Listening to favourites vs. Listening to unfamiliar music

[Joseph K]

For me, I am constantly tempted to listen to tried and tested masterpieces that always give me immense pleasure (mostly 60s/70s jazz). And I pretty much always give into this temptation... on a daily basis.

I have loads of CDs though so I feel I ought to listen to more stuff that I'm unfamiliar with...

Maybe this is a variation on topics that have been broached on here before... But does anyone else have a handful of CDs/whatever that they play on a near daily basis, possibly neglecting their large collection?

I suppose what I would like to happen is for that handful to be larger than a handful, to gradually encompass more music. I admire people who post on here who seem to listen to something new every day - that for me would require some discipline.

So how do people strike a balance that I mention in this thread's title?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's the old "restaurant" dilemma, isn't it - you go to a favourite restaurant, and know that they do that dish you love really well: do you order it again, or try something different in the hope that that'll be just as good?

As I'm no longer in work (for anybody else), I have more time to devote to works that I haven't properly explored - or even really known about - before, so I've made sure that I put this time to good use, playing "new" works several times until I feel that I know what's going on in them well. There's been some marvellous discoveries - the Monteverdi Madrigals, the Music of Franz Schmidt, Symphonies by Rubbra and Alwyn - and some that have done less for me than I'd hoped (Verdi, other "neglected" British Symphonists). Discovering new Music (and books and Artists) keeps me in contact with that great sense of "finding myself" that I experienced as a teenager when I first explored the Western Classical repertoires - and keen to carry on making new discoveries ...

... and, I think, keeps me keen on Music that I've known for years, many of which continue to offer new aspects to be discovered on the 217th hearing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes I would have to admit to such, having a "homing instinct" that gravitates me in the direction of certain periods and aesthetic angles of music. In the "classical tradition" I veer towards periods of transition from one aesthetic to another, preferably more complex one - or with the prospect or potential of more complexity, eg going from the High Renaissance to the early Baroque, and from the Late Romantic into Impressionism or Expressionism. How some composers (eg Schoenberg) went for that potential while others (eg Strauss) eventually fought shy of it, is a source of endless fascination, musicologically, psychologically and historically; and it is enough for me to gravitate back to these periods and these people and works to elicit as much satisfaction in listening to their music as I can possibly gain. And then a similar attitude guides my listening habits in jazz, my other musical interest "in parallel". The difference in my case being that I continually re-cycle my listening patterns regarding my copious range of recorded music so as not to wear out the freshness of my responses to my favourite works or personalities. Historically I group music under headings of my own devising, eg German music under the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933; get out my recordings, whether these be on CD, vinyl or cassette; lay them out chronologically as if for displaying an art exhibition; and then listen to them one after another. Taking for example the Weimar period I will set out all my recordings of the Second Viennese School composers along with Schmidt, Zemlinsky, Hindemith, Weill, Eisler & co and listen to them in alternation according to year of composition; in say 1960s US jazz I will line up all the Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Cecil Taylor etc. Being no postmodernist magpie pick-'n'-mixer I can't jump around from style to style, or era to era: I feel I need to try and make sense of how composers or jazz musicians made sense of their worlds through music, and of what I (we, all of us) might have in common. After all, isn't this need to display through art, part and parcel of reassuring ourselves and each other that we see/hear etc what you do too, one of our possible ways to connect, at this time and in these particular circumstances - and we're gifting this to humanity's future to demonstrate that we're all in it together, and this specificaly is the "it" we're in, right now, and our responses?!

[Alison]

Think I go through different seasons. The Proms season is traditionally an ‘exploratory’ time for me even when not listening to the actual concerts.

By contrast at Christmas holiday time I am invariably returning to old favourites.

[jayne lee wilson]

A great thing about the Proms is that they send you "forwards and back"... so, inspired by the concerts, I've found myself falling in love with - Walton Concertos once again, or the Bernstein Symphonies 1 & 2, and Per Nørgård - which I wouldn't have sought out just now, otherwise.

You have to find some source of "open-ness" either through review- or feature-reading in Gramophone or elsewhere, or checking your streaming service regularly to look around, see what's new, follow a hunch...

