AYPO SUMMER LISTENING PLAYLISTS
(FOR, you know, FUN)

Looking to fill your summer with great music? Here are two playlists to enjoy!

MUSIC FROM “THE CANON.” The first list is a sampler of some "essential" pieces from the orchestral repertoire. Read a little about each period and then sample the music. Since we have a wide range of listeners, you may or may not know some of these. If you already know a piece or just want to hear more, I’ve added suggestions.

That playlist spans the period from about 1700-ish (when the modern orchestra as we know it was starting to form) to about 1900-ish. So if you’re thinking “hey, this is a lot of stuff by dead, white European dudes,” you would definitely be right. That changes when you hit the next playlist…

TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY REPERTOIRE. Rather than one or two dominating styles, the 20th century was marked by a ton of different styles and movements. There are samples of just some of them. (And there are about 100 things missing, but this will get you started….)

HOW TO ENJOY THEM:
1) You can read a little about context about the periods, pieces, and composers below, and click on the green links to listen.
2) Or you can just listen to the playlists on AYPO’s YouTube channel, but that will end up with much longer pieces because you can’t timestamp parts of a video in playlists and full symphonies and tone poems are long…

A BAROQUE, CLASSICAL, AND ROMANTIC PLAYLIST

BAROQUE PERIOD

You may or may not want to start with the Baroque period since it's the farthest from contemporary life, but if you do, there are amazing pieces to hear. From the 1600s to the mid 1700s, there were lots of composers, but a big three to remember are Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel. 

A given movement won't have as much contrast of rhythms and musical ideas as music from the next periods... One descriptive term is "fortspinnung" - taking one or two musical ideas or motives and "spinning them out" over several minutes.

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No, 2, III. Allegro
ALL 6 of the Brandenburg Concertos are just one hit after another, and #2 is a great place to start. #3 is probably the most famous?? (I think #1 is less like the others, so I'd start with 2-6 personally.) 

Antonio Vivaldi: "Summer" from The Four Seasons, III. Presto
Maybe The Four Seasons is overfamiliar, but I think it's one of the most inspired collections ever. Read interesting story lines about each concerto here.

G.F. Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks, La Rejouissance and Minuets I & II

For more: I won't say as many alternates for Baroque, but Handel's Messiah highlights and Water Music Suites, Vivaldi's Gloria or any concertos, and the almost-three-hour-but-amazing Saint Matthew Passion by Bach are all first rate.

CLASSICAL PERIOD

For music, the Classical period is around the years before and after the American and French Revolutions: 1750s-1820s. The word "classical" basically refers to ancient Greece and Rome. The founders of America looked to Greek democratic and Roman republican ideas - you see it in the "federalist" architecture of D.C. with its columns, pediments, and domes. We should probably call this musical period “neo-classical.” This was a more secular, humanist period than the Baroque where form, structure, balance, and idealism all come into play.

The big three of the classical style were Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Unlike Baroque music, each movement has features much more variety and contrast, and the birth of "sonata form" (fun video about that here) which shaped music for more than a hundred years to follow.

W.A. Mozart: Overture to the Marriage of Figaro
Figaro is a servant, but he and his fiancé outsmart the elites/nobility, so this was a revolutionary play/opera.

W.A. Mozart: Symphony No. 35, "Haffner," I. Allegro con spirito
The Haffners were a family in Mozart's hometown of Salzburg to whom this is dedicated.

More Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20, Symphony No. 29, Symphony No. 40, Overture to the Magic Flute, Sinfonia Concertante

BEETHOVEN took what Haydn and Mozart did - making symphony movements longer with lots of interacting/competing ideas - and took it to the Nth level. I'd personally listen to symphonies 1,3,5,7,9 all summer long if I only listened to one composer. (The even numbered ones are phenomenal too, though often lighter in tone.)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, "Eroica," I. Allegro con brio
Originally dedicated to Napoleon who seemed to embody the ideals of equality, Beethoven tore up the dedication when Napoleon crowned himself emperor. This first movement alone is almost as long as some entire Mozart or Haydn symphonies.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, II. Allegretto
Each movement of this symphony uses repeated rhythms - Wagner called the symphony “the apotheosis of the dance.”

Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3
The introduction depicts a descent into a dungeon then quotes the aria sung by a political prisoner. The allegro section that follows is interrupted by a trumpet call signaling that help is on the way... Some people say this piece is the "birth of the tone poem" (see Richard Strauss below) or even "the birth of Romantic period music."

More Beethoven: ANY and ALL of the symphony movements, Piano Concertos (especially #4 or #3 to start). 

EARLY ROMANTIC PERIOD

The (Neo-)Classical period in history stressed reason, logic, science, and humanism. A lot of Romantic period music explored magic (including a Shakespeare revival - see Mendelssohn below), passions, imagination, and subjective experience.

