# Your listening history



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Tell us your listening history in regards to classical music What phases did you go through? How have your listening habits changed? or not changed? Any composers you used to love but now hate or vice versa? A very open ended thread. Share your stories. 

Before I listened to classical music I mostly listened to pop music, things like N'sync and Britney Spears and stuff, that was what was popular when I was growing up. I can't remember when exactly I "got into" classical music, but it was around the time I started playing the viola. Then for christmas one year my grandma gave me a set of CDs featuring various works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky. 

My first listening phase I went through was a Baroque period phase. Coming from listening to pop music, I think the Romantic period music was a little too long and daunting for me. Classical music was too "happy" for my taste at the time. I hadn't even considered 20th/21st century classical music at this point. I think Baroque music appealed to me at first because most of the movements were about the same length as a pop song (3-4 minutes approx.), the music was very rhythmically driving and not complex. I think Baroque music has the strongest sense of a regular beat in all the periods of music which is another reason why I think it appealed to me so much coming from listening to pop music. Anyway, in this period of my listening, I mostly listened to Bach (pieces like the Brandenbergs and violin concertos) and Vivaldi. In fact, Vivaldi was my very favorite composer at that time. I never got into Handel for whatever reason. 

As time went on and I got more used to listening to classical music, I eventually got used to listening to longer and more structurally complex works, I switched over to the Romantic period. This was my second phase in listening. Actually, at this time in my listening phase I listened to almost exclusively Romantic period works because compared to these piece, all the other periods of music just seemed emotionally drab to me. It was kind of like I was on emotional steroids at the time and the other periods of music besides Romantic period music just didn't satisfy me. At this point I knew about 20th/21st century music but it sounded so foreign and alien to me and I really didn't like it at all. It's funny how emotional Baroque music used to seem to me when I was new at classical music because now at this point (phase 2) in my listening and even to this day it doesn't move me at all the way it used to. 

My first breakthrough with 20th century classical came with listening to the Rite of Spring while reading a listening guide. Sense my mind at this point was plagued with the stereotype that "modern music" had sacrificed emotions to intellectualism I didn't think a piece written in a modern style could be so dramatic and moving! I loved it! So during what I would say was phase 3 of my listening, I almost exclusively listened to late romantic composers (at this point the early romantics weren't cutting it for me anymore, with the exception of Beethoven, who I always loved) and the more accessible 20th century composers such as early Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. However, I still found composers like Schoenberg, Berg, Boulez, and Scriabin to be too alien to my listening habits at this point. 

This changed when my mom got me a wonderful documentary about 20th century orchestral music by Sir Simon Rattle. I wasn't too interested in watching it when I got it but once I finally did it changed my perspective on modern music entirely. The way Sir Simon Rattle described the music with such enthusiasm and with so many colorful adjectives just converted me somehow. I no longer saw any 20th century music as inhuman intellectual exercises but as deliciously expressive as any other music I listened to. So this brought about phase 4 in my listening. I felt like a whole new world had opened up to me and I wanted to listen to as much as I could, therefore I went through a phase where I listened almost exclusively to 20th/21st century music.

Now I am in phase 5, which I would call my everything phase.  I am constantly on the lookout for new music that I haven't heard before, from any period, and in any classical or instrumental style. I am forming some trends in my listening now. I still listening extensively to 20th/21st century music since there is so much diversity in these periods of music. I still really like Romantic music, but I tend to find that a lot of the obscure romantic composers' music is pretty average-ish but there are definitely some major gems (Atterberg anyone?). I am discovering a new love of Mozart's music that I have never had before but I find that any other composer from the classical period I just find pretty boring, but I am still willing to listen with open ears. Same with the Baroque period. Aside from Bach and Handel, I find that most Baroque music is very similar and quite boring. Even Vivaldi, who I used to adore when I first started listening, I find almost mind-numbingly predictable. 
I am listening to Opera more than I have before in any of my other listening phases as well. Also discovering I like quite a bit of Renaissance and medieval music. I'm also really enjoying listening to some traditional folk music. Such as traditional music from Asia and the Middle East. There's some really cool exotic sounding stuff there. 

Anyway that is my listening history! Now share yours!


