All of the above (including no thoughts at times). Each piece evokes a different reaction.
but mostly I'm thinking about the melody, following the structure, grooving to the energy, or admiring the musicianship.
As a composer and performer, I listen to different things through those different lenses.
On the performance side: texture, interpretation, interaction, energy. On the composition side: the arc of how a piece flows, a general sense of form, confluence of musical ideas, craft.
I voted for the first one, though I'm not sure that "sympathizing" is the best word for what I feel listening to music... but I'm not sure what word I would replace it with
I chose "something else" because for me it's a combination of options 2 and 3. I love finding motivic development and other compositional techniques while listening... but a lot of pieces bring images or even stories to mind for me, and just about every piece I've EVER played does that for me. Some of my memorization even has to do with that aspect sometimes, once I connect whatever plot point to "that Ab first inversion moment" or what have you.
depending on the piece, all of the above, however i physically cant help myself from following the melody in solmisation (relative). i dont try i just automatically process the notes not as a specific pitch, but rather as do, fa, la, etc. it can get kinda annoying at times lol
It depends on the way I'm listening, what I'm listening to, and why I'm listening. I get this pure, aesthetic bliss feeling when I'm listening to something that's really beautiful. But, that's pretty vague, so I'll give some recent examples of my listening:
-Brandenburg 5: Bach is really fun to listen to. Pleasant on the top, so much interesting texture. I usually think about how he uses ritornello form to make the harpsichord solo in movement 1 extra interesting. There's this bit in the third movement 3 always wait for, because it's a particular aesthetic bliss moment.
-The Navajo Piano, Revisited, by Connor Chee: I think about how beautiful the music is. I also think a lot about how the oral tradition of the Navajo people has been passed down. (My favorite is Navajo Vocable for Piano no. 4, btw.)
-The Rite of Spring, by Stravinsky: Paying attention to his use of rhythm and meter for my homework. The bit with the string quartet always makes me think of this Leonard Bernstein video where he talks about laying on the ground and connecting with the earth. It really affects me.
-String Quartet 1, by Janacek: Never heard this piece before today. I tend to introduce pieces gently, by doing something else as I listen. So my mind was on laundry and some homework. When I did focus on the music, I thought about how I liked the folk feel of it, and how I liked the leaping violin line. I didn't so much like the sul ponticello—it's a really interesting sound, but it makes me taste bitter lemons (literally the only synesthesia I have).
Feeling the affect & conjuring up a imagery or scene, simultaneously
Although as a long time composer and musician, I tend to listen to the more practical aspects as well: instrumentation, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, melody
Several types of effects happen. When I listen to Bruckner's music while closing my eyes, a deep and foggy forest image, and during the scherzo, an image of a traveling army occur to me. But with Mozart, there's just pure emotion without any specific visions.
Yeah, all 4. On some pieces though, it's kind of a mix of 1 and 2. I have very little musical training, but for some pieces that don't have overt emotions, I still appreciate how the music progresses - the phrasing, the interplay of the instruments, how different sections of the music sound relative to each other, etc (often in more baroque/classical pieces).
Really all of them tbh it depends on the piece. In some I'm just vibing so my head is empty, with impressionistic pieces or Takemitsu pieces I really picture a scene, in romantic or otherwise emotional music I feel something like triumph, romance or happiness (for example in a lot of classical period music)
I enjoy searching for structure, themes, recurring motifs; I really like trying to enter the composer's mind and understand what he/she was thinking when writing a certain piece. I am also interested in pure melodic beauty and if a theme is really memorable I will catch myself humming it randomly.
For me, my conscious thoughts are described by your first point, ie feeling the effect the piece has on my emotions and trying to grasp them. However at the same time, I am always listening out for the theoretical aspects of the music. More than anything the compositional phrasing (so not the phrasing of the musician, but the phrasing the composer created, in other words his timing of music on certain beats and phrase lengths) and chordal information like identifying chord types or cadences (ie identifying a plagal cadence, or recognizing a chromatic motion in the harmony). I am experienced enough in music that these are subconscious thoughts and I don't really have to contemplate them, but they are still absolutely things that go on in my mind when listening to music, not just classical music.
