# Are you an adventurer or a stay-at-home?



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I wonder if you would describe yourself as a musical adventurer or a more stay at home sort of music lover? What do I mean?

*Adventurer* - a nomad, perhaps. Someone who is always searching for new musical experiences, whether they be new music that is different to what they know, new genres, new and notably different performance styles. An adventurer doesn't leave what s/he's moved on from but wants to add different things to it.

*Stay-at-home* - you are "where you want to be" and all that is left is undertaking slow methodical improvements or perhaps merely maintenance. Someone who knows what they like and is mostly concerned with finding more that is not so very different.

It will be interesting to read reasons, too.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

All my "esthetic" life, I have been the recipient of happy new interests in art and music by not feverishly working at increasing the universe of things I examine so that I can say to myself (or others) that I have Examined It All. I shall never, ever hear all the symphonies of Myaskovsky--life is too short and there is much wonderful music and art to enjoy again and again (I am a fervent re-reader of books I enjoy: I re-read _Moby Dick_ about every five years--it gets always better).

But Fate brings me, on the breeze, wonderful things. It's how I discovered the Luminist painters, as a specific example--the chance receipt of a book about them. Many others: just spur-of-the moment decisions to listen to this or that selection mentioned here on TC--some click; some don't.

So it's a mixture of a bit of both for me. And in addition to experiencing art and music, I--we--all have other interests and lives to lead: _Ars longa, vita brevis_ indeed!


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

A mix of both.

I mostly listen to certain works by a limited number of composers: the three B's, Dvorak, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Bartok, Haydn, Mozart.

But I keep trying to broaden my horizons, with a good deal of success. I have been listening avidly to classical music for only about four years, and I am 22, so I feel compelled at times to listen to music I haven't heard before.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I voted Adventurer/nomad, but perhaps "expansionist" might be a better description. I'm more about widening my horizons rather than finding new ones. The works I liked when I first started listening 30-something years ago, I still like. But I'm constantly finding that music I didn't like in the past has graduated to _not so bad_ to _actually OK_. Plus TC is full of little reminders: "oh, I haven't heard _that_ yet", or "I must get back to _this_ composer"...


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

A bit of both. I return often to my favorite composers and works in new performances (particularly Bach; I doubt if I could go two days without him), but at least once a week or so I try to listen to something I haven’t previously heard, particularly something more contemporary and “adventurous.” I don’t always connect with it, but it always broadens my horizons and is usually a positive experience. I purposefully try to mix up my listening habits so music of all genres from 1100-1990 is always on my soundtrack. IMO there’s just too much rich and exciting variety within the world of CM to stick to one section of it. This week’s listening featured Verdi’s Aida, Shostakovich’s quartets, Mendelssohn’s piano trios, Lutoslawski’s cello concerto, Medtner’s piano sonatas, Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion and Bach’s St. Matthew.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

When I joined the site, I was an adventurer - aware of my ignorance, I wanted to get a general mind-map of classical music, and asking advice about different styles and composers and what to listen out for was a great way of making friends. 

But I voted for 'stay at home' today as a lot of my friends have left the site and I have a better but still basic knowledge of what's available and what I like, plus I want to deepen my knowledge of early music and baroque and also folk music, because this is where my heart lies. 

I try to get out occasionally, but am working on my home to make it a wonderful place to stay.


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## Wilhelm Theophilus (Aug 8, 2020)

who doesn't want to find good music they're not already familiar with?

No one is going to choose the stay-at-home option. You've framed it with many negative connotations, its a trap!  Plus it doesn't represent anyone. I think you may misunderstand peoples views of certain genres of modern music.


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## Wilhelm Theophilus (Aug 8, 2020)

Enthusiast said:


> and is mostly concerned with finding more that is not so very different


Are Bach and Sibelius different? Handel and Wagner?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

*Looks at the original post and the name of the poster* 

Is this just another thread to elevate avant-garde music?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Nereffid said:


> I voted Adventurer/nomad, but perhaps "expansionist" might be a better description. I'm more about widening my horizons rather than finding new ones. The works I liked when I first started listening 30-something years ago, I still like. But I'm constantly finding that music I didn't like in the past has graduated to _not so bad_ to _actually OK_. Plus TC is full of little reminders: "oh, I haven't heard _that_ yet", or "I must get back to _this_ composer"...


