# Your first piece of Classical Music



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Simple question. What is the first piece of Classical Music you remember hearing and did it influence your tastes in Classical Music?

As a child of the 1950's there was a lot of light classical music on TV used as theme music. The first piece I can really remember was the Lone Ranger theme aka the William Tell overture. I don't think it has influenced my choice of classical music as I am now totally stuck in the baroque period.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

..early seventies, Mozart Symphony no 40, some generic recording on a MFP Greatest hits album my Mom had, after having shown interest (by only playing that track) she got me HiFi-Karajan Vol 2, had Eine Kleine Nachmusik, Die Moldau and Valse Triste on it if IRC, then I went stale for a few years until I heard Shostakovich Fifth on the radio the year he died, bought Previn's RCA cut with LSO and has be a nutter ever since!

/ptr


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Vivaldi's four seasons on LP (33rpm). i was 8 or so, and I decided to play it afterwards at 45rpm to see whether I liked it better that way.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Probably something played on Loony Tunes.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

The Nutcracker when I was a kid (4-5 years old). Out of my mother's entire record collection that was the one I kept requesting. Other things I used to be familiar with back then were Vivaldi's Seasons and Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik but I liked the Nutcracker best. I still like all three composers. I think the biggest influence of liking it so much so early was the very fact that I've never stopped being fond of classical music, even when I was more interested in popular genres.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

My sister took piano lessons in the 1950s (?! ! ?? ! ) and I remember the insidious *Mozart* simple *Sonata in C, K. 545* played haltingly and mechanically as any student would, over and over, along with such timeless classics as John Thompson's "Snug as a Bug in a Rug" from his beginner piano books. I still have issues with Mozart today because of this piece. So yes, I would say it did have influence, but a negative one.

A more serious first awareness of classical arose from the movie _*2001: a space odyssey*_, its soundtrack being the first record album I ever bought with my allowance as an impressionable 12 year old. At nearly $5.00 it was a very expensive LP, and I had to mow a lot of lawns and dry loads of dishes to save for it as I recall. I'm certain the Ligeti pieces allowed me to at least try to enjoy and understand newer music, so that was an influence too.

My 2nd and 3rd albums were from a department store's bargain bins, old Vox label recordings of *Dvorak's 5th Symphony* (which we now call the 9th), and *Beethoven's Emperor Concerto*. These I blasted on a jury rigged "stereo" which I made from an old monophonic console record player and speakers left over from my dad's job as an AM radio station engineer. I placed the speakers around the room, sans cabinets, and ran wires to them. The impedance mismatch was terrible, but it was loud. I had found my niche, and for decades listened only to loud orchestral music. I'm sure a lot of younger people are into that first.

Well, dang, I feel old after writing that! I've seen so many changes, and now even 2001 has come and gone.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> Vivaldi's four seasons on LP (33rpm). i was 8 or so, and I decided to play it afterwards at 45rpm to see whether I liked it better that way.


And what was the verdict?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I liked it better at 33rpm... then again, I only really started to appreciate classical music from age 30 or so onward.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

My parents owned this LP:









I liked jumping in the air like the fellow just right of centre.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

It's a difficult question, in my mind, because my _earliest_ recollection of any sort of "classical" music would likely be from some Looney Tunes, or random film scene.

But when I approach this question -- first piece of classical music you heard -- I think of the first piece of classical music, whether by chance or choice, that I heard and spurred my interest in the genre.

Oddly, I heard *Debussy's Reverie* and *Clair de Lune* by random chance on a classical radio station.

And that sort of sound doesn't just pass you by like any other song on the radio...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

We had a few 78 classical records though we were not a cultured home. I remember back to when I was about six & dancing to De Falla's 'Ritual Fire Dance'. My mother had made me a dancing outfit by sewing pink net over a floral skirt, & Granny added a golden hair-ribbon headdress. I still like this melody though my favourite style is baroque. However, I think I have always seen music as something to dance to as a result of this experience. I love ballet music - Delibes, Tchaikovsky, Lully.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Speaking of putting records on at different speeds: my sister & I had arranged a wedding for her dolls, who were to be marched up the aisle (kitchen table) to the strains of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I accidentally put the record on at 45 rpm instead of 33 rpm (it was an LP; this was a few years later) & we couldn't understand why we were having to move the dolls so quickly....
Sure was a groovy wedding!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> I liked it better at 33rpm... then again, I only really started to appreciate classical music from age 30 or so onward.


rpm or years?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

It was 1980. 
I was a 10-year-old Star Wars fan. 
My dad had an LP of Holst's "The Planets". 
Hmm, I said to myself, I wonder what this sounds like?


