# Anyone else feel isolated for their love of Classical music?



## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

I've grown up in a family that listens mostly to Country, and I used to as well. Then, in about the eighth grade I began getting into film scores, which quickly lead me to Classical music. I have since been obsessed. That and film scores are all I listen to. I've even taken on teaching myself music theory and writing music myself (I use Sibelius). Due to a medical condition I cannot drive, so I still live with my parents at the age of 23, and other than this site (which I'm VERY thankful for) I'm only able to talk about my passion for music from time to time when I rarely run into one of my two older friends who, from my previous Church, helped me to learn more about music theory due to them having degrees in composition. There's so much I love about music, and want to discuss it with friends, but my family doesn't like it at all.  I've just had so much bottled up for so long, it's painful. Does anyone else feel secluded from those around you due to your passion of music?


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I think, generally speaking, most of us on this site feel at least partially isolated, which is why we need this place. I can talk to some people about classical music in person (nobody in my immediate family) but almost nobody I see regularly is as obsessed as I am. It makes me feel like an island sometimes.

That's why I need and love all my classical geek friends here!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yes. Back in the day, I was the only kid who enjoyed classical music. I didn't reveal my love for it because the other kids would have ostracized me and probably made fun of me.

Even to this day, years later, my love of classical music has been a solitary pursuit.

It comes with the territory for many of us, I guess.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I was lucky. My mother, while not really conversant with CM, did listen to odds and ends, mostly "concert favorites", along with the popular music of the day, on the phonograph and the radio. I had two or three friends in high school who shared an appreciation for CM with me, and we would exchange LPs or at least recommendations. But once out in the so-called Real World, I've encountered very few people I know well enough to have detected a deep love of classical music within them. But I don't let it bother me, as my love of cante flamenco has inured me to being a singleton in some of my musical tastes (at least among those I know face to face). But I certainly agree that Talk Classical is a treasure!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> Anyone else feel isolated for their love of Classical music?


No, never, I am so grateful to my patents and grandparents, they brought the music in my childhood. Took me to concerts and even towards opera at the age of 10. I will always be in their depth for that, as for friends, what doesn't suit you will automagically removed themself, so those who likes ( classical) music are still my friends, thank you guys.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

The other day I drove to a nearby town and walked into the sandwich shop/super market/DVD store/gas station (there is a store in a more distant town called Guitars, Guns and Gas—I kid you not). While I was waiting for my sandwich I noticed that the young woman making it had a tattoo on her shoulder of a treble clef and bass clef made to form a heart. So I asked if she is a musician. She said yes and began telling me of her abiding interest in music theory and composition like she hadn't talked to anyone in months. She looks about 23 and I would ask "Was that you Bevo?" except for one thing: She said she uses Finale, not Sibelius. Her isolation, and mine, is due to where we live. Are you rural or urban? If the latter, can you get to a local university? Universities often augment their choirs with local community members, and in such a group you are likely to find other classical music enthusiasts.

Anyway, I'm glad you found this site. Come to think of it, next time I'm in the sandwich shop I'll give that poor waif behind the counter the URL.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

When I first discovered that I liked opera, I didn't have any friends who shared the interest. I found it so frustrating having no one with whom I could discuss it and I found one solution was writing a kind of diary where I could put down all my thoughts and observations. It didn't entirely answer, but it definitely helped. I kept it going for around 9 months, by which time, partly due to my habit of engaging total strangers in conversation and partly due to signing up to "The Friends of José Carreras", I did meet like minded people and make some new friends. I do realise that not everyone is comfortable starting up conversations with strangers, and that not everyone has the opportunity go to live performances as I was lucky enough to be able to do, so that may not be an option for you.

I looked my scribblings up a couple of weeks ago in order to check a reply I was posting here and ended up engrossed in it. It brought back a lot of good memories. (I don't take myself too seriously, so it was also quite lighthearted.) I'm really glad I did it.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

My father was interested in classical but that arose from a love of Jazz and therefore casual in his appreciation. I need TC to vent out my thoughts...


