# How did YOU discover classical music?



## Ephemerid

I don't think I've seen this sort of thread topic-- thought it might be fun...

*How did you discover classical music? *How old were you? Was it a particular piece of music? What was some of your first listening experiences? Was it sudden or did it take you time to warm up to it? 

My story doesn't start out very promising at first  I was a slow learner...

When I was a kid, like about 5 or 6 I remember having (for some odd reason) the soundtrack to *Doctor Zhivago*. That is my earliest memory of exposure to symphonic music. I think I got it at a second-hand shop, but I had no idea what I was getting.

When *Star Wars *came out, I was 7 years old & I got the John Williams soundtrack, thinking it was so amazing. I had bought a few other symphonic soundtracks as well during that time (I also had the Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite but I didn't really know I was listening to classical music (like I said, I was a slow learner). Through my dad, who had listened to a little bit of classical music, he sort of nudged me in the direction of *Beethoven *(Sym. No. 5 & 6) & *Mozart *(Sym. 40 & 41). My parents really didn't listen to classical music much (mum hates it actually).

As a 9 year old kid, I was like "Wow! You mean people have been writing this stuff for a couple hundred years?" LOL (My funny confession: I thought the numbers to the symphonies indicated not the numbered symphony of a given composer, but of all symphonies ever written-- so Beethoven wrote the world's SIXTH symphony ever and so on LOL)

I still did listen to some crap though (once I found Holst I ditched John Williams for good LOL)-- I think it was around the early 80s (around age 10 or 11) that the Disney movie *Fantasia *was re-released and there was *Vangelis' Chariots of Fire *soundrack (a sort of one-man electronic orchestra) and the first *Hooked On Classics *record came out (eek! I said "record"!). Oh, there was also the *Cosmos *sountrack (the Carl Sagan doco series) and I discovered a bunch of classical music through that as well. I don't remember which ones I got first, but it was all around the same time.

But the Hooked on Classics album listed all the music used in the medley and I started tracking down these pieces (I had graduated to cassette tape by this time). I found myself especially drawn toward *Bach*. I bought the all the Orchestral Suites and the Brandenburgs and I was indeed "hooked" and I was totally in love with classical in a big way after that. It was then that I discovered I could check out records from the public library & between that & reading up on composers & the history & development of classical music that I grew in my knowledge & experience.

So whilst many kids at my age would've had parents beating on the door saying "Would you turn that noise down?!!" to Motely Crue or whatever, for me it was Stravinsky LOL

What about other people's introduction to classical music? 

~josh


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## marval

I discovered Classical music when I was very young, due to the fact that it was what my parents would listen to.

I remember listening to pop music on the radio, in the sixties. But I much peferred classical. For my 21st birthday my parents gave me a record player, everyone else gave me record tokens. As I lived just outside Leeds at the time, I went into the town where there was a very good record shop (unfotunately I cannot remember the name), it sold mostly classical music. Hence my Brandenberg Concertos, my Mozart including his horn concerto and Ashkenazy playing Chopin. My liking for classical music is still just as strong, I am not an expert but I do know what I like.


Margaret


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## Ephemerid

marval said:


> ...a very good record shop (unfotunately I cannot remember the name), it sold mostly classical music...


How strange-- a record shop selling mostly classical music...? LOL

In some larger US cities you could find in some of the bigger music shops a "classical room" which usually had a fairly wide selection. I noticed in New Orleans, Houston and Dallas but by the early-90s they started getting smaller and smaller, and then finally cut out altogether by around 1999. I can't even purchase classical music except online now. 

~josh


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## marval

Yes it was strange, a shop selling mostly classical music. There are very few places here in Milton Keynes in the Uk that sell music at all, let alone classical music. As you say it seems to be that online is the main place for buying music.


Margaret


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## Krummhorn

Hmm, great topic ... classical music discovered me actually as I was too young to really appreciate what I was listening too. I grew up in a 100% classical musical family - parents played for years in the Scandinavian Symphony (Detroit) for eons and later upon moving to California in the Long Beach Phil - they would have to drag us kids to rehearsals, which I can distinctly remember. Dad played the double B flat concert tuba, Mom the violin. My sister acquired the viola and I started out on piano. At home we would play together often.

In the mornings we woke to Coffee Cup Concert on the FM radio ... Every weekend we either attended an orchestral concert or other classical music event. By the time I was 12, my focus changed to classical church organ, a chosen profession I remain very active in to this day nearly 48 years later. I echo what Marvel has said about record shops ... we had those all classical stores in Los Angeles and in Orange County (CA) ... nothing but row upon row of classical lp's, pianos and sheet music. I still have all my LPs that I purchased in the 60's & 70's and have a working turntable as part of my audio setup at home. 

I have little tolerance for most of today's "noise", especially rap-crap, and those morons who force everyone else around them in traffic to listen to it and feel that horrid thumping, bone jarring, window rattling bass - gives me an instant headache. 

Classical music has been around for centuries and will outlast anything else that comes along - it has originality all it own - and so do the people who love and play this music.


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## MJTTOMB

Until last year, I had been fed lies about classical and how it was for extremely rich snooty old people.

Now, I practically worship geniuses such as Grieg and Beethoven.

It started almost exactly a year ago, when I decided to try writing classical for an independent project in a digital music production class. I kept trying, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't for the life of me understand a word of theory that came from my teacher's mouth. Over last summer, I taught myself everything. Chords, movements, styles, modulations, scales, modes, forms, orchestration, melodic development, everything. The more I studied, the more I realized. One can't know how difficult it is to write such beautiful music if one has never tried, or never thought about how to.

I absolutely love it.

I won't insult other music styles, as I still enjoy rock occasionally, but I must agree that rap is not music. Rap is a lyrical art. It may take skill to do, but it is by no means music.


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## Ephemerid

MJTTOMB said:


> It started almost exactly a year ago, when I decided to try writing classical for an independent project in a digital music production class. I kept trying, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't for the life of me understand a word of theory that came from my teacher's mouth. Over last summer, I taught myself everything. Chords, movements, styles, modulations, scales, modes, forms, orchestration, melodic development, everything. The more I studied, the more I realized. One can't know how difficult it is to write such beautiful music if one has never tried, or never thought about how to.
> 
> I absolutely love it.


 Wow! Good on you!  I was one of the very few people in music school that actually LIKED music theory, once it clicked in my head just right... Go you! 

~josh


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## hawk

Great topic. 

Until this past summer I, in my almost 52 years, did not pay much attention to classical music. There were a few pieces of music that I enjoyed for example an old television show which came on PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) called Masterpiece Theater used what I now know is from Handels Watermusic as the theme. Also I enjoyed the Nutcracker when heard during the Holydays. Other than that I knew nothing.

This past summer my family and I were in Lincolnshire UK for 3 weeks as part of the comemmoration of John Smith and the founding of the Jamestown colony.
I was commisioned to create a piece of music (I build and play Native Flutes) to play in concert with the London Mozart Players. We were planning on doing 3 days of workshops and 3 evening concerts.

With literally 10 minutes of rehersal, barely enough time to say hello, behind us we performed the first concert. It was as if we were in two different musical universes  
During the next two days of workshops and concerts we drew closer together musically. The last concert was very nice and when my part of the program was finished I sat and listened to them perform Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings.

I think the combination of how I was feeling after my part of the program (happy it went well and relieved it was finished) and the beauty of LMP's performance of Serenade caused me to immediately fall in Love with this music!
From that moment on I "needed" to hear more. At first I relived the LMP experience by listening to Serenade days on end. 

In my home one can usually hear Kora or Didgerido or Mbira (I play these as well) or Tuvan Throat singing... but once we returned home, much to the dismay of my family, Tchaikovsky was on 24/7. In an effort to keep my family intact some variation in music was needed. Wbach radio to the rescue. This was where new music excited my ears.

Classical is still so new to me. Much to learn about the composers, the language, the music, orchestras, conducters well you get the picture. I feel like the baby who is just begining to babble the rudiments of language...


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## opus67

In my case, I really don't know, actually! As you may know, one gets very little exposure to this form of classical music in this part of the world, but whenever I heard a snippet of an orchestral piece (or something based on these principles), I enjoyed it. As a kid, I was exposed to O Fortuna, (a tiny part of) Mozart's 25th symphony, the finale of Beethoven's 9th, etc. through TV adverts. (without knowing it, of course.) Also, one of the famous film composers adopted a lot of stuff from Baroque music, especially Vivaldi and Bach - something I found out after my "discovery." A couple of years ago, I came across this trivia about Mozart reproducing the score of the Miserere from memory. (The date was Jan 26th, 2006, if you must know, and I was 20 years plus a few months old.) I said to myself, "Well, this Mozart guy seems interesting. Why not explore more of his music and see what the fuss is all about?"  Till then, I had heard only the names of a couple of composers and nothing more. Having begun my journey in the "Age of the Internet," I discovered internet radio stations. I found one in Feb' '06, and I haven't looked back ever since. I joined internet message boards and started learning more from experienced listeners and enthusiasts. Fortunately, there are stores here that stock a few hundred CDs in their 'Western Classical' racks. This music has definitely been one of the greatest discoveries in my life, and I hope to continue to discover more.

And I'll quit boring you now.


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## Rondo

I honestly can't remember where my interest in classical music began, but I do remember hearing a lot of it in the cartoons I watched as a kid. Remember all the old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons, and the popular masterpieces played sporadically throughout them such as _The Blue Danube_, _Tales from the Vienna Woods_, _Die Fledermaus_, _Hungarian Dance No. 5_, and _William Tell_ (just to name a few)? Maybe it stemmed from that early exposure.


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## anon2k2

My interest started while I was very young. I started piano lessons in 2nd grade, and I remember going through all the standard piano methods. I changed piano teachers in 4th grade, and my new teacher and I developed a life long friendship. He got me started playing Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti, and even a little Grieg and Schumann really early. His philosophy was that I should learn to play by playing the Masters. Eventually I was able to work on his proclaimed "Old Testament" (The Well-Tempered Clavier) and the "New Testament" (The Beethoven Sonatas)

I went from that start to playing the violin, and played in many ensembles. I distinctly remember the first time I played in a symphonic group and at my first rehearsal after auditioning, we played through the first movement of the Sibelius 3rd Symphony and as the horns enter a few bars in, I was hooked on the symphonic repertoire. I was about 14 then.

Neither my father or mother were particularly interested in classical music, but they were very supportive of my endeavors and showed up at every recital and concert until I went off to college.


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## ChamberNut

How long have a been a huge fan of classical music? A little over 3 years.

How did my curiosity and interest in classical music come about? Interestingly, from watching Stanley Kubrick films. I watched them often, since I’m a big fan of his films. I realized how much I enjoyed some of the music used in his films. I started buying the soundtracks to his movies (Barry Lyndon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut). A Clockwork Orange introduced me to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and I found I was really drawn to the powerful Scherzo of the 9th. From there, I purchased a copy of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, and enjoyed it so much, I went to the complete symphonies. That was it! From that point, I became enthralled and passionate about classical music, and went on shopping sprees of CD’s, buying books, etc. I’ve never discovered anything more exciting in my life!


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## Ephemerid

This is interesting... While a few here have more-or-less been born into a household familiar with classical music (either through listening and/or through music lessons), many people found out later, unexpectedly.

This only reinforces my belief that IF classical music got more promotion (via record companies, TV, radio, internet, schools, etc.) there would probably be an even wider audience for classical. It isn't because classical music is "too difficult" or "boring" or anything like that at all. People simply have no exposure to it-- it might not even OCCUR to many people to even CONSIDER classical music. At best what people have is stereotypes.

Lack of exposure (and also the stereotypes which "make up" for that lack of exposure) is the only real thing stopping classical from being as popular as it is. Oh, I know-- a lot of people wouldn't like it anyway, but I think this is indicative of the fact that classical music doesn't HAVE to be so obscure-- it isn't on its own merits that classical music is like this today.

Classical music can be fun, exciting, deeply moving, funny, intelligent, and so many other things. I think more people would be willing to delve into its riches if only there were more exposure and less stereotypes.

These are wonderful stories to hear-- keep it up! 

*Hawk, *have you played the shakuhachi as well? I'm an amateur shak player. 

~josh


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## ChamberNut

fool on the hill said:


> This only reinforces my belief that IF classical music got more promotion (via record companies, TV, radio, internet, schools, etc.) there would probably be an even wider audience for classical. It isn't because classical music is "too difficult" or "boring" or anything like that at all. People simply have no exposure to it-- it might not even OCCUR to many people to even CONSIDER classical music. At best what people have is stereotypes.
> 
> Lack of exposure (and also the stereotypes which "make up" for that lack of exposure) is the only real thing stopping classical from being as popular as it is. Oh, I know-- a lot of people wouldn't like it anyway, but I think this is indicative of the fact that classical music doesn't HAVE to be so obscure-- it isn't on its own merits that classical music is like this today.
> 
> Classical music can be fun, exciting, deeply moving, funny, intelligent, and so many other things. *I think more people would be willing to delve into its riches if only there were more exposure and less stereotypes.*
> ~josh


Absolutely, 100% agree. Stereotypes and lack of exposure and promotion are the things that kept me away from classical music until my "maturer" adult years.


