Gustav Mahler- “Symphony 1: i. Langsam, Schleppend - Wie ein Naturlaut”
(Movement 1 of Symphony 1 for the non-pretentious)

If music reviews have been slow lately, it’s because I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music. Of course, classical music can still be written about, but I’ve never felt confident enough in my knowledge of it to do so. Recently though, I feel as if I’m maturing into not only an appreciation of classical music, but a love of it as well. Don’t get me wrong—I still don’t understand what “timbre” is. But I’ve gotten past the “I listen to it to relax” bullshit that the uninitiated never move beyond.

For example, I’ve finally reached a point at which I can take a lot of the things I enjoy about popular music and apply them to classical. I can tell which composers are more playful to a crowd (sell-outs) and which ones are more cerebral. (Mahler is especially alt/hip.) I can hear key changes and postulate their significance. I can trace connections between important players most of the time. (Wagner’s brand of ambitious bombast totally fathered Mahler’s style.) I can appreciate things like volume, which is as much a useful tool in classical as it is a negligible afterthought in mainstream pop. See? Don’t you believe me? Doesn’t it sound as if I’m getting it?

Deep down though, I still don’t enjoy it as much as pop music. Maybe I’ll get there, but I suspect I never will, mainly for one reason: While some pieces of classical music might affect me more than others, I can be reasonably certain that none of them will ever suck outright. Chances are, if a composition has stuck around since the baroque period, there’s a reason.

It’s not that I want to hear bad music. But I do want the possibility of it being bad to hang over my listen. Since we’re engaging with pop music in real time, without the benefit of hindsight, a lot of terrible stuff obviously slips through. That chance of the music being crappy is important to me, and its lingering danger makes pop music compelling, mysterious, and fascinating in a way that classical music never is. The fact that we hear pop music done wrong so often makes it that much more satisfying when it’s done right. As long and challenging as classical music can be, I never feel as if I’m wasting my time. And maybe I need those stakes.

So either I’m doomed to over-value imperfection or someone needs to tell me who the nationalist post-romantic version of Ke$ha is.