A philosophical question.


I want to pose a sort of philosophical question about our listening to music.
The obvious answer to the question is that we should listen to whatever we damn please. But the query is: should we be happy listening to our favorite composers and compositions, or should we feel guilty about not exploring new horizons and music we’re prone to hate?  For me, the obvious bitter pills are such as Liszt, Neilson and Bruckner, not to mention the Second Viennese school.  We run the risk of close-mindedness by ignoring that which we don’t know and missing out on what what glories might be out there.  On the other hand, we only have so much time, and there is a universe of more accessible music available.
I just wonder if this dilemma has crossed anyone else's mind.
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Showing 3 responses by edcyn

I'll chime in with several posters above and say that Tidal, Qobuz and other streaming music sites are the proverbial bees' knees. Toss a few bucks their direction each month and you have a veritable universe of music to sample...in damnably high fidelity. Some days you go shallow. Other days you go deep.
After listening to the reconstructed Mahler Tenth I wind down with a couple spins of Hanky Panky by Tommy James and the Shondels.
As far as I'm concerned, genre is truly overrated as a way of choosing music to listen to. If it's good, i.e., if it moves you on any aesthetic, emotional or visceral level, it's worthwhile. As Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson once said, it's all noise to a Martian anyway.

And oh yeah, if you don't like Bruckner, try the Third Movement of the guy's Symphony No. 8, the Adagio, especially the old DG recording with Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Phil.  Transcendentally lovely and moving.  And hey -- I saw that Michel Legrand gig at Shelly's Manne Hole. Was it because my buddy had to see Ray Brown?