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## opus67

We need a classical music reality show, folks!


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## David C Coleman

Well I seem to remember it being in the house from an early age. My family, especially my father having lots of 78's (anybody remember those?) of various pieces especially by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, together with all sorts of other music ranging from Big Band Swing through to Mantovani and other "middle of the road" music. So as a youngster I found I had difficulty in distinguishing from all this different music. I just liked it! 
As I grew older I began to be able to differentiate between the various forms. I think my first intro to classical music was the usual formulae of 1812 overture, Beethoven's 5th and Bach's Organ Conatata and Fugue and alike. Later on I started to like a lot of other pieces by different composers. 
I had a phase of liking medieval and Renaissance music. I was fascinated by the development of western art music generally, and still am. I wish we could break this stigma of classical music of being only for a strict minority - in this country at least. If you go abroad it seems to be far more generally accepted by the general public...
I think if it wasn't for the onslaught of Pop music in the last half century, we would see and hear much more classical music in general circulation..


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## David C Coleman

Oops!! I meant Organ Prelude and Fugue!! sorry for that....


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## Chi_townPhilly

opus67 said:


> We need a classical music reality show, folks!


Well, my monitoring of other boards has revealed that the UK has a Classical _performers'_ "reality show." Based on what I've read about it, it sounds (Deity)awful. Among other problems, it features _young_ artists, who are gradually "kicked off" one-by-one. Nice. Another example of "just what we *don't* need"...


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## Ephemerid

Just some rambling thoughts...

Didn't Leonard Bernstein do a TV series back in the 60s on classical music? Certainly he was a populariser, but he brough classical music to people's attention without dumbing it down.

I think the problem is HYPE. Style matters more than substance and people buy into it all too easily-- and many of us have been conditioned to that, so we rarely even consider looking beyond that. Classical music is (largely) not based on style but on substance and that doesn't bode well in a world of the sound bite. 

As naive as this may sound, I really do believe were people to be given the opportunity to really be exposed to classical music, more people would enjoy it. But the media can make more money with style-- anyone can be a hack whereas genuine talent is harder to come by (I love rock, jazz and other forms of music too and I believe there is SOME popular music that does and can have substance, but that's a different subject).

I have no problem with the profit motive PER SE, but when quality suffers because of it, listeners have no idea how much they are being shortchanged. I have no problem with companies making a buck, but I DO have a problem with them making a QUICK buck. Thankfully a lot of people seem to stumble on classical music by accident. 

For many, classical music is represented by certain stereotypes and that settles it-- I don't need to know anything more about classical music. That's not to say that individuals don't make their own choices, but certainly the availability and exposure to classical music would increase the chances of classical music really being enjoyed by more. 

But this is just part of a larger picture-- for the same reason literature and poetry are avoided and the sciences too. I believe if more human beings were EXPOSED to thinking (rather than memorisation) and education was promoted more than merely a means to have a better salary, this would not seem so unusual or rare. 

Simone Weil once wrote, "The intelligence can only be led by desire." But that all-too-human human curiosity and desire ends up being thwarted (at an early age), distracted by so many things that are heavy on style but low (if not devoid) on substance. 

I have no idea how to go about changing that though. The solution is NOT to resort to hype though (it disappoints me to see this sort of marketing with classical music) but to genuine promotion of the thing itself. Then again, maybe it is too far gone now to change that. 

Right now all I can do is a sort of one-on-one sort of thing... If I ever find anyone personally who has a tiny interest in classical, I'll do what I can (without being pushy) to introduce them to more. It turns out my landlady likes classical-- she listens to the local station here but doesn't know a lot about it, so I'm giving her a few CDs to listen to for starters. My girlfriend is sort of in the same situation-- and we're doing a classical music history course together which we're both enjoying. 

There's probably a lot more people out there that like classical music but just don't know where to start. They wouldn't begin to know the difference between Haydn and Hindemith-- where would they find out? For people who are already so familiar with classical, it maay not even seem like such a big deal. But for people who have a good grasp of it, its like a kind of fluency that others just don't have. 

Where do you begin? Somebody's got to try showing them the ropes at least a little bit, and to encourage them. And with the internet, there are more ways of finding out about these things, if only people knew they were out there. I believe there are a lot more people out there who would love classical music, were they only exposed to the substance of it rather than the stereotype (which is nothing but negative hype).

~josh


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## LFcatface

*Excellent Topic*

I grew up in a family that appreciated classical music, my Mom who is dancer would do her exercises to piano music and my Dad would listen to everything from opera to really fine jazz.
I became interested in taking classical singing lessons after my idol Rock Singer Linda Ronstadt recorded "Pirates of Penzance". I couldn't believe how her usual belty voice could do all the coloratura gymnastics. I thought if she could study singing seriously it was coll for me to do so.

After I found out about all the beautiful and interesting opera arias and art songs out there, 
I quicky lost interest in singing anything else. So anyone who is a purest and hates cross-over music might consider the fact that the cross over artists can get young people interested and then once exposed, like me, will then prefer the real thing.

Krummhorn , you wrote "I have little tolerance for most of today's "noise", especially rap-crap, and those morons who force everyone else around them in traffic to listen to it and feel that horrid thumping, bone jarring, window rattling bass - gives me an instant headache."

I agree and I actually have a friend a tenured professor in the US who got into a lot of trouble when he strongly requested the someone in a car next to him turn down the garbage. The noisemaker called the cops and had HIM arrested in front of his daughter! It was a few years ago before cell phones were popular but the noisy person was rich and had a cell phone with which to make a complaint. Anyway at the time it made national news, while my friend was up for tenure, but he got tenure anyway.

Another friend got sick and tired of being awakened in her flat here in London every morning with booming bass coming from a convertible jag last summer that paused at a light beneath her window. Finally she used her watering can to give the guy a bath, it stopped the problem. I just don't know why people feel the need to inflict their noise on others.


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## hawk

While reading these very interesting accounts of our introduction to classical music several thoughts have arisen though as my time is limited at this moment I will only comment on one.
Recently while in the comfort of my automobile I was listening to Mozarts clarinet concerto. I had the volume as loud as it would go which of course was NOT loud enough. This piece is so envigorating/full of energy that it demands to be played and listened to loudly. Because "I" think that classical is so beautiful I want to share it with the world. It would thrill me to hear it coming out of boom boxes (if they still exist) other peoples cars, from an open window of someones home...
I suspect that there are many who have heard classical music and do not like this form of HIGH ART "crap" music that snobs/better than you people, listen to. 
I personally have heard very little rap/hip hop music that appeals to my senses...Kanye West the exception. I would much rather listen to Gamelan or Tuvan throat singing or Kora or Fulani Flute or Mbira than some of the bands mentioned in another thread on this forum. This is sans judgement just a statement of my taste in music.
So my question is might the image of people who listen to classical music change if we choose different nonjudgemental ways of describing music particularly music we do not like or have not learned to appreciate "YET". I remember that it was only a few months ago where I would not have given a thought about listening to Mozart or Bach...


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## Ephemerid

hawk said:


> ...might the image of people who listen to classical music change if we choose different nonjudgemental ways of describing music particularly music we do not like or have not learned to appreciate "YET".


Maybe-- there is some truth to that. I generally like to think in terms of "I haven't connected to that music yet" or "I can't connect to it" (on whatever level). There is some music I can appreciate, though I know it simply does not appeal to me. that's not quite the same thing as saying something is "crap" (but even I have my limits of tolerance).

But the problem is "snobbery" exists in different forms and classical doesn't have a monopoly on it (there are some listeners of rock that are shockingly bad in this regard-- the reasoning may be different, but its snobbery all the same).

"Snobbery" in classical music is sort of like the equivalent of determining if something is "hip," "cool" or not. It has nothing to do with the MUSIC per se. A lot of people hear a lot of different kinds of music-- very rarely do people really LISTEN to music (and there is a huge difference)-- even if that music is Bach, Beethoven or whatever. It has nothing to do with music but all to do with that very image.

When music is based on its OWN merits and not with a particular "scene" or "style" or "hype" or "image" I have no problem. But a lot of people DO listen for that purpose. So someone who listens to Beethoven for that reason and someone who listens to Brittany Spears for that reason actually have a lot more in common than they realise.  Classical music has often been attacked as being "sappy" or crap too. But music that is more about style than substance I have a problem with, because it has nothing to do with music, but with a scene (I have no problem with projeting a certain image, but when that takes precedence over the music itself, then why bother?).

For myself, since I really wasn't aware of the stereotypes growing up-- I bypassed any such prejudices and just listened to the music-- I don't give a damn about what others think (whether they like classical or rock or whatever or not). A lot of people get too hung up on the image and so they never really listen to the music to begin with IMO. I have no patience for those sorts of extra-musical boundaries.

Like David Byrne said in True Stories: "Do you like music? Oh, I know-- everybody SAYS they do." 

~josh


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## hawk

Hi Josh,
You asked about shakuhachi earlier in this thread. Yes I have a couple, one i made and one that was built in Japan quite sometime ago. I am most competent making horrific noises and scaring the cats  It is a beautiful instrument when in skilled hands.

I think I understand and agree with your sentiments however isn't music and culture inextricably connected regardless of how superficial or short lived this culture (sub-culture/pop culture) maybe? Is it not the scene, the hype( culture) that shapes and defines the merit of music? For example those who play Yidaki (Yolngu people of Arnhemland Austr) may say someone is quite skilled at playing didgeridoo but because they are not Yolngu they will not learn to play Yidaki because it is through centuries of living with a piece of land and being connected both to the Ancestors and the Relations of today the one learns the music of Yidaki. This is that culture/music link.

You commented that music which is more about style than substance causes a problem. Would you elaborate a little.
Knowing very little about classical music culture I have thought that there was/is a particular style associated with it. It is often refered to as high art...for the gentile. Of course this could be my own stereotype. If it is then I can stop putting on my tux when listening to it 
I couldn't agree more about listening to music rather than hearing it. I've heard some pieces that did nothing for me when I listened passively but when listened to actively really were amazing.
Some years ago I worked with adolescents in treatment. There was often music on. One day one of the kids asked what I was listening to. I do not remember now who it was but the lyrics were about respect and not being judged...
I suggested that the kids and I exchange music. How surprised we were when some of the heavy metal I was given to listen to had a similar lyrical content to what I gave them to listen to. Obviously the delivery was much different. I never learned to like heavy metal nor did the kids like my music but our judgement laden criticisms were diminished once we had a little insight to the culture that the music was a part of.

I appreciate your thoughts Josh. I hope my questions/comments are not offensive. Thanks


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## CampOfTheSaints

Great topic!!!!!! 

I was a poor/working-class kid growing up in 1960's Phoenix, AZ., going to crappy public schools that DID NOT teach, or expose kids to classical music. My parents were no help either, my mom loved Elvis, and my step-father loved country music. :angry:

Then, in high school, a teacher came along, like the Robbin Williams role in the movie, "Dead Poets Society", and exposed me to classical music. 

The thing I remember most about this teacher, was that he loved Bach, and he loved to play it LOUD, and he smoked a pipe. He used to bring in these huge speakers (cir. 1970) and hook up the record player, put on a 33 rpm of Bach, and crank up Bach as loud as he could. He used to say, "Bach and Classical Music are ment to be played LOUD. Don't be afraid to play this music loud, I love it loud!"

Of course, being a bunch of 16 year olds, we just loved this guy, and his love of LOUD music. 

That was the age of 16, the first time I was exposed to classical music.


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## CampOfTheSaints

Josh, you are really on to something here. I agree with a lot of what you said. 

I believe that the "free-market" and it's pimp "the media" have done more to destroy classical music in this country then anything else. 

Did you know that a few years ago, the late author/social critic Kurt Voneget was on the show, "Nightline", when Ted Kopple asked him what could be done to reverse America's downward decent into the gutter of ignorance, and Kurt said, "Turn off the TV, read a book, and go to a symphony." Kopple laughed at him, and said, "Yeah, right. I'm sure millions of Americans are going to take your advice."

Ted Kopple acted as if going to a symphony or reading a book was a stupid idea, that most people were going to ignore. 

In our "free-market", convicted felon, drug-dealer, gang-member, "50 Cent" out-sells Mozart or Bach by millions and millions of copies. 

How do the great composers "compete" in a "free-market" with these thugs?

The answer, is that they can't, and that's the way the market works.


