Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Contemporary Instrumental



 Being in a pretty advanced youth symphony orchestra, I've grown a liking for classical music. I actaully like listening to it. But what I like even better is what I call contemporary instrumental music. I suppose there's a name to it, I just havent looked it up. It includes  movie sountracks. I guess, an adjective to describe the kind I like is emotional. The music should draw emotions from you.

Would you like to know what I'm talking about and actually listen to some? Yea, thought so. Oh, you might want to pull up  youtube.com to listen.

 In 8th grade english, we watched a movie called Gattaca (brilliant movie btw, with Uma Thruman, Ethan Hawk and Jude Law).  Anyways, I was mesmerized with the soundtrack. Sitting in another class next to it after having just finished the movie in that class, i could hear the music playing and lost all train of thought and just listened. After listening countless times to the soundtrack on youtube, i finally bought the sountrack. The amazing composer? Micheal Nyman. Honest to god, his music is magical. The fallowing are my favorites from his Gattaca soundtrack

The Other Side
(this i think gets the most emotional. well, i guess it is played during the most emotional part of the movie)

The Departure
(i seriously have a playlist of only this that i fall asleep to.)

Becoming Jerome
(while the previous two are my faves, this one is just happy : D )


He also did the soundtrack for the movie Man On Wire, and while i havent seen the movie, i've listened to some of the soundtrack on youtube. My favorite is-

Passage de l'egalite
(its pretty intense all the way through)



I stumbled upon this next composer on youtube. While he probably hasent been in the composing world as long as Micheal Nyman, he's definatly got lots of potential.  His music, i find, dosent always have a  "beginning, middle and end" you could say, (it just kinda starts and flys from there), and i dont like all of his music,  but some of what he does create,  is beautiful. His name is
Tiago Benzinho. You can download some of his music free (!!!) at his website,  http://www.tiagobenzinho.com/. Once you get to his website, click "music" on the top, and then, under "short stories", click the picture above "zero". From there, you can listen to it all free, and download it all free. Here is what it reccomend (my faves)

New Zealand
(this is the piece i first discovered and from there, i fell in love with it)

Scissors
(like i said, no real "beginning, middle, end", but i like it just the same)

Shanghai Butterfly
(it does have a bit of an asain flare)


Lastly, here are a mix and match of "contemporary instrumental" pieces that i also like

The Cinematic Orchestra- Arrival of the birds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2rIm_Td2Mk
If you've watched my "most inspiring & beautiful ad" on my sidebar, this is the music that accompanies the ad.

 Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre ete : L'apres midi
Yann did the soundtrack to the french award winning film Amelie.

If any of you have watched Hayao Miyazaki's movies, they're gorgeous on their own, but the soundtracks by Joe Hisaishi adds to them and makes them that much more amazing. Here's a link to one of the favorite songs from award winning film Spirited Away (the beginning is the best part)
His soundtracks to all, are gorgeous.

Okay, so this last one was not actualy a recent composition, but its gorgeous all the same. Its by french composer Erik Satie  (1866-1925). This piece is very soothing. Also, if you read the comments the person who posted this song left,  they give more information about Erik Satie.


I know that was very wordy, but I would love it so much if you actaully took the time to listen to the music. If you only listen to some I would highly reccomend Micheal and Tiago's music.

If you like looking at pretty & inspiring pictures, listen to this music, its pretty & inspiring pictures for you ears. Listen to it. Seriously.






5 comments:

this free bird said...

Okay I totally watched Gattaca multiple times and loved the music. I thought I was a party of one.

xoxo,
Carrie

Jenmarie said...

I love music, and movie soundtracks are often some of my favorite things to listen to. Have you ever listened to the Pride and Prejudice Soundtrack?

AmyK said...

Fantastic post. Good music is often what's missing from movies these days; they just don't put instrumentals in them very often anymore and it really is a shame!

k said...

I'm seriously keeping yoru page up to listen to these later, although, i'm listening to the Man on Wire one now...I always love classical music recommendations because i love listening to it but I don't know where to find it on my own! thank you thank you!

k said...

oh but i was going to say, i watched man on wire last year and it was SO unbelievably good.