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Well, listening is everything, isn't it? The passive aspect of for CM is obvious, but many need to know this tool is valuable for face to face communication as well. You learn much more by listening than talking. Of course it doesn't work as well, if both know the art. That's all.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

The first composer I listened to a lot was Sibelius, through the Kalevala association of some of his works (partially out of something approaching an embarrassing "Scandinavian identity" phase. I know, Finland's technically not... blah blah). I have always enjoyed the usual suspects, though: Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, etc. 

I appreciated Schoenberg instantly. There's so much borrowed from him in so much of the other music I like, I felt right at home.

There was a period where I scarcely listened to anything except Mahler. This apparently is not all that uncommon.

Contrary to OP, for me, Baroque came after some Romantic/Classical/Modern experience. I always had this assumption that it was too academic and proper, everything I hate about music, as someone who considers jazz my main musical love. Then I heard Bach--actually listened to and heard Bach, not some youtube clip or commercial--and threw that notion out the window. Total humanity and depth.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

It's not uncommon, I went through my Mahler only phase too and he's still in my top 10


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

regressivetransphobe said:


> There was a period where I scarcely listened to anything except Mahler. This apparently is not all that uncommon.


Haha, yes, I had one of those too. Did _this_ happen to you?
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Gustav_Mahler#The_Mahler_Effect

But in all seriousness, I still love Mahler. Just no longer at the near-exclusion of everybody else.

My listening history (simplified version):
Broadway musicals (mildly embarrassing) --> Whatever classical recordings my parents had lying around that looked interesting --> Mahler --> variety of CM, and some other music

This is an interesting topic which I will probably revisit in more detail in the morning when I am not sleepy.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

i also enjoyed simon rattle's documentary series on c20th music. stravinsky's rite of spring was a "watershed" for me as well, i first heard it at about the age of 12. another breakthrough came at 19, when i heard my first "atonal" work, berg's opera wozzeck. i first started listening to classical music as a toddler, my parents had recordings of composers like j.s.bach, vivaldi, mozart, tchaikovsky, brahms, beethoven, chopin, wagner (but we also listened to things like pink floyd, led zeppelin, louis armstrong, the beatles!). i started collecting recordings and going to concerts with my parents in my teens. at about age 20 i went off music generally, had other things going on in life, as we all do then. i still listened to the radio for works new to me, one day i was resting and turned it on to hear a piece by vaughan williams, and then i bought some of his stuff. gorecki's symphony of sorrowful songs was also a work i heard for the first time on air, and then i got it soon after on disc. same thing happened with messiaen's quartet for the end of time. so even in the years of not focussing much on music, i still discovered some new things. 

n the last few years, after a kind of diversion into jazz, i've gotten back into the swing of classical, buying some recordings and going to recitals and concerts - everything is up for grabs, from acoustic, to vocal, electronic, i like it all (opera is my least favourite, but i still like it from time to time - the three tenors 1990 (rome) concert has always been a favourite since i first saw it on television). now after a few years of intensively getting into classical, i'm kind of taking a break, taking things more slowly. i'm actually going back to musics of earlier times, as well as just listening to a lot of non-classical for variation/relaxation - eg. techno & mixes on radio. i think i'm going to go slower now, i have already been buying less new cd's & tending to listen to what i have in more depth rather than just getting dozens of new things which i have little headspace for now. i'm kind of mentally overloaded with music & putting it more in the background. but i still listen to something everyday, and i'm going to like a few recitals/concerts per month.

i'm now getting into other areas of the classical universe - musicals (not embarassing in the slightest, my dear friend!!!), film music, operetta, arrangements by mantovani and andre rieu. i don't like to compare so-called "serious" and "light" musics. they're all just part of humanity's different, rich and diverse ways of telling their stories. they're all good...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

After pop and rock for close to two decades, I ventured into classical in the mid eighties. The usual suspects first: Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Dvorak. Gradually tried more fields, found genres and time periods I liked and liked less. Digged romantic music, late romantic music, and early/mid 20th century until contemporary, tried baroque and earlier and did not appreciate it that much (except Bach). Loved symphonic music, organ music and Lieder right from the start, got into chamber music later. Tried many times, but never became a very big fan of solo piano or opera. Became a completionist in terms of CD collections (all symphonies by many, many composers), and specialized in British music.

