Your Own Classical Evolution

[Mirror Image]

Here's a topic that hopefully will be interesting for everybody.

In this thread, I would like us all to get to the very essence of what we enjoy about this music and what has led us from one composer to the next.

I guess I'm a unique listener in the respect that I didn't start off with the composers everybody seems to worship like Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, I started off with the music of Bartok, Ravel, and Ives as my cataylst. Their music was interesting enough that I started to explore other composers. I remember being floored when I first heard Berlioz's Requiem for the first time. I also recall a very early experience with Janacek's Sinfonietta and Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice. For a year or so, I seemed to bounce back and forth between Romantic and early 20th Century. Now, most of listening is the entire 20th Century. I don't listen to Romantic composers as much as I used to. I still love Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky though. Nothing will change my love for their music, but the 20th Century is where I found the music that I enjoy. Vaughan Williams was a wonderful discovery. My appreciation for the Second Viennese School has finally cemented. I found Dutilleux this year and have found so much beauty in his music. Some composers I gave another chance to this year and who I've really become enthralled with now have been Milhaud, Bloch, Martinu, and Villa-Lobos.

There's still so much music that I want to hear and explore, but I've been grateful for all the music I have heard whether it has been a positive or negative experience. I never stop learning about classical music and it's really encouraging to meet people on this forum who have been listening alot longer than I have who still have an unwavering passion for this music. This keeps my hope alive for younger generations who have yet to experience how this music can change their lives.

Please share your classical evolution with the members of the forum.

[Conor71]

I came to listen to CM though an interest in Film - I got my first 3 classical recordings of Part's Speigel Im Speigel, Holst's Planets and Mozart's Gran Partita after seeing and enjoying the soundtracks to the films Gerry, The Right Stuff and Amadeus.
I listened to those first 3 Discs a lot for a few years in-between listening to Rock and Folk Music - about 3 years ago I had begun to tire of Rock and thought I would like to give Classical a go so I bought a few more recordings by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart just stuff from Composers that I had heard of before. My first choices were best of's of these composers and from there I branched out to getting and listening to entire works such as Goldberg Variations, Symphony No. 9 and The Nocturnes.
Pretty much from there it was just Branching out slowly and getting more works by the same composers and new works from the other big-name composers from books on Classical.
Ive enjoyed keyboard works since first starting out and that has continued, I find I now enjoy Chamber music a bit more than orchestral and have added quite a bit of this music to my modest collection over the last couple of years.
I have been trying to broaden my appreciation along the way by investigating some more modern works and this year, by listening to Opera chestnuts.
That's where I'm at pretty much - I still like the same composers as when I started (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) although my appreciation of their work has become deeper.

[MN Dave]

A Clockwork Orange > A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack > Beethoven > The rest of it.

[Conor71]

A Clockwork Orange > A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack > Beethoven > The rest of it.

Cool and awesome film! - just looking at the soundtrack for the film, I didnt realise there was so much other Classical in it besides Beethoven's 9th :

Track listing

   1. "The Funeral of Queen Mary" - Wendy Carlos [7]
   2. "The Thieving Magpie (Rossini, Abridged)" - A Deutsche Grammophon Recording
   3. "Theme from A Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana)" - Wendy Carlos
   4. "Ninth Symphony, Second Movement (Abridged)" - A Deutsche Grammophon Recording conducted by Ferenc Fricsay.
   5. "March from A Clockwork Orange (Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, Abridged)" - Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind
   6. "William Tell Overture (Rossini, Abridged)" - Wendy Carlos
   7. "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" - Sir Edward Elgar
   8. "Pomp and Circumstance March No. IV (Abridged)" - Sir Edward Elgar
   9. "Timesteps (Excerpt)" - Wendy Carlos
  10. "Overture to the Sun" - Terry Tucker (instrumental from Sound of Sunforest [1969] album of the group, Sunforest)
  11. "I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" - Erika Eigen (from Sound of Sunforest, the 1969 album of her group, Sunforest - the film version is different to the soundtrack version)
  12. "William Tell Overture (Abridged)" - A Deutsche Grammophon Recording
  13. "Suicide Scherzo (Ninth Symphony, Second Movement, Abridged)" - Wendy Carlos
  14. "Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, (Abridged)" - A Deutsche Grammophon Recording (Von Karajan, 1963, uncredited)
  15. "Singin' in the Rain" - Gene Kelly, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown.

