Classic, mate.

While walking to work I have been giving classical music a trial in the AirPods. Now I have never really listened to classical music for pleasure. I’ve dabbled in jazz, know the some of the big tracks Take Five, So What etc. but the problem for me with jazz and classical music is that they both lack lyrics. Well jazz has some tunes with lyrics and of course there are famous jazz singers, but realistically jazz like classical music is about the music. Hence both genres tend to sit in the background music category for me. I have always preferred music to tell me a story, engage me with words as well as music. Obviously, I know some classical music pieces, usually from movies or just their position in popular culture but even then, it is a section of a symphony or a composition not the whole piece.

Also Classical Music faces a fair amount of opposition for airplay in my Airpods. I have all my old playlists and I create a new playlist every three months that is mostly new music interspersed with oldies that I haven’t grabbed for years, the latest list including a few songs from Australia’s The Huxton Creepers who I had forgotten about since the 90s. Then throw in the six or seven podcasts that I listen to religiously (The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Science, The Book Club, The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, ABC’s The Minefield, Big Ideas, Conversations) there is a shitload of competition for work walk ear time.

But you know, I thought I would give this classical music a run after a series of conversations with some different people over the last few weeks. Who knows, maybe being older plays a part as well. Having a song telling me that I’m born to be wild or to party like its 1999 does seem to have less relevance today and with rock and roll there is the problem of its somewhat restricted construction and instrumentation, new bands often just seem to remind me of stuff I have heard before.  Hence the importance of the words and my growing regard for country music – three chords and the truth dude.

So the first thing that prompted this experiment was one of the baristas at my local café, a Welsh girl on a working visa here in Oz, who expressed how much she missed playing her cello while overseas. Unsurprisingly she did not bring it with her and we got to talking about music and classical cello pieces. The talk stuck in my head but I didn’t do anything about it.

Then at my local I was having a beer with my neighbour and another one of the regulars. Now I could name all these people but I haven’t asked their permission so we will belatedly name the Welsh girl Sally, my neighbour Boris and the pub regular Van. Anyway we were at the bar chatting about many varied things as we do. This is part of the joy of having a local, the people you meet and the conversations you have. Boris has been in lots of bands and is an extremely proficient keyboardist and Van despite looking like he runs a Kimberley cattle station, is one of those older guys with a multitude of interests and a lifetime of experiences.

I can’t remember how classical music came up in the conversation but before I knew it, we were discussing Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and even 20th century composers like good old Arnold Schoenberg. Well they were, I did not have much to say which is most unlike me. So when I got a chance, I said OK, help me out. If I was going to start with listening to classical is there someone I should go to first. It was decided that Johannas Brahms would be perfect, although this could have been largely decided on an anecdote from Van from his navy days where Brahms was a suitable aid in courtship although those words were not necessarily the words used.

So I did give Brahms a listen and it was perfectly fine, quite moving in bits and I am sure a part of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina is lifted from one of his compositions but you know, by the afternoon commute home I had moved back to one of my usual playlists. Yesterday I thought I would give it another go, this time with the wonderfully named Sergei Rachmaninoff. I liked his work better, heavily piano, moody, passionate and of course I discovered I knew a small part of it already thanks to Eric Carmen’s 1975 power ballad All By Myself which is based on the movement of one of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos. I could even sing along as I walked. Another one of Carmen’s hits, Never Going To Fall in Love Again is in there too, so Eric certainly knew his Rachmaninoff.

Was I destined to hear pop songs every time I experimented with classical music? Don’t get me wrong, I mean I wasn’t surprised, just never had the experience of the obviousness of it before. What else will I discover when I delve further? And who to listen to next? I don’t want to go the obvious names  which for me are Bach, Beethoven than I guess Mozart. First, I’m going to listen to some of the other dudes that you don’t hear namedropped so often. Liszt, Chopin  maybe I’ll get a handle on Handel. Sorry.

I will update you with my progress.

Photo by Samuel Sianipar on Unsplash