Quit classical for about 10 years, picked it up a few years ago. Discovered a few new composers and compositions, but have not really changed my taste.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

"After... jazz, I've gotten back into the swing of classical..."

I enjoyed that in a punny way. I don't know whether you meant it, but if you did, bravo!

Innarestin stories all around. I've not had (yet) an all-Mahler phase.

1. Up to age 17 or so: Parents didn't let me listen to secular pop music, and classical was just off the radar. Mostly listened to stuff like Carmen, Petra, and my parents' southern gospel, such as the Stanley Brothers, Crystal Gayle and so on.

2. Age 17-24 or so: Listening to classical music, with some enjoyment, because I felt I should. Small funds, limited options, random purchases. Lots of Naxos, some Kronos Quartet. Favorite music: Chopin's Funeral March, Mozart's Requiem, Chopin's Nocturnes, Crumb's Black Angels, Shostakovich's 8th string quartet, Mahler 2, Mozart 40, Mozart piano concerto 20, Tchaikovsky piano concerto 1. Explored a lot of random, somewhat obscure (relative to my ignorance) music: Takemitsu, Aho, Bantock, Kilar and so on. Didn't really understand anything, just "liked it" or "didn't like it."

Had a brief Napster period where I learned a lot about pop music history: from the Golden Gate Quartet through Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd up to Guns N Roses and Nirvana. It was all new to me. Loved it.

I took a year-long music theory class my senior year of high school, so I understood the basic mechanics of music (chords, keys, time signatures and so on) but I didn't really know what I was doing when I listened to the music. Even structures as simple as "theme and variations" were beyond me. I simply didn't grasp the concept of listening to the music with undivided attention. Also, I failed a "music appreciation" course while dating a professional cellist.

3. Age 25-32 or so: Slowly learning more. Reading books like _The Vintage Guide to Classical Music_, David Dubal's _The Essential Canon of Classical Music_, and so on. Rather than random intuitive purchases, increasingly focused on the most famous recordings of the most famous music, most of which I'm now familiar with, though still not as familiar with some of it as I "should" be.

Got a better grasp of musical structures, from sonata form to counterpoint, and other intellectual aspects of the music, but still nothing like professional knowledge. Went through a brief Chopin phase, then a Mozart phase, then a somewhat longer Brahms phase. Perhaps a Beethoven and Bach phase, if that makes sense. Then a French romanticism phase.

4. 32-34 or so: Major jazz phase. Miles Davis changed my life, then changed it again. I feel fortunate to have a little comprehension of what he was doing; hard to believe anyone was brilliant enough actually to do it. Explored a bit of earlier jazz and a bit of more modern jazz as well, but mostly stuck to the major Blue Note albums, 50s and 60s, Duke and Mingus and Getz and so on.

5. Last year or so: Laid off the jazz a bit, back into classical most of the time. May now be in a baroque phase, but it's not very intense. Increasingly appreciative of lieder, which concludes a long struggle with that genre. Picking up more "classic" pop albums--the Beatles, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and so on, which interest me as history lessons, but in general the music itself isn't overwhelming me. Some exceptions: Bob Marley, the Rolling Stones, and some fusion jazz. As for classical: still trying to solidify my familiarity with the basic repertoire. Lots more opera, which I'd neglected.

6. Looking forward: Continuing to focus on the relatively basic repertoire, especially the renaissance, baroque and modern periods. Increasingly branching out to somewhat more obscure music, again mostly renaissance, baroque and modern. More early jazz to solidify my foundational knowledge there. Hoping to explore the music of South Asia and the Middle East in much more depth than I have so far, and then perhaps Africa, East and Southeast Asia as well. Also electronica - a genre I expect to enjoy immensely.

Used to try to compare recordings, now I usually focus on expanding the breadth rather than the depth of my collection and knoweldge. Have acquired a fairly large collection (something like 1500 cds counting some of those big box sets) which I have not even begun to fully appreciate, and should probably stop buying new stuff. (That is definitely my wife's opinion.) Only for a few works that I love very much am I willing to lay out funds for multiple recordings.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Since I started playing piano at about age 10, I learned about a lot of classical music simply by playing it on the piano, either in its original form or in some reduction. 

