# When did you begin listening to classical music?



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

There have been a number of threads which discuss differences between classical music and other styles. In addition some people have discussed ways of getting more people interested in classical music. The vast majority of people only hear classical music in movies or very briefly on TV (in commercials for example). I'm wondering how many people discover and come to love classical later in life. I also wonder how easy it is to get someone who never was exposed when young to love classical music later in life.

I hardly ever heard classical music growing up. We went to the Nutcracker at Christmas. Besides that, I very rarely heard anything (except through TV). I happened to marry a violinist and began listening somewhat around 30. It really wasn't until after 40 that I started listening more to classical than other genres. I truly love classical music now and listen almost exclusively to it, but I believe that if I hadn't married a classical musician, I probably would not be a serious listener today.

When did you get a real exposure to classical music? How easy is it for a non-listener to come to love classical later in life? Although I am an example of a latecomer, I don't have much of a sense of how likely it would be for others to appreciate classical after they are adults.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I started getting really seriously interested in my mid to late 20's (Im now in my early 30s). I had heard a fair bit when I was younger because my mom was a fan, but it certainly didn't dominate my surroundings. I heard more blues, rock and pop growing up than classical. I think the reason I came back to it and caught on fairly quickly is because I am a musician. I still to this day don't understand how some other serious (and many very talented) musicians can keep playing blues, pop, country or rock forever. It gets very boring to me, and repetitive. Classical music I just find so much more stimulating and freeing to play than other styles I have delved into. It was like exploring an exciting new world that was a wonderful escape from the everyday.


edit - I should state I do still like playing other styles than classical on occassion, but I would not be fulfilled as a musician w/o classical.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

When I was 16 (1973) I started on the journey that made music my #1 "hobby" - but it was all pop and rock (progressive rock, new wave) until 1986. Then I got my first CD player and decided that this was the right moment to start exploring classical music. Until 1999 I mainly listened to classical, building up knowledge and a decent CD collection (about 2000 CDs). In 1999 I moved to Singapore for a few years, and left my classical music CD collection in Holland. I quickly met the girl who was going to be my wife, and although she loves music as much as I do, her interest was more in jazz and rock. Until last year, that was the main music played in our house. As my wife is nowadays spending about half of the year in Shanghai for her work, I went back to classical music in her absence - and am loving it once more.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

> When did you get a real exposure to classical music?


My parents were into classical so I was exposed to it from an early age. They mainly listened to the mainstream repertoire. I started collecting recordings & going to concerts in my teens and this lasted until I hit 20 when my interest in classical wained and I ended up getting into jazz. I even got rid of my classical cd collection, thinking I was over it. But I still listened to a bit of classical on the radio. Then in 2008 at 32 I got back into the classical, buying recordings & going to concerts.



> How easy is it for a non-listener to come to love classical later in life? Although I am an example of a latecomer, I don't have much of a sense of how likely it would be for others to appreciate classical after they are adults.


I don't know. My sister, despite being raised in the same household as me, never became an avid classical fan. But lately she has been listening to some classical on the radio, as a kind of time out/relaxation from her usual fare which is rock. I'm doing the reverse, I'm listening to a lot of alternative stuff like rock, techno, hip hop, dubstep, metal on radio as time out from the classical.

I think that latecomers to classical should just chart their own path & explore whatever they are interested in. It doesn't really matter what things you listen to, as long as it engages you. As a late re-discoverer (for want of a better term) of classical, I have tended to gravitate towards music of the 20th century, because that's the music I find most appealing, especially in terms of sound. I don't know, maybe the more intuitive structure of some c20th classical music corresponds with my former interest in the improvisational qualities of jazz. But it's all about variety for me & I have also been getting into music of the earlier eras - particularly choral & chamber music...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

When I was young, I didn't have an interest in listening to music at all. I started to learn to play the piano (via keyboard first) at the age of 7, but didn't take it all that seriously, and stopped lessons the same year (though I still enjoyed learning by myself). My Dad was into heavy metal, the sound of which I know I always despised, and my Mum was into generic pop, which seemed harmless to me, but never interested me!

