Hearing music in your head

[jochanaan]

I have one of those musical memories that can carry around entire symphonies.  Usually I know where they're coming from, but occasionally a passage will intrude that's not immediately recognizable.  (It can be frustrating when it's, say, a tutti passage from a concerto; I'll remember the passage but think it's from a symphony or overture, then suddenly remember, "Oh, the piano comes in the next passage!" )  Right now, for instance, I'm hearing the first movement of Mahler Six--no surprise there, as I've been studying the score.

[DavidW]

Jo, does reading the score help?  I can't help but think that our visual memory is much better and with a visual aid it might be alot easier to commit whole works to memory.

[jochanaan]

It helps in detail memory, but I retain aural impressions just as well as visual ones.

[Joe Barron]

Hoagie fest is here again
The Summer is on fulll bloom
(wee wee wee woooo)
Hoagie man shootin' over the waves
In the Wawa hoagie balloon ...

MAKE IT STOP!!!

I don't get anything from my childhood popping into my head unbidden, fortunately, but I do remember a lot of stupid old TV theme songs: Astro Boy, Eighth Man, Captain Nice, Mr. Terrific, It's About Time---if I had been exposed to Shakespeare at that age, I'd be a scholar.

[Joe Barron]

Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Woo woo woo

and then I don't know what comes next.  

EDIT: What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
Hey hey hey

Is the next verse the one with the cupcakes?

The cupcakes verse is the second verse, followed by "coo-co-ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson." "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio" appears in the final chorus, sung in place of "And here's to you, Mrs Robinson," after the final verse about the candidates debate. The "we'd like to know a little bit about you for our files" is the first verse.

I undertand Paul Simon orignally wanted to sing Mickey Mantle, since that was his own hero, but it didn't scan.

[karlhenning]

Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Woo woo woo

and then I don't know what comes next. 

EDIT: What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
Hey hey hey

You see, when you said eventually you'll be hearing "nah nah nah," that could just be in line with what they were singing 

[schweitzeralan]

I have one of those musical memories that can carry around entire symphonies.  Usually I know where they're coming from, but occasionally a passage will intrude that's not immediately recognizable.  (It can be frustrating when it's, say, a tutti passage from a concerto; I'll remember the passage but think it's from a symphony or overture, then suddenly remember, "Oh, the piano comes in the next passage!" )  Right now, for instance, I'm hearing the first movement of Mahler Six--no surprise there, as I've been studying the score.

There is not one moment that I'm thinking of some musical passage, literally.  Right now it's "Czardas Macabre" by Liszt.

[Brian]

There is not one moment that I'm thinking of some musical passage, literally.  Right now it's "Czardas Macabre" by Liszt.

For me right now, the music in my head is the slow movement of Shostakovich's Fifth. It's not one of the things I've got memorized, but it is pretty insistent.

[DavidW]

For me right now, the music in my head is the slow movement of Shostakovich's Fifth. It's not one of the things I've got memorized, but it is pretty insistent.

For me Bach's Wachet auf,Ruft uns die Stimme has been spinning around my head on repeat quite a bit.  It's very memorable.

[jochanaan]

There's one advantage of having such a musical memory: When something unpleasant, such as advertising jingles, stick their ugly feet in my mind's door, I can usually shut them out with something good.  For example, today I heard an ice cream truck go by and the music-box melody it played just got too irritating, so I started thinking of Bruckner 7 instead.

[ChamberNut]

There's one advantage of having such a musical memory: When something unpleasant, such as advertising jingles, stick their ugly feet in my mind's door, I can usually shut them out with something good.  For example, today I heard an ice cream truck go by and the music-box melody it played just got too irritating, so I started thinking of Bruckner 7 instead.

They should have ice cream trucks going around with Classical Music melodies.  0:)

[Joe Barron]

They should have ice cream trucks going around with Classical Music melodies.  0:)

There is one ice cream truck in my neighborhood that plays Turkey in the Straw, which reminds me of Ives.

BTW, I was wrong about the order of verses in "Mrs. Robinson." Corrected above. I haven't listened to S&G in years, anyway.

