Hearing music vs listening to music

Hearing music vs listening to music

We hear music all the time, but we don’t always listen to music. Separating the various elements of music into their different component parts, then integrating them back together, is an exercise that benefits all students of music listening.

We hear music all the time-but we don’t always listen to music

We hear music all the time, but we don’t always listen to music. Separating the various elements of music into their different component parts, then integrating them back together, is an exercise that benefits all students of music listening.

Describing accurately what is happening in the music at any moment helps us enjoy music more deeply by understanding it more completely.

Dean of American music

The American composer Aaron Copland (1900–1990), called by some the “dean of American music,” frequently spoke and wrote about music listening. In his book what to listen For in Music (1939), Copland describes three planes of music listening: the sensuous, the expressive, and the purely musical.

At the sensuous level, one bathes in the sound of music. Enjoying music simply for the sheer pleasure and beauty of the sound. Copland explains that everyone listens to one degree or another on this plane; even seasoned music listeners do so, particularly when they seek consolation or an escape. Copland notes that the sensuous sound plane is an important aspect of understanding any composer’s individual style.

At the expressive level, one considers the meaning behind the notes themselves. By meaning, Copland refers not to music describing a specific object or event, such as a storm or a battle, but rather to the uniquely personal aspect of what the music “says” to us. This plane is far easier to understand intuitively than it is to articulate. Copland explains that the meaning of a great musical work may change for us as we change over time.

At the purely musical level, the listener listens to music to understand the individual musical components.

How they are used, and how they interact. Though this might seem like an academic exercise, the more one understands about music and how it functions, the greater one’s listening pleasure can be.

Copland’s three planes of listening are not mutually exclusive; we frequently shift between these planes as we listen to music. In particular, great works of music require repeated listening to fully comprehend all that is there to discover and enjoy.

For this essay, analyze three pieces of music in terms of these three planes.

The pieces are:
Josquin Desprez, Gloria from Missa Pange Lingua (which is covered in last week’s reading/listening)

Oliver Messian, Quartet for the End of Time;

(For this piece you might want to do a little research on the piece, the composer and when and why he wrote it.)
For the third one, pick one of your personal favourites.

The first two planes are personal. How do the sounds you are hearing affect you? What does the music men to you?
For the third plane, the purely musical level, describe what individual musical elements you hear as you hear it.

Do not try to be technical beyond your experience. This plane deals with the craft of music.

What you want to consider is how do the musical elements contribute to making the song meaningful to you and how well, in your estimation, do the musicians play it.