The Cuckoo in the Grove, Traditional Scottish Air

Do people ask you to name your favorite song or composer? I get that question frequently, and I can never answer it. It upsets my daughter that I don’t have favorites in virtually any category: music, food, colors, you name it. With so many things to enjoy, why should one take precedence over the others?

With music, perhaps the closest I can come to a favorite is whatever I’m listening to at the moment. If there’s something else I would rather be hearing, then I would probably cue it up.

I choose to listen to one thing over another based on many factors. As I listen to this week’s selection, a simple folk tune played on solo guitar, I’m struck by how suitable it is for YouTube. Particularly when I’m traveling and using my laptop, the computer screen is a small medium, and it lends itself to small-scale musical works and performances. (That doesn’t mean I won’t opt for Mahler or Wagner in this series on occasions.)

Music is often composed for a particular purpose or occasion. The composer may well have had a particular kind of performance space in mind. Chamber music was not meant to fill the largest concert halls, and opera was not meant for your TV screen.

Most of the time I feature small-scale works for this series, partly because of time issues, but also because they fit better into this particular medium. I think listening is more enjoyable when you hear music in the most appropriate setting.

If I had to name a favorite kind of venue for listening to music, I might be able to say that I particularly enjoy soloists or small ensembles in small recital halls. The intimacy of the setting can be both more demanding and more forgiving, but the rewards of a good performance in that setting seem greater. I would not say that while watching a Wagner opera. But hearing this simple Scottish air, right now, seems just right for my laptop.