# Death by Overfamiliarity



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Some of Mozart's most popular works. The first movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 5. Pachelbel's Canon. Boccherini's Minuet. The fourth movement of Dvorak's Symphony no. 9.. Etc. 

What some classical music works that you are over familiar with, that it's like been beaten to death when you hear it? Are you having the 'Death by Overfamiliarity' syndrome? 
:O


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Nice thread, innovative as well.... Here's a list: 

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 2 
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker 
Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake 
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture 
Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty Lilac Fairy's Theme 
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata 

Hmm, which one do you think is the outlier? 1812 Overture sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn't it....


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I'm not so concerned with these pieces, which will always find new listeners. Of more concern is music that overstays its welcome five minutes into the first hearing...


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I've never yet found a work the becomes too familiar. I expect to continue to love the works that I currently love forever.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

mmsbls said:


> I've never yet found a work the becomes too familiar. I expect to continue to love the works that I currently love forever.


Lucky.... You must not listen to Tchaikovsky. 

Anyway. I try to stay away from listening to the same work twice in a row, no matter how short or long.... Anyone like that as well?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

mstar said:


> Lucky.... You must not listen to Tchaikovsky.
> 
> Anyway. I try to stay away from listening to the same work twice in a row, no matter how short or long.... Anyone like that as well?


I probably heard my wife play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto well over 100 times (not continuously all the way through), and I've heard it many dozens of times in concert and on recordings. It still is simply one of the most beautiful, moving works of music I have ever heard.

Oh and the late symphonies, the Rococo Variations, String Quartet No. 1, Serenade for Strings, The Nutcracker, and many more (including the 1812 Overture) are a complete joy each and every time. But that's me. Others differ.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

All of the works in the OP's list still work for me... as long as I ration the hearings. Once per year mostly; that canon maybe every 5.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Not death exactly, but infirm. One only needs to give these works a chance to be new again, that's all. With Dvorak's 9th, I'll need to give it a long, long chance I'm afraid -- and that's my fault for wearing it out. Some famous works, such as Taco Bell's Cannon or Bore-lero, I was never much in love with anyway.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I don't really get tired of music from over-listening to it, but sometimes I get tired of music from people over-praising it, which kind of doesn't make sense but meh.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

When I do get to "saturation", I put it aside for a period, which could be more than a year. But really, there are so much music out there that we can address the imbalance a bit by listening to other works even by great composers themselves. YOu can listen to the many early pieces of Beethoven for example and they are wonderful, too.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

violadude said:


> I don't really get tired of music from over-listening to it, but sometimes I get tired of music from people over-praising it, which kind of doesn't make sense but meh.




Yeah, it makes sense. The 'over-praise' gets you thinking "Hey, it ain't _that_ good", and then it ain't.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

At the age of fifteen I first said to myself "I don't care if I ever hear Eine Kleine 
Nachtmusik ever again.". And I still don't.

Other things that strike me similarly: The Four Seasons, Fur Elise, many of the leitmotifs in The Ring, The Pina Colada Song.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Everything in Suzuki Violin through to book 7.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Classical Music does not suffer from the _overfamiliarity bug_. A piece can be played and replayed without penalty. Ravel's _Bolero_ might be the only exception to the rule. The bug only affects popular musics.

I almost always play a disc 2, even 3 times in succession before putting on another disc. Only if I am listening with 100% undivided attention for the full duration of the disc will I content myself with a single playing. It's too easy to put on an album and then allow the mind to wander: that's not listening.

If it is a disc I am hearing for the first time, I might go as high as 4-5 times, although I usually break these repeats up with a few other albums and spread them out over 2-3 days. I like to feel that I have come to know a piece quite well before I file it, as it might not get played again for a year or so as I make my way through my collection.