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## Ephemerid

Hawk, I'm pretty limited on the shak myself, but what little I can play on it I enjoy-- its always a very quietening experience for me. I used to own four models, but now I have only one, my favourite one made by Monty Levinson at www.shakuhachi.com -- just a student model, but it cost me $350.00 One of these days I'd love to get hold of a three footer (I love the deep tones on it) 

Certainly, there are traditions in any music and that creates a special living link with what has gone before. I guess what I'm getting at when I say "style" I don't mean "playing style" but style in terms of "stylishness" where extra-musical elements seem to be more important than the actual music itself. I probably wasn't too clear on that. 

Look at the boy band fad, for example. Does it really matter that digital effects are used in the studio to correct off key singing (I don't mean merely an occasional correction either) or that many of the performances are lip synched? Here is an instance where style (or "stylishness") trumps talent.

I have no problem with any musician in any genre having an "image" they project to audiences, but when the music really hinges on THAT rather than genuine creativity and something actually original, then I do question what MUSICAL value it may really have. I mean, boy bands come a dime a dozen and they really rely on the same formula without adding anything new to the genre. There's nothing *authentic* about it-- it is a hype machine designed to rake in money.

I know that sounds really cynical, but I have a good friend in Nashville who is trying to break into the country music scene as a songwriter there-- and I was shocked at just how much of a business it really is, some things being dubious and in some cases downright unethical (I'm talking about the songwriters as well as the record companies). I have no problem with a muso making money, but when everything is scrutinised in terms of "will it make us money?" then something vital has been lost.

I think all the fancy talk about classical music being "high art" is misleading and it annoys the hell out of me because it tries to say "we" (classical music listeners) are a special elite to be differentiated from the rabble who just listen to crap (i.e. everything that is not classical). People are deluding themselves if they think such rubbish. (If I sound annoyed, it isn't at you, Hawk  -- its directed at what few people I've met in life that have this sort of attitude).

Music, ALL music, belongs to ALL of us. Music that comes from inside the human individual is what ultimately matters. How that will manifest itself will depend on a lot of things and can come out in classical, jazz, rock, folk, metal, country, soul, sitar music, Bulgarian singing, and even in rap (even though I've rarely experienced that myself LOL)

Yeah, I'd get rid of the tux  (literally-- I've often attended classical concerts in jeans & a t-shirt LOL). Listening to classical music with a receptive ear is certainly is an ennobling experience, but so is jazz and rock and a lot of other things. They're just expressions of what it is to be human. Culturally we may be drawn to some manners of expression than others. As long as it is a genuine expression and not just to make a quick buck or out of the inability to come up with anything original, then that's all that really matters I think.

I think that may have been what you experienced with those kids exchanging music, Hawk, just the manner in expressing that experience of humanity was in a different idiom.

WHY we are drawn to some idioms and not others, I'm not sure. Obviously exposure has a lot to do with it, cultural background and so on. But even those boundaries can be transcended and then you find out "Wow, why didn't I listen to THIS kind of music before?"

I dunno if that really answered your good questions, Hawk. I may be just rambling again! LOL 

~josh


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## Ephemerid

Camp of the Saints, yeah, there's nothing wrong with musos making money (even THEY gotta pay the rent and all!) but when it comes down to reverse-marketing in the music industry (and yes, it is an INDUSTRY) then were not talking about selling music anymore-- it may as well be selling shoes, wooden planks or mayonnaise. 

The thing is people are being sold short on discoveries to be made all because stereotypes are always being reinforced. I still get smart *** comments at work when I occasionally listen to classical music at work. Its plainly a prejudice and the media helps reinforce that prejudice. 

Competition can be stiff in classical music because no fad is going to carry them thru (OK, except maybe Philip Glass LOL). Oh there is some politics involved, as in all ventures, but talent is the main thing-- you can't be a hack and be successful in classical music. 

I can say, being in the rock business for almost twenty years now, that popular music doesn't necessarily operate on the same principles. Talent MAY be a factor in the "success" of an act, but it is not the driving one. You can be the best damn muso in the universe, but without the political clout, you're nothing. 

That means that there is a high percentage of acts that hardly deserve the media exposure they receive, but they get it anyway because people have been culturally conditioned to buy into that "stylishness" or fad rather than to listen to the actual music itself. Its a distraction, and a lot of talentless people NEED that distraction, otherwise they couldn't possibly have an audience. 

The media has more to gain promoting such acts because they come a dime a dozen, whereas classical (or jazz-- I mean REAL jazz) requires a lot more hard work and determination-- which is rare. And people are being sold short because of it. 

By the way, what a COOL teacher! Wow!  

~josh


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## QuestionMark

I was steeped in classical music from the cradle on. My dad was a church organist and my mom sold opera records back in the 40s. Since my dad never made much money, I was never exposed to the "snooty" side of the classical music community. My parents loved music for its own sake. 

Unfortunately, and to my parents' horror, I did not come to love classical music until about age 14. I was a child of American pop culture, preferring Dick Clark's American Bandstand. But in 8th grade, I subscribed to the Columbia Record Club. And on a whim, I ordered 12 classical albums as my introductory package. I still to this day don't understand why. But what a world it opened up for me. 

Among the albums was "Columbia Records presents Vladimir Horowitz", Brahms 2nd Symphony (Bernstein), and Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto (Gould and Bernstein), etc., etc. After a few months of listening to the same 12 albums, I was hooked. I'm 57 now, and still as hooked as ever.

And I'm thrilled to find a community of like-minded classical music lovers. I must warn you, however: I still need an occasional jolt of Jimi Hendrix, Cream, or Led Zeppelin, just for old times sake!


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## opus67

Hi *?*! Welcome to TC.


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## Ephemerid

QuestionMark, where are the Mysterians? 

~josh


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## QuestionMark

Hi, Josh. I honestly did not understand your reference to the Mysterians, so I had to do a search. Found QuestionMark and the Mysterians, a 60s rock band from Flint, Michigan. I'm impressed! As as a child of the 60s I should know these things. But I only chose QM because my real name is Mark, and I find, with age, how much I don't know -- still questioning. Thanks for the rock lesson! Hope the moderators don't feel the thread has now been tainted.


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## Ephemerid

Oh, I didn't know they were from Flint, Michigan! so there you go, we both learned something! LOL 

~josh


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## fox_druid

For me...

Well, now i'm just 17 and I discover classcal music when I'm 13...
Before that, i dont even know what classic music is and what's the difference between pop and classic, i just dont have any idea at all
My father and mother loves pop music, and i naturally not attracted at all. When I entered the junior high school, i could hear everyday, every students surrounding me talked a lot about the popular newest band, newest music and so on. Well, at that point i became confused with myself, what's wrong with me.. and I started to think 'why i dont like music as much as my other friends? or maybe i'm not talented in music, therefore i'm not so attracted and dont have any idea about the newest music' and so on
but accidentaly one day I got a midi of classic music. i dont know that it's what people call classic music and it just appeared that i loved it so much and replay it endlessly, and when i discovered that it's, almostly everyday i hunted classic midis. And here's the interesting one, the first classic mp3 i heard was Bach's BWV 232 Mass, a Kyrie. At that time, i was browsing webs, and because i never hear or download any mp3 before, i immediately clicked on a mp3 file listed there. And after that many changes happened to me, I moved from the modern Church i used to attend to the traditional one, have my computer filled with operatic songs, and haunt the ears of my other family member whom in their life has never heard an opera (It's an extremely rare thing to hear in my country!)

And now, i become a fanatic classic music lover, who hates the mediocrity such as pop music, rock music, and the likes of it!


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## Harmonie

My answer is simple, really.

I've always liked classical music, but I especially started liking it like 2 or 3 summers ago. I was at my grandparents' house and my grandma had these tapes. I was bored, so I listened to them and I fell in love with classical music right there, that's also when I discovered how awesome a bassoon really is!


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## Tré

*So unfortunate*



fool on the hill said:


> I can't even purchase classical music except online now.


It's so pitiful, isn't it?  The Circuit City in my town doesn't have a SINGLE classical album in stock. None.

The best place to go locally is Barnes and Noble. Usually I order from Amazon or buy iTunes.


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## Astus

Hmmm. Well, like many people here I come from a background that is not especially classically-oriented, though my parents (particularly Dad) have a healthy respect for classical. I was interested in classical music from a fairly young age, and started off with the "popular music" of classical - the Four Seasons, Eine Kleine, etc etc etc, and as I get older I'm moving into more obscure fare. I guess I became dissatisfied with pop music as I got older, and now I struggle to find pop/rock artists who satisfy my musical needs the way classical does  

Probably a defining moment was being given a copy of Handel's Messiah by my Dad for Xmas a few years ago... my singing teacher had given me "Come Unto Him" to perform for a concert, and being quite young I wasn't too familiar with Messiah or its significance. Behold, I loved every joyous moment of it and a strong love of the Baroque was born!


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## Tré

opus67 said:


> We need a classical music reality show, folks!


HAHA! That would be great. Iron Pianist?

I started taking piano lessons at age 5, so my teacher was always recommending me some recording or another of a Beethoven piece or of a Bach invention. Since then, It never abandons me. Though I love many types of music, classical music is the most sincere and rich in all fashions.


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## QuestionMark

Fox Druid, your story is amazing. To be introduced to classical music with Bach's B Minor Mass means some higher force is really looking out for you. An old high school friend used to tell me that the Bach Mass was the greatest piece of music ever written. I used to chide him, "Yeah, yeah, we all have our favorites". "No", he said, "this one's different. At least listen to the Kyrie". But even though I've been a Bach fan my entire life, I never gave the Mass a hearing until my late 40s. And after just a handful of listenings, I realized what my friend was talking about. If my house were burning, and I could only rescue one of my CDs, it would be the B Minor Mass.


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## opus67

opus67 said:


> We need a classical music reality show, folks!





Chi_town/Philly said:


> Well, my monitoring of other boards has revealed that the UK has a Classical _performers'_ "reality show." Based on what I've read about it, it sounds (Deity)awful. Among other problems, it features _young_ artists, who are gradually "kicked off" one-by-one. Nice. Another example of "just what we *don't* need"...


Uh-oh!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2237619,00.html


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## Rondo

Finally a reality show with some taste!


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## marinermark

My mother played piano (light classical) and my father liked the 19th century Russian composers. I started checking out classical 78s from the library in the early 50s when I was about 12. We had just moved inito a house that had an old record player (our first). I jumped quickly into the 20th century - Holst's "Planets," Copland, Barber, Shostakovitch. I didn't know anything about the music, just that I liked the sound better than the 3-Bs. That's still mostly true. I'd listen to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" to get 'pumped up ' for the high school football games. That is still my favorite, followed by Copland's Third Symphony, Barber's First Symphony. Probably 95% of my 400-500 records and CDs are 20th Century. I said that when I retired, I'd again try to learn keyboard, and bought a 77-key Casio last year. I find don't like to practice now any more than I did nearly 60 years ago. So, I guess I'll stick to playing "first chair turntable," and picking out 2-finger passages of pieces I know.


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## Air

I remember, for me, it really began after I started going to piano competitions. I began my search looking for the "hardest piece" (quite silly, but...). Before I knew it I was listening to Rach 2 and 3 and Prok 2 and 3...


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## Elgarian

I was sixteen. The English teacher walked into the classroom carrying a gramophone and an LP of Berlioz's _Symphonie Fantastique_. "We're not doing English today," he said. "We're listening to this." He told us a bit about the background. Not much - just enough to get over the idea of the _leitmotif_, and its significance in this piece of music. I think at some point he must have hummed the tune briefly, or maybe played a bit of it. At any rate, I got what he was saying, and once the music started, I listened intently for this '_leitmotif_' he was making such a fuss about.

I sat in that classroom, eyes closed and amazed. I remember vividly listening to the section at the ball, imagining all the twirling dancers, and then - there she was! The Beloved! It wasn't just a recognition of the tune. _She_ was there, and I felt the ache.

I _think_ I remember that after school I hopped onto the bus into town, went straight to the record shop, asked for the cheapest LP of _Symphonie Fantastique_ that they had (it was on the Supraphon label, and I _think_ cost seventeen shillings and sixpence which seemed like an awful lot of money). At this point I wonder if my memory is blurring the business, because that _was_ a lot of money and I can't quite figure why I'd have so much with me, in school. Maybe I bought the record the next day, really, but merged them together afterwards in my memory. No matter. Whether it was that day or the next, I know I carried that record home, excited and scared. Yes, _scared_: partly by the sudden commitment to the unknown; partly because I'd spent so much of my money on this one thing; and partly because my parents associated classical music with snobbery, so I was uncertain what their reaction would be.

But I wore the grooves flat on that LP, and there was no going back after that.


