# Pieces You Can't Listen To



## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

Perhaps it is too frightening, brings back strong memories, was written by a morally detestable composer, or is just plain annoying. For whatever reason, I'm sure a lot of us know a piece of music that we simply cannot listen to.

To start, I'll admit that I have trouble listening to Vivaldi's _Four Seasons_ due to their overplayed nature and negative connotations I have attatched to them over the years. However, the main reason I created this thread is because I have recently found it impossible to sit through an entire recording of Berlioz' _Roméo et Juliette_. Let me give you some backstory...

When I first heard music by Berlioz (which happened to be his _Symphonie Fantastique_), I felt a very strong connection to it, almost as if it was speaking directly to my inner self. I can relate to his music immensely, and strangely enough, when I listen to some of his music it's almost as if the music is more like myself than I am! The more times I listened to _Roméo et Juliette_, the more I have made it my own, and now when I listen to it, even though I only discovered it less than two years ago, it's like myself as a child is calling out to me to return back to a time of no worrries and complete happiness. It's kind of sad when you think about it... 

Anyway, I'm sure most people wouldn't want to listen to a piece for negative reasons, but in my case it happens to be for a very positive and complimentary reason. It would be comforting to hear somebody with a situation similar to mine, that way I wouldn't feel so crazy.... I don't expect that to happen though.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

EarthBoundRules said:


> When I first heard music by Berlioz (which happened to be his _Symphonie Fantastique_), I felt a very strong connection to it, almost as if it was speaking directly to my inner self. I can relate to his music immensely, and strangely enough, when I listen to some of his music it's almost as if the music is more like myself than I am! The more times I listened to _Roméo et Juliette_, the more I have made it my own, and now when I listen to it, even though I only discovered it less than two years ago, it's like myself as a child is calling out to me to return back to a time of no worrries and complete happiness. It's kind of sad when you think about it...
> 
> Anyway, I'm sure most people wouldn't want to listen to a piece for negative reasons, but in my case it happens to be for a very positive and complimentary reason. It would be comforting to hear somebody with a situation similar to mine, that way I wouldn't feel so crazy.... I don't expect that to happen though.


hehe I sorta feel that way about some music from video games and tv shows that remind me of my childhood, and also some mystical childlike and happy music of this sort of nature.





I have a different sort of symptom. I have a weird thing where if I really love a piece a lot I feel like I can't listen to it too many times because I am paranoid that it will be become stale after a while.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Basically the whole miminimism subgenre. So repetitive. Hard to listen to something that is in constant repetition. No idea how anyone can btw.


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## Truckload (Feb 15, 2012)

For me Ravel's La Valse is just too painful for me. It is a wonderful composition, but whenever I hear it I think of my college orchestra playing it. We were terrible, all of us, including me. It was such a bad performance that I was physically sick afterwards. I still cant listen to La Valse without feeling the pain and shame of that night.

The "Symphonie Fantastique" had a huge effect on me when I first heard it as a teenager. The piece is so advanced stylistically, artisticly and the orchestration is so marvelous that it is amazing to me that it was written in 1830. I love it.

In general, the greatest art music does have the ability to connect with our emotions doesn't it?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

There are a number of works I have difficulty listening to but for reasons much different than those listed above. Some modern music uses very dissonant high pitches. The music has a similar effect to that of fingernails on a blackboard for some people. Ligeti's Atmospheres and his piano concerto are extremely unpleasant at times, and I find I really don't want to continue listening.


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## Guest (Mar 18, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> Basically the whole miminimism subgenre. So repetitive. Hard to listen to something that is in constant repetition. *No idea how anyone can btw.*


You have just expressed the fundamental difficulty about having a conversation about music. The "no idea how anyone can" part of things.

It's what drives practically every dispute about the merits of current music. (Current for many listeners being that which was written in the past hundred years!!)

Anyway, miminimism (or minimalism as it is also called) is not all about repetition, and even the repetition subgenre (minimalism being a genre) changes, a lot.

