# Some music settles, some music rises



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I've been listening for 'a rise' for a long time. I really would like to 'settle.' I was getting more into Mahler for a while, the things that I have been latching onto mostly, have been 'rises.' Maybe this is because I don't sit all the way through his works usually. No value judgement intended. But I feel personally, that there is something of desperate, even manic "rising," all over the work of many composers in that time period in which Mahler wrote his symphonies(and committed to a 'high rise' like few others). Maybe you are not an emotional listener like that, that's okay, I am not always either, sometimes I very much have tried to engage my mind before my heart. I used to love Tchaikovsky when younger. There is often a warmth to it, and a lift, but also a depression and fall. One time when things were feeling really burdened, I felt such a floundering comfort in Brahms Symphony 4 mvt 2, in the Mozart Symphony 39 mvt 2, in the Larghetto for Horn and Orchestra by Chabrier.

I was at an old piano teacher's house and had the idea to ask him about learning romantic pieces since I still have not properly learned one apart from Schumann Kinderszenen, and two typically slow and trippy Scriabin pieces. First I asked about Liszt. Some of the Consolations came to mind for him as something manageable to start with: 




He is generous enough to play for me sometimes, and I found my tiredly manic overanalyzing mind wanting to engage in it's usual way with the music. I wouldn't say it's 'rising' music, unusually settled for much of Liszt. But it didn't quite hit me though I wasn't emotionally aware of the fact that I could be hit and 'settled,' in that moment.

So then, I asked about Chopin and he played some he thought maybe I would want to try. I can't even remember at the moment what piece it was, but it was a good one and I started feeling like I was melting. Not 'meltdown.' It was the settling. I think one Nocturne was part of this, but there were some other faster pieces, and yet the 'moody' nature of them felt like a welcome honesty for me to connect with.

Not really sure what to make of this as a thread, so I will leave it more like a blog post in the main forum. Remember that though I am most likely jumping to many little conclusions, I am just describing something I felt as well as I know how.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Wonderful post. Thank you for sharing.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I do agree with ArtMusic .


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

clavichorder said:


> II started feeling like I was melting. Not 'meltdown.' It was the settling.


Someone recently mentioned David Lang's _The Passing Measures_ on another thread, and your mention of "melting" made me think of it. A very apt word for my feelings on listening to it and similar works.

https://davidlangmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-passing-measures


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