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## Jord (Aug 13, 2012)

Obviously i've heard loads of classical growing up because it's everywhere, on tv adverts and hearing it in films and random places, the first piece that i listened to what really got me hooked was probably the first mvt of Mozarts 25th, but before i listened to neoclassical metal all the time, like Malmsteen, Satomura, Vinnie Moore and so on which led me into classical.


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

I started listening a few years ago. I'd wanted to at that point for a few years (I've pretty much rinsed every other genre) but knowing where to start was pretty daunting.
First piece I listened to at all regularly: Sibelius - Valse Triste
First CD: Satie - Works For Piano played by Aldo Ciccolini
First piece that really convinced me I must listen to much more classical: Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto 2


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

I don't know, probably something my mom listened to while she was pregnant. :lol:

The first piece I actually _remember_ hearing is Bach's Minuet in G, but my little ears didn't really like it at the time.

The first concert I went to was one that made a difference. It was a concert of Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, and I absolutely _loved_ it, even though I was confused about why it was called The Seasons but had 12 movements...


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2013)

Early 60s...actual records played in the house which I could easily tell was not part of the pop (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Manfred Mann) that predominated...

Dvorak - From the New World
Holst - Planets Suite: Mars
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture

I wouldn't say it 'influenced' my current classical tastes - I own the Dvorak, but I can't listen to it, I don't own any Tchaikovsky. But I have three versions of the Holst (Boult, Sargent, Dutoit)


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I remember "Largo al Factotum" by Rossini; that's probably the earliest piece I remember hearing (along with a record of the Nutcracker and Swan Lake suite at my grandmother's house). I was no older than 4. But I was definitely introduced to opera first. My first classical CDs were three Pavarotti opera compilations. After that I got three CDs from that "25 Favorites" series: Mozart, Beethoven, and Opera. Collecting those sample/compilation CDs is what fueled my interest in classical.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Allegedly Dvorak's 9th was the first piece of music I ever heard, but of course being only a few days old at the time I don't remember that. The one that springs to mind is Boléro, but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing some other stuff before that at some point, just not what it was.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Kivimees said:


> My parents owned this LP:
> 
> View attachment 14495
> 
> ...


It's a very good LP,i have it still . Mine was a 78 of Chopin's Polonaise In A Major.
I decided it was obviously illustrating an army major in a bad temper--wasn't so far off for a small kid.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I'm pretty sure it was an opera my brother Frank had his radio tuned to, must have been a Sunday broadcast from New York. No details possible; it was a _long_ time ago.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ I think he meant _the first one you remember_.


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

As I said in my first (and only) Thread-posting

http://www.talkclassical.com/23670-hello-its-nice-here.html

my first musical memory is listening to Bach's Violin Concerto in E...played to me by my Dad, when I was about 4 or 5 years old. And by the weirdest coincidence...that was the last piece of music that I listened-to with him, 86 years later...the day before he died.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

MacLeod said:


> Early 60s...actual records played in the house which I could easily tell was not part of the pop (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Manfred Mann) that predominated...
> 
> Dvorak - From the New World
> Holst - Planets Suite: Mars
> ...


I can really connect with this. I had a crush on Paul Jones from Manfred Mann - went to see him a couple of years ago & still found him massively attractive (don't tell Taggart!) and I remember all three classical pieces as floating around in the 60s zeitgeist. My sister owned the 1812 & my brother bought the Adrian Boult Planets LP, then sold it on to me after he listened to the lesser known pieces & didn't like them: 'Talk about Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age - it makes me old!'


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Crudblud said:


> The one that springs to mind is Boléro.


I saw the movie with Bo Derek, really enjoyed it... 

First classical music I remember is some Strauss when I was young. It was the only classical music my parents had. I quite enjoyed it: it sounded from another world to the Beatles and the Jam and so on...


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> ...my brother bought the Adrian Boult Planets LP, then sold it on to me after he listened to the lesser known pieces & didn't like them: 'Talk about Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age - it makes me old!'


Thinking about it, the Quatermass theme was Mars by Holst.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

deggial said:


> ^ I think he meant _the first one you remember_.


