Listening to music: 5 rules to get rid of stereotypes

In the book How to Listen to Music, journalist Lyalya Kandaurova gives some worthwhile recommendations.

1. Don’t build boundaries

There is no «big» and «small» music. There is no music for every day and for special occasions, like a weekend suit (which you don’t really wear at all). There is no «high and low» system, where Mozart is higher than, for example, his favorite punk band. There is no rule according to which music in one case must be listened to by singing and jumping, and in the other — sitting on a chair with a significant face.

And one should not assume that one direction is more privileged and aristocratic than another. Each musical style is rich and complex. It is regulated by its own laws, has its own history and mythology, its heroes and masterpieces, its rubbish and pearls, its own mechanisms of understanding and listening.

Classical music is neither more boring nor more interesting than any other. And besides, it is infinitely diverse. If you compare the Italian madrigal of the 50th century with the French electronic piece of the XNUMXs of the XNUMXth century, it will seem to you that these are not just different styles, but generally different types of art.

Where you separate the «classics» from the lively, gambling, greedy listening that you are certainly capable of (do you have a favorite music?), — there your own border will pass. It will leave behind what you refuse to know and experience. Is it worth it to dine?

2. Do not listen to music in the background

… Unless, of course, you want to understand it. For the same reason, it would not occur to you to watch a movie in the background, look at a picture, or read a novel. This applies to absolutely any music that you want to «read».

Find time and devote all your attention to it — of course, if you think that this particular music has something to tell you. This is a little easier to do if you’re listening to music on physical media. Imagine: you spent time searching and choosing, for example, a vinyl record, invested money in its purchase. Surely then you will be imbued with respect for the ceremony of listening to music.

However, if you listen to mp3s with headphones, attentive “reading” is also possible: even on the go, on the road, while walking, but put the music in the center of your attention without performing any parallel actions more difficult than walking.

But what if you like to do the cleaning to the music of Schubert? Perfectly! Reading, working, cleaning the apartment, exercising, driving, cooking, eating and falling asleep to music is really very pleasant. There is music (in all styles and genres!), which sets you up for an excellent work, training, sleep and digestive mood. But this is not called listening to music.

You will not be able to truly perceive and analyze what you hear. Know your reaction to it too.

3. Listen to different performances

In most cases, academic music is a text that can be played differently by different performers. In this it differs, for example, from rock, where the performance is the text. We can say that Prokofiev’s sonata is exceptionally good, but pianist X played it mediocrely. But to say that the Pink Floyd album is beautiful, but played and sung rather weakly, would be absurd.

In the classics, the original is absent as such, and the performers try to play the text as accurately as possible, but at the same time find a way to bring special artistic content into their interpretation. So: if we often listen to our favorite classical composition in one performance, then little by little we stick together in our perception one specific interpretation and a work in general. It seems to us that the Prokofiev sonata is the way our favorite pianist Y plays it.

However, if we hear this sonata performed by pianist Z, it will seem different to us. Sometimes — the other beyond recognition due to the difference in tempo, pronunciation and articulation of sound, the structure of phrases. That is why listening to familiar music in different performances is so interesting: we will recognize countless originals of one composition.

Due to the fact that the text is already familiar to us, small nuances and details of interpretations are heard very well. Sometimes you can even catch the performer on the wrong notes! In this case, the pleasure is even greater, and the listening experience is accumulated a hundred times more intensely than when ironing the same interpretation of your favorite music.

4. Believe in yourself

Heavy and old-fashioned opera performances, boring performances and false pathos — all this classical music has greatly ruined its reputation in the eyes of the modern, and especially the young listener.

If during an opera performance you want to scream “I don’t believe it!”, Looking at the fatal suffering of the heroes, do not think that something is wrong with you. Don’t be ashamed that you «are unable to understand great art.» There is something wrong with the show. And well-executed and beautifully embodied on the stage, classical music captures just like any other.

Question: does this mean that any concert that I’m bored at is bad? No. Boredom is different. It’s one thing to be bored because a performer on stage displays ridiculous, fake feelings and motivations, or tries to «buy» your attention with simple means, like exaggerated emotions or high volume. In this case, we miss the banality of the situation. We are embarrassed for the artists and it is a pity to waste time on them.

Another thing is to get bored from misunderstanding when you don’t know the password to the music, you don’t feel its language. In this case, we are annoyed at our listening inexperience. It is very easy to distinguish one from the other. If you can reasonably explain why the performance or staging is no good, leave the hall (but not during the music, wait for a pause).

If the main and only complaint is “I don’t understand”, then try to keep your attention, and prepare better for the next concert. After all, this is like a hike through difficult terrain: you need a map, a guide and responsible fees.

5. Don’t be consumerist about music.

We often think that music owes us something. That it should be pleasant, melodic, relaxing, should evoke some feelings — preferably inspiration, optimism or slight sadness.

Surprisingly, we feel nothing of the sort in literature. Or to the cinema: we reserve for it the right to shock, stir, frighten and confuse us, to show things that are naturalistically repulsive or deeply striking morally, to baffle, to make us think.

But music comes too close to us: sounding in headphones while we are walking down the street or doing business, it literally commands our pulse. Music is like a close person, from whom the «demand» is always greater than from someone else’s, and therefore it must meet our expectations. Must be beautiful. Nice to sound.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy music — it would be strange to listen to something disgusting through force. But she is able to deliver pleasure not only with pretty sound colors and poignant motive.

Accept music as strange, heavy, incomprehensible, unlike anything else, cold, ugly, emotionally oppressive. Let her be free from your consumer expectations. What you hear and learn as a result will reward you a hundredfold.

For more information on how to tune in to get to know the classics, get rid of stereotypes, and learn how to «read» complex music, see Lyalya Kandaurova’s book How to Listen to Music (Alpina Publisher, 2020). The text is provided with QR codes with dozens of audio illustrations that turn reading into an interesting multimedia process.