# Percentage of listening between new works and favorite gems



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I have several related questions I'll lump together under one thread. They may have already been asked in a different form, but they did not turn up in a search.

*1. What percentage of your listening is exploratory and what percent is revisiting familiar pieces or composers? * By familiar I don't necessarily mean you can hum along with every part, but let's say you would likely recognize parts of the piece or the composer's style on a blind hearing.

*2. Which do you enjoy more, the exploring or the familiar?*

*3. If you explore for an extended period does the eventual "coming home" to the familiar seem that much more enjoyable afterward? 
*
I had this experience today when I loaded up my iThingy with pieces from older CDs. They would be the more familiar than my more exploratory mp3 only pieces, which are more recent and thus lesser known to me. I found the familiar works all the more astonishing gems, and I wonder why. Is this a kind of homecoming effect? Or is it that I just invested in CDs I knew I would really really like and I am less picky with mp3s?

This perceived effect applied to both classical and the more pop or progressive rock works equally.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

1. I listen to albums from my collection nearly 100% of the time. However, I have recently bought so many discs, that I am mostly able to only listen to the shipments as they fill my mailbox 

2. I like to listen to my collection. As it is quite extensive, there is much to (re)discover.

3. I go into an exploratory mode, targetted on the composer or composers of current interest, when I am actively shopping for new acquisitions, hence I only explore music that is available on CD. These explorations, then, are a kind of "coming home," as they are imaginings and discoveries of my collection at a future point in time. It is particularly enjoyable, however, to listen to familiar albums from my collection, after these oftentimes tedious shopping explorations. Exploring is work; putting on an album is bliss


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Trying to get familiar with all of the music I've purchased in the past few years, which is a sizable amount of stuff from late 19th century to recently departed composers such as Ligeti, Schnittke, Lutoslawski, etc. As well as a few living masters including Penderecki, Sallinen, Lindberg.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

1. Lately I've been more exploring than revisiting. I don't like the effort it takes, but that's the price of discovery.
2. I enjoy the familiar. 
3. I do enjoy coming back to something familiar. Unfortunately, sometimes coming back means I have new ears, and what was once a great recording isn't as great as I thought it was, and then I have to go exploring for a new recording. And then it's back to Comment No. 1.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Trusted gems: 70-80%, exploring 20-30% of the time.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

The majority of my listening is stuff I'm already familiar with. I enjoy exploring new music far more, but only when I find something that I really like. Most new things I listen to are "ok", but don't really grab me...it's a rare but welcome occasion when something new really captures my attention. So when I listen to new music, I find that I'm listening to a lot of things that are "just ok" to me, in the hopes of finding something that I like more. Whereas with music I already have, I know that anything I listen to I will really really like!

I'd say that probably 85% of my listening is old familiar works and 15% new stuff, but I am trying to branch out into new stuff more.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

In the past 12-18 months I have been exploring new works vastly more than listening to familiar works. 

1. Recently 80-90% new works.
2. I enjoy familiar works more than the vast majority of newer works I hear, but apparently I prefer exploring more than listening to those familiar works. I seem to have an intense desire to find out what's out there. 
3. When I do return to a loved work, sometimes I'm slightly amazed at how beautiful the cherished work truly is. 

I don't think I could ever revert to 90% familiar works as in my earlier days. I do believe I will eventually settle down and return to more familiar listening, but I will always explore.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

When I try something new, I usually like to hear it several times before I move on to something else, which means may rate of trying new stuff is generally quite slow, especially because I regularly return to old favourites as well. But virtually everything I listen to is from my CD collection, which consists of loads of "complete works" box sets, many of which I've hardly made a dent in.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Weston said:


> *1. What percentage of your listening is exploratory and what percent is revisiting familiar pieces or composers? *


 I own only a handful of CD's at this point, and use online media as my listening source most often.
There is a ton of "exploring," composers I have read of and heard of but where I never got around to the actual music (early to mid 20th century, neoclassicists, etc.) as well as works of later living composers, and the stumbling upon works I've never heard of, composers I never knew of. Certainly curiosity is the driving force, along with a curiosity to know "what is going on now," especially since the the advent of the _Contemporary Era (1975)_ music has busted loose in a multiplicity of directions and styles which I find one of the healthiest developments in all of music history, i.e. way more than one way to write, no one predominant style.



