# How did you get into classical music?



## PresenTense (May 7, 2016)

It's been two years since I got into classical music. However, I always come back to the "popular" music I liked before that. How do I fully get into classical music? If I stop listening to popular music for some months, would it help? How did you get into this wonderful world?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

By the time I hit my mid-thirties, I was tired of rock music. Since I was an avid classical fan prior to puberty, moving in the classical direction was easy. Since then I haven't looked back. I do listen to a little rock now and then on youtube; nostalgia is a strong feeling.

Of course, you can spend your listening time on a variety of musical types without worrying about it - just go with your internal flow.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Don't try to stop listening to what you like. That would just be like work to me.

I got into classical way back around 1967 or after seeing the film 2001: a space odyssey. I was only 11 or so at the time. It took me a long time to get into rock and pop after that, but now I listen to everything from classical to folk to metal to jazz to electronica / IDM (and I'm probably ancient compared to most IDM listeners). No country or rap though. 

Anyway. You shouldn't worry at all.


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Weston said:


> Don't try to stop listening to what you like. That would just be like work to me.
> 
> I got into classical way back around 1967 or after seeing the film 2001: a space odyssey. I was only 11 or so at the time. It took me a long time to get into rock and pop after that, but now I listen to everything from classical to folk to metal to jazz to electronica / IDM (and I'm probably ancient compared to most IDM listeners). No country or rap though.
> 
> Anyway. You shouldn't worry at all.


No country music from someone in Tennessee seems a little odd. But to each their own.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Born and raised in Nashville to boot.

Oh well . . .


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Classical was the first music I was exposed to. I was listening to classical music as a toddler. It wasn't until I was around 8 or 9 that I even started listening to popular music.

But I have no desire to not listen to any of the music I like, and I like music from all kinds of genres. It just depends on what I'm in the mood for.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Brought up with it, loved it as long as I can remember .


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

I have a question . There is a friend and he used to practice playing classical music, but now he doesn´t practice any more and listens to all kinds of music , and classical is not a priority any more. How can it be? how can one practicing and even loving classical music (because practicing sometimes doesn´t involve that love for classical music) can become so completely changed? listening to rock and other stuff and even light music - I mean melodies that majority thinks are very easy to get ......


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I started out on rock, but was exposed to a lot of classical in my late teens and in my 20s. I didn't listen to much music for close to 20 years then went on a binge buying a lot of albums of several favorite non-classical artists, but in 2011 I just suddenly started listening to classical and have hardly looked back. Right now I have little desire to listen to anything but classical.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

helenora said:


> I have a question . There is a friend and he used to practice playing classical music, but now he doesn´t practice any more and listens to all kinds of music , and classical is not a priority any more. How can it be? how can one practicing and even loving classical music (because practicing sometimes doesn´t involve that love for classical music) can become so completely changed? listening to rock and other stuff and even light music - I mean melodies that majority thinks are very easy to get ......


I only know people who have gone the other way around, from pop, ( to put it generally) to classic, one of my best school mates who always had smart remarks way back, is now joining our live transition from the Metropolitan opera.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Exclusively pop/rock from early seventies until mid eighties (I was born in 1957).

Started exploring classical music in 1986, and quickly went "all classical" until about 2000. Since then, it is a mixture of roughly 45/45/10 classical/pop-rock/jazz.

As others have said, there's nothing wrong with listening to different types of music.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Instead of writing a long paragraph I'll tell you:

The Rite of Spring scared me in my late teens and Xenakis changed my life both within a small amount of time, both continue to inspire me as an adult, studying composer and music addict.


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## poodlebites (Apr 5, 2016)

I find this a good oportunity to write my first post. 

I was first curious about classical music because of Frank Zappa when I heard him talking about Stravinsky, Varese and Boulez. Found a box set with the three Stravinsky's ballets for no money and listened to it a few times, liked it but kept on listening to rock and jazz most of the times. 
Then a friend of mine asked me to go with him to see the symphonic orchestra of the city he's living in Spain and I got hooked right away. 
I'm still finding my way into it, I mostly listen to 20th century music and I'm starting to go a bit back in time, Beethoven and Mahler are now the ones taking most of my listening time. 
I was worried for a while because I didn't feel like listening to any other kind of music, but this is changing slowly with time, even though I'd say I still listen most of the times to classical.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Pugg said:


> I only know people who have gone the other way around, from pop, ( to put it generally) to classic, one of my best school mates who always had smart remarks way back, is now joining our live transition from the Metropolitan opera.


that´s the thing. Me too, I can´t get it. Usually it´s the other way round. and well, from time to time he listens to some classical music ( easy stuff so called), but nonetheless I wonder how can his ears and entire perception digest hard rock stuff and all the rest after being in classical music for some time? years....but well, I can get it when people just need some rest, take a break, without being into classical for some time, need silence... and then come back again and enjoy it even more, but usually one can´t accept hard rock, stupid pop all together...it´s just impossible I thought..... it was against one´s own tastes I thought .....I was wrong.... and everything is possible


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## Boldertism (May 21, 2015)

I used to play a video-game that used pop-classics as its soundtrack. Eventually they worked their way into my brain and I sought them out.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I've always listened to classical music and my first love is Mozart  Since I turned 10 I heard more rock music and since then have heard and loved lots of different music.