As far as listening is concerned...
Age 14-15: My first real music love was disco! <_< I really liked it for some reason..
Age 16-18: My classic rock phase. I couldn't get enough Floyd, Zeppelin, The Beatles, RS, Bob Dylan, etc.
Age 19-21: This is when I finally began to seriously listen to classical music instead of just playing it. I began by learning a lot more about solo piano repertoire and the concerto repertoire, then branched out into orchestral and symphonic music, and now more recently I'm starting to enjoy chamber music and opera. I still don't like choral music very much... reminds me of church! blegh! Anyway, I now listen to classical exclusively.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

My "story" is more or less similar to violadude's, in that I started off liking soft pop music (what can I say...it was the only music my mom ever played since I was about 7 years old) and only started listening to classical after starting viola. Then I was sort of floundering, since I had no idea what to listen to (partly I'm sure because nobody told me about TC!), so I listened to random Mozart stuff (the seeds of my contempt were sown when I was 11 or 12, I think) and Beethoven symphonies, as my dad is a bit of a classical music nut who likes Beethoven symphonies. So I really liked those and somewhere along the line I picked up a random biography of Johannes Brahms from a library sale, hardcover for about $3. Yes, it's the really really good one by Jan Swafford.

So I started reading it and was captivated, and I started listening to a lot of Brahms and liked it a lot, fueled partly by our youth orchestra playing the finale of the first symphony in some concert (yeah, I think I was already in high school by that time...I did a lot of wandering). I listened to the symphonies a lot, and not much else because I had never really gotten into stuff other than symphonic.

Then there was Mahler, who sort of violently shoved Brahms out of my mind. He was introduced to me partly by my youth orchestra, partly by my viola teacher, partly by my dad, and partly by my aunt and uncle. It went sort of like this: We were going to play the finale of Mahler 1 (yes, we did all bleeding chunks at that time) in youth orchestra, and the music was so unbelievably hard for me to wrap my head around at the time that I decided I needed to hear it, so my viola teacher lent me the Boulez recording of Mahler 1, which blew me away but wasn't quite the thunderbolt that would happen later. Then my dad, hearing about my kinda-interest in Mahler, had me listen to a bit of the 10th symphony (the Ormandy Cooke I), which was gorgeous but honestly went a little over my head.

No, I suppose the real thunderbolt came in two parts: After my aunt and uncle gave me Bernstein's Sony cycle for Christmas one year, I was absent-mindedly listening through it, and toward the end of the second symphony my attention was torn away from what I was doing, and then the last five minutes or so went by and I could swear I'd heard the most incredible thing I'd ever heard...so I listened to the whole symphony the next day and I think that decisively changed me. Then I read about the 6th in David Hurwitz's book, listened to it, and that was the second decisive experience that launched me headfirst into Mahler. I was virtually addicted to him for over a year, I think. Rather dark time of my life that I like to think Mahler helped me through.

Then there was Sibelius. I don't know what exactly set me off on Sibelius. My dad has a few CDs of Bernstein conducting symphonies 4-7, so I would listen to those and never quite get the essence of them. Maybe it was Colin Davis' BSO recording of the third? Either way, it was the third symphony and the violin concerto that got me into Sibelius first, the violin concerto being the legendary 1950's Heifetz tour-de-force that I never listen to anymore and the third symphony being by Colin Davis and the BSO which I've since sold. The third symphony remains near the top of my favorite Sibelius symphonies, recently competing with 4, 6, and 7...

Opera's another thing altogether, which I think I've detailed somewhat in the "opera journey" thread. Since those events, I've never quite gone through a proper opera "phase," though I do go through times of interest in opera and others where I just don't care about it.

Twentieth century music came to me during the latter years of high school. Remember that Boulez Mahler 1 that got me into Mahler? It was also almost directly responsible for my initial obsession with modern music. It's that simple. I didn't listen to any 2VS music at first; that was still incredibly formidable-seeming to me then. Somewhere along the line I got into Edmund Rubbra, and that was great, and then Boulez himself, which was fascinating...I never really got into any one composer until I found Kalevi Aho and Arvo Part, both of whom I still listen to now and again.