I didn't own any cassettes, CDs, or listen to music either actively or passively until I moved schools at 13 and took up lessons again with a piano teacher. Given that the default thing to do was to start undertaking ABRSM exams, I was immediately exposed to some classical music, which got me interested. One day, I randomly bought a CD of Mozart's _Requiem_, and have been hooked ever since - classical music is now my life!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Polednice asked: "I also wonder how easy it is to get someone who never was exposed when young to love classical music later in life."

Here is an interesting observation by Robert Jourdain in Music, The Brain, and Ecstacy: “Research shows that most people largely make their personal musical choices for reasons that are neither ‘personal’ nor ‘musical.’ Rather, they listen to conform, taking on music as an emblem of social solidarity with their peers, each generation adopting its own conspicuously different styles. There are many exceptions of course, but the gross statistics are damning. Most people acquire their musical taste during adolescence among friends of the same age, and they carry early preferences right through to the grave.“ (Page 263)

Personally, I got into classical music when I was 19 after taking a music appreciation course in college. If it’s taught properly, that kind of exposure should arrest the attention of many college-level students like it did me. I sat behind a rock music freak as our instructor explained Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. As the piece concluded, the rock freak turned to his friend and said, “Why am I wasting my time with rock music?”


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I was about 9 or 10 (1967-ish). One day I asked my dad to get-down from the attic the collection of 78rpm records I knew he had stored up there. I think the first one I listened to was Benno Moiseiwitsch playing the Grieg Piano Concerto. I was hooked. It wasn't long before I was saving-up to buy budget-priced classical LPs with my pocket money. My first one was Grieg again - the _Peer Gynt_ suites - and my second was Beethoven's 5th Symphony and _Egmont_ Overture.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

1950's The Lone Ranger TV program--William Tell Overture. Soon after, I saw Walter Susskind conduct the Toronto SO in this piece at Massey Hall.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Before I started learning the flute in 4th grade, I really didn't care about music that much. I liked Fantasia and radio, but I didn't really think about what I was listening to, that it was Beethoven or Elgar or whoever. It was until middle school I started putting names to pieces, and I got my first CDs. Now I'm a fanatic.

I long for those days again, when Rachmaninoff was mysterious name on a music book on our piano, and the name Prokofiev never ever ever crossed my mind, and when I didn't know Stravinsky enough to hate him (although I was already biased against him since like 3rd grade ). Ahhh those were the days...


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

My first exposure was from my dad during my early childhood, but my first interest was in middle school when I started playing viola. I started playing viola, then wanted to compose but had no idea how to, started tentatively listening to classical music and here I am.


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## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Before I started learning the flute in 4th grade, I really didn't care about music that much. I liked Fantasia and radio, but I didn't really think about what I was listening to, that it was Beethoven or Elgar or whoever. It was until middle school I started putting names to pieces, and I got my first CDs. Now I'm a fanatic.
> 
> I long for those days again, when Rachmaninoff was mysterious name on a music book on our piano, and the name Prokofiev never ever ever crossed my mind, and when I didn't know Stravinsky enough to hate him (although I was already biased against him since like 3rd grade ). Ahhh those were the days...


Have you ever played Schubert's variations? I listened to it for the first time today and I think it is damn hard, Looks like a challenge. It is also beautiful.


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## kmisho (Oct 22, 2009)

Maybe what worked for me might work for some others. When I was about 10, I saw Fantasia. That was all it took. After this, I hunted down everything in Fantasia to listen to at home. Looking at albums of symphonies, I remember thinking, "Why do so many pieces have the same name, like 'Andante' and 'Allegro'?"

Now I'm 46 and Bach is my single favorite composer (and I even went on to study pipe organ in college), Beethoven's 6th is still my favorite Beethoven symphony, and the Rite of Spring remains one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. In fact, I just listened to The Rite yesterday as I just got a new version that I highly recommend, Jaap von Zweden with the Netherlands Philharmonic.