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

My earliest memory of classical music is listening to my older sister play "La huerfana" by Granados on the piano. Then, my parents started sending me to piano lessons at the age of 5. Listening to classical music then sort of came naturally due to my piano practice, however for a long time I only listened to Romantic and post-Romantic piano music, until a few years ago when I began to explore pieces by composers from different periods who wrote for other instruments (incl. the orchestra). I think Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" was one of my first forays outside piano music - I was attracted by its grand scope. Admittedly it was a bit of a risky move to take, but Wagner happened to become one of my favourite composers, so there!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

A handful of family 78 vinyl records plus Lord Reith's influence on BBC radio.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

PresenTense said:


> How do I fully get into classical music? If I stop listening to popular music for some months, would it help?


Is this a serious question? This is really too good to be true. I love it. More please!


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## Fletcher (Sep 29, 2015)




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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I've listened to whatever I like since I started collecting music. My dad used to play all sorts of stuff from Status Quo to Abba to Traffic. I first heard Beethoven on one of my dad's awful James Last LPs in the 70s (yes, James Last) and got my first Beethoven LP in my very late teens (it was Karajan's account of the 9th). However, primarily I loved rock and my main loves till my 30s was classic rock, metal, 80s indie, prog, etc but I started collecting classical music in smaller quantities too, though it was never my first choice. However, as time has progressed I've found I listen to an equal mix of post-rock, prog and classical music these days.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

PresenTense said:


> It's been two years since I got into classical music. However, I always come back to the "popular" music I liked before that. How do I fully get into classical music? If I stop listening to popular music for some months, would it help? How did you get into this wonderful world?


Why do you feel it is necessary or preferred to stop listening to other forms of music besides classical?

There is no reason why you can't be just as deeply or fully into classical music, and still listen to popular music.

I came to classical music through listening to prog rock, more specifically, avant-prog.

These are prog-rock bands heavily influenced by classical composers of the mid to late 20th, and 21st century. The following is a description of these types of bands by prog website Progarchives.com:

- Regular use of dissonance and atonality.
- Extremely complex and unpredictable song arrangements.
- Free or experimental improvisation.
- Fusion of disparate musical genres.
- Polyrhythms and highly complex time signatures.

The above description also describes much of the classical music I listen to.

My current listening habits are: 40% classical, 40% prog, and 20% jazz (progressive forms).


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## MysticCompose (Aug 6, 2016)

I completely understand what PresenTense is saying. I'm the exact same way.
It isn't that I can't say I like more than one musical genres along with classical. But, I can't feel into both classical and something else at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense. Example, my other love resides with electronica. When I'm listening to some nice chill electronic music I don't feel that love for classical. And vice versa. So in my case it's probably psychological. Maybe my position is different than the original poster though. But, maybe me sharing this could share some light from a different angle.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

How did I get into classical music? I don't really know, because my family background is not musical and it was not something that was played at home. None the less, somewhere, somehow, I began to hear orchestral and piano music and found it really interesting and often exciting. By the age of 10, I was definitely becoming a classical music nerd and by mid-teens I was hunting out good Sibelius recordings etc. Despite being of the generation that grew up with the Beatles, I simply never 'got' pop and rock music: it just does nothing for me. In retrospect, I feel some nostalgic affection for The Kinks, whose lyrics and music was always more interesting than other bands, but at the time I just didn't see the attraction when there was so much rich, deep and complex stuff to listen to. 
Then somewhere about my 20s, I realised that I really like the 'cool' jazz of Brubeck, Bill Evans et al and that has remained my guilty indulgence!
And I'm a consumer of music, not a producer. I play piano a bit, though arthritis is making that uncomfortable, and I played French Horn at school I cannot sing. Absolutely cannot.


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## Redsilas (Aug 13, 2016)

My mother is a music major with a degree in piano performance. I was exposed at a very young age to classical music, mostly piano and church music. When I was in high school I was exposed to Shostakovich for the first time and it opened up an entirely new world for me in terms of music. Before most of the music I listened to or played centered around the Baroque and Classical Era with a bit of the Romantic Era here and there. I also thoroughly enjoy film score soundtracks and musicals as well. 

