# Is Music Disposable?



## Serge (Mar 25, 2010)

Specifically, do you find that a given piece of music stops working quite the same way after a while, even though you still “like” it and have exactly the same, if not bigger, respect for it? 

This goes pretty much to the root of what I think music is and of how it works, but I’ll leave it at that for now. (And I’ll skip on the “wife” joke.)


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## Alrapo (Mar 18, 2011)

I think this more likely to happen if we approach the same piece in exactly the say way every single time. While this is good for understanding a certain specific aspect of the work, we're going to reach a point where we have probably exhausted what we can take from it and we think that we have done enough to "get it".
It is not easy, but I believe it is possible to always find new perspectives from which to look at the same piece of music.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I agree with Alrapo. I can't listen to one piece the same way for a long time. For instance, if I listen to Mahler's 2nd every week for a year and expect the same aspects of it to wrench the same reaction out of me every time, it just ain't gonna happen. Instead I'll start to listen for other details in the music, orchestration, or find something else in it that deeply moves me, but it's never going to be the same as the first time I heard it (or the first time it deeply moved me, whichever is applicable).


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Yes, unfortunately, I have to admit music is a bit disposable. And I think why is because music isn't everything. It will never satisfy you completely. It may be great for a little while, but if you listen to it like 100 times, something does die. At least for me. That happened to me with Wagner. I call it "burn out" of a composer, or a piece of music.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Yes, music tends to be disposable in that way, but the extent really depends on the composer. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Vivaldi, for example, get pretty old if you listen to their same music for a while (But they're great in smaller doses). The music of Brahms and Mahler is more emotionally/intellectually difficult to understand, but I can listen to them many more times without getting sick of them, appreciating them more each time.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Music is _never_ disposable -- only retired.

I probably never again need to listen to Dvorak's 9th symphony, but it's always there if I need it. Sometimes I listen to a piece after a long hiatus and relive all its wonder again.


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## hespdelk (Mar 19, 2011)

I agree with Weston.

I've had situations where I've listened to a favourite piece one time too often in a short span of time, and some of the impact is lost. But after a time if I return to it.. its back. No truly great piece of music is ever disposable in my view. There are simply times when one isn't in the right place to hear it.

On the other hand, there are works that while in some way fascinating or moving on first listen quickly loose that appeal and then never regain it. I have personally found this to be a rarer phenomenon.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Many good points made here. There are a number of composers that I think I've suffered "burnout" with. One of the biggies is Bartok. I've been familiar with his music for 20 years, and it doesn't appeal to me as much as it did in the early days. Some of his music - the string quartets in particular - just come across to me as technical exercises, written to tick all the boxes but delivering little in terms of listener engagement (I'm strictly speaking about my own reaction today, it doesn't mean this has to be true for everyone). But the good thing about classical music is that there is a wealth of stuff out there waiting to be explored. Eg. I have more recenty acquired some of the works of Bartok's fellow Hungarians Dohnanyi & Rozsa, and have found much to enjoy in their music. Basically if I get tired of something there are many other new avenues to explore, composers whose styles are less familiar and therefore one doesn't anticipate all of their technical tricks and habits. Music that is new to me is not weighed down with my previous experience/knowledge, therefore it comes across as more fresh and less cliched...


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