Attention to Detail: The Classical Music Listening Guide

Latest Episodes:

Musical Blind Tasting, Part 1 Dec 16, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode, we attempt to bring the world of blind wine tasting to music! Like expert wine tasters, who can determine grape varieties, regions, vintages, and even specific wines just by tasting, Jacob and guests challenge each other to figure out the region, composer, and time period of little-known pieces of music, listening to short clips blindly and talking us through their process of deduction. On this first part of our blind tasting series, we focus on pieces from the Romantic era!

With guests Sasha Scolnik-Brower and Maurice Cohn.

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Can Music Be Random? Dec 08, 2020

Show notes

Continuing with our explorations of what music actually is, we examine another key element of music: randomness. We discuss if music needs to be constructed from organized notes, tempos, rhythms, and/or repetitions, or if music is actually everywhere, from the traffic noises outside to the concert hall.

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Is Silence Music? Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

Music is filled with silence. But is that silence actually part of the music? And more importantly, can silence itself be music? We tackle these (and other) interesting questions on this special episode, using John Cage's avant-garde piece 4'33", a silent piece of music, as our jumping off point.

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Listening Tips: Modern and Contemporary Music Nov 14, 2020

Show notes

We finish our series on era-specific listening tips by exploring the most challenging and diverse sub-genre of classical music, Modern/Contemporary music! Modern music often proves to be especially challenging for new listeners, and can be a big turn-off at classical concerts, but we are here to give you five tips that will help to better understand and appreciate listening to music from this fantastic era!

Tip 1: Listen with an open mind (4:06)

Tip 2: Appreciating the tonality-atonality spectrum (8:00)

Tip 3: Hearing rhythmic figures and gestures (18:48)

Tip 4: Noticing different sound qualities and colors (24:28)

Tip 5: Asking yourself philosophical, abstract questions that are provoked by the music (30:18)

Remember to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment!

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Instrument Breakdown: Viola and Cello Nov 07, 2020

Show notes

We're back to our instrument breakdown episodes, this time exploring two members of the low string family, the viola and cello! We're joined by Tanner Menees, violist and Ben Manis, cellist and conductor to discuss these two great instruments and how to listen to them.

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Bonus: Election Day Listening Game Nov 03, 2020

Show notes

In celebration of Election Day, we're offering up a fun listening game to exercise your listening skills and get your civic engagement juices flowing! In this game, we're challenging you to listen to two different versions of the national anthem and try to hear the differences:

Original: Link Here

Stravinsky's Re-Harmonization: Link Here

Happy listening, go vote, and let us know through social media or our website how many differences you end up noticing!

https://www.vote.org/

Listening Tips: Romanticism Oct 29, 2020

Show notes

We continue our series on listening tips by examining the era and style of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Wagner, and so many other great composers - Romanticism! We're joined by Hannah to discuss our five points of advice for listening to this highly passionate and emotional music, and hear some great music along the way!

Tip 1: Hearing Romantic works through the lens of the composer (8:17)

Tip 2: Distinguishing between absolute and programmatic music (15:33)

Tip 3: Listening for extremes! (26:07)

Tip 4: Noticing fluctuations in tempo (37:31)

Tip 5: Hearing differences in timbre/orchestration (46:05)

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Listening Tips: Classical Style Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

We're back with some more era-specific tips for listening to classical music, and this time we're talking about Classical (?) style! Despite being a poorly named period in music history, the Classical era boasts some of the greatest composers of all time, including Mozart, Haydn, and the young Beethoven.

Tip 1: Listening for quick character changes (6:07)

Tip 2: Listening operatically (11:25)

Tip 3: Noticing metric irregularities (21:20)

Tip 4: Hearing Sonata form (29:57)

Tip 5: Musical jokes! (36:37)

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Listening Tips: Baroque Music Oct 17, 2020

Show notes

In a new series, which we'll alternate with our instrument breakdowns, we provide five tips for listening to a certain style of music. Today's episode is on Baroque music, an era that included some of the most famous and well-respected composers, including J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and others!

Tips

1. Distinguishing between sacred and secular music (4:25)

2. Finding emotional nuance in baroque music (9:02)

3. Hearing simple forms and mapping (18:28)

4. Distinguishing between modern and historically-informed performance (23:45)

5. Noticing ornamentation and virtuosity (30:53)

www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Instrument Breakdown: Violin Oct 10, 2020

Show notes

In a new series, we discuss how to listen to some of the most important musical instruments that might appear in a classical concert. Today we start with the violin, the highest string instrument, which boasts some of the most popular concertos and sonatas in the repertoire. We're joined by Kevin Lin, Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony, to chat about this amazing instrument!

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