Is there a specific album or....

[toledobass]

performance or moment in time where the way you listened to music changed for you?  Where you went from just listening and enjoying to a more analytic approach?  Listening more for why the piece/performance was working, what was contributing to its success?  Separating various elements and listening to that thread the whole way through....things like that. 


Just curious,  saw a similar question asked elsewhere and it just got me thinking,
Allan

[petrarch]

Watching Boulez XXe siècle on TV in the early 90s. That was what turned my interests to the analysis and craft of music.

[Mirror Image]

I would say the first work that really got me thinking and that I basically tore apart one orchestral section at a time was Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe. I don't listen to this work much anymore, but this doesn't mean that I've forgotten how important it was for me. Besides the actual music, the orchestration is really what had my mind blown. To hear, how each of these parts were molded into the overall projection of the music is just unbelievable. Besides that incredible 'sunrise' scene, the one movement that I have to hear over and over again is Danse suppliante de Chloé.

[TheGSMoeller]

I think my brother and I share this moment... Zubin Mehta conducted the NYP at Carnegie Hall in the early to mid 90s, it was televised on PBS and was to commemorate, I'm guessing, the 100th anniversary of the Hall. He concluded the concert with the final movement of Mahler's 3rd. My brother and I were stunned by how powerful classical music is, in fact, it was this momejt that catapulted my brother's decision to become a professional trombonist.

[bigshot]

Up to college, I listened to the same music my friends did... progressive rock mostly. I happened to hear Cab Calloway's "Some of These Days" on the radio and it blew my mind. I walked over to Rhino Records which was a block from my apartment at the time and bought the record and played the hell out of it. I started to realize that there was great music from the past that I hadn't even considered. Harlem Jazz led from one thing to another. My tastes spread far and wide like a virus.

[Bogey]

After I read Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece by Ashley Kahn I became more aware and appreciative of what I was hearing....

Then there was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfkK_q41OU

Love watching two drummers and how Peter takes over the lead in the song...kinda of....and watching Ace on acoustic....must have watched this one over 100 times....looking for different stuff each time.

[xochitl]

romain rolland's "beethoven the creator" really opened my mind to how analyzing could actually make you feel the music more

[toledobass]

I understand the point in time where you want to broaden the music you listen to. When your horizon opens up and you realize that there is a whole universe of sound you want to explore and you want to listen to it all NOW!!!  When you want to listen to everything and anything anyone will play for you.

I think I am asking more about if there was a shift from just exploring and listening and feeling an emotional response to a more analytic understanding of what was going on.  Where your mind shifted from 'like or dislike' to more an attitude of is that 'effective or not?' When you took your subjectivity out of it and tried to be more objective.  I don't know maybe I'm not making much sense here.  Sometimes I long for a time when everything sounded awesome and I loved every recording.  It's been a long time since I've heard something that REALLY floored me like back then.  These days I feel like I am distanced from music.  Trying to understand it all and why it works and why some people connect to it has led me to a place where I feel like I can understand those things but I have also let go of 'me' in the process.  Maybe it's too much of the objective how does this work?  How is this constructed and is it effective?  I've lost a little bit of the ability for a piece of music to just wash over me and take me to a different place.   

This is of course not completely a black and white thing. There are of course times when I'm blown away where the only thing that comes over me is the shear beauty of this abstract language.  Just trying to figure out when this happened and how to get back to a listening that is more 'fun' again.


A

[jut1972]

First time I heard the John Williams Seville Concert CD.  Till then I had no idea how good CDs sound.  That led me to listening for pleasure and analysing the sound quality.  The music was fairly incidental but the process of listening for quality reasons as well as and sometimes rather than pleasure was a fundamental shift.

[Mirror Image]

I understand the point in time where you want to broaden the music you listen to. When your horizon opens up and you realize that there is a whole universe of sound you want to explore and you want to listen to it all NOW!!!  When you want to listen to everything and anything anyone will play for you.

I think I am asking more about if there was a shift from just exploring and listening and feeling an emotional response to a more analytic understanding of what was going on.  Where your mind shifted from 'like or dislike' to more an attitude of is that 'effective or not?' When you took your subjectivity out of it and tried to be more objective.  I don't know maybe I'm not making much sense here.  Sometimes I long for a time when everything sounded awesome and I loved every recording.  It's been a long time since I've heard something that REALLY floored me like back then.  These days I feel like I am distanced from music.  Trying to understand it all and why it works and why some people connect to it has led me to a place where I feel like I can understand those things but I have also let go of 'me' in the process.  Maybe it's too much of the objective how does this work?  How is this constructed and is it effective?  I've lost a little bit of the ability for a piece of music to just wash over me and take me to a different place.   

This is of course not completely a black and white thing. There are of course times when I'm blown away where the only thing that comes over me is the shear beauty of this abstract language.  Just trying to figure out when this happened and how to get back to a listening that is more 'fun' again.


A

Honestly, I think you're making too much out of it. If you enjoy listening to classical music, then it shouldn't be some tedious thing where you're trying to analyze it to death, but rather that you're enjoying the music in that moment for what it is and not what it should/shouldn't be doing.

[Cato]

I think I am asking more about if there was a shift from just exploring and listening and feeling an emotional response to a more analytic understanding of what was going on.  Where your mind shifted from 'like or dislike' to more an attitude of is that 'effective or not?' When you took your subjectivity out of it and tried to be more objective.  I don't know maybe I'm not making much sense here.  Sometimes I long for a time when everything sounded awesome and I loved every recording.  It's been a long time since I've heard something that REALLY floored me like back then.  These days I feel like I am distanced from music.  Trying to understand it all and why it works and why some people connect to it has led me to a place where I feel like I can understand those things but I have also let go of 'me' in the process.  Maybe it's too much of the objective how does this work?  How is this constructed and is it effective? I've lost a little bit of the ability for a piece of music to just wash over me and take me to a different place.   

This is of course not completely a black and white thing. There are of course times when I'm blown away where the only thing that comes over me is the shear beauty of this abstract language.  Just trying to figure out when this happened and how to get back to a listening that is more 'fun' again.


A

Hello Allan!

In grade school, after composing some piano works and other small pieces, I came across the score to Bruckner's Symphony #7 (Nowak version) and nothing was the same!

And so I became biased toward always wanting to follow a score while I listened, and yes, the analytical side for decades was there, although I cannot say that the fun was diminished.

Now many decades later, I do not feel the need to have a score, but the thrill is NOT gone!  e.g.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the Mahler Symphony #6, with and without the score, and I have heard it twice live in Cleveland and Cincinnati.  On Saturday I heard the second movement on the radio, Bernard Haitink conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was just overwhelmed by it, as if I had never heard it before.

On the other hand, a dreadful performance of the Bruckner Ninth Symphony, which I also heard on the radio recently, had me recalling the score immediately and analyzing what was being done incorrectly or sloppily.

So I think many factors are involved, as James mentioned, but possibly a great performance easily brings back the "fun."