# How do you do it?



## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

I've had some experiences about listening classical music lately. I've heard some works which I know pretty well, but I wasn't moved or excited by them. It's overfamiliarity I would think. My mind gets saturated by hearing those works over and over again, I don't find anything new to enjoy. I have to wait too long to get them with fresh ears. So my question is: how do you don't get saturated or jaded by listening to the same works constantly? What is the trick? 

I read the Current Listening thread and I see that many members listen to the same works _ad infinitum_: Beethoven's symphonies, Sibelius's symphonies, Brahms's symphonies, and so. I quite admire their stamina because certainly I can't do that.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

I listen to interpretative differences. That's why I have 50 different recordings of each work. It always sounds new. Listen to Otto Klemperer's Beethoven 5th and then listen to Riccardo Chailly's. They are so dissimilar they hardly sound the same. There are moments in the 5th (taken at a brisk pace) where I hear the final movement of the 6th symphony and have to remind myself that I am listening to the 5th and not the 6th.

You can get burnt out even flipping recordings if you listen to the same symphony over and over and over. Sometimes I need a break but I never tire of the works I love because each recording sounds different. Some you hear the woodwinds clear, others it's buried, some bring out dance melodies more than others, etc. I still hear new things for works I've heard thousands of times because sometimes it takes a different recording to bring something in particular out.


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2019)

My listening time these days is restricted now due to circumstances, so saturation is not nearly the problem it was. Still, 90% of my listening is music that is new to me, or at least relatively unfamiliar to me. When I listen to familiar music, I usually gravitate towards an unfamiliar recording that may allow me to hear new things. Recently it was Dutilleux, before that some obscure Liszt, before that Bacewicz. It's been a while since one of my favorite Brahms pieces has been queued up. And sometimes I find I'm just not receptive to music and rather than force it I do something else, like read, instead.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I like to try something new. If it's old music, new performers. If it's new music, then old performers. I like to say that I'm addicted to sound and my alternatives are endless.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

realdealblues said:


> I listen to interpretative differences. That's why I have 50 different recordings of each work. .


Me too. That's the real fun of classical music, at least to me. As T.S. Eliot wrote, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the [piece] for the first time."


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

MusicSybarite said:


> So my question is: how do you don't get saturated or jaded by listening to the same works constantly? What is the trick?





realdealblues said:


> I listen to interpretative differences. That's why I have 50 different recordings of each work.


Asked and answered.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Manxfeeder said:


> Me too. That's the real fun of classical music, at least to me. As T.S. Eliot wrote, "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the [piece] for the first time."


If you only think that we can see the same movie more times and in many different versions (extended, directors cut, theatrical etc) the answer to the music is obvious.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Why listen to the same works constantly, when there's so much music to discover?


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I do try to space things out, i.e. keep composers on a rotation - nothing precise, but I will think "I haven't listened to Schumann in a while" and go with that for a day or two. Since the "canon" repertoire consists of dozens of composers with thousands of works between them, it hasn't run its course yet. 

I also try to seek something new out now and again. Lately it's been Scriabin, Nielsen, and Louise Farrenc.

As a minor audiophile, I also try to find really good quality recordings of a piece, and so there is a certain technical "thrill" of finding really good quality audio. 

I also will listen to some Jazz (most recently "A Love Supreme" by Coltrane) or pop music (most recently HAIM) for a day or two as a "palate cleanser" of sorts.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Why listen to the same works constantly, when there's so much music to discover?


Exactly right. Spot on. Yes, having many different recordings of the same work helps. If you have only one recording there's nothing new to think about, no freshness. So -- on to the Undiscovered Country.

There is so much music available - more than anyone could ever listen to in a lifetime. And living in the CD-era (now post-CD I guess) we are blessed with more obscure music than any generation. When I started collecting LPs over 50 years ago the thought of ever hearing, much less owning, complete sets of orchestral works by Bax, Schmidt, Glazunov or Atterberg was a mere dream. Now it's a reality. And an astounding amount more. Some valiant record companies led the charge: Marco Polo, CPO, Dutton, Chandos, BIS, Capriccio...the big guys (EMI, Sony, RCA) never had much interest in music that wasn't in the standard repertoire. Just this week I heard for the first time orchestral music by pianist Moritz Moszkowski. Earth-shattering great it is not. But I'm really thankful for having had the chance to hear it. And there have been major discoveries such as the symphonies of Bax, Tubin, Atterberg, Rontgen, Reger and Pancho Vladigerov. None of this music will displace the hallowed, ossified repertoire, but it sure is interesting and enjoyable. So much to discover and hear, so little time. I rarely put on any standard rep any more, but when I do it's usually with a smile - damn, that's great! Listen to a week of Herzogenberg, Bendix, Draeseke, Raff, Spohr, Lachner, Rubinstein. Then put on Brahms and you'll instantly hear why he survives in the concert hall and they don't. But don't let it ruin the other guys - they too can be very, very entertaining.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

MusicSybarite said:


> I read the Current Listening thread and I see that many members listen to the same works _ad infinitum_: Beethoven's symphonies, Sibelius's symphonies, Brahms's symphonies, and so. I quite admire their stamina because certainly I can't do that.


