Our inaugural post!

What is classical music? What does it mean? To an audience? To us personally? How do we develop a relationship with a piece of music, or even with music in general?

Our first optional reading and listening comes from author, journalist, and critic Alex Ross. Listen to This is both the opening chapter of his book with the same name (go read it now!) and this week’s reading. The essay covers Ross’s feelings about classical music as a genre, music as a means of identifying oneself, and how he has chosen to write about music.

Comment below with your thoughts!

Optional listening: Click to listen to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Listen To This

by Alex Ross The New Yorker, February 16 and 23, 2004 This essay was republished as the first chapter of my book Listen To This. For more information, go here. I hate "classical music": not the thing but the name....