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## Garlic (May 3, 2013)

I'm scared of ruining pieces by listening to them too much. I deliberately avoid playing Mozart's 41st, Beethoven's 6th, The Rite of Spring, etc. because I don't want to get sick of them. There are also pieces I would be indifferent to but have grown to strongly dislike because they're so overplayed - Rachmaninov piano concertos, Tchaikovsky symphonies, Chopin nocturnes.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Garlic said:


> I'm scared of ruining pieces by listening to them too much. I deliberately avoid playing Mozart's 41st, Beethoven's 6th, The Rite of Spring, etc. because I don't want to get sick of them. There are also pieces I would be indifferent to but have grown to strongly dislike because they're so overplayed - Rachmaninov piano concertos, Tchaikovsky symphonies, Chopin nocturnes.


You're not alone. I have this feeling as well and it kind of sucks because it keeps me from listening to pieces I really love sometimes


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I simply avoid listening to classical radio unless there is a particular or unknown work that I want to hear - therefore largely ruling out the chance of hearing one of the usual suspects for the umpteenth time. As a result, if any works are going to be overplayed then it will be my fault alone as my own collection is almost exclusively my sole resource. 

Also, many TV programmes and movie soundtracks feature snippets of some of the more predictable items which perhaps add to the over-familiarity/too predictable accusations.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

You can't ruin great to music by hearing it too much. What you can do is become over familiar with it after repeated listening, something the original audiences did not have a problem with, btw! 
In which case do what I do. Play other music for a time and then come back fresh to your favourites! Easy!


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Not sure if this is entirely relevant but I have often wondered what certain pieces of music must have originally sounded like on first listening without all the 'baggage' that can come to surround works, essentially as a result of familiarity. As an 18 year old I heard the Clash first album on its release and it seemed to 'tear up the script'-the same happened with the release of Televisions magnificent first album Marquee Moon. A good friend , ten years older described how on first buying the renowned second album by the Band (the 'brown album') he and his housemates repeatedly listened to it, shocked at the way in which the album appeared to be a reaction to the increasing self indulgence of much of the music of the late '60's,the first instalment of what is now 'Americana'.
What have these meandering reflections to do with classical music? I believe it is very difficult to appreciate the significance and qualities of pieces, often because over familiarity has literally drained the music of its character-I have an irrational dislike of Tchaikovsky, primarily because much of his music feels so 'obvious', essentially for this reason-the subtleties, melodies and craft underlying the compositions are obscured-I was shocked however when I recently heard the Rococco variations for the first time and really enjoyed the experience. There are other specific pieces I almost 'cannot hear', the Grieg piano concerto being an example. The opposite,that feeling of excitement as a work unfolds in your mind, something that you have never heard before but it appeals and gradually through listening becomes increasingly comprehensible-that for me is one of the great appeals of continuing to investigate new composers or works-precisely what happened to me with Martinu this summer.


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## isridgewell (Jul 2, 2013)

Tchiakovsky Symphony No 4
Mendelssohn Violin Cincerto
Beethoven 5
Mozart Symphony No 40
Eine Kliene Nacht Musik
Most stuff played on Classic FM!!!!!


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

DavidA said:


> You can't ruin great to music by hearing it too much. What you can do is become over familiar with it after repeated listening, something the original audiences did not have a problem with, btw!
> In which case do what I do. Play other music for a time and then come back fresh to your favourites! Easy!


Of course you can ruin great music by over-listening. I once listened to a certain record almost every day for a couple of months. After that, I couldn't stand it. Ten years later, I still couldn't listen to it. Twenty years later, I am finally able to listen to it again, but it doesn't have any of the magic that made me love it twenty years ago. Maybe I'll have to wait another ten years for the magic to return, if it ever will. I would hate to experience this scenario again with any of my classical music favorites.

Also, in many cases, I'm not just trying to keep the music from getting ruined. I also want to keep that fresh feel about it, which makes me even more reluctant to listen to it, to the extent that I sometimes forget about favorite works for years!