I'm certainly one of those who has been listening to some works, including the listed ones, for 40-50 years. It is partly about the way different interpreters can show me new aspects to the music but it is also simply because there is a lifetime of pleasure in some music! For sure I do have periods when I can't listen to, say, another Beethoven symphony and such periods can last a year or more. But I always return and when I do I still find the music just as inspiring as I ever did.

But this is not about remaining in my comfort zone. At first I tried going deeper and deeper into the musical periods I liked (Baroque to early Modern) but the pickings seemed to get thinner and thinner and I am not sure I discovered that many "neglected masterpieces" that will give me a lifetime's pleasure and inspiration. So I started exploring earlier music and very modern music. Ultimately, what I'm looking for (and often find) is music that is an extraordinary and rewarding experience and that will go on being that for me.

I am more baffled by those who listen to, say, Bach's Mass a few times and then say "OK, that was good but I've done that now"! But I am conscious that people would probably only have been heard most of the music I love a very few times in their lives. Some might have read the score many more times, or may have played transcriptions at home quite often, but the experience of listening to music that is great but also very familiar would have been a rare one before recordings changed the game. It may also be that our love of the music of the past - instead of a passion to hear only the latest in vogue music - has been another product of recording.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I think the missing ingredient for some of the saturated listeners can be the absence of silence... that sometimes a break is needed so the intensity and interest can build again and keep the experience fresh. There's a cornucopia of available music, certainly online, that is more than one could hear in a lifetime. But there are occasions when just to stop for a moment is a virtue. I'm convinced that music is a living thing and there are certain works or performances that need a rest and do not want to be repeatedly heard by the same person. Then one can come back to them later, even years later... There's also the significance of the silence between the notes that some composers and musicians have talked about. But that's another story.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Enthusiast said:


> I am more baffled by those who listen to, say, Bach's Mass a few times and then say "OK, that was good but I've done that now"!


Why is that baffling?


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Did you read the rest of my post? That's why it is baffling to me.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

MusicSybarite said:


> I've had some experiences about listening classical music lately. I've heard some works which I know pretty well, but I wasn't moved or excited by them. It's overfamiliarity I would think. My mind gets saturated by hearing those works over and over again, I don't find anything new to enjoy. I have to wait too long to get them with fresh ears. So my question is: how do you don't get saturated or jaded by listening to the same works constantly? What is the trick?
> 
> I read the Current Listening thread and I see that many members listen to the same works _ad infinitum_: Beethoven's symphonies, Sibelius's symphonies, Brahms's symphonies, and so. I quite admire their stamina because certainly I can't do that.


Each of us is different as we see expressed in this thread already.

I have always needed new sounds in my life. This has led to me not only discovering new works within classical but going from genre to genre over the years.

I simply cannot be satisfied listening to the same compositions/songs decade after decade.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> I am more baffled by those who listen to, say, Bach's Mass a few times and then say "OK, that was good but I've done that now"! .


But do people permanently discard something they enjoy after just a few spins?

Don't most return again and again just less often than others?

I know, as I just posted above, I always need new sounds but that does not mean that I completely turn my back on old sounds.

I do find that the more familiar I become with a piece the less I listen to it.

Of course there are those few that are always in my queue.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ I think I have seen some members claim that they move on once they know a piece well. It may be true that familiarity can lead to fewer hearings but a stunningly good new account can reverse that for a while.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Like RDB I listen to so many different types of recording that even warhorse like the Beethoven symphonies can sound fresh in new hands.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

_listening to the same works constantly? What is the trick?_

Unlike popular forms of music, where artists create new entities, the most popular pieces in classical music are interpreted, not created anew. When I was young and discovering music I could listen to a piece by several different interpreters scores of times. But after hearing something 100 times it didn't matter much the interpretation, it started to wear thin.

An example for me was Beethoven's symphonies. After hearing them by all the greats for 20 years it wasn't until the period performance movement came along in the middle 1980s that they sounded new to me again. Beethoven is evergreen, of course, but still constant immersion in his symphonies can make them stale.

