Thread: Watching Music

This made me feel better about sometimes imagining myself conducting or players playing their instruments while listening to music.
I guess I just try to perceive all the sounds, and it helps to have clear "imagined" sound representations.

But then again, sometimes I experience sceneries or images, sometimes emotions and sometimes the music seems to range from being totally "flat surfaced" (I don't mean musically shallow, but visually) to sharp as spikes. And even sometimes I can associate colours with certain pieces.
I haven't found any tendencies or what exactly in those pieces provoke different imagined visual experiences, but it truly adds to the listening experience.

I once had an experience while at a performance (by Arthur Rubinstein) which made an indelible impression. I was thinking that Chopin is my favorite composer, the piano is my favorite instrument, and Rubinstein is my favorite pianist. So I closed my eyes in order to savor the moment more intensely.

When I opened them again, I could see a shimmering light connecting Rubinstein and the piano, a circle that connected them, a glowing connection between the instrument, the composer, and the pianist.

It was only that one time, and it remains as vivid for me today as it was all those many years ago.

Originally Posted by EarthBoundRules

How can the mind's eye see the beautiful images sparked by the music if your eyes are focused on saliva dripping out of trumpets and sweaty hands plucking strings? I prefer to listen to music in a dark room and pretend I'm floating in a sea of nothingness, awaiting for the music to paint it's own landscape in front of my eyes.

Yes this.

The cognitive dissonance of listening to that beautiful ethereal oboe melody floating high above, and to watch a singularly unattractive fellow with a red bloated face and neck, forcing all that air between those two little reeds.

Being a Bear of Little Brain, I find that, aside from the full concert experience, I can best absorb and follow and appreciate CM when I just listen to it without visual stimulation. Can't multitask well, maybe. I do alternate listen-only episodes with occasional YouTube viewings, but that often just whets my appetite to again hear and concentrate on the piece later in listen-only mode.

Originally Posted by EarthBoundRules

How can the mind's eye see the beautiful images sparked by the music if your eyes are focused on saliva dripping out of trumpets and sweaty hands plucking strings? I prefer to listen to music in a dark room and pretend I'm floating in a sea of nothingness, awaiting for the music to paint it's own landscape in front of my eyes.

That's very interesting, because I watch a lot of videos. I have never seen saliva dripping from the mouth of a trumpet player or sweaty hands on plucked strings. But I have seen a lot of pretty women in the string sections sounding like angels, and brass sections dressed in tuxedos that could down the walls of Jericho.

I sometimes like watching live performances or dvds as a reminder that actual people play the music and it just doesn't spring from the head of Zeus. The immortal composers were once flesh and blood human beings too, but how many listeners ever think of them that way? Usually they're thought of as an abstract historical figure who somehow left behind a magical legacy from out of the pages of a book.

So, I've rarely been distracted by the visuals of actual living people in the act of creating and playing their hearts out, though I can still understand if someone still wasn't interested in watching them. Then there's also the plus of seeing the tremendous, well-deserved reward of applause after a particularly fine performance. I feel that the visual can often add an extra dimension to the entire experience.

Perhaps Stravinsky's statements are a reaction to the growing popularity of recorded music. What year did he say all that? Perhaps he was afraid recordings would be the death of live performance.

I personally think seeing the musicians play is a very cool experience. But with orchestral music, I don't think it adds that much. Seeing a string section bowing doesn't do much for how I perceieve the music; the same with watching a horn or wind player. The percussion is more interesting, as is the conductor. Also, I suppose, when themes are bouncing around the orchestra, it can be cool to see the players. Mostly, I think seeing the performers is more rewarding when it's a smaller ensemble, or especially, with popular music. Then there's a level entertainment value added to the music.

Stravinsky does have a point... but only to a point. I think he went too far.

Musique concrete composers are fuming at this!