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## jhar26

I got into classical music in the mid-80's when I was about 24 I guess - so, relatively late really. I walked into the local record shop and they were playing a Karajan baroque disc with Albinoni's "Adagio" and it sounded amazing to me. I immediately bought the cd. When I played it at home I found myself liking all of it. There was some Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Gluck, Bach and Mozart on it. It came at just the right time because although I had already been a huge fan of popular music for years I hated a lot of what was going on in that field at the time (in fact, IMO it has never completely recovered from MTV and it's emphasis on style over substance, but that's a different story), so I was totally ready to try something new.


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## ecg_fa

I started paying attention to music bout age 10 (1960 or so) I think some in 
compensation for my mother being very ill (she died 2 years later). Pop music then
didn't do much for my 'soul,' & I used to listen on radio to concerts by Cleveland
Orchestra from Severance Hall & was very interested. My first two purchases were
about age 12/13, one of Szell, CSO & Casadesus doing Mozart Piano Cons. 26 & 27 & Munch
and Boston Symphony doing Saint Saens Symp. No. 3. These're still fave recordings of
mine. My brother (much older than me) also liked classical music & turned me on to more.
I came to like pop a few years later, but classical was my first musical love, then jazz & 
some folk music,Broadway too. And I still love 'em-- but I guess I've listened longest to classical music, and I really like a wide variety of it, expanding in later years to early (pre-Baroque) & more contemporary stuff.

Ed


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## Lang

I was always emotionally affected by music, even as a small child. My parents made me have piano lessons at about the age of 7, and my teacher encouraged me to explore the music that was available. When I was about 10 he gave me a book of Mozart piano sonatas, and it was those that made me appreciate the music of Mozart, although it took some years.

I remember hearing Debussy's La Cathedral Engloutie on an old 78 recording, but my first piece of modern music was Mossolov's Steel Foundry, which introduced me to a whole new sound world. Then I heard The Rite of Spring, and that particularly sparked my interest in 'modern' music. Then followed Beethoven and, particularly Elgar and also at about the same time, Charles Ives.

Now, 55 years later, I still love the same music I loved then, although I have expanded the areas of my interest.


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## louella

I used to work for an accountant who always had the radio on the classical station, he was my boss so i was forced to listen to it, until i got used to Chopin's Etude being my lunch break song that would come on everyday at 12pm. I still know little about classical music but i tried writing some of my own material and it sounds kinda like that style so i figured id start looking into it.. so basically my interest starts now..


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## LindenLea

I grew up in a house where both parents were musicians and old 33Rpm's and even 78's of the likes of Bruno Walter and George Szell conducting Beethoven and Richard Stauss were required listening in the evenings whether we liked it or not! So I suppose that is where it all began for me.


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## grignon

My first exposure came from the NBC nightly news in the mid-sixties.
The closing theme music was the scherzo from Beethovens 9th. I would go into the living room just before the end of the program (I was 8, why would I actually watch the news) and beg my dad to not change the channel until the music faded. 
I thought the music was just the theme to the program until one day, shopping with my mom, I was humming/singing it to myself and an old!? lady (probably no more than 40 but hey, I was 8!) complimented my mom on raising an artistically aware child. Our response was ????.
The old lady explained what I was singing and my response was "There's more?"

There was indeed.


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## Music lover

*Can anyone love ALL classical music?*

I find this thread really interesting.

Personally I was introduced to classical music as a child. The adults used to get a bit tiddly on a keg of beer and we sang around the piano at our family parties. But when it came to listening to music, my Mum was a bit of a musical snob. She bought 33s through a classical music mail order outfit as we lived on a farm, and that is what we were allowed to listen to. So being the stroppy teenager I was, I refused to listen to it (well I didn't get any option as other members of the family played the records, but I refused to really listen) and as for actually admitting there was any merit to the stuff . . . . . . .

So I was exposed to Chopin, Listz and Schubert, as my family were pianists and that was what she bought. No choral music, very little orchestral, and no opera or chamber. Living in 1950s nz, I don't think there was a classical music radio station, and certainly no tv. But anyway, that's my response to the question, how did you discover classical music?

My point is, are there people out there who love ALL classical music? I'm fascinated in finding this website to find that people actually seem to love and appreciate composers that I just can't get my head around - and I have tried over the years, believe me, I have tried. Some music I've seen here being raved about, I find rasping, discordant, lacking finess. My ear seems to be tuned in to the melodic, the emotional, the sad. Give me Beethoven, and also give me Mahler. Any choral and almost any operetic music. But as for Wagner, Respigi, take it away. Or is it simply that my ear is not yet trained to understand the subtleties of the music of these composers?

Are there actually humans out there that undiscriminating that they can enjoy music simply because it is deemed "classical?" I'm pretty catholic in my tastes. I even admit to enjoying some classical crossover - some popular music, even lately some country and western - I watched the earlier Martin Scorsese film about Bob Dylon 'No direction Home' the other night and learned that his roots sprang from country and western and folk songs - Wow, that was a realisation for me that I could actually appreciate some of that stuff. The organ played well and loudly sends shivers up my spine. Some brass bands, bag-pipes, some ethnic music e.g. traditional Maori, Indian or gamelan, all in moderation is all good.

My real question is I guess, why do we love some music and not the next?


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## LvB

I had heard classical music from an early age (my mother was an excellent pianist, and I well remember hearing her play), but I had not really _listened_; I knew I hated pop music, but thought classical was boring. Until one day....

I was probably about 10 or 11. It was a rainy day and I was alone in the house. For some reason I didn't feel like reading, so I opened up the phonogaph cabinet and pulled out one of my father's old Supraphon records and put it on. The music: Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The experience: indescribable. I listened to the piece maybe twenty times that week, and then started branching out. All of a sudden many pieces of which I had been aware took on real meaning, at least emotionally (the formal side came later), and within a very short time I'd begun my own record collection (my first LP was, if I remember aright, Fritz Reiner leading the Chicago Symphony in Strauss's _Also Sprach Zarathustra_). The rest, as they say, is history....


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## marinermark

It's pleasantly surprising that this thread has continued so long. I've enjoyed reading others' responses. There's another topic that's sneaking in. That is the "evolution" of interest from initial interest until now. I seem to be 'stuck' in the 1900s-1970s, on the music I "grew up with." I've acquired probably 100 cds of later composers' music, but can't seem to get as close to them as to the earlier works. Perhaps because I haven't played them as frequently for as long. Every time I say "I've bought enough for awhile." Arkivmusic sends me an EMail on a sale, and I buy some more. To "Music Lover" In response, I can't say that there is any classical music that I really dislike (although some Philip Glass comes close). I just find late 19th and 20th century music more interesting. In the 50s the Stan Kenton orchestra played some quasi-classical compositions and arrangements, "City of Glass" being one that would offend most classical music lovers but was exciting to hear. In the 70s, Iron Butterfly's music was "modern baroque". Emerson, Lake and Palmer did modernized arrangements of classical compositions.


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## shsherm

I first heard classical music on the radio, on early television shows, and at children's concerts by the Chicago Symphony. I became an avid music lover in my high school years(1955-1959). The members of the concert band were given lessons by CSO musicians and I played trumpet. My lessons were given by Rudolph Nashan who was right behind Adolph Herseth in the CSO trumpet section. I lost track of Mr. Nashan and would love to find out what became of him after he left the CSO.


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## tahnak

*How did I discover classical music?*

When I was four, I used to be facinated by an old HMV gramophone and the 78 RPM records that my father and grandfather played occasionally in the drawing room. But it became a passion for me and I had them winding and playing those 78s almost every evening and that is how I discovered Tchaikovsky. Nutcracker was my baptism in the field of classicals.


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## Sid James

Like many people above, I was introduced to classical music by my parents at around age 5. Before we immigrated to Australia they had some tapes which they always played: Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Wagner. They were played so much they were worn out. From my early teens, I started buying my own tapes and cds with pocket money. I started to expand my repertoire to include more modern music like Bartok, Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. One of the of the interesting things with classical music is that you never seem to stop discovering new things to listen to. In my twenties I discovered the music of Gorecki, Messian and Vaughan Williams while listening to the radio. Even now, I'm buying cds of composers who I hadn't heard before, like Penderecki and pieces by some of the other composers above which I didn't own before. I find that the older I get, I am gravitating more towards music of the mid twentieth century. I think classical music can be rich, complex and even ambigious. It gives us an insight into the human condition like no other music. That said, I also like jazz (my parents also had one jazz tape - Louis Armstrong live) and I find that it can be equally as good as classical music. For me, the two go together.


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## Kuhlau

Can't recall if I ever posted in this thread. In any case, the short version of my own discovery can be found here.

FK


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## Enkhbat

When i was a young boy, Rondo Veneziano was always played on Mongolian National Broadcasting. I really enjoyed it. A period of time, i hadn't listened Classical. Then, when i was at 7 th grade, I was listened Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D by my friend Ikhbayar. So, i fell in love this melody, Everyday and night i was always listening. It was always listened in my ears. After that, i listened Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1. From that moment i was mesmerised by Classical music. Next, Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy.... Now i'm listening Ryuichi Sakamoto

It's wonderful !!! I love Classical Music


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## Kuhlau

Enkhbat, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was one of the works that unlocked the door to classical music for me, too. 

FK


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## Enkhbat

Yep, That's brilliant. Right now, it's listening in my ear!














 played by Emil Gilels. Watch it.


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## Kuhlau

If you can get hold of this, you really should:










FK


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## Enkhbat

Ok, I'll try to get it.
Thanks for your advice


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## Octave Box

How did you discover classical music? How old were you? Was it a particular piece of music? What was some of your first listening experiences? Was it sudden or did it take you time to warm up to it?

Well That's a funny one for me. I knew I wanted to write music so I went to school for it in College and that's when I discovered it really. When I really began to appreciate it, when I was 20.

I had played in Highschool and Middle School concert band as well as marching band but it wasn't the same.

I guess it was kind of both. I was use to some of it.. but not until I got to that school and into the atmosphere did I care. It really hit me then and I'm so in love with it now.


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## JTech82

Classical and jazz music was in my house growing up and my Dad always played both. I have an equal passion for both now, but up until about a few weeks ago, jazz was all I was seriously listening to. I'm now trying to play catch up with all of this music that I missed out on.

Being a big collector, I would say my jazz collection certainly outdoes my entire music collection. I have around 5,000 jazz CDs. Mostly from the late '40s up until the mid '60s. I was very fond of the bebop era, so that's what I tried and collect and I would collect everything from all the musicians I liked. For example, if I saw Barry Harris' name in the liner notes, I would go check him out, if I saw Benny Golson's name on the back of an album, I would check him out, and so on.

For a person to be interested in music and continue to have an interest in my honest opinion, they have to be curious about it. Good music doesn't find you, you have to find it. Coming from a musical family that spans probably more than 100 years and probably even further back than that, I was naturally drawn to it. It's a gift that not many people are blessed with.

Getting back to classical, what sparked my interest to start investing time in is very simple: I'm running out of jazz recordings to buy! Just kidding, but I would say that I always have been drawn to it from a young age. I think the first classical piece I heard was Janacek's "Sinfonietta." How's that for a first piece! Well you see my Dad loves Janacek, but he also loves Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Rimsky-Korsakov, etc.

Music is still an interesting journey for me. Not only as a musician, but as a person trying to figure out where I belong in this world. Music has given me a lot of joy and happiness. It gets me through the day and I'm not even sure I would sitting here talking about it unless it was apart of my life.


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## Harlequinne

*Via Bobby Fischer..................*

To say i come from an un musical background is an understatement. I have learned Violin and piano all too briefly....... To cut a long story short, i was busying away with chess and the late Bobby Fischer, when somebody mentioned Mr Fischer and Glenn Gould in the same sentence.... this was about two years ago. I had to listen to this maestro, who was he, was he what was claimed... (as it goes it was at the same time that a young boy appeared on the shore in Kent with no labels in his clothes, who refused to speak, and only drew a grand piano about two weeks after his hospitalisation.... he was a German with amnesia) and I must say i thoroughly enjoyed mr Gould. A dashing instrument and also beholder of tragedy galore...........I am learning to read music and would love to play the piano. so i applied for an apprenticeship to fix the darn things at Mickleburgh.... for nothing. In fact I will get my sunday best on tomorrow and show that i am quite serious. and i'll take it from there. they do tuning and carpentry repairs, sales etc...all kinds. so i'll do it all for free.thats me!


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## Rick

ChamberNut said:


> Absolutely, 100% agree. Stereotypes and lack of exposure and promotion are the things that kept me away from classical music until my "maturer" adult years.


Almost similar has been the case with me.


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## theclassicalguy

My parents thought it was important that I have an appreciation of classical music. Neither one was a huge fan, but they both enjoyed it. When I was born, they made sure to play the classical radio station for me in the hospital room, so I've been listening since I was about 1 day old. They never expected it to become a huge passion and I think it sort of backfired on them when I started blaring opera (which they both hate) in high school. To this day, it is all I listen to.


