December 27th, 2012, 8:08 am
QuoteOriginally posted by: UltravioletQuoteOriginally posted by: exneratunriskuv and ....The German neuroscience and music researcher Spitzer says: it is not the melodies and harmonies that drive us tears ..., icy showers down the neck, ... it is the unexpected breaks, rythm changes, peaks, ... and "unexpected" means unexpected.BTW, I am not so interested in what was new then, but what do I hear now, having listened to all kind of music ...(There is only one Mozart opera that has parts, I can still listen to: Don Giovanni).IMO, it gets "worse" here: ... down to Verdi and even Rossini (terrible flow-production opera maker ...)Sometimes I think, classical music debates suffer from a kind of "Abilane Paradox"?! I guess there's only one way to be always surprised with a musical composition, which makes it a bit sad that you and Herr Spitzer can listen to any piece only once. What's more "unexpected" for you - Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony with its freedom of interpretation and the chaotic random noises of Nature or the tight, perfected avant-garde Penderecki's concert for the victims of Hieroshima? There's a lot of atonality and time-signature changes also in Mozart piano compositions and symphonies. They often trick me into guessing who's the modern composer, while Schoenberg or Berg I can recognise easily, so I don't understand Spitz's definition. I also don't understand why he cries at the "unexpected" parts - for me these are the sympathy and emotions the music can ignite in my heart: Mozart's arias make it stop, Bach's awfully predictable passages put me in a serene mood, familiar rhythms of Chopin's mazurkas and polonaises I can play almost without notes (I rather have problems with stretching my fingers over all keys than predicting the next chord), ... only in an empty void there's no sound.Maybe opera is not a good musical form for you? It's purpose was to tell a funny or romantic story, present an extraordinary voice, propaganda, ..., but not really to surprise the listener with its (based on one motif repeated and modified according to well-defined - getting stricter in time - rules of the consecutive parts) structure. Roger Waters wrote an opera...I love opera, but again Wagner+ ... BTW, only once would mean much too simple .. it should be some work to create a few new subneural patterns from the signals sent by the ear? Yesterday I listened to Perilat, ... by Dusapin that I had the luck to see at its 2003 premiere (Colon conducting) in Paris - still surprise ... but I need to confess, I highlighted the "unexpected" to be more pointed after Perilat, .. I listened to the Charlie Haden Montreal Tapes
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exneratunrisk on December 26th, 2012, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.