# Entire piece or movement



## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

Hello,

I'm new to this site, so I'm guessing this could have been covered before. I was interested if you had any qualms about people listening to just a particular movement of a piece they liked, instead of its entirety?

Personally, I think you'd have to be one obstinate stuffy individual to have a problem with it.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> Personally, I think you'd have to be one obstinate stuffy individual to have a problem with it.


Well, that's one way to start a discussion and end it at the same time.

Welcome to the site. Personally, I can't imagine doing it, but whatever floats your boat.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

*^*
Nothing to add then + 1 .


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

So you liken it to watching a film or reading a book? Are you telling me if you only like one movement of a whole piece, you'll still listen to all of it?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> So you liken it to watching a film or reading a book? Are you telling me if you only like one movement of a whole piece, you'll still listen to all of it?


Reading a book, with lets say 300 pages is something different then listen to just one piece on a CD, so yes.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> I was interested if you had any qualms about people listening to just a particular movement of a piece they liked, instead of its entirety?


there was discussion of this topic fairly recently, IIRC.....

I've no problem with it at all, I do it all the time. I will listen to one or two mvts of a work, or a single scene, or act from an opera...no problem at all. like chapters of a book, these are all single units in themselves, complete musical thoughts, part of the whole.


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

So yes, you'll listen to a whole piece of music even if you only like one movement?


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> So yes, you'll listen to a whole piece of music even if you only like one movement?


Me?? No, I listen to individual mvts, not the whole piece, whenever the spirit moves me...


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Piece or movement? Hm. It depends. Am I in the concert hall itself, or the restroom?



Somebody had to introduce you to the dark side of TC (or maybe it's the _dreck_ side), so I thought I'd step up and just get it over with. Welcome! Enjoy! As to your question, whatever you want, or have time for.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Pugg said:


> *^*
> Nothing to add then + 1 .


Then why add it?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Becca said:


> Then why add it?


Again personal , very classy.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

I listen to whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I even listen to parts of a movement that I like the most!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> So you liken it to watching a film or reading a book? Are you telling me if you only like one movement of a whole piece, you'll still listen to all of it?


I can't think of a single composition where I like only one movement. There are very few where I personally don't mind if I hear only one movement (e.g. adagietto from Mahler's 5th), but none where I would on purpose skip the rest.


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

Ok, fair enough, just interested.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

I'm not stuffy. Go ahead and do it. But I personally almost never just listen to a single movement of a multi-movement composition. About the only time I do so is when the recording itself only has a single movement.


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

Yes, maybe I should've qualified that with "if you're leisurely sat at home in your pj's".


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

I generally prefer to listen to a work all the way through. Even if a particular movement is my favorite, I find that it often works better in the original context. I would certainly not be adverse to listening to a single movement if I really disliked the others, or if there was some reason I wanted to focus on that movement. (And I have been known to go back and replay a single movement on a new CD if it really knocked my socks off.) 

Even for Wagner's orchestral music, for scenes between the singing of the operas, it often takes on a different feeling in the overall context of the full opera. (Although I still also like what some call the "great bleeding chunks" on their own.)

I believe that it was not an uncommon practice at one point to include single movements in public concerts, just as some acting troupes performed "highlights" of Shakespeare's plays. (And, as Dickens notes, they sometimes altered the plays to have a happy ending.)


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

I suppose this becomes more of an issue if one is using a shuffle mode on something like an mp3 player. (I am still very old-fashioned, and like my CDs.)


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

Well, if you think CDs are old-fashioned, you can't be very old (Unless you're some hip happening trendy OAP), I'm 36, so I still remember LP's.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> Well, if you think CDs are old-fashioned, you can't be very old (Unless you're some hip happening trendy OAP), I'm 36, so I still remember LP's.


They are old-fashioned by today's standards, when everyone else seems to be going to downloads (of varying quality).


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I generally don't listen to works with movements I dislike, and I prefer those in which the movements are part of an indecomposable whole. I listen to complete multi-movement works. The exception is when I am in analytic mode, in which case I will listen to an individual movement repeatedly, sometimes jumping around within the movement to critical passages.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> I listen to whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I even listen to parts of a movement that I like the most!


Nice! A Libertarian!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: My advice to you is have a good cuppa tea, settle down, relax and listen to whatever the heck you want to listen to.

There are NO RULES!

I prefer listening to complete works, but that's just me! Not etched in stone!


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

Well, it's a good job "I'm not like everybody else" then. I think downloads have their place, but I prefer the physical copy, especially if it's something I really like.


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## HaveACuppaTea (Mar 12, 2017)

hpowders said:


> OP: My advice to you is have a good cuppa tea, settle down, relax and listen to whatever the heck you want to listen to.
> 
> There are NO RULES!
> 
> I prefer listening to complete works, but that's just me! Not etched in stone!


Don't worry, I'll listen to what I want regardless, just interested in other peoples listening habits and opinions.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

HaveACuppaTea said:


> Don't worry, I'll listen to what I want regardless, just interested in other peoples listening habits and opinions.


Okay. I've never been much for "excerpts". I like playing entire symphonies and concertos.

However, when encountering a new piece, I am all for excerpting.

Example: A few years ago I encountered Schoenberg's Piano Concerto for the first time. I listened to it for several months-playing the first movement by itself over and over for weeks; then the same with the second movement by itself and finally just the third movement.

After that, I felt comfortable enough with the music to play the complete work and that's how I listen to it now-all three movements complete.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Depends on the work for me. No problem with listening to individual movements in the Planets. I tried that with Shosty's Leningrad, and it didn't work out. Sometimes you know a piece so well, a few seconds in the middle somewhere will get you going no problem.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I generally prefer to listen to entire works rather than separate movements. I enjoy analyzing how each movement fits into the whole work; it's intellectually pleasurable for me to examine how the individual parts combine into a unified whole. Therefore, even when a particular movement doesn't appeal to me, I still enjoy listening to it and thinking about how it compares or contrasts with the other movements in that same work.


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

I think there are no rules, of course. In my case I tend to be a little like HaveACuppaTea and like listening to individual movements. It doesn't mean I don't like the hole work, but I can be in the mood for an allegro but not for an adagio.

It's even more common in operas. When You're listening to highligts You're simply forgetting the rest of the opera and many times You're taking out of context that piece.


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

Bettina said:


> I generally prefer to listen to entire works rather than separate movements. I enjoy analyzing how each movement fits into the whole work; it's intellectually pleasurable for me to examine how the individual parts combine into a unified whole. Therefore, even when a particular movement doesn't appeal to me, I still enjoy listening to it and thinking about how it compares or contrasts with the other movements in that same work.


Good point I never thought of it


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Heck, I'm so unstuffy and nonobstinate that I'll listen to a part of a movement, since I know perfectly well how the rest of it goes. In fact, I may for the same reason listen to nothing at all.


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