AudioCircle
Music and Media => The Classical Music Circle => Topic started by: S Clark on 26 Aug 2017, 08:54 pm
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Thought I'd get a guess at how many classical fans we have at AC.
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I started loving Classical music when I got my first real stereo, at age 15.
I joined the Columbia Classical Record Club. (to get lots of free records)
The following Fall when I wrote an essay for 'What I did this Summer' about learning about Classical music and Liking Beethoven.. My High School English teacher called me out in class for LYING in my essay. (No way could I be telling the truth about liking Beethoven at age 15 in 1964..??)
Anyway, fast forward 50 years... I STILL like Classical music.
I am not an expert on it. Unlike some folks.
But I do enjoy it often.
For the survey I did the 'math challenge'.. As I never come over here to read or post anything about Classical music. I would say I am not interested in READING or posting about Classical music.
I own about 1,500 Classical LPs and about 150 Classical CDs.
To compare I own an equal number (actually a few more, but not a lot more) each of Jazz and Rock LPs.
But way more Jazz and Rock CDs than Classical CDs.
Listening is maybe 2/5 Classical, 2/5 Jazz. 1/5 Rock.
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I listen to it periodically, when I'm in the mood for something different, or I when just want something innocuous in background to mute the silence.
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Classical music is the beginning of Western music and the sea where many audiophiles arrive.
A late friend classical music producer told me that anyone teenager who started listening to music with aggressive rock as hardcore/metal never will like classical music.
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I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.
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I have about 2,000 classical vinyl lps, 500 classical cds, 350 opera box sets vinyl, 55 opera laserdiscs, 1,000 jazz cds and 200 jazz vinyl lps. I once had much more jazz on vinyl but about 30 years ago some nice folks broke into the house and decided that they need them more than I did. I now have only about 50 rock lps and an equal number of rock cds. My brother keeps me informed about rock music so I don't feel the need to keep current. But most of my listening now is classical and jazz. I have found that deep classical listening has greatly lessened my ability to appreciate rock music. However, I do own David Bowie's Blackstar - the only Bowie in the collection - which I find to be truly amazing, if not transcendental.
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Classical music is 98% of my listening. I've been fanatical about it since age 12 (45 years).
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I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.
Some would do Pink Floyd others Cluster.
Klaus Schulze seted the standard for Classical/Electronic composer since 1970s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ucqW2QNHno
(http://www.klaus-schulze.com/pics/photos/a101.jpg)
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Equal Distribution of Jazz/Rock/Blues/Classical/Blue grass/world
No expert in any genre.
To many of my Aficionado friends I am part of the unwashed :roll:
I have a good many samplers, I often only play one maybe two movements,
I have many Aria Soloists albums for Opera, I have playlists with only partial
albums. I usually only listen to Album sides uninterrupted if it's LP.
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I started loving Classical music when I got my first real stereo, at age 15....
And all these years I thought you were a 95% rock and roll girl. :D
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I check it out occasionally but it's very quiet here, so I spend more time on classical music fora with greater activity. Probably 2/3 of my approximately 3.5TB of music is classical.
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It would make sense that I love classical music, since I'm the facilitator of this circle :)
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I was just a casual pop-classical listener, Gould, Holst, Copland, etc. Then in 2005 I heard Pacifica Quartet's CD of Dvorak on the radio. That blew me away so started devouring Dvorak and shopping for bigger speakers to play symphonies well, that's how I fell into this hifi quicksand.
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My musical journey started when I was 4 years old. Primary music listened to at that time:
1. Bruno Walter conducting the CBS orchestra performing Beethoven 5th and 6th Symphonies.
2. Dave Brubeck Quartet - Live at the Newport Jazz Festival in '58
3. The Oscar Peterson trio with the Russ Garcia Big Band - Swingin' Brass
4. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
When I was in the 3rd grade, I was sent to piano lessons, which I continued through high school.
When I was in the 7th grade, I picked started playing Tuba in the junior high school band.
In the 70's, I started listening to more jazz and rock and roll. I still listened to classical music while performing classical music is a variety of bands, wind ensembles or orchestras.
In March of '84, I heard a compact disc player and was hooked. No more having to clean records and worry about cartridges and pops and crackles.
