# Why do you like Classical Music?



## Fan66 (Jan 22, 2017)

Permit me to answer my own question first, please? 

First, Classical Music (CM) is an escape from the cares of the world, a refuge, a place to regain one's strength and recharge one's heart. CM is also a friend, always there to comfort. CM is a great reminder that there is something more than this world. Also, CM has a way of communicating life's ups and downs yet somehow, offers breathtaking hope.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Well said, I agree! The good pieces of CM are the ones that make a difference to the soul.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Classical music is just so peaceful...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I was born into a family of classical musicians. Dad played the double B flat concert tuba, Mom the violin, my sister played the viola, and I learned to play the piano. Classical music was what we all heard when waking up every morning on the radio.

Although I do have other music interests (Big Band Era for one) classical music is what I mostly prefer to listen and to play.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

I like it because it annoys my wife and makes her go away.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Good question. CM has a magical effect on the mind and help us to learn what happened in the past in the present moment, help to propel us to the future.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

arnerich said:


> Classical music is just so peaceful...


Specially talking about it.


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## Daniel Atkinson (Dec 31, 2016)

I listen to classical music for the same reason I listen to other music


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Interest in European history perspective. Classical music allows me to travel back in time to those periods emotionally. Even if I delude myself that it really reflects those periods.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

My interest in instrumental classical music is pretty limited. Mostly just symphonies. But I sure like opera. It is an escape to other worlds.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Because it provokes thought and feelings.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

For the dopamine.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

jenspen said:


> For the dopamine.


You are priceless.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

The first music I remember listening to was Mozart, so I listen to classical since it has always been around. I like to listen to many styles and genres though.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

My Dad loved Classical Music and I was known to hum Tchaikovsky Pathetique at six years old. Dipped in and out for years but took it very seriously three years ago. It's like a world of it's own and love it. Met people including two well known musicians. (Boris Giltburg and Steven Isserlis twice). Social media has helped along with TC as there are now people I can talk to as harder in the days before!

Once again, just love this world!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Richard8655 said:


> Interest in European history perspective. Classical music allows me to travel back in time to those periods emotionally. Even if I delude myself that it really reflects those periods.


:tiphat: This for me too - and also because it lifts me to a place *beyond* time. 
Mystical beauty. :angel:


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Because (in general):

-it has dignity
-it lacks false sentiment
-it's made by people who are very serious about it
-it's made by people who have spend a lot of time studying it and most of the time devoted their live to it
-it's the most abstract and unexplainable art
-it's the most complex and developed art with an incredible long and complex history
.....
....


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Judith said:


> My Dad loved Classical Music and I was known to hum Tchaikovsky Pathetique at six years old. Dipped in and out for years but took it very seriously three years ago. It's like a world of it's own and love it. Met people including two well known musicians. (Boris Giltburg and Steven Isserlis twice). Social media has helped along with TC as there are now people I can talk to as harder in the days before!
> 
> Once again, just love this world!


Here is the first piece of music that I remember from my childhood: I remember sitting on the living room floor, listening to the old 78, with my ear pressed against the cloth covering the speaker......


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I have no idea? But I've always craved music since I was a kid. I've already listened to all of the rock, jazz, blues, and folk that I'm interested in, so classical is the last frontier.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I like classical music because I like how it sounds: it presents a sequence of noises that I find pleasurable.

Why do I find particular sequences of noises pleasurable? I have no idea.


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

I think the power of classical music can be summarized on what one of the Nobel Prize Winners for Medicine in 2011 said about JS Bach.

"_Natural scientists discover things-but Bach invented them_"


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Classical music is beautiful music for a crazy, insane and emotionless world!


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

For the unlimited frisson, laughs, tears, smiles

Classical music boils down all the emotional states of life and allows you to experience whatever you want in your mind

Damn thats some epic cheesy ****


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Classical music, to me, is one of the last vestiges of beauty in an increasingly ugly world. And unlike many other forms of art, I can have a somewhat more active level of participation as a listener, and therefore as one who merely experiences rather than creates it. It saddens me that the audience for this beauty is ever shrinking, and overwhelmed by more numerous but also more shallow and superficial distractions.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

In contrast to some other genres of music like rock, it feels like most composers "know what they're doing" to some extent when they compose the music. Things like not writing parallel fifths unless it's intentional, and being mindful of chord inversions. It makes me feel like I'm in good hands, and reduces the amount of times I think, "Wow, that's poorly written." Not that all rock musicians are ignorant. Many progressive rock artists in particular are well educated in music theory. But I find myself returning to classical time and time again because of how secure it makes me feel.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Razumovskymas said:


> Because (in general):
> 
> -it has dignity
> -it lacks false sentiment
> ...


Not sure I agree with "unexplainable" part, but it does give me food for thought. However, I like your list there.



Nevum said:


> I think the power of classical music can be summarized on what one of the Nobel Prize Winners for Medicine in 2011 said about JS Bach.
> 
> "_Natural scientists discover things-but Bach invented them_"


Do you happen to know the name of the individual who said that? I collect quotes and I would love to source that one. Especially given the fact that Bach is my favorite composer. I LOVE this quote!

V


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Now for the OP: I constantly post my favorite quote about music and most here have seen it many times, _"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy"_ L.V. Beethoven.