College started and that was crazy. Listened to anything and everything, pretty much. Per Norgard, JS Bach cantatas, complete works of Webern, Victoria, Enescu...all those were basically obsessions that started and ended in my first year of college (except Enescu, Bach, and Victoria; I'm still in love with them).

And then Bruckner, on whom I'm still stuck. I started listening to him first over a year ago, when I dug through my record collection and found a record of Klemperer and the Philharmonia in the fourth symphony. I played it and was listening to it quite carefully, and it was another of those "wow" moments, a real thrill. And then I heard Celibidache's recording and that basically sealed the deal. Strangely enough, though, I've only been able to get Bruckner CDs just a little at a time. With Mahler and Sibelius, it's very easy to buy massive amounts of their music in bulk, but with Bruckner there's a slight mental block there.

Anyway, this post has gone on way too long, so I'll end it here. There are other phases I've gone through, with French music and Renaissance music and stuff like that, but I couldn't insert it in here as it was all rather stream of consciousness. So this is it for now, and I'll update on the "current listening" thread to continue this.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I first stumbled into classical music in college because I was interested in a cute flute player who was a music major, so I took a music appreciation course. That's when I fell in love with the music so much that I was a music major for two years, until I found out I couldn't make a living in music, so I switched to court reporting school. 

I stopped listening for 20 years until I moved to Tennessee, when I bought a piano and then bought a recording of Erik Satie's piano pieces. That hooked me back in as I explored him and his effect on the 20th Century. Next I got into Beethoven, then those before and after him who were related to his music. Since his Heileger Dankesang has passages that go back to Obrecht, I discovered composers Obrecht, Ockeghem, Des Prez. Next I became interested in sacred music, starting with Bach.

With those four composers, I ended up listening to and finding something to like in everything from Gregorian Chant to present-day composers.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

When I was very young I was into mostly pop and rock, and also liked a little bit of classical. By Grade 5 I started to enjoy techno and hip hop - technotronic, mc hammer, and yes even milli vanilli (at first) 

Grades 6 and 7 were a big rap phase, groups like public enemy, Ice-T, N.W.A. 

Grade 8 I made a major switch to grunge - Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden etc.

Grades 9 through 12 saw me branch much further into classic rock- The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. but also trying all kinds of mainstream music across the board, even some country. 

After grade 12 I became quite serious about playing the guitar and settled into a long phase where I was mostly only interested in music that I liked the guitar in - first it was The Tragically Hip, then I heard the Days of the New Orange album and it was revolutionary to me, and I became obsessed with music (Travis Meeks is/was very infuenced by classical music) I also really got into Dave Matthews for a while, and The Mars Volta, Metallica and Megadeth as well, followed up by a couple year phase in where I played and listened to almost nothing but Led Zeppelin and Cream. 

After this I started to burn out on rock music, and started to crave more intricately structured sounds, that were able to encompass a wider variety of emotions. I started to listen to a bit of classical music on the radio and youtube, then I learned Bach's Bouree in e-minor on the guitar (from lute suite BWV 996), and from that point (which was around 5 or 6 years ago) I was completely captivated and hooked on classical music, and felt that I had found my true musical passion. I immediately enrolled in some classical guitar lessons with a private instructor, learned how to read music, and spent the next 5 years spending virtually every free moment working at playing classical pieces of music on the guitar, and of course listening to a LOT of classical music as well (initially guitar pieces/composers then branched out from there). 

I am still in this classical music phase and this board has been a tremendous help in broadening my listening and understanding of classical music!


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

*Age <13*: I never listened to any music. This is no exaggeration. I don't know exactly why - my Mum always listened to generic pop, and my Dad always listened to heavy metal, neither of which appealed to me. Plus, I was very isolated as a child - didn't socialise well (or want to), so the trends at the time never rubbed off on me.

*13-15*: For some reason that I can't quite remember, I decided to start taking piano lessons. As a matter of course at my school, this meant doing ABRSM grades, which meant being introduced to classical music (I remember the first ever piece I played was a tarantella, hence my obsession! ), and I absolutely _looooved_ it. I couldn't understand why nobody I knew listened to this stuff, and so I started exploring. I think my first CD was of the Mozart Requiem, but my parents also began buying me film music and classical 'chillout' CDs and the like, which, at the time, I really enjoyed.

