Album Spotlight: Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (Choral Symphony / Ode to Joy)

This week, the folks at classical.com have made Beethoven's 9th Symphony available for free download.  This is one of the most famous pieces of music ever written, so there's very little I could say about it that hasn't already been said.  For such a famous piece of music, however, this is actually the first time I've come across a full version of it for free; even Classic Cat (a site that I've posted about before) only has an incomplete version listed.  Actually, I have to take that back - I'm listening to it right now, and I notice that the fourth movement has been shortened; still, until a more complete version comes along, this is well worth grabbing.

If you're new to classical music, this symphony makes a great starting point, as you're probably already familiar with at least a few parts of it (especially the "Ode to Joy" which forms the basis of the fourth movement).  This version is performed by Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, with Alain Lombard conducting.  As with all free downloads from classical.com, this one is available in both MP3 and WMA formats, at 128 or 192 Kbps; more importantly, it will only be up for a couple of weeks, so if you want it, get it while you can.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://www.classical.com/free-music-download.php?download_id=113672

http://www.classiccat.net/beethoven_l_van/125.htm

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-music-resource-classical-music-on.html

Some free music for Easter

I have a little bit of Easter music to share with you on this Easter weekend. I wanted to have more music to share and to have this post up earlier, but that didn't quite work out. I hope you will still enjoy this music anyway.

First, classical.com currently has Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater available as a free download. As with all free downloads from classical.com, you need to act quickly if you want to get this one, as it will only be available for a couple of weeks.

Second, much of Handel's Messiah can be found between Classic Cat and Wikipedia. While Messiah is most commonly performed during Christmas, it was actually first performed during Lent - in fact, the entire second part of the work's three parts ("The Passion") relates to the Easter season, and the "Hallelujah" chorus is found in the middle of parts II and III. You won't find the complete work between these two sites, but most of the first two parts (including "Hallelujah") are there.

Finally, and more on the contemporary side, an acoustic version of Marillion's "Easter" can be found on their Downloads page (not the most well organized page I've ever seen, but the MP3s can be found on the left side under Audio Tracks; "Easter" itself is under RTL2 Radio Session, 7 June 2004). First released nearly 20 years ago on Seasons End, this has long been one of Marillion's most popular songs. The version found here is very stripped down, but still very beautiful.

However you have been spending this Easter Sunday, I hope you have been enjoying it. If you find any of this music enjoyable, then so much the better. Happy listening, and Happy Easter!

URLs:

http://www.classical.com/album/FF16835 (no longer available for free)

http://www.classiccat.net/handel_gf/56.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sound/list

http://www.marillion.com/fans/downloads.htm

Free Music Resource: Classical.com

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, then you may have already noticed the "Free music from around the web" section on the sidebar. The purpose of this section is to spotlight some free music sources that I regularly download from; each source includes a link to its website as well as to the latest offering from that source. I hope these links will be found useful by enabling more music to be discovered beyond what I cover in my posts.

Right now, I would like to highlight one of these sources - the one called Free Classical Music. This is actually a very small subset of a site called Classical.com, which features a wealth of information about classical music as well as a few other genres. In order to be able to download anything from the site, you will need to register for a free account, at which time you can begin exploring the site at your leisure. Once you've got your account set up, though, you can immediately begin downloading free albums from the site.

I've only been using this site for a couple of weeks, and in that time they have been offering 2 albums for download each week while also keeping the previous week's 2 albums available; I don't know if this has always been or will always be the case, but it currently allows for a decent selection at any given time. Some of the albums are compilations featuring works by various composers, like a recent album with works by Monteverdi and Schutz; others feature a selection of works by a single composer, my favourite so far being a Mozart album with 2 concertos, a symphony, and the overture to "The Magic Flute" (that one has more than 90 minutes of music). Full information about the most current albums can be obtained by clicking on their album covers.

My usual tendency with other classical music resources is to go for composers or works that I am already familiar with. Since the albums here are chosen by Classical.com, I'm not always able to do that, so I have found this to be a great way to sample classical music that is not necessarily familiar to me. Download speeds have been very fast for me; often it only takes a few minutes from starting my download to being able to listen to it.

The album selection is updated each Tuesday. If you're a fan of RSS feeds, I have created one using Feedity that you can use to keep up to date with the latest offerings; you can subscribe to it at http://feedity.com/rss.aspx/classical-com/W1NWUlE (NOTE: unfortunately, this feed has stopped working). Otherwise, be sure to keep checking back on the site every Tuesday to see what's new. Happy listening! 

URLs:
http://www.classical.com/free-classical-music.php
http://www.classical.com/
http://www.classical.com/register/
http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-music-resource-classical-music-on.html
http://feedity.com/

http://feedity.com/rss.aspx/classical-com/W1NWUlE (no longer working)