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Great thread. Music that makes me shiver:

Beethoven symphony 9: Second and 4th movement.
Beethoven Symphony 5: First mvmt theme.
Beethoven: Fur Elise
Mozart: Eine Kleine Nacht....
Debussy: the opening of clair de lune
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Handel: Messiah Halleluja
Vivaldi: Four seasons - spring


These pieces with the exception of clair de lune is basically ruined for me. Never got the chance to like anyone of them (except Vivaldi: Spring. listened to it as child)


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> Great thread. Music that makes me shiver:
> 
> Beethoven symphony 9: Second and 4th movement.
> Beethoven Symphony 5: First mvmt theme.
> ...


I agree with all of this except the Strauss. The rest of the piece after that introduction has definitely not been ruined by over-exposure (unless you have personally listened to it a ton) and is really great stuff.

You don't really strike me as a Strauss kind of person though, am I right? or wrong?


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

Ive listened to some of the Strausses, but not this one I'm afraid. And yes, the opening to Zarathusta kills me before i get the chance to check out the rest of the piece. Kind of like fur elise.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> Ive listened to some of the Strausses, but not this one I'm afraid. And yes, the opening to Zarathusta kills me before i get the chance to check out the rest of the piece. Kind of like fur elise.


Well, if you ever want to check out the rest of the piece, here is a link to a youtube recording of it that is set to play starting at the section after the over-popular section 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IFPwm0e_K98#t=108

Oh wait! It didn't work, I just tried it  Well, it's 20 seconds before the end of the over-popular section


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

The Blue Danube Waltz is the culprit why I haven't listened to Strauss! That waltz is a curse heaped upon me. I cannot take it anymore.! Also, Dies Irae of Verdi's Requiem!


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Personally I could do 'death by overfamiliarity' with most of Mahlers and Shostakovich's symphonies, but luckily it hasn't got to that stage yet.
In my opinion however, a work that has certainly been done-to-death is the opening part of Orffs' Carmina Burana; the 'O Fortuna'. Over recent years, it's been everywhere!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

peeyaj said:


> The Blue Danube Waltz is the culprit why I haven't listened to Strauss! That waltz is a curse heaped upon me. I cannot take it anymore.!


Johann Strauss isn't a composer I particularly care for, but do check out some of his other pieces that aren't like the BD waltz. One that I particularly like by him is his "Egyptian March". Sounds nothing like Egyptian music, but hey, none of those 19th century caricatures of faux-exotic music really sounded like the music it was trying to sound like anyway.






Of course, the Strauss that me and Ravndal were just talking about is Richard Strauss, completely different composer in every way possible


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

peeyaj said:


> Some of Mozart's most popular works. The first movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 5. Pachelbel's Canon. Boccherini's Minuet. The fourth movement of Dvorak's Symphony no. 9.. Etc.
> 
> What some classical music works that you are over familiar with, that it's like been beaten to death when you hear it? Are you having the 'Death by Overfamiliarity' syndrome?
> :O


Not a single blooming one. I'd be surprised if there is any work I hear more than once every two months, unless I do so on purpose.

On the other hand, I'm underfamiliar with pretty much everything out there.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> Ive listened to some of the Strausses, but not this one I'm afraid. And yes, the opening to Zarathusta kills me before i get the chance to check out the rest of the piece. Kind of like fur elise.


I suppose that if I said ,"What nonsense" to the people whinging about over familiarity that might be considered as being rude.
On this basis how many times can one listen to a piece of music and how long then before you can listen to nothing ,
half the pleasure is the fact that it's familiar.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

mstar said:


> Lucky.... You must not listen to Tchaikovsky.
> 
> Anyway. I try to stay away from listening to the same work twice in a row, no matter how short or long.... Anyone like that as well?


This is known in the wider universe as having a short attention span---it's an age thing.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

I don't mind familiarity. Sometimes there exists some melodies you simply are allergic to. One of the reasons may be because you connect the melody to many different things. Because it has been used in commercials and films etc. And has been pushed on you too many times.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

isridgewell said:


> Tchiakovsky Symphony No 4
> Mendelssohn Violin Cincerto
> Beethoven 5
> Mozart Symphony No 40
> ...


That'll teach you not to listen to the dreaded Classic FM won't it!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Ravndal said:


> I don't mind familiarity. Sometimes there exists some melodies you simply are allergic to. One of the reasons may be because you connect the melody to many different things. Because it has been used in commercials and films etc. And has been pushed on you too many times.


