Why Do You Listen To Music?

[vandermolen]

I think that the RVW quotation attached to Christo's posts explains why I listen to music. I hope that he doesn't mind me reproducing it here:


... music is not only an `entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

[71 dB]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

[vandermolen]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

I was very sad to read that and so sorry to read about your mother.
I hope you know that you have support here.
Jeffrey

[71 dB]

I was very sad to read that and so sorry to read about your mother.
I hope you know that you have support here.
Jeffrey

Thanks for the support.  0:)

The point was music has demonstrated it's value and power to me during the last year. I don't even listen to music as much as I used to years ago, but when I do I really feel the power like never before. Interestingly it's not so much classical music, but electronic music that helps me the most. Recently I listened to the 3 albums by Lemon Jelly I thought "wow this is so uplifting and helping!"

https://www.youtube.com/v/onvT_a3cAOE

[Florestan]

I think kitsch is used in too broad a sense often in such discussions. It requires an element of pretentiousness (while falling flat of the lofty goal, if one sets a lofty tone and succeeds because the style is in line with the sujet etc., it's not kitsch), not merely an indulging in the idyllic or pleasantries. I am not quite sure about the 18th century porcelain figures (because their successors seem the epitome of kitsch) but generally the pastoral style of the 18th century mostly lacked that pretentiousness. Music was either so clearly "functional" or comparably unpretentious that I don't think kitsch can be applied to anything before the early 19th century.
Even then, the folksy tone of e.g. the "Jungfernkranz" by Weber (that was mocked mercilessly by Heine although I am not sure if the mockery was mostly turned towards the ubiquity that song had reached only a year or so after the opera's premiere) was usually genuine and "naive".

As usual, great post, Jo. For the record, my reference to Meissen was tongue-in-cheek. I don't consider it kitsch, not by a long stretch.

[Florestan]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

Sorry to hear that. I too lost my mother last year but I was able to cope with it better, probably due to my different nature, and not least to being married and having a kid. Anyway, I wish you all the best. It would help you enormously if you stopped worrying about, and wasting time over, things which are not in your power to change, especially things abroad --- if you know what I mean. 

[Mirror Image]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

I'm sincerely sorry to hear of your loss, 71 dB. I had no idea you were going through this kind of pain. My only hope is that you find solace, peace, and can continue on with your life. Music is, indeed, a great healer. I will admit this to you (and everyone else here on this forum), but, without music, you can place me in a corner and shoot me, because the hardships that I've experienced has been unburdened by music. That's how vital music is to me and my own life. You and I are very similar in that we don't have a lot of friends and there just aren't many that understand us and when we do have someone in our lives that does understand us we lose them, which makes it all the more difficult. If you ever need someone to talk to, do not hesitate to send me a PM.

[Cato]

Plato famously viewed Music (in The Republic )with some suspicion, and wanted it tied to poetry: purely instrumental music he distrusted.  Good music (i.e. music supporting proper poetry) was good for his ideal citizens, and "bad music," which included certain "harmonies" expressing sorrow or which supposedly made people languid, would be banned.

It is interesting that over 2,000 years later Thomas Mann's book The Magic Mountain presents a variation on Plato's theme: a character named Settembrini, presented as an Enlightenment sage, calls music "politically suspect," an art not entirely to be trusted, which must be tamed or "preceded" by literature.

The point is that Music has been seen as important to human beings for thousands of years: the "Neanderthal flute" gives evidence of that as well.

Tchaikovsky, when he was very young, is said to have complained to his mother that his mind kept creating music and would not let him rest!  And I am sure that many with a musical gift have had similar experiences.  There would seem to be some sort of imperative for the creation of music in some people, and a similar imperative for its enjoyment.

To answer the question: it seems that I have a mind predisposed both for the enjoyment of music, and occasionally, for its creation.  And l have no trouble visiting the darkest notes (e.g. my own Exaudi me has such sounds of despair as to make me wonder about myself) and then hearing the Best of The Monkees! 

[vandermolen]

Plato famously viewed Music (in The Republic )with some suspicion, and wanted it tied to poetry: purely instrumental music he distrusted.  Good music (i.e. music supporting proper poetry) was good for his ideal citizens, and "bad music," which included certain "harmonies" expressing sorrow or which supposedly made people languid, would be banned.

