yov's 100 All-time Favorite Songs

[yovargas]

I'm sorry, el, I'm going to have to cut you off from posting new songs - this thread is for lists! (I love lists....) Unless you want to post a #101 - 150 list!

(PS - I've been making my way through your list this week and expect to finish listening to it next week.)

[elengil]

I'm sorry, el, I'm going to have to cut you off from posting new songs - this thread is for lists! (I love lists....) Unless you want to post a #101 - 150 list!

(PS - I've been making my way through your list this week and expect to finish listening to it next week.)

Will do!

[Lalaith]

Shoot. I was going to come in here with a few different choices, too.

[yovargas]

Buncha cheaters.

[elengil]

Buncha cheaters.

We aren't cheating, we're sharing

[Primula Baggins]

Should one of you start a new thread?

Because I've enjoyed every single one of the songs I've tried on here and I want to try more. You have to understand—I can hear now and everything.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Or we can just be rebels and keep posting songs here.

[Jude]

I don’t know if anyone is interested in hearing from HoF’s resident square, but here’s my list…

1. A long time ago, I forget where, I read a discussion about whether Bach’s B-minor Mass or Schubert’s String Quintet in C was the greatest musical work of all time. As I remember, they finally settled on Schubert’s Quintet, because while Bach managed to say everything there is to say about life, the universe and everything in just two hours, Schubert managed to do so in just under one hour.

Here’s a live performance of the third movement (ten minutes). Lots of performances of the entire work are to be found on youtube, if you’re interested. Fifty minutes well-spent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoM46I4PBVM

2. “Das Lied von der Erde” by Gustav Mahler. Here’s my favourite tenor, Fritz Wunderlich, singing the first movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow8Hq8U2ZcQ

3. The choral prelude from “Wachet auf” (cantata 140). There are three or four Bach pieces that, the first time I heard them, I felt I had known them all my life. This is one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY6O3MSBY3Y

4. The famous quartet from Mozart’s “Idomeneo” (1781). Whole essays and books have been written about this quartet. There had been duets and ensembles before, but they were always either dialogues (one character speaks, another responds) or if they sang together, they would be singing the same words in harmony. Here, for the first time, the voices weave around each other, sometimes together, sometimes in conflict. After this quartet, opera would never be the same again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr1peoRzID8

5. “La Cenerentola” (Cinderella) by Rossini. In this version, all the supernatural elements are stripped out, and we’re left with a hilarious and thoroughly believable comedy. In this excerpt, Prince Charming, disguised as one of his staff, comes to Don Magnifico’s home to finalize preparations for the upcoming ball. He runs into Cinderella, and the two of them fall instantly in love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkhSHRvRrvQ

6. Claudio Monteverdi – What, I can only choose one of his madrigals? How is that even possible?
Okay, how about “Io mi son giovinetta” from Book 4?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSYV7JfwkY

Also, all his other madrigals.

7. Beethoven: chorus of dervishes from “The Ruins of Athens”. Kaaba!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omFdAYpAXgY

8. Delibes – the Flower Duet from “Lakmé”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf42IP__ipw

9. “Greensleeves” – the melody is perfect as it is. But just for fun, here’s Vaughan Williams’ beautiful choral arrangement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpDqzW6N-04

10. “Complainte pour Ste. Catherine” – Montreal natives Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing in Québecois. Trivia fact: vison once told me that Ste. Catherine was her favourite street in Montreal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wySvN_9CpEo

11. “The Pirate of Penance” by Joni Mitchell, from her very first album, 1968
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBetZSworxY

12. Peter Gabriel – I came very close to choosing “Solsbury Hill”, but decided on “Here Comes the Flood”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb7htoJAK7g

13. Genesis – “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” from “Selling England by the Pound” (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Spl1cOf-o

14. Josquin Desprez – “El Grillo” (The Cricket). Martin Luther once said of Desprez, “He is the master of the notes. They have to do as he says; as for the other composers, they have to do what the notes say.” He composed much great religious music, but here he’s letting his hair down. “The cricket is a good singer – especially when he’s drunk!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-bQ0RkArA

15. Yes – “South Side of the Sky”. Apparently about a tragic polar expedition where the explorers froze to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fr7aC1r8qw

16. Jean Redpath – “Logan Water”. From her anthology of Robert Burns songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXOqZgrOV_o

17. “Ol’ Man River” from Showboat, sung by Paul Robeson. This performance is from the 1936 film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

18. “Get Happy” by June Christy. My dad was a huge fan of June Christy so I heard a lot of her growing up. This song was played at his funeral.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr57l-mTUyw

19. “Straighten up and fly right” – The Cole Trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4jbYNTmKs

20. Who knows if Vera Lynn was partly responsible for us winning the second world war? Don’t underestimate the power of music to change the direction of history.
Here she is singing “We’ll meet again”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY

Incidentally, she celebrated her 101st birthday last year (2018).

