Has education expanded your listening tastes?

There is truth to what Schubert says; musicians do, indeed, come from a different place than most listeners. It is a fairly common experience for musicians to enjoy PLAYING certain pieces (or the music of certain composers) much more than LISTENING to them. In these cases the satisfaction is derived from either the technical challenges that a particular composition poses or the unique performance-values dictated by the composer; these may have little to do with the ultimate value of the work on musical grounds. However, it's important to note that if the music is total crap no amount of the above will redeem it for a performer. Musicians can respect certain music while not necessarily liking it.

The listener has the luxury of not having to concern himself with matters of respect and simply determine wether he likes certain music or not; it's very difficult (and pointless) to argue otherwise. However, it is also true (and important to argue) that for those listeners who, out of simple curiosity or conviction to open-mindedness, are willing to challenge their preconceived notions of what is "beautiful", there exist unexpected musical rewards. This is a key point that I think is dismissed much too quickly. The very reason that makes music such a powerful force (the emotional content) is what makes this issue such a personal one; and one that can, unfortunately, become somewhat polarizing. For some, the very idea of education or analysis seems to diminish (or even shut down) the ability to enjoy music on a visceral level; for others, it fuels it. At the extreme there seems to be, for some, the idea that there MUST NOT be education for there to be full enjoyment of music on an emotional level. Why this is so would probably require a type of analysis way above my pay-grade, but it is certainly my experience and observation, and most certainly has to do with personality types. All this should transcend any type of judgment or criticism of the place that anyone of us chooses for music in our lives; but, I would suggest that, as a rule, the more that there exists this type of judgmental aversion to education and critical analysis the less weight that personal proclamations of what music is good, bad or worse will carry. It is certainly valid (on a personal level) for the listener to concern himself only with what he likes most in order to proclaim (IF ONE MUST) what is good music or which composer is "best", "worst" or even "underrated"; however, it would be extremely arrogant to assume that our own personal aesthetic universe can dictate what should be "good" for anyone except ourselves, without having (or being open to having) a fuller and more complete scope of everything that the art has to offer.

****...(I am) suspcious of music that has to be explained****

A very important comment in this discussion, and one that goes to some of the points that I have tried to make. From my vantage point that comment says much more about the person making the comment than about any music that he may be referring to. This is not meant to be a judgmental comment, but an inevitable conclusion. No music needs to be explained and that is not the OP's premise nor question.

**** Has education expanded your listening tastes?****

The answer will vary from listener to listener. A better question might be:

"CAN education expand your listening tastes?"

Absolutely and without a doubt! Not only can it expand our listening tastes, but also our enjoyment of whatever music we choose to listen to.

Thanks to all for the positive comments; glad to be part of a very interesting discussion with so many really great and thoughtful contributions.

Schubert, I am not surprised by the feelings of the principal clarinetist that you refer to. Playing the orchestral repertoire in a first rate orchestra is an extremely demanding and stressful job. Few outside of the profession understand just how intense the amount of preparation that is required is and how intense the pressure felt is in order to perform at such a high level in concert situations where a player doesn't have the luxury of going back to "white-out" a mistake and do it over; one shot is all one gets. So, it is not surprising that some players just don't want to listen to the repertoire for pleasure and prefer to listen to music in a different genre. A good friend and colleague who unfortunately passed away recently was one of the finest concert flautists that I have ever known and was obsessed with the music of James Brown.

An interesting extension of the subject of education and analysis is the issue of objectivism vs subjectivism in judging music and it's worth. I find this article to be a thought-provoking look at the subject:

http://www.rogerbissell.com/id11a3.html

Schubert, you are clearly a deep thinker and devoted music lover. I am not entirely sure that I am interpreting some of the comments in your last post correctly; so please correct me if I am not. Additionally, I assure you that my comments are not coming from a stance of defensiveness, but from a desire to further what has been a very interesting discussion. Obviously, some of these topics are extremely "close to home" for any performer.

Your comments about the inextricable link between music and history are very insightful and spot on.

****the general public not grasping the difficulty of performance is of course true, but I would say same is readily apparent to any serious classical listener.****

Perhaps. Certainly to varying degrees and more so to those like yourself. But, to any? ....unlikely. Again, I stress this not to garner any kind of undue support or credit, but to hopefully tie in some of the other themes we are discussing in a more complete manner. With all due respect, and not meaning to put too fine a point on any of this, at least one other of your comments seems to point to the need for further clarification.

****And two semesters of Music History at any conservatory or university won't change that.****

The study of Music History and history in general (especially as it relates to the music at hand) goes far beyond "two semesters" for any serious performer. Music history and history in general is a constant theme in the life of a music student in conservatory; not only in the classroom, but in the private study of scores during preparation for performance. It continues as a constant theme as part of living the life of a performer. Two semesters of Music History will give no more a complete understanding than reliance on record liner notes for the understanding of form and theory. Ironically, while acknowledging the relevance of your insightful comments about this topic (in general terms), I disagree with your conclusion about how it relates to the subject of a performer's feelings about certain musics.

****IMO the not really liking to perform has more to do with the cognitive dissonance generated by living in a culture radically different than the one the works you play were created in and for. ****

First of all, I think that the subject being discussed (and one that you introduced) was the subject of performers sometimes not wanting to listen to the works that they spend their working hours performing and, instead, finding a kind of respite in other genres. The joy of performance is, if anything, even greater for styles outside of and removed from the present era. The study of performance practices of, for instance, late Baroque German ornamentation is fascinating and a great deal of simple fun.

For most serious musicians the cliche (and to quote Duke Ellington) "There are only two kinds of music, the good kind and the other kind" is a life mantra. The true relevance of this is something that even serious listeners don't always respect to the extent that they could. A musician who spends hours upon hours preparing and performing certain works will sometimes seek a break or change of pace by listening to, and sometimes performing, a style or genre of music that is very different not necessarily because of any cognitive dissonance (although that is a very real consideration), but simply because it is different and, more importantly, because if core music values are high there is no needless judgment about the superiority of one genre over the other.

It is a leap and mistaken assumption that going from concertmaster in a top orchestra to a solo career is necessarily "moving up". As Brownsfan points out "a steady job in a world class orchestra may be a better fit" for an individual; this could be for a variety of reasons.

First of all, the life of a soloist is not all that it may seem to be. Constantly traveling is very difficult on the person and that person's family, and different individuals will have different levels of tolerance to these difficulties. As musicians, some have more of a team-player mentality (to their credit) and find a great deal of satisfaction in the role of leader of an ensemble with the special relationships that are established, not only with the other players and instrumental sections, but also as liaison between these players and the conductor; a particularly important role in our age of constantly changing guest conductors. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, soloists are often limited to performing certain solo works over and over again. As concertmaster a player can truly have the best of both worlds: playing in a top orchestra and performing all the wonderful orchestral repertoire, and also perform as soloist with that orchestra and (fairly regularly) as guest soloist with other orchestras; many do this quite successfully.

****I suppose the growing pressure on classical artists to be hyper-attractive is an inevitable consequence to living in such image conscious times****

Concertmasters, like conductors, are not under this growing pressure. Obviously, the astute listener can see (hear) through any possible veneer, but this is something to keep in mind when assessing the relative musical abilities of a great concert master vs that of some of the high profile soloists. The great concertmasters are amazing musicians. Some interesting reading on the subject:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100103/ARTICLE/1031012

http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm4-8/concertmaster.htm