Please, write more about what excites you in your listening!

[Lance]

In these strange days, world over, many of us are listening to more music, reading, thinking, eating (more than we should?), worrying, etc., et al. The best medication for this is listening to great music! I would like to read more about what CMGers are listening to and what is sending you off to la-la land! Compositions, performers, recordings, concerts, books ... it's a wide-open field.

[david johnson]

Orchestral section tonal blends and tonal color quickly get my attention! I am also a sucker for rhythms that I find exciting. The occasional 'mystical' moment in sound appeals to me, also, and I like a damn good march!
examples-
Scheherazade and Russian Easter Overture by RK
Stravinsky
Some moments in Four Legends by Sibelius
Eagle Squadron by Alford and Washington Grays by Grafulla
then of course - Bruckner brass chords and Mahler

[barney]

"And it's a goal to Manchester United!"

[diegobueno]

What excites me in listening:
1. I listen to compositions first, performances second. I'm less interested in the person or persons performing it, except as concerns their success at conveying the letter and spirit of the composer's score.

2. I am excited by compositions which display
a). Solid structure, where everything in the piece contributes to express a unified idea.
b.) Clarity of expression; logic and coherence
b). Personality. I want to hear a distinctive voice that couldn't come from any other composer.
c). A genuinely felt idea, emotion, attitude, message.

3. I prefer music that allows me to follow the themes
4. I prefer music with at least a small foothold on tonality, however tenuous. There seems to be a connection between atonality and athematicism, where the music is being held together by some theoretic construct not apparent to the ear. I get excited by music that lets me in on the process.

5. All of the above points are open to exceptions. None are absolute.

[Febnyc]

For the large part I agree with the foregoing post.

I also very much enjoy tone poems - generally, works which paint a scene for me. And I cotton to melodies and themes which make me sit up and really pay attention. I like composers who write in their own folk idiom, too.

In addition, I constantly hunt for unsung composers whose music might be totally unfamiliar to me. I usually can find a clip somewhere on the Internet and, as long as it is not too atonal and off-putting, I'll take the chance.

I pay little homage to performances per se, preferring to stay with one favorite and thereby expand my collection horizontally - over hundreds of composers.

I lean towards the enterprising CD labels - CPO, Toccata, Naxos - and some others.

And, Lance is correct - these days music counts more than ever.

[Belle]

This is a very intriguing question and I find that writing about my own responses to music finds either me or the English language - or both - often coming up somewhat short. Sure, there are plenty of words to describe the technical, instrumental and structural aspects of composition but when it comes to subjective responses about performance we have to dig into purely emotional language which, in the case of the question posed, relates to word "excitement". For me, the musical experience is much more than 'excitement', though I can become 'excited' and enthusiastic about an upcoming performance. So, I'm afraid that in answering the letter of the question I will be reverting to emotive language; this must apply on a case-by-case basis, since every musical experience is unique and invariably mood-dependent.

I can only say that my listening requires most of those elements described so well in the previous five excellent points posted above. Without those things I wouldn't pay attention. If I have left a recital venue, concert hall or theatre after any performance or film without thinking about it for ages afterwards then the experience hasn't lived up to my expectations.

A response to Bach is quite different, for me, from a response to Beethoven or Brahms; I have different expectations. In my Bach listening it's the complexity; polyphonic voices, endlessly wrought musical lines, a seemingly limitless wealth of ideas as well as instrumental parts which complement each other and the vocal lines. As to the 'excitement' element; this music is volcanic; a perfect synthesis of all these things - in an outstanding performance - which elevates me from the quotidian. I can't ever just describe music as 'beautiful'; that's too glib. There is so much more that I find I have come up short in writing it down. So I'll quote the philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, from his essay on The Limits of Knowledge:

"The moments when we seem to encounter the utterly beautiful, or the ineffable. In particular, a feeling we get when we reach the limits of understanding; the moment of recognition that will come when listening to (fill in your most exulted musical experience) or the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa, or watching the evening sunlight on a hill behind the house. Anybody who goes through life with open mind and open heart will encounter these moments of revelation; moments that are saturated with meaning, but whose meaning cannot be put into words".

[maestrob]

What excites me? Living and working with music excites me. Some more than others, of course. Romantic music is my specialty, for want of a better term, but I love J. S. Bach just as much, and respect Haydn to the limits of my capacity.

XXth Century music leaves me divided between all that is noise vs. all that is inventive and has a tonal structure. I'm really glad contemporary composers are moving back to tonality and are finding new things to say.

[Lance]

To your last statement, I can only add: AMEN!

... ... ...
XXth Century music leaves me divided between all that is noise vs. all that is inventive and has a tonal structure. I'm really glad contemporary composers are moving back to tonality and are finding new things to say.

[Lance]

Hmm ... I like everything I'm reading on this thread. We truly have some wonderful and astute "thinkers" on CMG. Let's hear even more!!!

[Belle]

What excites me? Living and working with music excites me. Some more than others, of course. Romantic music is my specialty, for want of a better term, but I love J. S. Bach just as much, and respect Haydn to the limits of my capacity.

XXth Century music leaves me divided between all that is noise vs. all that is inventive and has a tonal structure. I'm really glad contemporary composers are moving back to tonality and are finding new things to say.

Couldn't agree more!!