How to Hear Classical Music by Davinia Caddy

Author:Davinia Caddy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781877551987
Publisher: Awa Press
Published: 2013-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Of course, you can listen to all three of these pieces with out knowing any of the background. You don’t have to consider the composers’ interests and intentions. But you may be missing out not only on the particulars of the individual pieces, but on the basic point of them all. Perhaps you’ve heard of the phrase ‘art about art’? Essentially, it means the art in question is self-reflexive: it takes its own nature and structure, processes and conditions as its primary focus. Sure, it can be newfangled and innovative, breaking with traditions from the past. But what it really likes to do is question, confuse, challenge and obscure its own meaning and purpose, not to mention how it’s viewed or heard, watched or listened to.

Modern classical music is no exception. Its purpose is to make us realise that there are different ways to hear music (up or down, vertically or horizontally), different sounds to hear as music (noises from the street, even the coughing of your companion), and different reasons we might not want to bother listening at all.

It reminds us that music is a phenomenon of perception, a creation of our imagination. Anything can be music if we choose to hear it as such. And hearing is not a passive activity for musical couch potatoes. Hearing is an act of composition.

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