8 Mar 2013

Classical Music Starter Pack

A few people have asked about the classical music I plan on listening to this year.  Which composers?  What symphonies? 

I’ve put together this list of essential classical pieces after reading Discovering Classical Music by Ian Christians.  The book gives a concise introduction to classical music, and then takes ten of the greatest composers and gives a pen portrait of each, before examining their most accessible music. These are the pieces of music that stood out for me:

If you are a classical buff, and want to suggest any other composers or pieces of music I should listen to, please add a comment below. 

7 Mar 2013

Goals for 2013

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let every new year find you a better man."  - Benjamin Franklin

As usual, I'm late posting my goals for the new year ahead. I don't see this as being a bad thing. You should take time to consider how & what you are going to spend your limited free time on. This is particularly relevant to me as I have just started a new job with quite a long commute time.

Having looked at how I got on with 2012 goals (blog post to come), I decided to change tack completely, and to limit myself to just three goals for the coming year.

running - I
  1. Break 40 minutes in a 10 kilometre road race.  My last 10K race time was 43:20 (Dessie’s Run, Derry 2012), so to get it below 40 minutes will take sustained, consistent training.  But I doubt if I’ll equal my PB of 35:15 minutes at the Seeley Cup, Belfast, some 8 years ago and when I was over a stone lighter.
  2. This year, I will be making a big push to learn several new technologies in my free time. As part of this, I will post 40 articles on this blog, with the majority of the posts being technical articles.
  3. To listen to 40 pieces of classical music.  I have always wanted to educate myself about great music, and I think it is about time I started.  I’ll blog soon about the various pieces I plan on listening to.