Welcome to Gaia! ::

Man, I think I'm going in over my head in my pursuit to know more about classical music.

It used to be when I was younger that the 100+ CD collection I had was sufficient and I had known all I need to know about classical music. Then came college and I took a music history class for one semester. With that class a whole new world of music opened before me and I dived right in exploring the vast and diverse types and composers.

And it seems like once I had perused thoroughly on one composer, I immediately turn to the next and my listening habits have been quite ravenous.

Often the sequence tends to have a tangential connection, such as composers during the era of Beethoven, or Minimalism, or other categories. A good deal of my listening consists of names that are known, but aren't exactly world famous, often overshadowed by far greater contemporaries. This has the effect of me bypassing some more prominent names in order to listen to despite how famous their work may be. If I don't show a current interest in it, I am not bound to listen. And this is a problem when you get more to the recent music where almost every composer is a big name. Who do I choose first?

I wonder how far I can go on listening to more music until I am confident that I know enough of it. But once I hear a name I haven't heard of, I go off to see what the music is all about.

Anyone else's explorations into music turns into a nearly unmanageable task?

Man, there's more music out there than anyone can digest in a lifetime. Take your time, keep your ears open and go forth!