I still listen to classical music, but generally nothing earlier than Beethoven. Oh, I despise J.S. Bach. Hated playing it on piano. Still hate playing it in Brass Quintet's. Classical music is still around 40% of what I listen to.
My main instrument is a mid 70's vintage Miraphone model 186 4 rotary valve tuba.
HsvHeelFan
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So many of us that have a few miles on us heard tons of classical as background in cartoons when we were kids. Liszt, Grieg, Wagner, and so many others. To this day, I suspect more people could identify the Lone Ranger theme than those that identifiy the William Tell Overture.
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So many of us that have a few miles on us heard tons of classical as background in cartoons when we were kids. Liszt, Grieg, Wagner, and so many others. To this day, I suspect more people could identify the Lone Ranger theme than those that identifiy the William Tell Overture.
And how many of us can hear the William Tell, Thieving Magpie and Beethoven's 9th without thinking of A Clockwork Orange or On The Beautiful Blue Danube and Also Sprach Zarathustra without thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey ... or indirectly, David Bowie?
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My mom was a classical pianist, organist, and violinist so my first musical memories are of classical. I've always loved that type of music. Like every body else my age I loved rock and pop once the Beatles and Mersey Beat thing got popular. When I was in my later teens I began to appreciate jazz, although it took longer to appreciate some of the more angular and avant garde jazz forms. Most of my listening is "classical" although that's a really limiting and inaccurate term for the full range of concert music for small and large ensembles. I like everything from early vocal work in the Renaissance to modern classical like Rautavaara, Hovhanness, etc. I also like Chinese, Balinese, and Indian classical music.
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I don't fit into any of the poll options. I visit AC frequently and the classical threads occasionally. My listening is roughly 50% jazz, 20% classical, 30% anything else. I find the classical oriented threads useful for general learning and seeking recommendations.
Semi-unrelated tangent: Just learned about bachtrack.com, a website with lots of (free!) hi-def videos of various orchestral ensembles playing various pieces. They stream some live concerts too. Definitely recommended.
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Classical music is the beginning of Western music and the sea where many audiophiles arrive.
A late friend classical music producer told me that anyone teenager who started listening to music with aggressive rock as hardcore/metal never will like classical music.
I personally think metal causes and/or aggravates brain damage (just KIDDING), but I grew up listening to rock, and, although it took years, I now enjoy some classical (I also was introduced to jazz fairly young, which I think helped.) In my early twenties, I decided I 'should' listen to classical because it was Important, but I was forcing it down my own throat and wasn't really ready for it. So I gave it up for a long long time. I came back to it in the last few years when I was finally ready to 'take it in'. Even now though, I gravitate towards the more modern stuff than the 'powdered wig era'. Frank Zappa once said he disliked the music of that era because it "reminds me of painting by numbers". I don't feel that strongly about it, but I do understand what he's saying- it's a little 'neat and tidy' for someone who grew up listening to blues guitar stranglers bending notes thru overdriven tube amps. So maybe that's what your friend was saying. Unlike HsvHeelFan, I do like some Bach though. Different strokes I guess.
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And how many of us can hear the William Tell, Thieving Magpie and Beethoven's 9th without thinking of A Clockwork Orange or On The Beautiful Blue Danube and Also Sprach Zarathustra without thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey ... or indirectly, David Bowie?
David who? Hovhanness is superb, much better than Robert Simpson.
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I personally think metal causes and/or aggravates brain damage (just KIDDING), but I grew up listening to rock, and, although it took years, I now enjoy some classical (I also was introduced to jazz fairly young, which I think helped.) In my early twenties, I decided I 'should' listen to classical because it was Important, but I was forcing it down my own throat and wasn't really ready for it. So I gave it up for a long long time. I came back to it in the last few years when I was finally ready to 'take it in'. Even now though, I gravitate towards the more modern stuff than the 'powdered wig era'. Frank Zappa once said he disliked the music of that era because it "reminds me of painting by numbers". I don't feel that strongly about it, but I do understand what he's saying- it's a little 'neat and tidy' for someone who grew up listening to blues guitar stranglers bending notes thru overdriven tube amps. So maybe that's what your friend was saying. Unlike HsvHeelFan, I do like some Bach though. Different strokes I guess.
