# Music that Evades You?



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I'm wondering about music you had to listen to many times before you could appreciate it? Perhaps even music that still evades you even though you have heard it many times? Are there are any pieces you can hear clearly on one day and then they seem to have lost their value on another day, only to regain it again in the future? Elusive music.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

Mahler. Always takes me a couple listens before I comprehend what's going on, then I fall in love.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

http://www.talkclassical.com/41578-most-difficult-compositions-enjoy.html?highlight=most+difficult


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

All classical music was elusive to me when I began listening. I had to listen and listen again, forcing myself to it. Slowly, I started to hear something. But as for now, perhaps not. Maybe I need to do some more adventurous listening!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Berg's Violin Concerto evaded me for several years. One day it clicked. 

Right now, Stockhausen evades me. I've tried, but I haven't connected yet.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I like Schmidt's 4th Symphony, but some days it just flows past me. I suspect this is because what we like has to do with our state of mind. But maybe there is also something to be said about the music creating this effect on the listener? Some music demands hyper attention, and if the listener cannot be at his or her best attentive state, then it will evade the listener.


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

I've tried several different, highly recommended performances of the Diabelli Variations. The farthest I've ever gotten is Variation 5 or so.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I should clarify... I'm not just talking about music that is hard to enjoy; I'm talking about music you do enjoy, and yet, it can still evade. I'm talking about music that took you some time to enjoy due to the nature of the music. (I think?) I'm talking about something different from "music you find hard to enjoy." Evasion in this sense seems to mean that there is some subtlety or complexity in the music that causes it to slip your grasp.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

You enjoy and yet it can still evade? Yep, Berg's Violin Concerto. Sometimes it's wonderful and sometimes I'm thinking, "Just get to the chorale and get it over with."


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Pretty much anything by composers from the experimentalism years in the 50s and 60s especially for example composers like Xenakis, Stockhausen.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Nothing I'm going to admit to!


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Wagner' Tristan und Isolde: the first time i try to watch it on DVD i fell asleep in the middle of the first act and wen I woke up alles waren töt. 
But now i love it.


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

I'm forced to admit that, until I was a bit older than dearest Wulfie was when he passed away, his music eluded me! I was like the Emperor who said, "Too many notes." I just couldn't get a grasp on it! 
Finally, in my early thirties, something opened up and I could 'get' him. Thank heavens!
To this day, whenever I think of those first three Mozart-less decades, I shudder.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I spent months with the Schoenberg Piano Concerto before I finally "got it".

Glad I devoted the time.

Now it's one of my favorite works.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

Mozart's piano concertos and clarinet concerto. I find all the melodies beautiful but the piano parts, while I like the way they sound in a sense, are never interesting to me in a rhythmic sense. If I can use these basic terms without screwing them up, maybe I'm trying to say I like the harmony of those sections but not the melodies? I don't even know the term for this, but so often it just sounds like a series of "runs," runs through some beautiful sounds, but it becomes too mechanical to excite me. Even the rondo of concerto 21 strikes me as slow because the rhythms seem to telegraph themselves and fail to surprise.

For instance I find Mozart's piano concertos generally more _beautiful _than Haydn's piano concerto in D, but the latter gets more of my blood flowing because the rhythms have a force and punch to them that I hear only rarely in Mozart.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

ribonucleic said:


> I've tried several different, highly recommended performances of the Diabelli Variations. The farthest I've ever gotten is Variation 5 or so.


There are some stunning variations later into the set, but I listen to them separately or a few at a time (I recommend listening to the last seven variations as a set - most of the best stuff is there).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

My giant maw devours the Diabellis whole. I love the way that each variation is imaginative and original, and how they gradually coalesce into the purposeful inevitability of the last few -- and then evaporate, after the big noisy Handelian fugue, into a nostalgic evanescence.

