does anyone know any similarpirces that are similar to the second movement of Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein? m.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yhnml4DW9g
Blake Rodriguez
Start from Beethoven Sonatas. Some of them are extremely entertaining, they're still very close to contemporary sensibilities. Start from the famous ones (Pathetique, Moonlight, Tempest, Appassionata), listen to them costantly. Notice, the challenge will be appreciating the second movements, which are less pirotecnic and tragic than the 1sts and 3rds ones. Also they're all homophonic, which means that they're not particularly dense (it is more about polish, but most of the times you will be listning one musical idea at a time). Once you can listen to them effortessly from start to finish, listen to his late sonatas, from 29th to 32nd. They're both polyphonic, but they still mostly follow the homophonic logic of his early and middle period. The 29th is probably the hardest to understand, althoug I'm sure you'll istantly love many of its moments. Listen to it a lot: it's his best sonata, and generally one of the peaks of Western culture.
Beethoven's early sonatas should techically be the easiest to listen to (he composed them for his public), but personally since they're so rooted in a taste that is not mine, listening to them was always harder for me: while his late sonatas are esential in nature and can be listened by themselves, his early ones have to be ''translated''. It's more of an acquired taste, imho. Here's the 3rd movement of the Appassionata: youtube.com/watch?v=1yCiFZvjfuU
Also, listen to Ravel, you'll love him, I'm sure of it. Listen to La Tombeau de Couperin, the Piano Concertos and his Sonatine. The Ravel's composition that are harder to listen, imho, are the short impressionist pieces for piano and his songs: listen to them last. Also notice that you can listen to his entire repertoire in 15 hours, so give it a try. You'll get a taste for dissonance, and you'll get used to listen to longer pieces (the skill you need the most at the moment) Ravel's Toccata: youtube.com/watch?v=IbX6NFTyjZw
William Smith
Also drink just a glass of wine when listening to these pieces for the first time, just for that little emotional kickstart. If you're a drug addict, consider to drop drug: they dull you out, stripping classical music from the awe you should give to it.
Jose Stewart
Chopin is God
Nathan Butler
Loading up on opium is the only true way to listen to classical
Austin Harris
This is literally Nietzsche's and Schopenhauer's opinion.
