Just over two years ago, I made a seemingly trivial change to my life. 27 months later it’s become part of a lifelong learning practice which is a defining part of who I am.
Since the first week of January 2012, I have selected an unfamiliar classical music piece each Sunday, and tried my best to “learn” it throughout that week.
The Initial Idea
Albums from 2012 SSS
The idea came during Christmas week of 2011. It’s possible it had floated around my head earlier, but I definitely remember it vividly just before New Year’s, and remember telling my wife about my idea. She affectionately gave it a name which has stuck for three years running: “Snooch’s Silly Symphony”. I have never been big on Resolutions, yet I started to formulate a plan. A recent review of some reflections I jotted down at the time leads me to be reminded that there were two main reasons to set this regimen in place.
Most important is the fact that I thought I owed it to myself simply to be aware of more music. If I really want to call myself a professional musician and classical enthusiast, it would make sense that I should be familiar with a much broader repertoire than I was in 2011. Some weeks ago, my wife was looking at a concert brochure and asked “Is [such and such piece] a ‘Snoochie Symphony’?” It had been, and she went on to say that it seems like the answer to that question, more and more often, is “Yes!” One of the greatest signs that this is working.
The other primary motivator, one about which I’d totally forgotten, was to add a spark of anticipation to a life that had felt fairly monotonous outside of my weekends. I hoped that my love of learning would complement this process and invite me to read more about the pieces, seek them out in performance, study their scores, and so on. It has.
But, one other truth has become apparent throughout this journey. Back in 2011, Listening had become quite a background event. I had music on in the car, at my desk, and often in a sole ear bud at bedtime, but I was hearing to the same things repetitively and mindlessly. I wasn’t exploring. What’s more, I had no structured regimen for Active Listening. For many people, this is perfectly fine, but a performer should always find time to experience music fully, and I had let that slip from my daily life.
Process
Albums used in 2013
Nowadays, I keep a playlist for the current year’s repertoire. iTunes Match has been a great help, because no matter where I am sitting or traveling, I have access to the updated playlist. I download the full score from IMSLP.org, and load that onto my iPad. One of the first things that makes me excited on a Monday morning is pressing play for the first time on my new piece, curious whether the first notes will be familiar, and in a sort of wonderment over whether this piece will change my life. During most of my lunch breaks, I walk to one of a few open area on campus where I can sit with my iPad score, headphones, and enjoy the music as students and faculty pass by in front of me. This is one of the most relaxing ways to spend my break, and it gives me renewed energy to tackle the afternoon ahead.
I take great enjoyment in choosing the pieces. Some weeks I’ve been inspired by a concert review I’ve read, or a podcast about a piece. Sometimes I try to sync it to external events (three weeks of Russian music during the Sochi Olympics), but at other times, I simply scan my iTunes library, and make a fairly random choice for my playlist.
During the first year, I amassed quite a library of new music. I took great advantage of a number of bargain labels that Amazon sells, X5 being the most useful at the time. These would promise the “Essential” or “100 Greatest” pieces by specific composers for literally a few cents a track. Audio quality was a game of chance (predominantly in my favor) but the performances were very adequate for learning purposes. That first year, I added well over 2500 new classical tracks to my iTunes library. There are still hundreds which I’ve never listened to once, but at, say, 100/$1.99, there is no way to go wrong. It did’t hurt that I had gotten a sizable Amazon gift card that Christmas, which I dragged out for nearly the entire year.
Reflections and Moving Forward
Throughout 2012, every week was a new symphony. The only rule was that it had to be called a symphony by its composer. Of course, it also had to be mostly unfamiliar to me. For 2013, I moved on to pieces that had to be called a concerto by their composer (thus making “Snooch’s Silly Symphony” a misnomered project since January 2013). 2014 was a bit of a challenge. I considered many ideas as the previous year drew to a close: operas, large choral works, mixed bag. In the end, I decided that I’d stick to the orchestra-only repertoire and that each piece this year would require a unique title, which flings wide the door for tone poems, fantasies, variations, overtures, and suites. Since vocal music is supposed to be my main interest anyway, I figured I should be learning that at my own pace as well, so I also seem to be working on an opera, cantata, or oratorio at the same time, but in a less structured way. What will 2015 bring? There’s no way to know, nine months out, but I think it’s safe to say, I will continue the tradition indefinitely. I’ve heard it said that you have to do something 21 consecutive times to become ingrained. Here as I begin to listen to what is probably about my 110th piece, I’d say it has stuck.
The key to this, or any, resolution’s success is that I wanted it to be a part of my life. How difficult it is to see a change in your life when you’re not ready, and believe me there are aspects of my life in which I would love to see a change. But, I prove time and again that I don’t have the energy or sincere desire to accomplish that change. Expanding my musical literacy came easy to me, because it already was a part of me, dormant a few years, granted, but always there.