Thread: How did YOU discover classical music?

I don't think I've seen this sort of thread topic-- thought it might be fun...

How did you discover classical music? How old were you? Was it a particular piece of music? What was some of your first listening experiences? Was it sudden or did it take you time to warm up to it?

My story doesn't start out very promising at first I was a slow learner...

When I was a kid, like about 5 or 6 I remember having (for some odd reason) the soundtrack to Doctor Zhivago. That is my earliest memory of exposure to symphonic music. I think I got it at a second-hand shop, but I had no idea what I was getting.

When Star Wars came out, I was 7 years old & I got the John Williams soundtrack, thinking it was so amazing. I had bought a few other symphonic soundtracks as well during that time (I also had the Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite but I didn't really know I was listening to classical music (like I said, I was a slow learner). Through my dad, who had listened to a little bit of classical music, he sort of nudged me in the direction of Beethoven (Sym. No. 5 & 6) & Mozart (Sym. 40 & 41). My parents really didn't listen to classical music much (mum hates it actually).

As a 9 year old kid, I was like "Wow! You mean people have been writing this stuff for a couple hundred years?" LOL (My funny confession: I thought the numbers to the symphonies indicated not the numbered symphony of a given composer, but of all symphonies ever written-- so Beethoven wrote the world's SIXTH symphony ever and so on LOL)

I still did listen to some crap though (once I found Holst I ditched John Williams for good LOL)-- I think it was around the early 80s (around age 10 or 11) that the Disney movie Fantasia was re-released and there was Vangelis' Chariots of Fire soundrack (a sort of one-man electronic orchestra) and the first Hooked On Classics record came out (eek! I said "record"!). Oh, there was also the Cosmos sountrack (the Carl Sagan doco series) and I discovered a bunch of classical music through that as well. I don't remember which ones I got first, but it was all around the same time.

But the Hooked on Classics album listed all the music used in the medley and I started tracking down these pieces (I had graduated to cassette tape by this time). I found myself especially drawn toward Bach. I bought the all the Orchestral Suites and the Brandenburgs and I was indeed "hooked" and I was totally in love with classical in a big way after that. It was then that I discovered I could check out records from the public library & between that & reading up on composers & the history & development of classical music that I grew in my knowledge & experience.

So whilst many kids at my age would've had parents beating on the door saying "Would you turn that noise down?!!" to Motely Crue or whatever, for me it was Stravinsky LOL

What about other people's introduction to classical music?

~josh

Originally Posted by marval

...a very good record shop (unfotunately I cannot remember the name), it sold mostly classical music...

How strange-- a record shop selling mostly classical music...? LOL

In some larger US cities you could find in some of the bigger music shops a "classical room" which usually had a fairly wide selection. I noticed in New Orleans, Houston and Dallas but by the early-90s they started getting smaller and smaller, and then finally cut out altogether by around 1999. I can't even purchase classical music except online now.

~josh

Originally Posted by MJTTOMB

It started almost exactly a year ago, when I decided to try writing classical for an independent project in a digital music production class. I kept trying, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't for the life of me understand a word of theory that came from my teacher's mouth. Over last summer, I taught myself everything. Chords, movements, styles, modulations, scales, modes, forms, orchestration, melodic development, everything. The more I studied, the more I realized. One can't know how difficult it is to write such beautiful music if one has never tried, or never thought about how to.

I absolutely love it.

Wow! Good on you! I was one of the very few people in music school that actually LIKED music theory, once it clicked in my head just right... Go you!

~josh

Great topic.

Until this past summer I, in my almost 52 years, did not pay much attention to classical music. There were a few pieces of music that I enjoyed for example an old television show which came on PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) called Masterpiece Theater used what I now know is from Handels Watermusic as the theme. Also I enjoyed the Nutcracker when heard during the Holydays. Other than that I knew nothing.

This past summer my family and I were in Lincolnshire UK for 3 weeks as part of the comemmoration of John Smith and the founding of the Jamestown colony.
I was commisioned to create a piece of music (I build and play Native Flutes) to play in concert with the London Mozart Players. We were planning on doing 3 days of workshops and 3 evening concerts.

With literally 10 minutes of rehersal, barely enough time to say hello, behind us we performed the first concert. It was as if we were in two different musical universes
During the next two days of workshops and concerts we drew closer together musically. The last concert was very nice and when my part of the program was finished I sat and listened to them perform Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings.

I think the combination of how I was feeling after my part of the program (happy it went well and relieved it was finished) and the beauty of LMP's performance of Serenade caused me to immediately fall in Love with this music!
From that moment on I "needed" to hear more. At first I relived the LMP experience by listening to Serenade days on end.

In my home one can usually hear Kora or Didgerido or Mbira (I play these as well) or Tuvan Throat singing... but once we returned home, much to the dismay of my family, Tchaikovsky was on 24/7. In an effort to keep my family intact some variation in music was needed. Wbach radio to the rescue. This was where new music excited my ears.

Classical is still so new to me. Much to learn about the composers, the language, the music, orchestras, conducters well you get the picture. I feel like the baby who is just begining to babble the rudiments of language...

In my case, I really don't know, actually! As you may know, one gets very little exposure to this form of classical music in this part of the world, but whenever I heard a snippet of an orchestral piece (or something based on these principles), I enjoyed it. As a kid, I was exposed to O Fortuna, (a tiny part of) Mozart's 25th symphony, the finale of Beethoven's 9th, etc. through TV adverts. (without knowing it, of course.) Also, one of the famous film composers adopted a lot of stuff from Baroque music, especially Vivaldi and Bach - something I found out after my "discovery." A couple of years ago, I came across this trivia about Mozart reproducing the score of the Miserere from memory. (The date was Jan 26th, 2006, if you must know, and I was 20 years plus a few months old.) I said to myself, "Well, this Mozart guy seems interesting. Why not explore more of his music and see what the fuss is all about?" Till then, I had heard only the names of a couple of composers and nothing more. Having begun my journey in the "Age of the Internet," I discovered internet radio stations. I found one in Feb' '06, and I haven't looked back ever since. I joined internet message boards and started learning more from experienced listeners and enthusiasts. Fortunately, there are stores here that stock a few hundred CDs in their 'Western Classical' racks. This music has definitely been one of the greatest discoveries in my life, and I hope to continue to discover more.

And I'll quit boring you now.

This is interesting... While a few here have more-or-less been born into a household familiar with classical music (either through listening and/or through music lessons), many people found out later, unexpectedly.

This only reinforces my belief that IF classical music got more promotion (via record companies, TV, radio, internet, schools, etc.) there would probably be an even wider audience for classical. It isn't because classical music is "too difficult" or "boring" or anything like that at all. People simply have no exposure to it-- it might not even OCCUR to many people to even CONSIDER classical music. At best what people have is stereotypes.

Lack of exposure (and also the stereotypes which "make up" for that lack of exposure) is the only real thing stopping classical from being as popular as it is. Oh, I know-- a lot of people wouldn't like it anyway, but I think this is indicative of the fact that classical music doesn't HAVE to be so obscure-- it isn't on its own merits that classical music is like this today.

Classical music can be fun, exciting, deeply moving, funny, intelligent, and so many other things. I think more people would be willing to delve into its riches if only there were more exposure and less stereotypes.

These are wonderful stories to hear-- keep it up!

Hawk, have you played the shakuhachi as well? I'm an amateur shak player.

~josh

We need a classical music reality show, folks!