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What is your relationship with music?

#81: April - May 2010 (Non-Fiction)
bleachededen

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What is your relationship with music?

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The first chapter of Musicophilia has led me to wonder what other people think and feel about music. In that chapter, people who have only vaguely liked music or showed little interest in it at all have traumatic accidents or neurological problems which in turn bring out a strong passion for music. I have always had a strong passion for music without having any strange or traumatic experiences, but I wonder what other people think.

How do you feel about music?
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caseyjo
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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I'm so glad you started this topic, it will be interesting to get everyone's responses!

I have also always been passionate about music. As a child, I constantly listened to the radio (mostly the golden oldies radio station, as well as the rock stations). It didn't take long for me to learn the words to the heavy rotation songs, as well as the names of the artists. Getting a dual deck tape player meant that I could start recording my favorite songs from the radio, and I quickly amassed a lot of tapes. Of course, I borrowed tapes from everyone I knew to make copies, and my mom started buying tapes for me as well. I got a cd player at some point, which was pretty awesome.

By high school, I started to learn as much as I could about the bands I liked by reading biographies, magazines, and anything else I could find. The internet changed everything: I could sample music from bands I had heard of but never really heard, I could seek out information about bands, I even began to put my music on the computer. I now have a 15,000 song iTunes library, and I listen to about 70 songs a day. I only keep full albums on my computer, because in my opinion that is the complete work of art. My favorite bands/artists, with fave albums in parentheses, are Led Zeppelin (II, Houses of the Holy), Radiohead (OK Computer, The Bends), The Beatles (Abbey Road, Revolver), The Clash (London Calling, Combat Rock), Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks), The Doors (eponymous), and Sam Cooke (Ain't That Good News, Twistin' the Night Away).

I also like to play musical instruments. I've been sounding out things on the piano since I can remember, but I've never actually learned to play (that's not completely true: I can play a few songs by heart, more by ear, and many songs by sheet music, but I'm still terrible at technique and sight reading). I did learn to play trumpet when I was 10 and flute when I was 12. I still play both instruments to this day; I especially love to play jazz trumpet. I live in Chicago, so I have the joy of being able to see live jazz or blues pretty much any day of the week. I've recently taken up the guitar, which is challenging but fun.

Near the top of my "to be read" list is I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. I think that might make for good vacation reading.
bleachededen

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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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Thanks, caseyjo. I like some of the same artists/albums (both of those Radiohead albums are my two favorites, as well).

I like that you look up biographies of musicians you like, as well. I have done this for a few of the bands I really like, but for the most part, I care less about the musician than I do the music. With a few exceptions, I barely even know the names of any of the members in a band I like, and I'm quite alright with that because the music is more important than the image or the politics. In this day and age it's hard to ignore things like image (with music videos being the standard), but I still focus much more on the music than any other aspect, even if I know the band is trying to make a statement about something.

I can also forgive political positions (generally) when I like a band's music but not their stance on some issue that happens to be big. If it's something that I stand firmly against, I obviously will think twice about whether or not I care to align myself with a band that is in that position, but short of obviously racist or anti-feminist/civil rights bands, if I like the music enough, I can forget about the artist's views. A good example of this is that even though I know that Richard Wagner was an anti-semite and Nazi supporter, I still love his music, especially parts of Die Valkyrie (the second opera in the Ring cycle), because his message doesn't spill into the music, and the music is beautiful. But I won't listen to a band like Skrewdriver, who at one point were just a normal Oi band, but after a lineup change, became totally anti-semitic and no self-respecting skinhead (original skinheads, not Nazi skinheads, you can wiki this if you need to see the difference) or punk listens to Skrewdriver anymore, even the one clean album, because of their hateful new turn.

But my point is I have a lot of respect for that kind of need to know everything about a band, because then you really know what you're listening to and who is giving it to you. My boyfriend is like that, so he's often like a music encyclopedia -- if you want to know what band Johnny Rotten was in after the Sex Pistols, he'll be able to tell you that and then some. I have that kind of lust for knowledge in other aspects of my life, but not in band bios.
caseyjo wrote:Near the top of my "to be read" list is I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. I think that might make for good vacation reading.
That book does sounds like it would be interesting. Let me know what you thought of it whenever you get around to reading it. :)
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Music, for me, is a living, breathing entity that never leaves my body, even if I could ever want it to. My mother is a concert pianist and music history professor at a local university, and I was raised with music the way most people are raised with food. I could read music as soon as I could read English, and I started playing piano and learning music theory around 5 or 6 years old. I devoured all of the music my parents listened to, every classical composer you can think of, Simon and Garfunkel, musicals of all kinds, folk music from various countries, gospel music, hymns, spirituals, nursery rhymes, Jewish prayers at Synagogue. I was a sponge. I just absorbed it all, took it into my being, even if I had no possible way of knowing what any of it meant.

I attended many concerts at the music department at my mom's school. My mom's favorite story to tell people (and mine, too) is from when I was about 4 years old. My mom's colleague was conducting the university orchestra playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade. This happened to be my favorite classical piece of all time, and was proud to be able to pronounce its name. When it begins, there is a triumphant start and then a pregnant pause before it continues more softly. During this pause, I pulled on my mom's arm and said, loudly, "That's Scheherezade!" I was so proud. The conductor, my mom's friend, turned around and said, "If there will be no further interruptions, we will begin again." My mom took me outside for the rest of the concert, but I didn't care because I could still hear the music, and I reveled in the sweet tones of my favorite piece of music. I didn't know I'd done anything wrong. All I knew was they were playing my song. What a beautiful moment.

