Your listening habits – listening with full attention or while occupied?

[Kullervo]

Nope, though i have tried 2 different recordings (although i doubt they are really that GOOD). It's more a matter of his use of harmony, that's the only way i could explain..... the overall feeling you get when you just know that the music doesn't connect with you....

It mostly has something to do with major key works in the classical period- more specifically, both Mozart and Beethoven. If it's a major key work, I'm almost surely not going to like it unless it's written by Schubert or maybe a late Haydn symphony. Minor key works by Mozart or Beethoven are kinda like..... hm, maybe i might like it. Maybe not. Such as the Mozart Am piano sonata, which I love. And then there's Beethoven's 5th, which doesn't do anything for me.

When I hear it, it's like, wow.... this motif is really repetitive and monotonous, and then the second subject is in a totally unrelated, calm, major key, wtf!? Why doesn't he do something like a built-up death march and have sirens and when it goes into something major-ish, it could be distant instead of right after the first subject. Just sounds very bad to me, maybe some type of explanation would help.

I think you are applying Romantic ideals to a Classical style.

[Renfield]

I think you are applying Romantic ideals to a Classical style.

And I would not know what to think, as I am blissfully ignorant of any such technical intricacies!


Then again, I can listen to the music without worrying about such a thing as "scales". So it's not all bad.

[Kullervo]

And I would not know what to think, as I am blissfully ignorant of any such technical intricacies!

You are making fun of me, aren't you?

Then again, I can listen to the music without worrying about such a thing as "scales". So it's not all bad.

Well I don't think "now it's modulating to a different key", but I'm aware of it. I think anyone with a fair amount of listening under their belt is aware of it, whether they could tell you which key it was or not. I, of course, would fall into the latter group.

[MN Dave]

The pretty music comes out of the speaker and makes me happy.  0:)

[Renfield]

You are making fun of me, aren't you?

Absolutely not. I seem to have a reputation for being repugnantly ironic, but believe me, I was being honest.

The phrasing I used, "blissfully ignorant", was more to highlight my naive old-world-like approach than anything else.


As for the difference between being aware of, and being able to describe something, that is a fact.

But if I can't describe what I'm aware of, it seems of little use to discuss it, does it not?


Edit: MN Dave put it best. Thank you.

[Benny]

Environmental, in my case. The environment determines how closely I will be listening more than a state of mind.

I've noticed before that a judicious equilibrium between temperature, sun rays, landscape, the wind factor, my stomach, the number of glasses of wine, the insect population, the last time I bathed all contribute to my relative level of concentration when listening to classical music. A more troubling aspect of this thread's question is can one still achieve full attention after listening to five consecutive hours of classical music? Do we max out after three or four hours???

[Kullervo]

As for the difference between being aware of, and being able to describe something, that is a fact.
But if I can't describe what I'm aware of, it seems of little use to discuss it, does it not?

Well like most lay-people and since music lends itself so well to imagery, I tend to use analogies to describe things I otherwise wouldn't be able to identify (and even still have a hard time doing so). Some of the best writers on music have been those who use this approach (good example being G.B. Shaw).

[Renfield]

Well like most lay-people and since music lends itself so well to imagery, I tend to use analogies to describe things I otherwise wouldn't be able to identify (and even still have a hard time doing so). Some of the best writers on music have been those who use this approach (good example being G.B. Shaw).

Clarification:

When I said "describe", I meant it more along the lines of the "mathematical" meaning of the term.

Otherwise, of course I can describe a lot of things in the music through analogy. But it's not exactly the same as describing the "thing" itself. And I will now stop here, before I digress dangerously into philosophy, and go off-topic.

[marvinbrown]

A more troubling aspect of this thread's question is can one still achieve full attention after listening to five consecutive hours of classical music? Do we max out after three or four hours???

