# What do you look for when listening to music?



## otaviomagnani (Feb 14, 2013)

Hi, this is my first post to the forum. I have read a few of the discussions and they look very enjoyable.

What do you look for when you are listening to a piece of classical music? Do you try to understand it in terms of its structure, rythm, historical context etc.? Or do you just listen to it and enjoy it? Perhaps you do both or neither?

In my case, as someone who doesn't know much about music theory and other technical aspects, I mainly listen to it for pleasure, although I find that explanations of the pieces (which are usually avaiable on Wikipedia) can increase my enjoyment. What about you?


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Sometimes both, sometimes neither. It really depends on what I'm listening to. But for the most part, I just listen to enjoy it. If I have a favorite piece, or a piece that I've listened to multiple times, then I'll start "looking" for things I may have not noticed during prior listenings (scattered motifs, maybe I try to comprehend some murky notes [like the intro to Ravel's left-hand piano concerto], etc.)

While theory can help one appreciate the music better, it's not necessary. I mean, I've been into classical for nearly ten years and I only know a smidgen of theory, but that doesn't hinder me in the slightest


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I listen differently from when I was young and first learning the repertoire. What I did then -- and suggest you do the same -- is just put on a piece and listen to it and decide if something about it makes you want to listen to it again. And if so, do so. Eventually you will absorb more and more, and may start hearing details that help explain why you like it (or some parts of it). This can be overall effect, how it makes you "feel," details of orchestration, structure, counterpoint (ignore the big words -- doesn't matter yet if you have the vocabulary to describe what you are hearing), etc. You don't even have to listen intently -- you can read, clean your room, do homework, cook, etc., while the music is playing. Your mind will absorb the effect it makes, and help you decide whether you enjoy it or not. You will start hearing similarities between the pieces of a given composer and whether or not you "like" it. You will go on "kicks" for certain composers, types of music, styles, ensembles, eras, etc. Just follow your instincts.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have pretty much the same approach as you, otaviomagnani. I listen to appreciate - also to learn - and I like to find out about the life of the composer, or if the piece has an interesting history. While I am listening, I switch off my conscious mind to a certain extent and I try to 'live in' the ambience of a piece, imagining myself as a person who lived in the era in which it was written; all in a very low key way.

I have to be 'guided' to notice more technical matters, but I rather like it if I can see a documentary that analyses the music & tells me what to watch out for. The next time I listen, I will notice these things, and my enjoyment will be enhanced.

You will find that there are many different types of listener on this forum, and many who are studying music or professional musicians and/or composers. And they are (nearly) all so helpful & friendly too.

You have landed in a good place.


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## Matsps (Jan 13, 2014)

I've spent so much time with classical music that it's hard for me to listen to it without subconsciously hearing things like melodic developments, interesting harmonies etc... However, I still have to think the musics are beautiful i.e. Not sounding like some kind of boring technical exercise. So all in all, I listen with a somewhat technical ear, but I still (in fact probably more so than before) appreciate a great melody or emotional writing.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I listen for stimulation. I value cleverness, humor and emotional content.
If it bores me, it's gone.


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2014)

I'm not convinced by all this "it" talk.

Xenakis _Persepolis_ sets up certain conditions. I let it (see how "it" changes when you use it to refer to an it not a them?) tell me how to listen to it. If I try to listen to it as if it were Bizet's _Carmen,_ then all that's just one big fail. I don't even try to listen to Bizet's _Carmen_ as if it were Bizet's _Les pêcheurs de perles._ Sure, they're both by Bizet, but they're two different pieces, and they set up different conditions for listening to them.

I'm also not convinced by the pleasure thing, either. That is, I think music is pleasurable. The end. I don't get immediate pleasure from every single piece I listen to. (I still don't get as much pleasure from _Ivan IV_ as I do from Les pêcheurs. Maybe some day. If, given what I've set up as my credo, "as much" even means anything, really.)

I don't listen to music for pleasure any more than I listen to music for emotional fulfillment. Those are things that happen. Things that happen don't make very good goals, I don't think. A goal is something you have to work for, not something that happens regardless. It seems that for many listeners, these things don't happen, regardless. Well, I don't understand is all.

Music sounds, and I'm all ears.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I think music has to appeal to something in each of us
We need to get 'something' from it and that could be stimulation,enjoyment, appreciation or a mix of them all. For me music has to make me feel better after I have listened to it than I did before hand. Otherwise I think it would just be noise.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

If we tried listening to music, and it wasn't enjoyable, we (most of us) wouldn't bother with it. But we do enjoy it, so when we put music on, even though we might consciously be saying, 'I want to know what that sounds like', the huge unconscious mind in us will be anticipating pleasure. 

But as Haydn man says, what exactly the pleasure consists of will be different for each person.

For me, the pleasure in music is a) affecting my mood - makes me feel happier, energised, more thoughtful, more sensitive, depending on the music 
b) picking out the pattern in a tune or in counterpoint & taking pleasure from particular sequences of notes, often accidentals
c) picking up the historic markers of the tune & imagining to myself what being in that age was like
d) oh, and occasionally I dance to it. 

Lady Music is like Cleopatra - Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I've been listening to classical music for several decades, and in most cases - if it's music-without-lyrics - that's all I can do with it. If there are lyrics, sometimes I can avoid the sense of them and sometimes I can't. If I can't avoid knowing the sense of the lyrics, sometimes that works out OK, sometimes it doesn't. (Not talking about any particular language here, but about having to know - one way or another - about what's being communicated.) Some 'programmed' music needs the program, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it doesn't do for me either way.

I am saved by my ignorance from having to think about procedures and formulas. Music follows life to the extent that ignorance is not _always_ bliss, but it seems to happen that way more often.

Anyway _otaviomagnani_, welcome to the uncertainty of classical music, and to Talk Classical, full of people who are more certain than the situation calls for, but are OK for all of that.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Haydn man said:


> I think music has to appeal to something in each of us
> We need to get 'something' from it and that could be stimulation,enjoyment, appreciation or a mix of them all. For me music has to make me feel better after I have listened to it than I did before hand. Otherwise I think it would just be noise.


Music doesn't have to 'make me feel better' (Matinu's Lidice, and the Lees symphony that desanitizes the Holocaust), but it does have to make me feel something other than annoyance.


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

I listen (not look ) for emotion or something I can connect to, its the whole experience 
The best pieces to me are those in which I'm really "drowning" in the music


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## Roi N (Oct 22, 2013)

Music is a wonderful universe. It's different from all we know, including the other arts. 
I listen to music the Classicist way - follow the music itself without distractions (emotions) and let the composer guide you through the unknown.


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