Classical Music: The Final Frontier

Over the years I’ve gone through enthusiastic phases of interest for virtually all types of music including blues, jazz, new age, down tempo and even country.  At a given time, my CD collection would grow disproportionately in that given genre as the discovery of one artist led to another, the cadence of the music or my mood attracting musically similar creations.

However, despite finding classical music extremely rich, it has also largely remained inaccessible to me.  Able to recognize a short list of the major composers and able to pronounce the names of an even shorter list with any confidence and certainty, I’ve enjoyed the spaciousness of classical music without developing much familiarity.

Rather than pondering the reasons why – lack of vocals, lack of the pull of a persona of a living composer, the natural subordination of artist below or in support of the music, the lack of marketing, the need for a sophisticated understanding of music, catchy piece names like Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33: I. Alegro Non Troppo and Sonata For Cello & Piano No. 2 In G Minor, Op. 117: II. Andante – whatever the reason – I’d like to briefly plug baroque music on a snowy day.

I’ve oft noted that snow suspends reality as the snow seems to absorb sound and quiet even a busy city scene.  The snow, the crisp winter air transporting me even if only briefly to another place or perhaps more precisely connecting me to the current time and place more directly.  During an unexpected snow storm in which I shoveled the driveway three times in one day, I chose to bring Pandora with me on my Blackberry earbuds, selecting their canned Chamber, Baroque Period station.

Pandora originally stayed away from classical music as the genome project didn’t lend itself to grouping classical music into musically similar stations.  It appears that Pandora has chosen to handle classical music within period sub stations under the genre umbrella of Classical.  I’m not yet certain that the sorting is strictly following the substation channel categories, but it’s a start, a potential access point for me.

If you find yourself wanting to explore classical music, Pandora’s canned genre stations may be a good place to start.  I know for one snowy day, the final frontier was brought nearer as exquisite wintery music filled my ears as my back got sore performing the most mundane of tasks, briefly finding magic in the mundane.

Check out this genre station on Pandora at: http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh120666393262603901

Remember Pandora also has genre stations for many categories of rock, folk, children’s, dance, etc., etc.  And Pandora is available for your mobile devices and "soon" in your car.

Happy listening!