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- How can I learn
how to listen to classical music and really enjoy it? How can I understand
it?
- Where can I find the
essence of classical music, so that when I hear it, I do not want to escape
it in fear of falling asleep? Why does it annoy me for its soothing
effects in that way? Is there something more to it that I am missing?
- Why do more people
not listen to classical music in everyday life, for instance, if it is as
great and as brilliant as some people say it is?
- Who
is the greatest composer of all time in the category of classical music
according to most authorities on classical?
- What
is the difference between classical music and semi-classical music?
According to that difference should it be easier somehow to
understand and to like semi-classical if semi-classical is indeed like a
watered-down version of classical music? Would you recommend listening
to semi-classical music for a long time before graduating to classical music
as a logical progression in learning?
- When is a good time
to introduce classical music to children, since it is more difficult even
for adults to understand and adapt to? Is there a composer of
classical whom you might recommend for children at the newcomer level?
- Why
should anyone want to change the kind of music to which one listens over to
classical, anyway?
- What
if I try to learn to listen to classical music in good faith, and then
I find that it just does not seem to be something I can learn to appreciate?
It has always seemed stilted to me and even uninterpretable. Yet, I
am told that classical music is an outstanding form of musical art, and I
just cannot easily keep dismissing it.
- Is
there any way you can measure the suitability of an individual such as
myself, or anyone else like me, to the classical style of music? I am
afraid I have lost out on something great, and will continue to do so,
unless I can resolve my quandary over this supposedly elevated musical art
form, classical music.
- I
am determined to acquaint myself with classical music, and I have tried
starting with one or two short classical works like you said. I
believed that I could develop a memory for this kind of music upon your
advice. It did not work for me. I moved on in logical
progression to a couple of other masterpieces which were longer, and I was
back in the same mold of not being interested after trying to concentrate,
followed by being impatient and unable to recruit my mind any more to
listening but for dissatisfaction. What should I do?
- I
found that I have a fairly good facility in learning to appreciate classical
music. I am now at the point where I can go to my collection of CDs
and find a selection from a choice of three or four composers which will
give me an inner calm and lift my spirits. I know from what I have
read here that this is considered an accomplishment, and that I am on my way
to a greater musical realization than ever before. Should I set a goal
for myself in terms of being able to recognize a piece by its composer in
order to call myself truly educated in classical music?
1. Of course these questions are ultimately synonymous:
to enjoy classical one must understand it at some level. However, as one learns
to enjoy classical music more and more, there is the unfolding of an
understanding which may deepen almost unbeknownst to the listener at first.
Read the essay Contemplations on
Music for basic guidance as to developing the mental attitude requisite to a
good receptive mind for the classical music art form. This essay will
expound the treasured key to the deeper understanding of classical music: contemplation.
If one develops an awareness that classical music as an art form is indeed
contemplative, then that awareness alone will prepare the mind and sensitivities
as to how to begin to listen; allow your intuition to come into play as you
listen to your chosen piece and try to reflect freely. If there is a mood
elicited in you by the music, surrender; if deeper emotions arise, realize that
these also can be integrated in the event of the creation of the emotions besides in
an overall, unified sense once you have achieved the ability to contemplate the
message of a classical piece as an entity unto itself. As you learn to
understand an entire piece by connecting the passages and movements of the
piece, a unity in your understanding has developed; this unity will engender a
contemplative mind for listening to and perceiving classical music.
To be able to apprehend
an entire piece of classical music whether it is short in duration or long is
an accomplishment. However, if one attempts to develop a contemplative ardor for
the music, then a new mode of listening experience will dawn with some time and
practice which will further grow into an actual ability to comprehend classical
music. In this new and highly contemplative
mode the mind is available to unify in the understanding of the work with
the work even as it unfolds. In such a contemplative state of realization
of the music, there is no sense of being lost or stranded or perplexed somehow
by any passage or statement being presently heard. Thus the music gains a
richness in its own context as it is heard with no remarkable effort to tie any
part or division or movement into an overall understanding.
