This is a classical song recommendation for our member,
pmusic, who recently asked for a music suggestion in a thread that was closed. I also thought I'd test out Freebase's new sticky, since he has gone to all this work of making sure there is a song recommendation sticky at the top of each section!
My recommendation, pmusic, is to listen to classical music pieces representing the different time periods, so that you can better trace how composers were influenced by each other. Here is a recommendation for a classical piece from the (European) Contemporary Classical Period (1975–present):
Eric Ewazen (a modern composer from the United States): "Down a River of Time," Movement II (1999).
Eric Ewazen's music is subtle but beautiful, I feel. I would never have heard of him except our orchestra is playing his contemporary "Down a River of Time" concerto for oboe. Our oboe player said he feels the second movement is
the saddest oboe piece of all time!!!
I don't know if this piece is the saddest ever, but I do feel it manages to sound contemporary yet still contain emotion, which I sometimes feel contemporary classical music lacks. I hope you'll enjoy it: