An introduction to classical music #1: first notes.

Nope, neither am I a classical music specialist or even a musician. And neither do I have the intention of boring you with a theoretical course on classical music. I've juste decided to share with you my 10 years of working in music stores, at the same time I was discovering, little by little, classical music. I want to do this blog with the aim of democratizing classical music, i.e. that I will try to make you love classical music not because it is classical, but because it is simply music...

The idea of "democratizing" or to make classical music more accessible is a huge task, and I'm already thinking about certain aspects of it that could be covered. I'm thinking, among other things, about the classical music consumption and shopping experience, like when your favorite's record store classical section becomes overwhelming. I'm also thinking about the information found on classical records jackets to can be difficult to decode; and I even believe that a few neat little tricks to manage you (growing) classical music collection with software like iTunes could be useful!

I'm also thinking about things related to classical music recordings too; I'm thinking here about the versions phenomena, because most of the classical compositions are recorded more than once; I'm thinking about the vast number of classical music labels and what makes them different from one another; and I even believe that it would possible for me to make you listen to small audio demonstrations, so that you could practice yourself recognizing a good classical recording from a bad one...

There is the delicate subject matter that is the institution of classical music, and the problems related with it; I'm thinking, for example, about the traps of the classical music concerts, and let's not forget the critics and the clichés that cause harm to the perception of classical music. In fact, the best for you would be to understand that an insuperable frontier exists between those who produce classical music and those to whom it belongs.

Of course, these are only a few leads that can be followed, but be assured that everything will be done with simplicity in mind, but without oversimplifying things. So relax (I'm sure that you have somewhere in your CD's an old classical compilation that you could listen to...), open your ears wide and...

Good reading!

Spwarf