# Is classical music a priority to you guys over everything?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

I spend a lot this month, so im at 230$ remaining but i preffer to buy more classical and eat less
and scrap, after i will buy this John Dowland box-set i will be poor , im allready in the red but his
music is precious to me, more than eating smoking or drinking, i pay my bills so should i by this john Dowland box-set of course i am and i will, even if it mean eating grilled cheeze sandwitch for the rest of the month.If i dont buy it i wont be happy will have a hard time sleeping.

I need it perriod who care if i starved to death, complete lute music! please says this again i know i will snap and buy it anyway than i will suffer but hey im a devotee, if i love a composer i need material
that is substancial fews cds to feed my hunger, classical music of this quality is food for the mind.

People most think im crazy beyond this point, but i love lute, i can't help it it's beyond my control, you guys understand this wright?

I willingly quit drinking to buy more cds, i plan on quitting smoking to, classical more important than the afored mention, have a nice day, i know i will regret it in two week when i reach the gutter absolutely no money , well i hope i can't survive this month.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Guess what! The Dowland album will still be there next month  Put the album in your wish list and sleep on it for a few nights.

In the meantime, you can always use You Tube until you have some extra cash  Also, if you have a public library card, you can likely access Naxos Music Library for free! You will be able to listen to that very Naxos album whenever you want, plus 10s of thousands of other albums on dozens and dozens of different labels! No need to deprive your mind of precious food


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

deprofundis said:


> I willingly quit drinking to buy more cds, i plan on quitting smoking to, classical more important than the afored mention, have a nice day, i know i will regret it in two week when i reach the gutter absolutely no money , well i hope i can't survive this month.


Far better to go broke on classical music than to go broke smoking and drinking and ending up with cancer and a heart attack. If you shop around used CDs on Amazon and Ebay, and can hold off on the more expensive stuff, you should be able to build a decent collection and still afford to eat.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Florestan said:


> Far better to go broke on classical music than to go broke smoking and drinking and ending up with cancer and a heart attack.


Music? Fast women and slow ponies, that's the ticket! I can always listen to music on the radio.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I was somewhat curious about my own spending [shudder] I was buying a lot in 2014, right up until the last day of the year. I definitely reduced my spending a lot in 2015. Just looking at orders placed in 2015, I bought 46 albums (none in September or October and only 2 so far in November) for a total cost of $705.32 shipped. Holy Mackerel! That's $15.33 per album on average, which is rather high, but I had bought a lot of operas this year. The cost per disc for the 90 discs is $7.84, which is very good indeed! Looking back on my orders, I am absolutely ecstatic about the music I got 

I think I'll be joining you for supper. Grilled cheese sandwiches sound great (provided it's home-made whole grain bread and Esrom or Gruyère cheese)!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

If I wasn't married I'd be buying a lot more. As it is, I average a CD every 4 months.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The only trouble I have that I sometimes buy more then having time to listening to it.
On the other hand I do use my CD player in my car a lot


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I was trying to get mine under one a week. I suppose I succeeded, if one takes the months of September and October into account :lol:

I was somewhat shocked to see the total for this year, although I know I was spending over $100 a month in the past couple of years. Still, when I think that many drop a few hundred for one piece of shiny chrome for their rmotorbikes, my spending was very conservative. I don't use licit or other substances, don't have cable television, nor Netflix or sports channels, nor magazine subscriptions, nor mobile phone (yet), etc. I don't eat in restaurants. My hobby is actually very economical, seen in perspective. That's not a rationalization—but I do have enough operas and other music for a while


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Having a cd and its related booklet is a kind of formality for me, on the other hand, to spend on musical publishing is an obligation for music lovers. To listen from download or youtube is as randomn as a street musician can get. But I do have a limit set for purchasing cds, because they are not durable as books. I am still willing to spend a lot of money in other ways on music as possible as I can afford.


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## Bayreuth (Jan 20, 2015)

I know what you mean. Classical music is (by really really far) what I spend most of my money in. I'm young, 24, I don't drink, I don't go out that much and my perfect weekend includes ALWAYS staying late listening to some new work while I play a little with my telescope. In the morning I go to the store and spend my money in classical music. Then if I have time I see my girlfriend :lol: :lol: 

What I'm trying to say is that I have built a lifestyle in which classical music is not a money pit, but the absolute center of everything. So yes, it is a priority. I wouldn't choose buying Richter's Well Tempered Klavier over eating one day; instead, I just rarely eat in restaurants so that I can eventually get the music that I like. By doing so I enjoy life in a way that I don't think people can understand. It's a crazily austere life where the joy comes from collecting and appreciating music (and reading and going to cheap afternoon sessions at the movies) instead of getting drunk, partying my *** off, eating out every day and all those things that I feel people my age feel drawn to.


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## Oscarf (Dec 13, 2014)

This discusion brings back some good memories. I started collecting music seriously when I was 18. At that point I was a university student with very little money that I had to split between books and music, so I made a habit of being really selective, waiting for better prices and looking for bargains to maximize what I could have for the little money I could spent. Now, 30 years after, I am fortunately in a very different financial situation and though I could afford spending more freely I maintain the same habits, I really look at prices and refuse spending on music that I find too expensive. I suppose some habits never die.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

When it comes down to money spent it probably is too much! But then I don't drink or smoke. As the price of a pint around our way is nearly £3 and a packet of cigarettes is around £8 then my spending on Cds is not excessive. My spending on my grandchildren is another matter! :lol:


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Morimur said:


> If I wasn't married I'd be buying a lot more. As it is, I average a CD every 4 months.


I've found that it helps having the only key to the mailbox.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Priority?
May be....
But I'm not a collector ( even though someone said that everyone is a collector, it's just a matter of finding out "of what"). 
To prove that I'm a devotee ?:lol: it sounds too superficial for me and why should I prove it?
Then , next point, why do people on this thread speak in terms of spending : I spend - time and money, therefore I'm a devotee, I'm a fan of classical music, so I should buy ?

Doesn't it simply prove one rather simple modern life principle: buy, spend and consume - and you feel alive ( it doesn't matter on what one spends, the goal of consumption can be either dull or more sophisticated).Someone states that if you ARE a real devotee, then undoubtedly you'll buy CDs, you support musicians by doing it, and well, sure, you go to their concerts, etc - in short you are a DEVOTED listener ( how proud it sounds! ), it becomes sort of your duty, your obligation , etc - because you are such a good citizen, oh, sorry I wanted to say a listener. And if you don't do it  then definitely you are NOT a classical music devotee, not an admirer, you are......just I'm speechless, you don't belong to "our club"  . I'm all for that - for support, etc. But aren't we talking here about music and not about our social obligations/activities? But Music still will exist as a phenomenon, I mean already composed music, regardless if we buy it or not.

But if we speak of priority as of something that always will be with you , in your heart and mind regardless where you are now - in a dessert or tropical jungles where for sure you have no cd player and hardly ever an Internet connection and if for some reasons you don't have any access to the computer or anything, so you are totally disconnected from a "civilized world" and this music is always with you, in your memories, then it is a priority over many things. 

May be one day you can even say "that's enough, too much for me of this music, I'll leave...I need some silence- it is the best music for me!" and still you'll come back , because you will miss it and because it is your priority you can "Listen" to it any time, because the best of what you've listened to will stay in your memory unchangeable and unforgettable as it simply became a part of you. So , in the end it's not a priority , it is simply you,this music became you.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I've been a collector/devotee all of my adult life. The grand scale buying binge of the past few years began because I wanted to have all of my old LPs back on CD (and I bought at least as much new stuff, too ). After a brief but steamy flirtation with Napster (and friends) back at the turn of the century, I made the decision to pay for the music that was important to me. We all have our favourite charities and altruistic interests. Mine is to support the music industry and the composers and artists that make my hobby possible.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Classical music is absolutely not a priority for me Over Everything. I maintain a well-balanced and nutritious diet of various musics along with extensive reading (mostly non-fiction), and other stimuli (open-water kayaking, backyard casual astronomy, walking the fields and forests, thinking, etc.). As far as expenditure for music, I often rely on copying library CDs, and haunting shops specializing in used disks, as I do not have large sums to spend on multiple versions of the same work (and wouldn't get them anyway). Simplify! Simplify!


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## Open Lane (Nov 11, 2015)

Music is my life. It is 90% of what i do recreatonally. I enjoy listening to music, collecting it, creating it, and analyzing it.

While, don't consider myself an expert by any means, i do love it. I listen to everything from death metal to bach, from schoenberg to ozzy osboune, peter brotzmann to miles davis. Listening to music is what i do. I have no friends whose interests and tastes are entirely aligned with mine. I have metalhead friends, and i have jazz friends. I only have one friend, my music teacher, who likes jazz, classical, and rock like. Honestly, my love for music as isolated me quite a bit and i feel quite lonely which is one of the reasons i joined this community.

I can relate to you because i'm also obsessed with music. I don't drink and i don't smoke. Always looking for my next cd fix. My cd collection is approaching 1650


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I've just taken my grandchildren out for tea. An evening spent with two precious little people makes one realise what your priorities are! I love music but there are things that are vastly more important.


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## Open Lane (Nov 11, 2015)

DavidA said:


> I've just taken my grandchildren out for tea. An evening spent with two precious little people makes one realise what your priorities are! I love music but there are things that are vastly more important.


I agree. Family comes first.


