# background music



## PatF (Dec 13, 2010)

I was at the dentist's yesterday and was soothed by the sound of Bach's Goldberg Variations!
A cd of Glen Gould no less. I love that piece, and have the music, but only the theme is within my skill level.
Another time I heard classical background music was in the Tyneside Metro (UK) I think they use it to calm the delinquents and the stressed-out commuters  It was something by Tchaikovsky as far as I remember.
Any other examples?
ps really enjoying this forum which I just joined recently.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

That would have driven me mad. I hate hearing good music used as background.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In a Pairs parking garage they played a lot of classical music (the usual popular suspects).


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## David58117 (Nov 5, 2009)

"Background" to who?


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## PatF (Dec 13, 2010)

I agree it's demeaning to classical music to call it "background" music. 
Perhaps I should have described it as "music that soothes the troubled soul" as in the Old Testament when David played for the depressed Saul. 
Or "If music be the food of love , play on" from Shakespeare's 12th Night.
If I need cheering up I listen to one of the fast movements from Bach's Brandenbergs, eg:




Makes me want to dance


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## dmg (Sep 13, 2009)

Chris said:


> That would have driven me mad. I hate hearing good music used as background.


I wouldn't consider music played at a dentist's office as 'background'. It's more like something you focus on whilst they grind and pull away at your choppers. 

Also, would you rather places that have background music play bad, grating music? The purpose of background music isn't to run you you off...


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

PatF said:


> Perhaps I should have described it as "music that soothes the troubled soul" as in the Old Testament when David played for the depressed Saul.


and the result was....

'....While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall' (1 Samuel 19:9-10).

Biblical proof that ALL background music is destructive of good morals  .

Let's have silence at the dentists


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Glazunov makes excellent background music. It can be hard to just listen to him straight sometimes, but it's really pleasant to hear his music in the background while reading, chores, homework, etc.


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## PatF (Dec 13, 2010)

Chris said:


> and the result was....
> 
> '....While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall' (1 Samuel 19:9-10).
> 
> ...


Ah, but Chris, did you read 1 Samuel 16:23?
"........David would take the harp...Saul would be soothed...and the spirit of evil would depart from him".
Between the 2 quotes David killed Goliath, became popular, and Saul was jealous. 
I'll try the music you suggest, ie Glasunov, Huilunsoittaja, while busy doing chores. My knowledge of classical music is very narrow really, I should expand it.


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## paren (Apr 8, 2014)

On my work I very often listen classical music! It is very relaxing me. But sometimes I want to listen some new royalty classical background music. For this I usually use http://www.melodyloops.com/music-styles/classical/. There are some rather interesting and enjoyable melodys for listening.)


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Chris said:


> '....While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall' (1 Samuel 19:9-10).
> 
> Biblical proof that ALL background music is destructive of good morals.


Or proof that people grow tired of listening to a harp being tuned.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Chris said:


> That would have driven me mad. I hate hearing good music used as background.


Agreed. I think that ambient pop music like Brian Eno is probably suitable since it's good enough without being bad if you see what I mean. I remember someone 30 years ago playing me a side of Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans which'd be a suitable candidate to take your mind off anything whilst being unmemorable enough as the drill whirrs away to leave you satisfied you've missed nothing.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

I mentioned this on the Fantasia thread but I think it also works for the dentist waiting room


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I use classical music as 'background' in my home all the time... and when I want to focus, it becomes 'foreground'. I am not able to be focussed on music all of the time  I find CM to be the ideal music: it just works, no matter what task I put it to :tiphat: background, foreground, sleeping, exercising, walking, driving, meditating, reading, working, puttering, focussing, unfocussing... they all work. It's just a matter of adjusting the volume control.

I paid the dentist a visit 2 weeks ago. Like usual, he had a pop radio station on. I came prepared: I had my earbuds along, so I plugged in to some classical music  Glory be! I was saved.

I have noticed that a few companies, government or other agencies, etc., use classical music to soothe callers until they are able to take their calls. I think this is very considerate and appropriate. Imagine calling a grocery store or the government revenue office and being subjected to Motörhead. It happens.


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

I'm with brotagonist (above) on this one. Sometimes my classical music is in the background, sometimes in my headphones and sometimes blasting from the speakers with me listening very intently on the couch. Better to listen in different ways at different times than to limit your enjoyment to just those times when you can be fully absorbed.

My grocery store plays different music on different days. Tuesday is when I shop.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

I hate background music. It can be reserved for my funeral as I'll be deaf to it.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I wish they would take that cursed background music out of movies. I hate being told when to laugh, cry or be frightened.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

hpowders said:


> I wish they would take that cursed background music out of movies. I hate being told when to laugh, cry or be frightened.


Ah but Imagine the shower scene in Psycho without the music. Sometimes music can complement but it mostly doesn't. Sometimes it smacks of laziness in avoiding words or direction to me. Sometimes when it isn't there in a really scary movie we get really scared as we don't know just what to expect coming out of the eerie silence until we all jump out of our seats. Sensible and sporadic use as a complement not a substitute in movies I say.


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## Cantabile (May 24, 2014)

One music lecturer I knew used to call most Baroque instrumental music (like Vivaldi) "wallpaper music"......


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Cantabile said:


> One music lecturer I knew used to call most Baroque instrumental music (like Vivaldi) "wallpaper music"......