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## Aecio (Jul 27, 2012)

I started to listen to Classical Music when I was a teenager. I was living in Spain at that moment and it was the last thing I wanted to talk with somebody. My High School friends were always talking about soccer players and fast cars and it looked effeminate and snobbish to talk about for exemple a Shostakovich symphony. In Spanish Society to talk about Classical Music is to send a very strong signal of cultural elitism and that's something that can give you very fast a reputation as being weird and arrogant, so you understand very quickly that it is better not to argue with the Madonna-Michel Jackson crowds around. It's very simple, you can show a deep affection for any noisy Manchester Pop band, but never show an interest for Brahms or Debussy...

I moved then to Paris and here it is totally different. French Society is very hierarchical, and french people spend a lot of time trying to give subtle clues of where they stand on the social pyramid. The local joke is that french people did their revolution but that they left many Versailles in the country, and to succeed on these small local Versailles you have to show that you have certain cultural privileges that entitle you to a top position on the pecking order. I discovered, to my deep surprise, that my Top MBA University recruiter was fascinated to hear me talk about Bach, and that it was even a good conversation subject on a date with a Parisian girl (without spending more than 10 minutes on it).

So is love of Classical Music something that isolates ? Well, on my experience it's something that may close some doors, and open others.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

My experience in loving classical music has been a very isolating experience since I left school at 18. At school everyone knew my taste in music because of the very good music teacher who had me performing on the piano in public quite often. Now the only people I can talk to about classical is on this site (thank you  ) and one friend who loves Berlioz. When I have worked it is something that I kept from people for fear of being bullied and had to sit through hours of listening to awful pop music that grated by mind. 

I could, and still can't, understand why people hate CM so much. Well that is up to them, but to chastise people who do love it; why?


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

My father introduced me to Classical Music at an early age, so I was very fortunate. 

In any group I've found myself a part of, my love for CM has made me a definite minority. 

Whatever I've missed out on by not being part of a congenial group of music lovers is more than offset by the joy I derive from the music itself. But here again I've been fortunate: I'm an introvert, so my 'need' to interact with others is limited, whereas if I were an extrovert, I think it'd be more painful to lack the fellowship of fellow devotees with whom to interact. 

I look at it this way, OP: whenever I listen to Chopin, I'm WITH Chopin, in a very important sense. He opens his heart and mind to me in his music, and I respond. So in that sense, one is not alone.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

To be a student at the turn of the 70s who not only liked CM, but disliked rock, was profoundly unsettling.


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## BabyGiraffe (Feb 24, 2017)

For some reason, many people in my country associate music in minor mode, with choirs, strings etc with "funerals". They react very negative even to commercial orchestral pop/trailer music.
Listening to something dissonant would probably equal a torture.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I was brought up in a classical music family. Parents were in the Scandinavian Symphony (Detroit) for many years and later the Long Beach Phil (California). We went to classical concerts as a family ... these were the days well before the internet and when doing research for a school paper we rode our bicycles to the local library. 

At home we would play together quite often; Dad the double B flat tuba, Mom on violin, my sister on viola and me on piano. An odd assortment of instruments but we had lots of good times as a family.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

Where i live philadelphia MOST like rap crap /hip hop music.But they leave me alone that is great they are trouble anyway.
MOST ARE FAKES anyway today.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Annied said:


> When I first discovered that I liked opera, I didn't have any friends who shared the interest. I found it so frustrating having no one with whom I could discuss it and I found one solution was writing a kind of diary where I could put down all my thoughts and observations. It didn't entirely answer, but it definitely helped. I kept it going for around 9 months, by which time, partly due to my habit of engaging total strangers in conversation and partly due to signing up to "The Friends of José Carreras", I did meet like minded people and make some new friends. *I do realise that not everyone is comfortable starting up conversations with strangers*, and that not everyone has the opportunity go to live performances as I was lucky enough to be able to do, so that may not be an option for you.


