Quitting listening to classical music

[Karl Henning]

I might take a break now and then.  One has to sleep eventually.

(* chortle *)

[MusicTurner]

I'm quite sure this was sarcasm, but you are welcome!  0:)

No, it wasn't sarcasm, just found a gentleman-ly approach a bit funny, considering the overall subject ...

[steve ridgway]

I've never completely given up on any genre once enjoyed but they can drop out of rotation for long periods. At the moment I'm discovering new modern non-classical on archive.org and revisiting 1970s/80s punk, rock and new wave which seems to very popular in on of the off-topic threads in another forum I've recently got very into. Inhibitors for classical in my case are that the wife doesn't like it and that it sounds rubbish in a moving car due to the wide dynamics (the quietness war), so I have to switch to the USB stick when parked up and she's in a shop.

[amw]

Classical music (or "art music" or whatever term can be used to encompass Machaut, Mendelssohn and Malec while excluding Merzbow or Murcof—I guess realistically it's a venue/critical reception thing rather than a signifier of anything artistic, but in my case I just don't listen to anything characterised by a sequence of repetitive beats) is the only genre of music I listen to. There are times when I stop listening to it, mostly the times when my clinical depression becomes severe enough that any sound at all is annoying and unwanted. But I will usually come back to it eventually just because there's not much else I want to hear, even if it's only a Michael Pisaro field recording.

I will of course have plenty of time to not listen to classical music when I'm dead, but limited or no chance to actually listen to it at that time, so no reason not to get my listening in now I guess.

[Scion7]

No, but I've taken 'breaks' if I am exploring, say, the Jazz of Andrew Hill for a week, or some such. I tend to mono-maniacalize (sic) on a specific artist or genre at times.

[Florestan]

I tend to mono-maniacalize (sic) on a specific artist or genre at times.

Or a specific avatar, timeline included. 

[vandermolen]

I listen to a variety of music but since aged 17 mostly classical. I know that John (MI), noticeable by his recent absence, is having a hiatus away from classical music.

[Scion7]

... or maybe Mirror is just realizing that Mozart is,
after all,
a genius and worthy of his massed attention?

[Florestan]

I listen to a variety of music but since aged 17 mostly classical. classical music.

Ditto since aged 14.

"Classical" music was my very first musical love. Thirty-five years later it makes for 99% of the music I listen to.

[71 dB]

Ditto since aged 14.

"Classical" music was my very first musical love. Thirty-five years later it makes for 99% of the music I listen to.

It's interesting how young some people discover classical music. For me the World has been very confusing and misleading place were one has to navigate himself for long to find a path to anywhere. In my youth I assumed the music I hear passively is pretty much all music there is. I didn't have a clue the amount of different music is insane, but one only hears a fraction of it passively. If I heard classical music I assumed all classical music sounds the same and of course a random Haydn symphony does nothing when you don't even know how to listen to it, you hear only a minute of it and the sound quality is crappy. Even today I don't like all Haydn. For long I assumed my "modern ears" are too modern for old music, classical music: My modern ears are for electronic music. At age 25 or so I started to question this and realized how silly I had been. Modern stuff and electronics is a technological thing! You can't apply it to ART! The point is, I had zero guidance in these things. I had to figure it all out myself. I also understood how I have to discover my favorite music mostly myself, because very rarely will I hear it passively. Also, I started to understand one doesn't necessorily like something immediately, but it can take time to warm up to something.

Ironically Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 was used in a video game I heard in a video game store in mid 80's, played with the crappy electronic "beep" sounds typical to video games of that time. I found it cool and I was able to hymn the melody to my father home and asked if he knows what it is, but of course he didn't because he was a "only jazz" nut, but he guessed it was "International."  Well, that answer didn't help me much so it was a dead end. A decade or so later I heard  Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 on radio and the mystery was finally solved. So, looks like I was already an Elgarian at age 13-14 or so, but I didn't know what I am.

[vandermolen]

... or maybe Mirror is just realizing that Mozart is,
after all,
a genius and worthy of his massed attention?

[vandermolen]

It's interesting how young some people discover classical music. For me the World has been very confusing and misleading place were one has to navigate himself for long to find a path to anywhere. In my youth I assumed the music I hear passively is pretty much all music there is. I didn't have a clue the amount of different music is insane, but one only hears a fraction of it passively. If I heard classical music I assumed all classical music sounds the same and of course a random Haydn symphony does nothing when you don't even know how to listen to it, you hear only a minute of it and the sound quality is crappy. Even today I don't like all Haydn. For long I assumed my "modern ears" are too modern for old music, classical music: My modern ears are for electronic music. At age 25 or so I started to question this and realized how silly I had been. Modern stuff and electronics is a technological thing! You can't apply it to ART! The point is, I had zero guidance in these things. I had to figure it all out myself. I also understood how I have to discover my favorite music mostly myself, because very rarely will I hear it passively. Also, I started to understand one doesn't necessorily like something immediately, but it can take time to warm up to something.

Ironically Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 was used in a video game I heard in a video game store in mid 80's, played with the crappy electronic "beep" sounds typical to video games of that time. I found it cool and I was able to hymn the melody to my father home and asked if he knows what it is, but of course he didn't because he was a "only jazz" nut, but he guessed it was "International."  Well, that answer didn't help me much so it was a dead end. A decade or so later I heard  Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 on radio and the mystery was finally solved. So, looks like I was already an Elgarian at age 13-14 or so, but I didn't know what I am.

