We live in a visual world. We constantly analyze what we see on a sophisticated level, but most of us are not nearly as skilled in listening. That’s why many of us prefer music in styles that are already familiar. Opening our ears and mind up to new kinds of music seems harder.
No surprise here. Perception involves a process of sifting through familiar traits and unfamiliar ones. The familiar ones provide context: we see a new face, but we recognize that it’s a face. We walk into an unfamiliar house, but we recognize an entry hall with a staircase. That familiarity allows us to take in the details, and appreciate someone’s big brown eyes or glistening new hardwood floors.
Now imagine if you saw something totally unlike anything you have seen before. You might be curious or repulsed, but quite likely your ability to make sense of it would be severely challenged. Also your ability to describe it!
Listening is no different.
Music has form, and we need at least part of that form to be familiar if we are to understand and enjoy the parts that are unfamiliar. We need some context for the sounds we hear.
So, when the sound of classical music is new to someone, that person may be able to take in only the faintest outlines of the music. The overall sound of violins, or the flow of woodwind instruments. The surprisingly rich sound of a classically trained voice. Equally surprising might the many beautiful, soaring melodies, or the extended sweep of a classical piece that exceeds the usual 2 minutes 40 seconds found in pop songs. These things alone are enough to cause a different listening sensation that some might initially label as “relaxing” (something we discussed in a prior post).
But insofar as actually hearing what’s inside the music, that takes more work.
Those of you who are just beginning to discover classical music may be frustrated when much of what you hear is so unfamiliar. You may be tempted to retreat back into familiar territory. The idea of music needing repeated hearings before it reveals its secrets may seem odd. That sounds more like work than relaxation.
To get the most out of it, you will want to become familiar with a sufficient amount of it. And there are good strategies for that and bad ones. Remember, repetition brings familiarity. And familiarity allows you to draw connections and create context.
Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Art, History, and Culture uses context as a key for understanding music, and that context usually involves a lot of non-musical things: politics, science, art, fashion, philosophy, religion, you name it. Those things are essential to a full appreciation of music, just as some knowledge of music is essential to understanding history, religion, etc. (This interdisciplinary study is the proper focus of “historical musicology.”) And like anything wonderful, the more you learn, the more rewarding it will be.
In my next post, I will take up the topic of how we deal with the purely “musical” side of music. How do we compare something we hear to what we expect to hear? Some of the answer falls within the realm of music theory and some belongs to the much neglected question of aesthetics.
And while those topics may sound off-putting, they are golden keys to Discovering Music.
