I can´t just sit down listen to music I need to do something else at the same time.

 

So much for attending any straight-ahead classical music concerts or recitals, then?

 

As I said in the youtube-thread, I have almost all the time some background ambience on. Usually this means classical music. I do sometimes have this vision of a dead composer, say Haydn for example, looking down from the otherworld and disapproving my usage of his music that way. I'm glad I don't really believe in afterlife. And even if there was an afterlife, I don't think it would be good idea for composers to peek at what people are doing while listening to their music. If Bach would have seen to what kind of activities his music has been used as a background music... I don't think he would be taking another peek in hundreds of years.

Well, the point of all this is that I can't stand quietness. At least when I'm alone at home: for me to be able to feel like I'm at home, I need some music/radio/television to be in the background. And obviously I don't think it's disrespectful, although at times my superego gives me visions of dead composers being angry at me. I'm sorry, Schubert, I'm so sorry, please don't hurt me!

 

Well, the point of all this is that I can't stand quietness. At least when I'm alone at home: for me to be able to feel like I'm at home, I need some music/radio/television to be in the background.

Oh, man, I am *SO* on the opposite side of that comment! I love quietness; I sometimes think of putting music on when, say, I am doing my yoga, but sometimes I prefer the quietness. Even when my neighbor's dog is barking. Isn't the best part of a piece of music the quietness at the end?

As far as TV on when no one is listening -- I can't even summon words to say how much I dislike that. (Which reminds me -- I am going to start a restaurant chain with the theme "No TV here". I feel like I cannot even get a meal without hearing the "news". Ugh. )

Please don't take any of this personally to you. But maybe we should not marry.

- Bill

 

In a perfect world, I'd listen to every piece attentively with a notated score in my hand. It's not, so I can't. I do the best I can do.

 

Everything is ok. The music is for you, not you for the music.

However, a lot of music - especially music with structures like sonata form or fugues - is much more interesting when listened to closely than when half-ignored.

(Also, some music is probably much more interesting when you've analyzed the score - some of the art is hidden from the listener - but I have so little personal experience with this that I'd better defer to the experts here.)

 

I went to a restaurant once in Jones Beach, NY and they were playing the first movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony softly through their speakers.

I was quite happy. It added a touch of class to the establishment. Wish more restaurants would do that.

 

There was a study done of this in England a couple of years ago. If soft classical music is played, diners tend to order the more expensive dishes and to drink more. The drinks are the high-margin items of course.

 

Personally, I'm averse to the idea of music being used rather than listened to.

 

Of course it's ok! My local grocery store plays classical all the time, and I often find myself lingering longer than necessary when a particularly nice piece is playing. I am so thankful they play classical rather than pop or muzak.

Music is meant to entertain, not to be worshipped.

 

Of course it's ok! My local grocery store plays classical all the time, and I often find myself lingering longer than necessary when a particularly nice piece is playing. Music is meant to entertain, not to be worshipped.

Well, then again classical music is used also in the opposite way: I have heard that it is used to deter young people from hanging around malls.

 

There is a quote from the Arabian Nights, the content of which I here lay down accurately, though not verbatim:
For some, music is medicine, for some it is a fan, and for others it is food.
___Medicine: to alter or further enhance the listener's mood(s).
___Fan: a pleasant-sounding disturbance of the air, thought of about as much as one would think of the breeze from a fan.
___Food: essential nutrition to sustain health and life -- this may very well include 'what you know is good for you' as a criterion above and beyond what you simply like or find tasty or pleasant

Ergo: responses to the OP are entirely dependent upon the individual and how they both perceive music and 'what they use it for.'

Me, I am a musician, that involvement and training commencing in very early childhood.

Around the house, I will put on a recording and use it more as ambiance, i.e. its nice to have it in the air of the room while doing other things, but, whatever I put on is something with which I am already deeply familiar.

Otherwise and elsewhere, music -- of any sort, really -- has such a strength of pulling my entire attention and concentration that I truly resent the piped-in music in restaurants, shops, etc. because to me it is an inevitable distraction, and I am near to wholly unable to "turn it off" or ignore it.

If I were commuting and the driving / train / piloting the plane are wholly up to someone else, I could happily listen to music. If I am the driver, well, you do not want me driving anything if I am also listening to music. I suppose the one exception to that is a long-distance haul where it is say, on an interstate and traffic is extremely light, or next to or actually nonexistent. I can not drive a manual shift vehicle, especially, if any music is playing -- inevitably I over or under-ride a gear, because apart from feel, I depend so much upon the sound to tell me what is up.