Expansionist is a very good word for what I meant. I have added a little edit to my OP to clarify that my adventurer doesn't desert what s/he has loved but may want to add different things to it. I suppose an example might be loving Mozart and Haydn and perhaps wanting to hear them in other performing styles but tending to prefer moving on to a different period rather than digging out more and more Classical period composers?


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## Wilhelm Theophilus (Aug 8, 2020)

Wilhelm Theophilus said:


> who doesn't want to find good music they're not already familiar with?
> 
> No one is going to choose the stay-at-home option. You've framed it with many negative connotations, its a trap!  Plus it doesn't represent anyone. I think you may misunderstand peoples views of certain genres of modern music.


ok people have chosen it :lol:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I used to be an adventurer. If someone said Beethoven's Heiliger Dankesang had part-writing not seen since Obrecht, I had to learn about Obrecht. And when John Cage compared the writing styles of Satie and Webern as being time-structured, I had to learn about Webern. Every time I bought a new CD, I would go to the Blair School of Music and look up analyses and would try to acquire scores to mark up. 

Now I don't have the time to chase down every rabbit trail. I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't have time to understand all the complexities of composers like Ferneyhough or Elliott Carter, so I'm not bothering with them. 

At this point, if I have a visceral connection with a piece, I'll get deeper into it, but I've stopped listening just for the sake of listening because someone says the piece or composer is important.


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## Ned Low (Jul 29, 2020)

On one hand, there are numerous composers that i haven't discovered or listened to. Maybe, out of curiosity, i go through some of their works and find out that i pretty much like them. Or they might even become my favourite composer. Who knows. It's for a certainty a pleasant experience to go through a composer's oeuvre which is new to you.

On the other hand, i really like to stick with what i love or listen to something slightly similar to the pieces and composers i'm already fond of. Therefore, i tend to spend most of my time trying different recordings of the pieces i like.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

hammeredklavier said:


> *Looks at the original post and the name of the poster*
> 
> Is this just another thread to elevate avant-garde music?


Not at all. Exploration may involve wanting to hear very different performances or very different genres. Explorers will try anything. Staying at home is more likely to involve a person knowing which performance style they prefer in, say, Mozart or knowing that they can spend a lifetime with just Romantic (or avant garde!) music and don't need to see what early music or Indian music can do for them.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> what early music or Indian music can do for them.


Ok, but why not jazz, why not prog-rock? Let's talk about the merits of all other music genres, on this "classical music forum" then.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Wilhelm Theophilus said:


> No one is going to choose the stay-at-home option. You've framed it with many negative connotations, its a trap!  Plus it doesn't represent anyone. I think you may misunderstand peoples views of certain genres of modern music.


No trap, I assure you, and I see nothing negative in the "stay-at-home" category. But some people want to have both Furtwangler and Gardiner doing Beethoven and others don't. And I know people who love and are very knowledgeable about Baroque music but don't really want to go more modern or earlier. These are legitimate approaches to their musical enjoyment I think and come with some advantages. In another post you ask "are Bach and Sibelius different". Well, to some people they are massively different. Apologies if you found my OP's wording a little hard to pin down but that can help stimulate ideas if you drop your suspicion!


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

I think I'm in the middle. I go through periods where I spend most of my time listening to things I want to get but don't, but that habit is motivated by equal periods of obsession where I over-listen to my favorites and wear out their effect. That said, I've given most of the big name composers enough of a chance at this point that I've accepted my tastes will probably remain what they are until my ears "reset" themselves, the way they seem to, over a looooong period of time, after which I suspect many things I struggle with now will pop out at me with brilliance I can't believe I never noticed.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

I said to myself, "Oh, this is easy," and checked off Stay-at-home. Then I saw the thread was about *music*. 

Maybe it still applies.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I chose adventurer/nomad for myself because I always want to hear new insights in my favourite works, always want to explore periods that I have (or had) neglected, have wanted to explore more and more chamber music even though I started off almost entirely with orchestral music (still my comfort zone) and have wanted to explore jazz and some "rock" (in the broadest sense) even though CM is where I cam from. But I tend to be a very conservative stay at home when it comes to sticking with the bigger names: I tend not to explore the less known composers of any period. I am so conservative in this way that it took me ages to oepn my ears to Schmidt's music.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I chose "stay at home" because I have that unfortunate malady known as "completeism." But I also like to expand my base.

So maybe I should've chosen "a bit of both."


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Both, but my stay-at-home is not typical fare. Rather than spend time listening to the standard repertoire, at home I am far happier putting on stuff that rarely shows up in concert and even most music students are oblivious too: Raff, Bax, Schmidt, Rontgen, Goldmark, Chadwick...and then the lesser-known works of the famous: the Rimsky-Korsakov operas, the earlier Dvorak symphonies...

And I got there because of my nomadic interests. Long ago I had heard most all of the standard repertoire and was always looking for something unusual, something not so well known. I even try to keep up with new music, although the avant garde is still rough terrain. Yesterday I got two new cds in the mail of new music: the Leshnoff 3rd symphony which is excellent, very listenable, even exciting at times. Followed up with a new recording of works by Marius Constant; much tougher but it was interesting, at times moving and will need many more playings to digest. 

So much music, so little time; but there's always more to be discovered and hopefully enjoyed.

Our local classical FM station is clearly a stay-at-home deal. They keep replaying the same stuff over and over...three times this week while out driving I heard Bolero...two of them the same performance. The need to become nomads.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

hammeredklavier said:


> Ok, but why not jazz, why not prog-rock? Let's talk about the merits of all other music genres, on this "classical music forum" then.


Yes, _all of them_. But we are not talking about their merits in this thread - it is about patterns in our tastes. No right answers.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

A bit of both, but definitely more of an adventurer. Even when it comes to my favorite music, I enjoy hearing new and creative interpretations.

Yesterday I listened to the Jacques Loussier trio performing Bach for about 2 hours. It filled me with so much joy.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm naturally inclined to musical adventure but there's another side of my brain asking how much music do I really need?


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

mbhaub said:


> Our local classical FM station is clearly a stay-at-home deal. They keep replaying the same stuff over and over...three times this week while out driving I heard Bolero...two of them the same performance. The need to become nomads.


Our local CM station KING-FM 98.1 has the same problem. Their "Bach's Lunch" and "Mozart At Eight" features are hardly recognizable as separate features.

When my sister lived in Beaverton she turned me on to All Classical Portland. They venture outside the Big Five quite often, and have introduced me to all sorts of wonderful music off the beaten path.

My other sister swears by SPR Spokane Public Radio but I haven't spent any time with it.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I'm more of the adventurer type. I love to explore new music, and I have no problem in listening to whatever genres I happen to be curious about. This said, classical is my shelter, and by far my favorite style of music.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm glad I have always been and adventurer at heart. Otherwise I would never have explored the likes of Reinecke, Bax, Moeran, Braunfels, Leifs, Sallinen, Gubaidulina, Chin, Takemitsu, Lilburn and so many others, who have now become part of my extended list of favourites, in a mix with many of the more established names. The same goes for pop/rock, where one find among my favourites many of the usual names mixed up with less well-known bands from Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and so on.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Bit of both I think for me. My heart is more stay-at-home, but my mind is more adventurous.


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

Regarding musical genres I clearly belong to the _Stay-at-home_ category since my 20's.
Classical, Jazz and very occasionally Progressive Rock. My musical adventures (new composers, new recordings of favorite works, new musicians, new works) through the years, take place within these genres.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I picked stay-at-home which I've been recently becoming more of whereas in the past I was always on the search for something new.

