Standard repertoire

[bhodges]

What matters is not the premiere, but the second performance. And the third. And the tenth. Conductors today dip into lots of new reservoirs of new music. But they rarely go back for a second drink. So how's an audience to become familiar with the new works when they hear them only once? Especially difficult works like these?

Great article, and the above stuck me as especially important.  Back in the 1980s AT&T (IIRC) funded a program for orchestras solely for second hearings of recently premiered works--no world premieres, but repeats of things already played.  May have been a small step, but a crucial one.

--Bruce

[ChamberNut]

Then, there is the flip side........Fans of Baroque/Renaissance/Medieval music wonder why people listen only to Classical and Romantic music?

[karlhenning]

Fans of medieval music?

(kidding . . . but just a little)

[MN Dave]

Too many of these arguments for modern serious music strike me as, "If it's not new, it's not good. Only the new is good. Aged music sounds old and icky and why the hell are you listening to that when you could listen to this new stuff? So what if it sounds like two gerbils mating in a tin bread box? It's NEW!!!"

[Fëanor]

For me, being only becoming an ardent classical music fan 3 years ago, and with limited time constraints, I've only scratched the surface of what most would consider the "standard repertoire".  I have to have short lists of composers/works of where I'd like to focus my exploration towards, plus money is also a consideration.  I find I don't have enough fully dedicated listening hours to enjoy all of the music I already have in my collection (100 or so discs), thus I don't see how I could do it with 10,000 + discs in my collection? 
...

I'm with you all the way, ChamberNut, since my ardour is fairly recent too -- 3-4 years though I have been listening to classic occasionally for 35.

I'm still struggling to acquire some familiarity with the basic repertoire, never mind the more obscure stuff.  (Dare I say the list of 250 Core Classical Composition was record for my own instruction, not for other peoples'?)  But, poor me, I don't have the cash to acquire or the time to listen to music that Harry seems to have, lucky man.  I've got you beat presently, CN, at about 500 classical recordings, but I'll never get to, say, Sarge's 10,000+ if only because I'm already so old that I'll run out of time

When I do go tangential from the basic repertoire it tends to be towards the contemporary stuff.  So far the obscure Romantics that Harry seems to favour, (could be my wrong impression), don't appeal to me.

[ChamberNut]

Fans of medieval music?

(kidding . . . but just a little)

Maybe I got it wrong.  What was the "era" prior to the Renaissance period?

[ChamberNut]

Too many of these arguments for modern serious music strike me as, "If it's not new, it's not good. Only the new is good. Aged music sounds old and icky and why the hell are you listening to that when you could listen to this new stuff? So what if it sounds like two gerbils mating in a tin bread box? It's NEW!!!"

And it's not just happening in classical music.  As a teenager growing up, I was more into the pop/rock/hard rock/metal groups of the 70's and early 80's, rather than the dance/techno/rap/rock "newer" music in the 90's.  You'd be made fun of because you weren't hip for listen to "old" music, cool people listen to what's new.

[MN Dave]

And it's not just happening in classical music.  As a teenager growing up, I was more into the pop/rock/hard rock/metal groups of the 70's and early 80's, rather than the dance/techno/rap/rock "newer" music in the 90's.  You'd be made fun of because you weren't hip for listen to "old" music, cool people listen to what's new.

I find it best to listen only to yourself in matters of music.  0:)

[bhodges]

Then, there is the flip side........Fans of Baroque/Renaissance/Medieval music wonder why people listen only to Classical and Romantic music?

Too many of these arguments for modern serious music strike me as, "If it's not new, it's not good. Only the new is good. Aged music sounds old and icky and why the hell are you listening to that when you could listen to this new stuff? So what if it sounds like two gerbils mating in a tin bread box? It's NEW!!!"

I know what you mean, and in an ideal world, there is room for everything.  It's an inclusive way of listening, rather than an exclusive one.  And yes, the implicit or explicit risk in hearing new stuff is that you may not like it at all, which is just fine, of course. 