I joined band in elementary school. I wanted to play drums or trumpet, but my parents thought drums were too loud and my mother swore she'd never let her children be brass players (it's a musician insider snobbery; brass players are "known" to be pompous and arrogant), so I chose flute, and moved on to piccolo in high school. I was a member of a world reknowned children's choir and then the junior version of the well-reknowned adult choir in a neighboring city, and in those choirs I learned pretty much every sacred choral work ever written, pieces by Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland. I sang with chamber ensembles and full orchestras. I was even in a production of Puccini's opera Turandot when I was about 11, because of the choir's connection with the city's opera company. I can't even put into words how amazing the experience was, and I'm not even sure I fully appreciated how special and unique it really was back then. I wish that I could go back and feel the impact of that experience with the understanding of its importance that I know now.

In high school, I started voice lessons and learned opera arias, wrote piano compositions and won awards at competitions. I performed in musicals at the local community theater, as well as at my high school. I was in marching band, concert band, jazz band. I was set to major in vocal performance in college, and auditioned at several before giving up the dream when I was rejected from all of them. I had been having problems with my singing, which my mother and I attribute to my voice teacher's unusual and controversial teaching methods. I was disheartened and probably more than that, in retrospect, but too involved in teenage drama to notice how much that would affect me.

My second love has always been literature, as you may have guessed to find me here. I sucked up books the way I sucked up music, and I usually finish books within a few days, 2 weeks tops, anymore than that and I'm either too busy or disinterested and I give up and try something else. Music has always played a part in reading, too, because as a poetry major and a linguistics nut, I find music in language so for me the love of reading and the love of music go hand in hand.

Music can make or break me. Music clings to people. I once hated Jimi Hendrix solely because my closest friend in 8th grade and future (now former) boyfriend wanted to take drugs to experiment like him. Now I can't listen to Nirvana without thinking of him, because when we started dating in high school, I fell in love with Nirvana, Hendrix, The Doors, etc. as well as with him. When I find music I like, I don't just listen, I fall in love. I am known to listen to the same song over and over, loving it more and more each time. Music can trigger depression episodes for me, but it can also bring me out of one, depending on what it is. I sing showtunes anywhere, anytime, and I know some really old, obscure songs that my dad's parents would have listened to. Right now I'm listening to "Make 'em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain, and as I imagine Donald O'Connor jump around and make faces, I'm in love with it all over again.

I guess what I'm saying is that music isn't just a part of me, it is me. I'm never without a song in my head, and I don't think a day has gone by since I learned how to sing that I don't sing at least some part of a song. Music oozes through me, and I infect other people with my musical germs. My boyfriend always hated musicals before, now he can sing some of them with me. It's not that I forced him or he listened against his will, it's just that my enthusiasm showed him a side of music he'd never considered looking at. I do love to make others feel what I feel when I listen to something. That is true joy.

Music is my soulmate, music is my soul, music is me. I love music.

:love:
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tomwhite56
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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Music is a constant in my life, every day, from waking to sleep. I get woken up by Classical KUSC FM in Los Angeles and go to sleep to it. In between I listen to KUSC on the way to work and at work I have my iPod (105 GB at this time) plugged into my computer and listen to a wide variety of stuff. Most of it is classical, although I don't like to listen to opera, but there's also a large part dedicated to 60s/70s music -- Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, CSNY, John Mayall, Joni Mitchell...stuff I musically teethed on.
My classical taste covers the whole spectrum of solo instrument/chamber/orchestral - Bach through John Adams. Heavy on the Mozart, Dvorak, Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovich.
Where I DON'T go with music is smooth jazz, hip hop, rap, etc. And the 80s never did much for me...except for Fleetwood Mac for some reason.
I also play guitar, which reflects a lot of what I listen to in the rock/blues field. I've got 41 years behind the guitar and I'm still learning.
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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Thanks for sharing, tom. I think we have a lot of music in common, and I'm glad to hear that even after 41 years of playing, you consider yourself to be "still learning." This is the mark of a true musician -- you can always get better, you are never 100% perfect and will always try to learn new techniques and styles. I hope that's going well for you. :)
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tomwhite56
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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Wow, eden, that is some history -- sorry I hadn't read it before. I love what a range of music you love and how much music means to you. I think we do have lots in common musically. What's ironic for me is that until my son came along (he's picked up guitar as well but his ear is somewhat tenuous) I'm the only musician our family ever had, to my knowledge. I don't know where it comes from. But I'm grateful for it every single day of my life.

When you were in the children's chorus, did you ever do Britten's "Friday Afternoons"?
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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I have my Ipod running the entire day that i am at work.

I love music. It can make you sing, laugh, brood, or create.

A few years back i discovered that i am not too bad with a guitar, and that has been a lot of fun.
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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tomwhite56 wrote:Wow, eden, that is some history -- sorry I hadn't read it before. I love what a range of music you love and how much music means to you. I think we do have lots in common musically. What's ironic for me is that until my son came along (he's picked up guitar as well but his ear is somewhat tenuous) I'm the only musician our family ever had, to my knowledge. I don't know where it comes from. But I'm grateful for it every single day of my life.

When you were in the children's chorus, did you ever do Britten's "Friday Afternoons"?
No, sadly. We did a few pieces from his A Ceremony of Carols, as we sang at a lot of religious and Christmas events.
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Re: What is your relationship with music?

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eden:

I am duly impressed and very jealous of your relationship with music! Phenomenal! However I would like to point out an error in your post above. You stated that Richard Wagner supported the Nazis. You got the cart before the horse. Indeed Wagner was an anti-Semite and had some rather unpleasant views, but he did not support the Nazis. Wagner died in 1883. The advent of National Socialism was in the early 1920's. Wagner did provided something of an artistic and mystical philosophy for National Socialism and Adolf Hitler in particular. The Ring is often associated with a magical German kingdom and seeded many of Hitler's goals for the Third Reich. You can read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner
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