Despite having to study opera in college, I really just cannot get into it. I've tried and it's just an area I can appreciate, but do not enjoy. 

There is something out there for everyone and it just takes time. I just recently discovered Lully and Rameau - I happened to find it at the right place and time in my life.


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## LarryShone (Aug 29, 2014)

I think it was with me from an early age, I remember having music class at junior school and loving it. I think part of it for me was the historic side of it. The lives of the composers and how people in earlier times seemed so much more talented than the modern generation. Well that was my view as a kid. It still partly holds. But also I was exposed to a lot of electronic music as a teenager thanks to my synth fanatic of a brother. And a lot of that music was directly inspired by classical and baroque music. Basically I grew up with classical and recruited people to its wonders as I went thru life!


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

I got into it by trying different things. Started out with symphonies.


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## bioluminescentsquid (Jul 22, 2016)

How did I get into classical music?

When we moved to a new house when I was 7, my parents happened to store all the CD's they had in a huge bookcase in my room. Thus, to pass time, I would listen to anything on that rack. Happens that my parents (who weren't into music in general) had a full set of CD's of classical masterpieces. They were admittedly pretty mediocre recordings, the stuffy, old-fashioned and pretentious type preformed by the National Symphony Orchestra of somewhere which indifferently brutalized everything from the Brandenburgs to Thus Sprach Zarathustra with the same syrupy Vibrato, generally ploddy tempo, and grandiose _sturm und drang._ Well, at least this was better than the other selections on the shelves.

Having brought up on this wholesome diet, I very quickly then diversified and found my fancy for Kogan, Mutter, Heifetz, Fournier etc. after an Aunt gave me a few CDs of them. I recall liking Paganini (I can't stand him now) for all the flashy gimmicks he wrote. I recall having my parents drop me off at the local bookshop so I could browse the classical CD section for hours on end.

Everything changed when I discovered Il Giardino Armonico's recording of Vivaldi's concerti da camera II at this bookstore. The warm, intimate sound (typical to HIP ensembles) and the beautifully varied and lively tempos was entirely different from what I've heard before, and entirely changed my impression of the Baroque as an uninteresting, stuffy, generic-sounding period. I remember that the day after I bought the CD, I returned to the store to ask whether they had more of this "Guardino armon" stuff, only to recieve a stern spelling correction and a rather passive-aggresive "no" from the store clerk there.

But needless to say, I was addicted, and thus acquired for an insatiable diet for all things HIP. I started with chamber music, devouring the complete recordings of Il Giardino Armonico and in the process getting teased with works by composers I've never heard of such as Biber, Lully, et. al.

Then came the second addiction to "the king of instruments" of the Baroque, the organ. I recall that one day when I was around 12 (?), I was searching on youtube (I am young indeed) for Bach's Chaconne and somehow landed on Buxtehude's Chaconne in C minor, played by Ulrik Spang-Hanssen on (I think) the organ in Norden. I was amazed that the organ could have such a range of colours (I didn't know of stops yet and assumed that you could only play them at their loudest, almost like what we know as a Blokwerk) and sublime grandeur. I proceeded to devour all the recordings - and also literature - of baroque organs, in the process picking up names of performers such as Piet Kee, Koopman, de Vries, and names of builders such as Scherer, Schnitger, Stellwagen, Silbermann or the Ahrends.

But now, I'm a chronic addict, and listen to Classical every day, with a great focus on Rennaisance/Baroque instrumental music and organ music. I do have a few CD's of recordings I really like or of sentimental value (For instance, the Forqueray played by Ton Koopman, which accompanied me through a period of personal difficulty) that I play over and over again, but most of my listening is done on spotify. I have hundreds of CD's saved, so I un-save them after a listen and perhaps get a physical copy if it catches my fancy.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Pugg said:


> Brought up with it, loved it as long as I can remember .


Same here. Also heard Tin Pan Alley music, Big Band music, cowboy music, then the beginnings of R&B and Doo-*** (then called "race music"), then flamenco. Been downhill ever since


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Fletcher said:


>


This is a very good way to start classical music.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Mother was always an avid classical radio listener and I got into it from an early age as a result.