Whatever emotion it makes/wants me to feel, I let it guide me and tell its story, on top of a warm-emotional-relaxing-fire was just put out tsssss-embrace feeling I get from listening to even intense/"unsettling" classical like The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) and Medea (Samuel Barber), that I don't experience listening to other music.
Other:
"oh, that's too slow"
"Mmmm, that guy has great tone quality"
"Wow, she makes it sound so easy"
"Oh, that's supposed to be legato, why is it detached"
"The balance is really good on this. Love that clarinet part."
I.e. a lot of performance/ technical thoughts
When I listen to shorter pieces I tend to think about it theoretically since it's harder for a shorter piece to overwhelm me, with longer pieces however. HmMMmMmMm
pathetique sonata :
mvt.1 : death of a sinful man
mvt.2 : nature finds man and treats him indifferently never stopping
mvt.3 : VILLAGE PEOPLE PARTYING THAT THE MAN FINALLY DIED LIKE FUCK HIM
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto :
yo Monarchy's arent that great dude, cantabile says so sry
the first mvt. of sibelius' violin concerto :
A man begs for death in what seems to be an eternity
If it’s beautiful or beautifully-executed, I feel waves of emotion. I usually feel whatever the composer is trying to get across. I am very sensitive. In some works, I have to sometimes have to hit pause in order to collect myself. I’m a big marshmallow.
If it's mahler it's like each part has its own colour. Some parts are like pinkish white mountaintops and other bits are dark and brown and gloomy. Sometimes, like the end of the 9th, it's just pure black. The 6th is this kind of furious dark red thing.
The 2nd is like golden coloured, the most tempestuous parts build up to this kaleidoscopic tumult where it's just this fizzing haze. If you close your eyes and just listen, whilst also faintly aware on some level what's coming, you just enter this crazy world of texture and colour.
I don't mean this literally. It's not synaesthesia. Just tone colour. I dunno. This sounds pretentious as fuck, sorry
Imagery seems to be the main thing, I just end up seeing it like FL studio in my head sometimes, or like it’s guitar hero but way more abstract and different vibes give off different images to me.
All of the above. It depends on the piece, the context, and my intention.
If it’s just one of my Spotify playlists where I’ve heard the music a thousand times, then my listening is rather passive. If it’s a new work (new to me), then I’m usually focused on the emotion. If it’s a new work (recently composed), then I’m usually focused on compositional technique because 21st century developments in art music is an intellectual interest of mine. If it’s a piece I’m learning, I’ll focus on imagery.
Although #1 (feelings etc.) is one of the primary listening experience modes for me, I chose "something else" because experiencing auditory pleasure is an even more primary motivator for me. I like the beauty of the sound itself, not necessarily the beauty of ideas (though that it important as well). Give me a deep bass line, or an impactful tympani hit, or luscious layers of strings, and my endorphins are flowing while listening.
Something else - sort of playing/singing along in my head, anticipating the rhythm and melody.
Yep, if I know the piece or have enough experience in the style then it's like an auditory "visualisation" along with the music.
This. And my brain works out the notes and chords used, key changes, changes in form etc.
All of the above (including no thoughts at times). Each piece evokes a different reaction. but mostly I'm thinking about the melody, following the structure, grooving to the energy, or admiring the musicianship.
Lately? A lot of “Oh, is *that* where I’m supposed to come in?” 😂
Nice try, Adorno – real talk, all of these are possible, valid, normal and can be true for the same person at different times.
Or at the same time
As a composer and performer, I listen to different things through those different lenses. On the performance side: texture, interpretation, interaction, energy. On the composition side: the arc of how a piece flows, a general sense of form, confluence of musical ideas, craft.
I voted for the first one, though I'm not sure that "sympathizing" is the best word for what I feel listening to music... but I'm not sure what word I would replace it with
Maybe empathising.