21. Thomas Tallis was a favourite composer of Terry Pratchett. Here’s his haunting “Miserere” (Tallis’, that is, not Pratchett’s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHE7vyAc4w

22. Howard Shore – “The Fall of Gandalf”. Need I say more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKe2EYM8B2s

23. Rimsky-Korsakov – “Scheherazade”. Here’s a link to the first movement (9 minutes) but the whole thing is worth listening to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgo-IzDdVeo

24. Dvorak – Largo from the New World Symphony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtO1HexmKJ4

25. “An Eriskay Love Lilt” – sung by Kenneth McKellar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ci05fXz5lg

26. “Hughie Graeme” – a ballad from the Scottish Borders about an outlaw who was hanged for stealing the bishop’s horse, in revenge for the bishop seducing his wife. Sung here by June Tabor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOumjsxelws

27. “Shenandoah” – sung by Nathan Gunn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd6B1dErS6U

28. Okay, I can’t pretend this next one can be listed among the world’s greatest or most important music, but it was my absolute favourite song when I was a very young kid. “Did You Ever Lose An Elephant” – I had this on a 45 (do any of you young whippersnappers need me to tell you what a 45 is? I mean, apart from the convenient resting place when you’re going from 44 to 46) and played it over and over and over. And over. And even over. I would bet that even today, after all these years, anyone in my family could quote the entire song from memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFbO45j3zv0

29. Let’s travel back 111 years in time and listen to Enrico Caruso sing “Deserto in Terra” from Donizetti’s “Dom Sebastien”. Recorded in 1908.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIcd6_dveFo

30. “J’ai le bonheur dans l’ame” from Offenbach’s last opera, “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”. Sung by Stuart Burrows and Beverly Sills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozbj68CeTUk

31. My favourite Beatles period is their middle period – the “Help”, “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” era. Here’s “Another Girl” from “Help”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGK0GrHygLU

32. My favourite of Palestrina’s 92 authenticated masses is “Missa Aeterna Christi Munera”, which means it was based on the hymn “Aeterna Christi Munera”. To appreciate what he did with it, you need to listen to the original hymn before listening to the mass.

Here’s the original hymn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtVEzYUs0cs

And here’s the Kyrie from the mass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMeln8uRArs

33. The Deller Consort sing “Patapan”. It’s Medieval party time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXm2qOii9tE

34. Acadian song “En Montant la Rivière” sung by Suzie LeBlanc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gExrzYkdqPQ

35. “Too Darn Hot” by Cole Porter, sung by Ella Fitzgerald:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v-JgBSfzkM


36. “The Bell Song” from Lakmé, sung by Maria Callas, the greatest singer of them all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ7BOCNi8O8

37. “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”, sung by Marian Anderson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QedPOq2gi7U

38. Wanna know what the cool kids were singing in the 1530s? The latest hit from Pierre Passereau, of course! Here’s his “Il est bel et bon”, about a group of women gossiping about their husbands. As the song goes on, the women start to sound more and more like the chickens clucking in the background. Every choir loves performing this song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pZLVGwkc0

39. “The Life of Schrenk” from “Die große Sünderin” (the great sinner) by Eduard Künneke, sung by Jonas Kaufmann:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mvq77Lsgko

40. “Ave verum corpus” by William Byrd, a friend of Thomas Tallis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2ckGcpx6xI

That’s forty. That’ll do for now, especially since I don’t know if this is of interest to anyone here…

[yovargas]

I absolutely loved reading that, because it's the first time I recall hearing you say you loved a piece of music not written by an old dead guy! Who knew Jude loved some (semi) modern music!
Also, I love seeing really personal picks like your #45.

[Primula Baggins]

Jude! I am deeply, deeply interested! I will be at the beach in 10 days and will listen to your entire list. And then everyone else’s. Or as much as I can get through.

I keep forgetting that I can now listen to music on my phone without any effort or anyone guessing. Jeez, I can listen while I grocery shop. No visible earphones. Miracle hearing aids, thank you again.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Jude, I think you're one of the coolest people I know, so I find it amusing that you call yourself the 'resident square'. And what a wonderful list. I confess that I was surprised to see Howard Shore in there.

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[Primula Baggins]

It is a wonderful list.

And I would gladly challenge Jude to a square contest!

[Lalaith]

Well, I love Jude's list, too, but I must protest that "Hey, Jude" is not one of his favorite Beatles songs.

And where's Allegri's Miserere? Hmm?

[Jude]

I actually considered that, but you had already included it in a previous list.

Have you listened to Tallis' Miserere? Hmm?

[Lalaith]

Miserere throwdown! BRING IT!

wanna fight.gif (675.02 KiB) Viewed 15409 times

[Jude]

It's kinda hard to appear tough when you're literally singing "Have mercy!"

[Smaug's voice]

I was thinking of adding mine but my generation and my location are quite different than most of y'all Would have plenty of choices alien to people here.


And same problem as Alatar. Maybe only around 15 bands complete my top 100 (which itself is an ever changing entity)

[elengil]

I was thinking of adding mine but my generation and my location are quite different than most of y'all Would have plenty of choices alien to people here.

Isn't that the point of sharing?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm pretty sure that many of my choices were unfamiliar to most of y'all!

[yovargas]

I'm pretty sure that many of my choices were unfamiliar to most of y'all!