# Getting to Know New Music



## JSK (Dec 31, 2008)

How do you all listen to unfamiliar pieces of music? I often have trouble keeping focused while listening to a new piece. I love what I know, but getting to know stuff is often a big problem for me, and I often put off listening to unfamiliar works that I should be familiar with.


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2008)

Keep listening. Don't be afraid of listening to new things. (Or should I say, don't be afraid of not "getting" new pieces right away.)

There will come a time when you no longer feel like you have trouble keeping focused, but that time will never come if you stick only with what you already know.

In short, there's no trick or technique to it, just experience.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

JSK said:


> I often have trouble keeping focused while listening to a new piece. I love what I know, but getting to know stuff is often a big problem for me


I have a similar problem myself, and always have had. It's not uncommon for me to get almost nothing from the first two listenings to something new and 'different'. (I'd have been completely stuck in the days before recordings.)

What I often do, with a new piece on CD, is play it effectively 'in the background' while I'm doing something else (at least in the first instance, and often in the second instance, too), and not worry about 'keeping focused'. Enough seems to get through, subliminally, (and bits may grab my attention) for the piece to feel familar after a couple of listenings like that, and it gets easier to come to grips with it - at least, as well as I ever come to grips with _anything_.

There are some pieces, of course, that I never manage to get anywhere with at all.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I think our multitasking society has changed our focus abilities within my lifetime. I remember I used to get a new album and it was a long drawn out ritual to slice the plastic outer wrap with a small knife down the little groove of the cover opening, carefully take the album out, breathe in the new vinyl smell, read a little of the liner notes, then put on side one and settle in to a musical journey for 20 minutes or so, read the rest of the liner notes and put on side two, etc.

Now I just turn on the computer I have dedicated to music playback (it's too old to do much else) and it loads up whatever playlists I'm in the mood for and I can barely focus at all on the music - it's often just wallpaper. It's like the ritual is gone in the digital age.

For all that, I'm trying to put aside time to really _listen_ to one large scale work per week with the focus I used to have. It could be a symphony or a chamber piece, but some longish mutli-movement piece where I have access to some annotations, maybe through allmusic.com. There's something about doing a little reading on the piece first that helps clue me in to what I'm supposed to listening for.

I've really enjoyed doing that - speaking of which I have time toinight, what with the holiday and no work tomorrow. What shall I choose I wonder?

Ahh - Franz Liszt, Piano Concerto No. 2 (Esa-Pekka Salonen / Philharmonia Orchestra / Emanuel Ax, piano) after reading these annotations:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=42:186482~T1

See you in 30 minutes . . .


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

I very seldom have music playing in the background. I always sit down and listen. Doesn't matter whether it's something I'm familiar with or something new. Doesn't matter whether it's classical or something else.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

I should have mentioned the easiest way of all to listen to new pieces of recorded music. The following are required:

1. A warm sunny day
2. A comfy chair in the garden
3. A cup of coffee and a place on which to rest it, within reach
4. A personal CD player and headphones
5. A complete opera on CDs, with libretto (& translation)

Everything there is set up for total, wholly effortless, focus. For the length of the opera I'm entirely locked into the drama and the music.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

Elgarian said:


> 1. A warm sunny day
> 2. A comfy chair in the garden
> 3. A cup of coffee and a place on which to rest it, within reach
> 4. A personal CD player and headphones
> 5. A complete opera on CDs, with libretto (& translation)


Nice!!

(extra letters to fill up message to nessesary length here)


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Elgarian said:


> What I often do, with a new piece on CD, is play it effectively 'in the background' while I'm doing something else (at least in the first instance, and often in the second instance, too), and not worry about 'keeping focused'. Enough seems to get through, subliminally, (and bits may grab my attention) for the piece to feel familar after a couple of listenings like that, and it gets easier to come to grips with it - at least, as well as I ever come to grips with _anything_.
> 
> There are some pieces, of course, that I never manage to get anywhere with at all.


Ditto. Exactly. The same.



Elgarian said:


> I should have mentioned the easiest way of all to listen to new pieces of recorded music. The following are required:
> 
> 1. A warm sunny day
> 2. A comfy chair in the garden
> ...


Not too keen on the opera part, but the rest sounds perfect.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

opus67 said:


> Not too keen on the opera part, but the rest sounds perfect.


By all means feel free to adapt item 5 to suit your taste. I believe it should work just as well with a pot of tea or a glass of beer for item 3, also. Indeed, the system is designed to be flexible, though I'm inclined to think that listening to _The Bungletonian Brass Band Plays Your Favourite Classical Hits Backwards_on a cold wet night, sitting in the garden on an uncomfortable chair with a cup of cold runny rice pudding .... may not work so well. So don't try that at home, folks.


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## Isola (Mar 26, 2008)

Thanks for the tip Elgarian. I suspect item 2 is an obbligato? Now I know why I haven't been able to listening to a complete opera! Must go talk to the real estate agent... 

Seriously, in my case I need a few listenings for a new piece to grow in me. Not all will but many have turned to my new favourites. I found while you dig wider and deeper in the goldmine of classical music, your appreciation range will grow wider and deeper. Besides your taste may also change as time goes by.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

6. Something to occupy the rest of the family quietly!


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

The Bungletonian Brass Band Plays Your Favourite Classical Hits Backwardson 

I can't belive I have that CD! what a bit of luck - I've never listened to it properly due to lack of rice pudding!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

post-minimalist said:


> 6. Something to occupy the rest of the family quietly!


Or isolation headphones.


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## altiste (Jun 11, 2008)

Try to go to hear a live performance of a new work. Easier said than done though....


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