Indeed, as you learn to understand an entire piece by effortlessly
connecting the passages and movements of the piece, a unity in your
understanding will have developed; that unity will engender a contemplative mind
for listening and perceiving classical music. However, this
will take some experience and patience for a newcomer to classical
music.
In essence, your goal in learning to enjoy
classical music is to achieve the singular ability to contemplate it as you
listen.
2. In order to accept and understand the
soothing effects that classical music may have, one must indeed find the essence
of classical music and surrender to its very nature. If one is
expecting to hear the same type of music to which one is conditioned,
then one will never really have the receptivity of
mind necessary to make the transformation over to classical music.
The essay Reflections on Music says this about the classical art form:
However, the primary motive of a
classical piece is to depict the integrity of the simple beauty of euphony or
combinations of sounds that agree with one another and have a pleasing effect
therefore. (From Reflections on
Music.)
Knowing this, one can learn to expect and
then appreciate what is there in this style of music as compared to others.
Indeed, there is always the beauty and harmony of nature to remind one of the
place of symmetry and perfection in the very nature of reality about us.
Similarly, the nature of sound is found in its perfectly proportioned harmonics;
essentially, then, a
musical expression in classical music will tend to
reflect that profound perfection of the comprise of sound at the grosser levels of actual works
made up of of sound. This is music. To know this about music
is to honor the very real nature of sound itself.
Please refer to Reflections
for a careful exposition of the nature of art in order to develop an
understanding of classical music for what it is as a musical art form. If
one extols peace and harmony in everyday living and experience, then the analogy
of classical music as a soporific agent will not be so threatening to the
newcomer to the beautiful world of classical music. Classical music,
indeed, honors the rarefied nature of sound itself since it seeks a perfection
ideal based upon harmony and pleasing sounds.
3. Did you ever notice that some people are
likely to relate events and interests in a more abstract way than others?
Many people are practical-minded and are not likely to embark on a conversation
about how they developed a certain hobby or a well-developed knowledge of a
certain area of interest. Most of the people who understand the subtlety
of truth also have a mind which is more likely to conceptualize readily in the
abstract plane. When two such differing people talk, an observer can often
discern the basic difference in the types of minds which are expressing, one
being disposed to the abstract, while another being more disposed to the
practical realm.
Thus,
some people will easily discuss the weather as if it is all-important since
they are focused on reasoning their way through the physical world. Others
will not even understand that focus on the physical realm, taking for granted
the usual pattern of living as they observe and perhaps generalize about
people and things. The same innate characteristics found in people for the type of mind they enjoy as they live their
lives will express
then
again in their aesthetic sensitivities for music. Those who tend to
conceptualize more from an abstract viewpoint continuously will also find a
kinship with the abstract nature of classical music.
For reverberations of the truth of
music quite happenstantial to a moment in a forest, say, or on a mountainside on
a summer's day or by a placid pond at sunset will forever feed the inspiration
and forever kindle the aspiration of a musician who wishes to reflect the
creation in the language of music. (From Reverberations
on Music.)
To one who is consumed in the concrete
matters of living rather than being aware of the more subtle truth and beauty
of the world about us, there is no particular inspiration to be found in the
wonder that is the world. The mind of such a doer in life is perhaps not
available for the cadence in the crickets' calls or the call of an owl at
night. Such a mind might be more preoccupied
with simple matters and grosser level observations relating to how to abide in
the next change in the weather, for example. If you are the kind of person
who admires the perplexities of life and the call of the sunset or the beauty
of the snow instead of its need for removal, then perhaps you would be suited to
learning to appreciate and love the abstract nature of classical music, as well.
Many who would have naturally taken to classical have been perhaps acclimated to
other kinds of music in the popular realm and do not even understand themselves
as potential devotees of this more ancient form of music. The true measure
of the brilliance of classical music does not therefore lie in the numbers of
people who are devoted to it or who like it or even prefer it. It is a
question of the likelihood of exposure to classical music in a society
whose tastes for music are formed more from a popular
venue which comes to them of a day, so that the actual choice to learn
about classical is perhaps never even made one way or the other. Yet, many
of those whose cognitive abilities have never been exercised in finding their
truest sensitivities for music at all are actually equipped by predilection for
the more abstract kind of music, classical, and they may not know it.