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## nickgray

Uh... How that happened?... Well, I started from hard rock, then listened to metal (power, then heavy -> black -> doom, progressive), some prog. rock, then got tired and found abstract hip-hop and idm (electronic music, kinda like minimal classical, but on synths and with obscure "percussion"), then I read something about Wagner's Der Ring - 14 hours of music, great, epic, blabla... And got hooked up. I doubt it could be anything other than Wagner and his Ring that could do it.


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## Scottie

I've been aware of classical music all my life, but didn't pay any attention to it (bar the odd movie theme). About 5 years ago I started to really listen to it. I was laid up with a really bad back and read alot and found I could only listen to classical music while reading. It progressed from there: the reading grew more and more vague as I paid more attention to the music.

I really don't know much about classical music and doubt I ever will, but do find that I tend to listen to it more than the other forms for music I've listened to all my life. My wife calls it (classical music) old fart's music.

Anyway: I love it.


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## Kuhlau

Scottie said:


> I really don't know much about classical music and doubt I ever will ...


Don't do yourself down. I was once the same - didn't really know what I was doing. But look at me now: writing about it for other newbies at www.aneverymanforhimself.com

FK


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## Meovcorz

I discovered Classical Music when I was about 7, my Mum had a tape (which my brothers later took away from me because I played it so much) with Mozart, and a number of other composers. I fell in love with this, and still love just listening to Classical music.


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## JTech82

Welcome aboard, Meovcorz! I hope you enjoy the company here on this forum.

You will not find a more knowledge group of people anywhere on the web. These people know their classical music.


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## Elgarian

JTech82 said:


> Good music doesn't find you, you have to find it.


I'm the exception to your rule, JTech! (I know I've told this tale before, but hey, if a thing is worth saying once, then it's worth saying twice.) Imagine a sixteen-year-old, head and ears full of the Beatles, walking into an English lesson, and the English teacher declaring that today we would listen to Berlioz's _Symphonie Fantastique_. He tells us about the idea of the _leitmotif_ and how important it is in this music, and then plunges us in, with a battered old mono gramophone blaring Berlioz from the front of the room.

I was zapped. Went off and bought one of my own the next day, and never looked back. So thanks to that English teacher, the good music found me.


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## Kuhlau

Great story, Elgarian. Wish _I'd _had teachers like that. It was too much trouble, apparently, for my MUSIC teacher to bother educating me and my year group. Guy was a work-shy waste of space.

FK


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## Elgarian

Kuhlau said:


> Great story, Elgarian. Wish _I'd _had teachers like that. It was too much trouble, apparently, for my MUSIC teacher to bother educating me and my year group. Guy was a work-shy waste of space.


Great shame. Of course one of the keys to the successful teaching of kids is to get them to _expect_ one thing, and then _present_ them with another - so they think they're avoiding work! This English teacher was brilliant at that! If it had been a music lesson, we'd probably not have been willing to listen!

A few of us set up a musical appreciation club after that - we got permission to borrow the archaic school gramophone for one lunchtime per week (I think it was of the steam-driven variety), and they let us borrow one LP on each occasion, from the music department's pitifully small collection of horribly battered vinyl. In this way we heard an enormous number of spits, pops, crackles, and rumbling sounds plus, in the background, The Planets; Sibelius's first symphony, The Enigma Variations, some Handel Organ Concertos - basically, whatever stuff we could dig out of that small collection, knowing nothing about it. Ye gods, I still remember hearing that solo clarinet for the first time, at the beginning of the Sibelius, and the world standing still.


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## Kuhlau

My music teacher was known as 'Pixie' ... because he was forever picking his nose and a**e. (Seriously.)

Instead of trying to teach us, he dumped text books down on our desks and got us to either read in silence - oh, the irony - or else copy out stuff about which we had not a clue. A complete waste of countless hours in my early secondary school years. It's a wonder I like music at all, given this experience.

FK


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## xJuanx

My first approach to classical music, was one day when I was 9 years old, and I was staying at my uncle's house. They didn't know how to entertain me, and they decided to buy tickets for a concert to see how that went. Before going they told me it was ok if I didn't like it, or if I felt bored, because it was a not so easy concert to attend for the first time. And so it was, they were playing Mahler's "Titan", but I loved it, and from that moment I just kept on going to concerts and buying cds until this very day. 
Anyways, my parents told me an anecodte from the time I was 4 years old (I don't remember it at all). They were listening to Bartók, and having a cup of tea, when they realised they didn't know where I was. They looked for me, and found out I remained under the table the entire time. When asked what the hell was I doing there, I responed I was listening to the music.


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## Tapkaara

I discovered classical music is a fairly "unusual" way, I'd suppose. Neither of my parents listened to this kind of music at all, nor anyone else in my extended family.

So, how did tis all come about?

I began studyng the Finnish language years ago and, inevitably through my studies of this language, one becomes acquainted with the culture and history of the country. Sibelius is very much at the fore in any discussion on Finnish culture, so I had to hear what all the fuss was about. I became hooked immediately, and thought there must be a whole world of music out there that I knew nothing about. And was there ever!

So, Sibelius was sort of my spring boarde and, thank to him, I have discovered other composers I just adore.


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## Conservationist

Members of my family overwhelmingly preferred classical music, and I didn't understand why until I'd listened to death metal and black metal for a few years and could understand its Faustian, Romantic spirit.


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## bassClef

I think I've always had classical music in my life - it ebbs and flows, but it's had a recent resurgance.


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## Scottie

Kuhlau said:


> Don't do yourself down. I was once the same - didn't really know what I was doing. But look at me now: writing about it for other newbies at www.aneverymanforhimself.com
> 
> FK


I've just had a trawl through your site and it's very good. I've quite a bit already. Thanks


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## Kuhlau

Thanks, Scottie.

I'm trying to add more features to the site, but at the moment, I'm very busy with work. It's all I can do to just get a review up every week to a fortnight.

FK


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## Elgarian

Kuhlau said:


> My music teacher ... Instead of trying to teach us, he dumped text books down on our desks and got us to either read in silence - oh, the irony - or else copy out stuff about which we had not a clue. A complete waste of countless hours in my early secondary school years. It's a wonder I like music at all, given this experience.


This is the perennial problem, alas - and certainly I recall music lessons at school as being totally valueless. My impression is that in the 60s (my schooldays), music had only a token presence in the curriculum of many schools, and for the majority of pupils it seemed irrelevant to their lives. It's significant that when my personal musical breakthrough came (described above), it came through the inspired action of an _English_ teacher.


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## Contrapunctus666

Natural progression from extreme metal and ambient music. As simple as that.


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## Edmond-Dantes

Ah, at six I found a tape of Goldberg Variations and was hooked ever since. Other than jazz, I've never listened to anything else.


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## andruini

i've been surrounded by classical music all my life.. my dad is a professional pianist, so i'd hear him playing pretty much every night.. everything from Beethoven, through Rachmaninoff, even some Brubeck .. i loved it.. and he also had a chamber trio, and they'd be over often playing many great works i've loved since..
i did drift away a bit after getting into rock music, but i think i'm back for good


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## sam richards

At the age of 15, I discovered rock/metal music and took up playing guitar. After playing metal for 3 years, I wanted to explore other genres which are musically complex. So I discovered jazz and metal.
And I'm loving it.


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## ENA

Classical started for me when i was about eight listening to symphonies with my grandfather and i fell in love. Which influenced me to play a stringed instrument when i hit 5th grade. Later on i found out my mom, who is from the same grandfathers side, played a string instrument and was in choir. About a year later i began listening to the more famous ones(bach, beethoven, mozart) i guess you have to start somewhere. Then i moved into movie soundtracks, solo instrumental cds, marcello, telemann,veracini,and a few others. Now i listen to classical on the radio, and try to discover new music everyday,and whenever im in a store i have to check out the classical cd's.


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## Doktor Faust

I was working at a centre for performing arts in around 1990 and its location was off the beaten track. This made it diffifcult to go out and get lunch or to do anything really during breaks so I would end up going to the library during lunchtimes. They had a huge archive of both vinyl and CD and I started listening in the little booths to composer's I knew I'd probably like (Bach, Mozart) and reading about them on the sleeve notes. Then I suddenly chanced on some 20th Century (Bartok) music I found a challenge but gradually began to really develope a taste for, then began the search for more of the same. I also be-friended a professor at the Centre and used to go round to his house, either to hear him play the piano or to listen to some music, then we'd spend hours discussing the merits of all that we'd listened to. Those were really great times and how it all started for me.


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## handlebar

I first "discovered" classical when my ham radio teacher in high school (9th grade) listened to it during study time. We would study circuits,antenna formulas,etc and he would have Mozart or Beethoven playing in the background. I was taken by it and inquired further. That was a life changing day. He introduced me to a few composers and I was off and running. I had already been involved with band and instruments as well as sight reading,etc. So it was a natural progression.
I started piano and violin later on in my early 20's as well as selective classes in music theory,etc.
My education took some wonderful inroads with travels back and forth to Europe as well,visiting the locations where my classical idols lived and played.

I also continued my amateur radio studies to become a general class. I hope to upgrade to Extra class in 2 weeks. The top of the heap so to speak.

So now i have had classical in my life for 27 years. And SOOOOOO glad I found it.

Jim
l


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## Herzeleide

I was visited by three ghosts in the night who gave me horrible visions about the past, present and future which made it evident to me what a débâcle life would be unless I became interested in classical music.


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## handlebar

Herzeleide said:


> I was visited by three ghosts in the night who gave me horrible visions about the past, present and future which made it evident to me what a débâcle life would be unless I became interested in classical music.


Well done!!! 

I was visited by three horrible ghosts as well. Fortunately they were the ghosts of girlfriends past 

Jim


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## Kuhlau

Very funny, Herzeleide. 

FK


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## danae

My case is very common. My parents listened to classical, so I was exposed to it when I was in my mom's womb! We listened to a lot of classical (as well as 60s and 70s rock, greek folk and traditional music, turkish, middle eastern, indian etc...) while I was growing up, but I distinctly remember the records that I prefered and would listen to by myself when I learned how the record player worked (I was about 4). I listened to these records over and over again: Tchaikowski Piano concerto no.1, Bach Brademburg concertos, cello suites, cembalo concertos, violin concertos, Rachmaninov 2nd piano concerto, Stravinsky Le sacre, Beatles The white Album, Ravi Shankaar.


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## Edmond-Dantes

OH! You have a ham radio licence handelbar? I've just started learing about ham radio. ^_^

Are there any good books you can recommend to me on the subject?


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## mbib

I discover it through net surfing.


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## wolf

_How did you discover classical music?_

I suddenly understood it one day.

_How old were you? _

21

_Was it a particular piece of music?_

No, It was not.

_What was some of your first listening experiences? _

It was a series of emotional explosions, much better than I.V. smack, coke or speed.

_Was it sudden or did it take you time to warm up to it?_

Extremely sudden, practically overnight.



Ephemerid said:


> ...People simply have no exposure to it-- it might not even OCCUR to many people to even CONSIDER classical music. At best what people have is stereotypes.
> 
> Lack of exposure (and also the stereotypes which "make up" for that lack of exposure) is the only real thing stopping classical from being as popular as it is. Oh, I know-- a lot of people wouldn't like it anyway, but I think this is indicative of the fact that classical music doesn't HAVE to be so obscure-- it isn't on its own merits that classical music is like this today...


Aren't most ppl more exposured to classical music today than ever before? At least until 1926 few had grammophones or radio, and how often were there concerts they could afford? I know that 'popular music' is much more played now, but classical is everywhere also, in movies, sometimes on radio channels, Youtube, in school, in your parents or grandparends CD collections. Me and my siblings heard classical during our whole upbringing at least twice a week, as my parents played it. My brothers and sisters are still totally indifferent, I am the only one of us listening to it (much more than my parents ever did), and that happened many years later. All my schoolmates and myself heard it on our music lessons, most couldn't care less about it, although a few who already liked it, listened. Are you saying that todays pupils NEVER get to hear classical music on their musical lessons in school?

Many started in classical music when they heard 'spring', 'fuhr Elise', and youknow, got curious and listened more and more, millions have heard them today TOO. Look at youtube Mozarts 'Elvira Madigan', countless of poplisteners obviously who had heard it somwhere and likes it. Why don't they 'go on' it's only a computerbutton away, and on the commentairies board at the 21th K467, many friendly classicals are advising them to listen to this and that also. Surely some of them do. WHY DON'T THEY GO ON, LIKE ALWAYS BEFORE ?

The answer is staring in your face.


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## Cyclops

I didn't discover it. It discovered me. As a kid at school I was the only one listening. The other kids just wanted to muck about(oh a man named Joanne Bark, ha ha ha etc)
I got picked on at school because I was interested. Who's laughing now?


