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SEAWOLF97
05-04-2019, 06:16 AM
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Definition of magnum opus

: a great work especially : the greatest achievement of an artist or writer, masterpiece.

You probably recognize magnum ("great") as a Latin word that shows up in altered forms in several English words, and perhaps you can also come up with a few that are related to opus ("work"). Magnitude, magnanimous, opulent, and operate are some obvious relations of the two. Magnum opus, which entered English in the late 18th century, retains the original Latin spelling and the literal meaning "great work." Although the term most often refers to literary productions, it has been used to describe many kinds of great works, including paintings, movies, construction projects, and even surgical techniques.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magnum%20opus#learn-more

OKAY..we have a thread about Artists/Groups you cant stand , lets have one about the magnum opus of Artists/Groups that enrich our audio experience. :confused:

Feel free to disagree, let's stay civil. Prefer to keep replies to material that is actually available. (ie: NOT some Ethiopian sheep herders masterpiece that's only available "live" on a mountaintop.) :)

In our other thread, a wiki post called Peter Green's "Oh Well" his magnum opus.
One of my faves , The Temptations "Papa was a Rolling Stone" (12:05 version) was noted as theirs.
Santana ?? To me, it would be "Black Magic woman" (also a Peter Green composition)
Beach Boys ?? Good Vibrations ???
LVB's 9/4

You get the idea , what are your nominations :dont-know:

Kay Pirinha
05-06-2019, 11:45 PM
Yes - Close To The Edge :D:D:D

Best regards!

Edit: Perhaps I might substantiate. The album's title track, spanning the whole A side, shows important parallels with classical composition techniques. It is carefully and meticulously constructed like a sonata, resembling the work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, especially his 7th symphony. The lyrics were heavily inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel Siddharta, hence far beyond the popular love-happiness-relationship-sensitivities themes.

This piece has been analyzed scientifically numerous times. Any other pop song that has been ennobled this way?

Ducatista47
05-07-2019, 03:15 AM
This is a CD, not a single song. Solstice, recorded in December 1974. Ralph Towner leading a quartet filled out by Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, and Jon Christensen. They worked so well together and were so talented, the three Europeans became the de facto ECM house band.

Towner did illustrious work with Oregon and others before this and has done much since; some unbelievable CDs with Maria Pia De Vito, John Taylor and others, and terrific solo work on ECM and for soundtracks. But nothing as a leader quite matches these sides recorded in Oslo so long ago. This was my favorite recording for at least ten years.

SEAWOLF97
05-07-2019, 06:57 AM
For a long time I was smitten by ... Le quattro stagioni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fo...sons_(Vivaldi)

I went on a quest for the absolute BEST version. haven't heard all of her work , but after hearing Anne-Sophie Mutter's , the search stopped.

Sublime.

MAYBE this is why there is so much feeling in her interpretation :dont-know:

Personal life
In 1989, Mutter married her first husband, Detlef Wunderlich, with whom she had two children, Arabella and Richard. Wunderlich died of cancer in 1995.[7] She dedicated her 1999 recording, Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, to his memory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne-Sophie_Mutter

SEAWOLF97
05-11-2020, 10:08 AM
Well, I'm not a huge GRAND FUNK RAILROAD fan, but I think by far this one quals on the thread title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8MYsii4DZY

I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" is a 1970 song written by American musician Mark Farner and recorded by Grand Funk Railroad as the closing track to their album Closer to Home. Ten minutes in duration, it is the band's longest studio recording. One of the group's best-known songs, it is composed as two distinct but closely related movements. Its title has been rendered in various ways across many different Grand Funk albums, including "I'm Your Captain", "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home", "Closer to Home/I'm Your Captain", "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)", and "Closer to Home".[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Your_Captain_(Closer_to_Home)

Fritz The Cat
05-16-2020, 10:55 PM
[QUOTE=Kay Pirinha;422368]Yes - Close To The Edge :D:D:D

Best regards!

Edit: Perhaps I might substantiate. The album's title track, spanning the whole A side, shows important parallels with classical composition techniques. It is carefully and meticulously constructed like a sonata, resembling the work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, especially his 7th symphony. The lyrics were heavily inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel Siddharta, hence far beyond the popular love-happiness-relationship-sensitivities themes.

This piece has been analyzed scientifically numerous times. Any other pop song that has been ennobled this way?[/QUOTE

Are you sure that would be necessary or helpful for the understanding of the mysteries of music?
Scientific analyzing is the worst you can do to a song. It loses it's magic. Lets keep the secrets behind a song. Look for the wallflowers that grow so gently. Science has lost its innocence since long ago.

Kay Pirinha
05-17-2020, 05:42 AM
Hello FtC,

I think our approaches to music differ substantially. Being scientifically educated, I don't trust, or believe in, unsubstantiated statements that aren't proven, and most probably never will be. What counts for me most of anything else are numbers, data, and facts. Especially in the present times there isn't a too small number of people who deliberately negate and disregard intellectuals, but prefer to spread altenative facts instead, just to please the masses. You know whom I mean first and foremost, I think.

When I throw the power switches of my gear and put on a record onto or a CD into the relative device, I sit down, concentrate and check: What's the instrumentation of the track? In which key is it? Are there modulations? If so, from which key to which? Is there polymetrics or at least polyrhyhmics? Is there hocketing? How did the instrumentalists play? Are there any sounds that I'm not able to allocate to the musical instruments that are known to me or being told on the sleeve? If so, how might have they been produced? And finally, what do the lyrics tell? Are they far enough from the usual, but banal love-and-happiness or disappointment themes?

Anything else is boring to me.

Best regards!

Fritz The Cat
05-17-2020, 09:11 AM
Hello FtC,

I think our approaches to music differ substantially. Being scientifically educated, I don't trust, or believe in, unsubstantiated statements that aren't proven, and most probably never will be. What counts for me most of anything else are numbers, data, and facts. Especially in the present times there isn't a too small number of people who deliberately negate and disregard intellectuals, but prefer to spread altenative facts instead, just to please the masses. You know whom I mean first and foremost, I think.

When I throw the power switches of my gear and put on a record onto or a CD into the relative device, I sit down, concentrate and check: What's the instrumentation of the track? In which key is it? Are there modulations? If so, from which key to which? Is there polymetrics or at least polyrhyhmics? Is there hocketing? How did the instrumentalists play? Are there any sounds that I'm not able to allocate to the musical instruments that are known to me or being told on the sleeve? If so, how might have they been produced? And finally, what do the lyrics tell? Are they far enough from the usual, but banal love-and-happiness or disappointment themes?

Anything else is boring to me.

Best regards!
Yes, you're right. We have a different approach to music. But isn't that normal? For me music is heart and soul and and individual measure of brain. You can't measure everything. As example, it's not possible to measure humor in a song or the mood of a recording. It's very individual, also geographical multifaceted. PS: also i was active in science and conducted research.
What a beautiful day it was today, from Switzerland, Fritz