*16-17*: As my tastes developed, I turned away from generic orchestral music from films, and vowed never to listen to mere extracts from famous works again! I continued searching out Mozart, finding great pleasure initially in his Horn Concertos and Clarinet Concerto - still some of my absolute favourite pieces - and eventually moved onto Beethoven, his 6th and 9th symphonies being big breakthroughs for me. When I was at school with my one friend, I would often just look at her and think: "How can you not spend your whole time listening to music like this?!", but was so engrossed in the music myself that I didn't care about evangelising.

*18*: Just before I turned 18, I began suffering a long period of depression (I'm still on the tail end), and it was at this time - the summer before university - that, despite knowing _of_ the movement before, I really came to _understand_ Romanticism - its ideals, its dreams, and, of course, its composers. For me at the time, Romanticism encompassed everything I had ever thought of life on my own, and I had stumbled across a whole artistic period that seemed to magically share all my sentiments - it was a very special moment for me.  Naturally, it was around this time that I discovered Brahms - the very first thing I listened to being his 3rd symphony - and I have been in love with the man ever since.

*18-21*: From then up until now, I have continued spiralling my way through composers around Brahms, though always returning to him. Due to their close relationships, I found my way to the Schumanns and Dvorak, loving their music too, and also expanded my horizons to the Romantic Russians, who have a special place in my heart. In the past year or so, I have also developed a special liking for Grieg and other Scandinavian composers - probably informed by studying Icelandic literature. However, so far, Baroque music has never appealed to me. I have a very small amount of Bach and Handel in my library, but I never listen to it really, and never search out any other Baroque composers. For now, I have what seems to be a vast ocean of Classical and Romantic music to acquaint myself with (and I'm the obsessive type who likes to try to listen to _everything_!), so I'm just happy with that.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well... seeing that a lot of young people have done this, I guess I'm qualified anyway. I imagine a person who has been listening to music a _lot _longer than me would have more interesting trends and phases.

To sum it up, there's been 2 phases.

1. Non-Russian Phase: I liked Holst, Dvorak, Respighi among others for a long time, still do, but not so hotly. (6th through 9th grade) My knowledge was scarce, but I knew of course who Beethoven, Bach, Mozart etc. were. I think I liked Schubert already then too.

2. Russian-Phase: Upon the discovery of Glazunov in 9th grade, my whole world turned upside down. I fell in love with like 20 other Russian composers from that point on, and composers who influenced or were influenced by these Russians, namely Wagner, Grieg, more Dvorak. I started having these mini-phases/hypes with certain composers, once with Rimsky-Korsakov, another with Wagner, another with Grieg.
I also moved to the 20th Century music (still Russians, but others too) and acquired a taste for dissonance I hadn't known before. It all depends on what I discover first.

Of course, there are tons of others in between, but that's how I can map it out.

So, I'm still in phase 2 (It's only been 3-4 years would you believe!), and probably will divide it up as having 2 parts to it: Romantic for all 4 years, and 20th Century coming around the last 2 years.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

I didn't really have any particular musical tastes as a child. I was content to listen to whatever my parents listened to, which was pretty varied. I started piano lessons at 5 (my idea, not my parents'), but music was not a very important part of my life.

At 11, I started playing clarinet in the band at school and also started getting into musicals. They became all I listened to for the next four years or so. For most of that time, I was undiscriminating within the genre, but as a teenager I developed a partiality toward Stephen Sondheim. I still think he's the best lyricist ever to write for Broadway, as well as an excellent theater composer.

Cultural activities like going to the ballet and symphony had been a regular part of my childhood, I guess because my educator parents, and especially my artsy mother, were into that sort of thing. I found these activities pleasant enough, but the first time I was really _moved_ by a symphony concert was when I heard a semi-professional orchestra play Sibelius 5 in a local church when I was 15 years old. My relationship to music was changing at that time. I'm not really sure why, but it may have had to do with my becoming more serious about clarinet after entering high school (after almost giving it up, for a complicated set of reasons, and then panicking about that decision, and realizing that I loved playing clarinet more than any other activity). Music was becoming more important to me. I didn't realize the impact of that concert at the time, but looking back, it seems to have made a big difference. It marked the beginning of my actively seeking out classical music.

