Weird problem, please help me.

[desperate]

My favourite thing to do used to be to listen to chamber music recordings. Then one day I bought a disc of The Lindsays playing Haydn and sat down to listen to it. From the direction of the first violinist, throughout the first movement, came sounds of heavy breathing and sniffling. I'd never heard anything like that before on a recording and I found it really ruined it, it was disgusting. I listened in horror, growing increasingly infuriated that this beautiful music was being ruined in such a revolting way. By the middle of the second movement I was furious, there were moments when the noises were as loud as the music and those noises were practically continuous. I turned it off in disgust and never listened to it again. I was very angry and rather depressed by the experience.

The next time I listened to a chamber music recording, one I had listened to many times before for many years, I noticed something I had never noticed before at all - those breathing noises. I was horrified. They are on every chamber music recording I own and even many orchestral. I had never noticed them before. Or I think in a vague way I had noticed them, but thought they were 'bow hiss', which doesn't bother me, or the sound of the players' clothing friction as they moved. But they're breathing noises and they're everywhere.

I hate the sound of human breathing, at least if it is nasal. It horrifies and disgusts me for reasons I shan't go into but which are related to unpleasant experiences. If I'm in a room with someone whose nasal passages are audible, I have to leave, I can't bear it. To me, it's the most excruciating sound in the world.

Before that awful Lindsay recording I had never noticed it on recordings, except for intakes of breath from singers and wind players, which I don't mind so much as they are not generally nasal.

Now, because I hear nasal breathing noises on all chamber music recordings I cannot listen to chamber music. Ever. I have to discard a lot of orchestral music recordings too. The number of recordings I can listen to has shrunk terribly. Chamber music, the chief joy of my life, the thing that sustained me, is denied me.

If anyone can offer some kind of advice to help me get over this horrible problem, please do. I can't live without music. I'd rather be dead. I have tried to make myself like or not be bothered by the noises, but it hasn't worked. I'm going to try self-hypnosis, but if anyone else has suffered the same problem and knows how else I can deal with it, please help, I'm desperate. I can't live without music. I know this is a bit of a weird problem, but I'm quite serious, please help.

[Mozart]

I have a problem also. If I plug any type of speakers into my computer it makes this hissing sound. Its not very loud but its constantly there and gives me a headache. I walked into my room right now and thought I was imagining it earlier, but it's certainly there. Its coming out of only 1 speaker, the right one. Its very very irritating, and all my music is on my computer, not to mention movies, and other stuff. I don't know why its there, but now that I notice it, I'll never be able to avoid it.

[Iago]

Its very very irritating, and all my music is on my computer, not to mention movies, and other stuff. I don't know why its there, but now that I notice it, I'll never be able to avoid it.

Music and movies were not meant to be listened to, or viewed on a computer.
Get yourself a Universal DVD player which will handle not only DVDs, but cds as well. Then when properly installed into your music system, you will no longer be bothered by a "hiss".

The initial poster on this thread needs an extended vacation in a padded cell

[Brian]

The initial poster on this thread needs an extended vacation in a padded cell

Or a Glenn Gould box set, to realize that there's worse out there than mere breathing.

Sorry, desperate, to make light of your problem. That would really terrify me - to lose such a joy and suddenly become conscious of all that extra noise. Are you listening on a particularly high volume level, or headphones? Because that's really all I can think of; I am actually quite new to chamber music, just beginning to discover it, and have yet to become conscious of the performers' shall we say, ambient sounds.

Here's a chamber recording I am currently listening to, which does not yet have any audible breathing - yet. Oops. There was some. Oh great ... you might need to share that padded cell now! 

Perhaps it's sort of a gradual "unconsciously filter it out" method that would apply to you. Many people are able to channel out the hiss from old mono recordings, and on more than one occasion at the end of my 1930s Beethoven sonata CD, I have been surprised when the hissing stops!

[some guy]

I've come across this problem before (though I am not licensed to practice therapy in many states--that should read "any states," sorry), and the advice I got to pass on, I'll pass on again.

And that is to go the opposite direction. Instead of trying to avoid the irritant, embrace it. In your case, that would mean turning the volume up. It would mean getting some of those Glenn Gould CDs. It would mean sitting in the waiting room of ear, nose, and throat doctors. Well, maybe not that last one.

Anyway, try getting more of the breathing sounds that so annoy you rather than less. You'll find, after the initial grief, that you'll either enjoy the breathing sounds (those are real humans playing those real instruments, isn't that cool?), or you'll find that you no longer notice them. (I have a loudly ticking clock in my house. The only time I notice it is when someone comes to visit and remarks it.)

[12tone.]

If you don't like that nasal sound, please, whatever you do, do not, DO NOT listen to a live recording of 4'33". 

[gmstudio]

Classical music is played by human beings. Human beings make bodily noises.

If you don't want to listen to humans making bodily noises while they make music, I suggest any of the following:







etc...

[71 dB]

Autechre rules.  0:)

[jochanaan]

It seems to me, desperate, that you have a problem.  Let me repeat this, as gently as I can: You have a problem.  It's yours to solve, or live with, or drive yourself crazy with, or whatever.

One course of action might be to give up listening to chamber music recordings entirely.  I assume that for you, as for many of us here, that's just not an option. Another course might be to simply live with it.  I doubt that's a good option either; you'll simply get a mix of extreme pleasure and extreme disgust that may eventually drive you into that padded cell.

Looks like you have some psychological work to do.  However, having myself gone through a course of psychotherapy and intense self-examination (marital breakup--long story), I can tell you the results are worth it.

P.S.  If you can't afford a professional psychologist, deep, directed meditation on the subject usually helps.  But it can take a while.

[Cato]

Desperate: You do not need psychological help.  All you need to do is refocus on the music.

Simply listen with the scores: you will be concentrating on the notes, listening to the images printed on the page, and should therefore be less likely to start fixating on the minor noises in the recording.   0:)