# List is wondeful



## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

*Liszt is wondeful*

This is the first time I have listenedto any music from this composer. I heard this piece on a TV advert and had to seek out the name and composer. Luckily my friend new the piece as he can play it. It's just wonderful. The opening starts with musical nothingness and then out of this something majestic manifests. I can see a very attractive woman in a street in Paris in the 1920s. All I can see are French people and boutiques selling expensive clothing. The woman walks and almost skips every two or three strides and stares into the eyes of attractive men almost teasing them. The piece is all about attractive people. I see 'nothing' ugly only quirky attraction. I can see those Russian dolls and toys. Lots of toys. Overall this piece is about how an attractive woman lives her life. It's definitely about ballet too. I can see a ballet dancer emerge from one of those jack in the box toys. She moves her arms incrementally and appears like a doll...






I don't know what this piece is about. What does the title even mean? That's what I think about when I hear this piece.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Gondur said:


> ...I don't know what this piece is about. What does the title even mean? ...


la campanella = the little bell

The theme is from Paganini's 2nd violin concerto.


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

GioCar said:


> la campanella = the little bell
> 
> The theme is from Paganini's 2nd violin concerto.


What do you think about when you listen to this piece?

I think of a French cobblestoned street, somewhere old and historic and very fashionable. Everyone I see is so attractive and dressed like dolls. As I am walking down this street I can see their faces very slowly turn to look at me through the windows of boutique stores. They have white powdered faces too. Time runs so slow. As if the entire length of the piece is only 1 second long. Odd.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Gondur said:


> What do you think about when you listen to this piece?
> 
> I think of a French cobblestoned street, somewhere old and historic and very fashionable. Everyone I see is so attractive and dressed like dolls. As I am walking down this street I can see their faces very slowly turn to look at me through the windows of boutique stores. They have white powdered faces too. Time runs so slow. As if the entire length of the piece is only 1 second long. Odd.


I find your "imaging" quite fascinating but to be honest it's just a charming piece of music, at least for me....


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

GioCar said:


> I find your "imaging" quite fascinating but to be honest it's just a charming piece of music, at least for me....


But you must imagine something right? Else how could you appreciate the music and put it into some kind of context or something? Do you just think 'that's fascinating' and think no more of it?

What about others here? Do you link music to a memory or 'image' as I do? This is for me, why it is so addictive because you can image lots of befitting images and the music affirms all of them. It brings the thoughts to life, animates them even.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

List? Hm, I don't think I've ever heard of him, so I can't say if he's wondeful or not. I'm quite fond of Liszt though! Little-known fact: he didn't just compose piano music. His Dante symphony is really good (excerpt from my favorite movement: 



). Then there's his famed Christus oratorio! (



).


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Stargazer said:


> List? Hm, I don't think I've ever heard of him, so I can't say if he's wondeful or not. I'm quite fond of Liszt though! Little-known fact: he didn't just compose piano music. His Dante symphony is really good (excerpt from my favorite movement:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry for my terrible spelling of his name. How silly of me but I did laugh at my embarrassing mistake. Thank you for suggesting more of his music to me. I should really listen to more music from his other contemporaries too... It doesn't help that I pronounce his name as 'list' so I wonder how I should pronounce it?


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Gondur said:


> But you must imagine something right? Else how could you appreciate the music and put it into some kind of context or something? Do you just think 'that's fascinating' and think no more of it?
> 
> What about others here? Do you link music to a memory or 'image' as I do? This is for me, why it is so addictive because you can image lots of befitting images and the music affirms all of them. It brings the thoughts to life, animates them even.


I wish I had images in my mind when I listened to music, but unfortunately, I do not. It's really just the sound to me that is "so addictive." On occasion, some pieces might remind me of a color, but that's as far as it goes for me.

I don't know how common it is either way, but it would be interesting what other TC'ers say about this.


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

musicrom said:


> I wish I had images in my mind when I listened to music, but unfortunately, I do not. It's really just the sound to me that is "so addictive." On occasion, some pieces might remind me of a color, but that's as far as it goes for me.
> 
> I don't know how common it is either way, but it would be interesting what other TC'ers say about this.


You sound very upset about this but it is not a disadvantage. Sorry I cannot help but pity whoever that is in your avatar. They appear to be very solemn and deeply upset and this when combined your words makes me feel quite sad. If anything the music puts me into a terrible depressive state because I know that the images I see aren't attainable or even realistic. The music kind of teases me and so I end up having days where I listen to it pretty much continuously then I would go without listening to any music for a couple of days or so. I find that the music sounds better on my return and I can sometimes see it from another perspective that isn't as depressing maybe but this depends on my mood.

I'm not a very 'logical' thinker but you probably are, which might why you don't see images as I see them. It' probably nothing to do with 'logic' or at least as simple as I think it is. The brain is obviously far more complex than this.


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## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)




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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Gondur said:


> But you must imagine something right? Else how could you appreciate the music and put it into some kind of context or something? Do you just think 'that's fascinating' and think no more of it?
> 
> What about others here? Do you link music to a memory or 'image' as I do? This is for me, why it is so addictive because you can image lots of befitting images and the music affirms all of them. It brings the thoughts to life, animates them even.


Everyone gets something different out of music or listens to it for different reasons. I usually do not get images in my head from listening to music either. I usually just enjoy the music for what it is. I like listening to the voices moving, the harmony modulating, the motifs motifing. These are all pleasing and interesting sounds to me.


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

violadude said:


> Everyone gets something different out of music or listens to it for different reasons. I usually do not get images in my head from listening to music either. I usually just enjoy the music for what it is. I like listening to the voices moving, the harmony modulating, the motifs motifing. These are all pleasing and interesting sounds to me.


Well I thought about why is 'La campanella' so famous when there are other equally as beautiful pieces. It's probably one of the most played pieces of classical music because it's such a coherent piece of music. By that I mean the melody is very memorable. It's the same with anything beautiful I guess. The more 'refined' and coherent something is, the more beautiful we seem to find it. Everything that constitutes to the design of something has a purpose - it's not something extraneous. Every note has a purpose to produce something that is whole and 'perfect'. If you started removing even one note then the melody would alter dramatically to become unrecognisable. The music seems to be very dense and 'interconnected' in an illusive sense and I hear something that is so precise and delicate but has overwhelming meaning to exist. As if there is a three dimensional underpinning that connects the piece by pulling it together and exposing only the notes that are relevant. That's why I think other pieces aren't as popular because they are facets of these more coherent pieces.... Bach's music is so enjoyable to listen to for this reason. Every note has a purpose... It's quite difficult to explain really but imagine I wanted to extract sodium crystals from a saline solution. I'm sure you've probably done this in school. You leave it out to dry so that the liquid evaporates and you're left with the sodium crystals. In this sense, the liquid is the extraneous notes and the sodium crystal the melody. It's a refining process.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

I lean a lot towards listing


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Music inspires different reactions in different people. Some people see patterns, see images, see colors, see nothing but hear complexity or interconnecting (or diverging) patterns. I don't get any image but the sound of the music. Although some pieces I "learned" when I was young by playing them a lot while I was reading for pleasure, andlisteningto them today still sometimes calls up the book(s) I was reading at the time.


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