Music Imagination's Old School Rock Star Award Recipient

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/24/israel-chamber-orchestra-wagner-germany

The Old School Rock Star Award

   Music Imaginations' first honoree of the Old School Rock Star Award goes to Wilhelm Richard Wagner for   'Der Ring des Nibelungen'.  His compositions don't accompany the Opera performance, the Opera performance accompanies his music.  His music can infinitely stimulate the temporal lobes of generations to come.  Cheers to you, Sir. 

Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1"

http://zarecords.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/erik-satie-pieces-froides-1897/

                 
 It is hard to be so self-reflective about life without giving importance to the great composer Erik Satie.  His pieces have notes that don't have simple resolutions of a typical musical arrangement.  His notes produce unresolved feelings as the thoughts that are deep in our subconscious.  You find yourself questioning life, and its' not so trivial complexities.  Maybe the feeling is more abstract.  Maybe there are not exact questions you can ask, but just the isolated feeling vexing your mind from within the temporal lobe and beyond.
   Whatever the case is, Erik Satie with his, "Gnossienne No.1," has composed a short, fleeting moment that like deja vu, enters your thoughts, and then is gone in an instant.  Yet the thirst still remains.
    When you give yourself the liberties to hear this song, let your mind twist and turn in many different directions.  Let yourself feel that you have no grasp on anything, let yourself bend reality and the concept that gravity exists.  Understand that you don't have to understand and that the room has been filled more and more of the unknown then it was before you pressed play.  You are listening to the eternal human unanswered questions.

Johannes Brahms' "Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor, Op.15"

http://ienjoyandyou.blogspot.com/2011/07/johannes-brahms.html

Johannes Brahms' piece, "Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor, Op. 15," was thought to have been composed in response to the attempted suicide of his good friend, Robert Schumann.  I feel the piece illustrates a vision in my mind of Shumann's suicide attempt over the Rhine river.
    When listening to the piece, the introduction to the piece has dramatic elements that give the sense of desperation of a moment before suicide.  The accelerated heart beat that intensifies inevitably meets the  tumultuous high tide at a glance beyond the rocky .  And the piano interlude that plays is that brief moment of clarity before the eventual fall.
    As the music begins to slow down, I can imagine a young man sleeping in a long boat, with the sun rays glistening over his face, and down his body.  Being sheltered under the watchful branches of a willow tree, dropping its flowers and kissing his cheeks.  He is neither awake nor dead, he is just in a sleep, where he blissfully dreams.
    As the music continues, I can imagine in the man's cloak pocket, along with a pocket watch, is an old photograph of him and a close friend.  That photograph leaves his pocket from the dancing wind that picks it up, and cuts seamlessly through the air; only to return back to the man's pocket.
   The music returns, once again, in dramatic fashion, going back to the man contemplating his own suicide.  He walks slowly backwards from the cliff, with visions of himself over the moors and coastal heights falling slowly off the edge, silently.  A ghost.

A.R.Rahman: A Tribute

http://bollywood.celebden.com/2008/12/ar-rahman-gets-a-golden-globe-nomination/

  So I would like to recognize a composer who has worldwide recognition, A.R.Rahman Ji.  He is my biggest living influence in music today. Some people may not know him, but for the people who do, they know music became redefined by A.R. Rahman.
   Since I was a young girl, I have loved all of his songs.  I can't believe there is such a legend in our lifetime, and it would be my dream to one day meet him.  I wonder how his mind works.  How he so effortlessly is able to incorporate music from so many different cultures, time periods, countries in his compositions.
   His music has inspired so many feelings that make your other senses envy your ears.  But his music is so powerful once it moves to your ears, it is able to bring chills down your whole body.  His music can stand alone, without the need of lyrics.  It is so deep and full of color, that there are infinite stories through his compositions.  However, it must be noted that the lyrics with his compositions are usually very elegantly written and full of meaning.
    To say A.R.Rahman Sir is a good composer is a complete understatement.   Rahman Ji brings magic to the music, and resurrects the notes off of the staff.  

Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg 

     The way I would like to go about these blog posts is to describe my personal experiences with musical pieces and what imaginations they have inspired in me.  It is important for me to recognize Disney's "Fantasia," which has introduced music through the means of animation.  I was simply enchanted and enamored with classical music.  Of the several pieces that had inspired me through the movie, the one that has influenced me the most today is Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor."
   Personally, I see this piece as one of the most resonating, dramatic, and influential pieces of classical music.  It is the echoing conversation of notes, with the fugue drawing more inspiration like the steady increments of waves rising by a nearby harbor.  The dexterity and transitioning required by the hands to perform tocatta is what is an art form of its own.  The pipe organist expecting to create music for listeners has instead created a beckoning feeling that will draw deep, dark, unknown emotions which only a forbidden memory can only do.
   To call what Johann Sebastian Bach has composed, a piece, is reducing its' level to mere sheet music.  What he has created is an entity that has inspired music still today.  There is something quite profound about J.S. Bach.

Music Imaginations Introduction

   Hello Everyone, welcome to my blog Music Imaginations. My name is Preeti Shah, and  I am a person who loves sharing music I have discovered with others.  I feel like this is the best place to share my passions with you through Google blogger.  I am a big fan of music throughout world history.  I enjoy classical European, Classical Hindustani, and World Fusion, but I have a big appreciation of music throughout the world and how it shaped history, and how history shaped music.  I have received my B.A. in Fine Arts with a concentration in Music.  And although I am studying to become a Physical Therapist now, I have a soft spot for this subject.  So please join me in exploring the world's history of music.

  Lots of love to my family, my music teachers, and people who have influenced me creatively.  To everyone viewing this blog, I hope you enjoy this new perspective of how I love some of the classic pieces of history.
With love Preeti