  Very good questions.  As far as I am concerned it all depends on what I am listening to.  With a Wagnerian opera I can go 5+ hours without maxing out- but then again I find Wagner's operas quite exhilarating  ! I do have a time limit though on chamber music, after an hour or so of continuous listening I tend to tire and lose concentration.  I am listening to Mozart's string quartets now and have had to stop a few times to take a break, relax and refocus. I guess with repeated listening our appreciation and concentration (stamina) increase.   

  marvin

[greg]

I think you are applying Romantic ideals to a Classical style.

yeah, probably

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Interesting disc, Wurst. I don't know any of these pieces, and I haven't heard the original Lemminkäinen in Tuonela. I've added it to my wishlist.

It's a reconstructed 1896 version of Colin Davis of North Texas University. As far as I remember there's no 1st edition of the Swan, but of the Island Maiden and Lemminkäinens homeward journey, which are published on another BIS CD. I'd buy this CD even if it had only the In Memoriam
Needless to say In Memoriam has also been played at Sibelius' funeral.

[Daedalus]

I've noticed before that a judicious equilibrium between temperature, sun rays, landscape, the wind factor, my stomach, the number of glasses of wine, the insect population, the last time I bathed all contribute to my relative level of concentration when listening to classical music.

Absolutely true! Glasses of tine especially

D

[Sergeant Rock]

yeah, probably

Greg, you remind me of me when I was your age. I didn't like Beethoven either. The Eroica bored me. In fact, I didn't like the classical period at all (I was in love with Romantic, Late Romantic and Modern music). Mozart sounded like unsubstantial confection and Haydn's nickname Papa pretty much summed up that composer for me.

The forum has debated this point heatedly many times: was Beethoven a Romantic or a Classical composer? I think you agree with me: definitely Classical. His music is the culmination of the style. Two things eventually helped me appreciate the style: Charles Rosen's book The Classical Style...and an exhilarating performance of the Eroica: Bernstein's Columbia (Sony) recording with the NY Phil. When you feel ready (it might be several years from now; there's no hurry), I urge you to read Rosen's book and digest it. It may open up an entire new world.

Sarge

[EmpNapoleon]

With a piece I have never heard before, I am usually lost and faceless.  After the music is "absorbed" (which can vary with different composers), I try to listen with keen ears, even though I now love the piece.  Love comes from latent travails.  But still, the piece I've learned to love is not merely stored.

Every time I go back the piece I love, I try to forget having ever heard it (impossible).  I want more than that "love" I got the first time I "got" the piece.  I want to hear and feel new things.

The best way to listen to music is at the concert hall.  The second best is in solitude.  It is hard to listen to music in the car because of the engine, but it is fun.  Usually, I look for a peaceful environment and soon find out that it was not what I wanted, because it was not soundless.

I have only become a descent listener because every time I am amazed at what my ears have heard, I know I could of done more to listen.  Challenging, this music is, but great indeed.

By the way, nutrition and exercise has done more for my "listening" than everything else except this forum.

[greg]

Greg, you remind me of me when I was your age. I didn't like Beethoven either. The Eroica bored me. In fact, I didn't like the classical period at all (I was in love with Romantic, Late Romantic and Modern music). Mozart sounded like unsubstantial confection and Haydn's nickname Papa pretty much summed up that composer for me.

The forum has debated this point heatedly many times: was Beethoven a Romantic or a Classical composer? I think you agree with me: definitely Classical. His music is the culmination of the style. Two things eventually helped me appreciate the style: Charles Rosen's book The Classical Style...and an exhilarating performance of the Eroica: Bernstein's Columbia (Sony) recording with the NY Phil. When you feel ready (it might be several years from now; there's no hurry), I urge you to read Rosen's book and digest it. It may open up an entire new world.

Sarge

ok, thanks for the recommendation......

maybe your nerves calmed down, which led to the understanding of the classical style? 
(just a wild guess)

[vandermolen]

I listen at home but usually get interrupted. The only time that I can seriously listen is late at night when everyone else is asleep or in the car, although I only have a cassette player, so often transfer my CDs to tape. Very low tec. I often work with music on but not really as "background music" as I am listening while working.