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## Weird Heather (Aug 24, 2016)

Way back in the 1970s, when I was a child, there were a few records around the house. The selection was small and haphazard, mainly consisting of middle-of-the-road 1970s pop, a few classical records, and probably a few other things that escape my memory. At that time, it wasn't as easy to discover music as it is now, since there was no world wide web, and the radio stations weren't particularly diverse or adventurous. My curiosity led me to the records, and two of them captured my attention immediately. One was a Columbia record entitled "Bach's Greatest Hits." It included a small sampling of Bach's more famous compositions. The other was a record entitled "The Power of the Orchestra," which consisted of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bare Mountain" (Leibowitz arrangement) and "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Ravel orchestration), conducted by René Leibowitz. I was somewhat surprised later to find out that this record is quite rare and sought after; I acquired a pristine copy many years later and promptly digitized it. These are two very different composers, but for some reason, they captured my attention, and I listened to them over and over again. My mother was happy to encourage my interest, so she bought a few more records and started taking me to concerts. Later, when I was in college, I discovered the record bins in the thrift stores and found that I could explore more music for very little money. My interest just kept growing, and now, I have a massive and growing library of classical music sitting on a hard drive where it is convenient to access.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I spilled a rather scolding cup of tea on myself, lunged forward in my grandfather's basement knocking over a collection of his classical music records. I thought, as I lay on top a pile of records, _one particular one staring me in the face_, 'who the *%#^ is that serious person?' (It was a mighty picture of Beethoven). I got up and put on the record, striking and powerful, I cleaned up the mess. Been listening ever since.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

When I was a young child, my father was always listening to it. When eating dinner together, he would always have the radio playing classical music. He had his classical LPs lying around near our primitive "Victrola". Rudolf Serkin playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Oscar Levant doing the Tchaikovsky No. 1. Heifetz playing Lalo. I soaked them all up and couldn't get enough of it.

I was one of the lucky ones.

The rest is history.


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> When I was a young child, my father was always listening to it. When eating dinner together, he would always have the radio playing classical music. He had his classical LPs lying around near our primitive "Victrola". Rudolf Serkin playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. Oscar Levant doing the Tchaikovsky No. 1. Heifetz playing Lalo. I soaked them all up and couldn't get enough of it.
> 
> I was one of the lucky ones.
> 
> The rest is history.


Similar tale old friend, my Dad was an opera lover and albums of Verdi Pucini Wagner were constantly being played. Unfortunately for me I had absolutely no liking for opera and it wasn't until Dad brought me to the Phoenix Hall to hear Beethoven's 5 th that I got hooked on it. Dad introduced me to Bach (Brandenburgs) Sibelius Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and I was hooked. Later on I discovered Mahler (whom Dad couldn't stand) Bruckner and I followed through into 20 th century music.
It has been a wonderful journey.....so far.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Polyphemus said:


> Similar tale old friend, my Dad was an opera lover and albums of Verdi Pucini Wagner were constantly being played. Unfortunately for me I had absolutely no liking for opera and it wasn't until Dad brought me to the Phoenix Hall to hear Beethoven's 5 th that I got hooked on it. Dad introduced me to Bach (Brandenburgs) Sibelius Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and I was hooked. Later on I discovered Mahler (whom Dad couldn't stand) Bruckner and I followed through into 20 th century music.
> It has been a wonderful journey.....so far.


We were both very lucky to be exposed to it in the home. Who knows how many potential classical music lovers, who were never exposed to it, are walking around, who would have been just as responsive to it as we were? I'm sure there are many.

My dad introduced me to two things during life at the family home: classical music and his belt. I preferred the former.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

hpowders said:


> My dad introduced me to two things during life at the family home: classical music and his belt. I preferred the former.


Haha, made me laugh out loud. Nice story and good to have you back, HP. Hope that it was nothing too serious that kept you away.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Templeton said:


> Haha, made me laugh out loud. Nice story and good to have you back, HP. Hope that it was nothing too serious that kept you away.


He told me he did it "out of love". Coulda fooled me! Thanks for the warm words, Templeton.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

I can't pinpoint anything. Just part of growing up, I think. An accretion as I learnt more about the world, broadened my interests, met a wider range of people, developed a bit of taste and knowledge in various areas.... 

Only to a forum like this would I whisper that when mature people who have achieved some prominence in the arts or politics (but not, as it happens, in science) profess their love of commercially popular music I think "They're just trying to ingratiate themselves with the audience|voter".


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Warner Brothers cartoons.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I went to the record store and bought some LPs. Beethoven symphonies, Rimsky's Easter Overture, Franck's Symphony in D, the Nutcracker by Ansermet, and that was my start.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Piano lessons and curiosity.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

In contrast to my slow and steady growth of interest in classical music, my friend ("H") had what I consider a lightning conversion. His roommate at college was a Wagner enthusiast and, after a few weeks of suffering, H began to find Wagner growing on him. So he went about getting into classical music in a businesslike way. Entered a music store and said: "Give me $x [I can't remember the amount] of Brahms". And so it began...


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

I had a friend in high school who got me started. He said, "Hey Kivimees, do you want to try this?" I knew I shouldn't, I knew it was wrong. But he wouldn't stop pressuring me. "What's the matter with you, Kivimees, are you scared?" he would say. Well, I couldn't let on that I was afraid. After all, the other kids were all doing it. So I thought, try it once, then he'll leave you alone. So I listened - once. And I enjoyed it. And that's when the trouble started. I needed more. And more. I was hooked.