Yes, I think that is the real issue for most of the pieces mentioned in the thread. It's not that they've listened to the piece too many times, it's that when they hear the "Blue Dabue Waltz" for instance it brings to mind Homer Simpson spinning around in zero gravity trying to eat chips.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

DavidA said:


> You can't ruin great to music by hearing it too much. What you can do is become over familiar with it after repeated listening, something the original audiences did not have a problem with, btw!
> In which case do what I do. Play other music for a time and then come back fresh to your favourites! Easy!


agreed. I play my favourites with abandon. When I get tired I listen to other things and return to the favourites within a month or a few months and they're wonderful again.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I'm one of those listeners that frequently repeats his favorite works - I do the same with poetry. It has not yet come back to haunt me, except with Beethoven's 6th. As for Pachelbel's Canon and those pieces, they were never that interesting to begin with.



moody said:


> This is known in the wider universe as having a short attention span---it's an age thing.


So it will increase with age? I can hardly wait for that to happen :lol:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> I'm one of those listeners that frequently repeats his favorite works - I do the same with poetry. It has not yet come back to haunt me, except with Beethoven's 6th. As for Pachelbel's Canon and those pieces, they were never that interesting to begin with.
> 
> So it will increase with age? I can hardly wait for that to happen :lol:


Yes,but then eventually it reverses and you don't even remember who you are.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Yes... I had a friend once, his name was Pierre. Pierre and I used to talk a lot and share our thoughts, dreams and feelings. Soon after we met we knew almost everything about each other. One evening we were stolling down the park alley having one of our long, long conversations. "Hey, Pierre" - I asked - "you never told me what is your favourite colour!". "I love the azure of Provence's sea!" he replied and at this very moment he fell to the ground in agony. I understood he became too familiar to me.

So to answer the OP's question...



> Are you having the 'Death by Overfamiliarity' syndrome?


Yes, brother... I do...


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

moody said:


> This is known in the wider universe as having a short attention span---it's an age thing.


Moody, we don't even _know_ your age. I'm going to complain on the complaints thread.... 

I get bored of bad works easily, so it's not really overfamiliarity. That's what happened with Manfred Symphony, so I couldn't really put it on my list. But it's there, it's there....


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

You can often hear another performance which gives a different view of a piece to make it fresh again. Though with popular music that tactic might be viable less often.


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2013)

It seems that Tchaikovsky is the composer this thread keeps coming back to. To me, the familiar works of Tchaikovsky are like a plate full of spagetti. It's comfort food and I love to eat it often. Pyotr was an emotional, sentimental guy and a fantastic melodist. His melodies are "overly" familiar because they are so accessible and memorable. It was his divine talent to leave us with melodies that we cannot forget. Many of us on TC are composers and so I think there may be some envy behind this bashing of Tchaikovsky and other "gushingly sentimental" compositions. We all want our music to be loved and remembered. I think there is a tendency to revolt against landmarks of great music by those who wish write landmarks of their own. Being incapable of surpassing the achievments of the past on the same level or form, they strive to turn public opinion in favor of the newer forms where the bar for greatness and popularity is still relatively low.

There. Let's see who I offended.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

mstar said:


> Moody, we don't even _know_ your age. I'm going to complain on the complaints thread....
> .


I know - but it's irrelevant. Moody is timeless. 

If I really like something, I don't get sick of it, though I might put it in the back cupboard for a while. But if I 'quite like' something, or admire it because it's clever, then overfamiliarity makes me want to creep out on a dark night and ki - er - *kibosh* the composer. :devil:


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Jerome said:


> It seems that Tchaikovsky is the composer this thread keeps coming back to. To me, the familiar works of Tchaikovsky are like a plate full of spagetti. It's comfort food and I love to eat it often. Pyotr was an emotional, sentimental guy and a fantastic melodist. His melodies are "overly" familiar because they are so accessible and memorable. It was his divine talent to leave us with melodies that we cannot forget. Many of us on TC are composers and so I think there may be some envy behind this bashing of Tchaikovsky and other "gushingly sentimental" compositions. We all want our music to be loved and remembered. I think there is a tendency to revolt against landmarks of great music by those who wish write landmarks of their own. Being incapable of surpassing the achievments of the past on the same level or form, they strive to turn public opinion in favor of the newer forms where the bar for greatness and popularity is still relatively low.
> 
> There. Let's see who I offended.


