A delightful dilemma!

[Leinster Lass]

Since joining the Forum I've read many interesting and sometimes downright tempting reviews and recommendations of new and existing releases. For example, Jayne and others have recently been extolling the virtues of Martinu, about whom I know a little and would like to know more. This exemplifies my problem - a nice problem, but still a problem!

I've acquired a few hundred recordings of 'classical music' over the years, plus rather more recordings of 'popular' music and jazz. Leaving the last two categories aside, I try to listen to as many of my collection as possible at least occasionally, but am forced to realise that, while I'm 'enthusiasm-rich', I'm 'time-poor'. (One manifestation of this is that sometimes, when possible, I try to shoehorn my Forum activities into the early and late hours, for which apologies).

Apart from the fact that I own all these CDs but never intended them to serve solely as room decorations, there are recordings which I have to listen to several times of works which I'm still struggling to appreciate fully, such as the late Beethoven String Quartets, where I still learn or discover something new every time I listen to them.

Secondly, I have started - very much contrary to my original intentions - to acquire multiple recordings of works which I particularly love and/or are important to me, although not in the sorts of numbers that some people seemed to have acquired! Needless to say, I wish to discover how the latest version on my shelves compares with those that I already own.

I also watch a lot of performances on the internet and record concerts off the TV. I'm finding the excellent Rattle/BPO Beethovemn series on Sky Arts particularly revelatory. My satisfaction and enjoyment are greatly increased when I can actually work out how the sounds I can hear relate to what I can see - or vice-versa.

A recent discussion on another thread has resulted in a useful potential saving of time inasmuch as I've finally had the courage/good sense to admit that, as I've suspected for some time, I'm quite incapable of deriving any pleasure or satisfaction out of Bruckner and might as well stop trying (sincere thanks to all concerned!).

Opera - apart from Britten - will continue to remain largely a closed book to me (there's too much going on for my brain to assimilate even after repeated hearings or viewings). That's more valuable time saved, I guess!

But my dilemma - delightful as it is - remains: how to derive the full benefit of what I've already got but still find time to explore new material? (I should add that I'm a fairly voracious reader, and although some pieces serve as useful background when tackling the crossword, most require my undivided attention).

[kernelbogey]

I can identify with some of what you say. These days I'm time-rich, so don't have your particular problem.

But my dilemma...: how to derive the full benefit of what I've already got but still find time to explore new material?

It's a time management problem - or, as has sometimes been pointed out to me - a self management problem, rather than a musical one.

Your 'Bruckner problem' is my 'Shostakovitch problem', so to speak. I have also recently acquired the late Beethoven quartets and am beginning to listen to them in a more intense manner.

There is also the question of: Is it ok to put an important piece of music on - say Beethoven 3 - while doing something else (writing Christmas cards, say)? And is this also a way of listening to CDs that have so far had little or no attention? (I have sometimes thought of starting a thread on this.)

One day you will be time-rich, I imagine; then you'll be able to dig out all the CDs you haven't got time to listen to now and play them (some of the whle you do the crossword).

To echo a Charlie Brown strip: that'll be 5 cents, please.

[Joseph K]

I once started a thread along a similar line of wanting to listen to my favourite music all the time and succumbing to that temptation, but then not leaving enough time to explore unfamiliar works.

... eventually I made to strike a balance between the two. Admittedly I am time-rich - but if I wasn't, I would nonetheless try to keep the same balance of proportion of listening time.

[Quarky]

For Example::

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/vide...ressed%20later.

https://www.papier.com/joy-31149?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=11437531416&cq_con=108702410821&cq_term=&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=u&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhIaZiMrU7QIVBOvtCh0OhgY0EAQYASABEgJ58_D_BwE

.......80/20 rule I always found useful.......Once met a business lady who divided her entire day into 15 minute segments!....

[Leinster Lass]

I once started a thread along a similar line of wanting to listen to my favourite music all the time and succumbing to that temptation, but then not leaving enough time to explore unfamiliar works.

... eventually I made to strike a balance between the two. Admittedly I am time-rich - but if I wasn't, I would nonetheless try to keep the same balance of proportion of listening time.

As it happens, I've recently become 'time-richer', thanks mainly to early retirement (they made me a 'too good to resist' offer!). However, my growing interest in military history (the result of a 'Battlefields Tour' that in turn led to my spending quite a lot of time discovering my family's Anglo-Irish history) has also led me to purchase a number of books each comprising several hundred pages. I'm also now able to devote more time to voluntary work that takes me out of the house. Recent attempts to broaden my musical horizons have focussed on Dvorak's chamber works and contemporaries of Mozart. My list of musical works that I would like to investigate is about the same length as the list of books I want to read!