[MN Dave]

Cool and awesome film! - just looking at the soundtrack for the film, I didnt realise there was so much other Classical in it besides Beethoven's 9th :

Track listing

   1. "The Funeral of Queen Mary" - Wendy Carlos [7]
   

Yep. And that one is by Henry Purcell. Another of my favorites.

[Conor71]

Yep. And that one is by Henry Purcell. Another of my favorites.

Nice - I havent heard any Purcell before, will check that one out at some stage .

[MN Dave]

Nice - I havent heard any Purcell before, will check that one out at some stage .

No pressure, Conor, but I like this:

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553129

[Conor71]

No pressure, Conor, but I like this:

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.553129

Checked out a few samples on Amazon - sounds nice!. Cheers for the recommendation .

[Brahmsian]

A Clockwork Orange > A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack > Beethoven > The rest of it.

This is a carbon copy for me as well.  Almost exactly how it all trinkled down in my case! 

[Guido]

I guess I'm a unique listener in the respect that I didn't start off with the composers everybody seems to worship like Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, I started off with the music of Bartok, Ravel, and Ives as my cataylst. Their music was interesting enough that I started to explore other composers.

I wouldn't say you were that unique. My entry into to classical music (as in, the point where I started adoring it) was also through a few 20th century giants - Ives and Bartok (Ravel came much later for me), also Barber, Shostakovich and Messiaen. Also Finzi was a key figure in my early listening. From these few my passion expanded and grew to encompass many others, though these figures still mean a lot, if not the most to me. (Certainly with Ives and Barber).

[AndyD.]

I was exposed to Beethoven, Paganini, and Tchaikovsky at an early age through my neopolitan Grandfather. My father was more into popular music, so I had that mix through most of my early years. I got interested in J.S. Bach when I first heard songs like Deep Purple's Burn. But most of this was as a supplement to my main love at the time: rock/metal music.

In 2005 I saw Amadeus the movie and was motivated by the likable (though mostly fictional) portrayal of "Wolfie" to dig deeper into Mozart and Haydn. I look back on that period as a great gateway into Art music.

In 2007 I was inspired by one of my favorite heavy metal bands, Manowar, to investigate Richard Wagner's Ring Des Nibelungen. From there I became a raving Wagnerite, and became more and more immersed in the music of Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, and most recently Bartok from there.

[Sid]

My parents were interested in classical music - they collected records and went to concerts. Classical music was often played around the house as long back as I can remember. These were the classics like J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Wagner, Brahms, Liszt & it was mainly orchestral. As a teenager, I began to go to some concerts with them, started listening to classical radio & collected some tapes and cd's.

In my 20's I was less interested in music generally, but I still went to classical concerts - mainly chamber - and also got into jazz a bit. Now in my 30's I have again started collecting classical & going to concerts in the past 2 years. My favourite period is the C20th, but I also like the music of other periods, going right back to the Renaissance. My favourite genres are chamber, solo instrumental, choral, orchestral, and art songs & my least favourite is opera.

The reason I like classical music is that it's so diverse. There's much good stuff out there to explore & experience. I have a number of people in my life that also like classical music, some can read scores & play (or have played)  instruments. A composer friend of mine has introduced me to a number of lesser-known composers, like Harry Partch. I am currently highly into solo piano music & have recently discovered electronica. The thing with me is that I'm a deep listener, I like to kind of figure out what the composer is doing, whether I like the music initially or not. But as one of my colleagues said, you have to listen to a cd more than once to find out if you really like it or not - first impressions can be highly misleading. That's the basis I try to work from. Usually, I like innovative composers, no matter what era they are from. I don't like regurgitation and repetition of old styles. I like to be startled at bit and put out of my comfort zone (or at least challenged to think in some way?)...