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## starry

jhar26 said:


> It came at just the right time because although I had already been a huge fan of popular music for years I hated a lot of what was going on in that field at the time (in fact, IMO it has never completely recovered from MTV and it's emphasis on style over substance, but that's a different story), so I was totally ready to try something new.


Yeh you mentioned that elsewhere and actually that is exactly the same as me.  Around 1985 I felt popular music - which had been so vibrant (in Britain anyway, where I am) had taken a turn for the worse. I was younger than you, about 14 or 15.

I remember on Yorkshire TV there was a teletext shown at night and they played some classical music to it and that prompted me to take an active interest in it. A brother did me a tape of some shorter classical pieces and then I became a regular visitor to the local library (in Hull) which had a large collection of records and I don't think it cost much - if anything - to actually take them out.

It's funny looking back but even when taking out a tape of Mozart symphonies (like Karl Bohm conducting the 40th) it seemed rather daunting and difficult. I probably only played the first movement of big things at first. I don't think I could listen through the first movement of Solti's Eroica at all. It's a huge jump from Duran Duran, Wham, Frankie goes to Hollywood......to Mozart and Beethoven lol. Not that I'm dismissing pop music in any way, most of what I found enjoyable then I still do, but a three minute pop song requires less concentration than a symphony many times longer. So some of the big boxes I took out from the library at first I probably didn't listen to much at first at all, but maybe by the second or even third time I may have taken them out I may have been ready for them.

I'll continue my story in the thread What happened to "other genres" when you started listening to the classical?

http://www.talkclassical.com/54411-post45.html


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## Conservationist

wolf said:


> _How did you discover classical music?_
> 
> I suddenly understood it one day.


I was aware of it for years, but suddenly understood its philosophical significance in a similar instant.

The jazz went into the trash, as did the rock. Kept the death/black metal and Kraftwerk CDs though.


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## Conservationist

Ephemerid said:


> Classical music can be fun, exciting, deeply moving, funny, intelligent, and so many other things. I think more people would be willing to delve into its riches if only there were more exposure and less stereotypes.


I completely agree.

The standard internet user -- frustrated in life, looking for some reason to be superior to others -- slanders everything he touches by advocating it.

When this happens in a classical forum, it projects hostility toward those who haven't already geeked out on the trivial required knowledge.

That's entropy.


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## zeroslash

What got me into classical music was Walt Disney's Fantasia. I don't remember where I got it, but we had an old VHS of the film. I watched the film pretty much as much as I could, after Lion King. That was when I was very young, possibly 9 years old. After losing the VHS, I got the uncut movie on DVD as a Christmas gift (which turns out it was this Christmas). Even before getting the Fantasia DVD, I listened to a lot of classical music and it led to learn how to play the violin. Without Fantasia, I probably wouldn't even know how to play a musical instrument to begin with.


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## PartisanRanger

zeroslash said:


> What got me into classical music was Walt Disney's Fantasia. I don't remember where I got it, but we had an old VHS of the film. I watched the film pretty much as much as I could, after Lion King. That was when I was very young, possibly 9 years old. After losing the VHS, I got the uncut movie on DVD as a Christmas gift (which turns out it was this Christmas). Even before getting the Fantasia DVD, I listened to a lot of classical music and it led to learn how to play the violin. Without Fantasia, I probably wouldn't even know how to play a musical instrument to begin with.


What a wonderful movie. Even now it's hard for me to listen to the Rite of Spring without picturing dinosaurs.


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## Yoshi

Tom and Jerry introduced me to classical music for the first time at the age of... maybe 4? 
I always loved classical music since I remember, but as I grew up it came to a time when I was about 12 I forgot it for a while and was more into rock, heavy metal and that sort of thing. But when I turned 15 the classical music obsession came back, and since then I haven't changed again.
My favourite composer was always Ludwig van Beethoven as far as I remember.


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## Conservationist

starry said:


> a three minute pop song requires less concentration than a symphony many times longer


Yep, which is why many of us switched -- tired of garbage mainstream culture. I feel the same way about jazz and prog rock, which are just pretenders to the throne.


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## Noak

It sounded good to me.


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## Tapkaara

Noak said:


> It sounded good to me.


What composers had you heard that made you enter into the genre?


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## Somnifer

I guess I'm lucky because since I come from a very un-classical family, I was arbitrarily exposed to those dodgy Naxos classical CDs that I really loved, back in 2001. I've loved music since then.


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## Noak

Tapkaara said:


> What composers had you heard that made you enter into the genre?


Bach and Tchaikovsky at first, they didn't seriously get me interested in the genre but I liked what I heard. 
I've been a Frank Zappa fan for quite some time and of course I wanted to hear his influences which happened to be, among others, Stravinsky, Webern and Varèse. Knowing that classical music could sound like that made me open my eyes for the genre and gave me the interest to explore more composers and their work.


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## Clancy

I guess I haven't posted here yet. I was exposed to classical (Mozart, Holst, maybe others) growing up via my parents, but only in small doses alongside a lot of rock and pop music, and at the time little of it stuck besides Chopin's nocturnes which I loved even when young.

Later in my early twenties I started to explore the avant garde, and as part of this heard about people like Steve Reich, who I liked but didn't exactly love, and Stockhausen who seemed more of a sound experiment and less like music than I had hoped for. So again, I didn't explore further. Years later, after having explored a lot more genres including Jazz I think discovering this forum was the tipping point that convinced me that I had to explore this tradition in depth. I bought the Rite of Spring and the rest has basically been history. I'm still at the exploring different composers stage and loving it.


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## Efraim

Well, I very soon knew that there is such a thing as classical music, in school we were even taught the five big names, Bach-Händel-Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven, but I thought all that was something far away, for the sake of another kind of human being, not for me. I liked folk-tunes and some kind of sentimental songs, that was all.

The High School where I learned had an orchestra whose members were present and ancient pupils. This orchestra gave “official” concerts organized by the Concert Agency, but it was apparently hard to sell those tickets; so to support the orchestra the direction of the school chose to compel the pupils – ie their parents - to buy them. All right, we were familiar with this kind of democracy, but for the over-zealous young main teacher of our class this was not enough: he wanted us to go there to, to fill up the concert-hall. For me this was an outrage: being robbed of our money was all right, you could easily understand the rationale of such a behaviour, but why to torture us – and himself - simply for the sake of torturing with this horrible noise, without any benefit? Nothing doing, we had to go. For the third time I was happy to be tortured, without seeing in it any violation of the rights of the citizen… I was about 15 years old.

Among the very first works I heard there I liked these: Concerto Grosso in h of Händel, Farewell symphony of Haydn (with candles blown out at the end), Symphony in g (the later one, of course) of Mozart, Brahms’ Double Concerto (played by a professor of violin from the Conservatory whose son learned in the school and the cellist of a string quartet whom our teacher of music, founder and conductor of the orchestra, a short but quite aggressive person, convinced goodness knows how to come to play with his kids). They obviously played other things too but I can’t remember what. Later on I heard Liszt’s Concerto in E Flat with a not overly famous but very great pianist, also the papa of one of us, Franck’s Symphony, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the same professor of violin, perhaps Mendelssohn’s Symphony in A or his Midsummer-Night’s Dream, I can’t remember, Beethoven’s Chorus Fantasy (the school had a choir too)… 

(Once a French horn player left the orchestra. The music teacher took a boy whose lips seemed fitting for the horn and sent him learning this instrument at the expense of the school. Quite soon the boy was sitting in the orchestra. A not famous but professional foreign conductor came to visit the orchestra; the music teacher had told the new horn boy only to pretend to play together with the other horn player but really to keep quiet. The foreign conductor was flabbergasted: how are they able to play so perfectly together?)

Very quickly I became a true addict. For two or three years I remained omnivorous, listening to everything on the radio and in concerts where young people used to slip in without paying, but afterwards my musical interest became and remained restricted, too restricted, I admit. When as a solace after some surgery I got a small, toy-like record-player and one record: Brahms’ ‘Cello Sonatas with André Navarra and Alfred Holeček, I soon discovered a shop of old end-of-stock LPs with cheap treasures: I first bought there four String Quartets of Haydn, some of Mozart’s transcriptions for String Trio of Bach’s Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor in a frankly bad, mewing interpretation but then I liked it, his Hammerklavier Sonata (performed by the aforementioned pianist), Brahms’ Piano Trio in B (I learned to like these two latter works only several years later), Beethoven’s last Piano sonata with Brahms’ Sonata in F Sharp Minor on the flip side, Mozart’s “Dissonances” Quartet, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in c… A little later I bought new records too: Bach’s Musical Offering and Sonatas for violin and harpsichord, some other Beethoven’s Quartets, Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion, a lot of Brahms…


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## Padawan

Here’s how my journey began:

Two months ago, I was listening to a song by Ciara called “Like a Boy” that my 12 year old daughter asked me to buy for her. Didn’t care for the lyrics but loved the melody, especially the strings played at the very beginning. I became obsessed with the beauty of the music. Since I knew that intro had to be a sample I went searching to see if Ciara’s label listed it in the credits and I couldn’t find it. Finally I searched for her song combined with the qualifier “music sample” and in answers.Yahoo some one had answered the same question nearly two years ago when this song was first released. It’s “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi. So I went to YouTube and eventually I discovered it’s "L'inverno" (Winter) – Movement 1. 

I’ve been hooked ever since. I was on YouTube nearly every day and rarely made it to bed before midnight. I came here to learn as much as possible and share my enthusiasm for my new hobby. I like the fact at 48 years old I’m still picking up new hobbies that I’m deeply passionate about. My kids don’t understand of course, but that doesn’t stop me from occasionally playing classical music in the car instead of hip-hop.


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## allemande

I grew up in a classical music household, but turned away from it once I became old enough to start listening to rock. When I got to college, I rediscovered the Brandenburg concertos, and that was that. Once you go Bach, you never go back. 

Karl


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## mfiorelli

My Dad loves opera and classical music, but mostly the former. When I was a kid I hated it, but as a teenager I really liked John Williams music. In the past year I just had this desire to expand my music collection, and I thought I should give opera a try because my dad has a huge collection. I listened to Mozart's The Magic Flute and I loved it. I've found that I like classical music more so than opera. I'm still a newbie but I'm really getting into the classical period. I have to listen to more Baroque and Romantic music.


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## SonataSonataSonata

My dad was in rock bands, so I listened to the local rock station. Well, one day it went off the air and it was replaced with an NPR classical music station, so instead of finding a new rock station, I just started listening to the NPR station.

I believe it was literally the first time I had heard classical music consciously (I didn't watch TV, hardly left the house, etc, so I truly would have been exposed to none or very little classical music before then). I was pretty old, actually, probably 5th or 6th grade.

Anyway, they very first piece I remember hearing was Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen," followed by Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto. I was hooked ever since.

I started taking violin lessons a few weeks later, started composing classical music instead of rock tunes on my guitar, and then started piano lessons after that, and the rest is history.

Oh, also, I joined a Classical music CD club and spent $1000s on $1000s of CDs over the next decade or two, always making sure to buy a CD of a composer who I had now idea about a few times a year.


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## Wicked_one

I remember being like 4 or 5 and I used to have a music book and once my grandpa saw me with it and told me if I knew the notes. I didn't and he started to write their names under it.  Then I got instantly obsessed with the little dots and I wanted more and more... 

So I got my hands on the 1st 4 bars of Beethoven's 5th symphony and I was amazed. So many instruments and everything is playing something... I had to listen to it. Got Beethoven's 5th.. Then some Mozart... I found about Wagner and his huge 15 hour opera and how he influenced Mahler... 

It all linked one way or another. After I picked up the guitar I got even more interested because I wanted to play some themes or so on my guitar


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## Il Seraglio

It was really prosaic to be honest. I figured it was time I gave Mozart a listen for some reason or other so downloaded the Silesia Orchestra playing symphonies no. 40 and 41 from eMusic. Jupiter was the one which really grabbed my attention. I was convinced for a very long time the sonata movement was musically perfect. Not a single phrase or modulation sounded out of place. The piece has dulled a bit for me now with repeat listening I'm sad to say, but it's always going to occupy an important place for me. That was what first truly got me paying attention to classical music.

My listening to classical music does go back further though. They made us listen to Tchaikovsky at school when I was 6 or 7 but that didn't really get me into it (I guess that says I wasn't mean to be a musician). I enjoyed Shostakovich and Mahler in my teens for their dark, angsty appeal, but never bought a lot of records or listened to them in depth.


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## Kopachris

It was actually Star Trek that got me into it. Star Trek: Voyager, in particular, with Seven of Nine playing Chopin's Nocturne No. 1, Op. 72, and that one episode with the refugee telepaths (their government made telepathy illegal), and the inspector really liked Earth's classical music.  (That was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Mvt. II on that episode.) And then stuff happened and here I am!


