Any Daily Listening Plans?

[JasonE]

Hi Folks, new member here. I'm also fairly new to classical music listening and I was hoping that someone could point me to a 365 day listening plan, either in book form or, preferably, online. I've got a reasonable collection which I copied off a friend who is a classical fan, and I've also supplemented that with some CDs ripped from my local library. What I'm looking for a listening plan. Something that will expose me to the major works and give me a few paragraphs of writing about the piece and the composer. I could just jump into what I've got and start listening, which of course I have started to do, but I would also like something a little more structured. Anything like this on the net? Thanks.

Note: I'm not looking for a book about the composers or classical music in general, I know where I can find that information, I just need some sort of structure to my listening.

[bhodges]

Hi JasonE, and welcome. Not sure I can help you with your specific request, but I'll bet someone here can. Meanwhile, enjoy your listening, and should you feel inclined, feel free to post a little more about yourself and what you like listening to (e.g., composers, pieces, instruments, styles, eras, etc.) in the "Introductions" section. And not to worry, you'll be in good company; there are plenty of people here who are just starting out in their enjoyment of classical music.

In any case, welcome.

--Bruce

[JasonE]

Since I hadn't received any replies yet, I took to looking around myself. I realized that the podcast format is perfect for this sort of thing, and a search on the forums revealed http://www.gardnermuseum.org/music/listen/podcasts. It seems to be a great free podcast with a few minutes of comments and then 45 minutes of music. Exactly what I was looking for. I'm in the process of downloading the previous podcasts now, and I will be putting the written comments and work names into the "lyrics" meta data slot so I can read them while listening to them my ipod.

I would still appreciate book recommendations however.

Thanks.

[Guido]

I'm not sure that such a stultifying, inorganic approach to exploring the edifice of classical music would be at all fun, or even that enlightening - best to just explore and follow paths that seem interesting to you - this is how these things tend to work in my experience. You hear Elgar's cello concerto and think, hmmm, what other beautiful English works for cello and orchestra are there? And then you find the Delius, Finzi, Walton and Bridge concertos, see which one's you like and then maybe explore these composer's oeuvre or search for more cello concertos. Or you think, what other music could Elgar have written, is any as wonderful as this? And you find the violin concerto and the two symphonies and the Enigma variations and Falstaff etc. etc. Or you think, what else was going on in music at this time, and you follow up on post war works etc. etc.

You'll find liner notes very helpful for this.

Everyone's journey is different and you will find your own preferences form fairly quickly in all likelyhood. I just can't see how I could have enjoyed exploring it all if someone had been guiding me every step of the way.

[Daverz]

David Hurwitz (stop that eye rolling!) wrote a book titled Beethoven or Bust that had lists of works that could be used as "listening plans".  You can pick up the book for a penny on Amazon (well, plus $3.98 shipping).

Another book that may be helpful is the Good Music Guide by Neville Garden.  Just be aware that the book is very Anglocentric.




 

[Guido]

Actually, early in my listening career the Penguin Guide to compact discs and DVDs was the greatest help - forgot about that - I really couldn't give a better piece of advice than to pick one of these up, and get reading.

[karlhenning]

Actually, early in my listening career the Penguin Guide to compact discs and DVDs was the greatest help - forgot about that - I really couldn't give a better piece of advice than to pick one of these up, and get reading.

Trouble is (and I don't know that there is any perfect alternative), you take on some parasitic baggage (the Guide's institutional biases) as well as the genuine benefit.

[Palmetto]

I'm not sure that such a stultifying, inorganic approach to exploring the edifice of classical music would be at all fun, or even that enlightening ... Everyone's journey is different and you will find your own preferences form fairly quickly in all likelyhood. I just can't see how I could have enjoyed exploring it all if someone had been guiding me every step of the way.

Sometimes when exploring something new the number of options can be overwhelming, even discouraging to the point of paralysis.  What you see as stultifying strikes me as a logical, methodical approach.  Some of us work better with a roadmap and suggested destinations than pointing the car and seeing where we wind up, an approach I find haphazard and unproductive.

