Ways to Listen to Music
Listening to music
Have you ever watched a movie more than once, and noticed new details and fine points you never before saw? For example, you might notice how the film score adds to the excitement, dread, humor, or tension in a particular scene. In the same way, in order to truly enjoy many musical masterpieces, we need to listen to them more than once.
In his wonderful book, What to Listen for in Music, eminent American composer Aaron Copland identified three types of listening, implying three types of attitudes listeners have about the music they are hearing:
Sensuous listening: sometimes a particular moment in music—the turn of a phrase, a gorgeous chord, brilliant orchestration—is simply beautiful to hear.
Expressive listening: music conveys emotion with great subtlety and power and, with practice, one can learn to listen for the emotions implicit in music.
Musical listening: music is ingeniously constructed and, with training and practice, one can learn to listen to the ways the elements of music combine to create beauty.
One of the most important keys to musical listening is memory. With practice, we can improve our ability to remember whether we’ve heard a theme or melody earlier in the piece. This can help us recognize the form of the piece. Many people are surprised to learn that art music is not just an endless stream of sound, without repetition or form. Actually, it is highly structured; discovering the structure by listening is one of the great delights of musical listening.
In order to become a better listener, we need to practice, listening for key moments, for occasions of particular beauty or tension.
Have you ever watched a movie more than once, and noticed new details and fine points you never before saw? For example, you might notice how the film score adds to the excitement, dread, humor, or tension in a particular scene. In the same way, in order to truly enjoy many masterpieces, we need to listen to them more than once.
In order to become a better listener, we need to practice. Listen for key moments, for occasions of particular beauty or tension. Learn to identify them.
Try each of the three types of listening as you hear this 24-second segment, the Wolf theme from Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev.
This article is an excerpt from my book Music I, 7th Grade Music Listening.
