Kevin Sutton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

  ***Why indeed do we collect?

While there is plenty of psychological profiling of collectors, it is indeed, for me, an interesting question.

  For a time I used to think that there was something of a difference with classical music. In the retail record business model of old, the shelf life of popular music was six months to a year. In a sense it was considered a consumable. That is not to say there are not collectors of popular music, jazz, gospel music, etc.

  I remember reading recently that while the sale of compact discs is down, the sale of classical music discs was up. Are classical music collectors, or consumers somehow different?

  I am also reminded of my days as a curator when we had a donation from an opera lover who had tried to acquire the best surviving copy of every Metropolitan Opera broadcast...when now, with some searching, one can find illegal copies being traded back and forth on the internet. No doubt it is just my age, but acquiring an MP3 just isn't the same as collecting the object...and yes, I believe the expression "digital object" is an oxymoron.

  What I find interesting is that since there is so much "stuff" out there, people will specialize. I take great delight in things like the online discographies, like the Callas listing or the Eroica discography. Ok, for ten points, and without looking, what is the fastest recorded first movement of the Eroica...I guessed right, not because I knew them all but I knew one that seemed the fastest when I heard it.

  For a time I collected all the recordings of Daphnis and Chloe and the complete Prokofieff Romeo and Juliet. Then when it comes to American Symphonies...how about seven Piston Thirds...I am missing at least one... All of which leaves me curious, I wonder what sort of specialization might exist on this list.

  I know there are some Mahler fans out there. A old friend of mine had every recording of the Planets, another collects arrangements of Pictures at an exhibition, another, the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto. There is also a fine online discography of Peter and the Wolf.

  Karl

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