This one
http://www.allegro-music.com/online_catalog.asp?sku_tag=EXN3330

And don't miss this too
http://www.allegro-music.com/online_catalog.asp?sku_tag=EXN3378


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I started to listen to classical music... last summer. My reason was that I wanted to increase my knowledge in the arts. My main tools have been this forum and Spotify (with Wikipedia, other web sites, books etc). I feel like an expert already (yeah, that's hubris!)... well, maybe compared to people who know nothing about classical music (and there's a lot of them around).


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## Barking Spiderz (Feb 1, 2011)

Xaltotun said:


> I started to listen to classical music... last summer. My reason was that I wanted to increase my knowledge in the arts. My main tools have been this forum and Spotify (with Wikipedia, other web sites, books etc). I feel like an expert already (yeah, that's hubris!)... well, maybe compared to people who know nothing about classical music (and there's a lot of them around).


Last summer for me too , in my 40th year. S'been a lot time coming though I wont pretend it's all consuming but my collection's' gone from 2 CDs to around 120 although most of these contain two or three pieces like a couple of symphonies or three concertos. I listen to a fair bit of CM on the radio but I'm not hearing much unfamiliar stuff that floats my boat.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

It must have been broadcast on the radio in 1977, Mahler's 1st Symphony (Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink) the eerie opening strings. I was struck, converted on the spot, lost at once all taste for pop music and went searching, where this mysterious music came from (I didn't know that yet). I guess, that the starting point is of big influence for how one's taste in classical music is developing. For me the start lies in the early 20th century and I slowly listened my way back towards the Baroque & Renaissance music. Bach still is for me on distance in the outback, whereas Mahler, Bruckner & the Russians are like coming home. In those days in Holland there existed a Christmas tradition of bringing the Mahler symphonies from the Concertgebouw to a wider public. Every time I hear the slow movement from Mahler's 3rd, I see the camera rising to the ceiling and looking out into the world (Amsterdam) through one of the windows: peace to all mankind spreading out to anyone who will hear this consolation in music.


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## nickgray (Sep 28, 2008)

> When did you get a real exposure to classical music?


3 or 4 years ago, I suppose. Started with Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Mozart's Requiem, but what really put me on the classical music path was Wagner's Ring, which is kinda unusual.



> How easy is it for a non-listener to come to love classical later in life?


How later is this "later", exactly? Imo, age has virtually nothing to do with this.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> Here is an interesting observation by Robert Jourdain in Music, The Brain, and Ecstacy: "Research shows that most people largely make their personal musical choices for reasons that are neither 'personal' nor 'musical.' Rather, they listen to conform, taking on music as an emblem of social solidarity with their peers, each generation adopting its own conspicuously different styles. There are many exceptions of course, but the gross statistics are damning. Most people acquire their musical taste during adolescence among friends of the same age, and they carry early preferences right through to the grave." (Page 263)


This is very interesting in that it does not seem to be the case for the majority of people _here_, many of whom describe listening to classical music as a solitary pursuit. A lot of the younger users in particular have reported having no friends who enjoy classical.

I was exposed to it from a very young age because my parents listened to pretty much everything. But it didn't become the main music I listened to until the summer after my sophomore year of high school (I was sixteen), and I can actually pinpoint when the change took place. It was at a concert where I heard Brahms' _Tragic Overture_, Sibelius' 5th Symphony, and a Beethoven piano concerto (I wish I could remember which one. I think it was the 4th.). It was the Sibelius Symphony that did it for me. I really don't know what it was about that concert. I had been to plenty of symphony concerts before, and this was a local semi-pro orchestra, so the performance couldn't have been _that_ spectacular. But Sibelius 5 is still very special to me because it inaugurated my interest in classical music.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Andre you're 34?? Wow, I thought you were in your 20s. Whoops... 

