Reasons for a classical music collection

Even if you think it's boring...

Hello! Thank you for reading my very first post for Building a Classical Music Collection. My sincere hope is that you enjoy my thoughts and opinions about classical music, that we can dialogue about which compositions and recordings are recommended in order to begin a classical music collection, and that we can all learn and enjoy in the process.

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. I am the Classical Guy. Let me state at the outset that I am not a professional musician. While I can read music, and understand it a great deal, I am not the ultimate authority on classical music or classical recordings (is anyone?). I am simply an avid and discriminating listener, and this column is an attempt to find an outlet to express ideas, thoughts, and opinions about this passion I have for music.

I first remember falling in love with music when I heard Chuck Mangione’s song “Feel So Good” on the radio in 1977 at the age of 9, and I begged my mom to let me play a musical instrument.  We couldn’t find a flugelhorn, as Chuck plays, so I settled on the clarinet.  From that time on, music became a huge interest in my life, and it continues to nourish me daily.  

I love many genres of music, but ultimately I always return to classical music.  The meaning, depth, and spirit of classical music touch my life in countless ways.  I find classical music to be the foundation for other musical genres and this gives it a timeless quality that is sadly lacking in many other areas of our modern lives.  While humanity has changed over the centuries, the reason classical music continues to endure is because the sounds, images, feelings, and rhythms it evokes are universal and elemental parts of being human. This is the reason you should have a classical music collection. These days that probably means a curated playlist on whichever streaming service you use, but if you are a bit “old school” like me it could mean actually owning CDs or vinyl of specific recording. In any case, I hope to help you in the process of which recordings to choose for a fulfilling listening experience.

My opinions and comments about pieces of music and recordings on this site are just that, my opinions and comments.  I hope you will find them accurate, useful, or interesting, and but I also recognize that expressing opinions and writing reviews is a largely subjective activity.  There is more than enough room for multiple perspectives on the same recording, orchestra, conductor, or piece of music.  I don’t suggest that my views are the last word, but I do suggest that my extensive experience as a listener and collector may be helpful to others that are beginning to build a collection.

Finally, if you’ve ever thought classical music was boring or just background music, I urge you to give it another try. Besides being good for our brain and our heart, classical music often expresses the deepest thoughts, conflicts, joys, sorrows, emotions and attitudes of humanity and civilization. This is not to say that other genres of music don’t do that, of course they do. But there is also an historical context present with classical music that teaches us about how we have developed over the centuries. Listening to classical music is an investment in yourself because it rewards those that take the time to get to know the music. It strikes at the core of our mental and emotional selves in a unique and lasting way. While certainly a form of entertainment, classical music also helps to create meaning and purpose. We need that in our lives.

The next few columns will be to explain a few things about how I will structure my columns, and some thoughts about recordings in general. My goal is to cover all the most important classical music works by composers everyone has heard of such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms and many others but also to cover lesser known composers that have contributed important compositions that everyone should have in their collection.

So, thank you again for embarking on this journey with me. Hope to see you next time. Until then long live classical music!