# Music reviews/commentaries



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

What are your favorite kinds of reviews to read? I like reviews/commentaries that give near blow by blow accounts of different sections of the movements. What would a good and helpful review of a piece look like, one that is informative and doesn't just offer opinion, something that entices one to listen to the piece for its perceptive and evocative commentary? Or are reviews best read by those who have heard the piece already? I think that's not necessarily the case, as I read my program notes at the symphony and often find them helpful for getting myself in the zone for appreciating a new work. 

Do you think we should write reviews/commentaries on talkclassical more often? What should these reviews look like if we want others to listen to our music. What kind of reviews would you feel like responding to?


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> What are your favorite kinds of reviews to read? I like reviews/commentaries that give near blow by blow accounts of different sections of the movements. What would a good and helpful review of a piece look like, one that is informative and doesn't just offer opinion, *something that entices one to listen to the piece for its perceptive and evocative commentary?* Or are reviews best read by those who have heard the piece already? I think that's not necessarily the case, as I read my program notes at the symphony and often find them helpful for getting myself in the zone for appreciating a new work.
> 
> Do you think we should write reviews/commentaries on talkclassical more often? What should these reviews look like if we want others to listen to our music. What kind of reviews would you feel like responding to?


That's my favorite kind to read.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

The most helpful kinds of reviews I have read also say something about the form of the piece.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Blow-by-blow reviews are boring. "The first movement has this enchanting glissando, and then..." Who cares. Children write like that. "To what end?"; that's what I'm interested in.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'll take any insight I can get into a piece. But what I really like these days is, what makes this piece special to the listener? So I guess I'm going with perceptive and evocative.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I think that we should each take care to thoroughly reviews of non operatic pieces of substantial length in an educational thread. We should have a certain standard of reviewing quality, so thank you for your feedback so far. I'm not an expert on this, but I think it would be a great project. We already have list projects going on, but I don't think this kind of project would compete with that sort of thing. I haven't thought the project out yet, but I think I'd like to recruit various people to write reviews for such a thread. I suppose the first thing to do is to start with a thread.


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