I seriously began listening to classical music in my sophomore year of college (2.5 years ago). Before that I just played piano without listening to much else outside Beethoven or Mozart piano sonatas. Then for some reason I just got a crazy interest going and I started researching as much about classical music as I could find, I read all about the major compositions at allmusic.com and used the DDD music lists to get a base knowledge. 

It's been hard for me to devote a lot of time listening lately, since my free time is very limited and I would usually rather do something more active than listen to music..


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## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

One year ago  
But I think I know more than a small number of works considering the time I had. And I have couple of hundreds of CDs. I think it's a nice achievement.


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## Bobany (Apr 10, 2011)

i have been playing some piano since i was ~13 and i started listening to classical music at the age of 15 (im 17 now). I never really appreciated or could understand it until i saw the movie "Shine" about the pianist David Helfgott. After seeing the movie I had a melody in my head (it was from Rachmaninov piano concerto #3) so I searched up the soundtrack for the movie, found the piece and listened to it. It was the best I've ever heard and made me listen to classical music :]


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## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

I became interested in classical music in my 30's. I feel I was the odd one out when I was a teenager, because I hated pop stuff and can't stand the Beatles. I first came to classical music through Bach, Handel, Beethoven and Brahms. Oh and I loved Monteverdi when I first heard this music.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I remember being enamoured with the very ubiquitous classical music (ie. Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata) by Grade 6, so I would have been 11-ish. I had been taking piano since Grade 3. In piano, after a few years of beginner children's stuff, you come around to either go in a Classical or Jazz direction. I fiercely resisted the Classical music at first (I blame Haydn and Czerny, which I was introduced to first), and took Jazz for a bit. However when I heard the Moonlight sonata being played in a classroom next door one day, it was a huge revelation, and I quickly went into classical and have never looked back. I _still_ hate Haydn though.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

My exposure to classical music as a young child was very formative. My father listened to it on the radio so that's what I heard in the car and at home...I remember that my first career ambition was to be an opera singer because I truly did not know there were other opportunities to vocalize! Time circles around and I have never totally left music as an avocation. I've always found a way to participate in the community as a musician. My son is currently preparing to start studies as a music performance major (horn and composition) and oddly, he's the one who led me back into classical. I started listening to classical again almost exclusively about two years ago. God bless public radio! We have a 24-hour locally-run classical station in town and I have learned so much from it and am proud to support it.


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## gurthbruins (May 12, 2010)

Potiphera said:


> I became interested in classical music in my 30's. I feel I was the odd one out when I was a teenager, because I hated pop stuff and can't stand the Beatles. I first came to classical music through Bach, Handel, Beethoven and Brahms. Oh and I loved Monteverdi when I first heard this music.


I also hate pop stuff and can't stand the Beatles. That makes two of us.


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## gurthbruins (May 12, 2010)

Couchie said:


> I remember being enamoured with the very ubiquitous classical music (ie. Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata) by Grade 6, so I would have been 11-ish. I had been taking piano since Grade 3. In piano, after a few years of beginner children's stuff, you come around to either go in a Classical or Jazz direction. I fiercely resisted the Classical music at first (I blame Haydn and Czerny, which I was introduced to first), and took Jazz for a bit. However *when I heard the Moonlight sonata being played in a classroom next door one day, it was a huge revelation*, and I quickly went into classical and have never looked back. I _still_ hate Haydn though.


When I heard the Moonlight sonata being played in our dining-room one day, by my father, it was a huge revelation too. I was 9.

The piano had just come out of its packing-case, where it had languished since before my memories began, while we sojourned in boarding houses after fleeing from the threat of Hitler and Luderitz in 1938. At 9, I was too young to think of looking for any more treasure: I had no reason to think there was any. Apart from the Moonlight, my father played only Chopin (his great love) and then, mostly honky-tonk popular hits like "I'll be loving you...". Somehow, Chopin didn't sit too well on my child-shoulders - hardly surprising. Only at 16 did I really discover classical music.


