Classical music for beginners

Image credit Angie Pine

Isn’t classical music boring? When was the last time you joined an open-air classical music festival? There aren't any. Besides, it’s all dead—music created by dead people for their dead contemporaries. It’s hard to even imagine the level of boredom that allowed the old folks to enjoy a cacophony of sounds that they called: rondos, sonatas, fugues, symphonies….

To tell you the truth, I went to a classical music concert once with my Aunt and was shocked. Don’t remember much of the music. Remember only the two funny guys playing one piano-forte in four hands. But the audience, my God! I was almost the only youngish face there. The room was full of 65-plussers. I stared at the grannies and grandpas so hard during the break that I got embarrassed of my own embarrassment.

After a week of reflection I got into a rebellious mood. I promised to teach the snobs a lesson by breaking the ‘classical music is only for the elderly’ stereotype. If I succeed by the end of this article, you, my dear reader, will become curious about learning to love classical music. That’s my goal.

Let’s begin. Naturally, I wanted to find out why my generation doesn’t go to classical music concerts, and what were the triggers that set a person on a course of becoming a Mozart-lover. I went ahead on asking people around—from my primary school teachers to my colleagues and siblings. Turns out people who had early childhood exposure to classical music are more likely to listen to it in their adulthood. That’s an important point. Exposure. When was the last time you heard classical music in a public space? They don’t put it on in gyms, cafés, or bars. It’s anything but. It means that we don’t learn those melodies and do not recognise them on occasions like concerts.

Familiarity is part of enjoyment. Most of us can recognise a top chart song when we hear them. It’s fun. You start singing along in your head. Often, you have memories associated with the song: a school dance, a movie, a girls night out. Many songs find their place in our life because we hear them so often. But what about Fantasie in F-Sharp Minor by Felix Mendelssohn? How many times have you heard it in the last six months? From this discovery came my first strategic move: to get a taste of different musical forms, composers, time periods. I put what I could find on during my lunch breaks and then wrote my impression in a small notebook. Mendelssohn got a good score (eight out of ten).

Next, I had to crack the complexity problem. In a song with lyrics, music takes the backstage, it accompanies, it doesn’t lead. You only remember the words and singing it on tune or off tune doesn’t make a difference in enjoyment. Classical music is multidimensional. In simple words: it’s a lot of noise at the same time. The leading melody disappears, giving way to variations. Chords create a three-dimensional flow of sound. That was the toughest nut for me to crack but luckily I was helped by the Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky). I realised that music is like poetry. You must resist the temptation to understand it and instead let it envelop you, let it run its course. I got into a habit of closing my eyes to encourage my imagination to go wild. Music is emotional. One moment it’s angry and the other—unspeakably sad. The pictures of royal gardens, storms and lonely candlelight evenings appear behind my closed eyelids. The music will tell you a story, if you are willing to listen.

At that point I became confident enough to invite some of my friends to classical music concerts. They admitted that they enjoyed the music but also complained that it was boring to sit and just listen with no visual content. Yes, visual perception is our leading channel of perception, especially in the mobile phone era. We need to keep our eyes busy, or so it seems. Fear not. Beginner-friendly concerts accommodate for that more and more. They install nice lights, they hire a host who comes on stage and makes stale jokes. Sometimes they go as far as dropping a screen and projecting footage on it. Anything for your entertainment.

But after the little victory (making my friends admit classical music might be nice) I had to acknowledge the cultural gap. At the time classical pieces were written, musical genres had clear social functions. There was music that was played at  church or at the opera, there was music played at dinner parties, balls, and other gatherings. Now it’s one gigantic cloud of music—pick what you will. I must confess: it’s too much material to wrap my head around it and to form an opinion. In the five months I was busy with learning the basics, I only managed to memorise a few composers’ names. But here’s a cheat code: find an instrument that you enjoy listening to. For instance, violins and flutes don’t please my ear. While piano-led compositions seem pretty exciting. The guitar sounds cool too. So, you don’t need to become an expert (or a snob). Instead, you could experiment by picking beginner-friendly concerts. They have a series of those in Concertgebouw named Classical Highlights.

The last question you likely have for me is: Why? Why do all this work? How will I benefit from appreciation of classical music? Well, yes, you will. It helps to develop previously unused parts of your brain, to let your visual perception channel to rest for a bit and give the leading position to the auditory perception. In a way, it helps you to get to know yourself better. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments.

Useful links:

Amsterdam: Classical Highlights at Concertgebouw

The Hague: Movie Scores at Amare on 24th of May