Donald Satz wrote:

>For many weeks now I've been listening almost exclusively to Bach's
>music.  I don't know how much longer this will last, but I was curious
>if any other list members have spent weeks on end listening to just one
>composer's music.  What factors brought you to this regimen, and how did
>it end? I'm not worried about listening to Bach; in fact, I'm enjoying
>it greatly - just solo keyboard works.

When I was a kid in Philly, there was, for a short time, an fm radio
station owned by the now dead Philadelphia Bulletin. They would play six
or seven straight hours of a single composer. I thought then that it was a
terrific idea. That was a time when my own record collection could fit
into one teeny under-the-record-player cabinet.

I moved to Cambridge, Mass.  in 1965, and lo and behold!  the university
down the street had radio ORGIES (trade mark!) of a single composer.  I'd
stay up for most of a week hearing all Schubert or all Bach, played in
chronological order, or listen to certain segments devoted to historical
performances.

Now that I have my own collection of cds, I frequently pull out
several days' worth of recordings and listen to the works of just one
composer, or related composers.  This is especially true if I am trying to
familiarize myself with a particular composer's style.  Or I may choose a
theme (Springtime?) or a genre of music (piano? Chamber music?) and listen
to works that naturally fall into that category.  I'm not strict: if there
is something I want to hear on a whim while this is going on, I let myself
be diverted.  But mostly, if I hear ONE Beethoven sonata, I want to hear
them all again, because I remember how much I love them.  If I hear one
Bach organ work, I need to hear more.  All of them.  Then the cantatas.
And so forth.  Little by little I work my way around my collection.

Mimi