What is Musicality?


Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai

Showing 5 responses by schubert

I don't know long his fingers were, but I love to listen to Lenny Tristano, who seems a great musician to me.
Frogman, just the way it seems to me as a non musician.
Only thing I THINK I've seen is both a jazz quartet
and a 90 member symphony can have somebody SO good the whole group seems to "ride on" them at times
As an example the great Chicago SO oboist Ray Stills
seemed to be the conductor at times. From Jazz i don't know.
Uberdine, very insightfull about the mid-bass rhythm.
My Van Alstine Synergy 450 amp has that in spades, first
time in 40 years I'm not looking for a different amp.
Its just as important for Classical Music .
Uberdine, first and foremost the Bach solo cello suites.
Dvorak and Elgar Cello concertos. One of the most haunting pieces in all music is the Solo Cello Suite Opus 8, by one of the greatest of modern composers, Zoltan Kodaly. There is s good performance on Naxos but IMO the one by Janos Starker, a Hungarian like Kodaly is one of the greatest recordings ever made.Came out on Delos.
Haydn wrote 2 enjoyable cello concertos , as did Max Reger.
One of Yo-Yo Ma's finest efforts was the Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto on Sony.
Beyond all doubt one of the finest works in all of music is Schubert' Quintet in C which uses two cellos, many fine recordings of this.
I have seen many clips of Monk, saw him live once, though I had no idea what I was seeing .
Art Tatum was great, I just think Tristano must of went to school on Bach because he had that same quality of balance is which first thing I notice, or try to, in musicianship.
It seems to me, as lowly listener, music is like most things in life, talent is great but for most of us its a question of whether you do/did your homework or not.