ME. No, just kidding. I am probably the biggest Tchaikovskian that you have ever met. 
Which, of course, allows me to bash his lousy works. Lousy like that sentence.

Really, though, I am the one who keeps shoving him into the spotlight on this thread, though the poor guy said he would rather never hold an intimate conversation with another person, not to mention that his greatest correspondence the size of Zoser I's mastaba* was completely through letters.

Anyway, the ratio between the works I love/like and those I dislike/hate is probably around 1:7, which is actually excellent. 

What can I say, what can I say. I know his works too well. 

*Pyramid? Forget it, it was a bunch of mastabas piled onto each other. It didn't even have facing. One mastaba, two mastaba, three and four mastaba....


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## SIoannou (Oct 6, 2013)

Beethoven's 9th
Beethoven Für Elise
Vivaldi four seasons


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Garlic said:


> I'm scared of ruining pieces by listening to them too much. I deliberately avoid playing Mozart's 41st, Beethoven's 6th, The Rite of Spring, etc. because I don't want to get sick of them. There are also pieces I would be indifferent to but have grown to strongly dislike because they're so overplayed - Rachmaninov piano concertos, Tchaikovsky symphonies, Chopin nocturnes.


Yeah. They are overplayed, and sometimes you can't run away quick enough to avoid a dose. And then you are screwed: yet _another_ 5 years before you can kick back and listen to your 'best' recording of it.

And nobody lives forever.


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

Beethoven, 9th Symphony 'Choral'. The "choral" part to be precise, because movements 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the start of the 4th are great.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

violadude said:


> Yes, I think that is the real issue for most of the pieces mentioned in the thread. It's not that they've listened to the piece too many times, it's that when they hear the "Blue Dabue Waltz" for instance it brings to mind Homer Simpson spinning around in zero gravity trying to eat chips.


Thank the Lord that when my kids tried to make me watch the Simpsons I refused.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

mstar said:


> Moody, we don't even _know_ your age. I'm going to complain on the complaints thread....
> 
> I get bored of bad works easily, so it's not really overfamiliarity. That's what happened with Manfred Symphony, so I couldn't really put it on my list. But it's there, it's there....


Im 75 and not going strong!


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

There's no need to worry about overfamiliarity . There's such an amazing variety of obscure but
interesting music available on CD . Lesser known and undeservedly neglected works by famous composers ,
and works by composers hardly anyone but diehard classical music fans have ever heard of .
Even works the most knowledgable and experienced listeners have never heard of . Tired of the same old
Bach ,Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov ? 
Try other B's , such as Berwald , Bax, Balakirev, Busoni, Bliss and Brian . Tired of Tchaikovsky and
Rachmaninov ? Try other Russian composers such as Tneyev, Kallinikov and Myaskovsky .
Have you had the Brahms symphonies up the wazoo ? Try the three symphonies of Max Bruch .
Instead of the sme old piano concertos by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Grieg,
Tchaikovsky and Rachmninov, try those of Busoni , Medtner, Stenhammar , Glazunov , etc.
If you're tired of the thrice familiar operas by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verd , Puccini,
Bizet and Gounod , try ones by Nielsen, Pfitzner, Schreker , Martinu , Szymnowski , 
Dukas , Chabrier , Enescu , Rameau , Cavalli , D'albert, Catalani, Zemlinsky , and Zandonai .
And this is just the tip of the iceberg ! What are you waiting for ?


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

moody said:


> Im 75 and not going strong!


No, Moddy, don't go! LIIIIIIIVE!!

You know, I think my posts are dying by overfamiliarity....


