Aaron Copland`s story of "How We Listen" and Mike Hamad`s "Song Schematics." Introduction Music is a philosophical issue, and a reader must understand various factors to understand and feel the music. Copland and Hamad express their understanding of music which involves the manipulation of notes and presents a more intellectual approach to enhancing the appreciation of music. In spite the fact that Hamad is creative and makes music magical, I believe that Copland presents more regarding the listener in a way that can improve the understanding of music general music listening process. Aaron Copland`s story of "How We Listen
In Mark Edmundson’s Article “Can Music Save Your Life?” he discusses his theories on music. He goes through personal experience and later onto philosophical stances. Edmunds believes music, opens figurative doors, should inspire one to create, and above all preserves the listener. Edmundson says music should make the listener desire to create.
In Aaron Copland’s essay, “How We Listen”, Copland discusses the difference between music that provides a new message each time it is listened to and music that grows dull over time as it expresses the same message with each listen. Within the essay, Copland compares the work of Tchaikovsky to Beethoven. He describes Tchaikovsky’s music as easier to understand and goes on to say that, “…every time you come back to a piece of his it almost always says the same thing to you, whereas with Beethoven it is often quite difficult to put your finger right on what he is saying” (Copland par. 12). This concept can be applied to contemporary music as well.
In “How we listen to Music,” Aaron Copland begins his essay by examining the three ways of listening to music or as he calls them “Planes” (Page 442) the three planes he examines are Sensuous, Expressive and sheerly Musical Planes (Page 442). Copland organizes his essays around explaining these three different ways of listening to music, he analyzes how most listeners actually hear music, and how they might enrich their listening experience. Copland thesis appears at the end of the essay where he argues for a complex and complete way of listening to music, one that includes these three different ways The first plane of listening to music as per Copland is the sensuous plane, Copland suggest that most people listen to music only in the most
“How We Listen” begins by providing us with a detailed description of Aaron Copland’s background and accomplishments, then moves on to briefly describe his views and ideas that are expressed in the rest of the passage. In the introduction, we are presented with Copland’s theory that divides the activity of listening to music (specifically the classical genre) into three categories; sensuous plane, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane. The sensuous plane allows the listener to simply relax, take in, and appreciate the beauty of the music.
“How We Listen” by Aaron Copland. Listening to music can be split into three parts to be analyzed better: “(1) the sensuous plane, (2) the expressive plane, (3) the sheerly musical plane” (Copland 939). The sensuous plane is the pleasure the music itself gives off onto people. It’s why many people put music on while doing other work, as it’s enjoyable without even thinking about it. There is no thought about it, because it’s natural and innate.
Among the many successful things Aaron Copland has done for music, he has also written an eloquent description for the three separate musical planes. He begins by explaining that the simplest way to listen to music is “for the sheer pleasure of the musical sound itself” (Copland, 7). This feeling of listening to music for pleasure is it’s own plane. It is known as the sensuous plane, and Copland believes that this form of listening is “an important one in music, a very important one, but it does not constitute the whole story” (Copland, 8). It seems that Copland believed the reader could understand this concept on a personal level, so he chose not to elaborate on this plane.
Music is one of the few languages in the world that is universal. Regardless of your hometown, native tongue, or culture, everyone can indulge in the beautiful melodies and rhythms that are created through different methods, whether it be a unified symphony or the gleeful cacophonies of children banging on pots and pans. This gift of a universal language is what makes Rachel M. Harper's “The Myth of Music” captivating and entrancing to the reader; everyone can understand Harper’s emotions through references that allude back to the art of music. Harper’s use of metaphors linked by personification, hyperbole, and asyndeton further aids the reader in empathizing with the melancholic yet loving passion that she holds for music and her father.
In Psych of Music this semester, we were tasked with reading “This Is Your Brain On Music” by Daniel J. Levitin. The book was published by Penguin Group in 2006 and has a total of 276 pages. It is a non-fiction book that aims to teach readers simple concepts such as musical notation and musical terms, while introducing and navigating difficult scientific and philosophical concepts from neuropsychology. Levitin also emphasizes that even unskilled musicians can be just as skilled listeners as seasoned performers. Levitin is an internationally distinguished neuroscientist with chairs at McGill University.
It is not a single case that listeners can feel the meanings inside of the music. Music can express its ideas and emotions by its melodies, beats, textures, and rhythms. Music can communicate with the listener. The expressions of music can touch a certain degree of understanding and resonance. The communication of
Starting with the modes of listening. Michel Chion, identifies three listening modes, casual listening, semantic listening and reduced listening. Reduced listening is a term derived from Pierre Schaeffer to indicate the kind of listening that emphasis on the characteristics of the sound itself independent of any causal listening or semantic listening. Billie Holiday, an American jazz singer that had a great career and was know for having one of the most distinctive voices of all time. Holiday sang of incomprehension, she sang of hate, and racist violence.
In our present day and age many people now listen to music while doing a number of various activities. There is a big debate whether listening to music benefits you and helps you to concentrate and focus especially while studying. I researched whether listening to music helps you concentrate and focus. Listening to music is one of the only activities which involve using both sides of the brain. When concentrating on a specific task you are normally only using one part of your brain while concentrating so the other parts of your brain that is unoccupied drifts off which causes you to lose concentration.
Reflection on the 5-Days Journey to Become a Better Listener Throughout the 5-days practice of active listening and basic attending skills in daily conversations, it was easiest for me to practice empathy. I found it easy to perceive the situation through others’ eyes and perspectives in order to capture the accurate meaning when I was nonjudgemental and listened attentively to others. As a result, I was able to develop empathic rapport in which I accurately sensed and understood others’ concerns as well as feelings as compared to when I conversed without empathy, allowing my presumptions to affect my interpretation of others’ meaning due to the need for others to agree with my worldview. Besides that, I was able to practice basic empathy, which is the second level of empathy where I paraphrased
Listening to music gives humans huge amount of benefits towards their personal life. A lot of students listen to music to, help reduce stress, boost up their mood and provides motivation in their daily life. Music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and affection in significant forms through the components of rhythm, melody, harmony, and colour. Some students use music to overcome the emotional effects of stress or anxiety when engaged in their leisure time, such as studying for a test or quiz, completing homework or assignments that they were given by teachers or lecturers, or while reading and writing. Most of the student choose to listen to their favorite genre of music when they study or do their homework without understanding
Some studies showed that people who listened to classical music performed worse in memory tests than those who didn’t” (See). We do know that some children and adults seem to be calmer and more engaged when music is incorporated into learning. People feel that this does impact the individual. Some people do not believe that arts in education are beneficial, but others feel that they are very monumental is
