[mbhaub]

Nope. And it probably would keep a therapist quite busy if I unloaded. It's been a source of anger, frustration and regret all my life. Dad did listen to that "easy listening" back in the '60s - but that's as close as it came. Mom played piano - pop/movie hits was about it. But I had an ear for the classics early on, saved my money to buy a decent audio system. Drove them all crazy. Later in life when it was clear I had a talent for music, and was making money and a reputation doing it, I still remember, painfully, my mother saying, as I was on my way to conduct a concert, "I suppose it's more of that long-haired crap." Yeah, really supportive environment.

 

[Fredrikalansson]

I seem to be alone in my love of classical music. Both my parents sang in a choir at one point, but no love of the music seemed to stir in their hearts. My Dad loved jazz and nothing else. My mom liked anything as long as it was made no emotional or intellectual demands. I discovered classical music in my mid-teens and wanted to learn an instrument, but no way would they they support me since I was "only going through a phase". Fifty years later and I'm still going through the phase.

 

[Open Book]

No. My father had a large record collection with three classical records, Beethoven's 5th, the famous van Cliburn recording and the Dorati 1812 overture. The other 99% were Sinatra, etc.

My dad had a weirdly sized LP of the 1812 overture that he got from Quaker Cereals - the cannons in the music were to remind you that Quaker Puffed Wheat was "shot from guns".

And Van Cliburn was a national treasure to have won a competition in the Soviet Union. It would be un-American not to have something of his.

 

[Open Book]

Given that your children are not interested in classical music, do you regret not having done anything in that regard? Or are you not interested in keeping the tradition of classical music alive in the younger generations?

What could Bulldog have done? Pushing one's kids into something often has the opposite effect that was intended. I see a lot of sad-eyed children dragged to classical concerts.

 

[Neal]

Given that your children are not interested in classical music, do you regret not having done anything in that regard? Or are you not interested in keeping the tradition of classical music alive in the younger generations?

No regrets at all and no interest in keeping the tradition of classical music alive in the younger generations. I'm not into interfering with the musical preferences of others.

 

[Sid James]

I have traced musicians in my family, albeit mainly on an amateur level. That's not unusual, since past generations - of whatever class - tended to play instruments. In the world before television, there where people in my family who played, although it would be popular tunes of the day rather than something like Beethoven. Some of their musical diet in terms of listening was classical, although they didn't have the means to pursue it beyond basics. Those raising families in the past times would put the necessities before anything else, and things like books and records - let alone concerts - where not as affordable as they are to what can broadly be called the middle class today. Playing an instrument however had practical use, and a rudimentary ability to play and read at least some music wasn't unusual even among ordinary people.

 

[Minor Sixthist]

My dad is an alright singer and guitarist, and he knows basic theory; my mom just says she has a good ear, but that's about all you could say for her. It was nothing that made them anticipate having a saxophonist-bassoonist, then tubist+alto, then oboist+tenor. They have saintly tolerance for late-night practicing and their passengers doing theory homework in the car on the way to class. No one else in the family was ever near serious with an instrument or singing.

 

[Barbebleu]

Only cowards run in our family!

 

[Enthusiast]

My parents were passionate about classical music and it was always playing in our house. Wagner worked particularly well as a soundtrack to my young life - probably because it was loud and went on for hours.

They were not musicians although my mother was a bad and frustrated amateur pianist with a tiny repertoire. My brother became a musician and still plays in a major London orchestra. I never got on with playing an instrument but devoured records so that I had built up a huge repertoire of music that I knew every note of as a listener by the time I was 18. I went well beyond my parent's tastes with a lot of listening to modern music (Bartok, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Shostakovich, Britten ... but also Maxwell Davies, Messiaen, Birtwistle, Stockhausen). I then more or less stopped listening to classical music - I spent most of my time with friends and our music was rock - until I returned to it some six years later. Even then it took me quite a while longer to return to modern music.

So I was started off by my family and grew up with music around me. Some form of music has always been important to me.

 

[Merl]

My grandad was a semi-pro trumpet/cornet player but his repertoire was jazz/swing. I have no idea if he liked CM but suspect he would have liked some. My love of CM is definitely unique in my family.

 

[flamencosketches]

No regrets at all and no interest in keeping the tradition of classical music alive in the younger generations. I'm not into interfering with the musical preferences of others.

Understood. In any case, it sounds like you took care of the important part of the job, more than some parents can say. I don't have kids, and maybe there's nothing that can or should be done to influence their musical preferences. You'd know much better than I. I just recall spending time in my dad's record store as a kid, hearing all kinds of great music, and then later growing to really love music of all kinds. It's hard to say if I would have come to love music the way I do without that early exposure, but I reckon I probably would have anyway.

 

[larold]

My mother and sister played piano and my dad occasionally sang at the piano. None of them liked classical music; I learned that on my own. My dad liked country music, my mom sang in church choir, and my sister and her husband became DJs and liked dance music.

My mother (dead 8 years) liked to attend an opera, vocal or choral music concert with me but usually fell asleep. She wouldn't play anything I gave her. I once bought her a cassette of Messiah choruses to play in the car. She left it on the dash and the sun melted it.

I don't discount my parents' liking music for it helped get me started. Everything I know and like about classical music I learned in school, choir, choral society or on my own.

 

[ECraigR]

Not in my family. My father was eventually converted and can listen to standard stuff, I even think he genuinely likes Brahms, but opera and 20th century send him running.

 

[Pat Fairlea]

No, not at all. My parents and siblings found my obsession somewhat incomprehensible

 

[EdwardBast]

My mother played organ in a Catholic church as a teen — until a priest tried to molest her — and sang in a choir that performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony. She played and talked about classical music with me when I was quite young. My older brother was an excellent trumpet player who took up rock guitar in a semi-professional way. My younger brother plays piano with considerable proficiency and was three credits shy of a music degree (his degrees are in computer science and mechanical engineering).

 

[DBLee]

My father was not remotely into classical music; my mother would perhaps once a year tune into the classical station. Her parents loved classical music as well as Scottish bagpipe music.

My son developed a love for classical music at an early age. At that time, I wasn't listening to much classical, so he developed that love mostly on his own. My other two children have a certain appreciation for classical music, but I don't believe they ever sit around and listen to it on their own.

 

[Manxfeeder]

Interesting, I expected more here to come from families of Classical music people. This begs the question, if it wasn't family who introduced you to Classical, who or what was it?

I've said this around here somewhere before, but what set a passing interest of Classical into a flame was a lovely young flute player who was a music major. I took a music appreciation course so I could talk to her intelligently. The young lady has long since come and gone, but that class had a lasting effect.

 

[Harmonie]

I started getting into classical music years back largely because of my grandma. She had tapes and CDs which helped introduce me to classical music. Aside from that, I don't feel like classical music was a big part of our family beforehand. It's not that my family disliked it. My mom does listen to more classical music nowadays than before. I don't know if I have been an influence on her or not.

Both of my parents were musicians in school, but stopped afterward. My dad was going to be a band director but decided otherwise early on in college.

 

[isorhythm]

Yes, my mom is professional church musician and my dad loves to listen to classical music. I started piano lessons when I was four or five, I think.

Interestingly neither of my siblings got into it much at all.

 

[paulbest]

Interesting, I expected more here to come from families of Classical music people. This begs the question, if it wasn't family who introduced you to Classical, who or what was it?

It was a brother, who has since passed away, which introduced me to CM.
He taught me how to hear and experience.
Other than his influences, I had no others among friends/family who loves CM as I do.
We are all loners, yet have found great treasures which others know not.