Classical music just happens to reach a deeper part of my soul than any other genre, even though there are many genres that reach deep parts. I couldn't imagine life without music. I truly believe it would be a living hell for me.

V


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Varick said:


> Now for the OP: I constantly post my favorite quote about music and most here have seen it many times, _"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy"_ L.V. Beethoven.
> 
> Classical music just happens to reach a deeper part of my soul than any other genre, even though there are many genres that reach deep parts. I couldn't imagine life without music. I truly believe it would be a living hell for me. V


A drum roll, please, for the famous Nietzsche quote: "Without music, life would be a mistake."


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Because it speaks to me in a way most other music doesn't.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

jailhouse said:


> For the unlimited frisson


I've heard that's bad for the hair. 

I like the way the various instruments sound individually and in combination. Nereffid's answer comes closest to my own. I listen to what pleases my ears, and classical music has a lot of that.


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## Fan66 (Jan 22, 2017)

Yes indeed, sadly, "an increasingly ugly world" it is becoming. May CM help us all to continue to hold onto that which is beautiful.


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Varick said:


> Do you happen to know the name of the individual who said that? I collect quotes and I would love to source that one. Especially given the fact that Bach is my favorite composer. I LOVE this quote!
> 
> V


Yes, it is Bruce Beutler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Beutler

And the quote is in this article

http://mobile.the-scientist.com/article/34108/immune-to-failure


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Great thoughts, everyone! I periodically wrestle with why I listen to classical. My wife doesn't, and none of my friends do. There are times I want to throw up my hands and grab a guitar, learn four stale blues licks, and get it over with. But there is something about classical music that grabs me from the inside out and takes me, as Ingelou said, from within time to outside of time.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

I discovered classical music when I was ten and I'm still discovering it now. At present I am absorbing Beethoven's string quartets. But I love all CM really from Vivaldi, Bach, to Sibelius and Prokofiev. There is something about it that is eternal but so difficult to understand why it has the effect is does on some people but not others. To me it is escapism and can encapsulate every human emotion.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> Great thoughts, everyone! I periodically wrestle with why I listen to classical. My wife doesn't, and none of my friends do.


It's weird living in a country where 95 percent of the population has no exposure to anything but commercial entertainment.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I like classical music because I am a masochist. This hobby of mine guarantees that I will never have any friends, will be shunned by society at large causing me great pain, which conversely will provide the desired effect of making me feel ecstatic.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

starthrower said:


> It's weird living in a country where 95 percent of the population has no exposure to anything but commercial entertainment.


I find it more sad than weird.

V


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

Am I wrong in thinking Europeans are more into classical music than Americans? That's my impression. Maybe that exposure percentage might be significantly lower there.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Varick said:


> I find it more sad than weird.
> 
> V


I agree with you--it's sad, but not necessarily weird or unusual. The marginalization of classical music is not a new phenomenon. As far as I know, classical music was never very popular with the general public. In fact, much classical music was composed for the aristocracy, not for public concerts. Classical music has never been mainstream and it probably never will be.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Richard8655 said:


> Am I wrong in thinking Europeans are more into classical music than Americans? That's my impression. Maybe that exposure percentage might be significantly lower there.


I think you are correct. Especially Europeans from countries with long classical tradition, like Germany. Probably not as popular in countries like Albania, would be my guess.


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I think you are correct. Especially Europeans from countries with long classical tradition, like Germany. Probably not as popular in countries like Albania, would be my guess.


Yes for sure. Probably applies to Canadians too , so really I should say North Americans.


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

I got tired of listening to music that was either repetitive or boring or both.

I think when I was younger I overlooked weaknesses (sometimes glaring ones) in music I enjoyed because I sought a certain emotional content - something I could connect to and that was young or novel. I'm not old but I'm older and I appreciate craftsmanship much more than I used to. I think craftsmanship becomes a kind of fetishization the older you get with most people, whether you're into wine or beer or music or carpentry. And western classical music certainly taps into that. Once you understand the idioms classical doesn't seem as stuffy as it does at first, though I won't deny playing it as a child certainly helped. Alas I don't think schools teach music much anymore, in the age where everything is political.


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## malvinrisan (Feb 17, 2017)

It inspires me to live. It's the only thing i really care about so far.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

malvinrisan said:


> It inspires me to live. It's the only thing i really care about so far.


I can relate completely.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I think you are correct. Especially Europeans from countries with long classical tradition, like Germany. Probably not as popular in countries like Albania, would be my guess.


Last Monday my fellow Hamburgers have managed to sell over 2,000 tickets for Beethoven within a single hour. They do definitely love their music a lot.


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## kyf (Feb 1, 2017)




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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

kyf said:


>


Your confusion has made me confused!!  :lol: Please let us know why you are so puzzled!


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

malvinrisan said:


> It inspires me to live. It's the only thing i really care about so far.


You should get yourself some kids


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

malvinrisan said:


> It inspires me to live. It's the only thing i really care about so far.


Other times will come.


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## kyf (Feb 1, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Your confusion has made me confused!! Please let us know why you are so puzzled!


:kiss:
...
:trp::guitar::clap:
...
:cheers:


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> You should get yourself some kids


I didn't think the intention was to add more stress to life than is already there.


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