At 16, I joined a youth orchestra, which gave me my introduction to a great deal of music. It was also my first experience with Mahler. In the wind ensemble associated with my orchestra, we were playing a wind ensemble transcription of the finale of Mahler 7. Besides being terrifically difficult to play (I was principal clarinet, and we got most of the first violin stuff ), the music didn't make any sense to me. I wrapped my head around it by listening to it on youtube multiple times. Through clicking on related videos, I found Bernstein conducting the end of Mahler 2, which completely bowled me over and had me in tears and then I was a Mahler junkie for the next year.

And then I started college and decided to double major in sociology and music. So I had to take music history classes, which meant many hours of assigned listening with which I had to familiarize myself for tests. I have now taken my school's full cycle of four music history classes, covering medieval through contemporary music, and these classes have broadened my listening considerably. 20th century music history was one of the most valuable classes I've taken in college so far. Before I took it, I was leery of 20th century music, which I would estimate now accounts for almost half my listening. The class taught me to hear different kinds of beauty to which my ears had previously been closed.

Now my listening is more varied than it's ever been (other than when I was little and didn't care what I listened to), but at any given time, there's usually one composer on whom I'm most focused. These days I've been listening to a lot of Beethoven, especially the piano sonatas. I am currently in a place where I would play nothing but Beethoven if my teacher would let me. But for piano juries at school we have to play two pieces from different time periods, so I can't just zero in myopically on my current love. Oh well.

And this is a long post. Goodness.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Meaghan, would your current love of Beethoven's piano sonatas have anything to do with your current avatar?


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

This is really interesting for me to read how everyone's tastes in music have changed (or stayed the same) so much over time!


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## BelaBartok (May 24, 2011)

I discovered classical music by listening to my Dad's classical records in 7th grade. The first classical work that I ever heard was Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then I got a cd of Baroque music and became obsessed with mainly Baroque music, especially Vivaldi's concertos in general. I basically skipped over the Classical Era at first, except for a little bit of Mozart. 

I then got into the Romantic period by way of Chopin's music. I was taking piano lessons at the time so I naturally leaned towards piano music. My Dad pretty much only cared for Romantic music, so I had a pretty long stay in the Romantic Period with some excursions such as Beethoven's symphonies (but I have never really been into symphonies in general, odd...) and Ravel. However, some exceptions to his Romantic interest were the Bartok and Prokofiev piano concertos. When he got a new CD of the Bartok piano concertos and played it, I was initially totally confused by all the dissonance, but it sounded interesting so I kept on listening to it over and over again trying to make sense of it until I grew to love Bartok, Prokofiev and the likes. Another big moment was when my Dad bought an LP of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring arranged for piano duet. He didn't care for Rite of Spring and I have no idea why he bought it actually, probably just for the sake of completeness. Like the Bartok, it made no sense but I loved the banging dissonant chords and new, wild harmonies that I kept on re-listening to it until it became my favorite piece (I have probably listened to the whole thing 100-200 times throughout my short life. in fact I'm re-listening to it right now!). It probably helped that I was also taking percussion lessons as well as piano lessons at the time (gotta love those timpani!). 

For a while, my musical interests pretty much just cycled between Romantic and early 20th century. We discovered an old series of recordings released by Time called something along the lines of Great Masters of Music where the "best" works of each of the 20-30 or so "greatest" composers were recorded on 4 LPs in a box set which came with a pretty long biography of the composer. My Dad eventually found nearly every part of the entire series and this helped me discover many new works and composers like Mendelssohn. 

However, by my Junior and Senior years of high school I started to discover popular music and left classical music for a year or two. I listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Green Day, Eminem you get the picture. I further squashed any search for new music during my first year of College where I just listened to just the hit new singles and party music in general (I had discovered a whole new, fun world in college). Also, I must say that I'm pretty sure that I listened to every single Nirvana song because I only listened to Nirvana while writing my chemistry lab reports (nothing like angry, unintelligible screaming and messy guitar solos to get you through a 20 page report at 2am).