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## ArchangelBaroque (Jul 15, 2012)

First off, sorry for replying to a dead post, but I felt some what compelled to do so since it's an interesting topic. 

I started listening to classical music since before I was born! I was born in 1993 right when the "Mozart Effect" theory was popular, so my mother made me listen to classical music. As the years went on she stopped forcing me to listen to classical music around the age of 2 or 3 I think, and let me do as I please. Considering people usually don't listen to any music on their own now days until their teens, I was further exposed to classical music because my mother had her masters in music education, and could quite accurately perform on clarinet and piano. Because of this I listened to pieces she would perform around the house, and also because of her appreciation for classical music, what she listened to, I listened to. 

During my early teens I picked up how to play the clarinet, piano, and violin. The first piece that I truely performed in front of an audience was a Telemann piece my 7th grade year on clarinet. I love the piece dearly, which prompted me to go home and look up more pieces by Telemann. My interest in Telemann naturally lead me to Bach, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Pachelbel, Tartini etc. etc. My friends during their teen years were intwined with the mainstream music (pop, rock, alternative etc.) while I my self chose to see that music as overrated and listen purely to classical music, mainly Baroque. Although I did get my best friends to at least listen to some of my music, and all of them enjoyed it. They even went so far as to make it something they regularly listen to (on top of their modern music).

Now at the age of 19, Baroque music is still all that I really listen to, with some exceptions like Haydn, Mozart, Byrd, and Chopin. Honestly without that classical music exposure that I recieved when I was young, I wouldn't be where I am today. I made the Missouri All-state band last year in high school, putting me in the top 15 high school clarinet players in the state, and because of that, and my combined love of classical music I'm now double majoring in music education and clarinet performance, and I plan to go on and get my doctorates in performance. I think more young people should listen to classical music, perhaps it would better our society. In my opinion the reason why overall younger people don't listen to classical music, and it becomes a focus of hatred and disgust, is because they haven't listened to it. Classical music varies so much, from the renaissance all the way up to the music composed by Elfman or Jenkins today, that I think if younger people actually took the time to listen to it, they would find something that suits them.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

2-1,5 years ago!
Beethovens Moonlight sonata got me hooked!


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

i reckon the chances actually increase as you get older.

for a child they might hate it. for a teen it is old fasion and demanding.

but for a sad old git with more time and understanding it can be a good age to get into it.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

gurthbruins said:


> I also hate pop stuff and can't stand the Beatles. That makes two of us.


Three. My father used to listen to musica every time he was at home, popular, jazz and classic. So, i can say that I begun to listen to classical about 60 years ago.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

1.5 years ago.


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## powerbooks (Jun 30, 2012)

When I was in fifth or sixth grade in school, just after China Culture revolution. One day my sister came back from her high school and started singing a new song called "Ode to Joy", and told me this is a foreign piece with strange new poem that was not like anything I have learned. I have never heard of this kind of strange poem about ode to joy, instead of ode to Chairman Mao or Communist Party! The simple tune and the new kind of texts really caught up on me!

I later learned it was from a Beethoven's symphony, and got a tape recording off radio of the first movement of Symphony No. 5, by von Karajan. That 7'10" music (his 1977 BPO version) forever changed my life, and my love to classical music has been lasting ever since......


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

When I was 25. Previously I only ever listened to pop - Pink Floyd, Queen etc. My family were w/c and we did not even have a record player.
I saw Amadeus at 23 and it just did not click - but at 25 I accidenatlly discovered mozart k467 - and that started it all. Now I am 47 and have not looked back. Whatever crap happens in my life - I am eternally bound to classical/opera - it is my first and only love.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

About 7 months ago. 

On the drive home from work one day I just finally realized I had had enough of sports talk radio or listening to the same rock music I had been listening to for years, or trying in vain to enjoy new rock music on the "modern rock" station. So, I made what amounted to a New Year's resolution and vowed to listen to the classical station on the commute home every day for a month. I ended up hooked.


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