The man who thought he listened to music.

[Enrique]

I once drop in a butcher's shop and observed he had the radio on. I could here Brahms' 4th symphony coming out from the radio loudspeaker. Trying to show off, I asked him if he knew what he was hearing. He answered he didn't and that he listened to classical music because it made him feel well.

I left the place wondering how a person who had been listening to the radio for years, and a classical music radio station must transmit that symphony nearly once a month, could ignore such fundamental fact. A little thought showed then that music merely peacefully slid over his skin without leaving a footprint in him. What a pity, I said to myself, and walked away sinked in new thoughts.

-- Preste Juan de las Indias.

[Michael]

I know a lot of people like that. They claim to love music - of any type - but rarely listen for more than 30 seconds and never, ever bother to find out what it was they were listening to.

When, for example, something comes on the radio, they shout: "Oh - I absolutely lo-o-o-ove this! Shhhh!" and just when you've jammed your mouth shut, they continue: "You'll never believe who I saw in Tesco's today!"

Aaargh!

[Enrique]

Yes, those people do not know the high pleasure of making discoveries. If only they had a curious mind, they could not fail to try to satisfy the need to know. You are watching ballet and you, that always despised that music, find out a scene or a whole work the you realize you like very much. Or perhaps the exquisite movements of some ballerina helped to increase the emotion. How are you not going to want to know? Coz if you miss the name, you know you run the risk of never hearing/seeing it again.

Though I can be caught not knowing if a keyboard work by say, Bach, or Chopin for that matter, is partita no 1, 2, or ..., 6 or mazurka what number, because maybe a have the whole set and so, easily confuse one with the other. Thanks for the feedback.

[Megan]

I mentioned in another thread that I like listening while busy about my household tasks, and will also add here that if I here a piece that interests me I will either write it down or google the piece to find out more information.

[Enrique]

I new I could have a case of conscience remembering Megan's custom. But then I recall Roehre, who hears so much and varied music a day, that he cannot less than have the radio or internet on all day long, for only radio stations can have such large discoteques. And I recall myself, for I use to have the radio on, too. I expect not having been rude on/with you, Megan.

[Megan]

I new I could have a case of conscience remembering Megan's custom. But then I recall Roehre, who hears so much and varied music a day, that he cannot less than have the radio or internet on all day long, for only radio stations can have such large discoteques. And I recall myself, for I use to have the radio on, too. I expect not having been rude on/with you, Megan.

Of course you can't beat live concerts for good listening experience.

[Michael]

Give me a good set of headphones and no interruptions and that's it for me. (Oh, and some good music too).
I owe my love of music entirely to the gramophone and its descendants and I would blush to admit how few live concerts I have attended in my entire life.

[Enrique]

You lazy boy! Do you consider that Bach traveled from Arnstadt (in Thuringia) to Lubeck (on the Baltic coast) to hear the very famous organist Dietrich Buxtehude, on foot?! This trip was made in the winter of 1705 and totals some 260 miles, a feat all the more remarkable for the fact that the return journey (made in February 1706) would have seen Bach carrying, and somehow keeping dry, several manuscript copies he had made of Buxtehude's music!

Speaking seriously, I am with you from a strictly logical point of view. But there is the rite, also. It's like going to the cinema, not nowadays were cinematographic halls are microscopic in size, but in the era of the 70mm, as compared to watching a picture in your TV set. Well, the example is a bit wrong because you had better sound and image (in fact a grandiose visual and aural experience), but the essential point is you had quite another experience. Like going to the theatre today. You have to dress to go there, think about the dinner, your company, etc. It's irrational but are we not irrational beings too, side by side with our rational self?

One more thing: your headphones are deceiving your ears in making you believe you are listening correctly. It's all an illusion. What really happens is that you are lacking the low end of the frequency spectrum. Use your speakers whenever you can and, if you have not a good pair, invest some money. You'll be rewarded.

[Michael]

When I say headphones, I am not referring to these little earbuds (although I use them when walking.) I have an expensive pair for indoor listening and they have plenty of bass, so believe me, I am missing nothing.

I have four large speakers in my listening room and various machines for playing music in all formats, and - while the real audio experts might not think much of them - they certainly fill the room with sound. Audio has been my main hobby since I bought a record player back in 1963 and I listen to all kinds of music. I have never been able to afford the really expensive stuff but I am quite happy with what I have.

