Classical music burnout?

Started by 71 dB, October 08, 2021, 07:51:28 AM

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Spotted Horses

I'll admit it is beyond me how being "burned out" on classical music bears on character.

Over many years of listening to classical music I have sometimes felt burned-out, particularly in the earlier days. At that time I was fixated on a few composers, had a relatively small collection, so I was usually listening to one of my "favorites" in my "favorite" recording. I recall reaching a point where I would come home from work and put on my most cherished Mozart and find I was not enjoying it as much as I felt I should, and felt pressure to try again to enjoy it. That was counter-productive and led to frustration rather than enjoyment.

What cured it was taking a break from classical music entirely (sometimes for stretches of weeks, months, or even years) and enlarging my interests to include a greater variety of composers and performances. Nowadays I never seem to feel "burnout" for classical music, because of the enlargement of interest and because I don't have enough time to listen to the state of burnout.

Maybe I could say I am burned out on Beethoven because I don't find myself interesting in listening to what I considered my favorites, the 5th, 6th and 7th symphonies. But I do listen to them every once in a while (maybe spaced by years) and thoroughly enjoy them, generally digging out some obscure recording, maybe a mono recording by a French orchestra, or a provokative HIP recording. But my interest in Beethoven has moved to the late work, particularly the string quartets, piano sonatas, and the 8th symphony. (You haven't heard the 8th until you have heard Cluytens' 1949 recording!) And I find myself listening to music new to me, periodically returning to the touchstones, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Schumann, etc.

In my case the key is broadening horizons, and not having expectations that will cause frustration if not met. At this point I really don't find I have "favorite recordings." I can find something to enjoy in almost any performance.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

71 dB

Relaxation helps. By breathing slowly and deeply in and out helps to get relaxed and focused on the music. Especially breathing slowly out is very relaxing. I used to be relaxed in the 90's, but World changed to something hectic and it seems it is important to relax...  :P

Also, forgetting the internet even exists helps.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

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Karl Henning

Quote from: 71 dB on October 13, 2021, 03:12:18 PM
Relaxation helps. By breathing slowly and deeply in and out helps to get relaxed and focused on the music. Especially breathing slowly out is very relaxing. I used to be relaxed in the 90's, but World changed to something hectic and it seems it is important to relax...  :P

Also, forgetting the internet even exists helps.

Remember to breathe.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

John Copeland

I do believe that for some of us, but by no means all, do come to a period or periods of 'burnout', and I do not believe 'Poju' is making a mountain out of a molehill at all.  I identify very strongly with many of his points, and have from time to time performed similar analysis of my own attraction to Orchestral music, for I too am introverted and not one who enjoys too much attention from interested or otherwise well meaning people.  If I was famous, I'd be more of an enigma to most, rarely giving interviews, not being seen much in public, etc. ('Fame' would not last long with me, so thank God I'm not and don't plan to be.  It is a strange one, because I'm otherwise a fairly friendly wee man 'out there'.)
Anyway, this music burnout thing does happen to some of us, and more than once. In my own case, I think it is through listening to stuff which is great music in its own right, but over-doing it, especially listening to hear the magic that is expected, which is still there, but I'm not getting it.  This happens with 'well travelled' music through time, and the over-listening of new music which detracts me from what it is that fired me up in the love of Orchestral music in the first place (which to pinpoint exactly, was 'Mars' by Holst).  The only solution I have, for me, is Beethoven!  When that flat-blur comes on, a sheer kind of restless boredom with 'listening to lost magic'...there's Beethoven!  There was a man who was madder than many, a somewhat depressive fellow, but who used the force that 'through the green fuse drives the flower' to change musical history.  So when I get somewhat 'pissed off' with all the ongoing music, I stick any one of his Symphonies on, play it loud, or loud in earphones, and I'm carried right back to what it is I love in music, and I feel just what it is that music does for me.  I have also used Holsts 'The Planets' to bring me 'back to life'.  Anyway, these are just personal examples, and I'm delighted to have shoved in some of my favourite poet Dylan Thomas there, even if it is a bit contextually unusual.
I hope you find a solution when this rears it's muddy head 71db (Poju), all that magic is still there as you know, it's maybe just time to reconnect with the first or one of the first things you coompletely enjoyed or was empowered by when that great window opened for you in the 90's.  :blank: 0:)

Herman

I don't like Beethoven's piano trio's much either. So, all you're saying is you have good taste.  ;)

I have been listening, one at a time, to Beethoven symphonies with my teenage daughter. Beethoven symphonies I had not listened to in many years.

We started with the Fifth, since she had heard 'the tune' in school. For me this symphony was very hard going. My feeling is it's by and large about showing (at the time) what you can do with loud and soft. I assume I could muster some enthusiasm if I heard this in a concert hall, but of course I would never buy a ticket for a concert with Beethoven 5 as the highlight.

In general I think many people make the mistake of thinking you have to like Beethoven, otherwise you don't like classical.

Witnessing a Beethoven string quartet is magical. That's all I can say.

You say you're excited about contemporary classical music. I would say pursue this. This is what classical music is really about, originally.

