Nice thread, innovative as well.... Here's a list:

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 2
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty Lilac Fairy's Theme
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

Hmm, which one do you think is the outlier? 1812 Overture sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn't it....

 

I'm not so concerned with these pieces, which will always find new listeners. Of more concern is music that overstays its welcome five minutes into the first hearing...

 

I've never yet found a work the becomes too familiar. I expect to continue to love the works that I currently love forever.

 

Lucky.... You must not listen to Tchaikovsky.

Anyway. I try to stay away from listening to the same work twice in a row, no matter how short or long.... Anyone like that as well?

 

All of the works in the OP's list still work for me... as long as I ration the hearings. Once per year mostly; that canon maybe every 5.

 

Not death exactly, but infirm. One only needs to give these works a chance to be new again, that's all. With Dvorak's 9th, I'll need to give it a long, long chance I'm afraid -- and that's my fault for wearing it out. Some famous works, such as Taco Bell's Cannon or Bore-lero, I was never much in love with anyway.

 

I don't really get tired of music from over-listening to it, but sometimes I get tired of music from people over-praising it, which kind of doesn't make sense but meh.

 

Yeah, it makes sense. The 'over-praise' gets you thinking "Hey, it ain't that good", and then it ain't.

 

When I do get to "saturation", I put it aside for a period, which could be more than a year. But really, there are so much music out there that we can address the imbalance a bit by listening to other works even by great composers themselves. YOu can listen to the many early pieces of Beethoven for example and they are wonderful, too.

 

At the age of fifteen I first said to myself "I don't care if I ever hear Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik ever again.". And I still don't.

Other things that strike me similarly: The Four Seasons, Fur Elise, many of the leitmotifs in The Ring, The Pina Colada Song.

 

many of the leitmotifs in The Ring

can never get enough of those (especially the hero motif). It also seems like someone doesn't like getting caught in the rain.

 

Everything in Suzuki Violin through to book 7.

 

Classical Music does not suffer from the overfamiliarity bug. A piece can be played and replayed without penalty. Ravel's Bolero might be the only exception to the rule. The bug only affects popular musics.

I almost always play a disc 2, even 3 times in succession before putting on another disc. Only if I am listening with 100% undivided attention for the full duration of the disc will I content myself with a single playing. It's too easy to put on an album and then allow the mind to wander: that's not listening.

If it is a disc I am hearing for the first time, I might go as high as 4-5 times, although I usually break these repeats up with a few other albums and spread them out over 2-3 days. I like to feel that I have come to know a piece quite well before I file it, as it might not get played again for a year or so as I make my way through my collection.

 

I'm scared of ruining pieces by listening to them too much. I deliberately avoid playing Mozart's 41st, Beethoven's 6th, The Rite of Spring, etc. because I don't want to get sick of them. There are also pieces I would be indifferent to but have grown to strongly dislike because they're so overplayed - Rachmaninov piano concertos, Tchaikovsky symphonies, Chopin nocturnes.

 

You're not alone. I have this feeling as well and it kind of sucks because it keeps me from listening to pieces I really love sometimes

 

I simply avoid listening to classical radio unless there is a particular or unknown work that I want to hear - therefore largely ruling out the chance of hearing one of the usual suspects for the umpteenth time. As a result, if any works are going to be overplayed then it will be my fault alone as my own collection is almost exclusively my sole resource.

Also, many TV programmes and movie soundtracks feature snippets of some of the more predictable items which perhaps add to the over-familiarity/too predictable accusations.

 

You can't ruin great to music by hearing it too much. What you can do is become over familiar with it after repeated listening, something the original audiences did not have a problem with, btw!
In which case do what I do. Play other music for a time and then come back fresh to your favourites! Easy!

 

Of course you can ruin great music by over-listening. I once listened to a certain record almost every day for a couple of months. After that, I couldn't stand it. Ten years later, I still couldn't listen to it. Twenty years later, I am finally able to listen to it again, but it doesn't have any of the magic that made me love it twenty years ago. Maybe I'll have to wait another ten years for the magic to return, if it ever will. I would hate to experience this scenario again with any of my classical music favorites.

