# I struggle a lot listening to the baroque/classical era and I don't know why



## PresenTense (May 7, 2016)

I listen to works from the romanticism, 20th Century and contemporary era. But when it comes to the baroque and classical stuff, I struggle a lot. I get bored of it quickly. I don't know why. I like experimental stuff, avant-garde as they say. Sometimes I even struggle with romanticism.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Concentration is everything. Many people listen to music without any concentration expecting to be entertained by music, CM is different. I don't say CM isn't entertaining therefore is boring, but what I'm saying is that one should put one's attention to it while listening, some people here call it an effort, etc.

CM is compared to reading a book. One can't read it without making at least a minimal effort, should focus on what an author wanted to convey, etc, the same is valid for CM.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

helenora said:


> Concentration is everything. Many people listen to music without any concentration expecting to be entertained by music, CM is different. I don't say CM isn't entertaining therefore is boring, but what I'm saying is that one should put one's attention to it while listening, some people here call it an effort, etc.


I actually find the opposite, especially with baroque music. It's the perfect thing to put on in the background. Lots of repetition, not too much dynamic contrast, highly structured--it's easy to tune in and out. If I want some music on while I'm doing some reading or something else that takes concentration, I'll generally reach for the Goldberg Variations.

I'm not saying this is the best way to listen to music, of course.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Does it matter if you don't like Baroque? 
All the same, there are pieces that deliver the unexpected, by Rebel, Biber, Pandolfi Mealli & their ilk. 
Or you could take something you know - baroque or modern - and try to find something 'unexpected' in each new listening experience.

Happy listening, whatever it is. :tiphat:


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## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

Maybe it's because when listening to contemporary music one expects variety & peculiarity while baroque composer had to work inside a closed form (with some exceptions). 
So music may sound more predictable on the surface, but I guess if you get more familiar with some of the XVIII cent. musical vocabulary you'll start to appreciate each different nuance. 
Another thing is that composers in the XIX and XX cent. were less prolific: each work had to be a "work of art", meanwhile baroque composers such as Telemann Vivaldi or even Bach wrote a lot of occasional stuff. Sometimes the composer wasn't asked to produce anything innovative. 
Also he was considered most of the times no more than a good artisan. 
In order to appreciate baroque and classical we should forget about later music. Just my 2 cents.


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## Zefiro Torna (Nov 17, 2016)

Your unhappy emoticon in the title is making me sad too 

If you don't like it, why keep struggling? You are either frustrated or kind of proud for not "getting" the music. I can tell you right now that Haydn didn't wrote many clusters.

Check the works of (already mentioned) Biber and CPE Bach, unpredictable and (yes) avant-garde.

It will be more interesting if you got specific: what works and recordings have you tried? Some albums can make the music of those periods sound fluffy and inconsequential. Also, if you are very used to big sound and full orchestra (or don't listen to much chamber music) the scaled down nature of baroque and early classical can be an issue. It can definitely be a more subtle kind of music than what came after.

You didn't mention medieval and renaissance music. Another topic perhaps? 



sloth said:


> Another thing is that composers in the XIX and XX cent. were less prolific: each work had to be a "work of art", meanwhile baroque composers such as Telemann Vivaldi or even Bach wrote a lot of occasional stuff. Sometimes the composer wasn't asked to produce anything innovative.
> Also he was considered most of the times no more than a good artisan.
> In order to appreciate baroque and classical we should forget about later music. Just my 2 cents.


Can't agree with that, obscuring a part of the art to enjoy another is just a cop out. The rest i get, even if on demand music isn't worse than Art for Art's sake music.
For all the repeated motives in the music of Vivaldi or Telemann, there's also a bold freshness spurred from being free of scrutiny. They were *sure* that no one would ever compare (let alone listen) to the majority of their outputs. Hell, they probably didn't remember by heart much of the details from their previous compositions anyway.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Like what you like. Don't force yourself to conform to what you are "supposed to like". Nobody's looking over your shoulder.


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## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

Zefiro Torna said:


> Can't agree with that, obscuring a part of the art to enjoy another is just a cop out. The rest i get, even if on demand music isn't worse than Art for Art's sake music.
> For all the repeated motives in the music of Vivaldi or Telemann, there's also a bold freshness spurred from being free of scrutiny. They were *sure* that no one would ever compare (let alone listen) to the majority of their outputs. Hell, they probably didn't remember by heart much of the details from their previous compositions anyway.