Consult the Web page entitled, 'Works'
 for a brief discussion of our current era
as regards the musical art. This essay might assist you in analyzing how
it is that we are not a classically oriented culture in the music sector of art.
There might be an emotional burden for some who basically love classical music
but never own up to it deeply or fully due to a lack of awareness as to
why it does not abound in our every day surround.
4. Who is the greatest
composer of all time in the category of classical music according to most
authorities on classical?
5. The basic difference between classical
and semi-classical music is found in the formality which is lent to the
classical style; such formality derives from the more structured form of
the classical work. Although there are of course many different kinds of
classical pieces to consider, the one feature which prevails in all of them is a
certain definition of structure in the overall piece according to its own
particular genre. Semi-classical music, on the other hand, relies for its
appeal less on the formality in statem ent which is so characteristic of
classical music and more upon its fluid and less imposing phrases. These phrases may not interconnect past the power of
melody and variation on melody, for instance, which might be lent by rhythmic
changes. Thus, there is likely to be a greater simplicity of statement in
a semi-classical piece. Many will take shelter in this more easy-going
sound of a semi-classical piece since it does not require so much focus of attention. In classical
works the focus is to be found in figuring out how the overall message of the musical piece
is to be found past the partitions of macro-structure or beyond the divisions
of movements such as in a symphony. This focus into a classical
piece throughout its duration requires the exercise of memory cognitively and becomes easier once an ear for classical music is developed:
Such a movement or even a recurring
theme of short extent, a leitmotif, for example, of course knows its own
mathematical composition or harmonics. However, that very composition has a
meaning or a certain inherent message which finds its source in its contrast
to or in its indirect apposition to a neighboring part of the overall work. (
From Remembrances on Music.)
From the quote above taken from the essay Remembrances,
one can begin to see how the classical piece must be connected together by the
memory of what had come before a given passage. The mellifluous phrase and
harmony of composition in what might be called the infrastructure of the
classical work is used then to propound a higher level statement through the use
of an overall change in meaning and mood, perhaps; as the work moves dynamically
into a new mode or movement, that which constitutes its overall structure, its
macrostructure, unfolds.
Semi-classical music may only involve a type of
sound which matches classical music for the euphony, the sweet-sounding,
melodious and soothing rhythmic character which lulls the senses. Therein
does semi-classical music find its completion -- it stops -- and yet it is still in progress to be
heard. In a very real sense, semi-classical music makes a unilateral
statement. The similarities between semi-classical music and classical
music are remarkable especially in this day when loudness and rebelliousness
are often communicated through the musical sphere of the popular music culture;
yet classical and semi-classical music are different in that classical music
employs more than one mode of temperament in order to satisfy its full sense of
expression. It is no wonder that the two styles of music, classical
and semi-classical, are often understood by casual listeners as about the
same--but they are far from equivalent to one another. Semi-classical
is easier to understand since it lives to say one message in as non-descript a
way as possible and prefers for its measure of brilliance an holistic statement
of a single outstanding feature. That feature might be its catchy melody
or its alluring rhythmics or its complex harmony interfaced with a leading
progression of melody over and over again. This simplicity in
semi-classical music as compared to classical music is why it might be
considered a watered-down version of classical since their outstanding
similarities in euphonious composition cause one to strongly associate the two
styles, one with the other.
In terms of the question of liking
semi-classical more than classical, an analogy might serve to make the moot
point: this is similar to asking whether a simple plot is better than an
involving and complex plot in a drama. A simple plot may have a great
didactic import which cannot be matched only because its simplicity says the
most; yet, there will always be those who admire the long and involved dramas,
feeling that such dramas reflect more accurately the real nature of life and
living. Similarly, a classical music piece is more complex and involving
than a semi-classical piece; a classical piece can be much more indirect
than a semi-classical piece, and in order to understand it fully, the listener
must comprehend each passage as it relates to what had come before. This
is similar to figuring out a plot at a theater performance in a sense.
