Some are suggesting that …
reading a what-to-listen-for guide before hearing a piece of music seems to make the actual aesthetic experience less pleasurable.
“Descriptions may interfere with the directness and intimacy with which listeners are able to experience a work,” writes Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis of the University of Arkansas. “It may distance listeners, or place them at a remove — as if they were listening through someone else’s ear.”
Thoughts?
I read it here.
At first I thought “No!” but then when I started to consider it I can see the point. I mean, if you’re just waiting for the next leitmotif or the recurrence of one you’ve already heard it would be sort of a distraction, for example. It would direct you away from just experiencing the music to where you’re listening for specific things.
I really prefer hearing about a work after a first listen. I think hearing about it first is, for me, like getting an entire book synopsis before reading it. I’d rather experience it with no “hints” first.