# Does the order matter?



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Here's an interesting question that I thought of last night.

Last night I listened to Henryk Gorecki's 3rd string quartet and his famous 3rd symphony (both beautiful works in my opinion). Right afterward I listened to Hindemith's piano sonata #2. I noticed something about the piano sonata when I was listening though...it seemed, really special somehow, more special than usual. I felt like I could hear every harmonic shift and every melodic nuance more clearly than I did before, like my senses were sharper. And a thought came to me...does the order in which you listen to pieces of music have an effect on your perception of the pieces. Did my sharp perception of the Hindemith sonata have to do with the fact that right before I had listened to the Gorecki pieces, which are both substantially more static and slow moving when it comes to harmony and melody?

Think of it like this, in the culinary world, it's said that you should eat milder foods first and then strong foods later because if you eat the strong food first, it will overpower your tastebuds for when you eat the milder food. For example, in Japanese Cuisine (at least in America, I don't know much about real Japanese Cuisine) you're usually served miso soup (a very mild soup) before your meal. If you eat the miso soup before you eat anything else, it tastes incredibly delicious and comforting. But if you eat the miso soup after your meal, it'll taste really bland and gross (not to mention, it will probably be too cold by then). I've experienced this first hand many times.

So, could the same be said of your musical senses? Do you get more out of each piece if you listen in order from less complex to more complex (if one can determine such a thing with some kind of objectivity) rather than the other way around or a mix up? Are there any other factors that might make the order you listen to music in significant to your perception of the music?

Discuss!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

For instrumental music, this can be a valuable way of getting to know the piece and eventually listening it to the ordered way (movements 1 to last). Vocal music is possible but one might loose track of the vocal purpose especially opera. With baroque music say, especially Bach where they wrote gradually more complicated fugues from a theme, this way can help.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

I once listened to one of the Heidelberger Sinfoniker Haydn recordings, fairly shortly after listening to something by Grisey. Big mistake. Now all German HIP groups sound like spectral music to me - something about the frequent brutalizations of the strings and the palpable straining to keep everything perfectly in tune.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I think it does without question. A few months ago I was stuck in my car with an iPod that I hadn't organized properly, and the result was that I listened to all of Mozart's late symphonies backwards: last movement, third movement, second movement, first movement (or whatever, everyone knows what I mean; I know that the Prague has 3). 

It definitely did bring out something a little different for me.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Matter order not does the.


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

I've noticed that listening to some of my favourite 20th century composers before listening to music from the classical era (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven even) really makes me hear things differently; I get a heightened sense for details and development of structures - and this works vice versa as well. I don't know if this is exactly the sort of thing you are talking about, but I think I know what you mean. I do feel that order matters indeed!

When it comes to movement order, though, I'm not very flexible. This applies not just to multi-movement works, but to pieces that have been arranged into "sets" as well. Beethoven's Op. 2 sonatas? Must be listened to as a set. Chopin's Op. 10 études in an unorthodox order? I don't think so. I wonder if anyone else is as pedantic about this as I am... But this is a problem of mine, and I recognize it. A man's gotta have some weird obsessive qualities...


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

If I listen to most late Romantic, Modern or Contemporary orchestral works and then I listen to any Classical era music that isn't Haydn and Mozart at their most inspired, then it sounds simple, dull and lifeless in comparison.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

If I listen to a lot of late Romantic and subsequent music and then listen to a cavatina by Paisiello, a substantial part of me responds "Oh right, when you actually have an idea, you don't have to be modern."


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Well, whatever floats one's boat, but I don't think there's any truism here.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

violadude said:


> But if you eat the miso soup after your meal, it'll taste really bland and gross (not to mention, it will probably be too cold by then). I've experienced this first hand *many times*.


That sounds awful. I hope you don't continue to eat your miso soup after your meal.



violadude said:


> Are there any other factors that might make the order you listen to music in significant to your perception of the music?


I think listening to different pieces/composers/genres back-to-back will inevitably give a piece a different sound. Whether that is _in fact_ due to the work you put in listening to the previous and how that analysis applies to the second piece -- I am not so sure. Different composers will likely sound much different, different genres/forms will sound different. Hearing a piano sonata, for example, before a large-scale oratorio will definitely sound different.

I don't think that difference is _necessarily_ due to your conscious efforts in listening or mood in the previous piece vs. the following. But it absolutely could make the difference more stark (or less, I suppose).

The more I think about it, the more I realize I may not be elucidating any particular opinion -- just stating obvious matters. Sorry. I am still stuck on your repeated mistake in having your miso soup post-meal.

_Edit: Actually, one factor: sound medium/location. Like, listening to music from your car speakers, as you drive 75+mph on the freeway, and then hearing something in a silent room, on record, or through your headphones, is going to sound infinitely better. And for my sake, that difference in sound quality absolutely allows me to hear the music differently. _


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It really depends on a lot of factors: the specific works involved, how much you like them, what mood you're in. A Haydn quartet after _Verklarte Nacht_ might sound bland - or bracing. I generally don't mix my listening radically; I'm usually in the mood for one style of music, and feel satisfied when it's done. The question of order doesn't come up when it's just a single work in several movements, or a few pieces by one composer. But I've known people who are just the opposite, listen to one thing after another, and like the contrast, the bolder the better.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I've written this before... but here goes: I know these two violinists who sometimes get drunk and listen to music together. They always close the night with Schumann's violin concerto, because they value it so highly (and because it is so dark): they cannot follow it with anything.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Concerts often seem to be organised on this principle - start with something short & stirring to get you in the mood, follow with a couple of subtler items, then the piece before the interval is strong; after the interval, something with gentler appeal, leading up to the big finale. So I think that the order does make a difference to your listening, and what you notice & how you react. 

When I finish a novel or a play with an unexpected or elliptical ending, I often leaf back looking for earlier clues and trying to tie it all up - if one is thoroughly familiar with a piece of music with several movements, one could go backwards or vary the order and it would bring up unexpected insights. 

I can't actually think of any musical examples though - it will probably come to me in the small hours...


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## Guest (Jan 22, 2016)

In the days before the Fall (ie when music was on vinyl albums) the order of the tracks over the two sides was incredibly important and understood by all. My highest career ambition was to be someone whose job it was to decide on album track order. Unfortunately the course of history took it all away from me and I never realised my dream, nor found out the correct job title, as the vinyl album became all but extinct.


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