Classical Convert

Why Now? (Or then, or whatever…)

I was wondering today why it took me such a long time to start listening to classical music.

I mean, it’s not really that long a time, it’s a reasonably early start to convert over at 23ish: that leaves a decent amount of lifetime to get to know a large chunk of the back catalog pretty well I think. What I mean is, given that I had heard classical music earlier on in life, what prevented me from getting over obsessed with it in the way that I am now, then?

Initially my suspicion was that all of the stuff I had heard before was the really classically sounding classical stuff, that is, stuff which is strongly associated with that kind of music in the general minds eye of the general public: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach. All stuff that I still have difficulties really unraveling and getting into, even now. I thought that I could probably blame my parents for not exposing me to Shostakovich and Stravinsky.

But it’s not true.

I must’ve heard the Rite of Spring – I certainly saw Fantasia several times. It just (shockingly, in hindsight) never grew on me. So I wonder what it was that opened my heart to the Saint-Saens which sent me down this path.

I suspect that my musical tastes at the time prepared me for classical. I was very into experimental electronic music, which bears some important similarities to classical. It’s through-composed, it has melodic lines which appear in different forms, it”s long, it often takes a while to fully appreciate. While that helped I don;t think it’s nearly enough to be a compelling argument.

Another suspicion is that I was going through an emotional crisis, real serious can’t-sleep-at-night girlfriend turmoil, which probably opened me up to receiving this more emotionally satisfying, and (probably more importantly) different, music.

But probably the most important thing (and hence the number one classical music beginner’s tip) was that I finally listened to apiece multiple times, over and over, in a row. I distinctly remember the sense, the previously hidden logic, appearing to me. I’d call it an almost- religious experience, the sudden understanding of the depth and intelligence that before had lurked in dark camouflage.

So, if you don’t feel like classical makes sense, keep listening. Listen to a piece over and over, and it might pounce.