Why do you like to listen to the music?

[tjguitar]

I was in the cafeteria with one of my roommates and a question came up...and I didn't have an answer "Why do you like (your favorite movie)"

And...I wasn't sure.  I couldn't really think of anything.  But it works for music too.


So, I ask---why do you like to listen to classical music? (or just music in general)?

Do you need to have a reason to like such things---or can you just like it cause you like it?

[Don]

Do you need to have a reason to like such things---or can you just like it cause you like it?

A reason is only necessary if you insist on it.

[DavidW]

I was in the cafeteria with one of my roommates and a question came up...and I didn't have an answer "Why do you like (your favorite movie)"

And...I wasn't sure.  I couldn't really think of anything.  But it works for music too.

That's because the question was phrased poorly.  Instead of asking "why do you like your favorite movie?" ask "what do you particularly enjoy about your favorite movie?"  People don't love monolithic concepts, they love detailed experiences.

To elicit good answers, you [well actually your roommate] need to narrow the scope of your questions.  You can't just ask one vague, all encompassing question and get meaningful responses.  You can elicit alot more information from someone with many small, innocuous questions instead.  And the sum of the impressions you get from those answers will you tell what your big question is.  So even rephrasing the question about the movies is still not good enough.  You really should divide up the questions and turn into a conversation.

And for classical music, if it was so easy to just answer that one question, we probably wouldn't have a permanent message board to discuss every element of good music!

[Cato]

Yes, why specifically "classical" music, or art music, or "serious music" or however you would want to describe it?!

From earliest childhood on I was able to distinguish among various musical styles, and knew that the little ditties, which  my parents played in the post-WW II era, or the Gay 90's/doughboy/Roaring 20's tunes played professionally by my grandmother, were not on the same level as the snippets of Wagner or Liszt or Smetana that I heard in cartoons or movies on television.  (Flash Gordon for example used Les Preludes for its opening.)

All I can say is that the more complicated structures and textures, and the greater emotional range of classical music, from Wagnerian bombast to the subtlest plumbing of the subconscious in Schoenberg, from the sylvan, "voelkisch" mysteries of Rimsky-Korsakov to the craggy arcana of Bach, classical music appeals to my personality more than the 3-minute marvels broadcast on the radio for our modern Plumpenproletariat.

(I still like a good many of those 3-minute marvels: e.g. Unforgiven by The Go-Go's is a slam-dunk song!)

But in no way is anything in pop kulcher equal to Beethoven's Opus 111!  Beware when they tell you otherwise!   

[marvinbrown]

I was in the cafeteria with one of my roommates and a question came up...and I didn't have an answer "Why do you like (your favorite movie)"

And...I wasn't sure.  I couldn't really think of anything.  But it works for music too.


So, I ask---why do you like to listen to classical music? (or just music in general)?

Do you need to have a reason to like such things---or can you just like it cause you like it?

  Well as far as Wagner   0:)  is concerned, his music affects me on an emotional level unlike any other- I feel good when I listen to his music/operas- so I guess to feel good yup thats my answer - to feel good! At the end of the day isn't that really what we all want? (to feel good)!

  marvin

[jochanaan]

But if it were merely "feeling good," we could get that from many other sources.  I listen to great music because it is a deep, powerful experience, a catharsis; it touches my innermost heart; it challenges me to look below the surface of things.  "Popular" music can do that too--but how often does it?

[Cato]

But if it were merely "feeling good," we could get that from many other sources.  I listen to great music because it is a deep, powerful experience, a catharsis; it touches my innermost heart; it challenges me to look below the surface of things.   "Popular" music can do that too--but how often does it?

My emphasis! 

Jochanaan slam dunks this doughnut!

Agreed: and one wonders at the escapism from those depths in modern life, at people avoiding those cathartic challenges!

[marvinbrown]

But if it were merely "feeling good," we could get that from many other sources.  I listen to great music because it is a deep, powerful experience, a catharsis; it touches my innermost heart; it challenges me to look below the surface of things.  "Popular" music can do that too--but how often does it?

  You have certainly "trumped" me with that response jochanaan- checkmate you win!

  marvin

[hautbois]

Goosebumps.

Howard

[bhodges]

Goosebumps.

Howard

Me too.  Actually happens fairly often!

--Bruce

[hautbois]

Me too.  Actually happens fairly often!

--Bruce

I havent been able to find any music to satisfy that craving recently. Bruckner 4th and Dvorak/Tchaikovsky string serenades were very much goosebump machines last week. Any recommendations?

Howard

[bhodges]

I havent been able to find any music to satisfy that craving recently. Bruckner 4th and Dvorak/Tchaikovsky string serenades were very much goosebump machines last week. Any recommendations?

Howard

Some vocal music does it for me, like R. Strauss's Four Last Songs, or virtually any Mahler symphony done really well, or (lately) parts of Janáček's operas.  I always think of Boulez's comment, about the experience of hearing music being like a series of mirrors: the piece, the conductor, the musicians and the venue, all reflecting each other.  When all those elements come together, very often the goosebumps will follow, and almost anything could do it.  In a few weeks I'm hearing an all-Dvořák concert with the Seventh Symphony, and a good reading of that (especially the last movement) usually works.

--Bruce

[Cato]

I havent been able to find any music to satisfy that craving recently. Bruckner 4th and Dvorak/Tchaikovsky string serenades were very much goosebump machines last week. Any recommendations?

Howard

Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini under Stokowski.

Bruckner's Ninth under Jochum.

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder under Chailly or Boulez.

Mahler's Tenth under Lopez-Cobos.

[bhodges]

Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini under Stokowski.

Bruckner's Ninth under Jochum.

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder under Chailly or Boulez.

Mahler's Tenth under Lopez-Cobos.

I almost get goosebumps just thinking about listening to Gurrelieder. 

--Bruce

[Cato]

I almost get goosebumps just thinking about listening to Gurrelieder. 

--Bruce

Aye!  "Goosebumps on my goosebumps!"   0:)

[Anne]

Beautiful answer, Jochanaan.  Goosebumps here too.

[Kullervo]

So, I ask---why do you like to listen to classical music?

Apart from the eloquent responses already given, the best of classical music is something I feel that grows with you. Listening to a piece that I haven't heard in a long time that I played continuously at one point, and hearing it with new ears is a wonderful reminder (to me) of my own personal growth in music. My understanding of the music grows more profound with every new piece I hear. It's also something that doesn't come easily. I can listen to a Brahms piece all the way through and it wouldn't make a shred of sense to me after the first listening, but for one tiny little melody that sticks with me. I listen to the same piece again with that little phrase in mind, and it becomes a key to the entire piece. I love little revelations like that.

[not edward]

I havent been able to find any music to satisfy that craving recently. Bruckner 4th and Dvorak/Tchaikovsky string serenades were very much goosebump machines last week. Any recommendations?

Howard

Have you downloaded that Boulez live recording off the Mahler 2 thread yet? I've had a half-dozen listens to it and it's still goosebumps for me.

[toledobass]

"Popular" music can do that too--but how often does it?

Not to derail the thread,  but I find it can happen quite often.  There's plenty of good popular music out there. It all just depends on how I want to listen to music.  Sort of how a simple hamburger could sometimes hit the spot better than fine steak house rib-eye. 

Allan

[hautbois]

Have you downloaded that Boulez live recording off the Mahler 2 thread yet? I've had a half-dozen listens to it and it's still goosebumps for me.

No i havent! Do you have a link?

Howard