A few years ago, as a Church student visiting the Diocese, I remember expressing to a parishioner at the parish I was living my utter bewilderment at the wide variety in what we could call classical music, both in the instrumentation used, the approaches of composers and the terminology used. I liked the sound of it, but it was rather confusing. She was herself very into classical music, you see, with a well stocked library of recordings. When I had returned to seminary, I was surprised to find one day that she had mailed me an introductory book. This one, to be precise. I began the book at once, but fell away a few weeks later. I just launched right back into it and, years later and with a better understanding of history and culture, I'm powering through it and should be finished hopefully by year end.
It also means that there'll occasionally be a curiosity mentioned in the book on this blog. Let's begin with Messiaen's Turangalíla symphony. It is known for the impossibly long list of instruments used. If you endure the hour and twenty minutes, have a listen to all those strange sounds.
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