# Do you ever listen to multiple pieces simultaneously?



## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Exactly the question in the title. If you do, are you able to distinguish between them as they play? To what extent? How many at one time? And most importantly, _why_?

Just curious.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Nope, too confusing (what's the use?).

I know Milhaud wrote a chamber piece (I think a double string quartet), which could be played separately as two string quartets or together as an octet. Would this kind of be up your alley? Ever heard it?...


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I kinda figure why do that when you could just listen to Ives or Stockhausen instead?

I've heard that Glenn Gould used to do this sort of thing to help him clear his mind while studying a score or something (i.e. turning on a dozen television programs.


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## PicklePepperPiper (Aug 3, 2010)

Don't two of Mozart's horn concertos perfectly blend when performed at the same time? In terms of harmony? I've heard this story quite a bit.


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## Colourless (Oct 21, 2010)

PicklePepperPiper said:


> Don't two of Mozart's horn concertos perfectly blend when performed at the same time? In terms of harmony? I've heard this story quite a bit.


hmm? You've got me curious here. Care to give more details? I'll have to look into that, it could be very interesting.


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

Are you trying to create your own multi-piece counterpoint? You could next see if you can find two works that, if started at the right time, work as a two-work fugue...

No, horrible idea. Never listen to more than one thing at the time.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, when I'm really bored of listening to myself, which is happening more often, I listen to the radio in my MP3 player _while _I practice my instrument. So, I may be listening to Tchaikovsky (as I did today), and playing etudes. It can get really distracting, especially if I put the volume up higher that what I'm playing, and when the music on the radio is more inspiring than what I'm doing. But I just honestly zone out when I'm doing dozens of scales, and need stimulation.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

tgtr0660 said:


> Are you trying to create your own multi-piece counterpoint? You could next see if you can find two works that, if started at the right time, work as a two-work fugue...


No, not quite. I was inspired by an episode of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ in which Data, the android, listens to Beethoven's 9th, Bach's 3rd Brandenburg, _La Donna e Mobile_, and Mozart's Jupiter simultaneously.


> No, horrible idea. Never listen to more than one thing at the time.


Too late, I'm listening to _Thick as a Brick_, Beethoven's 9th, and _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ right now. I'm finding that I constantly have to adjust the volumes to be able to hear all three at the same time. Thick as a Brick is much easier to keep track of than the others because of the lyrics and distinct orchestration, but then it keeps overwhelming the others, too. Much better to stick with only two, but I still have to adjust the volume as one grows louder and the other quieter.

It seems to be good practice for multitasking, but not so good for analyzing the music, or even really listening to it for enjoyment, and it only works with pieces I know very well or pieces with completely different texture.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

It's fun to stand in the middle of a hall of practice rooms when a bunch of people are playing and listen to all of them at once (our practice rooms aren't very soundproof).

Also, the music majors here like to gather around the table in the music library and listen to music on their laptops without headphones. Usually it's just one person playing music at a time, but sometimes someone decides it's their turn and others disagree and everyone puts on different music at once and cacophony ensues. It's always interesting for a _short_ time, but not something I'm generally inclined to do on my own.


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## JSK (Dec 31, 2008)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Well, when I'm really bored of listening to myself, which is happening more often, I listen to the radio in my MP3 player _while _I practice my instrument. So, I may be listening to Tchaikovsky (as I did today), and playing etudes. It can get really distracting, especially if I put the volume up higher that what I'm playing, and when the music on the radio is more inspiring than what I'm doing. But I just honestly zone out when I'm doing dozens of scales, and need stimulation.


I zone out too, but if you aren't listening to you're tone, intonation, etc... that pretty much completely defeats the purpose of playing scales! :O

You could always just practice the scale of the piece you're working on, if you are lazy like me!


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

Kopachris said:


> No, not quite. I was inspired by an episode of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ in which Data, the android, listens to Beethoven's 9th, Bach's 3rd Brandenburg, _La Donna e Mobile_, and Mozart's Jupiter simultaneously.
> 
> Too late, I'm listening to _Thick as a Brick_, Beethoven's 9th, and _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ right now. I'm finding that I constantly have to adjust the volumes to be able to hear all three at the same time. Thick as a Brick is much easier to keep track of than the others because of the lyrics and distinct orchestration, but then it keeps overwhelming the others, too. Much better to stick with only two, but I still have to adjust the volume as one grows louder and the other quieter.
> 
> It seems to be good practice for multitasking, but not so good for analyzing the music, or even really listening to it for enjoyment, and it only works with pieces I know very well or pieces with completely different texture.


I'd really go to a psychiatrist and check for possible signs of schizophrenia man..


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

If you have them both, try playing the second (largo) movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony at the same time as the Benedictus from Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man. They're similar enough that they fit together in a sort of counterpoint.

EDIT: Here's a link for the Benedictus on YouTube:

*



*


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## Serge (Mar 25, 2010)

The Data dude got you into this? Guess who's laughing his hardware *** off now?


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Serge said:


> The Data dude got you into this? Guess who's laughing his hardware *** off now?


Damn, son, you're getting sloppy. You missed a perfect opportunity to say you listen to 4'33'' simultaneously with every single piece of music you've ever listened to.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

JSK said:


> I zone out too, but if you aren't listening to you're tone, intonation, etc... that pretty much completely defeats the purpose of playing scales! :O
> 
> You could always just practice the scale of the piece you're working on, if you are lazy like me!