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## Listener

For me it was also Star Trek that directed me toward classical music, though it was the soundtracks rather than classical works played on the show. I especially loved the score to Star Trek 6 The Undiscovered Country by Cliff Eidelman. The soundtracks led to a more general interest in orchestral music.

During my freshman year of college I attended my first symphony concert. I also became an announcer on college radio, where I was allowed to pick any music I wanted. I picked classical and my interest grew from there.


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## Lukecash12

Hehehe... I don't even remember. It's been rumored in the family that I plucked the strings inside a piano for about 10 minutes before I was a year old.


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## Burnibus

when i was young i was slightly interested in classical, mostly flute (James Galway etc). but lost interest.

when i was about 18 i watched a film called Equilibrium, set in a future where the population of the sole remaining city in the world is given a drug to subdue all human emotion. All art, music, literature (anything that could generate an emotion) is banned. at one part in the film the highest ranking official tasked with enforcing the anti emotion and art/music laws stops taking his "medication" and stumbles accross a treasure trove of contraband material. 

he starts up an old gramophone and the start of Beethovens 9th starts belting out. overcome with emotion the protagonist starts crying. after watching that i spent about a week trying to find out what the piece of music was. and since then i've loved all classical music. Beethovens 9th was the first piece in my collection.

very random i know, but thats how my classical music collection started!


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## dmg

My father had a collection of recordings on cassette of Mozart chamber music that I discovered when I was like 7.


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## franz

I began to take interest in it when I began studying music at college two years ago. By default my interest would have increased but it wasn't 'til I was introduced to Der Doppelganger by Schubert that I took a huge interest, just because it was so different to everything else I had heard at the time!


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## Reichstag aus LICHT

What really switched me on to classical music was a schools' prom (as in "promenade concert"), to which I went only because it meant missing an afternoon of lessons, including music! The concert, presented by Jack Brymer, included the Siegfried Idyll. I was so taken by the story behind it that I quickly joined the local Record Library to borrow a scratchy - mono! - set of Solti's recording of Siegfried. I was instantly hooked, and worked my way through the rest of the Ring soon afterwards. 

So, if it weren't for my initial intention of skipping music class, I might never have got so heavily into music in the first place. Thank you, Jack Brymer


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## Meaghan

When I was little, I had these four CD's I would listen to all the time from a series called "Classical Kids." They were "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery," "Beethoven Lives Upstairs," "Mr. Bach Comes to Call," and "Mozart's Magic Fantasy." The Mozart one was a kids' adaption of Magic Flute, shortened, in English, and with as much talking as singing. In the Bach one, Bach comes back from the dead and visits a little girl who doesn't feel like practicing piano and tells her all about his life (in a watered-down, nice-ified version, of course). I think my parents bought them because they figured classical music was good for children and wanted to get me interested in it. But when there were no stories attached, I wasn't particularly interested. It wasn't until I got to high school and joined a youth orchestra and fell in love with the music we played that I started to listen seriously.


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## Chris

What started me was listening to one of my Dad's LPs on the radiogram. I suppose some of you youngsters won't know what a radiogram was. It was a big and beautiful thing full of glowing valves and electromechanical mechanisms. The LP was Leopold Stokowski conducting Haydn's Imperial Symphony.


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## johogofo

It was some 30 years ago when i watched the film ''clockwork orange''. I bought the soundtrack in vinyl . I was impressed by the music of beethoven though it was in fraggments.So i bought the complete works.My first two LPs was the 9th and the 3rd by Karajan and the BPO.


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## HG Myers

Well... How did I first discover classical music? Being a High School Senior now, it's not truly too hard to think back. When I was three or four, I got the most outlandish notion in my head - I would listen to no other music than that of the great Beethoven. I think it had something to do with a connection issue, as I am hard of hearing, borderline deaf. I grew up on symphonies, sonatas, and, of course, the unmatchable _Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier_. Thus, when I entered the public school system, while my peers listened to pop music, and the babbling gibberish of Brittany Spears or the Backstreet Boys, I would sit in my own little corner, imagining the Ninth Symphony in its mystical glory, or the Fifth with its dark and melancholy clash between fates.

I would like to repeat the adagium that classical music stimulates your brain, earning constantly good grades my entire life through this present.

Over time, I branched out (but only to the other composing greats of the Classical Genre,) and I am now also a devout follower of Mozart, Hayden, and Salieri.

Ironically, even with my deep burning passion for Classical music, I cannot read a single note of music, and I have a habit of being tone deaf.


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## starthrower

I come from a non-musical family and we had only a few record albums in the house. Thankfully, my late maternal grandfather left behind an old classical compilation box set. It just sat there until I decided to listen to it. This was in the early 80s. In 1984 I bought my first CD player. Classical music was about all you could find on CD, so I started building a small collection of Telarc recordings.

Initially I was attracted to Romantic music, but these days it's mostly 20th century stuff.


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## Organpiper61

It started when I took piano lessons at the age of 8. This led to learning and playing a pipe organ. I listen to some of J. S. Bach music, and became interested in classical music. I obtained some sheet music and learned to play a few of his works. Of all of the classical composers, Bach is my favorite. Other composers I like are Handel, and Dutch composers Feike Asma, Jan Zwart, and Anton van de Horst.


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## CTCarter

I think my mother's recording of Beethoven's Violin Concerto (Zino Francescatti (?)) really got my attention. I still remember looking at a high school textbook photo of a ballroom scene, probably from a movie, illustrating some lesson from history. That picture seemed to match a dance-like passage from the concerto, and I've been hooked on the 18th century since.


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## the_emptier

Well I started piano when I was 6 so i was turned onto it then, but 3 or so years ago I really got into chopin, debussy and others and now, probably since september, i've been on an, almost, all classical kick. mostly romantic/20th century but really everything. the russian composers are my favorite right now


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## Almaviva

My father had a collection of really well presented vinyl discs that contained some of the best works of each composer with their biographies. I started listening to these discs when I was really young, like 6 or 7 years old, then later started to read about them from the biographies.


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## LordBlackudder

I played Resident Evil and you can hear Moonlight Sonata being played.


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## Huilunsoittaja

It's so interesting to read all these stories! Especially of the people who sort of came across classical music by "chance." It's just really cool. Most of my favorite composers I came across by "chance" but I really call it Providence.


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## hawk

_I wrote this at the begining of this thread back in 2007. Since then I have learned that the theme for Master Piece Theater is not by Handel~ Also since this writing my interest has been fine tuned a little more. Now I mainly listen to instrumental baroque music though I do like some early classical and Ren/Medieval too....

Great topic.

Until this past summer I, in my almost 52 years, did not pay much attention to classical music. There were a few pieces of music that I enjoyed for example an old television show which came on PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) called Masterpiece Theater used what I now know is from Handels Watermusic as the theme. Also I enjoyed the Nutcracker when heard during the Holydays. Other than that I knew nothing.

This past summer my family and I were in Lincolnshire UK for 3 weeks as part of the comemmoration of John Smith and the founding of the Jamestown colony.
I was commisioned to create a piece of music (I build and play Native Flutes) to play in concert with the London Mozart Players. We were planning on doing 3 days of workshops and 3 evening concerts.

With literally 10 minutes of rehersal, barely enough time to say hello, behind us we performed the first concert. It was as if we were in two different musical universes 
During the next two days of workshops and concerts we drew closer together musically. The last concert was very nice and when my part of the program was finished I sat and listened to them perform Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings.

I think the combination of how I was feeling after my part of the program (happy it went well and relieved it was finished) and the beauty of LMP's performance of Serenade caused me to immediately fall in Love with this music!
From that moment on I "needed" to hear more. At first I relived the LMP experience by listening to Serenade days on end.

In my home one can usually hear Kora or Didgerido or Mbira (I play these as well) or Tuvan Throat singing... but once we returned home, much to the dismay of my family, Tchaikovsky was on 24/7. In an effort to keep my family intact some variation in music was needed. Wbach radio to the rescue. This was where new music excited my ears.

Classical is still so new to me. Much to learn about the composers, the language, the music, orchestras, conducters well you get the picture. I feel like the baby who is just begining to babble the rudiments of language... _


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## emiellucifuge

Great story - I suppose its just a shame you started so late, but theres still plenty of time!
I feel lucky that I got into this music at my young age.


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## eorrific

I can't remember specifically when I discovered classical music, but got hooked when I discovered Saint-Saens' Le Carnival des animaux and Schubert's Trockne Blumen Variations. That was when I was 17, merely two years ago (pardon me, I'm just a newbie). Ever since Saint Saens, the intensity and frequency of listening to classical music have drastically increased.

BTW, OP, I love Doctor Zhivago's soundtrack!

It's quite sad that CD stores near where I live sell practically no classical music CD (except if you consider Josh Groban and Richard Clayderman and the likes as classical music artists). Fortunately, we have a concert hall which hold events at least once a month.


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## Almaviva

Welcome to the forum, eorrific, and to classical music as well.


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## delallan

At a very young age, in third or fourth grade I suppose, I would borrow classical music from our public library (LPs) and bring them home week after week. I couldn't get enough. I really disliked the music that my friends were listening to (rock mostly) and found myself sort of sequestered away with these vinyl records listening. I LOVED it. My parents weren't in to classical music, my friends weren't either, so I was alone in my love of the greatest of music. 

This was some forty years ago now, and in hind sight I'm glad that I had those solitary experiences.


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## ShannonL

I was attending an afternoon Barbe-que and they showed off the daughters piano talent...fur elise was what started it all.


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## Ravellian

Well, I had been playing the piano for a little while already, but I didn't start to really like classical until about age 13-14, when my uncle bought me the scores and recordings (John O'Conor) of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas for Christmas. The first three sonatas on the recordings set were the Pathetique, Moonlight, and Appassionata. This was the very first time I had heard any of these (except the Moonlight 1st movement of course), and I was just spellbound. It was also awesome to be able to follow the scores along with the recordings, just because Beethoven's writing is so imaginative and fun to look at. I proceeded to devour the rest of the sonatas.

Of course, the only problem with starting out with the best music (Beethoven) is that you quickly realize how bad everyone else is in comparison


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## ShannonL

Ravellian said:


> Of course, the only problem with starting out with the best music (Beethoven) is that you quickly realize how bad everyone else is in comparison


Well said. I have always admired people that can play such music.


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## kv466

Since I can remember loving music classical has always been at the very core of that passion.


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## itywltmt

Three words: Saturday morning cartoons:

http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/217-itywltmt-s-klassical-music.html


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## AClockworkOrange

At school it was forced on me so I ignored it.

I noticed it in the background on cartoons as a kid but it never progressed.

As I got older, my interest in music blossomed into a passion and as I worked through Rock and Metal, growing into Blues I became interested in Classical.

I cannot downplay the importance also of A Clockwork Orange which I studied at A-Level in Literature. Aside from the book becoming one of my favourites of all time, the film's soundtrack kicked down the doors and has influenced me greatly - hence I started my journey in Classical Music with Beethoven's 9th Symphony, moving quickly to the 5th and 7th.

The Classic Fm series at HMV here in Blighty also helped. Being on offer, I quickly picked up work by a number of composers - all I later learned with reputable conductors and orchestras. Thanks to this series I discovered I particularly like Shostakovich, Gershwin, Mahler, Sibelius and Richard Strauss. There are others I have picked up in this series.

I must point out that aside from A Clockwork Orange, two other musicians guided me I to classical - 
- Jacqueline Du Pre - Hearing her on Sky Arts performing "The Trout" really influenced me (and led me to investigate Perlman and Barenboim). I have really grown to like Cello music because of her and she has a magnetic quality to her playing - much like that of Ritchie Blackmore or Tony Iommi for me.
- Andre Reiu - Many I speak to seem to despise him for one reason or another but it was watching a concert with him live at Vienna at around the same time as discovering Jacqueline Du Pre that really had an impact on me. At the time I did not recognise a lot of the songs (something I am learning as I go, listening to the works of different composers at a comfortable rate). I will be seeing him live later this year which will be my first live concert of any kind - understandably I am excited to going in person rather than settling on a DVD.

The rambling style of this post is appropriate as it reflects my path into classical music. I have come into by cobbling together experiences and influences until feeling ready to make the leap. I firmly believe that we can only embrace something such as a musical style or piece when we are truly ready - it cannot be rushed or forced - as with many things in life (Lordy I'm making myself sound old and a little dramatic ) 

Classical is now my preferred genre (though Metal/Rock/Blues are still passions of mine too). I can't pretend to be as knowledgable as I would like (yet ) but I enjoy reading about the music as well as listening so I am learning more about music than I would have thought which is a bonus. (Not to say you cannot Lear with other genres - far from it, this is just my own experience).


