What makes you choose what to listen?

[Henk]

Not random but subject to many influences.
E.g. yesterday evening I put another CD back in the shelf and as the Bartok section was right underneath, I pulled out the Dorati Mercury Bartok set and listened to the Concerto for Orchestra + fillers and then another Bartok recording, Fricsay's of the divertimento (I only have as copy from a friend and keep in that same box).
The day before that I needed some pre-christmassy comfort and listened to the first part of Messiah...

I mostly just overview my collection as far as possible because during the days cds pile up and it's a chaos. Not ideal to choose something and sometimes I feel a bit desperate not knowing what to listen to, but often it also happens that a few listening ideas come to mind (on impulse I would say) and so I have a plan to execute for the time ahead, a sort of program.

[Madiel]

There are a lot of long-term plans of what I want to listen to (intermixed with equally long-term plans of what to buy), but which of those plans I choose from at any given moment depends a lot on mood.

[Todd]

Will or Whim.

QFT

[LKB]

Having memorized a great deal of music over five decades, l hardly listen as such at all.

I nearly always wake up with something playing in my head, and I'll usually ruminate on it until something else decides to start up.

Usually the initial music is by one of my main favorite composers: Mahler, Bruckner, JS Bach or Beethoven. The following piece seems to come about randomly, unless I've been dwelling on something recently which can " pick up " where l left off.

I don't really plan anything, and mood doesn't seem to matter very much. It's just my mind having a mind of its own. 

[AnotherSpin]

Having memorized a great deal of music over five decades, l hardly listen as such at all.

I nearly always wake up with something playing in my head, and I'll usually ruminate on it until something else decides to start up.

Usually the initial music is by one of my main favorite composers: Mahler, Bruckner, JS Bach or Beethoven. The following piece seems to come about randomly, unless I've been dwelling on something recently which can " pick up " where l left off.

I don't really plan anything, and mood doesn't seem to matter very much. It's just my mind having a mind of its own. 

Interesting conclusion. Your mind has decided that your mind has a mind.

[steve ridgway]

Sometimes a whim, other times random shuffle of classical and rock together has produced a satisfyingly varied experience. Some plans that have worked for some time have been fifty favourite rock albums cycled through in alphabetical order and classical works cycled through in order of year of composition (picking just one of the alternative performances each time through). At the moment I'm working through the Boulez 67 CD box in order interspersed with other new purchases, and then intend to explore a few other notable 20th century works by composers not represented there, see if I can become more familiar with a relatively small core collection. I might take the DG/Decca 20C series as a guide although not necessarily the same recordings.

[Henk]

Sometimes a whim, other times random shuffle of classical and rock together has produced a satisfyingly varied experience. Some plans that have worked for some time have been fifty favourite rock albums cycled through in alphabetical order and classical works cycled through in order of year of composition (picking just one of the alternative performances each time through). At the moment I'm working through the Boulez 67 CD box in order interspersed with other new purchases, and then intend to explore a few other notable 20th century works by composers not represented there, see if I can become more familiar with a relatively small core collection. I might take the DG/Decca 20C series as a guide although not necessarily the same recordings.

That's what I do as well. Going through box-sets. Satisfying excercitions, really a feel of substantially getting familiar wih a composer's and/or performer's oeuvre. It's almost (part of) a way of living, it accompanies my days and activity during some time.

[LKB]

Interesting conclusion. Your mind has decided that your mind has a mind.

Yes. But mind you, l pay it no mind. 

[AnotherSpin]

Yes. But mind you, l pay it no mind. 

That is the secret to happiness. Not to mind what is happening.

I like what you said about waking up with something playing in your head.

[LKB]

That is the secret to happiness. Not to mind what is happening.

I like what you said about waking up with something playing in your head.

It doesn't always happen, it's not inevitable. But it does happen more than half the time, maybe 70/75%.

There is also a downside ( as some might have guessed ) to possessing an autonomous musical mind... On two occasions it's kept me awake when sleep was at a premium. In the first around 1986, l couldn't shake off the first movement of Beethoven's Ninth. I lay in bed for the entire night, and at the same point the movement would lurch back to the beginning of the development section. I couldn't free myself until pure exhaustion took hold, and l finally managed a couple hours of sleep before work.

The second time was in 2018, when l was passing my final evenings in a homeless shelter. This time the final movement of Mahler's Third was the culprit, and l was stuck amidst those gorgeous chorusing strings. A very lovely trap, but l needed sleep more than Mahler just then.