To each his own.

[Scarpia]

Sometimes when exploring something new the number of options can be overwhelming, even discouraging to the point of paralysis.  What you see as stultifying strikes me as a logical, methodical approach.  Some of us work better with a roadmap and suggested destinations than pointing the car and seeing where we wind up, an approach I find haphazard and unproductive.

To each his own.

A listening plan would be too rigid for me.   When I was starting, lists of important pieces were most helpful, since they gave me some perspective and let me follow avenues that were most attractive.  There are such lists on this site, and in many other places.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/essential/index.htm

[Guido]

Sometimes when exploring something new the number of options can be overwhelming, even discouraging to the point of paralysis.  What you see as stultifying strikes me as a logical, methodical approach.  Some of us work better with a roadmap and suggested destinations than pointing the car and seeing where we wind up, an approach I find haphazard and unproductive.

To each his own.

it's more intelligent than that though, it's reassessing the route at every point of the journey to make sure that you're heading in the way of pleasure and quality. Blindly following a path without reflection I agree would be unproductive and perverse.

I can only echo my previous suggestion - get the Penguin guide. Unlikely as it seems, really that provided the foundation for virtually everything I know about classical music (beyond technical music making matters).

[DavidW]

I think that you should buy (or checkout from the library) one single album of something obscenely famous-- Beethoven symphonies, anything by Bach, Mozart's Requiem... and then listen and listen and listen.  Just break into the classical sound world with a little bit of famous music. 

Once you get into it, move on... listen to the radio and whenever you hear something that makes you go wow! buy it and dig in again, and listen several times.  Do this for awhile and you'll naturally figure out what directions you want to go in.  And it would be alot better than going through a large guide.

If you really want a guide, something more concise like the gmg one that Scarpia rec'd or the NPR Guide (that is what I had) is the ticket.

Good luck.

[Mirror Image]

Hi Folks, new member here. I'm also fairly new to classical music listening and I was hoping that someone could point me to a 365 day listening plan, either in book form or, preferably, online. I've got a reasonable collection which I copied off a friend who is a classical fan, and I've also supplemented that with some CDs ripped from my local library. What I'm looking for a listening plan. Something that will expose me to the major works and give me a few paragraphs of writing about the piece and the composer. I could just jump into what I've got and start listening, which of course I have started to do, but I would also like something a little more structured. Anything like this on the net? Thanks.

Note: I'm not looking for a book about the composers or classical music in general, I know where I can find that information, I just need some sort of structure to my listening.

Why do you need a plan to listen to music? I would take Haydnguy's suggestion and go to the library and checkout some classical recordings whether you've heard the composer's name or not and continuously listen to the music even if you didn't necessarily like it the first go around. If you like the music you just heard try and find out why you liked it and try to do some research on the composer's history. Knowing a composer's history will give you a better understanding of the circumstances they wrote their music under. The only way you'll know whether you like something or not is by exploring. I liken a lot of my own personal discoveries as treasure hunting. Sometimes you get some really ugly, nasty looking finds, but then you find something that made that journey worth the trouble. Music is an ocean of discovery.

[JasonE]

Sometimes when exploring something new the number of options can be overwhelming, even discouraging to the point of paralysis.  What you see as stultifying strikes me as a logical, methodical approach.  Some of us work better with a roadmap and suggested destinations than pointing the car and seeing where we wind up, an approach I find haphazard and unproductive.

To each his own.

This is a large part of why I was/am looking for a listening plan. The other part is that I just don't want to spend large amounts of time wading through the past amounts of classical music to find out what I like. The podcast that I found seems reasonably varied, although due to the recording venue there are no symphonies included, and when I want to listen to classical music I can just click a few buttons and be exposed to something new. Once I get through the 100+ podcasts/recordings I will branch out on my own, but until then I'm quite content to listen to this preformed collection.

[JasonE]

Actually, early in my listening career the Penguin Guide to compact discs and DVDs was the greatest help - forgot about that - I really couldn't give a better piece of advice than to pick one of these up, and get reading.