Further, imagine having a sense of what is to come next in a symphony, say, so
that when it is heard, there is a certain requitement of your sensibilities.
This also describes the joy of the more varied musical presentation that is the
classical art form as compared to the semi-classical art form.
There is a definite common sense in keying into
semi-classical music as a leading exercise before embarking upon the classical
music journey; although such "training" is not necessarily required,
the similarities in the two styles of music, classical and semi-classical, will
expand the mind if one turns one's attention preliminarily to the easier art
form of the two -- semi-classical. This preparatory
familiarization with semi-classical music before attempting to understand and
enjoy classical music might be especially advisable for someone who has
submerged into habituating sense desires by the highly graphical music imagery
of the rock culture, for example. The classical music tradition carries
with it a message of transcending the sense desires on the behalf of seeking an
enlightened outlook or an enlightened mind, depending on how devoted to the idea
of truth one may be by level and by other ways and values.
6. When
is is a good time to introduce classical music to
children, since it is more difficult even for adults to understand and adapt to?
Is there a composer of classical whom you might recommend for children at the
newcomer level?
6.
Children are more receptive to music than we might realize readily since they
have not yet developed the inhibitions likely to be placed upon them by their
immediate cultural milieu. The environment and social milieu of children will
foster certain expectations of
them and will affect them simply by placement. If a child is given an
opportunity to cognize a higher art form such as classical music, then a
definite learning process will have taken seed and also form for that child.
Such a seed can be incalculably influential across time; indeed, even after
years of exposure to the stories of torment and tragedy often told so
vociferously and expressionistically by the bards of hard luck in some of the
popular cults of sense-driven music, the early influences and learning through
classical which had visited a child still in the formative stage of artistic
appreciation and awareness will remain there to be tapped for that youth or
youth now grown. Since holistic music such as classical orders the mind much as any
pleasant language would, it is conceivable that an infant can also be blessed by
the presence of classical music. Even then, the selections for listening
might be chosen so as not to inculcate upset and tumultuous emotional content
for those in their infancies who live for the constant reassurance and security
which parenthood may provide.
Music which supports that context of thematic harmony and peace found in the
household can actually uplift and help form a personality which is nurtured by
contentment; further, the contentedness of the language of the classical music art
form is built-in through its grace, its often peace-generating messages and
melodies.
Mozart is an excellent composer for children of all ages.
He is also a child prodigy, so that children feel a sense of belonging to
Mozart when told of his early
beginnings. Mozart's music is filled with easily achieved
resolutions. These resolutions play through an overall dynamic enterprise seemingly
effortlessly, purporting meaning and message. Children like
that kind of statement musically since it makes them feel protected and assured
of good outcome. Brahms is also highly recommended for young listeners who
should be taught the finer and more subtle nuances of the language of music as
early as possible. Strauss is a genius who should visit anyone's life,
young or younger, and especially if the parent sees a dancer or a figure skater
in the child and wants to cultivate the physical culture alongside the musical
edification of the youth. The physical aspects of dancing or skating to
classical music invoke gravity, the very connection to the Mother Earth.
Such a connection with the Earth through dancing or skating draws the body more
specifically into the body-mind-spirit troika, lending a new and deeper meaning
to the place of classical music to cultivate the youth.
7. Yet, such say needed to be said as never before; even had time alone courted its day for the giving was the moving hand caught in its wake, embossed in some supernal yet animate light, an embrace of godly gift, held mellifluously only in what a composer can describe as totality. In the wake of such visitation, at having heard what was being created extemporaneously thus so, does the composer settle in the knowledge of the message much like an ear giving audience to a new accord, a sublime word connoting faith and high truth. For this is the most elevated passage of classical worth, its moment and the birth of that moment can only be described as on the order of revelation itself.
(From Revelations on Music.)