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## myaskovsky2002

Krummhorn said:


> Hmm, great topic ... classical music discovered me actually as I was too young to really appreciate what I was listening too. I grew up in a 100% classical musical family - parents played for years in the Scandinavian Symphony (Detroit) for eons and later upon moving to California in the Long Beach Phil - they would have to drag us kids to rehearsals, which I can distinctly remember. Dad played the double B flat concert tuba, Mom the violin. My sister acquired the viola and I started out on piano. At home we would play together often.
> 
> OMG, you are so lucky. My mother knew a little, my father tried to sing and I had to cover my ears. He cut my piano lessons. Grrrr.
> 
> Martin, fâché
> 
> In the mornings we woke to Coffee Cup Concert on the FM radio ... Every weekend we either attended an orchestral concert or other classical music event. By the time I was 12, my focus changed to classical church organ, a chosen profession I remain very active in to this day nearly 48 years later. I echo what Marvel has said about record shops ... we had those all classical stores in Los Angeles and in Orange County (CA) ... nothing but row upon row of classical lp's, pianos and sheet music. I still have all my LPs that I purchased in the 60's & 70's and have a working turntable as part of my audio setup at home.
> 
> I have little tolerance for most of today's "noise", especially rap-crap, and those morons who force everyone else around them in traffic to listen to it and feel that horrid thumping, bone jarring, window rattling bass - gives me an instant headache.
> 
> Classical music has been around for centuries and will outlast anything else that comes along - it has originality all it own - and so do the people who love and play this music.


OMG, you are so lucky. My mother knew a little, my father tried to sing and I had to cover my ears. He cut my piano lessons. Grrrr.

Martin, fâché


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## myaskovsky2002

I remember perfectly well. I started alone listening to Chopin. Piano was my instrument, I started my piano lessons when I was 6. My mother invited me to the opera to see La Bohème. I was amazed, but my ears weren't ready for music with voice yet. I don't remember being fanatic until t he age of 12. I started with Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev. When i turned 13, i had another piano teacher, a young man. He introduced me to dodecaphonics. At 14 i bought Lulu, Wozzeck... I started with opera finally... Verdi and real Puccini were later...etc. but since, i became a fanatic. That is my story... Boring as I am.

Martin


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## Ravndal

The same time i started playing piano, and got a new girlfriend who was a singer and deeply in love with classical music. Remember i saw shostakovich 7th symphony & Chopin nr1 piano concerto at the london philharmonic orchestra, which got my eyes up a little. Then i heard Tchaikovsky's symphony nr 6 in b minor, and fell truly in love, continuing with his nr5 symphony. 

I found out i preferred piano music after hearing pieces like revolutionary etude by chopin, raindrop prelude, fantasie impromptu #4 etc. Now im a bit tired of chopin, but yeah..


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## Il_Penseroso

For me it was from early childhood, listening to my father's archive, plenty of valuable vynil records made by RCA Victrola, HMV, Seraphim Angel, Columbia, Decca, Dg and the soviet foreign label Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga...so nostalgic now as I'm writing these, looks like a hundred years before! (sigh...)

No discovering I think, I was born and raised with classical music and I'm so proud of it.


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## jani

I never hated or loved classical music before i started to play guitar. ( There are some exceptions i'v always loved Fur elise, turkish march, eine klaine nacth music, Mozarts 40th symphony. 

My big discovery/awakening with classical music. Happened when i discovered Yngwie.J.Malmsteens music. I became a Yngwie fan boy and since he is influenced by some Classical composers i decided to listen to some classical music.
The first piece i listened to was Beethovens moonlight sonata and instantly fell in love to it and classical music etc...
At the moment i have really listened to classical music only for two years and wish that someday i would be able to write orchestral works what could be performed by a real orchestra.


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## Vesteralen

jani said:


> I never hated or loved classical music before i started to play guitar. ( There are some exceptions i'v always loved Fur elise, turkish march, eine klaine nacth music, Mozarts 40th symphony.
> 
> My big discovery/awakening with classical music. Happened when i discovered Yngwie.J.Malmsteens music. I became a Yngwie fan boy and since he is influenced by some Classical composers i decided to listen to some classical music.
> The first piece i listened to was Beethovens moonlight sonata and instantly fell in love to it and classical music etc...
> At the moment i have really listened to classical music only for two years and wish that someday i would be able to write orchestral works what could be performed by a real orchestra.


So, I take it that the guitar was just a starting point for you in getting into classical music? How do you feel about classical music written for the guitar, or classical pieces transcribed for it?


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## jani

Vesteralen said:


> So, I take it that the guitar was just a starting point for you in getting into classical music? How do you feel about classical music written for the guitar, or classical pieces transcribed for it?


I haven't tried to learn any classical pieces what were written for guitar but, There are some great Classics that transcribe well for guitar IMO. Like Bachs air on a G string, Beethovens moonlight sonata, Mozarts turkish march.
Also i would love to see some great composers writing pieces specially for electric guitar.
Steve Vai has written stuff were he combines the orchestra with guitar playing and i love it!


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## Vesteralen

jani said:


> I haven't tried to learn any classical pieces what were written for guitar but, There are some great Classics that transcribe well for guitar IMO. Like Bachs air on a G string, Beethovens moonlight sonata, Mozarts turkish march.
> Also i would love to see some great composers writing pieces specially for electric guitar.
> Steve Vai has written stuff were he combines the orchestra with guitar playing and i love it!


So much of the classical music specifically written for the guitar has a Spanish flavor to it, and that may not be to everyone's taste. If you do like that, I can really recommend Xuefei Yang's CD with the Concerto de Aranjuez on it - not so much for that piece (though it's great), but for the Albeniz Concerto that is also on that disc. What a find!

One of my favorite pieces to play when I was taking lessons was a Bach Invention (#4) that my teacher accompanied me on. That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I started taking lessons way too late in life, and I am already dealing with the onset of arthritis in the little finger of my right hand. I still enjoy playing for fun, though.

I wish you success on your journey into the classics. 

Pay no attention to the image below - it is indeed Xuefei Yang, but it's not the right disc. (It's very good though.)


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## myaskovsky2002

I guess, in 1917

M.P.


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## Manok

I was very young, I believe the first piece I ever heard was either Tchaikovsky's 4th or Beethoven's 23'rd Piano Sonata, or at least those are the first two that wowed me, and I've been in love ever since.


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## Lokasenna

I came from a totally unmusical background, so hadn't really heard anything before. Then, on a whim, in the final year of my undergraduate degree I borrowed a CD of Chopin's etudes from my university library. It was completely life-changing, and from that point on I've been completely in love with music.

When I went on to postgraduate study, I was very lucky to find that my tutor was not only an expert in my subject, but also an expert on music. He's been brilliant in guiding my musical education - not to mention lending me literally hundreds of CDs. It's really broadened my horizons.


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## MaestroViolinist

Ahaha, you know what I mainly remember when I was little? My mum and sister playing Scottish and Irish tunes on the violin! :lol: And the radio would be playing classical music (I can't remember anything in particular). 

So anyways... Then I started learning the violin and I've loved classical music since then!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

If I told you I'd be lying


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## Capeditiea

It was way back in the 1800's when i was trotting along. I heard some amazing music.  
I rushed towards the noize in my two horse drawn carraige. After the music finished i was back in the year 2007...


---edited to mention the composer...
I have no idea who the composer was... i have yet to find out... (it was on the local classical channel that at the time i was just randomly listening to random stations...) though i think it was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Empire" but it doesn't sound exactly like the one before... (it might have been something i have yet to obtain...) ...could even be Weber... but i know once i find out who it was... that would surely be on my top ten.


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## RunToTheMusicforRefuge

I answer this question in tears. I was the daughter of two working class parents who made their dream come true when they bought a new house in the Ohio countryside. For them, it was a mansion. It was surrounded by pristine Ohio wild beauty and to the few kids on the new street, it was paradise. Every day we could, we roamed and summers, we did not come home until after dark. Then one day, it was gone. We got off our bus and it looked as if a nuclear bomb had gone off. On the horizon, bulldozers, backhoe, earth movers of such power and size, it terrified us. We walked home with dirt blowing in our faces. Some of us were crying and we didn't know why. The rest of my childhood was watching it all get destroyed for what turned out to be a massive new city. I went from roaming the wild hills of Ohio to roaming the new shopping mall where my mom got a job. This was before day care so she took me to work then set me loose in the mall. It was so strange and horrible for me, shocking and weird, that no one cared about all the dead animals and trees. I always ended up in Walden Bookstores where I would sit on the floor for hours and read. I know now that my mother talked to the manager and asked her if it was okay. I wonder if she cajoled my mom into letting me buy stuff because eventually, my mother gave me $5 to buy a book, every few weeks. I played the piano at the time and my dad would always put on classical music when we got home from church on Sundays. We bought 
powdered white donuts and listened to classical music. It was such a special ritual. Here were my working class parents buying the only pastries they could, a box of powdered donuts, but we ate them listening to classical music on the FM radio. I didn't know anything about classical music when I selected a box set of piano concertos performed by Slivastov Richter in which was of course, Rachmaninoff. I only knew it was $10 and I had $10 and it was classical music and I liked the classical music my dad put on every Sunday morning after church. I can't really describe how it was for me to sit in my bright day-glo pink bedroom (they never asked me), door closed, my heart broken because there is no point in going "outside" anymore...and hearing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 for the first time. I was 12. With the destruction of the land came a destruction of my family. Both my parents worked now. My older siblings it seemed were always gone. I spent a lot of time alone, latchkey kid and all that. But sitting on the floor on my little overly pink room and hearing Concerto No. 2...I cried. I know I cried for a lot of things but I also cried because I was hearing beauty, there was STILL beauty, when everything around me had been destroyed, outside, just dirt pads, for all the new houses, the new shopping mall that had taken my mother from me...I lost that entire collection, all my records, in a fire in 2003 in San Diego. I lost everything, again. But I can still picture the cover, the albums, and remember the first time I heard beauty, yes, gone in the land, but still very much alive in music.


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## progmatist

Mainly Keith Emerson's take on classical pieces. Like Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Knife Edge based on Janacek's Sinfonietta, The Montagues and Capulets from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Malambo from Ginastera's Estancia, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

Suddenly Mozart was playing on the stereo in ca. 1975.


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## Pat Fairlea

I didn't.
It discovered me.


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## Blancrocher

My grandparents often played Caruso records when I visited them--I heard many different composers that way, though I think I thought at the time that Caruso wrote all his own songs lol!


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## Roger Knox

My mum says I was playing and listening to old 78rpm records at the age of 1. Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite was among them.


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## Dmitriyevich

The very first piece of classical music I listened to, as far as I can remember, was Für Elise in a TV ad for mattress.


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## Tero

I came to it by way of one Vivaldi bassoon concerto and the Brandenburgs that my local library had on LP. I expanded to Mozart and Haydn but never made much headway to the proper classical era. Only with the exception of Sibelius and Stravinsky did I make it to symphonic music and the 1800-1900s part. It is mostly concertos that I listen to, and small ensemble works baroque to classical. Also wind music of all periods.

Other than that I listen to a lot of solo classical guitar/lute works. Of all periods, but mainly the older part.


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## SanAntone

When I was I guess around 12 or 13 my mother began bringing home these thin green boxes with gold printing from her grocery shopping with an LP inside with what the cover said was "The Greatest Music Ever Written". I think they gave them away if you bought enough groceries.

One I remember liking was Rimsky-Korsakov's _Scheherazade_ - but these records had no real impact on my primary listening of the The Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys, and the other music I heard on the radio. I did not get my own record player until I was around 16 and my first record I bought was The Animals.

Some years later I went to music school and studied the traditional canon of Classical music which is when I began to actively listen to it and find the composers that I would carry with me for the rest of my life.


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## Ingélou

Ephemerid said:


> I don't think I've seen this sort of thread topic-- thought it might be fun...
> 
> *How did you discover classical music? *How old were you? Was it a particular piece of music? What was some of your first listening experiences? Was it sudden or did it take you time to warm up to it?
> 
> ~josh


I can't remember when I didn't listen to bits and pieces of classical music as my family had some 78's which they'd play as a treat. My earliest memory and favourite was The Ritual Fire Dance, which I can remember dancing to when I was somewhere between four and six years old. We also had Bolero, hits from Gilbert and Sullivan, Gigli singing Santa Lucia, Hungarian Rhapody, and the 1812 overture.

We weren't a classical music family, though, and never listened to concerts, so my liking for classical music is basically the same as my liking for any music. I like a good tune and a striking rhythm.

The first bit of baroque music that really got my attention was Handel's March from Scipio when I was set it for violin practice, aged thirteen. I thought, 'This is really rather good.'

I only got interested in classical music properly about nine years ago when I joined Talk Classical after taking up my violin again in retirement.

And now, my interest has somewhat subsided and I'm back with my first love, traditional music. You see, among the family 78s there was also a lot of Jimmy Shand dance music.


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## Ariasexta

In 1998, I started to look into this type of music. But it was not without other influences from pop and rock stars which claimed they love classical music. :guitar:


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