It is interesting that over 2,000 years later Thomas Mann's book The Magic Mountain presents a variation on Plato's theme: a character named Settembrini, presented as an Enlightenment sage, calls music "politically suspect," an art not entirely to be trusted, which must be tamed or "preceded" by literature.

The point is that Music has been seen as important to human beings for thousands of years: the "Neanderthal flute" gives evidence of that as well.

Tchaikovsky, when he was very young, is said to have complained to his mother that his mind kept creating music and would not let him rest!  And I am sure that many with a musical gift have had similar experiences.  There would seem to be some sort of imperative for the creation of music in some people, and a similar imperative for its enjoyment.

To answer the question: it seems that I have a mind predisposed both for the enjoyment of music, and occasionally, for its creation.  And l have no trouble visiting the darkest notes (e.g. my own Exaudi me has such sounds of despair as to make me wonder about myself) and then hearing the Best of The Monkees! 

I bet there are not many here who have attended concerts featuring Havergal Brian's 'Gothic Symphony' (x2) and seen the Monkees live in concert. 

[Cato]

I bet there are not many here who have attended concerts featuring Havergal Brian's 'Gothic Symphony' (x2) and seen the Monkees live in concert. 

Some people have all the luck!!!   

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

I'm very sorry to learn of your loss. I think there are many people here who wish you well, including me.

[71 dB]

Sorry to hear that. I too lost my mother last year but I was able to cope with it better, probably due to my different nature, and not least to being married and having a kid. Anyway, I wish you all the best. It would help you enormously if you stopped worrying about, and wasting time over, things which are not in your power to change, especially things abroad --- if you know what I mean. 

Thanks and my condolences for your loss. It's good your family has helped you deal with it.

I know I worry too much about American politics. My dad says that all the time. It's all Trump's fault. Had Hillary won the election I hasn't got into things and would be just an ignoramus on American politics.

I'm sincerely sorry to hear of your loss, 71 dB. I had no idea you were going through this kind of pain. My only hope is that you find solace, peace, and can continue on with your life. Music is, indeed, a great healer. I will admit this to you (and everyone else here on this forum), but, without music, you can place me in a corner and shoot me, because the hardships that I've experienced has been unburdened by music. That's how vital music is to me and my own life. You and I are very similar in that we don't have a lot of friends and there just aren't many that understand us and when we do have someone in our lives that does understand us we lose them, which makes it all the more difficult. If you ever need someone to talk to, do not hesitate to send me a PM.

Thanks!

My life has been kind of downhill. My childhood was very happy (I didn't know this back then of course but retrospectively I was happy as hell). After highschool things started to go wrong and the struggle started. 90's was ok "university years", but I started to realize I am not good enough for anything. Not attractive for women, not talented enough for good jobs etc. Work has coused anxiety and all this unemployent crap and I don't know where I belong. All the fighting on Head-fi board about crossfeed. My self-esteem is crushed totally. If that's not enough I lose my mother. I feel I have had my share of shit in life lately. Where is the good happy stuff?

[Jo498]

Plato viewed all the arts with suspicion, poetry and drama because they are more obviously influential on the character and mores actually with more suspicion than music (which was almost invariably tied to words in that time and culture) and his position in the Republic is downright totalitarian. All art has to be state-controlled because it needs to be in service of the virtue of the guardians who would otherwise in danger of being corrupted by lascivious and seductive music

[JBS]

Thanks and my condolences for your loss. It's good your family has helped you deal with it.

I know I worry too much about American politics. My dad says that all the time. It's all Trump's fault. Had Hillary won the election I hasn't got into things and would be just an ignoramus on American politics.

Thanks!

My life has been kind of downhill. My childhood was very happy (I didn't know this back then of course but retrospectively I was happy as hell). After highschool things started to go wrong and the struggle started. 90's was ok "university years", but I started to realize I am not good enough for anything. Not attractive for women, not talented enough for good jobs etc. Work has coused anxiety and all this unemployent crap and I don't know where I belong. All the fighting on Head-fi board about crossfeed. My self-esteem is crushed totally. If that's not enough I lose my mother. I feel I have had my share of shit in life lately. Where is the good happy stuff?

