# Will we stop enjoying our pandemic music?



## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Don't know about everyone, but during the pandemic I've listened to several pieces that are new to me, a couple new composers, and old favorites. Just wondering, in the future when covid is presumably over, will we be able to enjoy the music we are listening to now, or will it bring back bad memories?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

adriesba said:


> Don't know about everyone, but during the pandemic I've listened to several pieces that are new to me, a couple new composers, and old favorites. Just wondering, in the future when covid is presumably over, will we be able to enjoy the music we are listening to now, or will it bring back bad memories?


Only the future will tell......


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Since the music was a welcome escape from being bored and vaguely annoyed, I will say no. I also can't point to any particular piece as being "pandemic related." I started my classical deep dive before the beginning of this year, and I doubt I will be "finished" any time soon.


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## caracalla (Feb 19, 2020)

Luckily, I have no reason to nurse especially bad memories of the pandemic - it's been a bore, but hasn't come close to home and there have been far more difficult periods in my life. Indeed, the ample leisure I've had to explore new music has been a major upside of the lockdowns. I'll probably recall when I first became acquainted with the many new discoveries this has thrown up, but can't imagine seeing them as 'tainted' in any way.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I do not know, but I know music is the most important thing so far. If anything does not serve music, it should be exterminated, if anything serves, anything, it is welcomed.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Since I am currently teleworking, I have the option of listening to music while I work, which I never really have when I am physically in the office (since I dislike headphones for the most part, and especially for an extended period). I have generally listened to the local classical radio station, but I have also acquired a good many (arguably too many) recordings, some just as recommended performances of works I already know but also some of composers with whom I was unfamiliar. Assuming that we ever get back to something approaching normalcy, I do not expect to have this luxury of listening time in anything like the abundance I currently enjoy (at least until I retire). And for now, music is very much helping me to remain sane (if I may be so presumptuous as to assume that I am). I do not think that I will associate any of this music with bad feelings about our current challenges.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I doubt it. I have been listening to a lot of new music - modern symphonies and such. Some excellent, most not. The good ones I'll keep on the play list. And I've picked up some of those big boxes and listened to some music I've never heard before and boy, there's a lot of great stuff out there. The most recent was the Hanssler Mendelssohn box - not everything he wrote but the vast majority of it. Great, great music. Will revisit many times.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Will it even end? I doubt.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I fear that COVID-19, like most strains of the ‘flu’ virus, will be with us in perpetuity. We will learn to live with it and survive it.

As for music, I have revisited old favourites and discovered new stuff, classical and non-classical. Truth to tell I have some domestic situations over which I have no control that are focusing my attention elsewhere and music is a welcome escape.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm not worried about enjoying recorded music. But will there be any infrastructure or musical organizations left to perform live music when things are safe to resume? It could be another year or more of waiting around while people go broke.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Covid has made little difference to my listening as I've been working throughout. The only way my listening will change is when I retire or if I ever become single again.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My listening regimen hasn't changed at all, so the answer is "no".


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

I like to listen to groups of works: a particular composer and type of piece repeating the ones I like. It gives me structure. With the pandemic, and being retired now, staying focused is especially important. Currently listening to D'Indy, Chausson, Chaminade.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Merl said:


> Covid has made little difference to my listening as I've been working throughout. The only way my listening will change is when I retire or if I ever become single again.


I'd like for you to unpack this, Merl. How would your listening change if you became single?


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

adriesba said:


> Don't know about everyone, but during the pandemic I've listened to several pieces that are new to me, a couple new composers, and old favorites. Just wondering, in the future when covid is presumably over, will we be able to enjoy the music we are listening to now, or will it bring back bad memories?


If anything, the music I listen to today will remind me of the joy it brought me previous.

No associations with anything negative affects the experience or memory of my music.


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## Ich muss Caligari werden (Jul 15, 2020)

I'm retired and stick closer to home in flu season even in the best of times. So Covid has just made my seclusion that much more restrictive and affected my buying as I'm out and about less (read: hardly at all!). Consistently, I've had trouble ordering music in the mail so haven't been much induced to do that. I expect my listening habits will remain pretty much the same except that lately there's been a lotta "comfort listening," that is, works that bring special pleasure or delight or evoke happy memories. When our situation improves (_if_ it improves, that is; I agree with those who are skeptical about any return to normalcy within the next few years) I think my listening will become more challenging and - hopefully - more contemporary. And I've never personally had negative associations with music of any kind - at least, that would affect listening choices.