I started listen music w/Ravel and CPE Bach that was the only kind of music avaliable at the local rather small public library, so after years I discover rock and roll and country, when I discover prog rock was a relief to listen Moody Blues and Tangerine Dream.
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I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.
I don't know if I'd agree with that ! That sounds like the perspective of someone who isn't that particularly "moved" by the artistic uniqueness of the musical genre .
I for one am absolutely,positively glad that Beethoven was artistically creative enough to explore music on a much deeper level than worrying about what music he felt he wasn't able to Orchestrate with the "limitations" of the acoustical instruments . I very rarely think of electrical instruments & Orchestrations in the same sentence.
For myself I think of Electronic Instrumentation as a step back in terms of available Musicality. I don't care for single voiced "Music"(That is a "Slave to Modern Technology, & as a result becomes nothing more than noisy wallpaper that I would never use)
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No doubt that composers from different times would take advantage of more musical sound options. However, it's not like classic acoustic instruments lack in sound sophistication or variation. Personally, I find electrically altered/amplified instruments to not be a nuanced as their non amplified/altered versions.
I suspect that Steve would agree that Jascha Heifetz never needed amplifications to fill an auditorium with sound.
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If Beethoven were alive today, he wouldn't be the Beethoven we know from history. First of all, he likely wouldn't be lonely and angry because of deafness - modern medicine and technology would have probably helped him :lol: Seriously though, all artists are products of their times. No mater what discipline, an artist's creative talents are a blend of those that came before and those they live among.
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Obviously, every musician/composer is a child of their time and place.
However, the purpose of this little exercise was to get a sense of the number of classical listeners here at AC. And although I know there are several that didn't respond, it looks like we can measure our number in dozens- perhaps scores. :(
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Yes, classical listeners are not a growing subset of music lovers. So many things contribute to the situation. The world's accelerating pace of living is not conducive to the mental state one needs to appreciate the art form. Schools have generally given up on the arts and children who receive meaningful exposure to arts of any kind are the exception rather than the rule. STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) disciplines are the obsession of the education world and the legislators that fund schools. Teachers of the arts are fighting a losing battle for recognition as relevant disciplines. Wealthy individuals who value and endow museums, ballets, orchestras, theaters, etc. are growing fewer in number as the old signifiers of social status have changed. I often wonder how many orchestras will be left in the world in fifty years time. Far fewer I imagine. Our own local orchestra has radically changed its programming in the last few years as it attempts to woo younger audiences. Constant crossover shows; orchestral interpretations of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, shows with rock artists sharing the billing, etc. Time will tell if that's a winning strategy or not.
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I'm one. Lucky enough to live where I can see live almost any weekend. Also have local classical radio station, including in HD format
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Me too, AJ. Two classical radio stations, a first-class symphony orchestra (Colorado Springs Philharmonic), a near first-class chamber orchestra (Chamber Orchestra of the Springs), opera, and a wonderful Colorado College Summer Music Festival. The arts - - especially classical music -- are really flourishing here. We're very lucky. And, oh yes, I have a couple thousand classical LPs as well.
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Loved classical since I listened to Alexander Nevsky when I was a little kid with my brother who was a bass trombonist at Juilliard at the time - didn't get into opera until I studied music in Vienna for about 6 months (was a French horn player at Indiana university at the time). My tastes in recordings vary from the usual audiophile types like Living Stereo etc because I like more modern brass sections :thumb: my favorite composers are probably bruckner Mahler and Strauss 8)
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I check it out occasionally but it's very quiet here, so I spend more time on classical music fora with greater activity. Probably 2/3 of my approximately 3.5TB of music is classical.
I didn't know there were any classical music fora (except for this one); can yo enlighten me?
My classical music life began when I got a 2-lp set of Beethoven's ninth, in 1948. I was living in Chicago at the time and fell in love with radio station WFMT. Still listen to them on line, now that I'm retired and in the boonies...
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I likely heard it in the womb. My parents were classical listeners. I remember my dad buying a Grundig stereo and listening to the Firebird. My mom liked Brahms and Liszt. My dad liked Copland and Tchaikovsky, but also Gershwin and Ellington.