I totally agree with your point. Maybe my position wasn't totally clear. In fact I'm mostly a baroque & renaissance listener. 
I guess that from Beethoven onwards the role of the composer in the society has changed greatly. Beethoven wrote his music because he believed he was a genius. Bach considered himself simply a hard working man, that's all. I'm with Bach here as I don't get that genius thing


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

PresenTense said:


> I listen to works from the romanticism, 20th Century and contemporary era. But when it comes to the baroque and classical stuff, I struggle a lot. I get bored of it quickly. I don't know why. I like experimental stuff, avant-garde as they say. Sometimes I even struggle with romanticism.


Do not lose sleep over it, just listen things you do like.


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## Zefiro Torna (Nov 17, 2016)

sloth said:


> I totally agree with your point. Maybe my position wasn't totally clear. In fact I'm mostly a baroque & renaissance listener.
> I guess that from Beethoven onwards the role of the composer in the society has changed greatly. Beethoven wrote his music because he believed he was a genius. Bach considered himself simply a hard working man, that's all. I'm with Bach here as I don't get that genius thing


Sure, I just wanted to zero in the something you've said, as I've got a felling that PresenTense thinks in the history of music as an history of "development".
I would be very surprised if Bach didn't recognized some of his genius, even with all the Soli Deo Gloria. 
Beethoven got lucky about thinking himself as a genius, because he totally was one!


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## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

Of course Bach knew he was a great musician. But I don't think he considered himself a genius. I don't quite like the expression "genius"... I feel that this idea is the product of the Romantic Era... 
It's your life experience that counts: a fertile environment produces great art (there should have been some strange magical radiations in the german-austrian area between 1685- 1770 :lol: ) 
Besides I'm more interested in music not in its maker. after all what remains is the music.


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## Katedreamer (Nov 22, 2016)

Try to listen to individual melodic lines, if you're listening to Bach. He's a good starting point. His Art of Fugue is very engaging when you concentrate on the melodies. Very emotionally charged too.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

PresenTense said:


> I listen to works from the romanticism, 20th Century and contemporary era. But when it comes to the baroque and classical stuff, I struggle a lot. I get bored of it quickly. I don't know why.


I'm the same way. Must be the strict formulas they adhere to? Or the conventional harmonies? A lot of baroque music sounds very similar. I'm only interested in the superior stuff with great melodies. I like classical era even less.

There's a baroque harpsichord compilation on Sony that has a lot of good stuff on it. It has the stupid name Greatest Hits, but I recommend it. https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Hit...129&sr=1-1&keywords=harpsichord+greatest+hits


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## Richard8655 (Feb 19, 2016)

I think I prefer Baroque over later periods because of its reserved elegance, as I think of it. It has its strict adherence to rules and forms of the period, granted, but that didn't stifle creativity or originality. In a way how a chess game is cerebral and analytical, yet beautiful in its order and execution. Much of Romantic period music is too sentimental and schmaltzy to me, especially Tchaikovsky.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Interesting how many in this (and other) thread(s) describe the Baroque period. It often seems that they're only talking about J.S. Bach.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> Interesting how many in this (and other) thread(s) describe the Baroque period. It often seems that they're only talking about J.S. Bach.


Did you not see the poll about favourite music in periods?
Contemporary leads.


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## LesCyclopes (Sep 16, 2016)

Richard8655 said:


> I think I prefer Baroque over later periods... In a way how a chess game is cerebral and analytical, yet beautiful in its order and execution. Much of Romantic period music is too sentimental and schmaltzy to me, especially Tchaikovsky.


Exactly.

And for this very reason, I can't listen to Baroque music in the background if I am to focus on something else - work, reading, whatever. If I am listening to Baroque music, I am following different melodies at the same time and REALLY listening to the music, to the exclusion of everything else.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Like any and all genres of music, there are pieces that will please you in both Baroque and Classical idioms. I would try to locate those pieces and focus on them as personal favorites, without bothering to either applaud or condemn the particular genre in which they fall. What counts always is personal enjoyment. I find a lot of Baroque and Classical that rings no bell for me (I find an almost infinite amount of such uninteresting music in every genre) but choose to concentrate on what I like, and what I like, I like a lot.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

well, the fact of the matter is that you bring with you your side of the aesthetic experience. If the music doesn't speak to you, then it doesn't. 

remember, when it comes to whether or not you like something or find it interesting, its not the music, its you 

so what's the difference if you don't like listening to baroque music? you are entitled to develop your own tastes


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

LesCyclopes said:


> Exactly.
> 
> And for this very reason, I can't listen to Baroque music in the background if I am to focus on something else - work, reading, whatever. If I am listening to Baroque music, I am following different melodies at the same time and REALLY listening to the music, to the exclusion of everything else.


I can't listen to music and do something else, either.


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