Author Topic: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music  (Read 2304 times)

Offline tmazz

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A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« on: August 11, 2018, 08:47:03 PM »
An interesting article that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post.

Not so much for the people who post here but more for the people who post here to pass on to others who may be intimidated by Classical music.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/a-beginners-guide-to-enjoying-classic-music-no-snobs-allowed/2018/08/10/ca5e2c5c-998e-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html?utm_term=.ae77318597f3
Remember, it's all about the music........

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Offline dflee

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2018, 07:03:30 AM »
I'll admit I had a hard time with orchestras in my younger days.
I've always like trios, quartets and baroque.
I was trying to listen to the instruments and not the music.
It was my wife who taught me how to listen. She grew up in a musician house.

Don
« Last Edit: August 12, 2018, 07:05:19 AM by dflee »
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Offline mresseguie

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2018, 07:28:33 PM »
That article is helpful for me. I grew up in a household where my mother didn’t listen to music and my father primarily listened to Latin music. I swear he was born in the wrong country. He should have been born in Columbia or Chile instead of California. Anyway, I never got a music education.

I’ve spent the last three or four years absorbing Jazz. Wow. Great stuff.

My wife dislikes a lot of ‘loud’ Jazz and big orchestral Classical music, so I don’t listen to that when she’s home.
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Offline Nick B

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2018, 12:34:00 AM »
I’ve always appreciated the genius that it takes to compose classical music, but have never really grown to like and enjoy it unless it has a “tuneful component” to it. As I was searching the web on this subject, I happened across a post that addresses what the Post writer didn’t.

“Ditto on the "they don't understand it" remark, but also I think classical music itself is partly to blame. Jumping straight to the point, the average classical music piece is much longer, sprawling, intricate and requires more patience, and sometimes a forceful desire to understand it, before you can appreciate it. This is why it's so rewarding and beautiful once it sinks in. However, not everyone desires to commit to it, and unless there's some immediate attention catching melody a nonlistener likes...why should they care or be bothered by it? Sometimes a 4 minute song is precisely what the person/situation needs. It doesn't make one side any better or more enlightened than the other, and it would be foolish to think any joy we may extrapolate from a piece is any more than what they get out of their selection.
Am I really going to show my wife (who loves to sing along to music in the car) the Libretto to a Bach cantata when she asks, "How can you possibly enjoy that, it doesn't have anything for you to sing!" And no, I don't speak German.“
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Offline dflee

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2018, 07:39:24 AM »
Growing up with Neil Young, Yes, King Crimson and even Iron Butterfly
taught me to be patient with music. Iv'e always felt that once your
drawn into the music, time disappears.

Don
"Enjoy pleasure, not because it is fleeting, but because it exists at all." Sacrament, Clive Barker.

Offline etcarroll

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2018, 06:36:18 PM »
Nicely put Don, I found that with Jazz the past decade. I need to turn my attention back to classical again, I've gotten away from it the last 3 or 4 years.

Growing up with Neil Young, Yes, King Crimson and even Iron Butterfly
taught me to be patient with music. Iv'e always felt that once your
drawn into the music, time disappears.

Don
"...if you want to enjoy your gear, don't listen to anything that might be better."

Offline Nick B

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Re: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2018, 08:19:18 PM »
I have a favor to ask. I’d like some suggestions for classical pieces that are 15 - 20 minutes long or even a bit longer and somewhat “tuneful”. Nothing heavy duty please. It’ll be interesting what the recommendations will be and I’ll be devoting my time to that genre and nothing else.
Nick
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