Why Classical music is so awesome

I was just working on an aria that I've been learning, translating the Italian, working on the pronunciation and the like, and the reasons why classical music is so fantastic, so awesome, so postitively delicious went through my head. Some people may say classical music doesn't really have a place in their music collection. So here is a comparison of the two that is TOTALLY in favor of classical. Next time I'll do one that makes popular music come out on top.

Classical:

Step 1. You hear a piece, it is not unpleasant to your ears. It might even have some completely exquisite moments.

Step 2. You learn about the background of the piece, you hear it again and little details pop out with unexpected beauty.

Step 3. You discover even more about the piece. Perhaps what the composer was thinking, who he wrote it for, what it means, why it is so important, or what happens musically.

Step 4. The piece slowly starts to blow your mind.

Step 5. Every subsequent hearing is better than the last until you are wrestled to the ground by the beauty of it all and you don't mind a bit. This is a love that is definitely going to last.

This next part is going to make me sound a bit old, but this is why popular music could never take it's place (though as a lover of nearly all popular music, I am NOT discounting it's place and role in the musical world):

Step 1. You hear a new song. YOU LOVE IT SO MUCH YOU WANT TO HEAR IT FIVE MILLION TIMES. In the car, in the house, in totally quiet places like the library, everywhere.

Step 2. You are intoxicated by the song. It is fantastic, it means everything to you and defines you and completes you and you want to marry the song. You want to make-out with the writer of the song.

Step 3. After singing it in the car for the ten millionth time it starts to loose a little of it's coolness, the chorus starts to get repetitive and seriously, do they have to repeat that line 27 times at the end (exhibit A, all of Madonna's new material. Good grief woman, we get it already!!!).

Step 4. Hmm, I think this song and I need to "take a little break". It's totally not you, it's me. Really.

Step 5. You don't listen to it for a few months. Suddenly the song re-appears on your radar and it is not at all unpleasant and you can think back on all the good times you had, but you're still glad you're not together anymore.

I can't leave you with all that without some examples. So in the Classical camp, we have a prelude from Bach's unaccompanied cello suites.

Bach wrote these pieces after an extended stay in Italy. He had no idea his wife was ill, and came home to find his wife, the mother of his children, his companion, had taken ill and passed away and had been buried. I believe these pieces are his closure. They are written on cello, an instrument still relatively foreign to Germany (but not to Italy). I believe Bach was both mourning his beloved wife and telling her of his travels in Italy in a way he felt she could hear it.

This is a song I was totally obsessed with for a while about 5 years ago. The other song was one that was hugely popular and I heard every morning while I was in Italy, it was addictive and I heard it in my head for months after the trip.

May you have a very musically diverse and satisfying Tuesday.