What DOES work for me is to take it to a higher technical level. Whatever the subject is, there's always a higher level for deeper understanding, we’re willing to pursue it in entertaining subjects like music. We should know that there’s continual rewards in music. They get bigger, they shrink, they come back.
Too much numerous, expansive and varied listening?
I have been wondering sometimes whether or not I got greater kicks from classical music when I concentrated more on fewer composers and works.
Those days even just one work, like the Sibelius 4th, could be life changing. Nowadays when I listen to it, I am not as thrilled by the dissonances because Mahler is full of such chord progressions. Just to give you one example. (I need to consciously change my mental state to get into the receptive Sibelius 4th mood.)
So it is harder and harder to gain the mental state of the ”innocent, open minded listener, tabula rasa.”
It is also harder to tune up for a certain composer. And composers require their own mindsets! You cannot listen to everything the same way.
In a way, greater ignorance was bliss!
Has anyone had similar experiences?
Could there be something gained from a more limited but concentrated listening? Or is wide, numerous and expansive listening a value in itself, not worth questioning?
Those days even just one work, like the Sibelius 4th, could be life changing. Nowadays when I listen to it, I am not as thrilled by the dissonances because Mahler is full of such chord progressions. Just to give you one example. (I need to consciously change my mental state to get into the receptive Sibelius 4th mood.)
So it is harder and harder to gain the mental state of the ”innocent, open minded listener, tabula rasa.”
It is also harder to tune up for a certain composer. And composers require their own mindsets! You cannot listen to everything the same way.
In a way, greater ignorance was bliss!
Has anyone had similar experiences?
Could there be something gained from a more limited but concentrated listening? Or is wide, numerous and expansive listening a value in itself, not worth questioning?
1 - 5 of 37 Posts
Yes, when I was young (before I was making money) buying an album was a big event for me. I would take a long time trying to decide which album I would choose. 'Only one or two a month. And then I would see the album in the record store in the racks and I would look at the cover (for info, for lyrics, for cover art) to make sure it was a good value. heh Checking prices of other selections, last minute. Then I would finally decide, buy it and feel great(!) on the way home.We have had a similar discussion in a progressive rock forum I frequent. It seems to me when I was younger I had more time, energy and focus to put into deep listening so that I could catch more nuances, repeated themes, cleverly disguised reprises, etc. Now, I'm just searching for the next unheard thing because so much is available, both in prog and in classical. I think less really was more.
I don't know if any part of these good vibrations happen today. Push a button, there's not much story to tell. 'Not much to be involved in - as a young person's artistic quest or whatever.
But what young person would understand the positives of such delayed gratification today?
If instead, you listen many times, you'll lose the 'trickiness' that stimulates you to the art experience. So it's a narrow path to navigate between too little and too much.That can definitely work for many. Personally, I've always found that such technical understanding is really its own kind of reward that's very different from the actual experience of the art. I've also never found that such understanding makes me enjoy the art any more, but it does/can make me appreciate it more.
When you play a piece it comes alive again, because you're physically (kinetically) in the mix. You can't help but be in the creative process.
Sibelius jokeI have the answer. If you get bored with Sibelius then put it on and dance.
In some colleges of music, part of the doctoral requirement is to compose an original full length symphony. Because modern music sounds so weird, a good ploy is to take a well-known classical symphony, write it backwards and submit it as an original work. One student took the daring step of taking his professor's doctoral symphony and reversing it. The student failed to receive his degree. The examiners remarked, "You just reproduced Sibelius' Fourth Symphony with not a single note changed!"
Yes, Faure gives us both. He's there with those extended moods. We just need to remember him (and Franck).Surprisingly I've had that kinetic response with some chamber music by Faure -- specifically the A Major violin sonata and the C Minor piano quartet. To be sure these are early, energetic works. I say surprisingly because of course his Requiem and songs like 'Clair de lune' have a much different atmosphere
I've known Jeremy a long time.
...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GfR-GAs9Q
1 - 5 of 37 Posts
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