Personally, I am mighty comfortable with that - just like you. Sometimes on concert nights (when I cannot or don't want to attend the actual concert) I go to the bar of the Elbphilharmonie, get a beer and sit at the counter facing the river, relaxing after my workday and watching the sunset. Pretty soon the concert would be over, the great hall would be emptied and the bar filled, and someone with a program in hand, would take a seat next to me. Then, if they seem like they might be up to conversation, I would ask them about the concert, about their impressions etc. I have not made any lasting friendships that way so far, but I have had a lot of fun talking to other concert-goers, no matter if they are there for the music or only for the building. Isolated? - no, no way.


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

Bevo said:


> Does anyone else feel secluded from those around you due to your passion of music?


Well, I hadn't really thought about it before reading your post so thanks. Thanks a lot. 

Now that I am thinking about it . . . I grew up in a working class family who saw CM as music for rich people. I only got into it a few years ago. My wife does not like CM and I do not have any friends that are interested (as far as I know). I go to orchestra concerts by myself. I have a season ticket to the Seattle Opera. Just one ticket (sniff). I have a decent collection of CDs and an "above average" Hi-Fi system, but often listen through headphones so as not to annoy my wife. (She has been out of the country for the past ten days so -- party on! Sorry neighbors).

But, when all is said and done, it is my hobby and, as with most of my other hobbies, I participate for my benefit and others will just have to get along without me.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

mtmailey said:


> Where i live philadelphia MOST like rap crap /hip hop music.But they leave me alone that is great they are trouble anyway.
> MOST ARE FAKES anyway today.


Imagine how dismaying it was to see a link to this headline the other day:

http://hiphopwired.com/547984/hip-hop-is-now-the-most-popular-music-genre-in-america/

All I can think is the film "Idiocracy" is quickly becoming a reality.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

As to the OP, I have always felt incredibly isolated when it comes to my greatest passion in life. It's not fun but I have learned to live with it after years of trying to play it in the background while friends are over or force feeding people absolute music on road trips. Some of my close friends go along with it but you can always see them glaze over with boredom after 20 minutes or so. 

I'm working towards becoming a film maker, when I get there I can assure you of one thing I will only use pre-existing music in my films (probably much to the chagrin of many of our members here who feel it inappropriate to do so, you know who you are :devil: ) Kubrick did this to great effect and I hope to emulate him to this respect, (as pretentious as this may sound it is one of my goals to bring more people to great music they've not even know existed).


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Being an inward person, isolation is fine by me.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm definitely isolated. I had a friend who was into classical, but he moved away. So I appreciate TalkClassical.

As far as human interaction, these days, I have to listen to rock and pop just so I can have _something_ musically to say to others. But for me, classical is one of those things, as Longfellow said, "kept in silence and apart." (Silence because I listen on headphones. My wife isn't into it. She gave me the headphones.)


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

It's longer, takes more time to listen to, has quiet parts that demand attention, must be sought out, not usually on radio…yes, it has many isolating qualities. Interesting. It's like a soundtrack to your squelchy life...


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

There were a few people in the school band/orchestra who I talked to about classical music and later on at university one or two people. Often the people genuinely interested are either few and far between or keep it quiet so you never know; the last person with whom I had any sort of in-depth discussions was an exchange mature-student doing a masters in saxophone performance at the conservatory here. That was three years ago.

I don't know if this is confined to art-music. There are other things I like which I rarely or never get to talk about that much these days.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Not really, and I don't keep my love for it quiet either.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I was reading the many posts and I realized that I may be really out of place here.

When I was younger my experiences were just like many of the above members. I did receive encouragement from my mother who was a singer.

Since I played with my high school band I had interactions with a few other students who really followed classical music.

Being able to play the bassoon well enough to play in amateur groups has helped. I perform with three groups and each week I have interactions with up to a hundred musicians who share my interests.