Hector Berlioz: Symphony fantastique, V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath
One of the masterpieces of "program music" where the music is connected to a non-musical idea or story. Check out the whol symphony, and read a synopsis here.

Franz Schubert: Symphony No 8, I. Allegro moderato
Left unfinished not because he died - he went on to write the "Great" 9th Symphony - bug possible because he could not figure out to finish a symphony in this seemingly song-inspired style. Schubert wrote over 600 songs for voice and piano, and much of the piece has melodies and accompaniments very much like songs (or "lieder" in German).

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture to Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Mendelssohn wrote a lot of great incidental music for productions of the play with its Greek mythology, fairies, sprites, and a dude with a donkey's head.
More Mendelssohn: He wrote five full orchestra symphonies - Symphony No. 4, "Italian," in particular is a lot of fun, and his Octet is kinda-sorta symphonic….

Robert Schumann: Manfred Overture
Manfred is the hero of an influential, supernatural, Romantic-era dramatic poem by Lord Byron.
More Schumann: He wrote four symphonies. #3, the "Rhenish," after the river in Germany, is maybe my personal favorite and a good place to start.

MIDDLE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Two camps formed in the mid-1800's, largely around "program music" - which explores an extra-musical story or concept - and "absolute music" - symphonies and sonatas which aren't "about" anything. Richard Wagner was the champion of program music. He brought together all the arts - poetry, painting, dance, music, etc. - in his operas which he called "music dramas." The orchestral tone poems of Liszt are also program works. 

Brahms was a great example of someone still writing "old fashioned" symphonies, overtures, and concertos - strongly emotional but not necessarily connected to an extra-musical story or idea.

Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin

Richard Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral Music from Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
This comes from his famous “Ring Cycle” - three operas (err… music dramas) with a prelude opera - based on German and Norse legends.

More Wagner: If you want to stick to orchestra only (no singing) try the Preludes (Overtures) to The Meistersingers, The Flying Dutchmen, or Rienzi. Or just search for “wagner ring orchestral” and you’ll hear some of his greatest hits.

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1, IV. Adagio—Piú andante—Allegro non troppo—Piú allegro
People referred to this piece as "The Tenth" implying it was the first symphony to be considered a worthy successor to Beethoven's nine symphonies (i.e., that Mendelssohn, Schumann's and others' symphonies weren't in this league).

Johannes Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
When given an honorary doctorate by a university, Brahms wrote a piece that quotes three-ish songs students of the day would sing at college. (Links to the songs are in this article.)

More Brahms: To me, everything he wrote is perfect: Four Symphonies, Two Overtures, Two Piano Concertos, Violin Concerto, Concerto for Violin and Cello, Variations on a Theme by Haydn, and choral works.

LATE ROMANTIC PERIOD

The next generation felt free to write program and absolute music to their heart's content. They didn’t care about the so-called Wagner-Brahms beef and liked them both.

Antonìn Dvořàk: Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," IV. Allgro con fuoco
Written while Dvořàk was living briefly in America, it's a mixture of American melodies (some inspired by African-American Spirituals) and influences from his native Bohemia (now Czech Republic).
More Dvořàk: If you already know the New World Symphony, Symphonies No. 7 and 8 are fantastic along with Carnival Overture, the Cello Concerto, and the Noon Witch.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
More Tchaikovsky: He wrote some program music like this "Overture-Fantasy," as well as symphonies, suites, and concertos. Some of his most famous music were ballets. Greatest hits include Symphonies 4-6 in particular, the Violin Concerto and First Piano Concerto, and highlights from the Nutcracker and Swan Lake Ballets. 

Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: Baba Yaga and Great Gate of Kyiv
Each movement of this work is inspired by an art work by one of Mussorgsky's recently deceased friends that had been featured in a large exhibition.
More Mussorgsky: Listen to the entire Pictures at an Exhibition! His Night on Bald Mountain is another classic.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, IV. The Festival at Baghdad
Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and their peers tried to write a uniquely Russian music, less reliant on German musical tradition (which some felt influenced Tchaikovsky too much).
More Rimsky-Korsakov: Listen to the rest of Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, or Russian East Overture.

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1, IV. Sturmisch bewegt (Stormily agitated)
Mahler and Strauss can be seen as the ending of the German musical tradition running from J.S. Bach through the beginning of the 20th century. Mahler focused on writing symphonies and song cycles; Strauss wrote numerous tone poems and operas.
More Mahler: 9 Symphonies plus an unfinished 10th and the song-symphony, Das Lied von der Erde. Start at the beginning and have fun!

Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Parts 1-4 (excerpt)
Full piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79XrCDogp0
Tone poems are orchestral pieces linked to an extra-musical idea, with a form that's specific to the work - they usually depict a story. This one has sections inspired by various chapters of Nietzsche's novel: you can see them listed and time-stamped in the full-length video above.
More Strauss: Tone poems like Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Death and Transfiguration, Don Quixote (where solo cello depicts the hero), and An Alpine Symphony aren't short but they are emotional works that showcase what great orchestras can do.

A 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY PLAYLIST

...when lots of very different stylistic trends lived side by side...

Claude Debussy: La Mer (The Sea), III. Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea
Debussy and Ravel got attached to the term "Impressionism" which had been used to describe the painting of Monet, Renoir, Degas, etc. Although both resisted the term, it's easy to see why it stuck.
More Debussy: The other two movements of La Mer, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Nocturnes

Maruice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe, 2nd Suite
The final section of an amazing ballet - the story is here.
More Ravel: The rest of Daphnis and Chloe, Alborada del Gracioso, Piano Concerto in G, and the ever-famous Bolero.

Arnold Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra, I. Premonitions
Schoenberg was the first composer to officially break with "tonality," the system of putting music in keys with a tonal center of gravity - the system in use since the 1600s. This music is considered "atonal." Also connected with the movement known as "Expressionism" in German art, you can hear the heightened emotional states in this work. Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg were collectively known as the "Second Viennese School" (the first Viennese School essentially being Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven).
More like this: The rest of the piece above, Berg's Five Pieces for Orchestra (and his amazing but tragic opera Wozzeck which contains adult themes), and Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra.

Igor Stravinsky: "Infernal Dance of King Kastchei" from The Firebird
Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), "Dance of the Adolescents"
Yes, Stravinsky's ballet, The Rite of Spring, caused a very famous riot at its premiere, but that was probably even more due to the very non-traditional dancing. He stacks different layers of ostinatos (repeated patterns) on top of each other.
More Stravinsky: It’s hard to overestimate Stravinsky’s influence. If you listen to his three early ballets - the Suite from The Firebird, Petrushka, and the entire Rite of Spring - you'll have taken an amazing journey! Stravinsky changed styles many times in his life, Pulcinella, the Symphony in Three Movements, A Soldier's Tale, and the Symphony of Psalms will all show different sides of his creativity.

Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, V. Finale
Bartók, along with his fellow Hungarian Zoltàn Kodàly, worked the amazing folk music traditions of their native country and the surrounding areas into an exceptional modernist sytyle.
More Bartók: The other 4 movements of this piece as well as the Romanian Dances. His one-act opera, Bluebeard's Castle is one of my very favorite pieces (with some mature themes and story elements).

Benjamin Britten: "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes, IV. Storm
Britten wrote all types of music, but was best known for his operas. These are orchestral interludes which appear between scenes of his opera Peter Grimes.
More Britten: Listen to the earlier interludes 1-3, or better yet, give the whole opera a try! For a shorter opera, try the very spooky ghost opera, Turn of the Screw, after the Henry James novella.

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2, I. Allegro
Much of Sibelius' music gives a sense of his native Finland. His style is unique - within a few bars, you know it's him and no one else.
More Sibelius: Listen to the whole 2nd Symphony - it’s great!! Symphonies 1 and 5 are probably the next most famous. I think #4 is amazing, but it's a dark work reflecting on a dark time for Finland. His Violin Concerto is one of the best, and his most famous tone poem is the stirring Finlandia.

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, IV. Allegro non troppo
Writing under the extreme duress of living in Stalin's Soviet Union, Shostakovich was able to develop his individual voice while still getting his music past the Soviet authorities.
More Shostakovich: Any symphonies (try the other movements of #5), Festive Overture, Cello Concerto... Symphony No. 10's first movement is very long, but the whole thing is a total masterpiece. Symphony No. 9 tries to avoid "the curse of the Ninth" (Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Mahler, and Bruckner all died after writing mammoth 9th Symphonies) by creating a short, fun, decidedly not-epic 9th.

Silvestre Revueltas: Sensemayá
Leonard Bernstein called this piece "the Mexican Rite of Spring" (though it's only 7 minutes or so) - it also uses layered ostinatos just like The Rite. Based on a poem, "Chant to Kill a Snake," you'll hear the creeping of the snake portrayed by a slowly trilling bass clarinet. 

Copland: Appalachian Spring, finale (including variations on the Shaker Hymn, "Simple Gifts")
IMHO, Appalachian Spring is a perfect piece of music. Written for the famous American choreographer Martha Graham, it's a ballet about a newlywed couple starting their life together on the prairie. Copland found ways to make his music sound distinctly American, and he quotes American tunes in many of his works including this one.
More like this: The whole piece is fantastic - you can hear the 13-instrument original or the version arranged for full orchestra. Also check out his Suite from Rodeo, Quiet City, Billy the Kid, and El Salon Mexico. Another great American composer was Charles Ives: give his 2nd Symphony a try. 