I hate hate hate the use of someone else's music shoehorned into movie scenes. If a composer sees a movie's scenes or knows what they are scoring for in a scene then they may be able to complement it or just leave a void of silence where that works best. I abhor good music droning away softly in elevators and worse hate nasty inane raucous chart material wallpapering pubs and restaurants so loudly that conversation is pointless.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PoisonIV said:


> Ah but Imagine the shower scene in Psycho without the music. Sometimes music can complement but it mostly doesn't. Sometimes it smacks of laziness in avoiding words or direction to me. Sometimes when it isn't there in a really scary movie we get really scared as we don't know just what to expect coming out of the eerie silence until we all jump out of our seats. Sensible and sporadic use as a complement not a substitute in movies I say.


Okay. That is a good point. It should be left in all Hitchcock movies, especially when the composer is Bernard Herrmann.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Is it bad if I'm using a Sibelius symphony that I wanted to listen to for the first time as background music to study the score of the same symphony in order to see if I can learn something about how to compose?

I just realized half-way through the second movement that I did not pay attention at all to the music. I probably have to start over. Multitasking is bad.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

Well it can be both background or foreground music it is still great to listen to,i rather hear it than hearing music about sex,drugs,
mayhem & violence.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I resent any and all of it unless it is music of my choice, and when and where I want it. Being under a dentist's drill and being subjected to chirpy Vivaldi or syrupy sentiment of Mantovani arrangements for strings, or a selection by Bach _might just be for me one very real version of hell._

*SO HEY! Maybe I'd prefer Guillaune de Machaut, Rameau, Stravinsky and Berg vs. Rachmaninoff, Vivaldi, Brahms and Bach, ya know?*

There is so much background music outside of our homes that I eagerly pray for a pocket-sized device which, while still hidden in the pocket, would harm no matter but simply block and stop the playing system when I happen to be in a space where music selections are piped in.

_Just think town and urbs dwellers, that with the easy touch of a button we could block all those commercially arranged Christmas songs which are forced upon us in shops -- sometimes even piped through speakers on the streets -- anytime we are out of our homes between the beginning of November until the 24th of December. * Priceless.*_


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## Cantabile (May 24, 2014)

Some shopping malls and other public spaces (like car parks) where I live have begun using classical music to drive away groups of young people or others who might be considered unwelcome visitors, which seems to be one of the saddest things I've ever, ever run across! I am not sure what it says about the sensibilities of those who decided to use this tactic and I wonder if it actually even works as envisaged.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Cantabile said:


> Some shopping malls and other public spaces (like car parks) where I live have begun using classical music to drive away groups of young people or others who might be considered unwelcome visitors, which seems to be one of the saddest things I've ever, ever run across! I am not sure what it says about the sensibilities of those who decided to use this tactic and I wonder if it actually even works as envisaged.


It says more about young people who loiter about malls and what those young people think of classical music. Oddly enough, it probably forces them into another mind frame where they actually have to think about the music they are hearing. -- They also think it is tragically unhip, and since they are on the clock with being in that life phase of cultivating and perfecting an apathetic air of tragic hipness... there ya go (or there they go.)


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## Guest (May 25, 2014)

PoisonIV said:


> I hate hate hate the use of someone else's music shoehorned into movie scenes. If a composer sees a movie's scenes or knows what they are scoring for in a scene then they may be able to complement it or just leave a void of silence where that works best.


I disagree. First, not all movies have composers, so the use of incidental music falls to someone instructed to find the already-written (or, in the case of Kubrick, he keeps the responsibility to himself).

Second, the source of the music is irrelevant. What matters is its cinematic impact. Yes, there are poor scores and poorly chosen incidental music, but that's just a truism.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

musicrom said:


> Is it bad if I'm using a Sibelius symphony that I wanted to listen to for the first time as background music to study the score of the same symphony in order to see if I can learn something about how to compose?


If you are newer to reading large score, moving that imaginary vertical straight edge ruthlessly along is a way to train eye and mind to follow accurately.

LOL. I could not sit down to follow the score and in any way look at it with a recording going if my reading was not in sync.

I'd have to either: 
stay in sync with the score and the recording as it plays -- or
stop reading the score along with the recording and change to just listening -- or
read the score without listening to the recording.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Some music was meant to be listened to in the background - like much Baroque music. I don't think that is an inherently bad thing, nor do I think that necessarily detracts from the music, nor makes the music any less "deep" etc. From my experience thinking about music while listening to it does not necessarily enhance enjoyment of it. Music is a thing that relates more to the subconscious mind than the conscious anyway.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I heard them play atonal music, sounded like Schoenberg (but I can' really tell for sure if it was Schoenbergm but it definitely was atonal), in a modern science museum/exhibition.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

PetrB said:


> If you are newer to reading large score, moving that imaginary vertical straight edge ruthlessly along is a way to train eye and mind to follow accurately.
> 
> LOL. I could not sit down to follow the score and in any way look at it with a recording going if my reading was not in sync.
> 
> ...


Haha, I was just looking at Sibelius' instrumentation and what each instrument's role was in the music. I was just listening to the same piece at the same time, but I wasn't reading along with the music. Not as hard as how you make it sound.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

PatF said:


> I agree it's demeaning to classical music to call it "background" music.


As I understand it, a great deal of classical music was specifically intended as background music...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yeah. At baroque and classical era parties, the latest classical hits were played as background music; also for dancing when applicable.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

People see art music of background music, background music for rich people parties. That the reason I hate those rich people parties, they contract small orchestras to play music and the guests are a bunch of uncultivated people who don't give a heck about the music and they are just interest showing their new girlfriend/boyfriend or the dress the bought in Paris.


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## Mohnatk (May 14, 2014)

When I was at the dentist's played background music something like that - http://www.melodyloops.com/music-styles/classical/. Track N8


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