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

Kivimees said:


> I had a friend in high school who got me started. He said, "Hey Kivimees, do you want to try this?" I knew I shouldn't, I knew it was wrong. But he wouldn't stop pressuring me. "What's the matter with you, Kivimees, are you scared?" he would say. Well, I couldn't let on that I was afraid. After all, the other kids were all doing it. So I thought, try it once, then he'll leave you alone. So I listened - once. And I enjoyed it. And that's when the trouble started. I needed more. And more. I was hooked.


My parents preferred the light classics, had recordings of popular arias, selections from orchestral music, whatever fit on a 78 rpm record. Apparently, I was absorbed by it earlier than I can remember. There were tooth marks on the wooden edge of our record player where I absent mindedly chewed it while listening at age 3. Growing up listening to network radio (that's how old I am ,) my attention was always caught by signature or theme music that very often turned out to be from classical pieces, and there were some programs I listened to solely for that. One was *Big Town*, a drama about newspaper journalists. I didn't care one thing about the stories, but they used as incidental and signature selections from two Howard Hanson symphonic works, and I listened for that.

One summer evening when I was 16, home alone with nothing to do I rummage through my family record collection, where I found a 78 album of the Prokofiev 5th Symphony. It had been purchased as part of a lot by my parents from a record shop that was replacing its 78 inventory with LPs and selling off the obsolete for pennies. After selecting out the ones they wanted, the others, including the Prokofiev, were put away unplayed. So I put it on the Victrola, and on the very first hearing, got it. Just like that. The gate opened and I've been traveling that path ever since.


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## Truculence (Aug 29, 2016)

An arrangement of Beethoven's 5th in 7th or 8th grade. By pure chance, my class piano teacher also loaned a Ruth Laredo CD with Mozart's K. 545 and its rondo. By mere luck, some art class in middle school I had to take ran some video that used it as background music.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Attending symphonic concerts as a boy. William Tell Overture aka Lone Ranger Theme was the specific hook.


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## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

In the mid-1980's, I decided that I should enhance the Arts in my life. (I am in the sciences.) So I moved to the Mecca of the Arts, Terre Haute, Indiana (sarcasm). But since CDs just started at that time, I figured that the sound of a CD would be much better than the crackle of some of my LPs for music that can get quite soft. So I bought a subscription to CD Review and bought many of their recommendations and the journey to enjoying classical music was on.

Plus, while I was in Terre Haute, I was lucky enough to have to work with a former trumpet player of the Chicago Symphony. He also suggested some great music that I might want to sample. I think I bought everything on his list.


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## KirbyH (Jun 30, 2015)

I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was my sophomore year of high school and up to that time, I had played the clarinet. My grandparents knew I loved it, so they bought me a CD of Benny Goodman's greatest hits, and for a time jazz was my thing. I also used to listen to the local NPR stations orchestral broadcasts: Tuesdays it was the NY Phil, Wednesdays the Concertgebouw, and Thursdays the Chicago Symphony. I would sit glued to my radio for every broadcast, and while the music was incredible, I didn't actually pay a lot of attention to it until one night I just happened to catch Mahler's 1st symphony from Chicago. I heard the bass clarinet in that first little fanfare at the outset and that was it - I was hooked for life. Hearing this music done so well and passionately had me hungering for a great deal more at once, and before long I was on YouTube, watching every Mahler video I could find. That's how I came to know of Gustavo Dudamel and Claudio Abbado, from there Karajan, Solti, Bernstein. It all happened at once very quickly and at times it still feels that way - but the pleasure is all mine, and will remain lifelong, so long as I have ears to listen.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

My entry into the world of music consisted of being bored one day and looking through a book about the piano. It just sort of never stopped, and I'm still learning.
My aunt gave me a Beethoven CD for my birthday (9th? 10th?) and that was my first classical recording, but I only really got into it in about 2014. Now I can't imagine life without music.


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

I never "got into it," I was always into it. From day 1 I was hearing classical music, and grew up in a house full of it. I never spent much time on any other genre. I can't imagine myself working in any other field.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

*Arrival*

I made the decision to explain how I got here:

When I was a 9 year old child I had a portable CD player, and listened to kid's pop music. I don't remember how, probably by the local newspaper, but my parents gathered a complete collection of "Spectacular Classics" CDs with the most popular and core composers of the genre. There is no box but like 30 of the 40 cds are stored around the house.



















This was my favourite CD of all, even though six months ago I managed to find it on the internet (it is nowadays missing at home) and the performance was horrendous for my ears today.
It's not like I talked with many people about classical music at 5th grade but kids new and I was proud of liking the genre (though I didn't get along with our music teacher).

