Re: What we listen for


Steve Latham wrote:
> "Michael Mossey" <michaelmossey@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1138396914.221130.190360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Has anyone else thought about investigating what people listen for in
> > music.. or asking a composer what his "purpose" is.. and then maybe
> > classifying things a bit?
>
> I'm sure there are clinical/psychological studies on this.
>
> But how many people do you want? I think people will listen for various
> things. I know when I listen to a pop record, I listen to the harmonies, the
> lines, the individual instruments, their timbres, the text (which is the
> thing I pay the least attention to), the structure of the song, the
> porduction techniques, the effects being used, and so on. hundresd of things
> I would say. I think the average person on the street probably listens to
> the lyrics and vocal melody, maybe the beat.
>
> Being Mozart's birthday and all, our local symphony with chorus performed
> the Requiem. The sound was horrible. I'm not talking about the performance,
> but I'm talking about the audio broadcast. It was unlistenable to me. I
> turned it off. As an engineer/recordist, I tend not only to listen to the
> music, but I tend to listen to the way it was recorded in recordings too.
> Plus I listen for bow noise, breath, and stuff like that in live
> performances (I don't listen FOR them, but maybe I'm inclined to notice them
> more than others). So I think it would vary greatly depending on the person.

The things you mention here might be described as 'intellectual' or
'analytical', if we were to fit them into a category.

>
> [snip]
> >
> > In other words, does the music evoke a giant mechanical device, or does
> > it evoke a jaguar running or a human dancing? Often this is a matter of
> > how it is performed.
>
> Or, and I think Matt would agree, how (or by whom) it is perceived.

Just wondering if you have noticed this variable youself. In other
words, music is a process and as such can evoke other processes in the
world, and processes can include the operation of a machine on the one
hand, or something quite different such as the movement of an animal.
There are any number of other processes.

>
> >
> > I HATE when people perform Bach like a machine. To me, Bach's little
> > mechanical parts evoke dance or animal movement, or the flow of river,
> > or the flow of wind, so they are living bones and muscles, or swirling
> > currents in a river.
> >
> > If I distilled my purposes down, they would be two part
> >
> > (1) heartful expression of emotions
> > and
> > (2) fun
> >
> > Recently Mozart has come to my attention more and more, for these two
> > reasons. I also think that the Brandenburg Concertos are tremendous
> > fun, like the finale of number 5. Those lightly separated quarters are
> > so dancy, and then when the triplets on the recorders play over them..
> > OMG what fun! (Neville Marriner conducting)
>
> You realize that Brandenburg's are Bach, not Mozart? You may have meant that
> but put the two sentences in close proximity - little confusing.

That's why the 'also' was there, but okay, it was a little confusing.

>
> >
> > But then I heard Hillary Hahn and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra playing
> > one of the Brandenburgs... ugh! arrf! ick! Like a machine. No dance in
> > it, just a display of technique.
>
> Well, I think what you're experiencing is the various levels at which a
> performed piece operates. There's the composer's intent, the performer's
> interpretation, potentially the recording engineer's decisions, and the
> listener's perception. Since all 3 or 4 of those steps all have subjective
> considerations, what people think is "right" will vary greatly.

It would be very interesting to me to know if anyone else perceived
this particular recording (not that I know what it was, so can't refer
you to it) as machine-like reather than dance-like, or any related
analogy.

Mike

.

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