# Listening to large bodies of work from start to finish.



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Have you ever, say, listened to Bach's entire collection of Cantatas from start to finish in the correct order without listening to anything else? It doesn't have to be Bach, what about Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, has anyone sat through them all (going to bed is allowed but you have to pick up in the right place in the morning)? Or Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum or any reasonably large body of music like Schubert's or Beethoven's string quartets?

Does binge listening make you get tired of the same composer? You might get to cantata BWV 102 and then just have to listen to some Chopin, say. Not because the Bach is bad but because you have overdone it?

I've tried with the cantatas and got to BWV 50, I think. Personally for me it spoit the Bach experience but what do others think?


----------



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

I don't listen to a set of pieces by many composers without a "break" with other composers. They weren't mean to be heard that way, and there's no way someone can go through all the Bach Cantatas and not be at least a little bored by the end. Even listening to all the Beethoven and Mahler symphonies bores me. I need variety. Bach, then maybe Stravinsky, Chopin, Mozart, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, finish off with Schoenberg. Not Bach Cantata 1, Cantata 2, Cantata 3, etc.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've never even thought of listening to a large body of music from start to finish. Bach's WTC or a Wagner opera is as far as I would take it.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I have listened to the complete Scarlatti sonatas twice through. I don't think I would do it again. It desensitises me after a while; I suppose like overdoing it on chocolate cake until it's no longer delicious and cake-like but just nothing.

I've done other 'complete' works in one sequence too: Mozart's string quartets; Tchaikovsky's symphonies; Shostakovich's string quartets.

I'm not going to do this again. There's no need to order everything on the menu just because it's _on_ the menu.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I did it twice with Froberger's -- once with Egarr's recordings and then again with the suites when Glen Wilson's recording came out, it was a very nice thing to do. And I've done it with Georg Bohm's keyboard music and Sweelinck's and Titelouze's and Cabezon's and Arauxo's (that was not so good to do) and Bull's. And years ago I did it with the Haydn piano trios. I'm doing it now with Trabaci's music.


And I've been to concert cycles with all the Beethoven piano sonatas and quartets, all Bach's harpsichord music, all Schoenberg's piano music with opus number, all Prokofiev's piano sonatas, all Mozart string quintets, all Bach's solo cello and violin music, all the Bartok quartets. 

The trick for me is to take it very slowly -- one day for Trabaci's galliards, another for his canzone francezi etc. And to do it with short pieces -- I wouldn't like to work my way through all the Ockeghem masses, for example, even though I'm interested in the music. 

Anyone fancy joining me doing it with all of Josquin's motets? Over a few weeks!


----------



## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Perhaps you can get an overdose of the same composer's music, at least I had that experience, which wasn't very pleasant.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

If I binge on a single composer then I tend to focus on particular genres rather than the whole caboodle unless that composer's entire output is relatively small. Suppose at the end of the day it depends on how much of that composer's work I've got as to whether it constitutes a binge in the first place.


----------



## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

I have done this a few times. All of Haydn's symphonies, all of Mozart's piano concerti, a complete Chopin, all of Beethoven's piano sonatas, I even went through Tchaikovsky by opus number once (including the non-opus works in the right places).

How it goes depends. Going through Tchaikovsky was great, since he wrote in many different forms. The Haydn symphonies were ok, as well, though by the end I was ready for a break. The same with Mozart's piano concerti. The complete Chopin was too much solo piano for my taste. If there's enough variety, it's fine. But too much of the same or similar does wear on me after a while.

Having said that, though, it is interesting to hear a composer's development throughout their career, whether overall or in a particular form. I would recommend trying it, but of course, stop if you're getting bored. With something like, say, Haydn's string quartets, you could go through them an opus a day, with something else in between.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I had a good time listening to all Beethoven symphonies during some rainy summer days this year. I "researched" my selections and only heard different kind-of-HIP versions. Nice project, even had some beers


----------



## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

I do this regularly. I like to "get" the feel of a composer with multiple examples chronologically played. Its a kind of deep emersion. I learn the nits and grits and hear the development and learn the tropes.

I like to do this when I am introduced to a new composer. But also, when exploring an old friend within a genre. So I may know the symphonies of a war horse of a composer, but not the chamber works. So I will binge listen to them, maybe even buy the score and follow along. 

But I am a nerd.


----------



## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

It might be enlightening for me to binge listen to all the music of a time period, and capture the age rather than the composers. Hear their music in the context of the music around them.

I might just try this.


----------



## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

JeffD said:


> It might be enlightening for me to binge listen to all the music of a time period, and capture the age rather than the composers. Hear their music in the context of the music around them.
> 
> I might just try this.


I sort of did this with Brilliant Classics huge Italian Baroque release. It was incredible!


----------



## nikon (Nov 16, 2017)

Depending on mood... Sometimes I pick for example Beethoven 7 and I become stunned by some harmonies and then I listen Beethoven more deeply that week or two  Same for Bruckner for example (always fascinated by harmonies).


----------



## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

I am currently systematically working my way through the Hydan Symphonies (Fischer) and thoroughly enjoying them. Though naturally not back to back. As mentioned one can have too much of a good thing and variety really is the spice of life in music I find.

Having just finished Elliot Gardiner's book on Bach, I shall be doing the same with the Cantatas - though on a basis of one per week. I have two complete sets and a couple of compilations from Harnoncourt and Gardiner himself. Gardiner's book gives you the weeks and months of when Bach composed his two cycles so there is a structure and chronology to follow, not to mention his analyses of selected Cantatatas which allows you to listen in a more informed manner. I have the complete textual translations to follow along with, so there is also an undeniable spiritual dimension to it all - even though I am not in the least a religious person. Of course, with this many Cantatas to listen to and read, I may develop latent Lutheran tendencies...


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

When I was a teenager, I once listened to the Beethoven Symphonies in order during the course of a day, But I can't imagine wanting to do it with any larger body of works. Bach Cantatas? Haydn or Mozart Symphonie or Quartets? I recently tried it with the middle Shostakovich Symphonies (4-8) and wound up nearly driving of the road.


----------

