How to Listen to Classical Music: Expression and Emotion

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⠀ Episode 2: EMOTION. A multi-part guide on how to get THE MOST out of classical music.

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This is the second part of a short series of videos on how to listen to classical music. This video focuses on how we feel emotion when listening to music. It looks at different kinds of musical expression and emotional music, including what makes us dance, how lyrics affect us, and how performers such as Beyonce and Chester Bennington are so successfully expressive. It looks at how we perceive movement in music, as well as qualities, and forces such as musical tension and climax. It also crucially reviews Roger Scruton's idea of the Dance of Sympathy, which is key to feeling emotion when listening to classical music.

While many people use classical music for studying, relaxing and relaxation, or sleeping, far fewer people actually enjoy listening actively. Due to the difficult state of music education, most people don't know how to follow a symphony, or how the best composers wrote and structured their works. While it has been proven that classical music can be beneficial to the mental development of babies and kids, I believe it has life enhancing qualities for all ages, and as an art form deserves to be shared, whether through outreach, or tutorials and lessons like these.

Classical music, at its best, can be richly emotional, and I believe that its emotion can be unlocked by anyone willing to follow these guides through. The principles that I will go through apply to all music, whether live in concert or on CD or Spotify, and whether you're listening to Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms, Chopin, Wagner, Verdi, or Puccini, and whether listening to Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Orchestral, Choral, or Chamber music.

Many programs suggest that learning an instrument such as the piano, violin, guitar, cello, oboe, clarinet, or singing in a choir, is crucial for music appreciation. Well I think these skills, as well as learning to read sheet music and training your ear, can be extremely useful, I believe that almost anyone can learn to enjoy classical music with minimal training and music theory. Therefore, this short series will be very light on music theory, and will only use it when necessary to highlight certain forms such as sonata, rondo, and other typical forms.

While I originally got into classical music via movie scores and film composers such as Howard Shore, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer, I discovered this way of listening which has completely changed the way I approach and enjoy classical music. I hope through these videos I can share that with you.



--- LIST OF MEDIA IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE (not including those named in video):

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Parrot Dancing Gangnam Style
James Bond - Main Theme from Casino Royale
The Last of Us - All Gone
James Brown - I Feel Good
Beyonce - Love on Top (Live at Roseland)
Linkin Park - No More Sorrow
Crystal Castles - Alice Practice
Bernstein conducts Mahler 5 Adagietto
Saint-Saens - Organ Symphony - Slow Movement
Mozart - Great Mass in C minor - Kyrie
Mozart - Rondo alla Turka
Debussy - Reflets dans l'eau
Ella Fitzgerald - It Don't Mean a Thing (live at Cote d'Azur)
Anoushka Shankar - Raga
Mozart - Piano Concerto in A major, no. 23 - Slow Movement
Mozart - Flute and Harp Concerto - Slow Movement
Jurassic Park - 'They're inside'
Rembrandt - Self Portrait
Breaking Bad - Season 3 Finale - 'Full Measure'
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker - Pas de Deux
Lots of Dancing Stock Footage...
Conducting Stock Footage including Carlos Kleiber, Barenboim, and Abbado
Barenboim plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto





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