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

Garlic said:


> I'm scared of ruining pieces by listening to them too much. I deliberately avoid playing Mozart's 41st, Beethoven's 6th, The Rite of Spring, etc. because I don't want to get sick of them. There are also pieces I would be indifferent to but have grown to strongly dislike because they're so overplayed - Rachmaninov piano concertos, Tchaikovsky symphonies, Chopin nocturnes.


I used to feel the same about The Well-Tempered Clavier, because when I bought my first set of discs I couldn't stop listening to them.

After +- 35 years listening at least one or two preludes and fugues almost each day I only can say how wrong I was... I like the work more every day.

I agree with Schumann, who said "Let The Well-Tempered Clavier be your daily bread".


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Picander said:


> I used to feel the same about The Well-Tempered Clavier, because when I bought my first set of discs I couldn't stop listening to them.
> 
> After +- 35 years listening at least one or two preludes and fugues almost each day I only can say how wrong I was... I like the work more every day.
> 
> I agree with Schumann, who said "Let The Well-Tempered Clavier be your daily bread".


I'm playing the c minors from Book 1, and I don't particularly enjoy it.... As for listening to the books, I don't think I'm trying that again any time soon!

Rachmaninov piano concertos are not exactly overplayed, though over-familiarity does tend to call the grim reaper after a while of listening to the fourth....


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Ravndal said:


> I don't mind familiarity. Sometimes there exists some melodies you simply are allergic to. One of the reasons may be because you connect the melody to many different things. Because it has been used in commercials and films etc. And has been pushed on you too many times.


Boccherini's Quintet often negatively stereotypes the well-to-do in films, but if I want to sell a luxury car, it is all of a sudden okay?

_I'm a material girl in a material world... _


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

mstar said:


> No, Moddy, don't go! LIIIIIIIVE!!
> 
> You know, I think my posts are dying by overfamiliarity....


I think I'm beginning to get the same feeling about you.
As far as I'm concerned there's nothing to be done.
Incidentally,I might be called Noddy but not Moddy.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I may never be able to listen to _The Planets_ ever again...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Celloman said:


> I may never be able to listen to _The Planets_ ever again...


This whole thing is laughable. The two pieces of music that started me off were The Blue Danube and the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin and I listen to them often.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Yeah, it makes sense. The 'over-praise' gets you thinking "Hey, it ain't _that_ good", and then it ain't.


Self belief is what it's all abouit.
I have just posted that The Blue Danube and the polonaise from Eugene Onegin were the two pieces that started me off.
I decided on the polonaise because the Gramophone said that Beecham's was the greatest and Leopold Ludwig's was a bore. being very young I thought this was grossly unfair and bought the Ludwig version,I've been a fan of his ever since.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

The thing with classical music is you might think you've heard a piece too many times, but leave it for 6 months and you'll hear it again with fresh ears.


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## GiulioCesare (Apr 9, 2013)

Jobis said:


> The thing with classical music is you might think you've heard a piece too many times, but leave it for 6 months and you'll hear it again with fresh ears.


I stopped listening to the _Messiah _for six months.

When I picked it up again, I went "Hallellujah!".


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I haven't burned out on anything yet, but I've only been listening for forty years. It helps to have an iTunes library with 125 days worth of music on random shuffle. Always something new that way.

Boredom is often a result of not really understanding what you're listening to. If you listen to the surface of a work, you'll get bored easily. Once you start understanding what is going on inside, the contradictions and questions keep you involved.


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## Bas (Jul 24, 2012)

For me it also depends on the performance. Some works are very familiar, but if the performance is good they never bore me. (And adding another performance to the listening repertoire can sometimes 'enlighten' a work with a whole new perspective: I've been listening to HIP Beethoven piano sonatas lately, and discovered that Gulda - one of my favourite Mozart pianists - had recorded them too. The Tempest Sonata is a very well known piece, but his interpretation, fairly different from what I had been listening too, is very good, and proves to me what a great work it is.) A mediocre performance (as you sometimes encounter on youtube) of well known works might bore me.