Plus you, as you're listening to a repetitious piece, change too. Everything is always changing. (Try Satie's _Vexations_ on for size some day!:lol


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> There are a number of works I have difficulty listening to but for reasons much different than those listed above. Some modern music uses very dissonant high pitches. The music has a similar effect to that of fingernails on a blackboard for some people. Ligeti's Atmospheres and his piano concerto are extremely unpleasant at times, and I find I really don't want to continue listening.


Those are my favorite pieces by Ligeti


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Those are my favorite pieces by Ligeti


I know a lot of people like them, but I guess I'm just really sensitive to certain types of sounds. It's obviously psychological, but they almost feel painful to hear.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

mmsbls said:


> There are a number of works I have difficulty listening to but for reasons much different than those listed above. Some modern music uses very dissonant high pitches. The music has a similar effect to that of fingernails on a blackboard for some people. Ligeti's Atmospheres and his piano concerto are extremely unpleasant at times, and I find I really don't want to continue listening. .


Mr mmsbls, try this piece.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I basically don't like rehash. Eg. composers who repeat themselves, there is little or no stylistic change, growth, development. Two main ones today are Arvo Part and also Rautavaara. I think Part did some great things up till early 1990's, after that it's largely been rehash. I don't know what's the point for him, or for me as a listener. I want to listen to things that engage me, not just same old same old.

Anyway, as for the overkill factor, it can be an issue. I esp. find this with very tuneful music, it has potential to become bothering earworm. I like Philip Glass but don't do overkill with him, I like him but I don't want to go far enough to hate him. The French, often being great tunesmiths and very listenable have sometimes been like this for me too - eg. Saint-Saens and Ravel. I'm not knocking these guys though, the issue is how my mind works, not the quality of their music, which I consider very high.

I also tend to dislike many over the top "music on steroids" as I call it. Wagner and R. Strauss are two, although on a rare occasion I don't mind them. Mahler and Bruckner work for me a bit better, but they aren't my absolute favourites either.

Again, I reiterate my dislike of people coming to threads with a mindset to question why the OP set up a thread. It's being pedantic imo and I'm sick of it here, basically. It's making me avoid these threads, it ends up always going down a certain predetermined route often with little to do with the OP - in other words, just like the rehash music I dislike.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> I know a lot of people like them, but I guess I'm just really sensitive to certain types of sounds. It's obviously psychological, but they almost feel painful to hear.


For example, this is my favorite part of Atmospheres:






(from 3:40 to 4:30)

I love the continuous transformation of the colour of the sound meanwhile the pitch goes high and high, I feel the "adrenaline", I find it very exciting. And that contrasting bass part at the end, sounds almost metaphysical for me. Then chaos (the next section)... man, I love this piece!.


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## Truckload (Feb 15, 2012)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Mr mmsbls, try this piece.


HA! You aren't playing nice with others Mr. HarpsichordConcerto. Its not nice to try to torture mmsbls.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Truckload said:


> HA! You aren't playing nice with others Mr. HarpsichordConcerto. Its not nice to try to torture mmsbls.


Shhhhh!! mmsbls is cool. He won't mind a poking fun.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Mr mmsbls, try this piece.


That's actually a really cool piece...with some themes...not pure noise at all.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Other thing is, I tend not to like music that's too dark, no light at the end of the tunnel. Even ambiguity is ok, but not total darkness, despair, depression. I can stand some chamber like that, it's like an emotional release - eg. things by Shostakovich are a big exception, chamber or orchestral, etc. - but with symphonic, I accept these are great works (and know them), but I listen to them very rarely (& only Bruckner 9 is in my collection). But I heard Mahler 9 last year which was great, but live is different.

So me says no thanks to what I call symphonies of "doom and gloom" -
Mahler 9
Bruckner 9
Sibelius 4
Tchaikovsky 6


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## Truckload (Feb 15, 2012)

Sid James said:


> Other thing is, I tend not to like music that's too dark, no light at the end of the tunnel. Even ambiguity is ok, but not total darkness, despair, depression. I can stand some chamber like that, it's like an emotional release - eg. things by Shostakovich are a big exception, chamber or orchestral, etc. - but with symphonic, I accept these are great works (and know them), but I listen to them very rarely (& only Bruckner 9 is in my collection). But I heard Mahler 9 last year which was great, but live is different.
> 
> So me says no thanks to what I call symphonies of "doom and gloom" -
> Mahler 9
> ...