What an interesting post! I bet that hearing that Elgar on the radio was a great moment for you. My father only really listened to Frank Sinatra and decades later I was moved to hear that Sinatra admired the music of Vaughan Williams, my favourite composer. I'm sorry that my father was not around to hear this. I agree 71 dB that works which initially had little appeal can sometime 'click'. In my case this is true of Vaughan Williams's 'A Sea Symphony' and Shostakovich's 13th Symphony 'Babi Yar'.

[CRCulver]

I spend about half of every year traveling the world by bike. I carry audiophile headphones with me, but it is surprisingly hard to find a quiet listening environment on the road, and even when I find that perfectly silent camping spot I'm usually too knackered at the end of the day to listen to music with deep concentration. Consequently, I find that for those six months of the year I'm doing very little classical listening, I really only listen to whatever pop music and jazz sounds decent out of the mono Bluetooth speaker mounted on my handlebars.

Maybe I wouldn't sweat it otherwise, but it does make me nervous to read about how everyone's hearing declines with age (we stop being able to hear higher frequencies), so I feel like my time to really enjoy classical (in terms of pristine sound) is running out.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

(we stop being able to hear higher frequencies), so I feel like my time to really enjoy classical (in terms of pristine sound) is running out.

I didn't know about this. Is this usual/frequent ? In strictly scientific term, we don't "hear" the sound. Rather, the waves in the air touch our eardrums, which send electrochemical signals to the brain, and our brains create a sense/perception of the "sound." So there is no "sound" outside our perception, there are only waves of various length and frequencies in the real-world. Brains of some people with synesthesia create a sense of color or smell in addition to the sound.  As we get older, our brain function to create the sense of sound  may decline.

[Que]

Ditto since aged 14.

"Classical" music was my very first musical love. Thirty-five years later it makes for 99% of the music I listen to.

Same here. 14 seems to be the magical number! 

I wasn't interested in any of the (pop) music I had been exposed before.
After discovering Classical music I never developed a similar passion for any other music genre, though I can enjoy Classic Jazz, French chansons and "popular" singers from the '30 - '50's (some great voices there).

Q

[steve ridgway]

14 seems to be the magical number! 

Agreed although in my case it was Tangerine Dream's Ricochet album which I still enjoy very much. It does twist and turn a lot and Part 2 even starts with a bit of classical sounding piano, so it's possible it's eventually led me here.

[some guy]

14 seems to be the magical number! 

9.

I didn't find out until later, however, that what I was responding to was "classical music." I found lots of different things to be interesting, but the things that really captivated me, the things I wanted to listen to over and over again, all turned out to be things that were commonly referred to as "classical music." For awhile, that made it easier for me to find things that I would like, but after a few years, it became clear that when I said "classical music" to people, the things they thought of were quite different from the things that I liked. Not that I didn't also like Four Seasons and Slavonic Dances and Da da da Dummmm, but I never thought of music as confined to just the popular things. This worked against me in two ways: the non-classical crowd (practically everyone in the world) thought I was a snob, the classical crowd thought I was a prig.

Since I grew up in the fifties and sixties and eventually had long hair and a beard, people usually assumed that I was at the very least a Deadhead. Imagine their disappointment when I was clearly almost completely ignorant about Rock (and appallingly lacking in any knowledge of Roll). The handful of classical fans I crossed paths with were no better pleased. They wanted to talk about Chopin and Beethoven. My interest in Kodály and Mussorgsky was considered eccentric in the extreme.

I learned to never talk to anyone about music.

If only I'd been able to practice what I'd learned. But talking about what you love is just a thing that people do, you know? Even if what you love turns you into the veriest of very pariahs. But if I feel I've been shunned by polite listeners for my horrible tastes, imagine how the composers themselves feel.

No wonder living composers like me so much. I like what they do unconditionally and unreservedly. Even if I don't like this or that individual piece or style, I like that they're doing it. And maybe some day, when I become enlightened, I will like what they're doing, as well.

[71 dB]

Agreed although in my case it was Tangerine Dream's Ricochet album which I still enjoy very much. It does twist and turn a lot and Part 2 even starts with a bit of classical sounding piano, so it's possible it's eventually led me here.

Ricochet is awesome. Tangerine Dream was developping their style, sound and technique: Ricochet > Rubycon > Phaedra imo.

Ricochet was my third Tangerine Dream album. I got it January 22, 2008 (I write down every CD I buy into a notebook so I have this information). I was 37 at the time. It took me insanely long to really discover Tangerine Dream because:

1) Tangerine Dream is very little known in Finland. They never came to Finland to perform.
2) I knew about the band since early 90's, but I considered their sound too "old" for me (see next point)
3) I don't like Kraftwerk and I thought Tangerine Dream is very similar so I didn't bother to explore them much.
4) I thought Tangerine Dream made a few albums between 1970 and 1990. I didn't know they never stopped and have tons of music!

So, everything worked against me discovering a band that became one of the most important music for me. When I finally decided to start exploring them in December 2007, I had to do insane amount of "homework" to get a grasp of their enourmous output and after all the work and reading about their music online, I decided to start with "Force Majeure" followed by "Tangram" and then "Ricochet". Needles to say all of them blew me away. Three years later I had 90 CDs of Tangerine Dream and I wasn't done yet! 

[71 dB]

This worked against me in two ways: the non-classical crowd (practically everyone in the world) thought I was a snob, the classical crowd thought I was a prig.

You were a snoot. 

My interest in Kodály and Mussorgsky was considered eccentric in the extreme.

Hah! Nowadays one needs to talk about Georg Dietrich Leyding to be considered eccentric. 

[Scion7]

4) I thought Tangerine Dream made a few albums between 1970 and 1990. I didn't know they never stopped and have tons of music!

For all intents and purposes, there was no reason to listen to them after Tangram.
They never really had anything important to say after that, and peaked with Force Majeure.