The point I was trying to make is that some of my most intensive listening is through good headphones because more detail is revealed - especially in chamber music. I can't read a score so I have to rely on my ears - both of which are getting on a bit. I also listen late at night and the other members of my family have a strange objection to hearing loud music at two o'clock in the morning.

I think Beethoven's later music is ideally suited for headphones because it gives me the impression that the music is inside my head - and not coming from an outside source - which is how B heard it.

So I am really a bit of an oddball, musically. I have heard very little live classical music (mostly because of where I live). So, strictly speaking, I have never heard, to pick one example, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Only recordings.




.

[Michael]

I mentioned in another thread that I like listening while busy about my household tasks, and will also add here that if I here a piece that interests me I will either write it down or google the piece to find out more information.

I do that too. If I can't find out what the piece is, it annoys me for the day.
It's worse when I'm watching a good movie, and a piece of music is featured incidentally. I lose track of the film because I am trying to remember what the hell that music was.

[Enrique]

When I say headphones, I am not referring to these little earbuds (although I use them when walking.) I have an expensive pair for indoor listening and they have plenty of bass, so believe me, I am missing nothing.

I have four large speakers in my listening room and various machines for playing music in all formats, and - while the real audio experts might not think much of them - they certainly fill the room with sound. Audio has been my main hobby since I bought a record player back in 1963 and I listen to all kinds of music. I have never been able to afford the really expensive stuff but I am quite happy with what I have.

The point I was trying to make is that some of my most intensive listening is through good headphones because more detail is revealed - especially in chamber music. I can't read a score so I have to rely on my ears - both of which are getting on a bit. I also listen late at night and the other members of my family have a strange objection to hearing loud music at two o'clock in the morning.

Audio was also my father's hobby, and the source of my attachment to music. But again believe me, you can have headphones as large as oistrich eggs and yet will be missing the audio experience. But it's true, you have better spatial resolution when listening stereo, which gives you better voice discrimination, in my experience.

I think Beethoven's later music is ideally suited for headphones because it gives me the impression that the music is inside my head - and not coming from an outside source - which is how B heard it.

So I am really a bit of an oddball, musically. I have heard very little live classical music (mostly because of where I live). So, strictly speaking, I have never heard, to pick one example, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Only recordings.
.

I have less excuses than you, because I live in a capital city, at least large enough to have one important theatre. It does not compare to London in the wildest dreams but is something. And yet, its been several years since I do not go to it to buy my ticket. But when a personality arrives and I see all that people waiting in the street for the box office to open (maybe internet or the phone company has made this different) I get frightened. I won't sacrifice so much of my comfort if I were to see Paganini play.

[Sorrano]

In times past I used to always have the radio on, regardless of what I was doing or if I was even really listening to the music. Today I only have it on when I can actually pay attention to it or when I am in the car (it does help break some of the monotony of driving and can be relaxing). As I get older I feel the need to really listen to the music rather than just having it play while I read or while I do something else. Use of headphones is a blessing because one can listen while doing monotonous tasks and focus more on the music than the task. It takes a lot of time to listen carefully to each work, but the reward is worth it.

[Enrique]

Time, yes, how expensive! In other times I could listen to work after work on the radio but, as all was new to me and the radio did not, as now, made kind of a musicologist job when transmiting, i.e., they transmitted from a limited repertoire which was that classically consecrated, and therefor true master pieces for the most part, my curiosity got caught and the radio was like a magnet, my attention was all there. Now, the sign has inverted itself, and either I'm listening to my own music collection which I know by heart and then the work is who wins, if I do both things at the same time or, if I say let's hear music in due form and give it all my attention, I have to be in a very special mood not to be bored. If listening to the radio, on the other hand, as I said already, most of the programming consists of barely know works that, precisely for that reason, are very likely to be of little merit or source of enjoyment.

A perfect example is Niels Gaade, the Dane, whose music has been unearthed by musicology but which is astonishingly boring, as most late romanticism is. And I won't speak about Elgar, whose cello concerto having been played by Casals gave rise to a revival of that work, because I have acquaintances in Britain.