# Remembering music



## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

It actually comes in 2 parts:
1. Remembering the music itself - for me it's easy and comes automatically... whatever I listen to, I remember it to some degree, the more I listen, the better I remember. This allows me to recognize and better understand the work when I listen to it the next time.
2. Associating the music with the name of the work - this is much harder for me. I can for example know the music from a certain piece quite well, so that the next time I listen to it, I know very well that I've heard it in the past - it sounds familiar - but if you asked me the name of the work (without me having seen it), I might have no clue. I might know the genre, the composer, but be unsure about the number of the work. I can tell if I've heard it or not, but which one exactly it is... it's difficult.

Of course there are exceptions. Exceptions are those works that I am extremely familiar with, and whose large parts I can instantly recall. But for the rest of the works it's quite hard to remember associations between names and music.

Some factors make it easier to remember this. For example if a work has some very striking and recognizable parts, like Moonlight sonata. It's easy peasy to remember.
Other facilitating factor is having listened to it from a physical CD. The act of buying, inspecting a CD cover and staring at it while listening to music makes it easier to associate the music with the name of the work.

But when I listen to stuff on computer, it's more difficult. It can be difficult even for works I am extremely familiar with and which I have listened to so many times. For example Beethoven symphonies. I have listened to all of them many times. Here's how I remember them:

1st - I know that I like it, I can recognize the music when it's played, but I find it difficult to recall the music when I just think of "Beethoven's First", also upon hearing without knowing what I am listening to, I'd be able to say that it's a Beethoven's symphony, and that it's not 5th, 7th, 9th or 3rd, but I wouldn't be able to say which exactly it is
2nd - the same
3rd - the same
4th - the same
5th - I can recall it at any time and correctly identify it without effort
6th - like 1-4
7th- like 5th
8th - like 1-4
9th - like 5th

Interesting fact is that I heard all of them many times, and I remember MUSIC from all of them very well... but I find it a bit difficult to identify which one I'm listening to, or to recall music from them from memory, without listening...
Exceptions are 5th, 7th and 9th... and to lesser degree 1st, 3rd and 6th, which I can identify and recall much easier.

The difficulty is also in the fact that those are long compositions with 4 movements. I guess if someone made short excerpts from unfamiliar parts of them and have me listen to them, I'd have big problems identifying which excerpt is from which symphony.

How it goes for you?


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

So in short, it's easy to remember and recognize the work... it's difficult to IDENTIFY it (say name when music is heard) and RECALL (think of music when you're given name) it.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

A friend of mine, a musicology major, and pretty decent conductor - knows EVERY Haydn symphony, and on demand, can sing the major themes of any movement of any Haydn symphony!! It's pretty amazing...


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

Heck148 said:


> A friend of mine, a musicology major, and pretty decent conductor - knows EVERY Haydn symphony, and on demand, can sing the major themes of any movement of any Haydn symphony!! It's pretty amazing...


That's an achievement for sure!

For me it's easy to remember if I like certain work or not, so I can know what are my favorites... but associating exact music with names is difficult except for most recognizable works (like Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 for example). (Or things I heard 100 times)


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Heck148 said:


> A friend of mine, a musicology major, and pretty decent conductor - knows EVERY Haydn symphony, and on demand, can sing the major themes of any movement of any Haydn symphony!! It's pretty amazing...


If one knows the score and for that reason also has got a visual association, this ability may be easier to achieve. It has at least helped me a lot of times.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Some people are blessed with phonographic memories, and I'm fortunate to be among them. If I hear a work a few times, on record or in concert, I have it in my head. I can replay the whole thing start to finish in my Concert Hall of the Mind. Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky - it's amazing. And incredibly helpful when I conduct - I don't need to use a score, and I can pick out errors easily because what's being played doesn't jibe with my mental record. Of course, if the source I learned it from made a mistake, then it can backfire. It is frustrating that as I get older, this ability is diminishing - what's there is still good, but assimilating unfamiliar music is really hard.

I grew up thinking everyone could do it and surprised when I found out that if I had any musical gift, that was it. The people I find really amazing are those who can memorize a score completely, and sit down with blank scoring paper and write the thing out. Lorin Maazel had that type of memory. Incredible.

And I know a record collector with a phenomenal ear so acute that if you pop on something like the Beethoven 5th, he can rapidly identify the conductor and orchestra. It's like every record he has bought over the last 60 years is stuck in his head.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

mbhaub said:


> .....I don't need to use a score, and I can pick out errors easily because what's being played doesn't jibe with my mental record.


yes, I can do that pretty easily - I know what is coming, what is supposed to be happening, and if something other than thaty occurs, I notice immediately



> The people I find really amazing are those who can memorize a score completely, and sit down with blank scoring paper and write the thing out. Lorin Maazel had that type of memory. Incredible.


 yes that is a real talent, I've known a few who could do it - Bernstein probably could - in his "Tin Pan Alley" days - he worked creating the fake books used for popular music - on one listening he had the melody, bass line and all the chord changes....