[Roslynmuse]

I've resigned myself to the fact that I have more CDs than I can ever hope to listen to, and more books than I can ever hope to read. I try to be fairly relaxed about the listening balance between familiar and unfamiliar music, but I know that I can't multi-task and listening has to be active rather than passive, so there is a limit to how much time I can spend with music. Only yesterday I attempted writing my Christmas cards with something seasonal playing in the background but couldn't tell you what I heard (and suspect that some cards are now filled with nonsense too). As I mentioned on the 'what music to start your day' thread, I can't really listen to music first thing either. (The exception to the multi-tasking rule is that somehow I can drive and listen although I'm fairly selective about what I have on in the car.) It amazes me how much music people on here seem to be able to consume - are you all able to settle to listen with undivided attention for hours on end every day, or is it background listening?

[Leinster Lass]

[QUOTE=Roslynmuse;821897]I've resigned myself to the fact that I have more CDs than I can ever hope to listen to, and more books than I can ever hope to read. I try to be fairly relaxed about the listening balance between familiar and unfamiliar music, but I know that I can't multi-task and listening has to be active rather than passive, so there is a limit to how much time I can spend with music. Only yesterday I attempted writing my Christmas cards with something seasonal playing in the background but couldn't tell you what I heard (and suspect that some cards are now filled with nonsense too). As I mentioned on the 'what music to start your day' thread, I can't really listen to music first thing either. (The exception to the multi-tasking rule is that somehow I can drive and listen although I'm fairly selective about what I have on in the car.) It amazes me how much music people on here seem to be able to consume - are you all able to settle to listen with undivided attention for hours on end every day, or is it background listening?[/QUOTE]

I share your amazement! I can't believe that some of the erudite essays offered by various people on various topics are not the result of a careful study of the piece(s) in question. I have to plead guilty to listening to music while on this Forum, which probably explanes sum of my darfta missteaks!

[Ein Heldenleben]

[QUOTE=rathfarnhamgirl;821900]

I've resigned myself to the fact that I have more CDs than I can ever hope to listen to, and more books than I can ever hope to read. I try to be fairly relaxed about the listening balance between familiar and unfamiliar music, but I know that I can't multi-task and listening has to be active rather than passive, so there is a limit to how much time I can spend with music. Only yesterday I attempted writing my Christmas cards with something seasonal playing in the background but couldn't tell you what I heard (and suspect that some cards are now filled with nonsense too). As I mentioned on the 'what music to start your day' thread, I can't really listen to music first thing either. (The exception to the multi-tasking rule is that somehow I can drive and listen although I'm fairly selective about what I have on in the car.) It amazes me how much music people on here seem to be able to consume - are you all able to settle to listen with undivided attention for hours on end every day, or is it background listening?[/QUOTE]

I share your amazement! I can't believe that some of the erudite essays offered by various people on various topics are not the result of a careful study of the piece(s) in question. I have to plead guilty to listening to music while on this Forum, which probably explanes sum of my darfta missteaks!

I have it on as background during the day but if there’s something that catches my attention (like that Bruckner 8 the other day ) I focus on that. The only time my attention is truly undivided is when playing . Even at the opera the mind drifts - the worlds most expensive daydreaming really . Coincidentally I’ve been spending a bit of lockdown time on my Dublin grandfather’s exploits with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the western front and in Gallipoli.

[Petrushka]

I retired one year ago tomorrow so suddenly found myself time-rich though it's fair to say that the ensuing twelve months hasn't exactly been what I expected!

In the months before retirement I'd started to gather in a collection of various opera boxes on CD with a view to finally being able to have the time to listen to music I'd mostly been forced to ignore due to an unremitting work/commute schedule. The 'lockdown' periods have made me time-richer still and having a decent pension coming in I'm in an incredibly lucky position. After 45 years of the rat race I'm not about to squander the time I have left!

As many on here will know, I have an extensive CD collection with something like 85% orchestral/choral, 10% opera and 5% chamber/instrumental. However, I find it impossible to listen to music while simultaneously doing something else and also find it difficult to listen to the big symphonic works in the daytime. What I therefore tend to do is to play chamber/instrumental music in the daylight hours, the major orchestral works in the evening and opera at the weekend all depending on my mood at the time!