Other cds than these were just collections of ripped CDs of "best of", which I eagerly listened to and danced to until one afternoon I slipped while moving along Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto and broke my cd player. It made me very sad. I also played those CDs in our HI-FI in the living room, and my parents were and are cool with it (they enjoy but don't dig into CM).

I have no other memories of me and Classical Music. Watching "Happy Feet" made me start to shift my tastes into pop and rock classics of the 80s and 90s. By my entry in High School (7th grade). I completely left behind any sign of Classical Music. It was very uncool to like that, and I was new at the school, also very shy with the rest of the boys and girls.

*Eight years later*, in University, I was having a hard time with my modules, but also I stopped being creative with the genres I listened to at that age (Experimental, Indietronic, Altenative rock, Techno, House-tech). 
I came up with a character that was very different from any other in that story or any other I had in my mind. While the other character's mood was guided and defined by contemporary genres like house, or indietronic, or alternative rock, pop, etc. This new one was a romantic, classical music afficionado, listening to Maria Callas opera arias while hiding his existence from the rest of the society and earning his living with not very ethic ways (can't reveal much).










I slowly began to develop that character, its background and habits (Vinyls) and enlarged the repertoire with the basics (Karajan's discography).
By the time of 2015's Christmas, I was listening to CM out of pleasure and not for character development.
And I joined Talk Classical.

So, I think me liking Classical Music in the past was a very good ground for returning to it a lot of years later. The main reason for that return was that character, not anything else.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Granate said:


> I made the decision to explain how I got here:
> 
> When I was a 9 year old child I had a portable CD player, and listened to kid's pop music. I don't remember how, probably by the local newspaper, but my parents gathered a complete collection of "Spectacular Classics" CDs with the most popular and core composers of the genre. There is no box but like 30 of the 40 cds are stored around the house.


Looks interesting. The critical factor is whether it has all complete works. Nothing more frustrating than a big classical set that is all chopped up with a piece of this and a piece of that.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

I grew up in the 60s listening to Top 40 and the British Invasion ... including the Beatles. Once I began studying music and composed my first piece, I wanted to hear each each note as I wrote it, and with pop, jazz, etc there's too much chance for "interpretation" ... which means I wouldn't hear my music as I intended it ... and neither would any other listener. I like classical, where what's on the page is what gets played... most of the time.


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## Schumanniac (Dec 11, 2016)

Got tired of the music i had spent much of my life listening to 3 years time ago. And when i attempted to find new music in such popular genres, it was a depressing shock, watching this exalted artform becoming whatever you'd call Lady Gaga and that menagerie, we young arent fortunate to having grown up in the music world of our parents. Like feeding those cardboard rice cakes to the starving, intellectually and spiritually i just needed... more.

And like a voice from heaven that Beethoven melody i found as an early teenager, that had haunted me for years and years, its very name forgotten, came to me, immaculate in its beauty, i could hear every note in my mind. Gave classical a go and life has since improved dramatically  The piece was his 1st mvt of string quartet no 14 by the way.


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## Francis Poulenc (Nov 6, 2016)

Bernstein's Young People's Concerts as a boy.


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

I'd like to say that I've always loved classical music, but that wouldn't be totally accurate. My father loved classical music and so it was on all the time until he died when I was in grade school. Thus, I was familiar with many of the famous composers and their works at a young age. Despite this, I was not much of a music fan, classical or otherwise, until sometime in high school. Having said that, I was in the middle school choir for a couple of years for reasons that I cannot explain. It certainly wasn't due to a love of music at the time though. I started with the usual pop and similar stuff in high school, but I eventually re-discovered classical music and never looked back. I do enjoy some jazz as well and I do listen to some pop music in the car. It can be difficult to listen to classical music in the car due to the dynamic range.

My father started building a classical CD collection a couple of years before he died (this was in the earliest days of CDs). I inherited his CD, record, and cassette collection when he died. They stayed dormant for many years until I re-discovered classical music, but I had a feeling that I would come back to classical music some day so I always took care of the collection. These are prized recordings to me even though my father was a bit of a cheapskate and was fond of ultra-budget LaserLight and Pilz type CDs. Eh, some of them are good, but not all for sure. Anyway, the ability to pass down a physical media collection is another major reason why I prefer physical media over streaming and digital downloads (though I suppose it's possible to pass down the latter).



Rach Man said:


> In the mid-1980's, I decided that I should enhance the Arts in my life. (I am in the sciences.) So I moved to the Mecca of the Arts, Terre Haute, Indiana (sarcasm). But since CDs just started at that time, I figured that the sound of a CD would be much better than the crackle of some of my LPs for music that can get quite soft. So I bought a subscription to CD Review and bought many of their recommendations and the journey to enjoying classical music was on.
> 
> Plus, while I was in Terre Haute, I was lucky enough to have to work with a former trumpet player of the Chicago Symphony. He also suggested some great music that I might want to sample. I think I bought everything on his list.