Now I'm content looking for new recordings of my favorite composers.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

For quite a few years I enjoyed adventuring for used classical lps. It was particularly exciting for me to find "gold mines" now and then that contained real "gems" at ridiculously low prices. My searches led me to great little shops, sometimes in large cities, other times in out of the way small towns. Some larger places shared space between books, lp records and numerous other kinds of collectables. Once in a while, I would find a warehouse loaded with thousands of lps. I would spend hours searching through shelves and cartons or wooden crates, putting aside records after a momentary glance, accompanied by a sense of encouragement they would become additions to my growing collection. Once finished with my search, I would pull each record from its sleeve to inspect it and decide whether or not I was confident enough with the idea of purchasing it. Of course, for 25 cents, 50 cents or one dollar apiece, I would have virtually nothing to lose. Thus, I frequently threw caution to the winds. Besides, I would not really be able to know what the vinyl quality of each record would be until I took it home and play tested it. I had known by this time, through experience, that clean looking lps and absence of spindle wear were no guarantee of good listening quality. On the other hand, sometimes spindle marks and light scratches did not necessarily indicate a poor sounding lp. Yes, appearances can at times be misleading, for better or worse. All things considered (especially low prices), taking the risk of purchase before verifying quality was for me usually a no brainer.

One of my most memorable experiences--nearly 35 years ago--came on a trip my wife and I made to an outskirt of London. We visited a fellow's large, two story house which contained a huge library of lps holding many recordings of the fine British labels with the most desirable conductors, soloists and performances. These lps were not offered for bottom of the barrel prices, but I didn't find them especially costly either. After picking what I wanted and having a very pleasant time conversing with the owner, my wife and I left with a substantial load in a few sturdy bags. After having returned home, I discovered the overwhelming majority of lps to be in superb condition.

One other notable experience occurred at the time we were residing in beautiful Western North Carolina. I learned of a shop in Hendersonville which sold various collectables as well as used furniture. On my first visit there, and after spending a while browsing, I noticed an area I had missed off to the side of the store where a few steps led up to another room. I felt a rush of excitement and anticipation after seeing thousands of lps in boxes on top of and below big, long tables. I soon discovered nearly all the lps were classical, after which the owner indicated they were one dollar apiece. I couldn't stay long that day, but returned the next day. I was amply rewarded with quite a few absolute treasures. Many were in stellar condition.

Nowadays, these adventures are the stuff of fond bygone memories. As I've gotten older the past several years, I've managed to unload several thousand of the lps I had for so long collected. Many were freely given to thrift shops where I anticipated other classical collectors would experience joy and satisfaction similar to the kind I had in so many instances.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

I chose a bit of both, but I go through phases. Sometimes, I'm constantly listening to new music trying to find different stuff, whereas I sometimes don't listen to new music for months on end.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Stay-at-home. *Having listened to classical on and off for a few decades, I feel that I have a broad experience of classical to be able to narrow my focus. I mostly enjoy instrumental music. I was more of an adventurer when I joined this forum, collecting and going to concerts, but I more or less hit a plateau with that about five years ago. Having said that, outside my collection and the odd live concert, I still listen to some music that is unfamiliar to me via youtube and also on radio. I continue to read books on music.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I am an adventurer by and large but I know where the dangerous waters are; in it, lies territories that are a waste of efforts to explore.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Very adventurous most of the time.

However, when life is getting difficult, my listening narrows in. Either to music that seems to fit the situation I am in or just is comforting for some reason. When my husband was in the hospital in November, I think I probably listened to the same dozen songs or so the whole time


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Wilhelm Theophilus said:


> who doesn't want to find good music they're not already familiar with?
> 
> No one is going to choose the stay-at-home option. You've framed it with many negative connotations, its a trap!  Plus it doesn't represent anyone. I think you may misunderstand peoples views of certain genres of modern music.


Ten people so far have chosen "Stay at Home."


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I have apartments in various states that I move around. There's been periods where I decide to listen to nothing but 90s hardcore Dutch rave music for a few weeks, and months at a time I go without listening to a single classical piece. Classical, "classic" 80s/90s techno/house, and 90s/00s indie are generally my most popular haunts, though.


One thing I will say is that I usually make it a big deal when I expand my interests. I'm not one to put on Spotify on shuffle and see what pops up that I like- if I want to get into something or someone new, I tend to go all out and immerse myself in their music for a bit.


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