I also read a fair amount of military history/history with an emphasis on Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia so some of these are hefty volumes that have always been too large to lug around on the train so, over a period of a number of years, have been put to one side awaiting the retirement that is now here!

[french frank]

I suppose it's a matter of prioritising - and structuring your time. Work out what things (musically speaking) you want to do and allocate each segment of time that you've set aside for listening to one of your priorities. Even if you only find time for one segment of music listening a day, one 'prority'. And don't think you have to gallop through everything in the next six months.

(This, I add, from someone on the 99th percentile of musical knowledge and music listening: "What are you listening to now?" "Nothing, I'm doing something else and don't want the distraction of background music." But that is what I would do if I had your dilemma).

PS I may mean the first percentile, lowest of the low

[Leinster Lass]

[QUOTE=Heldenleben;821902]

I have it on as background during the day but if there’s something that catches my attention (like that Bruckner 8 the other day ) I focus on that. The only time my attention is truly undivided is when playing . Even at the opera the mind drifts - the worlds most expensive daydreaming really . Coincidentally I’ve been spending a bit of lockdown time on my Dublin grandfather’s exploits with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the western front and in Gallipoli.

One of my forebears served with the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers - I suspect he may have signed on as an escape from poverty, as he had 8 siblings and his father ended up in a Dublin workhouse. I would have had to pay for further access to military records for further information about that period of his life, but I do know that he's buried in Lincolnshire, so it looks as though he preferred to remain in England when his service career was over.

[cloughie]

Music is a big part of my life - in addition to much listening I also try to fit in singing and playing the piano, the latter being trying to improve my fairly basic ability - the sounds may not be brilliant but I do enjoy it and have continued to practise despite not having any lessons since March. Similarly choir activities came to a halt but I do try to sing my part with the help of recordings and accompanying myself on the piano. So the listening is a little less and tends to be more with the music that 60+ years of interested listening has introduced me to. I can never be closed to new pieces but tend not to persevere with things that I judge not to sound good to my ear and let’s face it - why at my age use the what will be limited listening time in my lifespan - Life is too short to listen ro bad music. Good or bad is up to the judgement of the ears, head and heart of the listener! Sometimes I listen deeply and attentively and at others it is a pleasant background. I don’t think it should become a chore.

[Leinster Lass]

Music is a big part of my life - in addition to much listening I also try to fit in singing and playing the piano, the latter being trying to improve my fairly basic ability - the sounds may not be brilliant but I do enjoy it and have continued to practise despite not having any lessons since March. Similarly choir activities came to a halt but I do try to sing my part with the help of recordings and accompanying myself on the piano. So the listening is a little less and tends to be more with the music that 60+ years of interested listening has introduced me to. I can never be closed to new pieces but tend not to persevere with things that I judge not to sound good to my ear and let’s face it - why at my age use the what will be limited listening time in my lifespan - Life is too short to listen ro bad music. Good or bad is up to the judgement of the ears, head and heart of the listener! Sometimes I listen deeply and attentively and at others it is a pleasant background. I don’t think it should become a chore.

I'm very much of the same opinion, but I suspect that there's quite a lot of 'good' music out there that I haven't yet discovered and may never discover in time!

[kernelbogey]

Life is too short to listen [t]o bad music....

... or IMVHO to music that doesn't speak to me. For example, I've tried with Shostakovich, but I just don't get it. Should I keep trying? Or listen to more Mozart, Bruckner, Dvorak....? I've pretty much made my mind up about that.

[Ein Heldenleben]

[QUOTE=rathfarnhamgirl;821925]

One of my forebears served with the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers - I suspect he may have signed on as an escape from poverty, as he had 8 siblings and his father ended up in a Dublin workhouse. I would have had to pay for further access to military records for further information about that period of his life, but I do know that he's buried in Lincolnshire, so it looks as though he preferred to remain in England when his service career was over.

Apologies for going off topic but as you started the strand perhaps you wil permit me? It’s a similar story - my Grandad was one of seven , joined the 7th Dubs,worked all over the world post war then retired to Kildare / Wicklow.Back in the 00’s there was an exhibition on the Irish regiments in WW1 at Dublin Castle and my father had a very pleasant 10 minute conversation with Bertie Aherne about it all. Those with some understanding of Anglo- Irish history will realise the significance of that exhibition and how things have changed for the better.
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