Church music, without a doubt: both hymns and gospel tunes, as well as sacred choral and organ pieces. But classical music was always there, right alongside it, on the radio and on a very ancient Victrola. I was hearing operatic selections on single-sided recorded 78 RPM discs before I started school; in fact, when I was three one of the pieces I regularly asked to hear was Wagner’s “Ride of the Bacteria.”
The classical quality of sacred music is really no different from that of traditional classical music. The same values of composition and rendition are in evidence. I’m sure those characteristics shaped my early tastes and still do. Most of my music collection is classical, and I am still a season ticket holder to the opera.
Along the way I also came to love folk music, Gilbert and Sullivan, the Beatles, many pieces from the light concert repertoire, and a variety of music from around the world, from Scottish folk tunes to African a capella choirs, from Indian classical music to the Don Cossacks of Russia. But I think the classical composers set my framework and remain the foundation of my preferences.