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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
jdcmac12
26 posts
 
But and listen to what you like... We only get one spin...

Regards,

JDCMAC
unsound
7,329 posts
 
I try my best to give everything a chance. I will listen to any and every thing through till the end. I will admit that there are some "categories" I find consistently challenging.
I find most opera difficult. Perhaps the language barrier is to distracting, yet I still don't care for Gilbert & Sullivan despite the fact it filled my house as a child. I don't care for Ragge because it's too repetitive yet I like most minimalist music. I don't care for most Rap except for those rare examples when there is real poetry. Ditto Punk.
Avant Garde/Free Form ala Ornette Coleman, Chicago Art Ensemble etc. require me to be in a certain mind set, when I'm particularly open and not distracted. I have yet to come to the point in my personal development where I can control this state of mind. Often times I will give more opportunity to music that is less accesible to my cultural prejudice. I have found many things in life take many tries before appreciation can be found. Sometimes it works (Scotch Whiskey, coffee, etc.), sometimes it doesn't (fried liver).
phild
603 posts
 
I've had similar experiences with free-form music like Ornette Coleman, etc. It took me a while to appreciate John Coltrane's "Ascension" album. The CD had two takes of the "song"...each about 40 minutes long. I find myself listening to things like that as background for awhile. I put them on and read the papers. They soak in subliminally for the first few listens, and after that I find myself putting them on and consciously listening to them. I think our brains need a bit of awarm-up period when we listen to styles that we're not accustomed to. I sometimes do the same thing with new rock albums, new jazz albums, unfamilar symphonies, etc.
jameswei
883 posts
 
An intriguing question. I've found that if I really can't relate to music on the first try, it generally doesn't get better on repeats. The fascinating part is that some of my favorite music started out as borderline on the first play. That is, it sounded OK but not great on the first try, then it grew on me. Examples include St. Germain (techno/jazz), Eva Cassidy (female vocal jazz), and Hugh Masekala (jazz with African themes), versus my nominal preferences for classical and smooth jazz. But the stuff that was far away to begin with, like FIM's Chinese instrumentals or very abstract jazz, never got closer.

I don't understand music in the way that musicians seem to. I don't have an appreciation for the detail and choices involved in the composition and performance. All I generally hear is the overall sound, the tone and direction of the music. I don't usually follow the play of individual instruments in a group performance. Maybe that's why good sound reproduction is more important to me than to a musician, who could get off on the artistry of what the musicians are doing rather than the overall effect. Somebody like that could be more appreciative of the stuff I can't relate to.
ultrakaz
187 posts
 
I have a much simpler approach to music, if I like it I listen to it. If I don't like it I will not try to understand (listen) it. I simply, do not have enough time and what time I do have I would rather spend on something I like. There are already too many challenges in life and listening to opera shouldn't be one of them.

I like the analogy about food, I would never ever try to understand (eat) why fried liver is good for me.
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