Yet back in the Spring I listened to nothing but Brahms or Schumann Symphonies for weeks on end, so....you need some external source to spike your curiosity and adventure....

[teamsaint]

One strand to my listening is to try things that other people ( usually on here but also elsewhere) are really exceptionally keen on .

And in any case I love listening to new( to me) and strongly recommended music or recordings, because either i will find them to be excellent, or if I dont initially find that, then I will usually remain curious as to what it is that the music does for the person recommending it, and how it works for them.

Short cuts aren't the only way, but they are often good ways.

[Pulcinella]

One strand to my listening is to try things that other people ( usually on here but also elsewhere) are really exceptionally keen on .

And in any case I love listening to new( to me) and strongly recommended music or recordings, because either i will find them to be excellent, or if I dont initially find that, then I will usually remain curious as to what it is that the music does for the person recommending it, and how it works for them.

Short cuts aren't the only way, but they are often good ways.

One of the best things about this forum is the way it has encouraged me to investigate music I might not otherwise have given house room to (and you've seen the house, ts!).

[Joseph K]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I probably ought to be a little less indulgent with what I listen to... Sounds perhaps odd maybe - after all, isn't the sole point of listening to music to indulge, if by that one means just to get pleasure? But I think in the long run it's a little like practising an instrument, getting to know different stuff and becoming well-rounded in one's listening habits, rather than just focussing exclusively on some narrow thing, is good for you, maybe. And though it might seem a bit daunting getting to be well-heard (the equivalent of well-read) what with all that music in history, I am sure it brings its own rewards. And as much as I would like to do this naturally, seems it will have to be a conscious decision for me. For the sake of being well-rounded, spending time outside the very specific saturation of one's comfort zone... making that comfort zone spread more evenly.

I think I could probably make time to listen to unfamiliar music every day, in addition to the old warhorses.

And yes, pay attention to what people on here really like - perhaps make a list of stuff to check out.

[BBMmk2]

I see people elsewhere mention composers I’ve never heard of and I always forget who they are!

[cloughie]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I probably ought to be a little less indulgent with what I listen to... Sounds perhaps odd maybe - after all, isn't the sole point of listening to music to indulge, if by that one means just to get pleasure? But I think in the long run it's a little like practising an instrument, getting to know different stuff and becoming well-rounded in one's listening habits, rather than just focussing exclusively on some narrow thing, is good for you, maybe. And though it might seem a bit daunting getting to be well-heard (the equivalent of well-read) what with all that music in history, I am sure it brings its own rewards. And as much as I would like to do this naturally, seems it will have to be a conscious decision for me. For the sake of being well-rounded, spending time outside the very specific saturation of one's comfort zone... making that comfort zone spread more evenly.

I think I could probably make time to listen to unfamiliar music every day, in addition to the old warhorses.

And yes, pay attention to what people on here really like - perhaps make a list of stuff to check out.

Try spending a few minutes each Sunday morning to decide on say three works or three CDs you will choose to listen to properly during the week ahead.

[Joseph K]

[Pulcinella]

Another thing I try to do is listen to the BBC MM CD the day it arrives (or the next day): exceptions are sometimes made with the Christmas issue (it arrives too early for carols!). That way, I've listened to quite a lot of music that might not be otherwise in my collection or would not be near the top of my favourite/most often played list.

[Richard Barrett]

One of the reasons why favourites become favourites is maybe that they always do give you something new, I mean that you can always find (not necessarily consciously) new ways to hear them.

[Joseph K]

One of the reasons why favourites become favourites is maybe that they always do give you something new, I mean that you can always find (not necessarily consciously) new ways to hear them.

Yes, you are right.

And "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" of course.

[Pulcinella]

One of the reasons why favourites become favourites is maybe that they always do give you something new, I mean that you can always find (not necessarily consciously) new ways to hear them.

That's a splendid justification for Alpie having reached a ton of his favourite work, and for me having half that number (well, the big Universal box has 38, and the Sony box 10, and there's a couple on EMI) of versions of The Rite of Spring, each potentially having something different to offer. Of course there are favourite recordings of favourite works, so it sometimes has to be a conscious decision to choose a version not listened to (much if at all) before.
(No, I'm not looking for any sympathy here!)