How does one have time to explore?

[Karl Henning]

Are you in music conservatory of some kind? I knew lots of kids in music school when I was at Rice, and they all kind of felt that way: especially because they were not taking many non-music classes, and didn't have many non-music areas of nerdiness. One bassoonist told me "The way our classes are set up, except for music, I'm kind of an idiot."

Although my arrival to that environment was more fortuitous than it was my design, that was a great benefit of attending Wooster:  a robust music department, which was part of a liberal arts college.

[EigenUser]

It does sometimes occur to me that, apart from classical music, I have no real interests or personality, and if I did not have some (superficial) knowledge of classical music there would be nothing to recommend me as a person to anybody.

But putting on some Bach or Enescu or Holliger or whatever is usually sufficient to push these thoughts away

So, apart from what you are really passionate about, you say that you are boring? Nothing wrong with that. Sounds like pretty much everyone is like this!

And a big +1 to Gurn and someguy.

It ain't rocket science. You can always find time for the things you love. If you don't really love them--only sort of like them--then maybe not. And, of course, you will always want to have more time than you do. Goes without saying really. Kind of embarrassing to have said it.

There were times in college when I was taking up to five engineering/math classes (including a class with major design projects), TA'ing almost 20 hours a week, and tutoring. If I had a design report to write, or an electronics exam to study for, or a pile of papers to grade and my friend called me asking if I wanted to play some Bartok and Beethoven on violin/piano, that is what I'd do! If I had to get 5 points off for turning in the report late, or take an 80 instead of a 90 on the electronics exam, or tell a class that I hadn't finished grading their homework, so be it!

I remember having this same exact discussion with my friend and he felt the same way.

To 71dB, you'll get to it when you'll get to it. If you are looking for post-war music that you can absorb faster, I'd try Reich or Feldman. They are less involved, but very compelling. Messiaen and Ohana, too, though they're trickier than the former two I mentioned.

[Brian]

It ain't rocket science. You can always find time for the things you love. If you don't really love them--only sort of like them--then maybe not. And, of course, you will always want to have more time than you do. Goes without saying really. Kind of embarrassing to have said it.

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do, once you find them

[71 dB]

I listened to some Eloy (never heard of them before). Reminds me a bit of Tangerine Dream's album Cyclone (1978).

To 71dB, you'll get to it when you'll get to it. If you are looking for post-war music that you can absorb faster, I'd try Reich or Feldman. They are less involved, but very compelling. Messiaen and Ohana, too, though they're trickier than the former two I mentioned.

I bought many years ago Steve Reich's Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint. Feldman I don't know at all. I will stop worrying. There's music genres where my knowledge is probably superior to anyone else here (Tangerine Dream? Kesha? Jonny L? Autechre? S'Express? Breakbeat? ) so why worry about knowing next to nothing about Honegger's music? I have heard Messiaen's Turangalila and I didn't like it at all (Yuck!). Messiaen hardly is for me. 

[EigenUser]

I listened to some Eloy (never heard of them before). Reminds me a bit of Tangerine Dream's album Cyclone (1978).

I bought many years ago Steve Reich's Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint. Feldman I don't know at all. I will stop worrying. There's music genres where my knowledge is probably superior to anyone else here (Tangerine Dream? Kesha? Jonny L? Autechre? S'Express? Breakbeat? ) so why worry about knowing next to nothing about Honegger's music? I have heard Messiaen's Turangalila and I didn't like it at all (Yuck!). Messiaen hardly is for me. 

Trust me -- I can totally understand how you feel about Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. I hated it the first time I heard it. Seriously, hated it. I thought it was loud, bombastic, banal, overly(sickeningly)-schmaltzy, ugly, and kitschy. One would think that it wouldn't have much future among my personal favorites.

Roughly a year later, it is one of my favorite symphonies ever. The odd thing is that I would still describe it using many of the same words I listed above, but I changed my perspective and don't see them all as negative. It's like when you said that you used to dislike Mozart for being "sissy", but now you like him and think he is sissy.

The orchestral work L'Ascension is a very enjoyable and short piece that doesn't stray too far from Debussy (think Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien). Also, the middle section of Les Offrandes Oubliees almost sounds like it was taken from Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin.

Stop worrying, but don't stop exploring! There is so much good stuff out there for everyone.

[71 dB]

Trust me -- I can totally understand how you feel about Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. I hated it the first time I heard it. Seriously, hated it. I thought it was loud, bombastic, banal, overly(sickeningly)-schmaltzy, ugly, and kitschy. One would think that it wouldn't have much future among my personal favorites.

That's pretty much what I think about the work. 

Roughly a year later, it is one of my favorite symphonies ever. The odd thing is that I would still describe it using many of the same words I listed above, but I changed my perspective and don't see them all as negative. It's like when you said that you used to dislike Mozart for being "sissy", but now you like him and think he is sissy.

The orchestral work L'Ascension is a very enjoyable and short piece that doesn't stray too far from Debussy (think Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien). Also, the middle section of Les Offrandes Oubliees almost sounds like it was taken from Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin.

Ok. I'm waiting for the "Mozart-effect".

Stop worrying, but don't stop exploring! There is so much good stuff out there for everyone.

Oh, I am exploring all the time, just not always the same stuff other people explore.

[Mirror Image]

I listened to some Eloy (never heard of them before). Reminds me a bit of Tangerine Dream's album Cyclone (1978).

What Eloy song did you listen to, 71 dB?

[EigenUser]

That's pretty much what I think about the work. 

Ok. I'm waiting for the "Mozart-effect".

It may happen, it may not. Not everyone has to like Messiaen. Or Elgar, or Bartok, or Dittersdorf.  For me it is difficult to figure out if I'm not enjoying something because I don't understand it or because it simply isn't for me. It's even more difficult when you throw in the fact that my tastes (and probably most people's) are dynamic and always changing!

[71 dB]

What Eloy song did you listen to, 71 dB?

The whole album "Dawn" and some other random tracks I can't name (one was from early 80's and another from 1978 maybe).

[Mirror Image]

The whole album "Dawn" and some other random tracks I can't name (one was from early 80's and another from 1978 maybe).

Excellent. I haven't heard Dawn yet. What do you think of the band so far?

[71 dB]

Excellent. I haven't heard Dawn yet. What do you think of the band so far?

Oh, I was under the impression you had all of their albums by now. 

Eloy's music is soft, easy to listen, almost relaxing. The singing in English with strong accent is somewhere between funny and irritating.

[ibanezmonster]

Lol yourself, Greg.

Dunno about that 80 number. How many people here work 80 hours a week?

But I spent many years working around 60 hours a week. Married. Three kids. Several different jobs running simultaneously. Much hanging out with friends. Many non-work (non remunerative work) projects. Couple of divorces, too. Distracting things, divorces. Therapy. Custody battles.

And I always found time for the things I loved.

It ain't rocket science. You can always find time for the things you love. If you don't really love them--only sort of like them--then maybe not. And, of course, you will always want to have more time than you do. Goes without saying really. Kind of embarrassing to have said it.

It's usually 60 hours for me as well, but it depends on how many interests you have. I assure you it's not a lack of passion why I have to quit gaming (among others) for a long time. I have nearly ten hobbies plus friends, and some of those hobbies are best treated as a part-time job in terms of hours spent. 60 + ~20(6) hours a week just doesn't add up.

Music, though, is one of those things that are a bit easier to catch up on- you can listen while doing homework or working with some jobs. So maybe it's not the best example to say something about.

[Sammy]

Thanks for the recommendations, but I'm afraid I'm not exploring Ligeti and Boulez that hard in the near future for said reasons. Just listened to Villa-Lobos' Piano Concertos 1 & 2, works I haven't revisited for over a decade!  Judging from the Ligeti I listened to on Spotify, there is something interesting in his music. I have so little post war classical music! 

I have noticed I can learn to like almost any genre. I takes open mind and time invested but it's possible. After Villa-Lobos' Piano Concertos I am listening to Katy Perry's Prism album, an artist I didn't believe to ever like just 4-5 years ago! Katy Perry's pop music is just so damn good pop music (same with Kesha). I wish people could accept it's possible to enjoy very different kind of music genres. Unfortunately people usually have very narrow musical taste, 2 or 3 genres and that's it. Everything else they say compelete crap. Crazy.

As others have commented, a person always finds time to spend on passionate activities.  You need to decide where your passion resides instead of being critical of those who listen to just 2 or 3 genres.  Put your own house in order!  My passion is classical music.  What's yours?

[Jay F]

It was easier in the '80s (and, presumably, earlier) when I could stop by Tower or Serenade and buy a single CD with one symphony, or a couple of concertos or string quartets, on it, and go home and listen to just that. Now, when I buy something new, e.g., everything by Shostakovich, it's mainly available as part of a box set, and I have this huge clog of music to absorb. I could not identify one of Shostakovich's works by name/number as a result. I like it, but it all seems like a single body of work when purchased in today's mega-sets.

[amw]

Are you in music conservatory of some kind? I knew lots of kids in music school when I was at Rice, and they all kind of felt that way: especially because they were not taking many non-music classes, and didn't have many non-music areas of nerdiness. One bassoonist told me "The way our classes are set up, except for music, I'm kind of an idiot."

Yes, that's sort of a consequence of the UK system as well: I was never required to take a class on a subject other than music since entering university. (The same went for students in every other discipline, e.g. engineering students took no non-engineering-related classes, etc. And over time every degree became more specialised rather than less, so where the classes started out being mandatory things like 'Music History' and 'Harmony & Counterpoint' they ended up being a choice of 20 different topics such as 'Opera in Handel's London' and 'On Performance as Musicology'.) The NZ system does include general-education courses as part of its regimen, but of course I had to be fancy and go to school in a different country. :facepalm: Still, I'm sure the burnout will reverse itself once I've been out of school for a couple of years, and had a chance to do stuff in the "real world".

[Gurn Blanston]

It was easier in the '80s (and, presumably, earlier) when I could stop by Tower or Serenade and buy a single CD with one symphony, or a couple of concertos or string quartets, on it, and go home and listen to just that. Now, when I buy something new, e.g., everything by Shostakovich, it's mainly available as part of a box set, and I have this huge clog of music to absorb. I could not identify one of Shostakovich's works by name/number as a result. I like it, but it all seems like a single body of work when purchased in today's mega-sets.

I have seen that argument advanced to promote the sanity of buying single disks. I generally agree with it. I seem to value my single disks more highly than my mega boxes, of which I have very few indeed. However, a dilemma arises when great rarities are re-released inside of big boxes, and the value of that one disk outweighs other considerations. That doesn't happen often enough to merit worrying ab out though.   

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes, that's sort of a consequence of the UK system as well: I was never required to take a class on a subject other than music since entering university. (The same went for students in every other discipline, e.g. engineering students took no non-engineering-related classes, etc. And over time every degree became more specialised rather than less, so where the classes started out being mandatory things like 'Music History' and 'Harmony & Counterpoint' they ended up being a choice of 20 different topics such as 'Opera in Handel's London' and 'On Performance as Musicology'.) The NZ system does include general-education courses as part of its regimen, but of course I had to be fancy and go to school in a different country. :facepalm: Still, I'm sure the burnout will reverse itself once I've been out of school for a couple of years, and had a chance to do stuff in the "real world".

When I was young enough to think about such things, it was different: underclassmen for their first two years were required to take the most general courses, nearly always unrelated to any particular discipline. The stated reason for this was making people more well-rounded. Now it seems you are saying this wonderful concept has buggered off...   

[Ken B]

One thing that I have always been surprised at is how much some people are able to spend on listening to classical music. Have I just misunderstood something? How does one have time to listen to 10 cycles of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas? By listening to Beethoven only, ignoring Dittersdorf completely? Do people who listen to Ligeti and Boulez ignore the music of 17th century? How much can you spend on classical music? Do you ignore other genres of music?

I wish I had more time for classical music so I could explore all those so many composers I haven't explored yet. But, life is not only classical music. There's OTHER music too. There's TV. There's hobbies. Recently a large part of my free time has gone to watching the extra's of Breaking Bad on Blu-ray. It takes so many hours to listen to all those comment tracks (almost every episode has one!), webisodes, gag reels, Gale's Karaoke video, Saul Goodman's adds, etc... Often I want to listen to other kind of music than classical, for example King Crimson or perhaps some oldskool piano rave music from the early 90's. So, in the end I have a few hours a week to "spend" on classical music and concentrate on it.

So, am I just as everyone else and my lack of knowledge of Ligeti's and Boulez's music is simply because I chose to use my "classical music time" on Kuhnau, Graupner, Fasch, Bruhns and Schieferdecker instead?

I have been trying to listen to some Ligeti yesterday and today (weekend gives more free time) on Spotify. I have the free account with adds and listening to classical music is difficult because classical music is so dynamic. When the adds come, they are LOUD! Charlie XCX's "Boom Clap" is really BOOM CLAP!! Then Ligeti continues and I hardly hear anything. 

Naxos is a nice label to explore composers, but unfortunately Naxos' Ligeti offering is pathetic (2 CDs).

Other composers I have been exploring (but only cratched the surfice), Liszt, Janacek and Hindemith, will of course suffer if I start exploring Ligeti... ...should I even worry about these thing or just listen to watever I want?

1 fanatical devotion
2 yeah, pretty much stopped voluntarily listening to rock in 1975. Still like other 20th C popular genres like Broadway, Jazz, Swing, techno.
3 thirty nine years 

[71 dB]

As others have commented, a person always finds time to spend on passionate activities.  You need to decide where your passion resides instead of being critical of those who listen to just 2 or 3 genres.  Put your own house in order!  My passion is classical music.  What's yours?

My passion? Music! I have time for music, but not for every classical composer or work. Yesterday I watched Neil Cowley Trio's Montreaux 2012 concert on Blu-ray and it was AWESOME! I woudn't want to live without that music just because it's not classical music.

There's nothing wrong having passion for classical music only, but thinking all other music sucks because you concentrate on classical music is silly, just as silly as thinking classical music is boring if you listen to popular music.

Because I listen to various genres of music, I end up on various music boards and always see how limited people are in regards of music genres. It is considered ok to listen to just one genre. What if someone ate just soups? That would be considered crazy.

Is my house in order now?

[Sammy]

My passion? Music! I have time for music, but not for every classical composer or work. Yesterday I watched Neil Cowley Trio's Montreaux 2012 concert on Blu-ray and it was AWESOME! I woudn't want to live without that music just because it's not classical music.

There's nothing wrong having passion for classical music only, but thinking all other music sucks because you concentrate on classical music is silly, just as silly as thinking classical music is boring if you listen to popular music.

Because I listen to various genres of music, I end up on various music boards and always see how limited people are in regards of music genres. It is considered ok to listen to just one genre. What if someone ate just soups? That would be considered crazy.

Is my house in order now?

No.  You still haven't addressed the problem you identified for yourself.  All you've done is pump yourself up concerning eclectic musical tastes.  Have some chicken soup!  Might give you a different perspective.