In the beginning

[mm75]

Wow, Ouled Nails, it could be amazing!
Btw my most important God-experiences are connected with music. Sometimes I feel I could fly, even if I'm just listening to it (Tuba mirum - Requiem by Verdi, or Rachmaninoff's Bogoroditse devo in a very old church, and my favourite preacher, J. S. Bach, of course...)
Am I too sentimental?

[Sybarite]

The reason you get sleepy is because you haven't memorized the composition. Classical from the Romantic period usually is passionate, even if it is slow, except for some music from the Baroque or Classical periods, which meant to be background music, such as Luigi Bocherini (Might have spelled his name wrong). If you memorize a composition it wouldn't be boring, that's all I'm trying to say.

Is 'getting sleepy' the same as being 'bored'?

Perhaps what some listeners experience is a very soothing sense of relaxation?

I'm also intrigued but mystified by the idea of memorising musical works – something that a couple of posters have mentioned here and in other threads. Of course different things work for different people, but it sounds rather like school. Familiarity is one thing. Making the effort to really sit and listen to a piece is something else. Finding out enough to have a sense of the context in which the music was written is yet another. All can add to the experience of the listener.

Surely though, for the majority of people, any music – classical or otherwise – is about pleasure? Classical music – as with the 'higher' forms of other art (the great literary novel as opposed to the potboiler) – requires a little more attention and commitment to be fulfilling, but "memorising"? Unless you're a musician or a student, I'm not sure that I see the advantage (assuming I'm not misreading "memorising").

[rojo]

Hi Sybarite,

Well, I think what folks (me in particular) mean is that one should give a work more than just one listen; one should get to know it more thoroughly by listening to it several times. One tends to learn it that way, and can usually even sing, hum or whistle various parts of it at that point. One doesn`t have to learn every single note, (although sometimes one wants to do that anyway...) but at least a few themes, or melodies.

When one can sing/hum/whistle the music, then it has been memorized.

Classical music can be appreciated on a first listen, but don`t you find sometimes that when you listen to it a second time, there are things you didn`t notice the first time? Things that you appreciate and enjoy? And sometimes even more things on a third, fourth listen? Etc., you get my point.

Usually, memorizing a piece is not work, nor difficult; it`s a treat! One doesn`t really even notice one is doing it, until suddenly you`re humming it while doing the laundry. And in some works one can find new things to discover after many listens. And then one can start to truly compare various interpretations by various artists; listen to the different nuances involved.

Probably there are already many works that you have memorized; any work that you can sing or hum. I don`t memorize every single work I listen to, but there are many, many works that I have memorized thoroughly, mainly my faves!

[Oneiros]

I'm not really sure how I became interested in classical music... I think my mum used to play classical music to put me to sleep in the evenings, when I was only a few years old. Over the years I have heard various classical pieces like Fur Elise and the "Moonlight" Sonata, and really liked them, though I guess not enough to actively pursue the interest. After seeing a few Stanley Kubrick films I became more enthusiastic, and bought the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange as I loved Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture. From there I moved on to Beethoven, and gradually stopped listening to anything else except classical... I had also wanted to learn piano for some time, and finally got the chance about a year ago when mum's old piano was moved out of storage to our house. This cemented my interest, and a while later I couldn't help trying to compose some music... By now I had begun hiring CD's from the local library which featured my favourite composers, and also listened to some music by composers I had never heard of. I loved composing and playing music more and more, and eventually decided to study composition at a nearby conservatorium, which I start in a couple of months.

Oh, and I always memorise my favourite pieces without even trying to... After a few listens I can usually remember the main themes. The best part is hearing parts of symphonies in my head - this is sometimes even more enjoyable than humming!

[protos]

I got interested in classical musical more out of necessity than anything else. At 19 I enrolled on a jazz/rock music course at the local college. We studied music theory and shared accommodation with lots of music students on the classical courses.

After a year - I wanted to study music at university. To do that I had to embrace classical music whether I liked it or not. I listened to a lot of it, but the only composers that stay with me (in the sense that I would choose to put their music on) is Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Satie. I enjoy other classical music, but not so much that I would choose to listen to it when I have time to myself. The French composers (and Stravinsky) however had something in common with the progressive rock music I liked - their harmonies were often based on modal scales, rather than diatonic ones. I think, for that reason, the music appealled to me much more.

Five years of living in the classical world of music, however, didn't induce me to love it the way I love other genres of the music. What else can I say?

Best wishes
Rory

[Manuel]

I was 6 and I would not go to bed without listening to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. I think that's how it started.
After the ballet suites the cd was filled with the first piano concerto. But the work seemed boring to me; so I programmed the cd player to skip it. A few years later I gave the piano concerto a chance; and I fell in love with it for its grandiosity (and the middle section in the first movement, where the woods play ascending arpeggios and scales, evoked the image of bubbles ascending from the bottom of an almost enlightened sea; and I could not stop listening to it).

For many years I just borrowed cds from my sister and dad. During the last three it became more like a sick obsession and I get as much cds as I can, with focus on rare works, obscure composers and interpreters.

Manuel.