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## Ich muss Caligari werden (Jul 15, 2020)

JAS said:


> Since I am currently teleworking, I have the option of listening to music while I work, which I never really have when I am physically in the office (since I dislike headphones for the most part, and especially for an extended period). I have generally listened to the local classical radio station, but I have also acquired a good many (arguably too many) recordings, some just as recommended performances of works I already know but also some of composers with whom I was unfamiliar. Assuming that we ever get back to something approaching normalcy, I do not expect to have this luxury of listening time in anything like the abundance I currently enjoy (at least until I retire). And for now, music is very much helping me to remain sane (if I may be so presumptuous as to assume that I am). I do not think that I will associate any of this music with bad feelings about our current challenges.


I'm right with you re: headphones - conceptually they make sense, but never found any comfortable and do not like 'warm ear syndrome.'


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Man some of the pessimistic replies caught me off guard, lol. :lol: I'm usually the pessimistic one, but I'll be optimistic and say that I think things will be decently normal again even if it takes longer than preferred or expected. I am worried though.

Maybe it's just me, but sometimes if I listen to certain music, it reminds me of something I don't like and makes me not want to listen to it. Just today I listened to a Chopin waltz and was reminded of being sick on the couch. I don't really remember what the memory was, but the music awakened long lost feelings.


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

adriesba said:


> Don't know about everyone, but during the pandemic I've listened to several pieces that are new to me, a couple new composers, and old favorites. Just wondering, in the future when covid is presumably over, will we be able to enjoy the music we are listening to now, or will it bring back bad memories?


My apocalypse listening has been more due to utter disgust with the current state of our western culture and the accompanying need to give it as little attention as humanly possible. So I'd like to say no change. That said, I seriously doubt the current state of lockdowns, etc will change. We should change the name to covid-infinity


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I remember being sick in bed the first few times I listened to my new recording of the Mahler Fifth (only my second Mahler symphony at the time -- I was about 14 or 15). If I think about it, I can still recall the setting and feeling (this was in the mid-'60s). But it didn't and hasn't seemed to affect my reaction to or appreciation of the work.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

MarkW said:


> I remember being sick in bed the first few times I listened to my new recording of the Mahler Fifth (only my second Mahler symphony at the time -- I was about 14 or 15). If I think about it, I can still recall the setting and feeling (this was in the mid-'60s). But it didn't and hasn't seemed to affect my reaction to or appreciation of the work.


Perhaps if you listen to the piece a few times and don't focus on the memory you've come to associate with it, you can get rid of the undesired feeling. It's interesting how our brains make these connections though.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Will we stop enjoying our pandemic music?*

That may depend upon the success of the virus.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I didnt listen to classical music in general for a long time until this Crisis started and now I listen every day so yeah...


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Ariasexta said:


> I do not know, but I know music is the most important thing so far. If anything does not serve music, it should be exterminated, if anything serves, anything, it is welcomed.


This is a good way of thinking. I second it!


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

adriesba said:


> Just wondering, in the future when covid is presumably over, will we be able to enjoy the music we are listening to now, or will it bring back bad memories?


Not for me.

I have almost never emotionally connect the music I listen to, to what else is going on in my life.

This goes for having nostalgic feelings when I listen to something I was listening to during particularly good times of my life, or negative feelings connected to music I was listening to during bad times.

For me, music is self contained to whatever the emotional content of the music itself.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Nope. This pandemic won't ruin music for me.

This extended downtime has afforded me the luxury of hearing music I'd normally not have had the time to hear. 

I'd gotten to hear things I'd not ever heard before. 

Nope. This pandemic won't ruin music for me. Well, except for all the videos on social media of people singing at me from their pandemic roosts trying to "cheer me up" in the face of a pandemic. Gawd, stop with the songs of positivity, will ya? Stop sharing your damn musical theatre numbers.

So many "virtual concerts" that I've been invited to. I've actively pursued watching just one . . . a friend gave a virtual organ concert . . . he pre-taped all the pieces (some had guest musicians), and then he had a live feed of him at the organ, introducing each piece, with little fun facts about them. That was nice.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

All I know is that the Concertgebouw recording of Tchaikovsky's 5th with Bychkov is certainly a keeper.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

Flamme said:


> Will it even end? I doubt.


As always, these are the good old days.


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## SearsPoncho (Sep 23, 2020)

I've derived great enjoyment from Mozart's Wind Serenades, which have done much to sustain me during this unusual year. Of course there is the great "Gran Partita," lovingly played by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (Marriner). I'm also particularly fond of the K388 and K375 Wind Serenades and a recording by the Scottish National Orchestra Wind Ensemble conducted by Paavo Jarvi, which I picked up for $6. It's not Mozart's most profound music, but I adore these Wind Serenades, and I will not stop enjoying them.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

adriesba said:


> Perhaps if you listen to the piece a few times and don't focus on the memory you've come to associate with it, you can get rid of the undesired feeling. It's interesting how our brains make these connections though.


Where on earth are you...we missing you .


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