--Bruce

[ChamberNut]

I find it best to listen only to yourself in matters of music.  0:)

True, my point is that no matter what you are listening to and enjoying, there are always people out there telling you that you should be listening to this, instead of that, listen to Mahler, not Bruckner; listen to Sting, not The Police, or Peter Cetera, not Chicago  etc....

[MN Dave]

True, my point is that no matter what you are listening to and enjoying, there are always people out there telling you that you should be listening to this, instead of that, listen to Mahler, not Bruckner; listen to Sting, not The Police, or Peter Cetera, not Chicago  etc....

Right. And when you get right down to it, no two peoples' tastes are exactly alike, so you will always have that.

[ChamberNut]

One explanation for this could be that 'sheeple' often just go where they're told by the safe classical music marketing lobby (especially Mozart & Beethoven...  & the safe romantic era) ... sorta like how kids fodder fed & manipulated by shit pop groups, their managers & their labels.

Well....if I'm a sheeple, can I safely graze on your pasture, James? 

[MN Dave]

Well....if I'm a sheeple, can I safely graze on your pasture, James? 

Don't graze there. His pasture is thorny and atonal. Not nourishing at all. 

[(poco) Sforzando]

One explanation for this could be that 'sheeple' often just go where they're told by the safe classical music marketing lobby (especially Mozart & Beethoven...  & the safe romantic era) ... sorta like how kids fodder fed & manipulated by shit pop groups, their managers & their labels.

Another explanation for this could be that Mozart, Beethoven, and the "safe" Chopin, Brahms, et al., represent music that most performers want to spend long hours in their practice rooms mastering, and that most listeners want especially to hear.

[ChamberNut]

Don't graze there. His pasture is thorny and atonal. Not nourishing at all. 

Mmmmm......Atonality!

[(poco) Sforzando]

I find it best to listen only to yourself in matters of music.  0:)

Unfortunately (or not) that's a comfortable illusion. What you consider "your" tastes are inevitably circumscribed from the outset by the music that performers want to play and record. (I have heard talk from people I respect, for example, that Etienne Méhul's opera Ariodant is his masterpiece. But lacking a recording, and with scores costing in the $600 range if they're available at all, I am not likely ever to experience it.) What's more, what you consider "your" tastes are also circumscribed by what you have read, heard of, etc., from your education and interpersonal discussions, including the WWW. There is a filtering-out over the years of the music that performers consider most worth keeping in their repertoires and scholars consider most worthy of study. And I by no means consider this an entirely bad thing.

Pure personal independence in taste is a fantasy.

[MN Dave]

Pure personal independence in taste is a fantasy.

Ugh. That could be a whole thread unto itself. I don't agree with you and I ain't going there.

[orbital]

An open mind should be open just wide enough to recognize that not everyone is as open minded 

Of course it would be great if everyone was discovering new composers all the time. I'm all for new experiences in life  , still a bit tucked in a comfort zone when it comes to music, but I am still a newcomer with only 3 - 4 years of exposure, so "I'm not too worried about it"**

This business of a standard repertoire is particularly hurting the listening habits of the adventurers simply because their own favorites are recorded and performed much less regularly as a result of the habits of the audience at large, so I fully support their enthusiasm in trying to get others to listen to different composers/genres.


**

[MN Dave]

This business of a standard repertoire is particularly hurting the listening habits of the adventurers simply because their own favorites are recorded and performed much less regularly as a result of the habits of the audience at large, so I fully support their enthusiasm in trying to get others to listen to different composers/genres.

So, they should start their own orchestras and make their own recordings. What's stopping them?

[ChamberNut]

Perhaps we need more scandals in today's classical music?  When's the last time classical music had a great scandal?  The premiere of Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring'?

We need wing-nut conductors who bite the heads off bats and doves.