My wife also is interested in music. She played the flute in her high school band. As a result we attend many music festivals. We will be attending a great festival in Staunton, Virginia. They perform everything type of classical music there from baroque music on period instruments to avant-garde. It is really wild when I attend a performance of an avant-garde work that gets a standing ovation.

Most of the people I run into who dislike modern music are here. Most of the musicians, who are amateurs, that I perform and socialize with enjoy and follow modern music. I actually have many real life friends, especially in the orchestra, who like Cage. I have one friend who actually knew Cage.

This may be the reason that I clash with so many members. I am not as isolated as sadly so many of the members.


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

CypressWillow said:


> I look at it this way, OP: whenever I listen to Chopin, I'm WITH Chopin, in a very important sense. He opens his heart and mind to me in his music, and I respond. So in that sense, one is not alone.


I agree. Actually one can't really feel lonely in one's love for music because one is evidently not alone when hearing music: there is the composer and the executive musician who - you can assume - love this music as much as you do! It is the same with philosophy: when as a teenager I read some words by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Plato, etc I felt like having true friends for the first time in my life because these thinkers think the way I think (while nobody I have met in life has this typical philosophical mind). It doesn't even matter if these friends are dead bcause they still speak loud and clear through their works! Llike Sloterdijk writes: a philosophical work is a letter to a yet unknown friend living in the future. It gives great comfort to know there have been people before me who are my true friends (Plato and all the other philosophers who have ever lived) and there will be people living in the future who will join this club of friends too. Actually, philosophy and of course also music (as art) are very great traditions of the West (or even the human race) and anyone who joins in can not feel lonely anymore!


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

No to the original question. Never have. Like I give a crap if someone doesn't like what I do. Friends and family tolerate me a few even like classical to a small extent.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

I wanted to say one more thing. Why do I feel like I'll be sneered at if I tell someone I like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky? I'm not a snob, I just like classical music. It is not an upper class pastime as some people seem to think and is available to all for next to nothing. I am in the lowest demographic of the vile class system in the UK yet I can't get enough of Chopin and Bach, what am I supposed to do, buy Now 97 because I am poor?

Bit of a rant I know but like many others on here classical music is so very important to us and the composers who make us happy, sad and cry, rule the musical waves. No one should be ashamed because they like music that was written two hundred years ago. When I was a teenager I got called a 'Classical ******'. Still, it never changed me and I went deeper into classical music everyday.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

beetzart said:


> I wanted to say one more thing. Why do I feel like I'll be sneered at if I tell someone I like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky? I'm not a snob, I just like classical music. It is not an upper class pastime as some people seem to think and is available to all for next to nothing. I am in the lowest demographic of the vile class system in the UK yet I can't get enough of Chopin and Bach, what am I supposed to do, buy Now 97 because I am poor?
> 
> Bit of a rant I know but like many others on here classical music is so very important to us and the composers who make us happy, sad and cry, rule the musical waves. No one should be ashamed because they like music that was written two hundred years ago. When I was a teenager I got called a 'Classical ******'. Still, it never changed me and I went deeper into classical music everyday.


Well, I also originate from the bottom social rung (UK), but I've never really faced scorn for liking classical music. No-one in my immediate family listened or listens to it, my grandfather was a largely self-taught organist at a local chapel, so he liked organ music, but that's about it. I was encouraged because I ended up in a foster family of middle-class people. My mother and grandparents clubbed together to buy me a flugelhorn as a birthday gift, even though they probably didn't know what I was doing with it most of the time. No-one has ever disparaged me for it. Most people just say: 'Oh..right'.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

beetzart said:


> I wanted to say one more thing. Why do I feel like I'll be sneered at if I tell someone I like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky? I'm not a snob, I just like classical music. It is not an upper class pastime as some people seem to think and is available to all for next to nothing. I am in the lowest demographic of the vile class system in the UK yet I can't get enough of Chopin and Bach, what am I supposed to do, buy Now 97 because I am poor?
> 
> Bit of a rant I know but like many others on here classical music is so very important to us and the composers who make us happy, sad and cry, rule the musical waves. No one should be ashamed because they like music that was written two hundred years ago. When I was a teenager I got called a 'Classical ******'. Still, it never changed me and I went deeper into classical music everyday.