The publisher set them alongside the Goldbergs, and no arguing with that -- but so different!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

The condition described in the OP is uncommon for me. If I am going to end up liking something, I am usually hooked on the first hearing and don't struggle with it. If I am having trouble finding value in a musical work, I rarely attribute the problem to lack of comprehension on my part.


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## PeterFromLA (Jul 22, 2011)

Music whose charms or depths elude me:

Wolfgang Rihm. I always am up for trying, but I don't think I get it. I can’t say I love him or hate him; on the other hand, I’m not indifferent either. Something about the music attracts me and makes me want to continue to return to the oeuvre, in search of that work that will make the Rihm aesthetic “click” for me. Of all the works of his that I've heard, I guess the string quartets are the pieces that I like most? His catalog is huge and I'm probably too daunted by the prospect of exploring it properly.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Lutoslawski Third Symphony. I don't see what all the fuss was about. Does nothing for me.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

With the exception of the _Requiem_, Verdi.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Throughout my years of listening to classical music, I've had several evading works/composers who have either clicked with me, or I've let go.

Music that's clicked with me: One example from way back when was Liszt. I thought he was just a vapid showman, but after hearing his Piano Sonata, I went back and found a lot of great music from his collection. 
For a while, Baroque orchestral music turned me off. I was more into Romantic era or later orchestration, so while some Classical orchestras spoke to me, Baroque felt too old. Especially when many recordings were on period instruments. But through Bach and Handel's sacred music, I was able to appreciate Baroque orchestras, and I eventually got to instrumental works that I enjoy.
Bruckner's symphonies were a tough mountain for me. I first found Bruckner from symphonies my library had cds of: 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9. I tried listening to 1,2,3, and 5, but none of them really stuck to me. I didn't realize how big a name Bruckner was, and I guessed that I had picked up some second or third rate symphonist that would just collect digital dust in my library. But then I heard the 9th, and it shattered my world! So I went back and managed to, through multiple listens, recognize the majesty in his works.
One work that took several dozens of listens to fully appreciate for me was Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica. At first, it was gibberish. Epic sounding, but still gibberish. Now, I can follow along with all of the different lines at once and it's such a rush!
Schoenberg's piano concerto also sounded like gibberish when I first heard it. But each listen through make it easier; recognizable patterns, colorful orchestration, and rhythmic diversity.

Music that I've shrugged off [for now]: A lot of Romantic era Russians. Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, other big names from this era...I don't know what it is but their music doesn't really touch me at all. Which is weird because I love Tchaikovsky, and later generations like Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Medtner, and Myaskovsky who I've just discovered.
Anything Renaissance or earlier. 
"Experimental" music from the 40s-60s, serlialism or atonal. I know that you don't need music theory to appreciate music, but in my own opinion, I personally would need theory in order to appreciate this music.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

It's a strange phenomena, when a piece of music we seem to like and know, evades us. Usually I spend time getting to know a piece, and once I can follow the composition I either like it or I disregard it. But sometimes, even after getting to know a piece, the subtleties of the piece still evade me. I seemed to understand and appreciate it yesterday; what the hell happened? Strange experience.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

The nose said:


> Wagner' Tristan und Isolde: the first time i try to watch it on DVD i fell asleep in the middle of the first act and wen I woke up alles waren töt.
> But now i love it.


Yes, that can happen. Wagner's music grows on the listener quite readily over time.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

ArtMusic said:


> Yes, that can happen. Wagner's music grows on the listener quite readily over time.


I can second this fact about Wagner. I'm not a fan of opera, but thanks to Wagner I listen to opera. Greek tragedy and Wagner are the same.


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## Guest (Jan 24, 2016)

Too me a while to get into string quartets. But once the sound opened up to me, I became addicted to it. What opened everything up to me was a recording of the Mozart Quartets by the Hagen Quartet. Their lush sound did the trick. And then, I got into the rest of the string quartet repertoire that I'm still discovering, and it's now one of my favorite genres. 

Took me a few listenings to learn to love the Bartok quartets, but I do indeed LOVE them now. 

Good music often takes a few listens to open up.


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