I wanna get into classical music, where do I start?

Question

I wanna get into classical music, where do I start?

Kayden Long

June 10, 2017 - 14:29

Other urls found in this thread:

Chase Thompson

The 100 CD box set of Beethoven's Complete Works.

June 10, 2017 - 14:30

Alexander Hughes

Isn't Mozart the best?

June 10, 2017 - 14:30

Andrew Roberts

Just listen to everything. There is no best of the best, since it is subjective to every individual.

June 10, 2017 - 14:32

Jackson Brooks

dont

June 10, 2017 - 14:32

Joseph Turner

/board

June 10, 2017 - 14:35

Brody Butler

Whenever someone posts these threads I become overwhelmed because so much music is recommended and I don't know how to tell if a composition/song is good or bad

or if I even have to make that distinction at all because all of the bad composers are forgotten?

and it spans over so many years, it is just intimidating to start

June 10, 2017 - 14:35

David Gray

Mozart is a meme.

June 10, 2017 - 14:37

Mason Clark

>I don't know how to tell if a composition/song is good or bad
???

June 10, 2017 - 14:38

Gabriel Rivera

What I was trying to say was that with modern genres it is far easier to tell if a song is shit, but with classical I have no idea what to look for in a bad song

June 10, 2017 - 14:45

John Rodriguez

At this point it's all good. The bad stuff has mostly fallen to the wayside after a century or two, so what's left is all good stuff, just good in different ways to different people. If you're overwhelmed, for now stick to one time period, or one genre (i.e symphonic works, chamber works, solo sonatas, opera), one performer/ensemble/orchestra, or one composer. Or stop worrying about it, figure out something you like especially, and look for similar things (iterate until you've covered everything).

June 10, 2017 - 14:47

James Powell

Listen to the popular ones, then the not so popular, then the ones that aren't even popular.
Just listen to it.

June 10, 2017 - 14:51

Ian Reed

I found Wagner a good entry point. Very accessible.

June 10, 2017 - 14:55

Alexander James

the Greeks

June 10, 2017 - 14:58

Zachary Reed

I understand your meme but is there such a thing as greek compositions/music remembered today?

June 10, 2017 - 15:01

Aiden Hill

He means "start with the monks"

Plainchant, then renaissance vocal music.

This documentary shows the evolution of polyphony from plainchant, can be a good starting point for getting into the era:
youtube.com/watch?v=EgK5AWtJDfU

June 10, 2017 - 15:14

Noah Bailey

SS and GOMAD

June 10, 2017 - 15:20

Christian Barnes

youtube.com/watch?v=9RjBePQV4xE
there's only a few - this is the earliest notated piece iirc

June 10, 2017 - 16:04

Bentley Bell

You can't spell classical without Ass.

June 10, 2017 - 16:08

Isaac Torres

mozart pls go

June 10, 2017 - 16:12

Evan Cook

just like the greeks

(OP)
beethoven, bach, schubert

June 10, 2017 - 16:16

Elijah Bailey

beethoven, bach, schubert

just like the greeks

June 10, 2017 - 16:17

Jacob Cooper

Buy a fedora

June 10, 2017 - 16:23

Wyatt Martinez

film scores. they're the closest of what we could call classical orchestrated music of nowadays.

June 10, 2017 - 17:39

Jose Moore

>he thinks orchestral music is a dead genre
I hope I'm reading your post wrong user

June 10, 2017 - 17:48

Robert Hughes

1. Go to Wikipedia
2. Go the the "Classical music" article
3. Click on the eras or composers etc. links
4. Read those articles
5. Listen to the works mentioned in the prose

voila

I'll start you off:

youtube.com/watch?v=4ZSB0WTyIrg

youtube.com/watch?v=-GrnwzEhi_E

youtube.com/watch?v=juMDUtIWnto

don't want to do all that "work"? listen to albums/compilations:

youtube.com/watch?v=uaxHxTD6__g

youtube.com/watch?v=F-vCsWMW6bA

youtube.com/watch?v=ASyp6BxyLz4

June 10, 2017 - 18:08

Brandon Perry

oh no, by no means i believe it's a dead genre.it's just that, as most film scores are essentially orchestrated music, it'd be a way for op to acquire taste with material that he might have heard before even if he was unaware of it.

June 10, 2017 - 18:09

Nathaniel Ortiz

contemporary classical exits.

June 10, 2017 - 19:01

Nolan Peterson

yeah but you posted a modern chart

June 10, 2017 - 21:06

Wyatt Hughes

Holst: The Planets

If it reminds you of ..oh i don't know..Star wars or something silly, don't bother with the genre at all

June 10, 2017 - 21:08

Michael Fisher

That's probably because 95% of the classical you have listened to is good. The shit stuff is just forgotten.

June 10, 2017 - 21:08

Lucas Edwards

Beethoven symphonies 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 and piano sonatas 8, 21, 23, 29, 32
Mozart symphonies 40, 41 and piano concertos 20, 23, 24, 25
Bach Mass in B minor, Well Tempered Clavier, Art of the Fugue
Schubert symphonies 8, 9
Brahms symphony 4 and piano concerto 2
Dvorak symphonies 7, 9 and cello concerto

Just choose any one of these and start listening. Don't think about what you're 'supposed' to think about it, just listen and let it affect you however it will.

June 10, 2017 - 21:11

Jacob Hill

Arvo Pärt is something pretty easy to listen to at start.

June 10, 2017 - 21:12

Jose Murphy

around 8 of those guys are still alive, so it covers contemporary. "modern" doesn't really mean much. Only the Schoenberg and Ives albums would be considered "modernism"

June 10, 2017 - 21:15

Nathaniel Reyes

I mean the modern period. just because they are still alive doesn't mean their music is contemporary, unless they are still making music. but contemporary refers to music made in the 21st century afaik

June 10, 2017 - 21:26

Aiden Ortiz

Best joke I've ever seen.

June 10, 2017 - 21:33

Andrew Stewart

>just because they are still alive doesn't mean their music is contemporary
That's literally the definition of contemporary.
And yes all those composers who are still alive are still making music. Most composers continue to write until they die.

"contemporary" simply means being written around the current time. in 1935 a piece from 1930 is 'contemporary', in 2001 a piece from 1995 is 'contemporary'. Its a fluid term, but in classical these days generally means post-1950

June 10, 2017 - 21:36

Kayden Robinson

This shit is profoundly different from premodern classical music, and premodern classical is clearly what OP wants.

Here are some accessible pieces - Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Beethoven's Mondscheinsonate (14th piano sonata), Orff's Carmina Burana, Dvořak's 9th symphony (From the New World), Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Smetana's Ma vlast and Debussy (literally everyone loves Debussy).
And then just branch out. Just listen to shit. There are charts in /classical/ threads and lists on RYM, if you need further recs.
If you listen to a beloved classic multiple times but you're not enjoying it much, try a different recording. Different performers have different approaches to their job, one may be more to your taste than an another one.
At first, I recommend reading about the particular piece you're listening to, to put it in the historical context and to learn a bit of theory. However, I have to say that Aaron Copland's book "What to listen for in music" was much more effective in explaining theory than any wikipedia article.
And don't fear the concert halls. Classical music is meant to be performed live, which positively affects the acoustic qualities of music (live music has a much wider dynamic range and a more "transparent" sound than on your shitty earbuds) and also prevents you from being distracted. You can only listen to it with all of your attention instead of treating it like background noise.

June 11, 2017 - 00:12

Kayden Turner

I would either start with something accessible like glassworks, or something inaccessible like klavierstucke.

June 11, 2017 - 00:43

Levi Phillips

Start at medieval then barroqe then romantiq end with modern classical.
Use periods to navigate classical music

June 11, 2017 - 01:39

Jordan Wood

just like the greeks

bach, beethoven, schubert

June 11, 2017 - 01:43

Hudson Watson