My earliest example of moving from “hate it” to “love it” is Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.  I first heard the piece at the age of 20, a time in which I was totally immersed in beautiful, flowing melodies, and rich, luxurious harmonies. My favorite composers were Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and Puccini. With my young and inexperienced ears, I’m afraid Stravinsky didn’t have a chance! However, I’m happy to admit that after being strongly encouraged to learn the piece (my college choir was to sing it in an upcoming concert), I found that the dissonant chords, jarring rhythms, and short melodic fragments really began to grow on me. By the time we performed the piece it was one of my favorites – and I had begun a lifelong love and appreciation of Stravinsky’s music.

What I learned from that experience so many years ago, and it has served me well ever since, was that I must give new sounds a chance. I need to listen enough to new music so it can become “familiar” to me. I need to study the structure of the music to better understand what the composer is trying to say. In short, I need to be open to new possibilities in musical sound and expression. I’m certainly not suggesting that I always end up enjoying every piece I initially do not enjoy, but I can honestly say there have been countless pieces of music over the years that I was ready to discard after my first exposure to them and that these pieces later become some of my favorites. 

Can you think of a piece that you initially “hated” and later came to “love”?