# Unknown Music



## Brad (Mar 27, 2014)

I was listening to my local classical radio station. When I first turned the station on, it was in the middle of a piano trio that I really began to enjoy (I had never heard it before). As always, I played a little game of guessing who composed it. It sounded richly romantic, and I could tell that it was probably from the late 1800s. Brahms, perhaps? I looked on the radio website and was somewhat surprised. Turns out it was Saint-Saens' first in F major. His music usually bores me, but this music was full of beauty and charm. 

I realized that if I had known who the composer was when I first started listening to the trio, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much since I already thought of his music as boring. I was able to experience the music for what it was, not for who wrote it or when.

Have you had a similar experience? Do you prefer knowing exactly what you're listening to? Or do you think having no info on what you're listening to makes you more open to that music?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Brad, happens all the time. I think we often dismiss music based on what we think of the composer. And maybe the more music we know, the more likely we are to do that.

Some of my happiest "discoveries" over the last few years have been less well-known works of composers I didn't much admire.


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## Dave Whitmore (Oct 3, 2014)

I gues it's easy to do. Most composers seem to have anything from dozens to hundreds of pieces of music to their name. When I first started listening to classical I went through watching videos of music from each of the major composers whose names I already knew. I listened to a couple from Brahms. I didn't enjoy them too much so I stopped. I don't remember which ones I listened to. Last night, after reading several posts on him, I tried his first symphony and enjoyed it so much I listened to 2 and 3 as well. Most composers wrote so much music that it's pretty much impossible that you wouldn't like them all. Yet we judge them on the first 2 or 3 pieces of their music we hear. I did, anyway. Lesson learned.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Brad said:


> I was listening to my local classical radio station. When I first turned the station on, it was in the middle of a piano trio that I really began to enjoy (I had never heard it before). As always, I played a little game of guessing who composed it. It sounded richly romantic, and I could tell that it was probably from the late 1800s. Brahms, perhaps? I looked on the radio website and was somewhat surprised. *Turns out it was Saint-Saens' first in F major. His music usually bores me, but this music was full of beauty and charm. *
> I realized that if I had known who the composer was when I first started listening to the trio, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much since I already thought of his music as boring. I was able to experience the music for what it was, not for who wrote it or when.
> 
> Have you had a similar experience? Do you prefer knowing exactly what you're listening to? Or do you think having no info on what you're listening to makes you more open to that music?


I can't effectively say anything much about "unknown music", but I have always found Saint-Saens to be one of my favorite composers and I tend to love everything the man has written ... except for maybe the _Carnival of the Animals_.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I know a few truly great pieces that are very atypical of the composer who wrote them,...but I'm not going to mention them because then they would no longer be unknown to many of the posters here. I will leave you to the joy of discovering them for yourself.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Sometimes, a composer has one really well-known piece to their name which people grow tired of, and so they claim to dislike the composer. Then, someone hears one of their other pieces and loves it.
Perfect Example: Pachelbel


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## Brad (Mar 27, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> I can't effectively say anything much about "unknown music", but I have always found Saint-Saens to be one of my favorite composers and I tend to love everything the man has written ... except for maybe the _Carnival of the Animals_.


Hey don't get me wrong, I really do like Saint-Saens! He's just more hit-and-miss for me. I realized that I was judging him for the works of his that I don't enjoy (second piano concerto being one). I kinda narrowed my view and haven't given him enough time.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

I know what you mean. I like to listen to music 'blind' without knowing
the name of the composer or the piece being played.

Internet radio stations like Pandora are good for this as they don't have dj's to introduce the music, you have to read the playlist to find out what you're listening to.

The other day I heard a beautiful piece of music I had never heard before. I would have bet my last dollar that it was Sibelius. When I checked it turned out to be Wagner's overture to Lohengrin.

I've resisted listening to Wagner before now for various reasons. Seems I've been missing some fine music.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

It doesn't happen often but it's a joy when it does. If you told me a Mozart piece was Haydn, I'd enjoy it a whole lot more and then still enjoy it after discovering the truth. This is partially how I came to appreciate the classical or operatic style of singing. I tried to convince my brain that I was hearing a very sophisticated theremin when it's a soprano. This was the gateway although I'm still not 100% on board with that singing style.

Hmmm . . . Maybe I need to label my Schoenberg mp3s as Emerson, Lake and Palmer or something. 

There are similar effects, as in when one of our prominent TC members began pointing out sub-par compositional techniques in Max Bruch and Anton Rubinstein, those composers no longer sound as impressive to me. (I still enjoy them though.) Oddly the other way around does not work. You can tell me for months on end that something is great and ingenious to no avail. I have to "get" it on my own.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Years ago I turned on the radio, hearing the slow movement of an exquisitely beautiful violin concerto. And then somewhat thorny but spectacular virtuoso last movement. I just had to know who composed this, so even though I had to go somewhere, I waited to hear who the composer was.

Turned out to be Samuel Barber's violin concerto, a work that is not difficult to fall in love with, though it perhaps does not withstand repeated listening quite as well as, say, Brahms.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> I can't effectively say anything much about "unknown music", but I have always found Saint-Saens to be one of my favorite composers and I tend to love everything the man has written ... except for maybe the _Carnival of the Animals_.


If consciousness lives on after death, then you have just made one man very pleased indeed.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

brianvds said:


> Years ago I turned on the radio, hearing the slow movement of an exquisitely beautiful violin concerto. And then somewhat thorny but spectacular virtuoso last movement. I just had to know who composed this, so even though I had to go somewhere, I waited to hear who the composer was.
> 
> Turned out to be Samuel Barber's violin concerto, a work that is not difficult to fall in love with, though it perhaps does not withstand repeated listening quite as well as, say, Brahms.


:lol: As I was reading your first paragraph, I was thinking, "That sounds a lot like Barber's violin concerto." And then I read your second paragraph.

Hey, I can take any confirmation of my intelligence I can get, even if none of it is entirely necessary.

And, for whatever it's worth, I listen to the Barber much more frequently than I listen to the Brahms. And Brahms pleases me overall much more than Barber does.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Actually makes me realize it's been a long time since I heard something unknown. What a shame.


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