# It just never ends!



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Classical music I mean, of all periods. I buy all my music from Amazon and I am forever inundated with further buying suggestions many by Naxos of composers I have never heard of. Surely there just isn't enough time in one lifetime to appreciate everything that this wonderful art form keeps giving? I mean it you can spend a lifetime listening to Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms and still never really understand what it is you are listening to. 

Although, it is a blessing that it seems infinite because really we don't want it to ever end, I suppose.


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## arthro (Mar 12, 2013)

And that's just the Western canon ...


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

beetzart said:


> Surely there just isn't enough time in one lifetime to appreciate everything that this wonderful art form keeps giving?


I had a nonmusical friend look at my CD stack and asking, when do you have to time to listen to all that? I just looked back quizzically at such an absurd question. The time I have is a lifetime. Whether I hear it all more than once isn't the point; the point is, it's there. As Eliot said, "And there shall be time . . ."


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## dillonp2020 (May 6, 2017)

I know the feeling. There are so many works out there, and so many cds too. I find myself seeing a new interning thing pop up on amazon every single day, and I have to force myself to not buy them because I know I have hundreds of CDS I still need to listen to. When it comes to works, I long ago gave up on the idea of ever even partially appreciating all of the music out there. There is too much for one to fully enjoy in ten lifetimes.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Thats why I stick to Varese, the Canon is limited and I know i will be listening to sirens and horns and other noises at some point......................


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

The tough part about being a Baroque fan is that there are so many good recorded composers out there and some composers generated a ton of compositions. The CDs for many of these obscure composers are not cheap and there aren't bargain boxsets for them. I don't try to be a completest for these composers, but I do try to have something from the composers I like. Add to that the other eras I like and you can see why I have a rather large CD collection. Of course, I know my CD collection is much smaller than some other users here at TC.


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## dillonp2020 (May 6, 2017)

Klassik said:


> The tough part about being a Baroque fan is that there are so many good recorded composers out there and some composers generated a ton of compositions. The CDs for many of these obscure composers are not cheap and there aren't bargain boxsets for them. I don't try to be a completest for these composers, but I do try to have something from the composers I like. Add to that the other eras I like and you can see why I have a rather large CD collection. Of course, I know my CD collection is much smaller than some other users here at TC.


I see it in the same way. The box sets can be a good deal, but they don't have a boxes of anybody who isn't really famous. I know that my collection (900 or so) is tiny compared to the collections of our fellow TCers, but people who come over seem to think I have the complete oeuvres of everybody.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Thats why I stick to Varese, the Canon is limited and I know i will be listening to sirens and horns and other noises at some point......................


I couldn't have said it better.

Actually I couldn't have said it at all.

:tiphat:


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Music, like all the arts, consists 90% of stuff that only the artist and his mother would care to experience more than once. But music companies, tired of issuing the same pieces, keep looking for little- or un-recorded works, under the theory that "if it's classical, it should be recorded." And too many fans (and radio programmers) operate under the theory that "if it's classical, and has been recorded, it should be listened to." This is not to denigrate anyone, but there's enough "good" stuff to keep one's ears busy for a good long time, without going all OCD and trying to collect everything.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> Although, it is a blessing that it seems infinite because really we don't want it to ever end, I suppose.


Long may it continue and we all be happy.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Thats why I stick to Varese, the Canon is limited and I know i will be listening to sirens and horns and other noises at some point......................


Varese strikes me as too much like the city streets. I prefer an element of the exotic fantastical in music -- otherworldly stuff. Stuff that lets me escape from the city streets.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> Varese strikes me as too much like the city streets. I prefer an element of the exotic fantastical in music -- otherworldly stuff. Stuff that lets me escape from the city streets.


But I live in the Country, so Varese gives me a taste of city life that I once had............


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

I listen to public radio every day as I drive quite a lot. I hear new things daily that I like. Occasionally it spurs me to make a purchase. I have decided that I simply can't buy everything I like.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Tell me about it. In August 2015 I started a project to listen to all my classical CD's again, alphabetical per composer so that I could catalogue them at the same time. I spend many hours listening every day and I am now at the letter G. Mind you, I'm not even collecting many versions of the same works (with a very few exceptions)......


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Art Rock said:


> Tell me about it. In August 2015 I started a project to listen to all my classical CD's again, alphabetical per composer so that I could catalogue them at the same time. I spend many hours listening every day and I am now at the letter G. Mind you, I'm not even collecting many versions of the same works (with a very few exceptions)......


I have often thought about doing this. The downside that I found personally was not being in the right mood for the specific composer. Some days I just don't feel like pounding through Haydn's symphonies or string quartets and would rather listen to Brahms, say, or vice versa.

I do get a little OCD about collecting works and completing composers but then I get the urge to by different versions of the same piece. I currently have four different recordings of Beethoven's string quartets. I often wonder what it would be like to be able to buy endless music on Amazon say if I won a few quid on the lottery. There must be a finite number of classical CDs they sell. The mind boggles.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Well, I'm doing it alphabetically, but per letter. So not 20 Grieg CD's in a row, but a blend of e.g. Grieg, Gu, Granados, both Glass'es, Gorecki, Gubaidulina, Gunning, etc.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

beetzart said:


> I do get *a little OCD *about collecting works and completing composers but then I get the urge to by different versions of the same piece. I currently have *four different recordings of Beethoven's string quartets*.


You are a lucky guy - indeed.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

dillonp2020 said:


> I know the feeling. There are so many works out there, and so many cds too. I find myself seeing a new interning thing pop up on amazon every single day, and I have to force myself to not buy them because I know I have hundreds of CDS I still need to listen to. When it comes to works, I long ago gave up on the idea of ever even partially appreciating all of the music out there. There is too much for one to fully enjoy in ten lifetimes.


It's not even a matter of buying. With streaming sites offering so many lifetimes worth of music, I find myself ignoring my own library more often than not.


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