71 dB

#25
The connection to rest of the World is interfering my connection to music. The more I can "forget" the rest of the World around me the better I can connect with music. At least I have to be able to change the "mode" I am in. I am thinking about problems in the World all the time, because life has teached me they are my problems too very often. There is almost always a mechanism that makes the problem my problem too. A damn bat virus in China, thousands of miles away, not only became my problem within a few months, it became a massive problem for the whole World! The only positive thing that came from Covid is it probably helped Biden to "deworm" the White House in the 2020 election, but it also gave us all the anti-vaxx and anti-mask lunacy, which I wish was just funny to watch, but is depressing. My naive youthful version of myself in the 80's and 90's envisioned a much better 21st century, one shaped by "secular holy trinity" science, humanism and arts. After two decades living in the 21st century I have witnessed an astonishing amount of religious fundamentalism, greed, corruption, ignorance and stupidity. The 9/11 terrorist attack was a symbolic WTC tower size "FU" to me: "Did you think the 21st century is going to be about science, humanism and arts? Wrong!"

We are 600 years into the enlightenment and man landed the moon half a century ago, but we also have "Karens" freaking out in supermarkets against mask mandates in the middle of the worst pandemic in 100 years. We also have people wanting a civil war because their reality tv buffoon lost a democratic election. We have social media "influencers" who earn millions by brainwashing masses to believe dangerous propaganda. We have illiterate people avoid of critical thinking skills believing 99 % of doctors and scientists are part of a satanic cult because Alex Jones said so. Political opportunist in the UK were able to trick xenophobic brits and of course in a connected World this became also my problem in the form of difficulties in ordering online from the UK. The World is full on fundamentalists, ignoramuses, and misled people and it doesn't help they are far away. The World is connected and somehow I will suffer for they actions sooner or later. The realization of this has created a dark cloud in my mind. I have no choice but to learn to remove that cloud in my mind somehow. If I can get rid of this cloud I believe enjoying music for example will be much easier.

The dark cloud doesn't affect only music. I have difficulty of having "good vibes" overall. Walking somewhere should give me these vibes, because of my internal introverted mind and in the past it did, but the more I learn about what a stupid planet this is the bigger dark cloud gets in between me and those "good vibes" in my mind. The cloud has appeared gradually for years and that's why I have not noticed it or understood its existence, but at this point it is so evident. The World won't change to what I want it to be and I won't change much as a person, so the only solution is to learn to deal with this dark cloud. Learning to enjoy classical music the way I did 25 years ago would be one tool against the dark cloud. I need to regulate the connection to the World and increase attention to things in my own life. If I was retarded with an IQ of 60 and I knew nothing about the World outside say Helsinki I would be much much happier, but I am not that. Intellectual curiosity killed my happiness, because I didn't take the phrase "Ignorance is bliss" seriously.  :P
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Jo498

Quote from: Herman on October 13, 2021, 11:10:58 PM
We started with the Fifth, since she had heard 'the tune' in school. For me this symphony was very hard going. My feeling is it's by and large about showing (at the time) what you can do with loud and soft.
This must surely be one of the most subtle and perceptive remarks about Beethoven's 5th in the last 200 years...  >:D
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Artem

Quote from: Herman on October 13, 2021, 11:10:58 PM


In general I think many people make the mistake of thinking you have to like Beethoven, otherwise you don't like classical.



Beethoven is basically the Beatles.

Karl Henning

Quote from: 71 dB on October 14, 2021, 02:21:03 AM
The connection to rest of the World is interfering my connection to music. The more I can "forget" the rest of the World around me the better I can connect with music.

Interesting.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Biffo

I don't recall ever suffering from 'burnout' but every so often I feel I can't listen to orchestral or vocal music (of any kind). I usually spend a week or so listening to chamber works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and nothing else. It seems to calm my nerves and cleanses the the palette.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Biffo on October 14, 2021, 06:01:33 AM
I don't recall ever suffering from 'burnout' but every so often I feel I can't listen to orchestral or vocal music (of any kind). I usually spend a week or so listening to chamber works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and nothing else. It seems to calm my nerves and cleanses the the palette.

And that's the great thing about the literature: it's so rich one can change things up readily.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Florestan

Quote from: Biffo on October 14, 2021, 06:01:33 AM
every so often I feel I can't listen to orchestral [...] music.

My case, too. Very often after listening to a symphony (especially Late Romantic and post-Romantic ones, including some big names) I feel dissatisfied and frustrated and I ask myself "Okay, so what? What is the point of all this? Symphonie, que me veux-tu?" Exploring symphonies by new composers (new to me, obviously) has rarely resulted in my returning to them, let alone becoming favorites of mine.




Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: Biffo on October 14, 2021, 06:01:33 AM
I don't recall ever suffering from 'burnout' but every so often I feel I can't listen to orchestral or vocal music (of any kind). I usually spend a week or so listening to chamber works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and nothing else. It seems to calm my nerves and cleanses the the palette.

I started that regimen about 25 years ago and still pursue it diligently. My nerves are now nearly gone, and my palette is clean as a whistle. Although my weeks have often turned into years... :D

8)
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