[Mirror Image]

...my least favourite is opera.

Same here. I could never get into that much. There are a few operas that I have heard and enjoy:

Delius: A Village Romeo & Juliet, Fennimore and Gerda...I have not heard Koanga yet and the recording I want is out-of-print and quite expensive

I'm coming around to Szymanowski's King Roger. I just ordered the classic Kertesz recording of Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and if all goes well with it, I will probably take the plunge into Mackerras' Janacek opera box set on Decca.

We shall see how it goes.

[Philoctetes]

When I was young, I was forced into it, in that I was a typical teenager (perhaps a tad more extreme), I reacted against this, and went in the 'opposing' direction (it's opposed only in this example), and then as I grew older, I began to come back to it, and brought it more into the fold, and now it is usually my first choice, although for certain activities I find it quite lacking.

My first favorite compose was Satie, and even now, he's still my favorite. It's fun, short music. I say, if you can't dig him, watch out.

[jimmosk]

My twin introductions to CM came in the mid 1980s. They were music used as entrance music in my high school's planetarium(!), like Holst and Respighi, and film scores, like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Trek. From there I got into the Romantic Era warhorses like Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, and gradually grew to like more and more recent music -- from Mahler to Martinu to Shostakovich to Holmboe -- and eventually earlier music (my knowledge of 18th-century music and before is no longer just JS Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, though it's nowhere near as widespread as the centuries since.

I still hold to a dictum I arrived at pretty early on in my listening career: If at first you don't understand a piece, give it several more listens. I can grow to like and follow many things that at first seems opaque.

-J

[Sid]

Same here. I could never get into that much. There are a few operas that I have heard and enjoy...We shall see how it goes.

I also tend to like C20th operas - eg. Berg & Schoenberg. I especially want to get Debussy, Ligeti & maybe Ravel & Janacek.

When I was young, I was forced into it, in that I was a typical teenager (perhaps a tad more extreme), I reacted against this, and went in the 'opposing' direction (it's opposed only in this example), and then as I grew older, I began to come back to it, and brought it more into the fold, and now it is usually my first choice, although for certain activities I find it quite lacking.

My first favorite compose was Satie, and even now, he's still my favorite. It's fun, short music. I say, if you can't dig him, watch out.

It has been classical with me all the way, with a short foray into jazz (which I ocassionally enjoy now and then). I have felt a it out of touch with my own generation, most of whom don't seem that interested in classical. In school, it was considered a "nerdy" type of thing, one that I learned to kind of hide from the critical ignorant buffoons.

As for Satie, I plan to get some of his piano works, as I am currently in a piano phase. I have not heard much of his music, piano or otherwise, but I have read about his huge influence on later composers.

...I still hold to a dictum I arrived at pretty early on in my listening career: If at first you don't understand a piece, give it several more listens. I can grow to like and follow many things that at first seems opaque.

I agree with this statement 100%, although sometimes I have been quick to judge late Romantic composers in particular (couldn't stand Langgaard, but now I'm beginning to get into guys like Mahler and Zemlinsky - will even go to see the former's 9th symphony live next year, I want to scale that peak for sure!)...

[Mirror Image]

My first favorite compose was Satie, and even now, he's still my favorite. It's fun, short music. I say, if you can't dig him, watch out.

I dislike Satie as do so many others I've spoken with over the years. Totally lame composer. Was that too harsh?

[Mirror Image]

I also tend to like C20th operas - eg. Berg & Schoenberg. I especially want to get Debussy, Ligeti & maybe Ravel & Janacek.

I need to go back and listen to Berg's operas. I remember running for my life when I heard the opening measures of Wozzeck.

Hopefully, now that I've digested so much from the Second Viennese School, I can listen to Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, which I heard his one of his masterpieces.

Again, we shall see...

[Bulldog]

I dislike Satie as do so many others I've spoken with over the years. Totally lame composer.

Sounds like you have some evolving ahead of you.

[Philoctetes]

Sounds like you have some evolving ahead of you.

That's pretty funny. I was about to say something similar.