Charity Store Records and My Musical Tastes!

Charity Store Records and My Musical Tastes!

I guess the ultimate reason for being involved with vinyl records is all about music and increasingly, 'when I get the urge' I go looking for records at my favourite charity store. At one dollar per album and sometimes less (Australian), one really can't go wrong! I guess my music tastes are rather wide-ranging and eclectic, all the way from Jimi Hendrix to Classical music and just about everything in between!

From my preferred charity store most of my vinyl acquisitions have been from the world of Classical music and I never cease to be amazed by the sheer range of wonderful 'sound' from within the Classical Music genre! Do I have a favourite Composer? Well..........maybe Mozart. I find his music just wonderful to listen to, melodic, interesting, occasionally melancholic, but always beautiful. I have a good vinyl copy of his 'Clarinet Concerto'. The Adagio always makes me cry with its melancholic yet uplifting beauty!

Away from composers per se, the incredible range of instruments available and the 'sounds' possible is something I find utterly intoxicating and endearing. Today I was playing a record featuring works by Telemann for recorder. In the hands of a good musician I find the recorder 'sound' one of intoxicating beauty similar to the oboe. Unfortunately the recorder played poorly still occasionally brings to mind our woefully bad and out of tune school bands of my early school days!

I'm not sure if I have a favourite musical instrument really, piano, violin (particularly well reproduced by my M97xE, in my opinion), classical guitar, cello, oboe, recorder, all the instruments found in an Orchestra....I love them all. I guess depending on my mood, some musical instruments 'resonate with me', a little more than others, but I particularly like the violin, as to my ears the kind of sound possible reminds me of an electric guitar with heaps of 'sustain'! I sometimes listen to Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' and can almost hear 'Spring' played on electric guitar with heaps of 'sustain'.

I think Vivaldi, like Mozart was a true musical genius of the highest order and I think you can add Handel, J.S. Bach and Haydn in that list too and many others! It is interesting that J.S. Bach although popular in his lifetime, probably wasn't recognised as the true genius that he was as much as he is today. I sometimes listen to his various Choral works and listen in absolute awe at their sheer complexity. I guess we see that sort of thing endlessly repeated throughout history!

When one looks the the lives of the great composers, one realises that the frequently scandalous lifestyles of today's pop stars aren't really that scandalous. Look at the lives of people like Liszt, Chopin and others. Insanity caused by a certain 'fashionable' illness popped up once or twice as well! Perhaps in the world of people, things have always been the same! It makes one think, but the music was wonderful, regardless. I think I might go and play a record now. More to come! Felix.