This brief quote from the essay Revelations
may describe the inspiration from which this classical composer derives
music. However, in order for the newcomer to classical music to better
understand why it is desirable to undergo perhaps even a reformational change to this style
of music, it becomes necessary to seek an introductory level of readiness for the
learning experience at hand. There is not likely to be an immediate grasp
of the kind of ultimate source in inspiration for the act of composing when a
newcomer first hears the composition. However, when on faith such a
newcomer learns if only by reading how deeply engrossing is the process of
composing in classical music, then a receptivity of mind has been in turn
inspired for the new student of this most beautiful and uplifting musical art
form, classical music. Word alone of this penultimate inspiration of the
classical music composer may set a goal-mindedness in the newcomer
as part of an interest, and an understanding of the elevated style of classical
will be nicely formulated in the mind. For if the music had arisen from a higher source, then this
exact attribute of greater level of self-realization in the composer can be cognized by a skilled
listener.
It is also true that the more profoundly inspired
classical works can
become more immediately understood by anyone who listens to classical music,
experienced or not experienced, because those works of more profound
inspirational source tend to be of a more universal level of truth. Therefore, a
highly inspired composer or a composer whose inspiration is especially
prominent in a given piece is likely to be understood more easily and sooner.
These are fine points of more subtle truth regarding how classical music is born
in the act of composing; however, such as these fine points of truth lead to
a deeper and exacting understanding of why it is
desirable to become educated in classical music at all. If the composer of a
classical work feels uplifted to the point of enlightenment through realizing a
composition in the act of composing it, then that constitutes evidence that
classical music has the power to enlighten others, as well. This is true
for myself as a composer since such religiously inspired composers as
Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Johann Sebastian Bach and others had
uplifted and enlightened me before I ever composed classical music; in me there
was the ardent desire to answer what I had heard in the musical art of these
fine composers. Of
all the composers who have formed my
knowledge of music, however, Bach is the most realized; therefore, Bach has taught me the most.
Bach is beyond measure to me. Bach is my ultimate source in Western
classical music, my all-giving teacher. Beethoven, who comes from the era
called the Classical Era that began with the death of Bach, embraced my musical
sensitivities before my deeper acquaintance with Bach. Yet despite the
fact that he came from a different musical era of Bach, Beethoven himself in
turn had been most ardently inspired by the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Some of this question of why one should
consider including or changing over to classical music from other music styles
as answered thus far must be taken on faith at first. However, there is a
more gross level analytical viewpoint on this question of the preference of
music style as regards the value for listening to classical music besides other
styles of music. It is true that classical music invokes the universal
level of truth through its sheer perfection and its innate orderliness.
Compare this invocation of the absolute nature of truth to the reveling in sense
desires which is likely to be fomented in pop music, for example. Such
sense desires connote a merely temporal satisfaction of desire that is transient
in nature; emotional satisfaction alone will not live on through ages. To
wit, the statement of the composer of the Classical Era would require balance in
emotion born then again of a real context.
Consider this simple fact of the
immortality of truly fine classical music as testimony of what it means to
cultivate through the music art a more elevated sensitivity. In this way,
a devotee of classical music will be blessed by reaching for the soul of the
contemporary civilization, culture and society in which that devotee
lives. The question therefore becomes one of how deeply entrusted to truth
you may wish to become; you can use classical music as a vehicle to the soul of
your times and realize yourself in it.
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8.
What
if I try to learn to listen to classical music in good faith, and then
I
find that it just does not seem to be something I can learn to appreciate?
It has always seemed stilted to me and even uninterpretable. Yet, I
am told that classical music is an outstanding form of musical art, and I
just cannot easily keep dismissing it.
8. Knowing that in
classical music there is an outstanding form of musical art to be
interpreted by yourself shows faith. To further act upon this faith and to
begin to understand classical is to build more than the knowledge by hearsay
which had inspired your curiosity; indeed, to so act on faith and to test the evidence that
classical music is worthwhile is itself a bold undertaking since the evidence spans
centuries across antiquity. Yet even so, you must discover classical music
for yourself as an individual in your own right. This remarkable history
of classical music seems to frighten some people; feeling incapable of such
a proven great musical art as classical, they humbly put it aside, taking
themselves to be outside of it.
This places a mental block which will temper their enthusiasm to actually ever
try to accept classical music fundamentally. Since this music
requires an awareness which turns into a cultivation as it is more fully
appreciated, such people may never learn to love classical music.