In my opinion the "trick" is to constantly find something new to hear. That is the joy of classical music and the main thing that separates it from popular music -- there is so much of it you can find something new every day for a lifetime. I am 69 and am just discovering a new Baroque composer I have never listened to, Zelenka. There is always something new out there to find.

However, if you are going to restrict yourself to only what you know and what you think you like, you are going to be in this conundrum for a long time.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Enthusiast said:


> ^ I think I have seen some members claim that they move on once they know a piece well. It may be true that familiarity can lead to fewer hearings but a stunningly good new account can reverse that for a while.


I definitely agree.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Enthusiast said:


> ^ I think I have seen some members claim that they move on once they know a piece well. It may be true that familiarity can lead to fewer hearings but a stunningly good new account can reverse that for a while.


I think I've posted before that I didn't much like Strauss' Zarathustra until I heard Nott and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra do it (live at the Proms 2009) - then it made sense. I think there's an awful lot that needs balancing with such a piece.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I've never had the experience of getting tired of a work. Perhaps that's because I listen to mostly new music - either Contemporary or works new to me. There are so many works to sample and not just the bottom of the barrel. I've heard a lot of Baroque and Renaissance, but I still find many wonderful new works. Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by the amount of music I wish to hear. I used to keep a very long list of works recommended by others, but when it started to get ridiculously long, I deleted it and just go from works I see recommended recently (usually on TC). 

Whenever I do go back and listen to works I love, I always marvel at how truly wonderful (powerful, beautiful, interesting, etc.) they are. Somehow I doubt I'll ever experience that feeling of being bored by familiar music.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Very interesting comments. I was thinking of different interpretations/performances as the clearest answer, but it doesn't work for me. I've listened to some different versions of several works, but I often fail to find or grasp significant differences among them, so I say: why did I listen to that piece (which I know well) if I could listen to other different work instead? It seems to lead to I don't have an expert ear as others do after all, hence I feel more enjoyment discovering new works.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

eljr said:


> I do find that the more familiar I become with a piece the less I listen to it.


I seem to do that also. It's not like I'm tired of hearing of it; it's more like it's always with me, so I don't need to literally hear it all the time.

It's the same with "ultimate" recordings. When I find a recording that hits the nail on the head, I don't listen to it as much as one that doesn't seem to charge on all four cylinders. Those are the ones I tend to relisten to to see if I can figure out if there is something there that I'm missing. Maybe it's a touch of OCD on my part.


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## Beethoven14 (Feb 14, 2019)

Woodduck said:


> Why listen to the same works constantly, when there's so much music to discover?


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2019)

Basically, for me, it boils down to mostly listening to unfamiliar music. Every once in a while a desire to hear one of my enduring favorites (a Brahms symphony, a Beethoven String Quartet, a Mozart Concerto) bubbles up and I indulge. Then back to the new stuff. It is a special treat when I stumble upon something that I find every bit as good as the great masters, which beckons me to revisit.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

For me, some music is a comfort object (whether or not it's "right" to treat it that way is another question for another time). Why will a child hang on to a stuffed animal until it is virtually in rags and filthy, and yet howl bloody murder if Mama makes any attempt to fix it or wash it? Why do some folk carry worry stones in their pockets? Why do some people need the window seat? Why am I so obsessive-compulsive? So many questions...


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

This is actually the best way to determine the greatness of a piece; the longer you can listen to it the greater it generally is. If you're not gifted consider yourself lucky, pieces will last longer. 

Once you break it down it gets old fast and simple pieces with poor counterpoint go the fastest. Keep exploring!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Sometimes you simply need to move on to other music and give it a rest. I'd say after about 4-6 months of "abstinence" your favorite music should feel (almost) entirely fresh again.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

This is where being a fan of classical from the mid 20th century up through contemporary periods is an advantage.

There are constantly new, great works being recorded, as well as the discovery of lesser known composers and works from the last few decades. It is hard for music to get stale, when there are new works to replenish my collection.

Not to mention, that the very nature of music from these periods is not as obviously predictable as the traditional pieces and composers. There is always something new to discover, even in a piece I may heard quite a few times. 

And another advantage is, if I ever get the taste for pre 20th century music, I have that entire world to explore, also.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

MusicSybarite said:


> .... So my question is: how do you don't get saturated or jaded by listening to the same works constantly? What is the trick?
> 
> I read the Current Listening thread and I see that many members listen to the same works _ad infinitum_: Beethoven's symphonies, Sibelius's symphonies, Brahms's symphonies, and so. .


Some go deep, some go wide. Some approach both axis. Its all good. There isn't really a right way to enjoy this music.


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