Oh and I plain just don't like Pachelbel's Canon in D


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Bas said:


> For me it also depends on the performance. Some works are very familiar, but if the performance is good they never bore me. (And adding another performance to the listening repertoire can sometimes 'enlighten' a work with a whole new perspective: I've been listening to HIP Beethoven piano sonatas lately, and discovered that Gulda - one of my favourite Mozart pianists - had recorded them too. The Tempest Sonata is a very well known piece, but his interpretation, fairly different from what I had been listening too, is very good, and proves to me what a great work it is.) A mediocre performance (as you sometimes encounter on youtube) of well known works might bore me.
> 
> Oh and I plain just don't like Pachelbel's Canon in D


In my 50 years of listening to great music I have discovered there are many different - and valid - ways of performing it. 
Variety is the spice of life.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Bas said:


> Oh and I plain just don't like Pachelbel's Canon in D


I've posted this before and I'm sure others have too, but just in case you haven't yet seen the "Pachelbel Rant":


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Blancrocher said:


> I've posted this before and I'm sure others have too, but just in case you haven't yet seen the "Pachelbel Rant":


*Dee, Ayy, Bee, Ef-Sharp....*


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

There are many pieces which I have to "ration," lest they become ruined by overfamiliarity. There was a time when I used to listen to Handel's Messiah almost every week, but nowadays I get it out once a year around Christmas time (or go to a live performance if possible). I probably enjoy it more when it is a rare treat.

In addition, Baber's Adagio used to be my go-to piece whenever I was feeling in a "depressed" mood, but now the piece has little effect on me. So I should probably start using this one sparingly as well.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Winterreisender said:


> [...]
> In addition, Baber's Adagio used to be my go-to piece whenever I was feeling in a "depressed" mood, but now the piece has little effect on me. So I should probably start using this one sparingly as well.


I tend not to be afflicted with that mood nowadays (and I wonder about that - what one is no longer aware of can't get one down). Back in the day I found Franck's Symphony in D good for that; the forces of Good always win. That work is in my once per biennium category now.


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

An interesting question and do ask myself this. All the works which brought me into classical music I very rarely listen to now - they are like old friends who you cherish, but only see occasionally. But I have found that throughout the years when I have started listening to pieces I'd done to death as a youngster they seem fresh - minted, eg. Grieg piano concerto etc. I think you are listening with new ears and the maturity you never had when younger, but now hardly ever listen to Beethoven's symphonies, but when I come across a great performance I'm still awe - struck.


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

I tend to over-listen music that I love, so I have to ration it. I listen to any Beethoven symphony very sparsely because I was not cautious enough with them and _almost_ ruined them after 27 different cycles.

That said, a local tv channel here is trying really hard to ruin Debussy's Claire de Lune for me. It is already a very often played and familiar piece, but they are playing it in a tv novel that my wife watches all the time. Every scene that the spirit of a dead girl appears, they play it, and only the beginning of it. It is making me so crazy that yesterday I left her watching tv alone only to avoid it. Never underestimate the power of the television to ruin a snippet of a piece!


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I strongly urge you to listen to the entire tone poem _Also Sprach Zarathustra_. IMHO, the entire piece is great. If you like Strauss at all, you will probably love it.


Ravndal said:


> Ive listened to some of the Strausses, but not this one I'm afraid. And yes, the opening to Zarathusta kills me before i get the chance to check out the rest of the piece. Kind of like fur elise.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

I often abstain from listening to some of my most favourite works for long periods of time -- often many months, to make sure they never lose their magic touch. In reality it's paranoia more than anything. 

Since I seldom listen to classical music on the radio, I haven't really experienced pieces being "overplayed" as such. That said, the spring mvmt. from Vivaldi's Four Seasons seems entirely unavoidable!


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

I was bored with the Four Seasons - courtesy of coffee shops and elevators around the world. However the Marcon/Venice Baroque Orchestra recording breathed some new life into it for me.