Now you
may beg the question and say that this analysis makes you doubt that classical
music is actually so great, or else it would be immediately loved by anyone.
In answer to that doubt, it must be stated that there is an indirectness in the
language of classical music which must be confronted before classical can
be admitted to the mind as somewhat integrated for the newcomer. This
barrier to immediate apprehension of the indirectness in classical music is more
easily crossed by some than by others. It is your task as an individual to
patiently work at finding how to transcend your own particular obstacle to
really hearing classical music for its message as well as for your enjoyment of
it. This may take time, and it may take strategy. A good strategy
might be to test how open your mind actually is to this music genre, simply
by exposing yourself to a wide
variety of classical music for a while such as by listening to classical music
radio stations. If you find that you are receptive to it in a
general sense, then half the task is accomplished since that is the basic
requirement. If you find that your mind balks at the music, and you cannot
endure listening to it for long out of botheration, then you might try a more
narrow approach. In such a case, find a single piece of music which you like
somewhat and
memorize it mentally. Learn to hear what comes next before you hear it,
and this will develop for you the memory which is requisite to understanding
classical music in general. It is similar to learning a song, and it might
help you to think of it in this way. If you start with a short piece, then
your task should be easier for you. Start with just one or two classical
works which you can begin to grasp, and from there you will progress.
A piece I would
recommend to anyone who is trying to thus narrow the approach through the
memorization of a single, short piece is Four Seasons by Vivaldi.
Choose even one season, find yourself in it, and listen to it enough so that you
will know what comes next in it. You might even envision the season being
listened to as you hear the composer's rendition. Infuse your impressions
of the nature of the season into the music as you listen. This might place
your mind beyond the obstacle you experience in trying to find yourself in
classical music since it will invoke the practical nicely; indeed, everyone is
familiar with the temperaments of spring, summer, fall and winter. See
what Vivaldi has to say about these seasons with his ornate handiwork as a truly
fine composer, a masterful composer.
Learning to listen to an entire symphony may take some time and practice for
you, so patience in this pastime is of the utmost importance. There is no
sense in dismissing classical music only because your first efforts gave no
discernable fruits. Each person has a learning curve which is unique, and
learning to appreciate classical music is like learning a new language.
Keep this in mind, and simply persevere according to the philosophy that efforts
to learn require a vision which encompasses the ignorance you wish to replace
with knowledge. Do not decry your retained ignorance; rather, look forward
to conquering what is left of your ignorance once you retain a beginner's
familiarity with the enchanting world of classical music.
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9.
Is
there any way you can measure the suitability of an individual such as me myself
or anyone else like me to the classical style of music? I am afraid I
have lost out on something great and will continue to do so unless
I can solve my quandary over this supposedly elevated musical art form,
classical music.
9. Please read the answer to
question three (3) above on this FAQ page for the basic characteristics of a
person most likely to learn to love the language of classical music.
Understand also that there will be those whose learning of classical music may
bring them to a new vision of reality way beyond their own natural traits of
ideation in all other endeavors and modes of activity in life; classical
music has the uncanny power to inspire a new and deeper self-realization.
Therefore, the primary consideration in the question of suitability in an
individual to the classical style of music is more of a question of that
individual's interest in it. If you are in a quandary over the
classical music art form and whether or not to cultivate an interest in it, then
your only answer is to satisfy your curiosity and go forth on a program of
educating yourself in classical music. Even if you did not excel in the
abstract 
discipline of mathematics, for example, do not therefore dismiss your interest
in classical music. Music is akin to mathematics; this is true.
However, if your
mathematical abilities have never been truly tapped, for instance, then you may
not know that classical music is for you.
Moreover, individuals can evolve in
a single lifetime as according to the power of universal truth to enlighten
them, so that classical music can enlighten them past their own proven levels of
accomplishments and tendencies or even abilities in all other sectors in the
arts and sciences. The key for anyone interested in the possibility of
becoming acquainted with classical music simply is to open the mind to this
remarkable gift to mankind, classical music. Believe in the full potential
of the self, yourself, as you set out on your newly appointed mission to become
familiar with classical music. It might become one of your favorite
pastimes. Indeed, classical music might become your very star.
