The last time you sat down and did nothing but listen to classical music?

[max]

I love to remember what I used listen to!

[Kullervo]

I find that they are both different, though, to the What Pictures Does This Make Me See? state.

Well, I can't neatly separate each mindset, they are usually all happening simultaneously, with one or two having prominence. It's impossible to put in words, really.

[karlhenning]

. . . It's impossible to put in words, really.

Oh, I know.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I try to spend 1-2 hours a day listening while doing nothing else. This is almost always done as the very last thing before I go to bed; Thus I'm usually listening between 2-4am. I listen to a lot of Bach at these times because I can't really appreciate his music sufficiently while doing other things, and I believe it has a calming effect that helps me to sleep.

Often while I'm working I will be listening to the radio or an internet stream (especially the jazz station KCSM), but some types of work, such as editing images in Photoshop, or working with Illustrator seem to go very well with long symphonic works, especially by Bruckner, but also Shostakovich, Mahler, and Beethoven.

[BachQ]

When I'm conducting, my attention is undivided ........ otherwise ........

[Mark]

Often while I'm working I will be listening to the radio or an internet stream (especially the jazz station KCSM), but some types of work, such as editing images in Photoshop, or working with Illustrator seem to go very well with long symphonic works, especially by Bruckner, but also Shostakovich, Mahler, and Beethoven.

I'm curious, XB: what do you do for a living, may I ask?

[c#minor]

Last night, with a glass of wine and Wagner.

[longears]

Not since last night.  Probably at least 5 or 6 hours per week, on average.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

It's full attention or nothing for me. In fact, it can get downright irritating for me hearing classical music outside of the 'undivided attention' context.

Chalk it up to the muzak blitz...

[gomro]

I do that for at least an hour a day(on my commute back and forth). There is the train noise of course, but at least I don't do anything else while listening.
And if walking does not constitute multi-tasking, my most cherished listening is done while walking. I do that a lot too. But at home, it is very rare that I don't have another thing going while listening to music.

This is my story too. I recall a very fine day spent walking, nearly 12 miles, with music by Wm Kraft, Irwin Bazelon, Stephen Dankner and George Perle on the mp3 player.

Occasionally, if I'm in a Morton Feldman mood, I get up very early to play said music, so I can play it at the level prescribed before outside noise gets started for the day.

[George]

Thanks for all the great replies, guys. You've confirmed my decision to do much more undivided attention listening each week. 

[val]

When I listen to music I don't do anything else. I sit, listen and enjoy.

Last night it was Bach's wonderful Orgelbüchlein played by Andre Isoir.

[sidoze]

That's how I mostly listen. I sit down, often turn the lights down low and just immerse myself. Notwithstanding the pertinent and unavoidable distractions, that's how I approach music in the car - just less so, mercifully.

I listen to music in much the same way as I read a book. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to compose it so, therefore, I should treat it with due respect and listen accordingly. I have never been one for "background" music - it being more important to me than that.

same. This is the only way I listen to music -- at home, during quiet times. Usually can't listen if there are distractions in the room or something's on my mind. On long trips/commuting the music stays at home too.

[Mark]

I find long commutes are excellent for focused listening. Let's face it: with a good pair of noise cancelling phones and a three-hour train journey ahead of you (so, no concentrating on driving ), what else could be better than to get in some serious listening?

As for listening while there are other distractions, it works in reverse for me. That's because I'm a headphone devotee. When I'm working at a client's office and there's loads going on around me, I actually find it easier to focus not just on my work but also on music if I have something wonderful being fed into my ears through cans. Far from interferring with the creative element of my job, this method actually helps with it. The big bonus is I don't have to listen to the mindless blather of office 'suits' taking about 'blue-sky thinking', 'revenue streams' and '360 degree customer touch points' ... whatever the hell all that's meant to mean.

[Grazioso]

With any sophisticated art music, like classical or jazz, I almost always just sit and listen. Any real art demands full attention for full rewards. Do you watch a Shakespeare play while reading the paper or read a Melville novel while listening to Mozart? I get much more out of things when I give them my undivided attention.

[Mark]

Do you watch a Shakespeare play while reading the paper or read a Melville novel while listening to Mozart? I get much more out of things when I give them my undivided attention.

I take your point, but you could argue this the other way around: ever looked through a book of fine art while listening to classical music? A wonderful experience, with neither art form robbing the other of anything - rather, they each seem to add something to one another.

[marvinbrown]

Last night, with a glass of wine and Wagner.

 You've just described my ideal weekday evening  0:).


 marvin

[marvinbrown]

  To answer the question I usually like to listen to a few operas during the course of the week after work in the early evening.  I'll sit back sometimes with a glass of red wine and let Wagner and Verdi  (on DVD or CD) consume me.  Weekends are for friends and parties (usually with very bad music  )


  marvin

[sidoze]

I take your point, but you could argue this the other way around: ever looked through a book of fine art while listening to classical music? A wonderful experience, with neither art form robbing the other of anything - rather, they each seem to add something to one another.

i strongly disagree. Granted nothing might be taken away from viewing the art, but you will surely miss the finer interpretive details of the musical interpretation. Without undivided attention your mind will just not take in the more sensitive details like the weight a pianist applies to chords, the subtlety of his pedalling and any unique highlighting of inner voices. Perhaps it's a different matter with (some) orchestral music as you've obviously succeeded in separating 20+ recordings of that Rachmaninoff vigil you love so much. But for piano, it's undivided attention--sitting, or walking in a quiet area--or nothing else.

[Mark]

i strongly disagree. Granted nothing might be taken away from viewing the art, but you will surely miss the finer interpretive details of the musical interpretation. Without undivided attention your mind will just not take in the more sensitive details like the weight a pianist applies to chords, the subtlety of his pedalling and any unique highlighting of inner voices. Perhaps it's a different matter with (some) orchestral music as you've obviously succeeded in separating 20+ recordings of that Rachmaninoff vigil you love so much. But for piano, it's undivided attention--sitting, or walking in a quiet area--or nothing else.

Well, that's one way of seeing it. But what if you already know a particular interpretation extremely well? Can you not then enjoy it and another activity, having previously 'put in the work', so to speak?

As to Rachmaninov's All-night Vigil, it's a work which rewards ever more with each new interpretation I discover. It doesn't take me long to get to grips with a newly acquired recording, as there are at least five that capture (for me) the 'essence' of the work. Against these, all further recordings are measured, more or less. And though it rarely happens that one of my top five is superceded, it's often the case that a completely obscure rendition will throw new light (even if only a brief nuance) on this work.