What makes you choose what to listen?

[Henk]

Mood, impulse or something else?

I suggested recently mood is what makes me choose what to listen to, for exemple a Beethoven symphony when feeling low ot a Rossini opera when feeling down. Music as therapy.

But actually this isn't how it works for me. I rather choose on impulse and my motive is quite ungraspable to me. Lately though I more often let myself be inspired by what others on GMG listen to.

[DavidW]

All three.  This morning I had an impulse to listen to Bruckner.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for a specific era or genre to fill up some time.  Sometimes I'm following up on something I saw on the forum.

[Karl Henning]

All three.  This morning I had an impulse to listen to Bruckner.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for a specific era or genre to fill up some time.  Sometimes I'm following up on something I saw on the forum.

+ 1

[Henk]

I also have much listening to do, because of records I have not yet given much attention.

Sometimes I stick to a genre or composer/artist for some time to exploit my yearning for it.

It's a kind of management, it's a program and process.

But impulse seems to reflect my lust for listening. I like however how GMG adds a social drive to it.

[vers la flamme]

Mood, impulse. Occasionally I will see someone listening to something here, the "What Are You Listening 2 Now" thread etc and it will prompt me to revisit that work or recording. Sometimes I wish I could listen to music in a more methodical or organized manner, but the capricious approach has served me fairly well so far.

[classicalgeek]

For me it depends on a few factors:

• Am I feeling like familiar repertoire, or something new to me?
• Am I doing another task at the same time (like driving, or working), or am I just listening to music?
• And kind of related, am I following the score?

If I'm doing other tasks and the music is more in the background, I'm more likely to choose familiar works. If I'm just listening, with undivided attention, I'm more likely to choose new repertoire. But not always, of course! 

Mood, impulse. Occasionally I will see someone listening to something here, the "What Are You Listening 2 Now" thread etc and it will prompt me to revisit that work or recording. Sometimes I wish I could listen to music in a more methodical or organized manner, but the capricious approach has served me fairly well so far.

I get inspired by the 'WAYLTN' thread too... that thread has led to many listening adventures for me. And sometimes it's just a whim - some days are 'Haydn' days, or 'Sibelius' days, or 'Mahler' days, or... 

[AnotherSpin]

Accident, habit, or outside influence. It is ridiculous to believe that we make our own choices all of a sudden out of nowhere.

[vandermolen]

For me it depends on a few factors:

• Am I feeling like familiar repertoire, or something new to me?
• Am I doing another task at the same time (like driving, or working), or am I just listening to music?
• And kind of related, am I following the score?

If I'm doing other tasks and the music is more in the background, I'm more likely to choose familiar works. If I'm just listening, with undivided attention, I'm more likely to choose new repertoire. But not always, of course! 

I get inspired by the 'WAYLTN' thread too... that thread has led to many listening adventures for me. And sometimes it's just a whim - some days are 'Haydn' days, or 'Sibelius' days, or 'Mahler' days, or... 

Me too (WAYLTN thread)
Mainly mood, also if it's late at night I'll avoid Shostakovich, for example. I like music which conveys a sense of impending doom or hopeless defiance. I like music which affects me emotionally, often conveying a sense of struggle. I also like music which reflects the English landscape (VW, Moeran, Bax, Finzi etc) or the American landscape (not that I've ever been there) Harris, Copland etc. I like discovering 'undeservedly neglected' composers as well (Salmenhaara, Egge, Arnell, Braga Santos etcetcetc)

[DavidW]

I like music which conveys a sense of impending doom or hopeless defiance.

Yeah we know!

[vandermolen]

Yeah we know!

Really? 

[Henk]

Accident, habit, or outside influence. It is ridiculous to believe that we make our own choices all of a sudden out of nowhere.

Well out of the unconscious maybe, but mostly I don't analyze it.

[AnotherSpin]

Well out of the unconscious maybe, but mostly I don't analyze it.

The unconscious is such a handy invention

[foxandpeng]

Me too (WAYLTN thread)
Mainly mood, also if it's late at night I'll avoid Shostakovich, for example. I like music which conveys a sense of impending doom or hopeless defiance. I like music which affects me emotionally, often conveying a sense of struggle. I also like music which reflects the English landscape (VW, Moeran, Bax, Finzi etc) or the American landscape (not that I've ever been there) Harris, Copland etc. I like discovering 'undeservedly neglected' composers as well (Salmenhaara, Egge, Arnell, Braga Santos etcetcetc)

Likewise. Plus the obvious single-composer explorations, listening projects and GMG recs..

[Irons]

A good question.

Often the case reading a GMG post inspires me to listen to a composer or piece.

[Mandryka]

Yes, Internet forums are excellent for suggesting music to listen to. I'd say this is their main use.

Example - on another forum someone posted to say that they've just discovered D960 and what music is like it. That took me - after a lot of thinking! - to Alexei Lubimov's Der Bote with music by Emanuel Bach and John Cage and Valentin Silvestov. I don't think I'd have ever made the connection without that question being posed, and what a pleasure it is to revisit the Lubimov CD while thinking about Schubert's melody and the meditative quality of some performances of the first movement of that sonata.

And that makes me now think that a quality of some of Schubert's music is an elegiac nostalgia - exactly like in Silvestrov's Der Bote.

[Maestro267]

Mainly impulse. Plenty of days I've listened to something on a whim that I had absolutely no intention of listening to at the start of the day. Sometimes that will take me down a rabbit hole of that particular composer or something associated with that work, but a lot of the time I'll just let my whim take me where it wants to.

[Jo498]

Not random but subject to many influences.
E.g. yesterday evening I put another CD back in the shelf and as the Bartok section was right underneath, I pulled out the Dorati Mercury Bartok set and listened to the Concerto for Orchestra + fillers and then another Bartok recording, Fricsay's of the divertimento (I only have as copy from a friend and keep in that same box).
The day before that I needed some pre-christmassy comfort and listened to the first part of Messiah...

[Florestan]

For me it's mostly whim and external influence. I listen to whatever I feel like listening, often changing my mind instantly because of something I read in a book or see on GMG. For instance, I may decide in the morning that in the evening I'll be listening to Faure only to find myself listening to Tchaikovsky, after having throughout the day decided upon, then changing my mind about, Schubert, Rossini or Granados. Every time I tried a more systematic approach I invariably failed, save with Mozart. If I begin listening to a complete set of his PCs, or piano sonatas, or symphonies, or string quartets and quintets, I go from the first to the last disc in order without interruption.

[Lisztianwagner]

Mood, impulse and curiosity for new composers and recordings I don't know or I haven't listened to yet; I agree the 'What are you listening to' thread is an incredible source that often makes you remind of music to revisit as well as shows you composers/works to discover.

[Henk]

Mood, impulse and curiosity for new composers and recordings I don't know or I haven't listened to yet; I agree the 'What are you listening to' thread is an incredible source that often makes you remind of music to revisit as well as shows you composers/works to discover.

Curiosity for yet to explore works or composers for me as well for sure.