He doesn't remember much---he's very old you know!


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## mactaffi (Mar 10, 2013)

Hello everyone! I've just joined, so pardon any clumsiness! My first remembered music was William Tell overture, originally from The Lone Ranger, but later at my uncle's house, where he taught me that music _I_ knew was only a small part of the whole. I have progressed from there to anything from Hildegard of Bingen to Sibelius and (some) Britten. I love orchestral music and chamber, but have very little time for opera. (Hides behind settee!:lol
Cheers, mactaffi


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

moody said:


> It's a very good LP,i have it still .


Our copy likely still exists somewhere, but I don't know what shape it's in.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

moody said:


> He doesn't remember much---he's very old you know!


what he listened to this morning will do!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

mactaffi said:


> Hello everyone! I've just joined, so pardon any clumsiness! *My first remembered music was William Tell overture*, originally from The Lone Ranger, but later at my uncle's house, where he taught me that music _I_ knew was only a small part of the whole. I have progressed from there to anything from Hildegard of Bingen to Sibelius and (some) Britten. I love orchestral music and chamber, *but have very little time for opera*. (Hides behind settee!:lol
> Cheers, mactaffi


methinks you need to honour your roots


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## GodNickSatan (Feb 28, 2013)

My brother had the soundtrack for _A Clockwork Orange_ that he used to listen to all the time when I was around 10 or so. I loved hearing it, but I was really confused why some of it sounded so electronic when I knew the music was over 100 years old!


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

My first two pieces that I can remember are:
1: The Barcelona album by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe. Granted this is crossover with many elements but this opened my mind in a big way and if it weren't for Montserrat's wonderful performances I would never have been open to trying opera or vocal classical works.
2: A Clockwork Orange, my first exposure to classical in great quantity. Beethoven's 9th stands out clearest though technically Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen... Would be the first piece on the film I heard albeit in synthesised form. The film and the book moreso really opened my mind and the films soundtrack was like a quick introduction to a world of music which otherwise would have appeared stuffy and inaccessible. I will always be grateful for that film for the soundtrack alone (though the disturbing story and excellent acting are also incredible).

Other than that, I suppose snippets of classical tunes in old Warner Brothers cartoons would be my best guess - especially the infamous _kill the wabbit_ Wagner twist.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

AClockworkOrange said:


> My first two pieces that I can remember are:
> 1: The Barcelona album by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe. Granted this is crossover with many elements but this opened my mind in a big way and if it weren't for Montserrat's wonderful performances I would never have been open to trying opera or vocal classical works.
> 2: A Clockwork Orange, my first exposure to classical in great quantity. Beethoven's 9th stands out clearest though technically Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen... Would be the first piece on the film I heard albeit in synthesised form. The film and the book moreso really opened my mind and the films soundtrack was like a quick introduction to a world of music which otherwise would have appeared stuffy and inaccessible. I will always be grateful for that film for the soundtrack alone (though the disturbing story and excellent acting are also incredible).
> 
> Other than that, I suppose snippets of classical tunes in old Warner Brothers cartoons would be my best guess - especially the infamous _kill the wabbit_ Wagner twist.


Malcolm McDowell's performance in trhis and in "If.." seemed to point to greater things, but somehow it didn't ever really happen.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

moody said:


> Malcolm McDowell's performance in trhis and in "If.." seemed to point to greater things, but somehow it didn't ever really happen.


I think that being in Caligula would be enough to destroy anyone's career overnight.


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## RonP (Aug 31, 2012)

The 1812 Overture. I'd heard the end of it in so many different settings that I picked it up from the library. Imagine my surprise when I realized there was about another 16 minutes of the piece before I got to the part I knew.  That album also had the Romeo and Juliet Overture and Marche Slav on it, the latter part left me confused when I heard parts that were similar to the 1812.

I was maybe 17 or so then (late 70s) and didn't give classical anymore thought until I got to Germany in the early 80s. I had a German friend who introduced me to more classical and the hook was set.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

In the mid 1950s, our family had a 12-inch 78 RPM recording of Michael Haydn's "Toy" Symphony (among many other records of various genres) which, for some reason, I took to, and played frequently. I guess that was the first classical piece I heard. Soon thereafter, I was able to hear (via TV, radio, and other places my family exposed me to) the usual suspects -- Strauss Waltzes, Tchaikovsky ballets, Peer Gynt, Bernstein's televised lecture/concerts. It was clear from an early age that classical spoke to me, and my parents were good at going with the flow (each of us liked a different kind of music).


