What this blog is about. It’s about sharing, sharing my discovery and development of my love of classical music. My discovery was initially a solo venture that started at about when I was 15-years old. It followed no set direction. If I heard something I liked on the one classical station I knew of, CKBS out of Hamilton, ON, I’d set some money aside from my weekly pay cheque until I had enough m0neyh to buy the 12-LP, I wasn’t until I was in my early to mid- twenties that I became friends with a group of people who were remotely interested in classical music. So I played classical DJ of sorts and put together medleys of classical music, old and new, and spiced it up with jazz. They loved it! I knew I was onto something, but it took me another 40 years to figure out what it was.

In the intervening years, I continued to study the oboe very seriously, and taught myself to play the flute, and the family of German flutes, otherwise known as recorders. I’ve moved on to the cello now. Despite this instrumental study, I continued to develop my passion further. I mentioned in the previous paragraph my study followed no set structure, but that slowly changed. A dear friend, Cal, whom I met in Vancouver in the late 1980s introduced me to an album titled, “Treasures of the Spanish Renaissance.” It was the first time I heard early music, that is music composed before, or around 1600 AD, I had never heard polyphonic music for voice before, and, it left me in tears. So started my exploration of a particular genre, to style of music. A heard of wild have held be back.

So, after diligent reading I discovered there were distinct genres of music out there: Early Music, which was written for the most part at around the period before and up to around 1600, Then came an artistic movement called the Baroque which encompassed music. The Baroque lasted roughly from 1600 to 1750, That, turn gave way to the Classical Era which covered the time between1750 to 1820. From there we move to the romantic era, which some view as not having ended until the early 20^th century, at least until the First World War. 20^th century didn’t really come into its own until after that conflagration and changed again after the Second World war. And now there are diverse musical forms of expression in the 21^st century.

Even though I had these nice categories to slot my ever-expanding CD collection into, I didn’t buy with any sort of strategy in mind. I bought what I liked and, conveniently enough, it all basically categorized itself. So, what I would like to do with this blog is share my music, but in a nice, categorized format. I plan to have guest bloggers share their experiences and reaction to the music I introduced them to, perhaps a composer or two of current music, a vocalist, barely in university who loves early music. It’s a great, fun journey! Feel free to purchase from my affiliate networks, and, purchase, a membership in some of the streaming services I recommend. But, for the sake of transparency I do get a SMALL commission from each sale. That bit of commission helps pay for the time I spend researching material for the blog, and developing related gift merchandise.