What place has classical music in your life?

[Harry]

I feel much the same, Harry. I feel very deprived if I can't listen at least to a Bach cantata every day.  I do a lot of sewing and craft work and it's essential for me to hear music whilst I work; not just background music, but something I choose for my mood. One time my CD player broke down, and I felt as if I'd had a limb amputated!

I find if I have the classical station tuned in I soon want to put on a CD of my choice, so not just anything will do!

Well I am glad Sunnyside, for a moment I thought that I belonged to a rare breed. Feel much the same is good, very good, thank you!

[George]

Well I am glad Sunnyside, for a moment I thought that I belonged to a rare breed.

I believe its safe to say that there's only one Harry! 

[Harry]

I long for the day when the sounds of my surroundings are subtle. 

Until then, Jay Z, a loud neighbor or a piercing firetruck siren will continue to interrupt my enjoyment of classical music on a daily basis. 

The terrible disruptor, noise of other people! I feel with you George, have the same in my surroundings. That is also a reason for me to move house.

[Harry]

Excellent topic thread, Harry

Classical Music, just like great literature, provides an opportunity to experience the sublime in ordinary life. It is a feast for the intellect and for the spirit. For me, its the fodder of my everyday life. It would pain me, to conceive of a world without it.

See, that's the spirit, a soul akin, that is lots of souls akin, well the group is bigger as I thought.
Good!

[Harry]

Music rank second in my life, a long way behind my wife Vanessa. I prefer to have music every day, but I can, and have lived without it for a couple of weeks at a time. But I would not like to be without Vanessa for that long! When I did not or could not have music with me, I can close my eyes and play it in my head, with or without humming and air-conducting. It is not the same thing but it works to a certain extent.

For what it's worth, music ranks way above career, money, and all the other things that people seem to care about a lot more. But I won't put it above family.

Excellent reaction, thank you my friend!

[Harry]

I believe its safe to say that there's only one Harry! 

And certainly only one George 0:)

[karlhenning]

Harry, YHM, mijn vriend!

[Harry]

Harry, YHM, mijn vriend!

Hmmmmmmmm would that mean "You have me"?
Sorry Karl, I am not that good in telegram style

[karlhenning]

Mail, not me . . . .

[AnthonyAthletic]

Having a job which can sometimes keep me at my post for 14 hour days, sometimes I am forced to go without music.  We even have a radio ban which is terrible, not only does this bring morale down but the days seem longer when its double shift time.

In life Music for me comes second on the list.

Family, Music, Football, Reading, Good Booze Up..................Work.

Although Work pays the bills and allows me to indulge in the first 5 on the list.

I try not to go without music, although once I was in the middle of nowhere working and had zero access to the internet or any type of music bar the test card 

One thing also Harry, what about Forum Time as part of ones life...only a couple, maybe 3 hours per day reading and posting.  I must say I read more on the Forums than I actually post.

[Harry]

Having a job which can sometimes keep me at my post for 14 hour days, sometimes I am forced to go without music.  We even have a radio ban which is terrible, not only does this bring morale down but the days seem longer when its double shift time.

In life Music for me comes second on the list.

Family, Music, Football, Reading, Good Booze Up..................Work.

Although Work pays the bills and allows me to indulge in the first 5 on the list.

I try not to go without music, although once I was in the middle of nowhere working and had zero access to the internet or any type of music bar the test card 

One thing also Harry, what about Forum Time as part of ones life...only a couple, maybe 3 hours per day reading and posting.  I must say I read more on the Forums than I actually post.

Good point Tony, the time on the forum is also closely connected with the enjoyment of classical music.

[Mozart]

If I dont have my ipod on Im humming tunes in my head. Its made me quite the outcast because when people talk Im usually just humming tunes to myself.

[johnshade]

Proust wrote:

"Music helped me to decend into myself, to discover new things: the variety that I sought in vain in life, in travel, but a longing for which was none the less renewed in me by this sonorous tide whose sunlit waves now came to expire at my feet."

[bhodges]

Classical music is one of the most important things in my life -- whether it's "the" most is debatable, since I love time spent with friends and family, as well as taking advantage of other things to do in New York (e.g., theater, film, art exhibits, restaurants, etc.). 

But I try to listen to something every day.  If I go to a concert (roughly 2-3 times a week) I generally don't listen to much else, either before or after.  Last night I'd intended to watch Peter Eötvös' opera, Angels in America on PBS, but after three concerts during the weekend, all I could think of was Maurizio Pollini's stunning recital just a few hours before the broadcast.  So I wasn't really in the mood for much of anything else.  Also, after you hear something great -- especially a great live concert -- it's wonderful to let it sit with you, let it resonate in your head for awhile, before hearing something else.

But I try to allot roughly 2-3 hours a day of focused listening, i.e., listening without doing anything else, whether live or recorded.

Just saw johnshade's beautiful Proust quote...  I would just add that hearing contemporary music, in particular, makes me feel renewed.

--Bruce 

[George]

Good point Tony, the time on the forum is also closely connected with with the enjoyment of classical music.

Yes, I wonder how many hours of a regular day would be related to classical if we included this forum, listening, reading, buying, researching and even thinking about classical music?

If I go to a concert (roughly 2-3 times a week) I generally don't listen to much else, either before or after. 

I fully agree with this policy. 

[BachQ]

Classical Music, just like great literature, provides an opportunity to experience the sublime in ordinary life. It is a feast for the intellect and for the spirit. For me, its the fodder of my everyday life. It would pain me, to conceive of a world without it.

Well said.

[Iago]

Baseball (NY Mets), gambling, eating in fine restaurants, using my digital camera, watching my High Definition TV, Sleeping late, going to bed equally late, attending as many "live" concerts in Disney Hall as I can, paying attention to my health needs, traveling.
Those are my priorities at the moment. And although I love classical music, especially the "romantic" symphonies and pot-boiler operas, I can live without listening to recordings far longer than I can do without those priorities.
However when I'm in need of a soporific or an emetic, I do not hesitate to turn to the music of J.S. Bach or Mozart. They ALWAYS have the desired effect.

[Florestan]

Discovering clasical music 20 years ago was an awe-inspiring experience. I was about 14 then and I remember perfectly the first compositions I've heard:

Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto
Grieg's First Piano Concerto
Chopin's Polonaise Heroique op. 53
Mozart's Symphony No. 40
Bizet's Carmen (actually it was a film with Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson)

A whole new world opened up for me. It was like a revelation that struck me with overwhelming force. An instant rapture.

Since then classical music has been a daily presence in my life and along with literature is my dearest hobby.

I've been listening only to classical music, excluding all other genres, up to my second year in college when I started listening to heavy metal, too. I was a big Metallica fan then but now my enthusiasm for this kind of music is gone forever. Today the music that I listen to voluntarily is 99% classical.

There is no better way to sum up my own experience as a classical music lover than this quote:

A life without music would be an error. - Friedrich Nietzsche

[bhodges]

There is no better way to sum up my own experience as a classical music lover than this quote:

A life without music would be an error. - Friedrich Nietzsche

One of my alltime favorite musical quotations!  (Might even be "the" favorite.)

--Bruce

[Florestan]

One of my alltime favorite musical quotations!  (Might even be "the" favorite.)

--Bruce

From the same source:

There is no difference between music and tears.