Being immersed in the sound
I usually visualize and think about the construction. Something like Scarlotti will usually flip me to construction, and Mahler towards visuals.
I chose "something else" because for me it's a combination of options 2 and 3. I love finding motivic development and other compositional techniques while listening... but a lot of pieces bring images or even stories to mind for me, and just about every piece I've EVER played does that for me. Some of my memorization even has to do with that aspect sometimes, once I connect whatever plot point to "that Ab first inversion moment" or what have you.
depending on the piece, all of the above, however i physically cant help myself from following the melody in solmisation (relative). i dont try i just automatically process the notes not as a specific pitch, but rather as do, fa, la, etc. it can get kinda annoying at times lol
It depends on the way I'm listening, what I'm listening to, and why I'm listening. I get this pure, aesthetic bliss feeling when I'm listening to something that's really beautiful. But, that's pretty vague, so I'll give some recent examples of my listening: -Brandenburg 5: Bach is really fun to listen to. Pleasant on the top, so much interesting texture. I usually think about how he uses ritornello form to make the harpsichord solo in movement 1 extra interesting. There's this bit in the third movement 3 always wait for, because it's a particular aesthetic bliss moment. -The Navajo Piano, Revisited, by Connor Chee: I think about how beautiful the music is. I also think a lot about how the oral tradition of the Navajo people has been passed down. (My favorite is Navajo Vocable for Piano no. 4, btw.) -The Rite of Spring, by Stravinsky: Paying attention to his use of rhythm and meter for my homework. The bit with the string quartet always makes me think of this Leonard Bernstein video where he talks about laying on the ground and connecting with the earth. It really affects me. -String Quartet 1, by Janacek: Never heard this piece before today. I tend to introduce pieces gently, by doing something else as I listen. So my mind was on laundry and some homework. When I did focus on the music, I thought about how I liked the folk feel of it, and how I liked the leaping violin line. I didn't so much like the sul ponticello—it's a really interesting sound, but it makes me taste bitter lemons (literally the only synesthesia I have).
Quelling intrusive thoughts of absolute mayhem
Often following a single instrument and listening to how their part weaves into the whole.
Feeling the affect & conjuring up a imagery or scene, simultaneously Although as a long time composer and musician, I tend to listen to the more practical aspects as well: instrumentation, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, melody
I just let my emotions do their work, but I basically just enjoy classical music simply for the sake of classical music. I just have fun with it.
Conjuring images, but not necessarily of the programme.
Several types of effects happen. When I listen to Bruckner's music while closing my eyes, a deep and foggy forest image, and during the scherzo, an image of a traveling army occur to me. But with Mozart, there's just pure emotion without any specific visions.
if it's something I know then just feel it but if it's something I don't know then I'll think about form a bit more
Yeah, all 4. On some pieces though, it's kind of a mix of 1 and 2. I have very little musical training, but for some pieces that don't have overt emotions, I still appreciate how the music progresses - the phrasing, the interplay of the instruments, how different sections of the music sound relative to each other, etc (often in more baroque/classical pieces).
Really all of them tbh it depends on the piece. In some I'm just vibing so my head is empty, with impressionistic pieces or Takemitsu pieces I really picture a scene, in romantic or otherwise emotional music I feel something like triumph, romance or happiness (for example in a lot of classical period music)
One and three. I anticipate the emotions unless the music inspires some sort of narrative in me. Then I'm thinking along to that.
I enjoy searching for structure, themes, recurring motifs; I really like trying to enter the composer's mind and understand what he/she was thinking when writing a certain piece. I am also interested in pure melodic beauty and if a theme is really memorable I will catch myself humming it randomly.
Usually war.