Those kind of bullies always makes one stronger, bravo. :clap:


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## Paul T McGraw (Jan 19, 2017)

I used to have friends who also love classical music, but they are all dead or moved far away and no longer stay in touch. So at present I am completely isolated. I suppose it happens to everyone as we get older. I just didn't expect it to happen to me at age 64.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

People whodon't know me might think I'm a snob. Let them think it. If my friends say anything snide I show them a certain finger on either hand.


beetzart said:


> I wanted to say one more thing. Why do I feel like I'll be sneered at if I tell someone I like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky? I'm not a snob, I just like classical music. It is not an upper class pastime as some people seem to think and is available to all for next to nothing. I am in the lowest demographic of the vile class system in the UK yet I can't get enough of Chopin and Bach, what am I supposed to do, buy Now 97 because I am poor?
> 
> Bit of a rant I know but like many others on here classical music is so very important to us and the composers who make us happy, sad and cry, rule the musical waves. No one should be ashamed because they like music that was written two hundred years ago. When I was a teenager I got called a 'Classical ******'. Still, it never changed me and I went deeper into classical music everyday.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

My father listens to little else, he was horrified when I discovered rock music as a teenager. That said, I only have 1 or 2 friends who listen to it. Those that don't I simply avoid the subject with. It's my little secret.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Bevo said:


> *Anyone else feel isolated for their love of Classical music?*


I'm actually happy to be isolated_ with _my love for Classical music -- alone in my listening room enjoying the fruits of a half century of record collecting. If there's any coughing or fidgeting or complaining during the playing of the music, it all comes from me, which suits me just fine. And I can even eat and drink what I want while I listen, and do so at peace. Hey ... isolation can be a_ good _thing for us Classical music types.

Now, don't bother me. I'm going to listen to some music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Paul T McGraw said:


> I used to have friends who also love classical music, but they are all dead or moved far away and no longer stay in touch. So at present I am completely isolated. I suppose it happens to everyone as we get older. I just didn't expect it to happen to me at age 64.


But perhaps they are thinking the same, so do some online searching, who knows what's brings you together again....


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Very much so. It is one of a small handful of "special" interests that I haven't found people with whom to share.


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## violyona (Jul 23, 2017)

I grown up in the small town. There are no opera/ballet theatres in this place, there is only one adult orchestra (but it has very limited staff, a lot of instruments are absent that influence to repertoire, number and quality of concerts)... But I studied in the music school and had a lot contacts with musicants. In the ordinary school almost all my classmates was far from CM, they friendly call me too right girl. My parents aren't involve into CM, but they respected (and respect now) my hobbie, often they really like music that I play. Sometimes I think how it is cool to have parents-musicants... But I consider if your parents aren't musicants you also have some pluses! You can explain to them some features of CM-world, and nobody say that you practise the instrument wrong  

But exactly thanks to respect of my parents to my hobbie it transformed into my profession. They let me go to the another end of my country (please, notice that Russia is the big country  ) and now I study the third year in the greatful musical college in the city that russians called "the cultural capital of country". Exactly in this city I found a lot of friends-musicants, really professionals of music that help me to understand the CM deeply, there are a lot of awesome concerts, perfomers and theatres... We involve into the CM-life every hour, play chamber, orchestral and solo music, have a lot of rehearsals and own concerts, talk about music seriously or with humor. I understood that early my musical life was only pale picture. So, I'm very lucky.


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## Timothy (Jul 19, 2017)

I certainly do not


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## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

No, my family is pretty open to my classical music interests. That's all I need.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Nope. I chatter away to my husband about all the crazy opera plots whether he's interested or not. He's a pretty good sport and at least pretends to be interested sometimes :lol:


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I certainly do feel isolated. Sometimes I play some classical music for my friends, usually something I expect them to like pretty quickly. But they don't really seem to appreciate it at all. They see it pretty much as a curiosity.

