Starting Out

Beethoven

Beethoven advanced music so that it stopped being "Classical" and started being "Romantic".

Beethoven Beethoven

Bach

Layered, precise, mathematical. Bach was the archetypal composer of Baroque music.

Bach Bach

Stravinsky

Stravinsky's best-known piece -- the Rite of Spring -- is famous for causing a riot when it was premiered in Paris

Stravinsky Stravinsky

Classical music is awesome.

Don’t be put off by all the fancy language people use to describe it, or worry that you are supposed to find Beethoven amazing straight away (you probably won’t). It’s just music. Really good music. And you don’t need to dress up and shell out $200 for concert tickets to get into it. All you need is a bunch of MP3s, and most importantly, determination: don’t expect to make any sense of even a single movement until you’ve heard it at least 10 times.

You can start exploring the major composers (every page has a description of their style, along with several youtube videos of some of their stand-out pieces). Or you can look at the first steps to take. You can also listen by era.

If you have any comments or questions, please let me know.