So You Wanna Become a Classical Music Addict
By Joel Flegler

Dedicated to those who haven’t been converted

The purpose of this piece is to let you know more about what you’ll need to acquire a love of classical music. It’s possible it might take you years before you prefer listening to it than any other type of music or you might never get to truly love it. You’ve been warned....

Desire: If you don’t have a strong desire to learn about classical music (which doesn’t require any reading), if you don’t make a strong commitment to it, you won’t succeed. And why should you want to become hooked on classics? Because it will change your life forever and make it possible for you to hear music that is far more beautiful than any other kind out there. You’ll hear music that will move you to tears or joy or even ecstasy and affect you in other ways emotionally than any other type. I also believe that it’s so intellectually stimulating that it’s great exercise for the brain. In short, there’s everything to be gained by your willingness and desire to become educated, and it will be free.

Perseverance: I’m going to recommend you begin with five works of orchestral music because I think it will be easier for you to begin with these pieces. (In fact, there are many critics at Fanfare who not only never review vocal music, but also dislike opera!) You might not get to appreciate these five works until you’ve listened to them repeatedly—over and over until you know the notes. No matter how little you get out of listening to them the first times, you must continue the process until you’ve “learned” them. I guarantee that afterwards, you will know that the effort you took was worth the time you invested in listening. And every time you get to love a piece of music by a different composer, it can often open the door to other works by the same composer. The greatest composers like Bach each speak in a unique “language” or style, and once you “get” it, you’ll be able to enjoy other works by the composer. But listening to long pieces of music many times means investing a lot of time in each audition.

Focus: Just wanting to appreciate classical music and finding the time to listen to works, both familiar and unfamiliar, isn’t enough. The final challenge is focusing on what you’re listening to, concentrating on it. This means that you have to try to force your mind to exclude everything else while you’re listening. Don’t think of anything that will distract you. Instead, listen with the utmost care and attention, and try to not let your mind wander. The first time you hear a work is the most difficult simply because it’s new, but every time afterwards, as you become familiar with the melodies, the orchestration, and the ways that the composer develops everything, you’ll hear things or react to them differently from the previous auditions. But the more you’re able to blot out everything else in your life, the better the results will be.

Even now, when I’m listening to a new piece as I often do for the first time, I know that if it has any merit, the time I take to get to know it and the more I’m able to focus on what I’m hearing, the better the payoff will be, and I’ll have another rewarding experience with classical music that I’ll never have with any other type of music.

Recommendations: Try to hear different performances of these popular works. You’ll be surprised and perhaps even fascinated by how conductors and other artists play and interpret the pieces, so my advice is to not listen to the same recording even when you’re first getting acquainted with the composition.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Paul Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, “New World”

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concertos

Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites