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Has education expanded your listening tastes?

This point recently came up in another thread: a member was of the opinion (if I am paraphrasing them correctly) that critical thinking plays little role in what our tastes in music might be. We like what we like and that's it. So that begs the question for me, how many of us feel that our reaction to music is primarily rooted in the emotional centers of the brain and that rational analysis of musical structure and language doesn't potentially expand our range of musical enjoyment? I ask because I am not a professional musician, but I did take a few college level music history classes, learn to play guitar in my forties (now sixty,) learn to read music on a rudimentary level of competence, study a little music theory, and enjoy reading historical biographies about composers and musicians. I can honestly say that the in the last fifteen years or so, I have greatly expanded what types of music I enjoy and that I can appreciate music I might not "love" in the emotional sense that used to dictate what I listen to. Take Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern for example. Their music doesn't sweep you away with the emotional majesty of earlier composers, but I find their intellectual rigor and organization to be fascinating and very enjoyable. Same with studying the history of American roots music, I learned a lot about our cultural history and enjoy listening to old blues and country music now. How do other's feel about this emotion vs. learning to appreciate thing?
photon46
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
7,859 posts
 
****Take Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern****
I wish someone would.

******but I find their intellectual rigor and organization to be fascinating and very enjoyable.*******

what does 'intellectual rigor and organization' mean?

Cheers
photon46 OP
1,089 posts
 
Rok2kid, That would be my ineloquent way of referring to the fact that as those composers evolved through late Romantic chromaticism and serial techniques, their compositional strategies were more or less guided by adherence to certain principles of composition. Things like Schoenberg and Webern's use of only a single tone row in a given composition.

Arnettpartners, I think you are right about early imprinting. My mom was a violinist, pianist, and organist. My first musical memories as kid are of her playing Maunuel De Falla's music downstairs as I went to sleep. She hated anything anything before Beethoven and after Mahler, but she did give me an early start on appreciation for the classics.
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Photon and Arnettpartners, imprinting no doubt occurs. However, there is more in play. My parents listened to country music almost exclusively. My first exposure to classical music was in the 5th grade. The music teacher decided she didn't want to do anything that day so she played a Tchaikovsky symphony. I loved it. I turned increasingly to my Dad's long wave radio, which allowed me to listen to European stations that played classical music. Once the teens rolled around, peer pressure was sufficient to steer me towards the popular music of the day. Again things took a turn when I had a next door neighbor in college who listened to a lot of classical. That was the final turning point. Its been 42 years of nothing but classical. This is what my kids grew up hearing, but they have all turned to country.

I am reminded that Martin Luther, whose knowledge and love of music is well known, commented that he placed music next to theology in its importance. He observed that God uses music, not geometry or similar disciplines to communicate his message. I am further reminded of a study (pet Imaging I think) I once saw that showed the same areas of the brain are activated by music and theology.

Music is a part of the human experience, and historically has been a significant part. It is just in our souls, or else it isn't.
kleech
130 posts
 
An analogy can be made to food and eating. Some people are adventuresome, try new foods and may then develop a fondness for a particular cuisine or other. Others grow up with meat 'n potatoes and are averse to try anything else. I'm guessing most hear will answer yes!
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,768 posts
 
-
Photon46 - I absolutely agree with your premise that intellectual
curiosity can lead to an appreciation and even affection for music that
you've been either unfamiliar with or thought you would never like.

And for me there is an element to that process that I'm not clear
whether is emotional or intellectual, maybe both. Reminding myself to
consciously put aside preconceptions about what I might like has taken
me down musical paths I would never have discovered otherwise and
that have been worlds, or at least continents, away from the music I
grew up with.

Serendipity plays a big part, as well, and I'm grateful for that. I had a
long-time companion who was a walking encyclopedia of the music of
southern Europe, where she grew up, as well as all the music that
preceded it, across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and all the
way to India.

To have gone from the country music, fundamentalist hymns and early
rock and roll I grew up with to Paco De Lucia, Ali Farka Toure and Ali
Akbar Khan has been one of the great experiences of my life.
More to discover