Some people sing in their cars.
I conduct orchestras with the music on full blast.
(Nothing like a little Stravinsky to get weird looks from the car full of guys next to you at the stop light.)
I should not, however, be allowed to listen to certain pieces of music, because I get too wrapped up in them, and forget to drive.
On that list?
Respighi’s Pines of Rome
Stravinsky’s Firebird
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
Aaron Copland … anything.
Bruckner’s 4th Symphony
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (bonus points for 4th/5th movement)
Just about anything by Beethoven
Movie soundtracks are just as, if not more susceptible, especially the good stuff – Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, even a little John Williams.
Today the culprit was the aforementioned Respighi, whereby I missed not one but TWO turns on the way home from the grocery store – a trip I make about once a week. Apparently where most people shouldn’t be allowed to have cell-phones in cars?
I need to un-install the speakers.
*laughs* Does this mean I’ve found someone else who loves Fantasia (most notably Fantasia 2000, based on your music list)?
That was the CD in the player today, but it’s certainly not limited to that recording – I’ve been fond of all of that music since pre-Fantasia, so seeing it in the IMAX was a little hour and a half of pure squee on my part.
That recording has such a concentrated AWESOME that it… kinda blows my mind.
Also? I don’t know what they put in the CSO’s wheaties, but HOLY CRAP. Someone gave the horn section some crack or something, because if you wanted an example of “balls-out” orchestral playing? That recording is it. See particularly the Respighi and Firebird.
And Larry Combs’ solo on the Rhapsody in Blue? SICK SICK SICK
I do the same with rock. I’ve frequently been passed (because I missed their honking horn) at stop lights that turned green because I was busy headbanging or getting lost in the melody.
For me, that would be the Eastern Orchestral styling of The Twelve Girls Band. As the name suggests, 12GB is an ensemble of classically trained women playing traditional chinese instruments, performing songs of traditional folk origin, as well as arrangements of popular songs. This one in particular is a medley of classical music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcTr2gWOeWo
I have done this. Not recently though, because they took my classical station off the radio (the buttheads), and I am terrible about keeping CD’s in my car.
*lightbulb*
I should put some stuff on my ipod. I have the Firebird on CD, as well as Holst’s Planets. There is also an old favorite called The River, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember who wrote it, and I can’t look it up because I think the title was in another language.
I’m also guilty, though for me it’s rock- been on a major Evanescence kick lately. I haven’t actually gotten lost while driving, but there’s been a time or 2 that it’s been | | that close.