# What got you interested in Classical Music?



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

How did we all get here.... as in liking classical music opposed to, or along with, pop music and such that modern society seems to push for these days? 

What got me interested was a want for intensity and passion in music that was full of emotion, opposed to the passion being placed in lyrics. I also felt a sort of nostalgia every time a song I liked ended after 3 or 4 minutes.... If I kept listening over and over again, it would just get boring. Was ready for something longer, deeper.... 

How about you???


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

What really interested me at first was the virtuosity, and the first pieces I got into were very difficult and impressive piano works.

Then, I was dragged in more by the intensity of many pieces, the almost narrative format of buildups and climaxes.

Finally, like yourself, I was amazed by the deeper subjunctive levels in a lot of music that was quite profound despite not actually "being about" something; how it could stir up so much emotion from just being sounds and tones. 

Also the melodies weren't half bad


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## DaDirkNL (Aug 26, 2013)

At first it was the melodies, after that the depth of classical music and after that the emotion and passion.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

A combination of a new girlfriend who was a opera singer, and me starting to learn the piano.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I was just ready for a change. Just sick of all the same music I had been listening to for years and years. It's like that iPod joke that goes "I have two thousand great songs on my iPod until I put it on shuffle; then I have no great songs on my iPod."

I just needed something new, so I looked to something old to find it.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I was introduced to classical music by my Grandma and my school at a young age, so I hadn't much say in the matter.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

I was exposed to classical and other forms from the cradle. So I can't tell exactly why I love Classical and Jazz. But I do. I love both. 

I just can offer 'maybes'... 

...because it demands time, effort, attention; maybe, because it is 'academic' or 'scientific'; because it is not easy to compose, to play an instrument demanded from the composer or the score; because it takes time to get acquainted and involved with an style, an oeuvre, a composer; maybe because it produces beautiful and deep emotional responses always well structured; or maybe because there is something more in there that can not be put into words.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

violadude said:


> I was introduced to classical music by my Grandma and my school at a young age, so I hadn't much say in the matter.


Poor tyke. I too, was similarly abused / programmed, made aware of Prokofiev, Janacek, Rimsky-Korsakov and Bach at the age of about four and a half, before I knew what popular music was.

Should we form a 12 step victim's recovery group? I'm sure there are others like us.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2013)

I was getting burned out on rock music in the late 70s--a friend suggested classical and loaned me a few LPs, including Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"--I was quickly hooked on classical!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I tend to choose instrumental music: Emotion in music has never been a conscious draw for me. I am drawn to the sounds, the variety of instruments, the complexity of the compositions. Mainstream (now called classic) rock was too predictable; the alternative rock I was into in the '70s had a lot in common with contemporary classical. I got hooked and soon explored back through the centuries. My interest in rock began to fade by the mid-'80s and I lost track. It all sounded like music for teenagers and young adults and I was well into my 30s. I had also gotten into jazz a little bit, but, aside from some of the biggest names, it was rather predictable. Perhaps, I was just choosing the same kind of thing. I didn't take to the smoky night club atmosphere. It, too, didn't seem to speak to or for me. I wanted music that was cultured, intellectually stimulating and of enduring interest. My interest in classical continued to grow until, in about the '90s, it pretty well became my sole musical interest.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Just the fact that it was a whole new world of music for me was a big factor. I like "getting into" new things. So much to explore. Plus, I thought of myself as a bit of a philistine for not knowing much about it.

Now, it's just another style of music that I listen to. Much different in feel from pop/rock. Emotion isn't really the key feature; I can get that from pop/rock. A lot of it is the complexity of classical, the variety, the larger scale.


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## Pantheon (Jun 9, 2013)

All my life I have been exposed to various forms of music, including phases of disco, prog rock, jazz, metal. However, classical was the first I ever remember, especially a recording of piano music. Since then I have wanted to learn the piano and learn all the pieces on the disc. My first teacher had a poster of the main composers on a timeline attached on the wall and I just memorised them all after going there a few times. 
After a while I realised that there was much more to it, and my mum would buy me the discs of the new pieces I learnt. My first proper disc was a double disc of Brahms' Hungarian Dances for 4 hands by the Labeque sisters and the orchestral versions with Kurt Masur. Since the age of about 4-5, I have loved music. I also remember the music lessons in my primary school and how the teacher was an excellent pianist but nobody ever cared for his lessons ... it was a shame. I was the only one who ever took an interest in it and what he had to say.

My passion for classical music has evolved since then, searching for links, emotions and symbols in this beautiful art form.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

For a long time I thought I simply didn't like music. Then, cycling home once, I realized I had never tried classical music, and I did shortly afterwards. I liked it.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> For a long time I thought I simply didn't like music.


Until about the age of 18-20, I thought I didn't like classical music. Not many others at that age seemed to like it, either. Within a few years, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with rock and other popular music forms that only marginally interested me and it was classical that came to mean more to me.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

I owe it all to the films of Stanley Kubrick.


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