That's interesting. So Gotterdamerung (spelling?) and Swan Lake would definately be a no go for you. Is sad the same thing? In the spirit of the OP I have a love/hate relationship with the Barber Adagio for Strings, and the Adagio from Mahler's 5th. Both are so gorgeously sad that they make my heart ache. I really love these two pieces, but sometimes they just make me so sad I can barely tolerate it. So I have to be careful to only play these when I am in a good mood!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^ Barber and Mahler - but not the 9th symphony - give me ambiguity overall. Enough room to wring out of them some light at the end of the tunnel. I think Barber's Adagio, which I've been listening to recently with his birthday, as well as his other things - they give me hope. It can be interpreted either way is what I'm saying, so I find most things, except my "doom & gloom" list. Then there's Shostakovich who can be very depressing but for some reason I love his stuff, the way he does it. I can't explain it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)




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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

"Pieces You Can't Listen To"?

I can't listen to a screaming soprano, because it hurts.

I _can_ listen to Ravel's Bolero, but it is very annoying, so I don't.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Pink Floyd - "The Wall"


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Truckload said:


> ...So Gotterdamerung (spelling?) and Swan Lake would definately be a no go for you...


Yes, I do find Wagner on the whole too heavy going, but I like Tchaikovsky, the _Pathetique _due to it leaving the listener in the depths of despair, is an exception. But an amazing work, just not my cup of tea so to speak, too depressing (esp. the ending).


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

some guy said:


> You have just expressed the fundamental difficulty about having a conversation about music. The "no idea how anyone can" part of things.
> 
> It's what drives practically every dispute about the merits of current music. (Current for many listeners being that which was written in the past hundred years!!)
> 
> ...


Well then Steve Reich and Philip Glass have given minimalism a bad name. So repetitive though they do change small things. Alright maybe there is a small part of me that can like it if done well. For example is the movie Koyaanisqatsy. But both Reich and Glass can be incredibly frustrating to listen to as they tend to use the same notes a lot.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

aleazk said:


> I love the continuous transformation of the colour of the sound meanwhile the pitch goes high and high, I feel the "adrenaline", I find it very exciting. And that contrasting bass part at the end, sounds almost metaphysical for me. Then chaos (the next section)... man, I love this piece!.


What's really fascinating is that you listen to that section and feel excitement and pleasure while I hear the same sounds and must struggle to listen to the end. You revel in music you love while I feel as though I'm enduring a physical ordeal. I have this vision of a bizarre science fiction movie where the aliens are broadcasting a high pitched noise that has people writhing in agony covering their ears (OK a bit extreme) while others are leaning toward the sounds desperately yearning to hear more. I would truly love to understand the neural physiology that explains such diverse reactions to similar stimuli. Unfortunately, that understanding is many, many years away.

I've come to like music that I definitely disliked years ago. Most dissonance does not have anywhere near the same effect on me as it used to have. Still, I'm not sure I'll ever manage to experience very high pitched dissonance in anything but unpleasant. I guess we'll see. Still, I'm glad you and others enjoy _Atmospheres_.



HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Mr mmsbls, try this piece.


HC, Gubaidulina's SQ was not my cup of tea, but it did not reach the unpleasantness of _Atmospheres_.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

neoshredder said:


> Well then Steve Reich and Philip Glass have given minimalism a bad name. So repetitive though they do change small things. Alright maybe there is a small part of me that can like it if done well. For example is the movie Koyaanisqatsy. But both Reich and Glass can be incredibly frustrating to listen to as they tend to use the same notes a lot.


