# About Listening



## amirjsi (Apr 11, 2007)

Hello, everyone...

I have a been listening to classical music for about ten years now. I have sampled and experienced a great deal of music since. Before that, I never listened to music: nothing was interesting. The reason that I did not come to classical music earlier is that I live in Saudi Arabia, hardly a place you would associate with classical music.

Anyhow, I have this thing in mind. Why is it that sometimes I can hear music so clearly and sometimes not so much? Sometimes I can hear the melodies, but am unable to relate the different parts to one another, at some other times I can manipulate and enjoy every twist, slur and nuance. Is this something common? Do you get "periods of clarity"?

Please keep in mind that I have no formal music training. And I still find it trying to attempt and tell a rondo from a fugue.

Anyone got any ideas about that?


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## Mark Harwood (Mar 5, 2007)

I wonder whether you mean different pieces, or whether the same piece makes more or less sense at different times? Interesting question either way.


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## amirjsi (Apr 11, 2007)

I mean the same piece, yes. Sometimes it makes perfect sense... absolute clarity, the structure and the interplaying of instruments, the variations and rhythm all making a perfect tapestry. Yet at other times, suddenly the same piece would not integrate so well together. You can still hear the elements individually, but you can no longer see that common thread that blends them together.

Does that make any sense to you?


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## The Mad Hatter (Feb 20, 2007)

Another question: do you mean different parts of the same recording, or different recordings of the same piece?

Um...it kind of depends on the instrument(s) as well...


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

> I mean the same piece, yes. Sometimes it makes perfect sense... absolute clarity, the structure and the interplaying of instruments, the variations and rhythm all making a perfect tapestry. Yet at other times, suddenly the same piece would not integrate so well together. You can still hear the elements individually, but you can no longer see that common thread that blends them together.


Those times you can not hear as with perfect sense... are you sort of... intoxicated?

(There's a fellow poster in other board that recently came up with the idea that when he is drunk he can get a more clear perception of music; perhaps your case is the opposite).



> Does that make any sense to you?


In my particular case and vision of your situation... No, it doesn't make sense. I have some sort of _absolute perception_. I recently listened Nielsen's 6th for the first time in about 14 months, and discovered I don't like it anymore (or at least doesn't seem interesting anymore); the strange thing is this symphony used to be in my top 10s about two years ago. So I used to like it, and don't get it anymore... but it's not cyclical.

(However, I do hope to like that symphony once again some time; because I really enjoyed it in the past).


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