Professor Carol suggests 5 classical music pieces for your summer listening. Click through to hear performances on the web.

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People frequently ask me to suggest Classical
pieces for them to listen to. Here are a few
you might not find on a typical guide – good
for novices and old hands alike.

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To listen to the selections, click the arrow and
you will be taken to a performance on the
web.

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And if you come across this when summer is
over, go ahead and listen anyway. These
pieces are good year-round. Here they are:

4. Igor Stravinsky
1882-1971
Petrushka tells the story of a clown-puppet,
mistreated by his master, who pines for a puppet-
ballerina. He loses to a rival but his spirit triumphs
at the end. Petrushka is divided into four scenes,
called tableaux. Tableaux 1 & 4 are set in a swirl of
color at a Russian village fair during Maslenitsa
(Butter Week, the festival period before Lent).
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5. Claudio Monteverdi
1567-1643
This is a very short piece! It’s actually a fanfare
made up of brief musical phrases. Usually it’s
repeated three times to build the effect. The word
toccata comes from the Italian verb toccare – to play.
The toccata signaled to everyone that the stage
action was about to begin.
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6. Thomas Morley
1507-1602
Madrigals were the most popular form of music in the
Renaissance. Playing off that era’s thirst for new
poetry, madrigals took poems and turned them into
vocal works. Now is the Month of Maying is a good
example of a five-part a capella madrigal, which
means it is composed using five different vocal lines,
no instrumental accompaniment. It’s based on a
poem by Orazio Vecchi.
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7. George Gerswhin
1898-1937
These short pieces sparkle with syncopated rhythms
and touches of blues chords. They are great
examples of American “classical” music influenced by
jazz. Gershwin knew how to bring the piano alive with
the newest trendy sounds.
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8. Maurice Ravel
1875-1937
Not everything needs to be bouncy. In the opening
movement (to 9:49), a brief, shimmeringly beautiful
melody is first played by the pianist. It passes through
the instruments, building into gorgeous, even
frenzied, blocks of sound. It's a real tour de force.
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