Samuel Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915
Barber also helped create a distinctive American style. This piece uses the words of James Agee: a reminiscence of being a little boy spending summers with his family in Tennessee.
More Barber: There are 3 Essays for Orchestra - the 1st is the most famous; I really love #2. The Violin Concerto is awesome as are Medea's Dance of Vengeance, the Overture to The School for Scandal, and his First Symphony in one movement. The "Adagio for Strings" is very famous for good reason...

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AMERICAN MINIMALISM (the next three): Strongly identified with Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams among many others. This music features a strong pulse, repetition, simple musical building blocks like arpeggios, and (often) gradual transformation. The composers were inspired by everything from Buddhist meditation to African drumming, but created music that echoed modern the drive of modern life. Hallmarks of this style influenced composers who did not write minimalist music explicitly. Decent article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_music

Steve Reich: The Four Sections, IV. The Full Orchestra
The earlier movements feature the various sections of the orchestra (strings, then percussion, then winds and brass) while this movement brings all the sections of the orchestra together.

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, 3rd movement
Glass has written a lot for film (Koyannisqatsi, The Hours), symphonies, operas, concertos, and works for smaller groups like the Philip Glass Ensemble. Try his “Company” for String Orchestra and “The Window of Appearances” from his opera, Akhnaten.

John Adams: The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra)
"A commission from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, it has several dance-like tunes and has been described by Adams as an 'outtake' from Act III of the opera he was working on at the time, Nixon in China.The word 'Dances' in the title is a verb, not a noun. In the opera, the music depicts Madame Mao gate-crashing a presidential banquet, hanging paper lanterns, and performing a seductive dance; Chairman Mao descends from his portrait, and the two dance a foxtrot, back in time together. The piece ends with the sound of a gramophone winding down." See below for bonus track suggestion, and try his Shaker Loops or the amazing aria “Batter my heart” from the opera Doctor Atomic based on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
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George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Walker was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. Another great work is his Lilacs, a choral work based on Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."

Reena Esmail: My Sister's Voice, III. Mirror / Opposite
Esmail is an Indian-American composer, and this movement pairs a Hindustani singer and a Western soprano. In the outer sections of the movement their lines, sung in Hindustani and English, mirror each other (e.g., one goes up and down, the other goes down then up). In the middle there is a jugalbandi, a singing contest where they sing in solfège, each in her own language. (Go to the beginning of the video for a discussion of the work and the early movements.) Go to her youtube channel for other great works!

Jennifer Higdon: blue cathedral
The flute, which Jennifer plays, is featured alongside the clarinet, which her brother played before his untimely passing. Imagine a glass cathedral in a pure blue sky. Enjoy the whole program note here. Her Percussion Concerto is fantastic, as well as her Concerto for Orchestra, and the Violin Concerto. (It’s not orchestal, but I love her Piano Trio.)

Zhou Long: The Rhyme of Taigu
"Taigu" is the Chinese word for the drumming that became "Taiko" in Japan. There are taiko patterns for every aspect of life, farming, praying, battle, celebration... Two fast section outer sections bookend the slow, meditative middle section — announced by a solo clarinet inspired by a folk instrument called guanzi — which is inspired by sacerd temple music of Beijing.

Gabriela Ortíz: Kauyumari
"Among the Huichol people of Mexico, Kauyumari means 'blue deer.' The blue deer represents a spiritual guide, one that is transformed through an extended pilgrimage into a hallucinogenic cactus called peyote. It allows the Huichol to communicate with their ancestors, do their bidding, and take on their role as guardians of the planet."

Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances, IV. Holy Dance
Simon is the composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center. This fourth dance is inspired by worship music: "This movement calls on the vibrant, celebratory character that still exists in many churches today. I have composed music that mimics the sound of a congregation 'speaking in tongues' (murmuring in an unknown spiritual language) by asking the orchestra to play in a semi-improvised manner. Often referred to as a 'praise break,' the music propels forward continuously with the trombone section at the helm. The section moves to a climactic ending with the plagal 'Amen' cadence."

BONUS TRACK: John Adams: Harmonielehre, III. Meister Eckhardt and Quackie
I'll admit this is one of my favorite pieces. Meister Eckhart was a 14th-century German philosopher theologian. "Quackie" was a nickname given briefly to Adams' daughter, Emily, when she was newborn. This movement is inspired by a dream Adams had where his daughter was essentially riding on Eckhart's shoulders, the two of them flying through space, while she whispers the secret of grace in his ear.