Known vs Unknown Works

[rojo]

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

I figure I spend more time listening to new works, but I`m always pleased to hear my favourites, say on the radio. I definitely know them inside out. Although often I discover new things about them, sometimes when listening to a different recording or performance. I figure I must have listened to my favourites over 20 times, some probably much more. I figure most people want to hear works they know, and that`s why concert repertoire consists mainly of the core 'standards.'

I reckon one in 20 new works I have listened to has become a favourite. Approximately.

[Krummhorn]

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

For me, that's the norm ... I seem to never tire of my favs.

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

Nice pun ... ... gotta be hundreds to times by now ...

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

For myself, sometimes 2 or 3 runs will be the deciding factor - some pieces have to 'grow' on me at times.

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

Some, yes. Take the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony in C Minor for instance - one of my all time favorites where I seem to know the passages by heart and listen with anticipation for what's coming next.

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

Hmmm, maybe 1 or 2 out of 10 new works ... that is, when I actually get to listening to new works. Just starting to enjoy Mahler - hated his music when I was younger, but now it has become very interesting and enjoyable.

I figure I spend more time listening to new works, but I`m always pleased to hear my favourites, say on the radio. I definitely know them inside out. Although often I discover new things about them, sometimes when listening to a different recording or performance. I figure I must have listened to my favourites over 20 times, some probably much more. I figure most people want to hear works they know, and that`s why concert repertoire consists mainly of the core 'standards.'

I'm just the opposite ... the majority of my listening time is to old familiar works ... I do subscribe to Rhapsody and can explore new works via streaming audio. If I like the music well enough, I can always purchase it and download for burning onto a CD.

I reckon one in 20 new works I have listened to has become a favourite. Approximately.

Wonderful thread topic ... Looking forward to seeing more responses on this subject.

[Art Rock]

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

Usually, new (less explored) works. Although I am playing many of my old favourites again to my wife.

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

About 20 times I guess.

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

At least 2 to get the feeling it might become one, at least 5 to establish that it is. The same holds incidentally for pop/rock songs.

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

Not for classical music. I anticipate some passages, but that's it. Maybe because I do not play music myself.

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

Rarely. Maybe one in 50-100 or so. Again, taking a link to pop/rock where my approach is more systematic: out of the 50000 or so songs that I have heard in my lifetime, I have selected about 600 as my favourites.


Interesting topic!

[rojo]

Kh - I`ve tried to use Rhapsody, but it`s only available for peeps in the US. Booo! Actually, I think I`ve listened to my favs, like you, over 100 times...

Art Rock - Ever think about learning to play an instrument?

[Art Rock]

Oh, I did when I was in my teens (some 35 years ago)... I played electronic organ and had the chance one day to play church organ. However, with a busy job, and many hobbies, there is simply not enough time in a day to play an instrument at a reasonable level. At least not for me.

[rojo]

Ah well, one can`t do everything at the same time in life.

Just to say, I get a fair number of students who are folks that decided to return to piano after a long absence from it. Funny, it seems no one ever regrets learning to play an instrument.

[Jeffrey Hall]

Interesting thread indeed!

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

Probably old favorites. I always feel like I should broaden my horizons.

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

Hundreds.

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

That is quite variable. Sometimes a new work is so electrifying it jumps way up the list right away. Others take much more time.

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

Yes...music sticks in my head. At least half the Beethoven piano sonatas & Symphony 7, tons of ragtime, most Bach preludes and fugues, many other organ works...to name a few. It's hopeless, trying to decide what should bang around in there next.

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

"Favorite" is pretty selective. I'd say no more than 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 for the very top of my list.

[rojo]

I`m going to change my answers as I have had more time to think about this; I have surely listened to my favourites hundreds of times, and probably more like only 1 in 50 of works I have listened to has become a favourite.

Now that sounds more like it.

[Todd]

My listening habits change. Currently I listen to more new works than old, familiar ones, but that could change next week. Just depends on my mood.

How many times have I listened to my favorite works? That varies, too. For LvB piano sonatas, hundreds of times each – easy – but for something like Tristan, maybe forty times, the Ring even fewer times. Some works I do know so well that I can “hear” them in my mind all the way through – some LvB, say, or Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

As far as how many times it takes to become a favorite, that also varies. Could be once (The Ring, say, or more recently Leonardo Balada’s Guernica) or it may take a half-dozen to a dozen times. I’d say new works enter my favorite works pantheon a few times a year. Maybe more.

[Fretless]

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

Lately, more time exploring new works.

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

No way to know, but judging by how much time I have for listening, I would assume 30-50 times.

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

For a work to become a favorite, I usually have to listen to it three or four times when I first encounter it, and if it's really going to be on my list, it has to seep into my system over the course of months or a couple of years.