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10.
I
am determined to acquaint myself with classical music, and I have tried starting
with one or two short classical works like you said. I believed that I
could develop a memory for this kind of music upon your advice. It did not
work for me. I moved on in logical progression to a couple of other
masterpieces which were longer, and I was back in the same mold of not being
interested after trying to concentrate, followed by being impatient and unable
to recruit my mind any more to listening but for dissatisfaction. What
should I do? Is there a way for me?
10. Yes, there is a way
for you. If you are determined, then there is a way for you to progress
into coming to know how to listen to and enjoy classical music. It takes
more effort for some than for others to study classical music as enjoyers; but
if you envision the reward for your efforts in learning more of classical music,
then you should not fret and focus on the current state of affairs for you
yourself. Rather, try a new strategy and continue to have the faith that
memory will come to you in its own time. For you in particular, the
power of memory is not in tact properly. Memory is required so that you can follow the progression
in a longer piece. Even though from what you have said you have probably developed your memory
somewhat
at least at the level of familiarity, this is indeed the first step, the
sheer beginning for you. There is a problem for you of attention span, or
so it seems; however, there
is a way to circumnavigate this setback for you. Instead of approaching
the music directly, you should try an indirect and more subliminal approach in
order to develop a familiarity at a more intuitive level. The prescription
I would offer you in accomplishing an indirect approach to gain an appreciation
of classical music is as follows: you must listen to classical music in a
non-concentrative fashion. This listening can be done by playing your
choice of classical music while working on
other things such as puttering around the house doing small errands or while
enjoying a hobby at which you excel. At the
same time that you preoccupy your mind with other concerns, you can play the
chosen classical works at a lowered volume if you like. You will find that using
these two techniques of learning to listen to classical music, listening while
doing other things and by keeping the volume low, you will
occasionally focus in on the piece and then change your focus back to
your work at hand. Thus, your favored work will feed your ability to stay as if in
the listening mode over much longer periods of time since you will transfer the
sense of satisfaction from the task or tasks external to the music to the music
itself. Also, much of the learning which is bound to occur in this
indirect method will be untested until one day you realize how far you have
actually progressed. In your case this is critical since your deficit is
in level of concentration. You will find that it becomes easier to
concentrate on classical music the more familiar you become with it even if
this familiarity is less direct.
I recommend this indirect method of
learning to enjoy classical music as a pastime from my own personal
experience. That is how I first began to 
systematically study symphony works. After hearing the symphonies of
Beethoven while studying science simultaneously over weeks together, I would
separate them from the act of studying, and listen single-pointedly to them.
My mind was much more open to the music after this indirect approach.
Also, I found that the music helped me study, and the studies also accompanied
the music, so to speak. If you drive frequently and play some pieces or a
chosen piece at a lowered volume, so that your concentration on the music is
second to the road, then it will also seep into your memory well without the
interference of worry that you cannot sustain your concentration long enough to
develop a memory or a love for the classical music art. Great things do
not come easily. A realistic appreciation of the greatness of classical music
even before you learn to enjoy it will temper your dissatisfaction as you
contend with any impatience which will be bound to crop up as you learn to
nurture a devotion to classical. 
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11.
I
found that I have a fairly good facility in learning to appreciate classical
music. I am now at the point where I can go to my collection of CDs and
find a selection from a choice of three or four composers which will give me an
inner calm and lift my spirits. I know from what I have read here that
this is considered an accomplishment and that I am on my way to a greater
musical realization than ever before. Should I set a goal for myself in
terms of being able to recognize a piece by its composer in order to call myself
truly educated in classical music? 
11. It is commendable
to be able to recognize a composer and further to be able to name a composition
by that composer. There are knowers of classical music who have a
prodigious record of such factual knowledge, and some of those knowledgeable
people also understand even more of what underlies the music they so site for
its place in the development of the composer in mind. This is a more
advanced and also refined knowledge of classical music to which anyone
would naturally aspire; indeed, if without consulting an external source of
information you are able to name the composer alone of a piece being heard but
not its name, you will feel identified deeply with the composer. This
sense of recognition of a composer is most consoling; in addition, it does
require greater familiarity than the average among classical music devotees with
each composer of a period of classical music, especially since composers of like
period wrote alike according to their period style.
