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The Listening Club

14K views 129 replies 40 participants last post by  Lord Lance 
#1 ·
Like a book club but for music. How about starting a thread where we pick one piece a week to listen to in depth and comment and observe on it? It would be very interesting to read about other people's thoughts, feelings and understanding of the piece. Great way for people to appreciate the music a little more and hopefully enjoy it.
Thoughts?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I think they've done this sort of thing in the Opera forum. For all I know, someone has already tried to do it in other forums (fora?) too. I might be interested.

The biggest problem I would have is that I don't do Spotify. I would either have to have the piece in my collection or order it. If the latter, by the time I receive it from the library or an on-line store, I might miss out on participating.
 
#8 ·
I would also love to participate whenever I can! There are thousands of very good recordings on YouTube, I'm not sure that we need to look anywhere else (unless people want to compare a dozen recordings of the same work).
 
#11 ·
The way that I've seen it run on other forums is:
everybody who is interested adds their name.
A list is created
Then it works down the list with everybody picking a piece to review, in turn
The same time and day everyweek, then all the members add their views/comments
It appears to work very well
As mentioned above, Youtube, Spotify and Grooveshark (or similar) tend to have almost all the recorded music available.
Anybody got any better ideas?

Count me in by the way
 
#13 ·
I think it's a really neat idea. As one who doesn't really know much on music theory or the nuances of different performers I probably wouldn't have a lot of my own comments, but I would love to read the conversations. Perhaps doing a different piece every two weeks though might be a better time frame though? Even though YouTube is a good source, everyone might not have immediate access....it might buy some time for those with busy schedules to participate more fully. Just a thought.
 
#17 ·
I've participated in such things on literature forums and music forums and I can tell you that you will lose all momentum if you drag everything out for two weeks. You simply allow members currently interested to nominate one piece until you get 10... then you vote... with the stipulation that the members cannot vote for the piece they nominated. 24 hours for nomination and 24 hours for voting is plenty.
 
#18 ·
I'm with cwarchc. If we do nominations, not only will it take more time, but we'll probably end up talking about pieces that everyone knows already anyways. I like the idea of everyone signing up who wants to participate, and then taking turns to pick a piece. That way we'll be sure to get a wide range of works, while giving out our own recommendations.

I would suggest giving everyone 4-5 days during the week to listen to the work, and then we can discuss it over the weekend (more or less).
 
#25 ·
Also, I think we should have a separate thread for each piece we discuss. This thread could be used to moderate what piece is next, and then each week we could have a thread with a consistent title, like "The Listening Club: (insert name of piece)." That way this thread won't get cluttered, and it'll be easy to resurrect discussions of previous works.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I suggest listening to Alexander Borodin 3 symphonies and tell your opinions to each other about them here (or in a group).
Is this three suggestions or one? I think we should limit it to one of the symphonies as many nominations could be shorter and we should have some cutoff point. If we accept 3 symphonies as a single nomination, then things would become confused and protracted. Of course, there is nothing to any of us from listening to the rest (esp. as the symphonies rarely come individually on a disc) just that official discussion be limited to one of them.

Alternatively, we could have a cut-off point of the length of a single CD for suggestions with the exception being that single works that are longer be accepted eg Symphonies by Mahler or Shostakovich, or Requiem settings. We could also limit the number of suggested works so that people don't add too many works that are unrelated. I propose some of the following rules:

1. Nominations must be limited to a single composer
2. Multiple nominations must be related eg part of a symphony cycle, overtures, string quartets, dances etc
3. Multiple nominations must last a MAXIMUM of 80 mins
4. Single nominations must be less than 2 hrs

Of course, there is still much to be said for limiting to a single work as it would simpify things greatly. What do the rest of you think?
 
#28 · (Edited)
-crmoorhead

You're right about the nomination rules.

I suggested the 3 symphonies of Borodin, the third one is unfinished and has only two movements. I prefer them in order of 1>3>2 and the first one has more depth.
So I nominate:
Alexander Borodin - Symphony No. 1 in E flat major that is between 32-35 minutes.
consisted of 1. Adagio / 2. Prestissimo / 3. Andante / 4. Allegro molto vivo

It's better to wait for others' nominations too.
 
#29 ·
I think multiple nominations should be related. If it's a symphony then we have to look at the work as a whole.
Personally I'm not worried about the length of the piece.
I like the idea of having a separate thread each time, good for searches.
Not sure what the best way of deciding on which piece to choose each time. A vote sounds the most sensible to me.
 
#31 ·
Borodin #1 is fine with me if you all decide to go with that.

Just a reminder - don't expect everyone to participate on the weekend. Some people here (Sid James and myself included) don't generally post much on the weekend. I would keep a current selection open for at least a week before moving on.
 
#32 ·
It's great to see such an interest
We need to create a list of all members who are interested, we can always add people later, if they find the threads and like what they see.
we need to keep it to one piece, otherwise it would get confusing
we should also keep it to one week, if you can't participate, it doesn't matter, you can always add your comments later
we need somebody to keep, and post the list
lets get it started.
I'm fine with Borodin
Are we going with this?
When are we posting our thoughts? somebody pick a day!
 
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