How Long is Your Attention Span?

[vers la flamme]

Three to five minutes without caffeine. 30 to 180 minutes with caffeine, depending on dosage.

During tolerance break days I mostly function via multitasking.

Can relate, except I don't take break days from coffee.

[Symphonic Addict]

I would say 4 hours, being quite concentrated. More of that is less probable. The work I heard at this length that made me more patient and wanting to pay attention to details the more, was Wagner's Götterdämmerung. Epic in a high degree, the music is just glorious. If I had to choose a Wagner opera to a desert island, it would be it.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Mine is about 3 minutes. But that's on a good day.

[Roasted Swan]

Mine is about 3 minutes. But that's on a good day.

sorry I didn't manage to get to the end of your post befor............

[Gurn Blanston]

My attention span is:
Haydn, not Bruckner
Mozart, not Wagner
Boccherini, not Mahler

Thus, I primarily enjoy Classical, not Romantic...

[Florestan]

My attention span is:
Haydn, not Bruckner
Mozart, not Wagner
Boccherini, not Mahler

Thus, I primarily enjoy Classical, not Romantic...

If you put it this way...

Chopin, not Bruckner
Schumann, not Wagner
Mendelssohn, not Mahler.

Thus, I primarily enjoy Romantic, not Romantic...


No, wait, something's wrong, ain't it? 

Seriously now, many (most?) Romantic symphonies and concertos are in the 30-45 minute long range, ie not much longer than Mozart's Jupiter or Haydn's Oxford. And the quintessentially Romantic genres of Lieder and piano works (impromptus, moments musicaux, nocturnes, ballades, etudes, preludes, scherzos, rondos, fantaisies etc) are actually very short. That Romantic music is long and bloated is a myth based on a few instances which are rather the exception than the norm.