Terre Haute may not be the Mecca of the Arts, but it is the Mecca of the CD! I believe the Sony CD pressing plant there is the largest in the US and maybe even the largest in the world. I applied to and got accepted into a graduate program at Indiana State University many years ago, but I passed on the opportunity to move to Terre Haute. I do sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I become a Fighting Sycamore.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

PresenTense said:


> It's been two years since I got into classical music. However, I always come back to the "popular" music I liked before that. How do I fully get into classical music? If I stop listening to popular music for some months, would it help? How did you get into this wonderful world?


Partly by accident, partly by choice. I want to listen to something different than pop music. As I develop my taste, classical music seems to capture much emotions and humanity and gave me a whole new dimension of what music means. Love it!!!


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I grew up hearing classical music--my parents love it and they played it all the time (in fact, they still do...and I often borrow CDs from them.) During my teenage years, I broadened my musical horizons by exploring a number of non-classical genres, but classical music has always remained my first and deepest passion.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Florestan said:


> Looks interesting. The critical factor is whether it has all complete works. Nothing more frustrating than a big classical set that is all chopped up with a piece of this and a piece of that.


They don't have complete works, just the most popular pieces. The performances are horrible too, but that's what I think today, not when I was a kid.


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## lehnert (Apr 12, 2016)

I took piano classes between the age of six and thirteen but at that time apart from my classes I didn't really listen to classical music. It definitely gave me some knowledge and made me more musical, so it might have had influence later.

Several years later, as a teenager I got really interested in films and I watched quite a lot of them. I became a big fan of Stanley Kubrick who used a lot of classical music in his films. I really enjoyed it and at first I started to listen to the pieces he used. As time went by, I became more and more into classical music and that has not changed since. So I've been listening to classical music for around seven years now.


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## sprite (Jan 31, 2015)

Like many of the other posters here, my father. He has a rare musical sensitivity that he passed on to me, so I was immediately drawn to the music he listened to (classical, jazz, classic rock, etc.). I can't pinpoint any exact moment it happened. I've just been drawn to music ever since I can remember. (Maybe it was at the Greek orthodox church when, according to my mom, I would hum along to the hymns as a baby.. I'd imagine most people passionate about music, like the kind who join classical music forums.. heh.. have had a similar visceral response to music from a very early age). 

I do recall, though, being.. I don't know, 6 or 7, and declaring Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" to be the pinnacle of musical perfection and listening to it over and over. It hit all the right spots in nonstop succession. Everything it did gave me the kind of satisfaction I would wait for patiently with other music. Of course this is due to me being young and little immature, wanting that instant gratification. Around this time I begged for piano lessons so I could play an active role in my obsession, which helped develop my ear. My teacher always tried to get me to play lighter pieces to get me out of my heavy left hand Beethoven fixation, which annoyed me at the time. 

I was a total cheeseball though, I was sooooo obsessed with Phantom of the Opera when I was 11. Like, lock myself in the closet listening to it on repeat obsessed. Now I realize he ripped off so many classical composers, and was ecstatic to come full circle when I learned that the signature descending theme in Phantom is actually from Prokofiev's score to Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev being my present-day iteration of the lock yourself in the closet variety of obsession. Except now I'm an adult so it's just a boring old bedroom.)


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## Jacred (Jan 14, 2017)

I was quite depressed for a while during my teens and that was when I found classical music. I don't think there's been anything that's changed my life as much as that moment.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

My father decided that us boys needed some culture. Plus the Columbia Record Club kept running ads in the newspaper (1960's). He chose Beethoven's Nine Symphonies / Krips/ London Symphony. Cheap stuff, played on a cheap portable record player. I was the only boy who took to the culture. I played them every chance I got when I wasn't out getting into trouble. Kept that set into my 30's and they were well worn out. I realize that the Krips cycle is not considered one of the best, and I have several other cycles now that are better, but to me they sound right .


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I was born into a classical music family ... parents were musicians with the Scandinavian Symphony in Detroit (MI) for many years then later in the Long Beach Phil (CA) during my childhood; they would drag us kids to rehearsals.. 

Each morning we woke to "Coffee Cup Concert" on the local FM broadcast station which was, at that time, all classical. 

Mom had a piano at home with the desire to learn to play but never achieved that goal; instead it was I who took an interest in learning piano and began private lessons at age 6. 

Dad played the BBb concert tuba (required two cases for transport) and Mom the violin. My sister, 5 years my senior, played the viola. TV was fairly non existent in those days except for the Ed Sullivan show on Sunday nights, which we viewed on an 11" black and white screen, so most of our evenings were spend playing music together.