[Brian]

There's one advantage of having such a musical memory: When something unpleasant, such as advertising jingles, stick their ugly feet in my mind's door, I can usually shut them out with something good.  For example, today I heard an ice cream truck go by and the music-box melody it played just got too irritating, so I started thinking of Bruckner 7 instead.

I have mixed success with this. The more annoying the music being played, the more my brain goes haywire and I can't focus away from it. For instance, my little brother plays "Fur Elise" offkey on his guitar about 14 times a day, and, since "Fur Elise" is the only classical composition that really gets on my nerves, every time he plays it, I try to force something else into my head. But it's so aggravating that I just can't.

On the other hand, when rap music is playing somewhere, it's pretty easy for me to deploy something like the Bruckner 7 or Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and stop the agony.

BTW, currently in my head, the Gypsy song from "Carmen." Teresa Berganza, singing. 

[schweitzeralan]

They should have ice cream trucks going around with Classical Music melodies.  0:)

Or in restaurants.

[Brian]

This morning, in the shower and afterwards, I "heard in my head" Beethoven's Cello Concerto.

Well, okay, Beethoven didn't write it; I helped. Basically, I took the Violin Concerto and replaced the solo violin with a cello. As the piece went along I composed the cello part, sometimes just transposing the violin part but sometimes adding new bits, exploring lower registers instead of higher ones, and throwing in ornamentation. If I may say so, the (heavily altered) solo line generally fits the cello more elegantly than it does the violin. More broadly, this is a good example of the kind of "manipulation" I can apply to the music in my head. I don't just hear it; I interact with it, speeding it up and slowing it down and altering it at will. Granted, some things are a lot harder than others - the Beethoven Cello Concerto was fairly easy, piano versions of orchestral music are often absurd-sounding or impossible - but it can be a lot of fun and a new way to "listen" to music.

Or in restaurants.

Panera Bread and La Madeleine.

[DavidW]

Panera Bread and La Madeleine.

Yes!  I've heard Haydn String Quartets played in Panera, but I couldn't remember the name.

[Harpo]

I can relate to a number of these phenomena

1. Sometimes a song pops up in my head and I realize it's related to what I'm doing at the time. It can be a piece my choir is learning. At college I was studying for exams and my brain started playing "Try to Remember" from the Fantasticks.

2. There's often a simple chord progression playing in my head, like a G resolving to a C. Sometimes it's major, sometimes minor.

3. I occasionally wake up with a song or even an orchestral piece that I've been dreaming. It's something I don't think I've heard in real life. I can't remember it once I'm more awake.

[knight66]

When I sang in choirs, there would often be what felt like intractable passages of the music that I had difficulty with. I would dream these passages, my brain would work them out and often at some point I could sing the passage perfectly without further rehearsal. I recall this strongly with Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. On that occasion my solution came after the performance, but stood me in good stead for the next one years later.

30 years later, some of the more complex music is still easily recalled.

It happened also with some complex long lines in the Missa Solemnis, I was having a problem with an area of the Credo. I decided to study it the following day. Overnight it fell into place and when I opened the score, I was note perfect....then on to the next problem pages!

The above solving of my own personal problem areas of the music was quite a frequent occurrence. A few years ago I heard a radio programme that described this kind of learning, it is seemingly quite common. The brain does not switch off in sleep, it carried on problem solving without me consciously making it help me.

Mike

[Holden]

I always have music playing in my head (unless I'm listening to it). Sometimes the music is louder and more insistent and other times it's more subtle and quiet - but it's still there! I used to question my sanity regarding this but no longer do so. If I'm mad then what a great way to experience insanity!

Usually the music I hear is something I've listened to recently but not always. The other day the 'Wanderer' popped into my head and I don't think I've listened to that for well over a year. Where did it come from? I've no idea.

And like another poster a piece of music that I haven't heard for decades just appears and recycles endlessly.

Do I really need an MP3 player?

[jochanaan]

...Do I really need an MP3 player?

I have actually declined to get one for just that reason!