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

When I listened to less of a range of music, yes, but in the past few years I can do that less and less.

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

I really don't know!

[C5Says]

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

Old. But open to new ones like Frederik's

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

A thousand or more. I can listen to Liebestraume the whole day without getting bored.

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

Hmmm...it depends...it took about 5 plays only to make Liebestraume (piano) and Cavatina (classical guitar) my topmost favorite and about 10 for others which are less favorites but favorites just the same. On the other hand, it takes only once or twice full play to know if it will never be a favorite.

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

Yes! Try listening to your favorite a thousand times if that isn't enough to memorize it in your head.

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

About 10.

I figure I spend more time listening to new works, but I`m always pleased to hear my favourites, say on the radio. I definitely know them inside out. Although often I discover new things about them, sometimes when listening to a different recording or performance. I figure I must have listened to my favourites over 20 times, some probably much more. I figure most people want to hear works they know, and that`s why concert repertoire consists mainly of the core 'standards.'

I really haven't gotten the chance to hear new works until I chanced upon Frederik's. If musical plays like Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, and Evita are counted at all, I like listening to them. In fact my Yahoo Music consists of classical (like Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, etc, etc...and the musical plays above).

[Corno Dolce]

Excellent thread Ms. Rojo

1. More time on old favs.

2. Honestly, I have lost track of how many times. An e.g for just one work: Rach's 3rd. Piano Concerto = A thousand times

3. It took me a grand total of one time(s) to listen to "My Funny Valentine" as played by Keith Jarrett in the Standards Trio before it became one of my favorites.

4. Oh yes indeedy - when ever I'm away from my organ or piano all my fav's come on-line inside my head and start playing - one after the other - from start to finish.

5. Seldomly.

6. I definitely listen more to those which have won their way into my heart than new works. There are eight composers whose music is permanently etched in stone in my mind.

7. One in 333 new works gets "archived" in my mind. I am really picky about new works if they should pass the final cut.

[some guy]

Wow, way to seduce me from my "real" job, rojo. (Not that I need any excuse!!) And with questions I won't even be able to answer. Pfffft. Still, it WILL keep me from working....

Do you spend more time listening to old favourites, or new works?

Not sure. The new works become old favorites so quickly.

On a related note (pun intended ,) how many times do you figure you have listened to your favourite work(s)? Approximately, of course.

Many. (That's approximate!)

How many times do you listen to a work before you can tell if it will become one of your favourites?

Not sure I can answer this one. I'm not thinking, "will this become a favorite?" as I listen. The becoming a favorite is something that just happens. The listening is just that, listening. I often like or dislike something right away. The dislike ones probably get more play time, just to make sure. That's for stuff that's new as in different from other things. If I hear something that's old but that I've never heard before, I don't play it over and over again as much. (The oldness means there's some familiarity built in. The first time you hear Berwald's Bajadärfesten is different from the first time you hear Estrada's Quotidianus, even if you've never heard any Berwald before.)

Do you know your favourite pieces inside out and completely, so you can 'play the piece in your head?'

Not as such. If I hear a bit of a piece I know on the radio, I can identify it instantly, does that count? (A friend put on a CD once at a party. I immediately asked him to stop it, then said "Nielsen's Aladdin."

My youngest son's eyes grew huge. "Dad! You could tell what that was after only one note??" 'Course, anyone who knows that piece also knows that anyone who knows it can do that trick! But still, a great moment in American comedy.)

How often does a new work become one of your favourites?

Pretty often, I guess. Sometimes by the opening "note." Bokanowski's L'étoile absinthe was that way. Bolleter's Secret Sandhills. Sometimes by the opening phrase, like Poulenc's Piano Concerto.

'Course, the whole rest of the piece has to live up to that opening for it to become a favorite!

I reckon one in 20 new works I have listened to has become a favourite. Approximately.

You know, it might turn out to be only one in a hundred, or one in several hundred ("pretty often" is not the same as "pretty frequently"). But I listen mostly to new music; new in at least three senses: new to me, never done quite this way before, and recent. I never thought to keep track!

[marval]

Most of my listenening tends to be known work. I suppose because it is music I am familiar with and know I like.

It good though as well to listen to something new, especially if it comes recomended. Would be kind of boring if new music was never introduced to my senses.

Thats why I like listening to the radio, to hear old favourites and unfamiliar ones, that if I like I can find out more about it, and funds permitting add to my collection.


Margaret

[rojo]

CD- Thanks!

some guy- Hey, if I can spend this much time here, so can you.

Good point about the opening of a piece; it's so very important. I love the openings to all my fav pieces. I'm actually trying to think of pieces that are not ones I particularly like that have great openings ........... hmm .... nope, I got nothing. Of course, I probably wouldn't remember.

Thanks to C5 for bumping the thread!