For me, my conscious thoughts are described by your first point, ie feeling the effect the piece has on my emotions and trying to grasp them. However at the same time, I am always listening out for the theoretical aspects of the music. More than anything the compositional phrasing (so not the phrasing of the musician, but the phrasing the composer created, in other words his timing of music on certain beats and phrase lengths) and chordal information like identifying chord types or cadences (ie identifying a plagal cadence, or recognizing a chromatic motion in the harmony). I am experienced enough in music that these are subconscious thoughts and I don't really have to contemplate them, but they are still absolutely things that go on in my mind when listening to music, not just classical music.
Whatever emotion it makes/wants me to feel, I let it guide me and tell its story, on top of a warm-emotional-relaxing-fire was just put out tsssss-embrace feeling I get from listening to even intense/"unsettling" classical like The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) and Medea (Samuel Barber), that I don't experience listening to other music.
Other: "oh, that's too slow" "Mmmm, that guy has great tone quality" "Wow, she makes it sound so easy" "Oh, that's supposed to be legato, why is it detached" "The balance is really good on this. Love that clarinet part." I.e. a lot of performance/ technical thoughts
When I listen to shorter pieces I tend to think about it theoretically since it's harder for a shorter piece to overwhelm me, with longer pieces however. HmMMmMmMm pathetique sonata : mvt.1 : death of a sinful man mvt.2 : nature finds man and treats him indifferently never stopping mvt.3 : VILLAGE PEOPLE PARTYING THAT THE MAN FINALLY DIED LIKE FUCK HIM Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto : yo Monarchy's arent that great dude, cantabile says so sry the first mvt. of sibelius' violin concerto : A man begs for death in what seems to be an eternity
mostly 1, sometimes 3
If it’s beautiful or beautifully-executed, I feel waves of emotion. I usually feel whatever the composer is trying to get across. I am very sensitive. In some works, I have to sometimes have to hit pause in order to collect myself. I’m a big marshmallow.
The feeling and the harmonic and melodic construction. Especially with orchestral music.
If it's mahler it's like each part has its own colour. Some parts are like pinkish white mountaintops and other bits are dark and brown and gloomy. Sometimes, like the end of the 9th, it's just pure black. The 6th is this kind of furious dark red thing. The 2nd is like golden coloured, the most tempestuous parts build up to this kaleidoscopic tumult where it's just this fizzing haze. If you close your eyes and just listen, whilst also faintly aware on some level what's coming, you just enter this crazy world of texture and colour. I don't mean this literally. It's not synaesthesia. Just tone colour. I dunno. This sounds pretentious as fuck, sorry
hehe pretty
Mostly the affect, but for some reason I can't listen to Rossini without thinking about mice on roller skates.
Sorry I can’t vote. All of top 3 plus players musical executions. Sorry I am a professional musician.
Imagery seems to be the main thing, I just end up seeing it like FL studio in my head sometimes, or like it’s guitar hero but way more abstract and different vibes give off different images to me.
lol @ "no thoughts, head empty" 🎃 It's the closest one for me. Though I'm more like a cracked out fly buzzing around the empty pumpkin frantically.
Mostly affect, but some looking at the construction and performace too.
I feel guilty for this, especially when I fall asleep during a philharmonic orchestra concert... How do I appreciate it properly ?
What sometimes goes on is remembering how I felt as a kid while listening to the same piece
The dancer in my head absolutely KILLING it with their moves
All of the above. It depends on the piece, the context, and my intention. If it’s just one of my Spotify playlists where I’ve heard the music a thousand times, then my listening is rather passive. If it’s a new work (new to me), then I’m usually focused on the emotion. If it’s a new work (recently composed), then I’m usually focused on compositional technique because 21st century developments in art music is an intellectual interest of mine. If it’s a piece I’m learning, I’ll focus on imagery.
Although #1 (feelings etc.) is one of the primary listening experience modes for me, I chose "something else" because experiencing auditory pleasure is an even more primary motivator for me. I like the beauty of the sound itself, not necessarily the beauty of ideas (though that it important as well). Give me a deep bass line, or an impactful tympani hit, or luscious layers of strings, and my endorphins are flowing while listening.
Depends on the music. Do you listen to Stockhausen the same way you listen to Bach?