Why Do We Do This? (of course, not all of us do)

[Bryn]

I have three or four different recordings of the Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony, but feel no desire to listen to any of them in the near future, or to acquire further alternative recordings of the work. Love the oboe concerto though.

[LMcD]

Where do people find the time to listen to all these different recordings? (Just thought I'd ask ....)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Where do people find the time to listen to all these different recordings? (Just thought I'd ask ....)

In my case, it's the time that others spend jogging, down the gym, climbing mountains, going to the cinema, sports events etc.

[greenilex]

I suppose now you could keep them all in the Cloud and just summon them out of the air...

[richardfinegold]

I suppose now you could keep them all in the Cloud and just summon them out of the air...

Or stream them, which amounts to the same thing.
I'm an obsessive music collector as well. the arguments put forth about the value of wanting different interpretations put forth here are valid, but there must be a point of diminishing returns. It is difficult to 'justify' by any rational explanation whey one needs 60 or 90 interpretations of any given work except that we sih to do so, that to some extent it defines our identities.
What interests me is gender based difference. I know that there are some ffemale based collectors here, but in general I have found excessive Music collecting to be a male based phenomenon. It was once explained to me that Men tend to want to possess something where as women are more into appreciation.
Streaming will of course change all of this in a generation or two. People will possess access to large collections and be able to hear multiple interpretations without the embarassment of actually owning 90 recordings ofa given piece. I don't know anyone under 30 that wants to own anythings recording wise.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In my case, it's the time that others spend jogging, down the gym, climbing mountains, going to the cinema, sports events etc.

Hang on, I do all those things (apart from going to the noisy, smelly gym) and I still have time to listen to lots of alternative interpretations of different works.

[teamsaint]

I don't know anyone under 30 that wants to own anythings recording wise.

Well I was chatting to my younger son last night( in his mid twenties) , who is amateur musician,writes songs, had some classical training, and he tells me he is keen to start collecting, including vinyl if appropriate.

His girlfriend agreed. And I suspect that the young Hipster market is a powerful force in the vinyl revival.

Of course even somebody like me who has a few versions of many of the major classical works is an outlier. But for all that, collecting the physical remains a powerful driver.

[DracoM]

<< if you only have a single recording of a work, then that recording "becomes" the work >>

So true.
BUT
how one's bank manager is going to deal with the enormous implications behind this worthy nostrum is another matter.................erm....

[mahlerei]

I delete almost as many downloads as I keep, and CDs that don't appeal go straight to the charity shop. I doubt I have more than 10-15 versions of any given work in my collection. I also have a lot of one-offs (the works of Kalevi Aho, for example).

[gradus]

I delete almost as many downloads as I keep, and CDs that don't appeal go straight to the charity shop. I doubt I have more than 10-15 versions of any given work in my collection. I also have a lot of one-offs (the works of Kalevi Aho, for example).

Having read the various contributions from the true addicts I shall in future refrain from thinking of myself as a record collector. On the other hand I do use Spotify to compare recorded performances so perhaps I have the less virulent form of the addiction.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hang on, I do all those things (apart from going to the noisy, smelly gym) and I still have time to listen to lots of alternative interpretations of different works.

Oh, yes - the point of the "[i]n my case" was to emphasize that I was sure that others managed their time otherly-wise! I do other stuff, too (including walking, gardening, and cinema-going) - but there's still plenty of time left for 3 - 4 hours listening each day.

[Petrushka]

Oh, yes - the point of the "[i]n my case" was to emphasize that I was sure that others managed their time otherly-wise! I do other stuff, too (including walking, gardening, and cinema-going) - but there's still plenty of time left for 3 - 4 hours listening each day.

Time to listen when you are in full-time work, as I still am, is severely restricted, in my case to no more than two hours a day - if I'm lucky! Once retirement comes at the end of next year, I'm hoping for a good deal more. At the moment, I admit to finding the lack of time very frustrating,

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Time to listen when you are in full-time work, as I still am, is severely restricted, in my case to no more than two hours a day - if I'm lucky! Once retirement comes at the end of next year, I'm hoping for a good deal more. At the moment, I admit to finding the lack of time very frustrating,

I think I spend less time listening to Music since retiring than I did as a Music teacher - it's just that now everything I listen to is entirely for my own benefit

[jayne lee wilson]

At a fundamental level, collecting is about - creating a safe space, a comfort zone, where you gather in, arrange, organise, contemplate and explore a set of objects, creating a world with a constantly renewed sense of joy, control, excitement, adventure. There is a ritualistic quality to the ever-varying repetition of linked activities. Our infinitely-extendable invented world grows around us, nourishes us.
We love to curate: in galleries, libraries, music libraries, individual collections. For the individual music or book or stamp or toy collector, there’s sense of control too: finding a higher order, deeper or richer meanings in a mundane quotidian existence. Something beyond the basic essentials. We love to play, whether games or music or other artistic performance.

Hope to joy is little less in joy than hope enjoyed….
As Shakespeare's Richard II said, anticipation is an intense pleasure in itself, the dopamine hit of finding out about, imagining, ordering, waiting for the package from far away… then the colourfully-wrapped CD arrives with its promises of - orchestras, soloists, conductors, concert halls…. all of this, before you actually hear it.

Musically speaking, of course a large part of the motivation is - different interpretations, acoustics, orchestral characters, recording quality - but again more fundamental here is -
Defamiliarisation: the desire to rekindle the freshness and sense of excited discovery we felt when we heard some great symphony for the first time. Think about when you heard your first Bruckner Symphony - perhaps No. 4 or No.7. What were you keenest to do? Hear another 7th or more Bruckner? Probably 8 or 9, or 5….
As you get older some of the pleasures are diluted by familiarity and on one level, to explore different recordings of the same work is to search for those intense early thrills once again.
(This also feeds into HIFi - the desire to accessorise or “upgrade”, in the hope of better sound, refreshing your responses - “you’ll feel like you’ve got a whole new CD collection!” - is not just advertisers’ guff. We truly want to believe it.).

“Never as good as the first time”….?
Probably not, but we go on searching, hoping….

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)

[LMcD]

Time to listen when you are in full-time work, as I still am, is severely restricted, in my case to no more than two hours a day - if I'm lucky! Once retirement comes at the end of next year, I'm hoping for a good deal more. At the moment, I admit to finding the lack of time very frustrating,

You may find that, with the greater opportunities for pursuing other interests and for socialization that come with retirement, you end up with less time to listen to music. Which may, or may not, be a bad thing.....