Because that is my disposition, I somewhat marvel (not much, I 'get it') at people who can tolerate it in restaurants, and other public places where the choice of what is played is not up to me. I do think anyone driving their car in anything amounting to moderate traffic is about as much danger to their self as well as others if they are listening to music, nearly as disturbing as knowing people are reading or sending text messages from their phones while driving.

As to your thought about 'slighting the piece,' that is less the point, i.e. the piece stays the same no matter how you are listening to it, but I would rather say the listener is short-changing their self. The fact there are but a few declared music lovers who actually "just sit and listen," whether at home, or plunk themselves down in a seat in a symphony hall, which is all about attentive listening, is a mere fact. I think TC has far less of those than average, that many here do 'just listen' and nothing else. More power, and fuller pleasure, to 'em

 

Being aware of music playing without attending to it is hearing, not listening. Some find such experiences beneficial, soothing or enjoyable. Doesn't harm anyone. Also, in my experience, doesn't readily lead to comprehension or appreciation. All depends on what one hopes to get out of the experience, I suppose. Not a moral issue but a practical one for me.

Edit: PetrB's long post came up while I was writing. I would add: "Yeah, what he said!"

 

Music serves a wide variety of purposes. Most people use television for background noise but I prefer music. However, if someone uses great music exclusively for background it's a shame for what they are missing. Great music deserves and demands attention.

I still get a thrill when I am driving and come across a loved piece of music on the radio. Usually makes the ride an enjoyable one, which is not always easy considering the way some people behave on the road.

 

Familiar music is good background. My memory fills in what I miss while doing other things. If I use unfamiliar music as background I quickly realize I'm missing stuff I should be hearing. Unfortunately I can't always just drop everything and listen when something new comes on the radio. More and more I limit the choice to actually listening or enjoying silence.

Two stores I shop at often play classical music. It gives me the pleasant illusion of living in a civilized world filled with sensitive, intelligent, cultivated people (a little fantasy keeps one sane). It's also just nice not feeling that I need to shop and run to avoid horrors assaulting my brain; there are establishments I'd rather avoid altogether because of the @#$% they play. My ultimate preference is to shop in silence, but there's no returning to Eden.

 

I know what you mean. My tolerance for "popular" music has plummeted since I really got into classical. The only time I hear non classical now is if I'm in a store or in a car with the wife. She drives so it's her choice of music. The only time she will listen to classical is in bed before going to sleep. She finds it relaxing. She especially enjoys when I play Tchaikovsky, Beethoven or Mozart. But in the car it's her choice. I just tend to tune it out now.

 

Depends on how good a listener you are.

 

As I often say, there are no "shoulds" when it comes to music. Concerning myself, I never listen to classical music while doing other things (except while driving).

 

If I could not listen to classical music (or any music) as background music, it would eliminate about 95 percent of my listening.

I love having my earbud in when I am in stores because then I am usually oblivious to the junk music the store is playing--unless it is too loud.

 

I often listen to music while browsing on this forum. If a piece of music really catches my attention I'll stop and just listen. If it's a piece I've heard before (and I do have a series of "go to" pieces of music I tend to listen to often) then I'm more likely to browse. I do try to pay more attention when it's something new.

 

Morally wrong?

I see no problem with using music as accompaniment to doing something else. That is one of it's functions, I believe—to serve as an entertainment. BUT, you would not be doing justice to your full capacity to enjoy, if this were the only way you listen, as you cannot honestly claim to have genuinely heard the music with your full attention (the same as you can't honestly claim to be paying attention to your driving, when you are talking on the phone when behind the wheel of your car).

 

Background music in shops reminds me of a study in which people's perceptions of the background music in a shop were studied. I don't remember the actual percentages (they were statistically significant, though, if that means anything to anyone), but it was mildly interesting that when there wasn't any background music people recognized it more often than that there was background music. Background music, therefore, seems to be something that isn't necessarily paid attention to, but nevertheless it should be there, because if it weren't, it's absence would be noticed.