I agree with you regarding Glass, I don't mind him, but I think Reich is more to my taste. I think there's more variety in Reich's music, less literal repetition and he's always changing his style, adapting to new trends. But neither are absolute favourites of mine. I don't even know if they're called minimalists now, I think they're post-minimalists? USA minimalism came in late 1960's, lots happened since then.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> well then steve reich and philip glass have given minimalism a bad name. So repetitive though they do change small things. Alright maybe there is a small part of me that can like it if done well. For example is the movie koyaanisqatsy. But both reich and glass can be incredibly frustrating to listen to as they tend to use the same notes a lot.


just surrender to the notes and let them guide you on a mystical journey into your soul, man.


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## CPSeattle (Mar 18, 2012)

> I have this vision of a bizarre science fiction movie where the aliens are broadcasting a high pitched noise that has people writhing in agony covering their ears (OK a bit extreme) while others are leaning toward the sounds desperately yearning to hear more.


When they were playing Henri Dutilleux last night, I was thinking about being waterboarded. Guy I was with said he thought it was what they must play in hell.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Cnote11 said:


> just surrender to the notes and let them guide you on a mystical journey into your soul, man.


Hardly mystical. It's more like staring at different parts of the wall. It's still the wall. Just not the same part of the wall. Especially painful when ever piece sounds the same to the first piece on the cd. Hmm hmm Glass's Violin Concertos cd. I tried but those cd's aren't for me. Even worse is Steve Reich's Four Organs Phase Patterns cd. I'm a picky listener I gotta say.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Surrender to the ever changing molecules of the wall and let them guide you on a mystical journey into your soul, man.

Edit: Have you listened to Reich's Different Trains? I think I saw you comment on it once but I'm not positive if that was you or not.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I have a hard time of listening to pieces that start.. stop start... stop...start and each time it starts its something new and different even though it's still technically the same movement. It drives me batty because I don't like pieces with a lot of silence and that is usually what you get out of these is 2 minutes of music and 3 minutes of silence. Ok so it usually isn't that drastic but loads of pauses in the music don't bode well for whoever it is that wrote it.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

CPSeattle said:


> When they were playing Henri Dutilleux last night, I was thinking about being waterboarded. Guy I was with said he thought it was what they must play in hell.


Well the piece is about the darker side of sex drugs n rock n roll - the 19th century version of Baudelaire's poetry - so I think then that what you heard was correct, it's an intense piece about things in our lives that we think "I just don't want to go there." But if you want something pretty, there are modern cello concertos like that, try Hovhaness' (an early work from 1930's - on Naxos label), I like it equally. It's two sides of the coin, the dark and the light. But I'm being simplistic, there's many nuances in both works, and even the simplest music, often.


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## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

Musique de salon. 
It's just worthless, I hate it. 

Endless romantic operas.
That's more about not understanding them. To me this music is just meh.

edit: Sid James : About the dark pieces, well I'd be very curious to know what you consider to be the darkest piece ever, because I've never found something dark enough for my tastes !
I mean, Rachmaninoff's Isle of the dead isn't that dark to me. Bach's Fantasie BWV542 is a good start but still not enough. Mozart's Qui Tollis from the Big Mass is not bad either...


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> Pink Floyd - "The Wall"


An incredible album. No fillers. Just amazing that many good songs on an album.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Sid James said:


> I basically don't like rehash. Eg. composers who repeat themselves, there is little or no stylistic change, growth, development. Two main ones today are Arvo Part and also Rautavaara.* I think Part did some great things up till early 1990's, after that it's largely been rehash*. I don't know what's the point for him, or for me as a listener. I want to listen to things that engage me, not just same old same old. [my emphasis]


How true.
Unfortunately, the seductiveness of success can be overwhelming for most of us.

As for what I can't listen to: self-pity is high on my list - whether Tchaikovsky or Allan Pettersen.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

If you want to know 5 pieces I can't listen to, just ask _some guy_ to post 5 pieces he enjoys.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

CPSeattle said:


> When they were playing Henri Dutilleux last night, I was thinking about being waterboarded. Guy I was with said he thought it was what they must play in hell.


I'm sure if you were actually being waterboarded you would rather be listening to some Dutilleaux....