Thank you for the recommendation, but this isn't something that I'm looking for at this stage. I don't want to have to do my own research just yet. I want to have a specific list of music to find and listen to. Later on I might get something like the Peguin Guide, but right now I just don't want to spend the time looking for music, I'd rather concentrate on listening.

[Lethevich]

A listening plan would be too rigid for me.

Indeed. What if you're not in the mood for orchestral or vocal, or even Romantic music on the day that Mahler's 4th is alotted?

[Palmetto]

The other part is that I just don't want to spend large amounts of time wading through the past amounts of classical music to find out what I like.

Several centuries of composing has create a wide variety of styles and genres.  I understand your approach, but be aware it make take some wading to find something you really like.  Don't get discouraged if the water isn't too your liking where you first jump in.  Just move up or down stream and you may find eddies or rapids you prefer.  (Got my money's worth out of that analogy.)

The podcast that I found seems reasonably varied, although due to the recording venue there are no symphonies included, and when I want to listen to classical music I can just click a few buttons and be exposed to something new. Once I get through the 100+ podcasts/recordings I will branch out on my own, but until then I'm quite content to listen to this preformed collection.

I tripped over that same Gardner Museum collection a couple of weeks ago.  I've heard about a quarter of the pieces, and plan to return to it after I whet my current interest in Copland.

Mostly, have fun.  If you find a systematic approach is working for you, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Palmetto]

Indeed. What if you're not in the mood for orchestral or vocal, or even Romantic music on the day that Mahler's 4th is alotted?

It's a plan, not a mandate.  It's guidelines, not requirements.  If JasonE is as new to this as I am, he may not have moods or preferences yet.  The point of a listening plan is get exposed to enough music where you have an idea of what music suits the mood you're in.

[Lethevich]

It's a plan, not a mandate.  It's guidelines, not requirements.  If JasonE is as new to this as I am, he may not have moods or preferences yet.  The point of a listening plan is get exposed to enough music where you have an idea of what music suits the mood you're in.

If you can break the plan, what's the difference between a plan and just random listening?

Edit: to be more helpful and less snarky - getting "lost" is one of best things about discovering classical. The joy of discovering a hugely obscure work, loving it, and being amazed when you find nobody else has heard it. A listening plan I could only imagine would encourage a sticking to the beaten paths. The discovery of a specific medium (perhaps, say, cello sonata) and exploring the area on a whim is an experience which doesn't really have to preclude listening to the "greats". Those are so signposted that they can be headed to whenever the fancy takes

[canninator]

It's a plan, not a mandate.  It's guidelines, not requirements.  If JasonE is as new to this as I am, he may not have moods or preferences yet.  The point of a listening plan is get exposed to enough music where you have an idea of what music suits the mood you're in.

I agree, I don't see why people have such a problem with such an extremely sensible idea. For what it's worth, as part of a plan I would have a strict rotation of seven pairs of trousers and that way you could perform a statistical analysis of whether the material in your slacks correlates with your enjoyment of a particular period of music at the end of the year. Excel could be used to keep records during the year but I would recommend MatLab for the actual analysis. You're welcome.

[Palmetto]

Edit: to be more helpful and less snarky - getting "lost" is one of best things about discovering classical.

'Getting lost' IS a plan.  A plan (or approach or method or technique, if you will) doesn't have to be detailed.  There's a military axiom, "No plan survives contact with the enemy".  One has to have the flexibility to realize when to modify the plan.

The joy of discovering a hugely obscure work, loving it, and being amazed when you find nobody else has heard it. A listening plan I could only imagine would encourage a sticking to the beaten paths.

Not necessarily.  My own approach was to explicitly avoid anything I was slightly familiar with.  I admit I wasn't familiar with much that wasn't overused in either popular media or Looney Tunes, but I didn't want to bring any pre-existing prejudices to my exploration.  I also wanted to hear music I'd never heard before.  That's why I specifically haven't listened to Beethoven's 5th, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, or other mega-hits since I started this project.  I'm leaving the popular stuff alone until I have developed the listening skills to appreciate WHY it's popular.