Then, of course, there are people like Woodduck who would prefer to do their shopping in silence. Or relative silence: obviously if there isn't any background music, all kinds of background noises become more salient. Was it John Cage who was flabbergasted when he got to visit an anechoic chamber and realized that there isn't such thing as silence? Well, this all reminds me of a poem that I cited in the "Random thoughts" -thread a while a go. It was about how our ears are an alarm system that cannot be turned off and how existentially terrifying it is.

 

Background music in shops reminds me of a study in which people's perceptions of the background music in a shop were studied. I don't remember the actual percentages (they were statistically significant, though, if that means anything to anyone), but it was mildly interesting that when there wasn't any background music people recognized it more often than that there was background music. Background music, therefore, seems to be something that isn't necessarily paid attention to, but nevertheless it should be there, because if it weren't, it's absence would be noticed.

Then, of course, there are people like Woodduck who would prefer to do their shopping in silence. Or relative silence: obviously if there isn't any background music, all kinds of background noises become more salient. Was it John Cage who was flabbergasted when he got to visit an anechoic chamber and realized that there isn't such thing as silence? Well, this all reminds me of a poem that I cited in the "Random thoughts" -thread a while a go. It was about how our ears are an alarm system that cannot be turned off and how existentially terrifying it is.

Alas. Nowadays if it isn't bad music it's someone carrying on a private telephone conversation while squeezing the avocados. Which is worse? Lucky us, we're often spared that difficult choice. We get both at once.

 

The temptation is to say Yes - unless it's Strauss, but that's beneath me...
Bus stations in my region have taken to playing "light classics" over the tannoy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4154711.stm

That's ironically annoying to me as I can often hear it over a quieter symphony that I'm listening to on my ipod.
The results are that there is less trouble in bus stations and the part I like best is that when the researchers asked the youths what they thought about it they said they enjoyed listening to the music. You never know. Perhaps one in 20 or so will seek out some more of this bus station music and discover something more interesting and life-enhancing than vandalism.

edit - I do like this comment from the link above...
On the one hand, I'm in favour of anything that can be done to reduce anti-social behaviour. On the other, speaking as a classical musician, I am rather saddened to see some of humanity's greatest artistic achievements being demoted to the rank of piped "yob repellant". Couldn't they use something else equally "uncool" as well? Like skiffle, or Welsh folk music?
Gareth, Harpenden, Herts.

Welsh folk music...

 

Welsh folk music...

...is known to attract miscreants of all stripes and incite them to violent and unseemly acts. In my town, it's illegal to play Welsh folk music except over headphones, and then in your own home. :lol:

 

I know that I wouldn't ever try to play Wagner as background music. Too much going on there without focusing on the work at hand.

 

One way to become familiar with music that is new to you is to play it "in the background." Good music will get to you anyway even if you are not paying full attention. That is exactly why music is so "powerful" and "mysterious."

I find that I can "concentrate" on music while doing physical labor. The concentration is not intellectual or emotional; there is no word for it in human language -- the best way of describing it is that I am "fully conscious of the music" while also fully conscious of what my body is doing.

So, in other words, background & foreground are not as clearly delineated as we think.

 

Lots of pieces were written as party music. But I think it's stupid to cast a moral judgement on someone else if (s)he listens to classical music as background. So what, nothing wrong with that.

 

I'll happily listen to anything as background to light tasks or as part of daily routine (travel, housework etc) - can be a good way to re-hear old favourites or test new stuff for ear-catching interest. Detailed listening is different - and, for me, score-based where possible

 

I'll happily listen to anything as background to light tasks or as part of daily routine (travel, housework etc) - can be a good way to re-hear old favourites or test new stuff for ear-catching interest. Detailed listening is different - and, for me, score-based where possible

Yes. I screen new (to me, not historically) music this way and if I find myself really listening, I make a note to really listen later.

 

Does using classical music for background cause injustice to the piece?

yes of course it does.

 

I wouldn't use 'justice/injustice' in the same sentence as 'music' - it's not a dimension I'd recognise except in a metaphorical sense. Music is to be listened to, or not, as the listener determines. The composer might wish for her work to be listened to in certain prescribed circumstances, but she cannot dictate.

 

That is one of the main reasons why I like to take public transit here in SLC so that I can focus on the music and not worry about too much distractions.

 

I think the more you can interface with music the better. You shouldn't *only* listen to classical music backgrounded, but there's nothing wrong with doing that as opposed to not listening to music at all.

 

That is definitely true there