hills | flickr | 20th February, 2006
Finding the classical mp3 blogs so you don’t have to.
I’ve pulled some of these names from the (surely exhaustive?) list at Hype Machine, and I can’t say I’ve checked every link there – only the ones that look plausible. So if you run a classical mp3 blog called ‘Nu Metal is Rad’ and haven’t linked you, please pardon me not spotting your ironic tone, and drop me a line. I’ll see that you get your link.
First up, you all know cacophonous and Trrill – if you don’t, you should – so they’re a good place to start. Trrill is a great source for all you opera diva needs, Cacophonous for independent new music composers. I can’t be sure there’s not any overlap. (Incidentally, Cacophonous is also a great place to start looking for individual composer mp3 blogs.)
ANABlog is the unofficial blog of the Analog Arts Ensemble, and recent posts include Webern, Tippett, Maderna, and Lutosławski’s Les espaces du sommeil, which is alright by me,
Electric Strings is a relatively new blog by cellist and composer Philip Sheppard which includes a few mp3s of his music.
Dave Seidel is a ‘droney, ambient’ composer who has a sideblog, mysterybear productions where he posts his new works.
Update, 24 May 2006:
Classical Connection. A new blog, which has kicked things off in quite astonishing style. You have to go there and see (now, before the downloads run out…). Some excellent choices here so far, and exactly the kind of contemporary classical MP3 blog I hope we can see more of. Also led me to a couple more:
Le Roi s’amuse: a classical MP3 blog whose recent postings have included Ezra Sims, Morton Subotnick, Bartók, Shostakovich and Rameau.
Masterfade: less contemporary than others listed here, but with a strong line in late 19th and early 20th century repertoire; recents posts feature Bartók, Fauré, Bruckner and Stravinsky.
Update, 1 August 2006:
A Closet of Curiosities. Another of the new wave of complete out-of-print album MP3 blogs, this time with a strong line in mostly American electro-acoustica.
No doubt there are more than this, and more will emerge. So assume that this post is a work in progress…
Update, 8 February 2007:
different waters. For some reason I thought I’d already included this one, but clearly not. DW covers a wide range (from world to minimal electronica) but frequently includes modern classical, and has been quite awesome on spectralism recently.
Update, 27 May 2007:
Because of Sequenza21’s crazy and confusing structure, Jacob Sudol’s blog is easy to overlook, but it’s actually one of the most generous of avant-garde music blogs around. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually have a homepage (told you it was a crazy and confusing structure), but here’s the most recent page from the archives, and you can navigate around from there. In any case, well worth spending some time and some bandwidth with.
Update, 17 Dec 2007: The contributors to Querbeet post a wide range of stuff, including plenty of avant garde, contemporary classical and experimental.
Update, 30 Jan 2008: Orpheus Music: the Electronic Music Time Machine posts “early electronic music that has been commercially neglected”. Lots of top stuff here.
Also: Classical – New Age – Ambient – OST. Does exactly what it says on the tin, with a heavy lean towards classical rep.
Update, 26 September 2008: Contemporary Music. Regular album-length postings of new music. Recommended. Invited readers only.
Update, 3 February 2009: Classical in the Air. Frequent postings of recorded broadcasts posted to the dimeadozen bittorrent. Seriously good. Invited readers only.
Update, 14 May 2009: StateWork. “Great performances of classical music history that are either not available anywhere (private broadcast recordings, audience recordings) or somehow unavailable and not in plans to be released commercially OR just crazily expensive and therefore out of reach of financially challenged schlepps like me.”
The Rambler » More classical MP3 blogs said
[...] Just made some new additions to my list of classical MP3 blogs. Check 'em out. [...]
Bill D said
I went public again…. no invites needed. Bill
Tim Rutherford-Johnson said
Woohoo!
jodru said
Thanks a bunch! What a good new crop.
The Rambler » Contemporary classical music on YouTube said
[...] Garry Fung makes an excellent suggestion in a comment on my Stravinsky/Rite of Spring/YouTube post – why doesn't someone collect together all the classical music stuff on YouTube. Well, most of that falls outside the boundaries of this blog; there is also a lot of it, and not all of it terribly worth watching. But I am going to start listing here those video gems of contemporary classical music that I come across. Similarly to my classical music mp3 blog post this should be regarded as a post in constant process, and hardly definitive. I'm also not going to just start posting all the results of searches that I find, but only links to those videos that are most interesting or unusual. [...]
tim+ said
excellent! thanks for this list. i’ve been looking for something like this for a while.
Savio said
Can anyone tell me of any “Classical Music MP3 Blogs” dedicated to the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, etc apart from the ones mentioned here.
Regards,
Terry Weadock said
Anyone know of any contemporary MP3s of any Chopin Waltzes? I’m Having a hard time finding them.
taw
Anonomus said
do you know anything about Derek Bermel?
Tim Rutherford-Johnson said
I reviewed a concert of his music once, but I’ve not heard much of his since then. Thanks for the prompt though – I’ve been meaning to add his blog to my links for a while now.
Trussy said
Derek Bermel (b. New York 1967) is an American composer, clarinetist and conductor whose music incorporates various facets of world music, funk.
bandofme said
Great Blog. I’ve been enjoying it for a while. You might want to check out http://bandofme.com/genres.php?cat=&vote=&genre=classical
to watch some classical music videos.
Bill Dennehy said
Hi, thanks for mentioning my classical music blog. I was poking around and pleased to see it listed here. It has a heavy emphasis on contemporary/avant garde as that’s what people seem to want. I’m going to check out some of these other blogs now. Cheers! Bill
Bill Dennehy said
Can I get an invite to “Contemporary Music” listed above? thanks,Bill
Tim Rutherford-Johnson said
Huh, I hadn’t noticed that had changed. Afraid I don’t have an invite either
alinur said
Classical music mp3 is very nice? I like this type of music.
alinur said
Classical music mp3 is very interesting? I love classical music.
stateworkers said
Hi, it’s Guillermo, from the “Statework” blog- thank you for mentioning us here!
Great to see this, as I’ve checked in intermittently since a year ago and always found it a key source. It makes me feel honored to be included!
I’m afraid we’ve also been left out of the invite list of Contemporary Music, could we get a way in?
Tim Rutherford-Johnson said
Hi Guillermo – not sure how to get an invite (I don’t have one either) – I think you need to contact the site admins directly.