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Welcome to the Fanfare Archive
THE #1 CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD!
So You Wanna Become a Classical Music Addict
By Joel Flegler
Dedicated to those who haven’t been converted
The purpose of this piece is to let you know more about
what you’ll need to acquire a love of classical music. It’s possible it might take
you years before you prefer listening to it than any other type of music or you
might never get to truly love it. You’ve been warned....
Desire:
If you don’t have a strong desire to
learn about
classical music (which doesn’t require any reading), if you don’t make a strong
commitment to it, you won’t succeed. And why should you want to become hooked on
classics? Because it will change your life forever and make it possible for you to
hear music that is far more beautiful than any other kind out there. You’ll hear
music that will move you to tears or joy or even ecstasy and affect you in other
ways emotionally than any other type. I also believe that it’s so intellectually
stimulating that it’s great exercise for the brain. In short, there’s everything to
be gained by your willingness and desire to become educated, and it will be
free.
Perseverance:
I’m going to recommend you begin with
five
works of orchestral music because I think it will be easier for you to begin with
these pieces. (In fact, there are many critics at Fanfare who not only never
review
vocal music, but also dislike opera!) You might not get to appreciate these
five works until you’ve listened to them repeatedly—over and over until you know
the notes. No matter how little you get out of listening to them the first times,
you must continue the process until you’ve “learned” them. I guarantee that
afterwards, you will know that the effort you took was worth the time you invested
in listening. And every time you get to love a piece of music by a different
composer, it can often open the door to other works by the same composer. The
greatest composers like Bach each speak in a unique “language” or style, and once
you “get” it, you’ll be able to enjoy other works by the composer. But listening to
long pieces of music many times means investing a lot of time in each
audition.
Focus:
Just wanting to appreciate classical music
and
finding the time to listen to works, both familiar and unfamiliar, isn’t enough. The
final challenge is focusing on what you’re listening to, concentrating on it. This
means that you have to try to force your mind to exclude everything else while
you’re listening. Don’t think of anything that will distract you. Instead, listen
with the utmost care and attention, and try to not let your mind wander. The first
time you hear a work is the most difficult simply because it’s new, but every time
afterwards, as you become familiar with the melodies, the orchestration, and the
ways that the composer develops everything, you’ll hear things or react to them
differently from the previous auditions. But the more you’re able to blot out
everything else in your life, the better the results will be.
Even now, when I’m listening to a new piece as I often do
for the first time, I know that if it has any merit, the time I take to get to know
it and the more I’m able to focus on what I’m hearing, the better the payoff will
be, and I’ll have another rewarding experience with classical music that I’ll never
have with any other type of music.
Recommendations:
Try to hear different performances
of these popular works.
You’ll be surprised and perhaps even fascinated by how conductors and other artists
play and interpret the pieces, so my advice is to not listen to the same recording
even when you’re first getting acquainted with the composition.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Paul Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, “New World”
Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concertos
Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites
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