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## Notung (Jun 12, 2013)

GGluek said:


> many of the leitmotifs in The Ring


 can never get enough of those (especially the hero motif). It also seems like someone doesn't like getting caught in the rain.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

This over-use of pieces is very common in the solo piano world, and many of us take great pains to _avoid_ such repertoire, even if it is good music. Almost everything by Chopin comes to mind, especially the Ballades and the Scherzos-I have had several adjudicators tell me that whenever anyone plays one of those, the whole jury immediately starts to nod off.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I think it's not so much 'death', as serious illness, from which the music may recover. I remember getting so sick of some of the Suzuki pieces I was playing, and I decided to take a break from playing classical music for a while. But now that I've decided to come back to classical and do some basic exams, I was playing my Suzuki books through again today and hey! - it was like meeting old friends again. Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder!


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## otterhouse (Sep 6, 2007)

Ever heard eine kleine Nachtmusik live? http://classicalspotify.blogspot.nl/2013/10/so-classical-its-classic-002-mozart-and.html


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Overfamiliarity for me mostly pertains to recordings. I'll become way over ingrained by fond recordings. When I listen to another performance of the same work, the composition itself becomes eerily 'not quite right'. My lyrical idea of the music becomes tainted and bias from other renderings. This isn't to say I'm a fan all that is in the word _interpretation_, but not being able to appreciate varying performances is even worse. A box within a box, within another box, no wiggle room.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

moody said:


> ... How many times can one listen to a piece of music and how long then before you can listen to nothing? Half the pleasure is the fact that it's familiar.


I think we all know listening again to a piece with which we are familiar has a real pleasure. I have done the same with a particular novel now and then, read it twice in a row, several times over later years. [Those works which strike you that you like "being there" in the overall construct and energy of the piece, so you visit, naturally, often enough.]

However, *"Familiarity breeds contempt"* is apposite to the kind of repeat listening anyone at present can have. I would bet that the cumulative number of times Beethoven Symphonies have been performed _*live* within Beethoven's lifetime and before the advent of radio broadcasts and recording_ may be less than the number of times a Beethoven fan has listened to them within the space of ten years (not to mention that fan's collection of 29 sets of the complete symphonies plus many single recordings of each).

_It is more than possible_, with all the readily available media, at cost and free, _to completely overdo exposure_: it is the individual who overexposes their self who is suffering both from an embarrassment of riches and some personal element perhaps a titch too obsessive for their own good


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Here's a new take on Pachelbels played to death and beyond, Canon.
Weird and hilarious, if it's all real ofcourse.....
Should be getting some work done realy, but am Youtubing instead. Bad, very bad.






cheers,
Jos


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yes, to the original query. The usual suspects. Beethoven's 5th Symphony, etc;
I have branched out into Beethoven's string quartets and piano sonatas (Annie Fisher, highly recommended!). Beethoven wasn't a one dog trick.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I have heard Mendelssohn's violin concerto so many times, I can't stand it. It seems to be the single most overplayed piece on classical radio. I find it trite. I feel similarly about his "Hebrides" overture.

I don't know if I would like these pieces if I had only heard them once, and I don't remember what I thought of them the first time I heard them (which was probably long, long ago). 

I like a few of his pieces, like the Octet, symphonies 3 & 4, and a piano trio (I don't know how many he wrote, but I heard one I liked). I'm not that familiar with his output because a couple of his works are overplayed on the radio and the bulk of them are underplayed.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

When I was in college, I had a lazy Form and Analysis professor who insisted on playing Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year. Much as I admire Mozart for his genius, it drove me nuts to listen to it so much. I once remarked to the Dean that if I heard that music when I die, I'll know that I'll have gone to hell... 

Familiarity breeds contempt.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I'm no longer playing any Beethoven. Time to give Louis a long deserved rest.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

If nice listening to a pieces that you are acquainted with, but sometimes one just want to listening new music. Why listen the same music again and again, if you still have a lot of music for discover?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

That is exactly what I am doing!


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I don't listen to R.Strauss very often, but when I happen to be in the Also sprach Zarathustra mood I skip the sunrise. I can't stand it anymore.


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