No matter who you are, you’ve probably heard Gioachino Rossini‘s before, largely because of Looney Tunes. There’s nothing wrong with that. His music is so energizing and playful – perfect stuff for watching the Road Runner outwit Wile E. Coyote and by extension, the Acme corporation. More than that, he doesn’t play any musical guessing-games with his audience. When there’s a melody, you hear it. When it gets faster, you know. No special knowledge required.

This is the overture to his opera “La Cenerentola” – Cinderella.

So why is this post titled “Wait for it …”? The first two minutes of the overture is “sit down and shut up” music. Some quiet notes, a couple big chords, some noodling around, some weird harmonic progressions. Stuff to pass the time as opera patrons rush to their seats before the real action begins. (I’m actually convinced that at 2:09, Rossini was actually setting the words “sit down, shut up, sit down, shut up” to orchestral music.)

So if you get bored or lost early on … wait for it. Things start to get going around 2:15.

Not much to say about this one! Pour a cup of tea and draw yourself a musical bath – courtesy of Ralph Vaughan-Williams.

Some quick notes about Vaughan-Williams :

• He loved and collected English folk music; its influence can be heard in all his music
• He was the son of a priest, but was an atheist; later, a self-described “cheerful agnostic”
• Despite the above, he wrote a great deal of sacred music and practically defined the hymnody of the Anglican church for a century
• He volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in WWI; the experience affected him (and, by extension, his music) profoundly
• His remains are interred in Westminster Abbey, near those of Purcell and C.V. Stanford

Vaughan-Williams’ music might be conservative when compared to his contemporaries, but it really hits home. The Lark Ascending is simply transcendent.