I later came back to my senses the summer after my freshman year of college. This was begun somewhat by hearing Berg's Sonata. Like my first time with the Rite of Spring etc, it didn't make a whole lot of sense at first but it sounded like something that I wanted to understand. This began an excursion into 20th century music that is still going on today. Notable events included a small dive into minimalism. I got through 2 hours of La Monte Young's 5 hour improvisation called "The Well Tuned Piano" until it became too boring. It sounded kinda cool, but the composer and the music seemed too "hippyish" for my taste. In fact, that hippyish "New Age" sound was what eventually turned me off minimalism and has never let me quite get into Renaissance and Medieval music. I can't get over the fact that most of the people who like Renaissance/Medieval seem to fall into two categories: 1) New Age people who like the mystical feeling of it and act like it helps them achieve Nirvana, and 2) people who want to live in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. I know that there are more types of listeners than the two I mentioned, but those stereotypes still turn me off.

Anyways, like I said before, I am currently looking into a lot of 20th century stuff, especially Schnittke and Ligeti at the moment. I never got into electronic or tape music like Stockhausen. Never really got into Xenakis either (except for 1 really bangy piece that sounded kind of fun). Not saying that I'll never grow to like them, but not at the moment. However, one composer that I can't see myself ever getting into is Ferneyhough. I always thought that his Cassandra's Dream Song should have been called "101 ways to use a flute", because it just seems like a collection of phrases using the most bizarre techniques lumped together. I actually have a flute and I used to play around with it and make up wild crazy passages that made no sort of musical sense, but I thought sounded kind of cool. Ferneyhough seemed to have done the same thing, except he did it for every flute trick known in the book and painfully wrote it all down. Anyways, enough with my Ferneyhough rant, I'm sure I probably offended somebody here.

Wow, what a long post. Hopefully it made sense. Also, I should add some "holes" in my musical interests. I've never gotten around to getting into Mahler or Brahms and I've actually listened to very little Beethoven (just some symphonies, string quartets and overtures) and even less of Mozart (somebody will murder me for this). I also visited Dvoraks home in the Czech Republic and bought a set of 5 CDs of his works and it bored me to death (this was admittedly a long time ago when my musical tastes probably weren't as keen as now). However, I am listening to the Teaching Company's course "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music", which is 48 lectures on the history of classical music up to Schonberg. Perhaps that will give me some interest, but frankly, besides exploring String Quartets in general, I am more interested in discovering more 20th century music.

Random Note: I should add that I learned last semester that classical music is horrible music to study to. There's no better way to procrastinate than to say "Hey, let me just put on this 40 minute classical music which has been called one of the greatest masterpieces of music" and then I spend that 40 minutes trying to elevate my soul instead of doing my homework. Always study in silence.


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## BelaBartok (May 24, 2011)

Oh gosh, that was a long post hahahahaha. I wonder how far you guys will make it :lol:


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

violadude said:


> Meaghan, would your current love of Beethoven's piano sonatas have anything to do with your current avatar?


Yes!  As a music theory major, I have to do an independent study in my third year, so I'm doing an analysis of Beethoven's Op. 81a piano sonata. I'm also playing it (though maybe not the third movement, which is likely too _vivacissimamente_--the actual tempo marking--for my technical abilities  ). I love analyzing pieces I play and playing pieces I analyze, so I'm very excited to be so immersed in this wonderful sonata.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

BelaBartok said:


> Random Note: I should add that I learned last semester that classical music is horrible music to study to. There's no better way to procrastinate than to say "Hey, let me just put on this 40 minute classical music which has been called one of the greatest masterpieces of music" and then I spend that 40 minutes trying to elevate my soul instead of doing my homework. Always study in silence.


I used to be able to study to classical music, and did so. But now I find that it is much harder because the music is interesting.

Now, when I need background music, I prefer soundtracks, folk music, new age music and so on - music which has no development, is repetitive, pleasant and simple. But if it goes too far in that direction, I can't handle it. My wife loves Enya, but I'll be fine if I never again hear forty minutes of unbroken synthesized pizzicato again.

"Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing Bing bing Bing bing Bing bing BING bing."

Don't believe me?






Alternatively: "Bing bing bing (rest) Bing bing bing (rest) Bing bing bing (rest)"






Oh - there _is_ a touch of development in that. If it were condensed into about 40 seconds, it would be interesting.


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