian)
- Albeniz, Granados, de Falla (Spanish)
- Gershwin, Copland (American)
- Villa-Lobos (Brazil)
Some works to get you started -
- Dvorak, New World Symphony
- Rachmaninoff, Piano Concertos 2 and 3
- Prokofiev, Piano Concerto 3, Romeo and Juliet
- Bach, Brandenburg Concertos; Goldberg Variations
- Chopin, 24 Preludes
- Beethoven, Symphonies 3, 5, 6, 7, 9
- Mozart, Symphonies 35-41
- Copland - Appalachian Spring
- Stravinsky - early ballets - Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring
- Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F
- Debussy - Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun
- Respighi - Pines of Rome
- Pergolesi - Stabat Mater
- Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
- Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Symphonies 4, 5, 6
- Schubert - string quartet no. 14 "Death and the Maiden"
You may noticed that I haven't mentioned opera. Opera is an integral part of the history and development of classical music, but I don't do opera. Someone else will have to do that.
A couple of books, and I'll stop:
- How to Listen to Classical Music, by Aaron Copland
- Vintage Guide to Classical Music, by Jan Swafford
Last edited:
This a a tremendous response. Very much appreciated. Lots for me to delve into. I look forward to doing so. Thanks.
There is so much more that I could have mentioned, but had to stop somewhere. You can't know Beethoven or Mozart just from the symphonies. There's little in my list of solo piano, or chamber music, but these are the core of many composers. No mention of Shostakovich, although he is very accessible, but he also tends to be very dark. Only passing mention of Bartok, because many people find he's outside their comfort zone harmonically. So a short supplemental list:
- Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra
- Shostakovich, Symphony 10
- Shostakovich, Cello concerto 1
- Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2
- Shostakovich, 24 Preludes and Fugues
- Debussy, Children's Corner
- Ravel, Piano Trio
- Mozart, Piano Sonata in A Major
- Beethoven, Sonata "Pathetique"
- Beethoven, Razumovsky quartets
- Janacek, string quartet 1
Lots to enjoy, and you'll form your own opinions over time.
I wish Music acquired ABC Classic FM, keep on the current presenters, promote Russel Torrance to oversee this station, cancel the news broadcasts and advertisements for ABC television programmes.
Thanks. 👍
Real nice of you to add 2 extra albums. 😀 I added them all to my library. This is pre-classical I suppose?