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I love classical music. I started exploring it on my own as a teenager in the late '60s only to find I was already familiar with many pieces and themes from childhood exposure in Warner cartoons, TV commercials, young-peoples' concerts, and 5 years in grade school band (back then I'd had no idea "Hymn of All Nations" was from Finlandia).
Throughout my 45 years of adulthood, I'd say it has made up about 60-70% of my everyday listening. I feel fortunate that where I've lived for the last 30 years (Indianapolis), we have a full-time professional symphony orchestra that ranks among the top of the country's second-tier ensembles.
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I had the great good fortune to fall in love with (and marry) a classical pianist when we were both in graduate school. So I have learned to also love classical music and it’s probably 90% of the music I listen to.
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Yes, I love "classical" music, though I tend more to the romantics.
Recently I have been listening to the Liszt piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies. As a whole they are amazingly well done, and I've learned subtleties about the symphonies that I had not heard before.
I think the Eroica (number 3) works the best, but then it is my favorite Beethoven symphony so perhaps that's not a surprise.
Here we joke that MrsJ and I have a mixed marriage. She grew up hearing the Grand Ole Opry, and I grew up listening to Italian opera.
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I grew up with Classical music (in the broad sense) and enjoy it still. I try to widen my knowledge of it a little with each passing month and year, but I'll never have heard everything, not in 10 lifetimes! I realized last week I'd never heard the Brahms Requiem, so I spent some time with that, via Qobuz.
Currently, my library includes 2650 CDs worth of releases (ripped from disc or downloaded) in the classical area, plus the Qobuz subscription.
@DrJ-10: Musically, it seems I'd get along with both you and Mrs J. Besides classical music and jazz, I'm also fond of acoustic country music -- more the traditional Doc Watson etc. type than the commercial Nashville type, but I do enjoy a lot of both. I suppose Mrs J knows about the young phenom, Billy Strings?
I would recommend Anthony Tommasini's book The Indispensable Composers to anyone who shares our interest.
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I am a huge fan of classical, but almost exclusively of classical from after about 1920 to the present era. And even more exclusively, music composed after about 1950.
It seems as if I lost all interest in tonal music, beginning about a year ago. I am not exactly happy about this situation, since a large part of my music collection does not interest me any longer.
But on the upside, there seems no end to great composers and pieces for me to discover.
Elliott Carter, Magnus Lindberg, Thomas Ades, Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Eduard Gerhard, Ernst Krenek, Harrison Birtwistle, Agusta Read Thomas... the list of great living and contemporary composers is almost endless. And of course, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.
My listening habits are something like this: about 35% classical, about 35% progressive music, and about 30% jazz.
All of the above genres (and various subgenres of each), all have similar attributes. They are all: complex, have a very high level of musicianship, have broad range of emotional content, (usually) long form pieces.
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Another huge classical fan here. I love listening to public radio classical programming while driving, and Qobuz both in the car and at home. A good on-air DJ is and always has been my favorite way of discovering new music, but I gotta say that the convenience of Qobuz is challenging that a bit.
I stumbled onto 2L’s Test Bench a few years ago, which got me real interested in hi-res recordings. It was the first time that I was able to experience the difference for free, and I’ve been working my way through their catalog ever since.
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It's so encouraging to see the recent renewal of interest in this thread. Romantic, Atonal, Baroque, etc. all have their fans and their ability to take us to places of enjoyment. :thumb:
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I am a huge fan of classical, but almost exclusively of classical from after about 1920 to the present era. And even more exclusively, music composed after about 1950.
It seems as if I lost all interest in tonal music, beginning about a year ago. I am not exactly happy about this situation, since a large part of my music collection does not interest me any longer.
But on the upside, there seems no end to great composers and pieces for me to discover.
Elliott Carter, Magnus Lindberg, Thomas Ades, Joan Tower, Joseph Schwantner, Eduard Gerhard, Ernst Krenek, Harrison Birtwistle, Agusta Read Thomas... the list of great living and contemporary composers is almost endless. And of course, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.
My listening habits are something like this: about 35% classical, about 35% progressive music, and about 30% jazz.
All of the above genres (and various subgenres of each), all have similar attributes. They are all: complex, have a very high level of musicianship, have broad range of emotional content, (usually) long form pieces.
Me too. Are you familiar with the releases on this label? https://www.bmop.org/ Great recordings of modern music, released as SACDs no less.