The listening process

As the readers of my blog know, I like to post a listening journal. This journal is not much more than a listing of pieces I have listened to during a specific week. I recently read an interview with Mauricio Kagel in the Richard Dufallo book Trackings. Kagel made some comments about listening that has made me think about my listening process.

The first comment was about the type of listening people do (or do not do).

"I have noticed that nobody really listens to music in a very concentrated manner, not even those who think of themselves as professionals."

Basically there are two types of listening: active and passive. I realize that most of the listening I do is passive. I will put music on as I am doing chores or even while writing in my blog. However, there are pieces that I will sit down and just listen and try to absorb the music and understand it.

Some will have you believe (university professors for example) that active listening only happens when you have the score in front of you so you can see and hear the piece. I think what Kagel goes on to say helps to contradict that point of view.

"Our listening, in fact, is like the cicadic motions of our eyes, which locust-like jump around. We listen to music, but at the same time we are preoccupied with our inner world, perhaps with very trite things, the university, travel, eating."

Here Kagel is not just talking about the everyday life getting in the way of listening. He is talking about distractions taking our attention away from the music. To me, the score is a prime example of a distraction from listening to music. Often the listener will get caught up in the details of the score and they will forget that the music has progressed past the point at which they are looking. Then the listener jumps ahead to the point where the music is playing, leaving a hole in that partcular listening of the piece.

I do not condemn a person for listening to the music with a score. I believe it does more good than harm. However, I think that the first couple of times someone listens to a piece should be done without a score. Music is meant to be listened to, to be absorbed aurally. One should have some familiarity with the music before taking it to the next level.