If you find that such a goal
to be able to name the composer and/or piece being heard lies within your
conceptual reach, then start now and educate yourself accordingly.
However, it is also critical as you progress in your study to find the message
of the given composer in and through the music, so that you do not mistake sheer
factual information as a more ultimate level of knowledge. If a devotee of
classical music grasps well a single composer who had achieved a certain level
of expertise through his enlightenment, then in turn, taking that composer's work into your cognizance as potentially enlightening, you will also
find an enlightenment as you grasp the composer's musical work or works.
This more elevated grasp of music is actually the finest goal to which you can
aspire. You may find that you naturally achieve this understanding of a
composer, so the actual catalogue of works by various composers seems less
impressive in your store of knowledge than does the message made possible behind
the language of classical music. Therefore, at the same time that you
develop an ear for the sound and the various pieces of each composer whom
you study, concentrate further on the greater meaning which lies therein.
This is the finest moment in music for the listener: when the essential message
of the classical work sounds its story, reaching through all
barriers, doubt, and ignorance, calling the truth in its most universal reach to
the fore of the mind and spirit. It is the message of the classical work
that makes a most total statement of
incalculable and invaluable worth to the listener. That statement of truth has
the power to further reach into the everyday life of the music devotee, and it guides inestimably the thoughts, deeds and pursuit of happiness according to the
extent of the reach so realized. If you are so inclined, combining the goal of learning the
individual sound of each composer and perhaps even his various works by title with the more subtle task yet of realizing the message
behind the composer's own variance in language is the way for you; in fact, this
is the way will give you the greatest yield of truth through classical music.
Once that more ultimate level of knowledge is attained, you can choose your
listening genre with a finer resolve according to your state of mind at a given
moment or your need to continue a certain contemplation, perhaps.
Thus, as in all disciplines where the utmost in refined knowledge
comprises the
body of knowledge at hand for consideration, factual knowledge of classical
music should become a platform for the most subtle truth, the greater
essence of the truth, which underlies the knowledge conferred by the language of
classical music. This is the way of education in classical
music: to offer the truth to the devotee whose understanding will begin when
the match between objective reality and the subjective will to seek greater
self-realization is made successfully through the experience of listening to
classical music. The fact that such deeper self-realization is available
through classical music is precisely why classical music never dies.
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AFTERWORD
:
In view of the foregoing guidance offered
you as you begin your journey into the majestic realm of classical music, may
you be blessed to find that for which you seek in this enlightening art
form. I encourage you to read the articles in this Web site to help you
formulate your vision of music as you come closer to your goal of understanding
classical music. Some theoretical analysis should be very helpful to you
as you begin to find yourself in classical music so that these articles may
thus act like guides for you.
Moreover, the prospectus for more articles
at Starkmusic.org should also inspire you since you may continue learning even
after you feel comfortable with the introduction you gain from these early
essays. These early essays should provide you your first acquaintance through reading and
study and listening. Once you find yourself playing a certain piece by a
certain composer for upliftment and peace of mind, then you will know that you
have arrived at a deeper realization of self. Once this process of
self-realization has taken seed form, a great gift to you has been conferred.
May that gift abound in your life. This is my vision and prayer for you.
For those who are already skilled at
understanding classical music, there is bound to be some new insight within
these questions which will make you pause to think and re-think what you know
and how to approach a new level in understanding classical. Indeed, going
back to first fundamentals is exactly how you can derive a new progression in
your ability to appreciate the finer nuances of the language of music.
The Composer who cares,
Marilynn Stark
December 29, 2002
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By Composer Marilynn Stark
Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Revised: February 24, 2012
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The above math graphic was taken from
"Graphics for the Calculus Classroom" by Douglas N. Arnold. The
URL for this Web site is: http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/graphics.html
©2000-2012 By Marilynn Stark All Rights Reserved
This page was last updated on 02/24/2012 02:26 AM
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