I hope I can find a girl someday who would dance with me to a Bach Allemande or better still, a Gigue.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

shangoyal said:


> I hope I can find a girl someday who would dance with me to a Bach Allemande or better still, a Gigue.


Count yourself lucky. Some there are out there who would just like to find a girl ... to dance with to _anything_! Or nothing at all! Or not even to dance.
At least you're not desperate.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2017)

Thanks to this forum, I can no longer imagine having any empathy for the majority of TC posters on this topic. If you feel isolated because not enough people share your love of Beethoven or Mahler, try being someone who listens to a lot of John Cage. Isolated? People on this forum would spit on me if they could get close enough.


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## Harrison Clark (Jul 25, 2017)

nathanb said:


> Thanks to this forum, I can no longer imagine having any empathy for the majority of TC posters on this topic. If you feel isolated because not enough people share your love of Beethoven or Mahler, try being someone who listens to a lot of John Cage. Isolated? People on this forum would spit on me if they could get close enough.


I was listening to a cd with Atlas Eclipticalis today and I loved it


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

nathanb said:


> Thanks to this forum, I can no longer imagine having any empathy for the majority of TC posters on this topic. If you feel isolated because not enough people share your love of Beethoven or Mahler, try being someone who listens to a lot of John Cage. Isolated? People on this forum would spit on me if they could get close enough.


I do think you do overreacting a bit, enough people like Cage alas for you not so much as other composers, so I ask is that a crime?


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I do think you do overreacting a bit, enough people like Cage alas for you not so much as other composers, so I ask is that a crime?


I do not attack your favorite music and simply ask that you do not attack mine. That you do not respect me enough as a human being to heed such a request is, indeed, not a crime. Just a complete disregard for manners and civility.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

nathanb said:


> I do not attack your favorite music and simply ask that you do not attack mine. That you do not respect me enough as a human being to heed such a request is, indeed, not a crime. Just a complete disregard for manners and civility.


Talking about overreacting, I wish you all the best sir .


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

beetzart said:


> I wanted to say one more thing. Why do I feel like I'll be sneered at if I tell someone I like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky? I'm not a snob, I just like classical music. It is not an upper class pastime as some people seem to think and is available to all for next to nothing. I am in the lowest demographic of the vile class system in the UK yet I can't get enough of Chopin and Bach, what am I supposed to do, buy Now 97 because I am poor?
> 
> Bit of a rant I know but like many others on here classical music is so very important to us and the composers who make us happy, sad and cry, rule the musical waves. No one should be ashamed because they like music that was written two hundred years ago. When I was a teenager I got called a 'Classical ******'. Still, it never changed me and I went deeper into classical music everyday.


I also live in the UK and can honestly say that I've never encountered any hostility for liking classical music. The occasional puzzled look and one or two observations that classical music is "boring", but never anything beyond that. Anyone who thinks that listening to classical music is some indication of snobbery is the one with the problem, not you. Classical music is for everyone.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

SONNET CLV said:


> Count yourself lucky. Some there are out there who would just like to find a girl ... to dance with to _anything_! Or nothing at all! Or not even to dance.
> At least you're not desperate.


Yes, I have high standards.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Harrison Clark said:


> I was listening to a cd with Atlas Eclipticalis today and I loved it


My favorite Cage work.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Oh no! We are being accuse of overreacting for 29,555th time in this forum


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

I am isolated (aside from this forum) but I don't find this isolation an issue at all. These days I'd much rather listen to music than talk about it with friends. I've tried before to discuss classical music but I found the knowledge gap so significant that any meaningful discussion would be pointless.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

A sense of isolation in listening to Classical can be neutralized by: A) Considering that you are in an intimate relationship with the composer, him or herself. They composed that piece you like so much hoping that someone like you (you yourself, in this case) would care for it--be moved by it. You are therefore the audience for whom that work was composed. B) The phenomenon of YouTube now provides us with video of live concert-hall performance where we can vicariously but quite fully share in a group experience of hearing and applauding Classical (and any other concert) music. We see and hear that there are others out there, in the concert hall, who are quite like us and share our taste.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Jacred said:


> No, my family is pretty open to my classical music interests. That's all I need.