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## Guest (Nov 13, 2015)

brotagonist said:


> I've been a collector/devotee all of my adult life. The grand scale buying binge of the past few years began because I wanted to have all of my old LPs back on CD
> The same here,but there are many recordings I do not buy again.:wave:


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

To answer the original question, no classical music is not the most important thing in my life.
Music has to take it's place with everything else and it sure ain't going to replace food in my house.
Obsession is rarely healthy whatever form it takes


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

No, not "my life." Thankfully, as much as I love it.

The issue of money spent is something else entriely. I am a saver, not a spender (or am I a tightwad?). I have a slow trigger on buying anything.


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## Open Lane (Nov 11, 2015)

i am pretty obsessed with music. I agree with you though, there needs to be time to address other physical needs. Music has become a lifestyle for me though


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I submerge myself in music in everything I do. If I didn't, I would be dead. Although I don't spend much money on music apart from concerts and a handful of CDs a year.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

+traverso :wave: There's a lot I would not buy again, either. I was referring to classical music. I am not interested in physically archiving all of the pop music I ever liked at all points in my life  YT has already done that.

Classical music is far from 'my life'. It is a fascinating and rewarding hobby and an art form I like to support. I like to have music on at home and I have it on quite a lot of the time, but I also like silence, both at home and away from home. Music is primarily a solitary pleasure, partly, because few to no people like what I like, but also because classical music demands mindfulness. I am interested in many other things away from home, but music often accompanies my activities while at home. Music is in no way a priority. I would never consider depriving myself of anything necessary or worthwhile in order to have more recordings. As much as I have spent in the last couple of years on this hobby  believe it or not, I am actually a saver and tightwad, like GreenMamba. I am fortunate in that I have had access to a small but steady supply of 'disposable income'  that has been generous enough to slightly exceed the needs of my belly and my gas tank.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Classical music is my life-_my LIFE._ Although I can't be stuffed paying for it. :lol:


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

deprofundis said:


> I willingly quit drinking to buy more cds, I plan on quitting smoking to/QUOTE]
> 
> Well, I don't know. More Lagavulin or more CDs . . . The Scotch makes the music sound better but the music makes the Scotch taste better. It is good that I don't smoke.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

CM is important but it's not "everything".


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

I know where you're coming from but only one box set? I would say that is a healthy interest but not an addiction. I was shocked the other year when I counted up the amount I'd spent on music in a year and grateful for drink and cigarettes to get things in perspective for me.


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2015)

ArtMusic said:


> CM is important but it's not "everything".


My wife is important but it's not everything.


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2015)

Alydon said:


> I was shocked the other year when I counted up the amount I'd spent on music in a year and grateful for drink and cigarettes to get things in perspective for me.


Don't worry so much!:lol:


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## Adamus (Aug 30, 2015)

No, with money you are poor: http://www.peakprosperity.com


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Music, yes; classical music, not so much. I am beginning to find the need to distinguish, insofar as listening preferences go, between _this_ and _that_, worthless.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Since 7, I started by Mozart, Britten and Haydn - on by LP and score.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Crudblud said:


> Music, yes; classical music, not so much. I am beginning to find the need to distinguish, insofar as listening preferences go, between _this_ and _that_, worthless.


As a frequent Current Listening contributor, I can sympathize. It always rankles that I have to mention Poulenc in the classical thread and Bill Evans in non-classical when I listen to one right after the other (as often happens).

But then I suppose it's worth it since it gives me safe havens from the Milton Babbitt vs Brittney Spears debate.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Blancrocher said:


> As a frequent Current Listening contributor, I can sympathize. It always rankles that I have to mention Poulenc in the classical thread and Bill Evans in non-classical when I listen to one right after the other (as often happens).
> 
> But then I suppose it's worth it since it gives me safe havens from the Milton Babbitt vs Brittney Spears debate.


Britney's theory of combinatorial multiplication is pretty fierce tbh, even Wuorinen can't step to that.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Crudblud said:


> Britney's theory of combinatorial multiplication is pretty fierce tbh, even Wuorinen can't step to that.


Sure, if you want mathematical ideas listen to Britney by all means--or, better yet, just read the scores. But for simple, satisfying, repetitious melodies I'm going to Babbitt every time.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Blancrocher said:


> Sure, if you want mathematical ideas listen to Britney by all means--or, better yet, just read the scores. But for simple, satisfying, repetitious melodies I'm going to Babbitt every time.


"Oops, I Transposed Again" is my favourite Babbitt hit. Guy went downhill so fast after that.


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

Well, not a priority over "everything" - come on, it doesn't take precedence over breathing, wot?
I vaguely remember something Harold C. Schoenberg (sp?) wrote to the effect that his wife sometimes woke him up at night to ask what he was listening to. He always had music playing in his head. I usually do, too, though I'm not aware if it plays while I'm actually asleep. So yeah, it's a big priority.


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