Weston said:


> *2. Which do you enjoy more, the exploring or the familiar?*


Exploring has of course the chance of hitting upon pieces which "work less than well" or are just outside your taste. Compared to any ones' "familiar," that is less consistently satisfying, perhaps, but innately more exciting. The Q, then, has a built in fail rate if you look at most people's familiar as the body of works they already know work for them 



Weston said:


> *3. If you explore for an extended period does the eventual "coming home" to the familiar seem that much more enjoyable afterward?*


I have never thought of the comfort of returning "home" to the familiar anything but as a return to the familiar. That can be either a comfort or something deadening dull, but it is "nothing to write home about."

It is good not to dwell consistently only on the familiar: listening to more of a variety, those works you do listen to repeatedly can benefit by your having not dulled yourself to them by such frequent repetition, i.e. you have a chance of hearing them with much fresher ears.

Interestingly, the same perspective can be had not by exploring the unfamiliar, but by opting for several weeks to a month of "no music," like the intensive music professional often does, once a year, to get away from it completely and to increase the chance it will stay 'fresh' when they return to it. --

That "embarrassment of riches" I've mentioned before, where nearly everyone on the planet is now able to have music of any and all genres 24/7, has allowed for mass overexposure of a lot of music for many a music lover. Those who are overexposed need to know that once in a while it is better to have none -- take a break from it -- than so much that you become desensitized.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Some time back I asked a similar question. After several years of a mad rush to explore and discover music that was new to me I now admittedly spend the majority of my time listening to that which I already own. The majority of my recent purchases have been of alternative recordings of old favorites. I don't rule out new works. I just recently picked up these two discs:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Weston said:


> ...
> *1. What percentage of your listening is exploratory and what percent is revisiting familiar pieces or composers? * By familiar I don't necessarily mean you can hum along with every part, but let's say you would likely recognize parts of the piece or the composer's style on a blind hearing...


These days, its largely revisiting the familiar.



> ...
> *2. Which do you enjoy more, the exploring or the familiar?*
> ...


The familiar, in terms of listening to them more and learning about them more.



> *3. If you explore for an extended period does the eventual "coming home" to the familiar seem that much more enjoyable afterward?
> *
> ...


Yes, that "homecoming" effect you mentioned has been the case with me. When I started on this forum it had been after a hiatus largely away from classical with focus on things like jazz. When I got back into classical, I was quite exploratory. I listened to many composers and works I had not known. Now about five years on I am more into digging into all those riches, from 5 years ago and from long before, when I first got into classical. I am digging deeper and listening to things with fresh ears, so to speak. I am also listening to less and taking it more slowly. I think that its been beneficial because I am better able to make some links between the things I listen to, as well as hear more of what's going on in the actual music, often on my own but many times also with the aid of reading about them. This applies to more recent works to things of the distant past, many "warhorses" included.

So a lot of rediscovery here, and there is the comfort of the familiar, but also in terms of digging deeper and attempting to appreciate things in a more well rounded way.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

This weekend I've been trying to find some English music to my liking. Score one for Vaughn Williams's oboe concerto.

Now I'm trying out The Perfect Fool by Holst.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

starthrower said:


> This weekend I've been trying to find some English music to my liking. Score one for Vaughn Williams's oboe concerto.
> 
> Now I'm trying out The Perfect Fool by Holst.


just noticed your post-may I take this opportunity to recommend certain pieces that you may have not heard as yet but may 'fit the bill';-
Finzi- cello concerto-I have taken every opportunity on the forum to mention this work.
Moeran-symphony-a significant contribution to English/British 20th century symphonic music.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

jim prideaux said:


> just noticed your post-may I take this opportunity to recommend certain pieces that you may have not heard as yet but may 'fit the bill';-
> Finzi- cello concerto-I have taken every opportunity on the forum to mention this work.
> Moeran-symphony-a significant contribution to English/British 20th century symphonic music.


This is still something I must find time to do too. Moeran is not well represented on my Rhapsody account. I suppose I could behave like a young man again and just buy something unheard. That might be thrilling actually.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I may have been unsure in my listening habits, but it sounds like I'm doing okay and the good old gems are supposed to sound good when I return to them.


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## isridgewell (Jul 2, 2013)

Very interesting thread, I have a tremendous need to discover new things a tend to think " I know that work and I know I like it" and so It can be consigned to the shelf. However, when they do re-surface they sound very fresh. The danger with this is that you never really get to know a work really thoroughly.


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