Yeah, but I focus on what I'm doing at the same time too. Didn't do it today, I had the radio on in the background coming from my alarm, not MP3 player, so wasn't at all distracting. I also don't like the silence between the things I practice.

Perhaps it's a bad thing that I need so much stimulation nowadays. I'm starting to drown out _everything _with music, even drown out music _itself _with music!


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## teccomin (Mar 21, 2008)

Colourless said:


> hmm? You've got me curious here. Care to give more details? I'll have to look into that, it could be very interesting.


Its understandable for classical period music. You can try by taking any two of Mozarts works in the same key.


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## hemidemisemiquaver (Apr 22, 2011)

There's a band, The Flaming Lips, they have an album on 4 CDs, and you're supposed to listen it on 4 stereosystems simultaneously... They re-released it for iPhone later, because no one has that much audio apparatus at home. If I were a post-war composer, I would also do something of that sort. Or did they experienced with things like that and I'm just not well-informed?


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I have although not often and at most three or so, pieces of extended music that is...it depends because I have pressed play on more than twenty players but at that point it just becomes cacophony...two or three is a nice mental excercise to see how much you can separate


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2011)

I am going to try it with St Qt's, it would concentrate the mind wonderfully


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## Saturnus (Nov 7, 2006)

For some reason I like throwing Indian shenai music into renaissance choral music:

these 2 work quite well for an example:









I guess this makes me a bad person


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2011)

Bad??? No, not at all, a bit weired maybe


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Listen to every movement of every Mahler symphony at the same time, and God will reveal himself to you.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Only as potential candidates as a mix, i.e. not re-mix, but running concurrent in a somewhat 'Ivesian' counterpoint: the result is mildly polytonal, or if in the same key , yields with some interesting polytemporal or mild dissonances occurring. 

The most 'successful' are often one classical in combination with some contemporary ambient, which are often in one key throughout, somewhat drone / ostinato with the classical work.

Selecting them means some near-intuitive grasp of key, and 'what may go together.'

I've kept a list and may, with access to much more audio editing equipment, try and make a few of these mixes, not excluding the possibility of additional new written material tossed in as well, turning the whole mix into a base for new music with / or on top of the mix.

For the 'normal' listening of repertoire, nope. I like on piece in linear time at a time.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Listen to every movement of every Mahler symphony at the same time, and God will reveal himself to you.


This has been done with Shostakovich, symphonies either stretched or shrunk so they have the same run time.









It might well reveal Stalin's soul.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Well... I had this occur unintentionally when I've been recording a YouTube video through Firefox while browsing on Chrome at the same time. Usually nothing more than dissonance... although sometimes with medieval modal music I've gotten some interesting harmonies.:lol:


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

i pressed all the baby music books at once in the garden centre. it was like an orchestra.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Well... I had this occur unintentionally when I've been recording a YouTube video through Firefox while browsing on Chrome at the same time. Usually nothing more than dissonance... although sometimes with medieval modal music I've gotten some interesting harmonies.:lol:


I recently was accidentally listening to two pieces at once, and only noticed about 10 minutes in what was going on. It didn't sound like there was anything wrong, surprisingly. If anyone's interested for some random reason, I think it was:

Kalinnikov Symphony 2: 



Tournemire Symphony 3: 




(I'm certain about the first one, but only pretty sure about the second one)

EDIT: I was just experimenting, and it's kind of cool to combine two pieces together that are both meant for solo instruments. For example, combining Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# with Stravinsky's Elegy for Viola is occasionally pretty interesting. I'm sure there are much better combinations, but it's hard to find them.


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## omega (Mar 13, 2014)

I cannot listen simultaneously to a Wagner opera and a Mozart Sonata, because I cannot hear the sonata any more.
I cannot listen simultaneously to 4'33" and a Mozart Sonata, because I cannot hear Cage any more.
So I decided to listen to my discs one by one.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Sometimes when I go to concerts locally, I *have* to listen to two pieces simultaneously, as it seems a vogue thing to do. e.g. 



But I don't like it. It just seems like scrambled egg to me, and I lose the line. 
This one got a good clap from the audience, and a polite clap from me.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

You don't have to. Bach has done it for you in composing the WTC fugues.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

No because most music i have is complexed so listen to it like 2 at one time will make it harder for.


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

*Eine Kleine Nichmusik!*






Nichtmusik! Sorry for the typo. 

Prepare yourself for overstimulation.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

a mash up of Kiss me (Cardigans) and Project X (Frank Zappa)










Open the two links at approximately the same time. John Cage would approve it


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

mtmailey said:


> No because most music i have is complexed so listen to it like 2 at one time will make it harder for.


Thank you for the best answer on this thread.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

I like turntableism (dj spooky, shadow et al.) so in the non-classical domain: yes.
In Classical music ? Never.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Couchie said:


> Listen to every movement of every Mahler symphony at the same time, and God will reveal himself to you.


Yes, but only long enough to say,* "For the love of Me... Stop doing that!!!!!"*

V


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Right now, due to a technical error which I don't have authority to fix, I am listening to both classical and pop at the same time playing over the intercom in the casino where I work (the classical usually plays in our fancy restaurant, the pop usually plays in the casino).


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

_"Do you ever listen to multiple pieces simultaneously?"_

I can't even imagine WHY anyone would even want to. 

V


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