[Nick Zwar]

When I started collecting music, I was about 14. First LPs, then later my first CDs. Much later again digital downloads (I bought my first one in 2018… but I count them with the rest). I imagined one day, a future version of myself standing in front of my shelf, not just filled with discs, but with a representative collection classical and film music, a shelf filled with emotion and memories… and I guess I am now at that point.

All the major film scores by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Ennio Morricone… they are there. Classical works from Vivaldi and Bach to Penderecki? They are there.

I don’t necessarily have ALL of their film scores, I certainly don’t have ALL Ennio Morricone scores, but quite a few. iTunes says I have 240 Jerry Goldsmith albums, that’s certainly almost all of his released film scores, but not quite all.

That does not mean my collection is literally “complete”. Can it ever be? “Completeness” implies a certain fixed immobility; I do not like that. Obviously, I still discover new music or new composers to explore. The universe is expanding, and so is the world of music. Take Carl Nielsen, for example. My first Nielsen CD landed on my shelf sometime last century. I liked it, but didn’t pay all that much attention to it. For years, it stood alone. Then in 2016, something shifted. I began exploring him seriously. Now, shelf space has filled up with four complete symphony cycles, plus chamber works and more.

Another more recent revelation was Arnold Bax. No idea why I skipped him for so long. But when I finally tuned in, I heard something raw and luminous. Music that punches and haunts. Some of it sounds like it could have written for mysterious science fiction worlds.

So while my collection is not “literally” complete, and cannot really be for as long as I live, it is complete in another way. It is complete in the sense that it became everything I once hoped it would be. And more. My 14 year old self would be proud of me. Well, at least in that regard. 🙂

Apart from a few doubled up CDs etc. which I keep boxed up in our garage, (some of which I actually got rid of a few years ago), my music collection is an integral part in our living room, always has been. It’s on USM Haller highboards (which means, theoretically, I can expand them), but it’s got room for them all and still some space left. Of course, I have doubled up rows here and there, but since I don’t actually need to access my CDs to play them anymore, that doesn’t bother me.
Anyway, it happens that guests notice the music shelf; it has certainly been a conversation piece now and then.