Also, in many cases, I'm not just trying to keep the music from getting ruined. I also want to keep that fresh feel about it, which makes me even more reluctant to listen to it, to the extent that I sometimes forget about favorite works for years!

 

Not sure if this is entirely relevant but I have often wondered what certain pieces of music must have originally sounded like on first listening without all the 'baggage' that can come to surround works, essentially as a result of familiarity. As an 18 year old I heard the Clash first album on its release and it seemed to 'tear up the script'-the same happened with the release of Televisions magnificent first album Marquee Moon. A good friend , ten years older described how on first buying the renowned second album by the Band (the 'brown album') he and his housemates repeatedly listened to it, shocked at the way in which the album appeared to be a reaction to the increasing self indulgence of much of the music of the late '60's,the first instalment of what is now 'Americana'.
What have these meandering reflections to do with classical music? I believe it is very difficult to appreciate the significance and qualities of pieces, often because over familiarity has literally drained the music of its character-I have an irrational dislike of Tchaikovsky, primarily because much of his music feels so 'obvious', essentially for this reason-the subtleties, melodies and craft underlying the compositions are obscured-I was shocked however when I recently heard the Rococco variations for the first time and really enjoyed the experience. There are other specific pieces I almost 'cannot hear', the Grieg piano concerto being an example. The opposite,that feeling of excitement as a work unfolds in your mind, something that you have never heard before but it appeals and gradually through listening becomes increasingly comprehensible-that for me is one of the great appeals of continuing to investigate new composers or works-precisely what happened to me with Martinu this summer.

 

Tchiakovsky Symphony No 4
Mendelssohn Violin Cincerto
Beethoven 5
Mozart Symphony No 40
Eine Kliene Nacht Musik
Most stuff played on Classic FM!!!!!

 

That'll teach you not to listen to the dreaded Classic FM won't it!

 

Great thread. Music that makes me shiver:

Beethoven symphony 9: Second and 4th movement.
Beethoven Symphony 5: First mvmt theme.
Beethoven: Fur Elise
Mozart: Eine Kleine Nacht....
Debussy: the opening of clair de lune
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Handel: Messiah Halleluja
Vivaldi: Four seasons - spring


These pieces with the exception of clair de lune is basically ruined for me. Never got the chance to like anyone of them (except Vivaldi: Spring. listened to it as child)

 

Great thread. Music that makes me shiver:

Beethoven symphony 9: Second and 4th movement.
Beethoven Symphony 5: First mvmt theme.
Beethoven: Fur Elise
Mozart: Eine Kleine Nacht....
Debussy: the opening of clair de lune
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Handel: Messiah Halleluja
Vivaldi: Four seasons - spring

These pieces with the exception of clair de lune is basically ruined for me. Never got the chance to like anyone of them (except Vivaldi: Spring. listened to it as child)

I agree with all of this except the Strauss. The rest of the piece after that introduction has definitely not been ruined by over-exposure (unless you have personally listened to it a ton) and is really great stuff.

You don't really strike me as a Strauss kind of person though, am I right? or wrong?

 

Ive listened to some of the Strausses, but not this one I'm afraid. And yes, the opening to Zarathusta kills me before i get the chance to check out the rest of the piece. Kind of like fur elise.

 

Well, if you ever want to check out the rest of the piece, here is a link to a youtube recording of it that is set to play starting at the section after the over-popular section

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IFPwm0e_K98#t=108

Oh wait! It didn't work, I just tried it Well, it's 20 seconds before the end of the over-popular section

 

The Blue Danube Waltz is the culprit why I haven't listened to Strauss! That waltz is a curse heaped upon me. I cannot take it anymore.! Also, Dies Irae of Verdi's Requiem!

 

The Blue Danube Waltz is the culprit why I haven't listened to Strauss! That waltz is a curse heaped upon me. I cannot take it anymore.!