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Apparently I've been in hell for quite a while now, and the music sounds pretty good!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Anything by Elgar. Also can't listen to "Truman Sleeps" by Glass.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

starthrower said:


> Apparently I've been in hell for quite a while now, and the music sounds pretty good!


:devil: Devil: welcome to hell. Watch out for stairs.... 






:devil:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

aleazk said:


> :devil: Devil: welcome to hell. Watch out for stairs....
> 
> 
> 
> ...


My favourite piano étude of all time.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> My favourite piano étude of all time.


haha, this one was my favorite too, but now it's the etude "Pour Irine" (from the third book). I like more this second one because it has all the styles that Ligeti has shown in his piano etudes, the more "reflexive" one associated with the third book (the first part of the etude), and the aggressive, dissonant and rhythmic style of the first books (at the end of the etude). But maybe because of my current mood .


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## mensch (Mar 5, 2012)

"Music in Twelve Parts" by Philip Glass scores high on the list of Pieces I Can't Listen To. There's a certain amount of arpeggios a man can endure.

In general: arias sung by women.

* I should include men as well, but I find baritones in opera often unintentionally comedic, while high pitched voices irritate me more often.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I honestly don't think there is any classical music I've come across that I can't listen to. It'll be interesting to go through the pieces in this thread and see just what it is that bothers people in music.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Stravinsky - Rite of Spring


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

kv466 said:


> Stravinsky - Rite of Spring


I used to like that a lot, and I didn't listen to it often, hoping to keep it that way. Last time I put on the CD I had to stop. Apparently much of its power is in surprise - and there's no surprise left for me.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I agree the Rite quickly gets increasingly boring upon subsequent listens.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

kv466 said:


> Stravinsky - Rite of Spring


... and more .

"I agree the Rite quickly gets increasingly boring upon subsequent listens." Well, I have that problem with all the pieces that I like!, but not to the point of having distaste towards those pieces!


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

aleazk said:


> ... and more .
> 
> "I agree the Rite quickly gets increasingly boring upon subsequent listens." Well, I have that problem with all the pieces that I like!, but not to the point of having distaste towards those pieces!


Not Wagner. Wagner is inexhaustible.


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## humanbean (Mar 5, 2011)

One thing I find rather repulsive is the excessive use of tinny percussive instruments in mid/late romantic music. Dvorak's Slavonic Dances, Tchaikovsky's symphonies, and nearly all of Johann Strauss' music comes to mind. I certainly enjoy all of those works, but the constant use of the triangle, cymbals, etc. can become extremely annoying (and dare I say bombastic.) It really adds nothing to the music and gets in the way of other sections.

The 4th mvmt of Tchaikovsky's 4th comes to mind as an example of this trendy practice.


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## CPSeattle (Mar 18, 2012)

> I certainly enjoy all of those works, but the constant use of the triangle, cymbals, etc. can become extremely annoying (and dare I say bombastic.)


A Russian without bombast is like a day without sunshine.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

As a horn player I can't listen to any waltz. My part is always the same:

rest - BOP - BOP
rest - BOP - BOP
rest - BOP - BOP
rest - BOP - BOP


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Olias said:


> As a horn player I can't listen to any waltz. My part is always the same:
> 
> rest - BOP - BOP
> rest - BOP - BOP
> ...


That's about what the viola part looks like too :lol:


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

violadude said:


> That's about what the viola part looks like too :lol:


Absolutely. I feel your pain.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> That's about what the viola part looks like too :lol:


But us viola players only get the fifth degree of each chord. Lucky horn players. :lol:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I can't listen to Beethoven's 5th anymore, it drives me up the wall. Even if there was a concert I would go to that had it on the program, I would step out of the hall just for that piece.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I can't listen to Beethoven's 5th anymore, it drives me up the wall. Even if there was a concert I would go to that had it on the program, I would step out of the hall just for that piece.


Did you ever like that piece? Is it simply the listening repetition that caused your displeasure?


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

Cage's 4'33. I don't know why, but I can't hear it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

eorrific said:


> Cage's 4'33. I don't know why, but I can't hear it.


I can hear it.


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