> And I know a record collector with a phenomenal ear so acute that if you pop on something like the Beethoven 5th, he can rapidly identify the conductor and orchestra. It's like every record he has bought over the last 60 years is stuck in his head.


that used to be lots easier, when most major orchestras had a very characteristic sound....tougher now, there is more of a homogeneous "Bb" sound among many orchestras.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

mbhaub, that is fascinating and extraordinary. Some people's brains have almost supernatural abilities. Some can have the ability to perceive numbers as colors or music. If anyone is interested what the brain is capable of, watch this video


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> Some people are blessed with phonographic memories, and I'm fortunate to be among them. If I hear a work a few times, on record or in concert, I have it in my head. I can replay the whole thing start to finish in my Concert Hall of the Mind. Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky - it's amazing. And incredibly helpful when I conduct - I don't need to use a score, and I can pick out errors easily because what's being played doesn't jibe with my mental record. Of course, if the source I learned it from made a mistake, then it can backfire. It is frustrating that as I get older, this ability is diminishing - what's there is still good, but assimilating unfamiliar music is really hard.
> 
> I grew up thinking everyone could do it and surprised when I found out that if I had any musical gift, that was it. The people I find really amazing are those who can memorize a score completely, and sit down with blank scoring paper and write the thing out. Lorin Maazel had that type of memory. Incredible.
> 
> And I know a record collector with a phenomenal ear so acute that if you pop on something like the Beethoven 5th, he can rapidly identify the conductor and orchestra. It's like every record he has bought over the last 60 years is stuck in his head.


Beautiful post! I've noticed that the stronger the emotions connected with the experience, the easier it is to remember. Even if the details of the experience begin to fade, the emotions never do and they can remain for a lifetime.


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## Beet131 (Mar 24, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> Some people are blessed with phonographic memories, and I'm fortunate to be among them. If I hear a work a few times, on record or in concert, I have it in my head. I can replay the whole thing start to finish in my Concert Hall of the Mind. Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky - it's amazing. And incredibly helpful when I conduct - I don't need to use a score, and I can pick out errors easily because what's being played doesn't jibe with my mental record. Of course, if the source I learned it from made a mistake, then it can backfire. *It is frustrating that as I get older, this ability is diminishing - what's there is still good, but assimilating unfamiliar music is really hard.*
> 
> I grew up thinking everyone could do it and surprised when I found out that if I had any musical gift, that was it. The people I find really amazing are those who can memorize a score completely, and sit down with blank scoring paper and write the thing out. Lorin Maazel had that type of memory. Incredible.
> 
> And I know a record collector with a phenomenal ear so acute that if you pop on something like the Beethoven 5th, he can rapidly identify the conductor and orchestra. It's like every record he has bought over the last 60 years is stuck in his head.


What a fortunate gift you have, mbhaub! It is quite amazing how some people's brains work, just awesome! I know what you mean about aging and the diminished ability to recall the mental record. The works that I heard as a young man have stuck with me all these years, and I know them instantly, even hearing them in my mind easily. But now in my late sixties, the music I've become acquainted with in the last ten or fifteen years just doesn't stay with me even if I listen to it twenty or thirty times over a period of a few weeks or a month. I guess as one ages, the pathways of memory become eroded quickly, and that which used to become indelible so quickly now takes much longer to etch in the mind.

Lately, I have taken to the practice of trying to recall as much of a particular piece as I can when I first lay down in bed to go to sleep. It does help me remember it better, and it also helps me fall asleep. Something happens too when I sleep on it. With the next listening I seem more attuned to the nuances. Maybe my brain is ready to accept new information better, and with each new bit their is a slightly deeper etch.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Yes, I used to train myself to remember pieces that I could play it out full in my head, and remember work title from hearing some clips. The problem is sometimes I know a piece so well that listening to the music can’t move me anymore. Especially true with Mozart and Beethoven symphonies and some Romantic music. Some interpretations are more unique and can make me relisten like new. That part is nice.


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## Capeditiea (Feb 23, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> Yes, I used to train myself to remember pieces that I could play it out full in my head, and remember work title from hearing some clips. The problem is sometimes I know a piece so well that listening to the music can't move me anymore. Especially true with Mozart and Beethoven symphonies and some Romantic music. Some interpretations are more unique and can make me relisten like new. That part is nice.


Phil, you never cease to amaze me. 
 plus you are always a few steps ahead of me... in many aspects... 
i recently started to train my self to do this on my favourite pieces and works.

---edited to add
i do this while composing my own songs as well...


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

I used to be very good at musical recall but now as I enter my dotage I find my self saying more and more "Oh what's that called" and I get frustrated when looking for a CD not knowing what it is filed under, and there was another thing but I forgot what it was...


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Dan Ante said:


> I used to be very good at musical recall but now as I enter my dotage I find my self saying more and more "Oh what's that called" and I get frustrated when looking for a CD not knowing what it is filed under, and there was another thing but I forgot what it was...


Age is a real factor. I can identify music I got to know up until my forties. Since then I can remember the music well enough after a hearing or two but am not so good and remembering what it is. The compensation, though, is that as I get older I can "digest" music much more easily and quickly. When once I might have needed to listen to a piece a good few times before it was properly and enjoyably in my mind, I can now get there much more quickly. I think this is because I have a much stronger familiarity with the composer's musical language.


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