[Coach G]

Say you are all set to play some music. Everyone else is out of the house and you're sitting there with your favorite recording of your favorite symphony by Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius, Shostakovich (et. al.); and now you're sitting in your favorite chair, nice and comfortable, with a nice cup of coffee, or cocoa, or whatever drink you prefer. The music begins and you're mesmerized and you occasionally close your eyes as you soak in the goodness of the slow movement and then you are sometimes moved to raise your hands as the symphony moves into it's dramatic moments. Half way through you get a phone call, or you fall asleep, or a neighbor appears at the door and asks you if you could help him jump start his car, or something else happens that interrupts the moment. Do you go back and start all over again, or do you pick up where you left off? Please explain your answer.

 

[Prodromides]

Re-starting is not my approach; I would consider a premature cessation as a 'finished' listening session and, next, select something to contrast what was previously playing. Having 600+ composers in my music collection, my compulsion is to listen to something quite different as a palette cleanser.

 

[Art Rock]

I've never fallen asleep while listening to music. For all other interruptions I hit the Pause button and resume once I have time again. Alternatively, if the piece (or a movement, act, etc) has just started (say 1-2 minutes in) I will resume at the start of that part. I do not feel like listening to a substantial part of the same piece twice in a row, I prefer variety.

 

[Simplicissimus]

If it's a multi-movement piece or tone poem with multiple sections, I start the interrupted movement or section at its beginning. If it's a piece in a single movement, I start again from the beginning. I find it disorienting and unpleasant just to unpause the playback in the middle of a musical phrase. If the interruption lasts more than about 15 minutes, I just abandon the listening session and do something else because my mood usually changes due to the intervening activity.

 

[Coach G]

I guess I'm an unusual person; possibly obsessive-compulsive; because I tend to want to hear symphonies, concertos, or suites, in completion. If the process is interrupted I tend to want to go back and start all over again; sort of finish what was started and do it the "right way". I don't like the "flow" to be unsettled. Exceptions can be made for monster operas such as Aida, Carmen, or Meistersinger, where "to be continued tomorrow" is warranted, or at least, periods of respite are warranted, as well as bathroom breaks.

 

[pianozach]

LOL.

It depends on my mood when I return.

Sometimes I'll abandon the listening and move on to something else, sometimes I'll pick up where I left off, and other times I may start over.

 

[Manxfeeder]

It depends on how well I know the piece. If I know the piece well, I usually press pause and then resume. But I've been discovering Lutoslawski this week, and with every interruption, I've been starting from the top again so I don't miss how everything connects together.

 

[hammeredklavier]

Half way through you get a phone call, or you fall asleep, or a neighbor appears at the door and asks you if you could help him jump start his car, or something else happens that interrupts the moment. Do you go back and start all over again, or do you pick up where you left off? Please explain your answer.

"At a concert in Gothenburg Concert Hall October 23, 2013, Christian Zacharias stopped playing in the middle of Haydn's Piano Concerto, interrupted by a cell phone ringing for the second time the same concert."

 

[Coach G]

It depends on how well I know the piece. If I know the piece well, I usually press pause and then resume. But I've been discovering Lutoslawski this week, and with every interruption, I've been starting from the top again so I don't miss how everything connects together.

This is an excellent point.

 

[TwoFlutesOneTrumpet]

I always rewind the music to the section where I fell asleep after I wake up.

 

[hammeredklavier]

Do you go back and start all over again, or do you pick up where you left off?

I would take a moment to think about what to do after doing this to the offender-