Kh


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I got into classical music by listening to it.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Krummhorn said:


> Dad played the BBb concert tuba (required two cases for transport) and Mom the violin. My sister, 5 years my senior, played the viola. TV was fairly non existent in those days except for the Ed Sullivan show on Sunday nights, which we viewed on an 11" black and white screen, *so most of our evenings were spend playing music together.*


Ah, the good old times, never to come back...

For me it started with a fascination with the German language and German almost everything else (long before I moved to Hamburg, that is). I listened to pretty much any non-classical music that had German lyrics - until someone pointed me in the direction of Wagner's Ring. I was absolutely awestruck and instantly hooked. Wagner came first, then came other Romantics, and so it went from there.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

My damascene conversion came at a schools "promenade" concert when I was 13 or 14. The bill included the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, which were impressive enough, but what really blew me away was the _Siegfried Idyll_. Not so much the _Idyll_ itself, which I still find a bit cheesy, but the compère's introduction included a potted account of the _Ring_, with really sparked my interest. That weekend, I joined my town's record library and borrowed a (mono) box set of Solti's _Siegfried_ and was instantly hooked.

Before this concert I wasn't really into music of any description, but thanks to the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra (as it was then called), I've been a "classical" nut ever since.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

My grandfather, now is dead, show me the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and I simply loved them. When I was in my last year of high school? (or just tell me, how do you say the last year just before university?) I used to listen to a classical radio station for hours while I was doing my homework and then I realized I liked baroque and classical periods. Along with that, several years later I discovered that I also like history and particularly military history and I am interested in 18th century warfare, so I am now reading about Poltava battle (1709). Both hobbies complement each other perfectly!


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Casebearer said:


> I got into classical music by listening to it.


(Irony mode on)

With that strategy, I would get into healthy diet by eating healthily.

I admire you.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

My mum used to play Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the car when I was 8 or 9 ( I am now 39). Then for my 10th birthday my parents brought me a small Bontempi organ which I seemed to get to grips with rather easily and soon progressed onto simple musical pieces. I picked up music theory quickly and was soon playing and composing on my mum's upright piano. I just fell in love with Beethoven and Mozart and it progressed from there. So from such a simple gesture as buying a little organ I have discovered what I regard as the most beautiful form of art known to humanity. I am not religious but I feel blessed to be able to sit here now and listen to Beethoven's 12th String Quartet and feel on the edge of tears. Still, that was my little journey.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I wonder, how many of those posters lucky enough to be exposed to classical music by their parents as young kids, would have discovered it for themselves if their parents were "typical" mainstream parents?


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Granate said:


> (Irony mode on)
> 
> With that strategy, I would get into healthy diet by eating healthily.
> 
> I admire you.


Wow, someone admires me. Thank you, I want to let that sink in my consciousness.

I've never understood though what's not to be liked about classical music, it's not something I had to work hard for myself.
I also like a (relatively) healthy diet by myself. Call any vegetable! (except for fennel, dill, anise, coriander)

When it comes to my bad habits I prefer the strategy of just accepting them.


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## quietfire (Mar 13, 2017)

The first classical music I have been exposed to is when I first played the piano and violin.

Sadly, my parents never _ever _listen to classical music. They listen to trashy pop music.


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## NorthernHarrier (Mar 1, 2017)

As a child, I listened to the classical records my parents had - Beethoven's 5th and 9th, Nutcracker Suite, and a few more. I also listened to my parent's jazz albums, which were mostly groups that weaved classical music themes into their jazz (Dave Brubeck Quartet, Modern Jazz Quartet). 

In my teen years, I gravitated toward "art" rock that also utilized classical music themes and sometimes whole classical pieces - Yes, Genesis, etc. I am a big movie fan, and I have always appreciated the use of classical music in movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick's movies introduced me to the music of Ligeti and Penderecki.

I recently decided to learn about and listen to classical music I have always been curious about but never took the time to explore. I wanted to hear more of the music of composers I was familiar with already, and I wanted to learn about music from composers I did not know. I have greatly expanded my classical collection in the last few months, and have listened to much more on YouTube.


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

I was really sad for a long time thinking I would never get into classical music. I loved rock and jazz; Zappa, VU, Beefheart, Coltrane, Coleman. Yet, classical eluded me. I remember listening to Beethovens 9th on my fathers recommendation and being bored to death (going back I have no idea how). Then, I heard Shostakovichs 15th and that really changed it for me. The first movement reminded me a lot of the avant rock I liked.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Curious for what "Amazonians" can tell about in this thread.

Also, I found my first ever Classical Music CD:


















My first and favourite was of course Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter".


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