Johann Strauss isn't a composer I particularly care for, but do check out some of his other pieces that aren't like the BD waltz. One that I particularly like by him is his "Egyptian March". Sounds nothing like Egyptian music, but hey, none of those 19th century caricatures of faux-exotic music really sounded like the music it was trying to sound like anyway.

Of course, the Strauss that me and Ravndal were just talking about is Richard Strauss, completely different composer in every way possible

 

Personally I could do 'death by overfamiliarity' with most of Mahlers and Shostakovich's symphonies, but luckily it hasn't got to that stage yet.
In my opinion however, a work that has certainly been done-to-death is the opening part of Orffs' Carmina Burana; the 'O Fortuna'. Over recent years, it's been everywhere!

 

Some of Mozart's most popular works. The first movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 5. Pachelbel's Canon. Boccherini's Minuet. The fourth movement of Dvorak's Symphony no. 9.. Etc.

What some classical music works that you are over familiar with, that it's like been beaten to death when you hear it? Are you having the 'Death by Overfamiliarity' syndrome?
:O

Not a single blooming one. I'd be surprised if there is any work I hear more than once every two months, unless I do so on purpose.

On the other hand, I'm underfamiliar with pretty much everything out there.

 

I don't mind familiarity. Sometimes there exists some melodies you simply are allergic to. One of the reasons may be because you connect the melody to many different things. Because it has been used in commercials and films etc. And has been pushed on you too many times.

 

Yes, I think that is the real issue for most of the pieces mentioned in the thread. It's not that they've listened to the piece too many times, it's that when they hear the "Blue Dabue Waltz" for instance it brings to mind Homer Simpson spinning around in zero gravity trying to eat chips.

 

Yes... I had a friend once, his name was Pierre. Pierre and I used to talk a lot and share our thoughts, dreams and feelings. Soon after we met we knew almost everything about each other. One evening we were stolling down the park alley having one of our long, long conversations. "Hey, Pierre" - I asked - "you never told me what is your favourite colour!". "I love the azure of Provence's sea!" he replied and at this very moment he fell to the ground in agony. I understood he became too familiar to me.

So to answer the OP's question...

Are you having the 'Death by Overfamiliarity' syndrome?

Yes, brother... I do...

 

You can often hear another performance which gives a different view of a piece to make it fresh again. Though with popular music that tactic might be viable less often.

 

It seems that Tchaikovsky is the composer this thread keeps coming back to. To me, the familiar works of Tchaikovsky are like a plate full of spagetti. It's comfort food and I love to eat it often. Pyotr was an emotional, sentimental guy and a fantastic melodist. His melodies are "overly" familiar because they are so accessible and memorable. It was his divine talent to leave us with melodies that we cannot forget. Many of us on TC are composers and so I think there may be some envy behind this bashing of Tchaikovsky and other "gushingly sentimental" compositions. We all want our music to be loved and remembered. I think there is a tendency to revolt against landmarks of great music by those who wish write landmarks of their own. Being incapable of surpassing the achievments of the past on the same level or form, they strive to turn public opinion in favor of the newer forms where the bar for greatness and popularity is still relatively low.

There. Let's see who I offended.

 

ME. No, just kidding. I am probably the biggest Tchaikovskian that you have ever met.
Which, of course, allows me to bash his lousy works. Lousy like that sentence.

Really, though, I am the one who keeps shoving him into the spotlight on this thread, though the poor guy said he would rather never hold an intimate conversation with another person, not to mention that his greatest correspondence the size of Zoser I's mastaba* was completely through letters.

Anyway, the ratio between the works I love/like and those I dislike/hate is probably around 1:7, which is actually excellent.

What can I say, what can I say. I know his works too well.

*Pyramid? Forget it, it was a bunch of mastabas piled onto each other. It didn't even have facing. One mastaba, two mastaba, three and four mastaba....

 

Beethoven's 9th
Beethoven Für Elise
Vivaldi four seasons