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I can't recall the first piece I ever listened to because I heard classical since way too young but the first piece that made me start buying and collecting and overall non-stop listening was Grieg's piano concerto and that was at about 14. Dubrovka Tomsic was the first but luckily I had a Festival Sinfonico 4-cd set from Reader's Digest in my rack that had Earl Wild playing the piece. I kinda never went back to just casually listening.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Would have liked it to have been Martin Pas by Varese but alas poor yorick I didn't know him well. I could say Ionisation but I jest....

Probably something on TV when young I guess, B&D roller door ad, sung to the Toreodor's theme from Carmen??????


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2013)

EricABQ said:


> Probably something played on Loony Tunes.


Rossini, The Rabbit of Seville





Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries





Kill the waaaa-bit. Kill the waaa-bit.

LMAO!


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

The first piece that _really_ captured my imagination was _Cappricio Italien_ by Tchaikovsky.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Jerome said:


> Rossini, The Rabbit of Seville
> 
> Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries
> 
> ...


Wow! Seeing these as an adult I realize I didn't get half the jokes as a kid. We should mention the utterly insane Looney Tunes theme too. Not classical, maybe, and not something I'd want to sit down and listen to, but I'm trying to imaging being in an orchestra playing that kind of stuff!  It's really bizarre music when you think about it.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

When I was about six I heard by dad playing _Für Elise_, and I asked him to teach me to play that and only that on the piano. I was informed that id doesn't work that way.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Weston said:


> Wow! Seeing these as an adult I realize I didn't get half the jokes as a kid.


Looney Tunes is surprisingly cerebral.

The thing that struck me when I was rewatching them is that they seem to use a lot more xylophone than Wagner actually calls for.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

The first work I heard in its entirety was at school when I was about 11 - and it was Peter & The Wolf. Before then the only bit of classical I really recognised was the opening to Beethoven's 5th. At some point around then we also sang the words to Schubert's Trout and Lindenbaum songs in English while the teacher played what I remember to be a badly-tuned upright. Another school lesson a couple of years later focussed on the Hary Janos Suite by Kodaly which made more of an impression (I always remembered the Viennese clocks and the looming French army bits) but I didn't start collecting classical music properly until I was in my mid-30s.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> The first work I heard in its entirety was at school when I was about 11 - and it was Peter & The Wolf.


That resonates with me too, elgars ghost; I notice you live in England. There was a radio programme for schools that went through Peter & the Wolf to teach about the instruments of the orchestra & what they could be used for. (You may not be thinking of this, of course. Peter & the Wolf is a fine teaching tool in any case.)
A bit later the same Schools Broadcast taught the same thing using Britten's 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', which is based on Purcell's Rondo. As a result, my sister & I actually thought Britten had written the Rondo tune.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Ingenue said:


> That resonates with me too, elgars ghost; I notice you live in England. There was a radio programme for schools that went through Peter & the Wolf to teach about the instruments of the orchestra & what they could be used for. (You may not be thinking of this, of course. Peter & the Wolf is a fine teaching tool in any case.)
> A bit later the same Schools Broadcast taught the same thing using Britten's 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', which is based on Purcell's Rondo. As a result, my sister & I actually thought Britten had written the Rondo tune.


Hie, Ingenue. As this is going back nearly 40 years I can't actually remember if it was on the radio or whether a record player was brought into the classroom, but I agree that with the Britten P&tW does have a history of being used for teaching purposes. Going even further back to my primary school days I remember a radio programme I think called Musical Movement when us kids were supposed to exercise to the presenter's prompts while certain themed music played - I can't recall if any famous pieces were used, though.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes, I remember that! Imitate the action of a tree in the breeze or a strong fire shooting out sparks. Ah, the days of yore...


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

probably moonlight sonata.

but im sure i heard twinkle twinkle little star and merry christmas before that.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Someone had given me LPs of Sibelius, 2nd and 5th (Berglund). I also
had the Kullervo LPs. It did not catch on right away, and I took a
detour by way of Bach and Vivaldi for a few years. First LP I paid
moneu for had Vivaldi flute and bassoon concertos on Odyssey, RV 483
for the bassoon. The detour became my other path for decades. So there
were two main areas eventually, 1980 to 1930 and baroque.


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