The Fine Art of Listening

Loud sounds elicit an emotional response. It’s one of the reasons rock concerts are so exciting, and elevator music is so boring. So how did people rock out before 500-watt speakers were invented?

That’s how. Thanks, Tchaikovsky!

Ask a Norwegian about Norwegian music, and without a doubt Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) will be the first composer mentioned.

Grieg’s music retains a strong hold in our culture, because he tends to write simple, 4-measure melodies that are easy to remember and fun to sing. It’s likely that you’ve heard his most-well-known piece “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” in which there is really only one melodic idea, repeated over and over again (hence, the reason you probably know it.) Today’s piece comes from the same set of pieces. “Morning Mood” follows a similarly simple form – one melody, presented a number of ways – nothing fancy, just lovely morning mood music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCEzh3MwILY

 

 

Quick music lesson. “Rondo” (or its spelling variants) means round.  Not round as in “row-row-row your boat”, but round as in circle. A Rondo is a musical form where you travel around in a circle – always coming back to the same point where you began.

There are tons of pieces in Rondo form. Often, the final movement of a classical symphony or piano sonata is a rondo. For today, here’s the mother of all rondos, from one of Bach‘s partitas for solo violin. The two phrase melody you hear in the first twenty seconds is the main theme – you might call it a refrain. The violin then plays something different for a bit, then returns to the refrain. Again, something new; again, refrain. Different keys, different rhythmic motifs; the refrain keeps coming back.

Rondos are very satisfying to listen to, I believe, because it satisfies two opposing desires we all have: to explore new exciting territory, and to be able to come home to something comfortable that we know.