My family is very open to my weird sexuality, but they put their feet down regarding the bizarre, boring music I listen to, known as "classical".

They are sending me to a therapist for correction.


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

nathanb said:


> I do not attack your favorite music and simply ask that you do not attack mine. That you do not respect me enough as a human being to heed such a request is, indeed, not a crime. Just a complete disregard for manners and civility.


How did Pugg attack your favorite music can you give an example?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I can use any restroom that I want, but I can't get through one day without seeing John Cage trashed. There oughta be a law...


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

nathanb said:


> Thanks to this forum, I can no longer imagine having any empathy for the majority of TC posters on this topic. If you feel isolated because not enough people share your love of Beethoven or Mahler, try being someone who listens to a lot of John Cage. Isolated? People on this forum would spit on me if they could get close enough.


I feel your pain. I've been a part of a few online CM communities over the years, and it still gets to me how everybody seems to enjoy using Cage as a punching bag. (The predictable response here being "he brought it on himself with 4'33", yada yada", whatever.) I used to try to explain, to argue my point, to show people other works beside 4'33", but it's always been to no avail. So now I just stay silent and only talk Cage to the very few people I know - all online - who like his work too. The Silence mailing list was a very interesting place to join, in that respect - unfortunately it's been very inactive in recent years.

Also, replying to the OP's question, I've been lucky in my life to meet quite a few performers, musicologists, and a few composers, and enjoy conversations with them every now and again when opportunities arise. I've been even more lucky to marry a woman who enjoys some CM... But outside that circle, e.g. my colleagues at work, friends, etc., nobody cares one bit about CM.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

hpowders said:


> My family is very open to my weird sexuality, but they put their feet down regarding the bizarre, boring music I listen to, known as "classical".
> 
> They are sending me to a therapist for correction.


Being a classical fan is such a hopeless disorder that even the progressive liberals have left it alone.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

shangoyal said:


> Being a classical fan is such a hopeless disorder that even the progressive liberals have left it alone.


Well, if 1% of the world's population has heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony from first note to last, it's about 0.5% more than I thought.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Overall, I do feel somewhat isolated, when compared to the general music listening public.

Among my friends, not so isolated. We all tend to have somewhat similar tastes (classical, jazz-fusion, prog).

Hell, I even feel a bit isolated on Talk Classical! Considering my tastes in classical are only 20th century and contemporary. It's tough not to feel isolated, when there is a new thread every week deriding the music I listen to.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

hpowders said:


> Well, if 1% of the world's population has heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony from first note to last, it's about 0.5% more than I thought.


We're talking about 70-plus million people then, using the one per cent figure. That seems about right.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Yes, I do. Only know a couple of people who are as passionate about it as I am. I can't talk about it in depth to anyone else, not even Husband. When I am listening to it, after a bit he asks if I've heard enough for one day, my reply is no. Thank goodness for TC!!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

When it comes to music I embrace isolation.


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Im not sure how isolated i feel, i talk to friends, family and colleagues about all types of topics but not classical music, they mostly find it a little boring for the most part (expect for one girl in work who has some appreciation).

I live in Dublin in Ireland and go to London every couple of weeks and i always go to a concert when in London. Id love to find people to go with and chat about music, but i don't know where to look. 

I guess TC is my main outlet.

Maybe we need a section on the board about meet ups for concerts in different countries?


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## KevinFromFrance (Jul 27, 2017)

DeepR said:


> When it comes to music I embrace isolation.


Not sure if it's sad or really happy quote


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