I know we have been arguing of late, but as someone who is also an aspie,  I have been through some of that over the years, until I realized that most of that does not matter.  Having a job is of course important, but you can develop strategies that will help you get a job...perhaps not the one you really wanted, but one that will keep you with a roof over your head and food on the table. Focus on that with the energy you use on American politics, hi-fi, and freethought. I am deeply introverted, so not having a romantic/life partner does not bother me in the least.   If you are not as introverted as me, you can also develop strategies to deal with it.
For the rest, just going outside to enjoy the trees or listening to mudic you enjoy is enough to spark a happiness episode. Live in the moment for the moment because at that particular moment all that really exists is that moment.

I might suggest mindfulness and meditation linked to the Buddhist Theravada tradition. It doesn't involve the supernatural or anything overtly religious, so it should work for an atheist.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks!

My life has been kind of downhill. My childhood was very happy (I didn't know this back then of course but retrospectively I was happy as hell). After highschool things started to go wrong and the struggle started. 90's was ok "university years", but I started to realize I am not good enough for anything. Not attractive for women, not talented enough for good jobs etc. Work has coused anxiety and all this unemployent crap and I don't know where I belong. All the fighting on Head-fi board about crossfeed. My self-esteem is crushed totally. If that's not enough I lose my mother. I feel I have had my share of shit in life lately. Where is the good happy stuff?

I think at the root of it all, you're unhappy because it's a choice you have made for yourself. I've seen the most happy people come from the shittiest circumstances and still bounce back and land on their feet. If you believe that you're not worth anything, then that's how other people will see you as well. I cannot change who you are nor can anyone else, it's up to you to find your happiness. Jeffrey gave some excellent advice and his point about living in the moment is spot-on, but also let me add that I think it's important for anyone to find what is important in their life and cut out everything that isn't necessary. One way to find happiness is letting go of negative thoughts and people who bring you down. This is cutting out the unnecessary in your life. Once you do this, I think, eventually, you will be a lot happier, but you must remember that everything you do really boils down to you. People can help in a small way, but if you're not happy alone, then you certainly won't be happier with someone else, because, ultimately, what will happen is your own self-doubt will rear it's ugly head and you're back to square one. Stop being so hard on yourself and live your life. That's my suggestion.

[Karl Henning]

Music has very important for me the last year. It has been hard to deal with loosing my mother. It's not the sadness, but it's the lower quality of life. Life is empty when you lose people important to you. For a not so socially talented/accepted person like me it's even more crushing, because my "social safety net" is so thin. I don't have wife or kids. I have my dad, my sister and one really good friend. That's it. I have three people in the world willing to listen to me and trying to understand me. When my mother was alive I had four and my mother was perhaps the most important person for me. So I really lost A LOT. I really need reasons to live. Music is one good reason to live. People die, music lives forever and is there for me. That's what I have come to realise.

Very sorry for your loss

[Ken B]

When I was a kid I had a formative experience listening to Schubert's unfinished symphony. I was really excited, viscerally excited, by the second movement, I remember thinking to myself that I didn't didn't believe that music could be like that.

I'm constantly in quest of that feeling of new horizons and uncharted territories.

(Same in literature, same motivation and rewards for me.)

Different age, different piece, but same experience, same reason.

[Artem]

I'm constantly in quest of that feeling of new horizons and uncharted territories.

This is it for me.  Curiosity gradually took over the emotional appeal for me that I used to find in music back when I was a school boy/student.

[Mirror Image]

I remember listening outside my sister's room to the piano roll of Gershwin playing Rhapsody in Blue.  I couldn't have been older than 10 or 11.  I was transfixed.  That began my musical journey which led me to becoming a professional musician, playing bass in jazz groups and then as a songwriter in Nashville.  Music has been an integral part of my life for over 55 years and has brought me countless hours of fulfillment, as well as some frustration and heartbreak.

Why do I listen to music?  Because I have to.  More importantly, what do I wish to discover by listening?  To hear music that excites my intellect as well as touches my soul.

I must admit, however, that Classical music was a late-comer to my musical experience.  It is important, but not the most important music I have experienced.

What is the most important music you've experienced? Personally speaking, I couldn't imagine my life without classical music. This isn't to say that jazz and rock weren't important factors in my life, but when I finally understood classical on an intellectual/emotional level, there really was no looking back for me.

[Florestan]

Songs: From the Country/Bluegrass tradition and what is generally called Americana; but also the Great American Songbook, i.e. Gershwin, Porter, Ellington, Arlen, etc.

I am, and have been, fascinated by the craft of songwriting, so guys like John Prine, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and hundreds of others, are what I listen to most of the time.

How about Lieder?