Do You Understand Music?


First I want to describe something that repeats happening with me when I listen to the relatively new music to me.

There are a few examples that I want to describe:

1. I've acquired a rare CD of Cluster "One Hour" which contains one track that lasts exactly 1 hour. No matter how hard I've tried to listen to it as whole i was getting tired or just simply did not understand what's going on and was postponing a listening to the next session. Next session something similar happens and in curiosity I'm just trying to fast-forward to the last minutes of the track to hear how it ends. After few more trials to torture myself i quit and exchange this CD to the different offered by one of my best friend(Wobble-Parker). He digged in(meaning was able to listen the whole hour) from the third listening session and reviewed this music as one of the most magnificient projects created by Cluster for what I envy him to have a patience to understand.

2. Nearly the same thing happend with double CD album "Cobra" which is a project of John Zorn.

Some years ago I couldn't understand Ornette Coleman but now I realize that his music is like surrealistic art and has a divine presence. Same I can tell about Kronos Quartet.

Please share with me if you had a similar situations. Would you listen to the music that you don't understand? Would you try to understand it? Would you honor a "different" music and accept it as an art?

For me I'd rather listen to what I do not understand and try later-on to understand instead of just simply go to the Wiz and buy some Ricky Martin or Marc Anthony...
128x128marakanetz
It took me a while to appreciate Ornette Coleman too. I'm glad I didn't give up on him the first time I listened.

I enjoy listening to challenging music that will broaden my tastes. Some of it I've really enjoyed through repeated listenings (AMM, Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker), but some stuff, no matter how much I listen to I just cannot get. This is mostly modern-classical stuff (Xenakis comes to mind) or extreme-electronic music.
Ultrakaz: I agree completely with your "simpler" approach to music. However, the food analogy does not do it for me as I like fried liver.
i have found,especially with classical music,that it helps to learn as much as possible about the composer.his life's ups and downs play a big part in his music.pieces that when first heard are difficult,become understandable and accessible,there is a trancendance and makes the experience of music more enjoyable.just my opinion.
Rout9, How would you analyze Alfred Schnittke ups and downs in his music?
I believe that he's one of the pioneers of avant-grade and musical abstractions. Isn't he great?
i'm not familiar with his works,but you are in agreement with what i'm saying.works that seem difficult came be understood[trancended]if we can know at least a small part of their lives.obviously this always can't be done,but that's part of the fun.i don't comprehend everything i hear,but i usually get something out of a work.