Fresh Audio Perspectives

Around here there seems to be some sort of live music making going on most of the day each day.  If I’m not practicing, I’m listening to a kidlet practice or a student play at a lesson.  Because I’m easily overstimulated by lots of sound, when I’m doing something that I need to concentrate on such as writing something or reading something or talking with someone, I almost always elect for the option of silence.  This has meant that over the past few years of raising children, the opportunity to actually listen to music recordings has gone by the wayside.

It’s not that I never get to listen.  I just don’t get to listen very often.  As a result, for the past few years I haven’t purchased many new recordings of music.  I’ve snatched up some recordings at the Annual Used Book Sale at the library, but for the most part, the things that I have purchased have largely been pieces of music that I was specifically studying.

A few months ago YaYa’s English horn had an issue the day of her youth symphony concert where she had a solo in part of a piece being performed.  We had to make an emergency trip to her oboe teacher’s house to repair it (success by the way!).  I don’t normally go in to her oboe lesson, but on this day YaYa asked if I’d come along.  Her oboe teacher is married to a clarinet professor at the university, and the lower level of their house was filled with a huge collection of  classical recorded music.  It made me think about a choir trip about a year ago now to Winnipeg for a concert, when I stayed in the home of one of the members of the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and that family also had a very extensive collection of classical recorded music in their library.

Of course, these days music collections are not tangibly visible for the most part; they are stored digitally on iPods, phones or computers.  But seeing both collections made me think a bit.  I really do enjoy listening to classical music and  hearing new pieces.  I decided it would be nice to grow my collection a bit, so I decided that every month or so I would give myself permission to purchase a new classical album.  It just makes more sense to purchase classical music by the album, because enormous portions of each album belong together, and I almost always listen to an album consecutively.

To start things off, this month I actually purchased THREE albums to make up for lost time, and I’m happy to report that I have greatly been enjoying them while walking, doing dishes, cleaning, and other non-concentrating tasks.  This month I purchased an album of Arvo Part choral music by the Latvian Radio Choir (one of the world’s very best choirs in my personal opinion), the Enigma Variations by Elgar, and a compilation of music by Samuel Barber.  I have a long list of music that I’ve already picked out to be purchased bit by bit, and I’m really excited.