# A Community Classical Listeners' Diary



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

We already have Current Listening and 'Blew Me Away' threads. No, what I'm thinking of here is more like your present (and changing) relationship to your listening and understanding of classical music, to your fanaticism and enjoyment.

Where are you now? Are you listening to more classical music, less classical music or about the same amount as previously? Are you enjoying it more, less or about the same? Do you feel more, less or as motivated as before? Where do you want to be with respect to appreciation of classical music? Are you already there? Were you once there and have strayed? What do you want as a listener of classical music? Is it the same as what you wanted years ago? Is it going to be different in the future? Have you gotten there? Are you avidly exploring new composers, getting more deeply into works you've discovered, taking a break? Do you think it's a phase? Where is it going?

This is pretty open, since it's an ongoing diary.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Definitely way more classical music than ever before!

I have way too much time on my hands and lots of listening projects to do.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I've been an avid listener for many decades, but my focus was on the so-called avant garde of the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Century. Of course, I also listened to some of the more famous works by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Handel, Telemann, Tchaikovsky and all of those guys.

It was only in the past five years or so that I began to deliberately and systematically flesh out my collections of 'all of those guys' by getting not just symphonies, but concertante pieces, chamber works, solo works, vocal and even some operas. This amounted to many hundreds of discs just on the major composers... and all of it music I pretty much had never heard.

While I could keep on going, completing my collections of the big name composers (there's still lots more to get and I will get more as time goes on) and other ones, too, I am presently finding myself in an absorption, rather than an acquisition, phase. I have forty years with Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Ligeti and all the rest of them  but Beethoven's Piano Concertos, Schubert's chamber works, anything by Shostakovich or Bruckner, to give only a few examples, are only a couple of years old to me. That's hundreds of discs I barely know and have no history with.

I'd like to get to the point where I could identify a work when I hear it, identify a composer, even when it's a work I haven't previously heard, etc. It is starting to come together, but it isn't very solid yet. And, of course, I want to have listened to these works deeply numerous times, in order to hear and be cognizant of the stuff that's happening musically.

As a result, I've really slowed my purchasing to a trickle. It's partly deliberate, but I can't think of anything to get right now. Do I need more Schubert or Beethoven or Mahler? I have so much of their music that I barely know, so what would more of it do for me? Right now, knowing more deeply what I have is what I am working on.

And, with it being summer, I'm listening lots less, too. I still listen daily, but my mind is not as attentive to music, since I'm more focussed on being out. Yes, I have a portable player, but it's just not really how I like to consume music. I like to hear it when I've got time for it.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Probably more, since I listen to classical music while doing computer work in our gallery - and after retirement from my job in 2012, I have a lot more time.

Since a few weeks, I have embarked on a very ambitious project, given the size of my CD collection: listen to all my classical music CD's again, working through the alphabet in terms of composers' names (well, per letter, to vary a bit - so not all Alwyn discs one after the other and so on). I'm still at the A though after over a hundred - today I listened to CD's by Alwyn, L. Andriessen, and Arnold. This will probably take a few years to complete.


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

Unchanged in terms of %, my listening has nearly always been 45% classical, 45% Jazz, 10% others. But since I got my new Hifi 3 years ago and moved everything to Computer Audio I certainly listen way more than before.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> Since a few weeks, I have embarked on a very ambitious project, given the size of my CD collection: listen to all my classical music CD's again, working through the alphabet in terms of composers' names (well, per letter, to vary a bit - so not all Alwyn discs one after the other and so on). I'm still at the A though after over a hundred - today I listened to CD's by Alwyn, L. Andriessen, and Arnold. This will probably take a few years to complete.


Hats off to you :tiphat: I am doing the same and, by your description, your collection is vastly larger than mine. I estimated that it would take me two years to get through entirely, but after perhaps 18 months to two years, I think I'm only about halfway


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

brotagonist said:


> )Where are you now? _*At work - on lunch break *_
> 
> Are you listening to more classical music, less classical music or about the same amount as previously? _*No significant change. Of 21 discs in current rotation, 9 are classical, 3 are music history related (Ancient Music right now) and 9 are other*_ Are you enjoying it more, less or about the same? _*About the same*_ Do you feel more, less or as motivated as before? _*A bit more*_ Where do you want to be with respect to appreciation of classical music? _*I've decided to be a bit more "academic" - going back to studying theory and doing a lot more with music history *_Are you already there?_ *No*_ Were you once there and have strayed? _*No*_ What do you want as a listener of classical music? _*More understanding *_ Is it the same as what you wanted years ago? _* Yes, but not since 1971*_ Is it going to be different in the future? _*Probably*_ Have you gotten there? _*Now I'm just confused*_ Are you avidly exploring new composers, getting more deeply into works you've discovered, taking a break? _*I'm avidly discovering new eras*_ Do you think it's a phase? _*Probably*_ Where is it going? _*The grave, or if not, to the forgotten past*_


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

^ I really want to hear where you've gone a year from now


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