can anyone recommend some cheerful classical music?

I want to play some for baby Livy - something that's really cheerful and not brooding. I'm playing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for her right now and it is very cheerful except for a few spots.

Here's an example of what I'd like: When I was walking down a street in Portland a few years ago, I hear someone playing a CD in their apartment what was nothing but happy, bright violin music. I didn't have the guts to go knocking at his/her door to ask what it was. That's what I'd like, mostly bright, happy, uplifting violin stuff.

Opens a Bach violin concerto in Windows Media Player (http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-pop-up/B00005NPIX001001/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_001/104-9347064-4825500)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major (Op. 68), a.k.a. "Pastorale"

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major (Op. 68), a.k.a. "Pastorale"


PERFECT! :thumbsup:

Try Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" for some uplifting happy-sounding violins. It's the music Roy Scheider would play while going thru his "It's Showtime, Folks!" routine in All That Jazz. It was also used thru out Kramer vs Kramer.

Star Trek The Motion Picture?
Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan?
Superman (1978)?

Try Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" for some uplifting happy-sounding violins. It's the music Roy Scheider would play while going thru his "It's Showtime, Folks!" routine in All That Jazz. It was also used thru out Kramer vs Kramer.


I'm playing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for her right now and it is very cheerful except for a few spots.

no biggie, good effort. Excellent piece of work, IMO.

Star Trek The Motion Picture?
Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan?
Superman (1978)?

Good call!

Carmina Burana by Carl Orff will put the kid in a good mood.:devil: (just kidding).

Hard to go wrong with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Also, Leo Delibes' Flower Duet from the opera Lakme is one of the most enchanting pieces of music ever written. It shows up on a lot of Classics compilations along with The Nutcracker Suite.

Surprise Symphony by Haydn
(melody is based on twinkle twinkle little star)
(aka Symphony No. 94)

It's the music Roy Scheider would play while going thru his "It's Showtime, Folks!" routine in All That Jazz.Vivaldi's Concert in G.

Loved ATJ back in the day. Still do.

Any particular reason why you're limiting it to classical music? You may want your child exposed to "culcha" at an early age, but there are plenty of other suitably pleasant kinds of music. For example, Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, especially South Pacific (the first music I remember hearing), Oklahoma, Carousel and The King and I. And maybe when she's a bit older, the vocal stylings of jazz/cabaret singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby Short. (I'll admit a certain prejudice here -- those were the records my parents listened to when I was growing up!)

Yes! It wouldn't hurt to throw in a little Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington in there for good measure. "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing"!

Classical music is, for want of a better term, "complicated". It's more complex that some lyrical, monotonous "uncomplicated" pieces of late. The more complicated, the more her little brain will work and more gears will start working hopefully paving the way toward musical or mathematical aptitude when she's older.

I just don't want her to be like daddy - talentless and nery any math skills.

Yes! It wouldn't hurt to throw in a little Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington in there for good measure. How about Paul Desmond -- she'll develop a taste for dry martinis. :thumbsup:

Classical music is, for want of a better term, "complicated". It's more complex that some lyrical, monotonous "uncomplicated" pieces of late.If it's been a while since you last heard Richard Rodgers' "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" or "Carousel Waltz," or Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," or Leonard Bernstein's score for Candide, listen to those pieces again and tell me they don't have as much tonal and harmonic complexity as some of the "classical" works of a century earlier.

Just making a few suggestions.

while theyre not aged and venerated, theres a number of movie soundtracks that are undoubtedly classical and complex and definitely happy and upbeat. goldsmith and elfman spring to mind, depending on the movie in question. hermann too, although most of the films that i know of that he scored ran towards the darker side.

It isn't classical, but one thing my wife and I have found to make an effective instrumental lullaby* is the theme from Twin Peaks. I'd hold off on the rest of the soundtrack album, though -- most of it suggests cool jazz in a club in which something, somewhere, is horribly wrong. But the main theme is free of disturbing elements so long as you don't know whence it came.

*Maybe not exactly what you were looking for, but worth noting anyway.

Qapla'

SSB

Kinda cool. A lot of bass guitar, though.

Why do you have the twin peaks soundtrack? :p

Why do you have the twin peaks soundtrack? :pBecause the series captured my imagination in a manner unequaled until Lost came along. And I love the music; I think it was a big part of what made the series so unique.

Qapla'

SSB

And I love the music; I think it was a baig part of what made the series so unique.

Qapla'

SSB

Indisputably!

My wife and I are currently watching Twin Peaks on DVD. We have about five episodes left to go, followed by the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. She's never seen the series, and I haven't seen the second season since around the time it was broadcast. There were a couple of episodes I've realized I'd never seen until now. The series holds up better on DVD, without the sometimes-weeks of waiting for the next new episode. I know there were some unfortunate detour subplots in the second season, but they breeze through fairly briskly on DVD. I think all the gaps and repeats in the second season really hurt the show and contributed to its demise.

I mentioned that my wife has never seen the show until now. She also doesn't know yet about the way the series ends -- or rather, doesn't end. I wonder if she'll kill me when we get to the series finale. I was afraid she'd refuse to watch at all if I told her from the beginning!

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled topic ... :D

Qapla'

SSB

. . . The more complicated, the more her little brain will work and more gears will start working hopefully paving the way toward musical or mathematical aptitude when she's older.[IMG-LEFT]http://www.buddytv.com/articles/the_simpsons/Images/lisa-simpson-5.jpg[/IMG-LEFT]


Just wait a few years!

Hey Digger,

Give Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield a listen. It's composed almost as a classical piece (parts remind me of chamber music...almost baroque), but it's all played on instruments usually associated with rock music (all played by Oldfield BTW).

Neat juxtaposition of musical genres and it's very relaxing...

Tubular Bells III also. And some of Pink Floyd's music had movements similar to classical music. And, then to take it to the ear blaster stage, "Tommy" and "Quadraphenia". No, I am not being funny. Just don 't play it too loud.

The rock band Yes had a great deal of classical influence.

Rhapsody in Blue, by Gershwin, is kind of classical mixed with jazz.