A Lark Ascending

I think peripheral listening is often greatly undervalued. 'Serious' listeners [sarcasm intended] are expected to pay close attention, not be distracted etc, etc. Yet I suspect most of us indulge in many different types of listening. I tend to think of my three types as: a) Peripheral - I'm reading, working etc and the music seeps in. I'm missing most of it but a residue remains that can be built on when listening again. b) Half-attention - when doing activities where a lot of your brain is unoccupied so you are more focused on the music - driving, walking, gardening, cleaning the house. c) Focused listening - where you sit down and intentionally focus on the music. Actually quite a hard thing to do as your ears and part of your brain might be engaged but your other senses get itchy because they are inactive (it's quite interesting reading some interviews with performing musicians where they say they only do the focused listening as part of their professional preparation; otherwise they prefer not to listen at all or listen off a phone or whilst driving). I can see why music readers like to follow a score when listening to classical music; I find I get my greatest rewards there when using a non-specialist friendly guide for signposts to help guide me through newer music (or to hear new things in music I thought I knew). I have to say the music that makes the least impression with approach a) for me is free music (presumably because lacking the standard structures and harmonic patterns of most music, the half-listening ear has little to pick up on as a starting point). I've being trying Corbett's idea of the notebook (yes, I know I mocked it earlier) over the last few days with some recorded free music and it really does seem to work. Just a straight line on a page with a minute for each line. As the music progresses I just scribble down quickly what catches my ear. I'm finding my mind does not wander in the way it often does when just listening. I intend to try it out with some contemporary classical music that does not conform with standard patterns. ********************** Related to this, there was an interesting article on 'serious' listening (approach c) in the BBC Music Magazine a few months back. It made the point that far from being the 'correct' way to listening it was, like so much else (e.g. maestro idolatry), a creation of the Romantic era. It dated the hectoring of a certain type of musical commentator to 'listen properly' to the mid-late 19thC. Previously music was either subsidiary to something else (worshipping god, court ceremonial, dancing and celebration, adding a dimension to story-telling [the folk ballad] etc), primarily meant for enjoyment by performance (thereby engaging other senses besides the ear and brain) or a backdrop to other activities (the famed opera performances when people chattered until the celebrity diva's number). The rehabilitation of the idea of peripheral listening* as something worthwhile (as one of many ways of listening) strikes me as a welcome corrective to that late-19thC puritanism that I've encountered far too often. (*Only rehabilitated in 'art' circles....most people world wide have been quite comfortable with the idea for centuries).

No. 4. My favourite Beethoven PC. I love the short middle movement where the piano gradually calms down Angry Shouty Man (the orchestra).

PC3 off the first. Disc 4 from the Satie, Disc 2 from the Faure.

Disc 1.

Thanks, Jazzjet. Never thought of that. I've not really used the streaming aspect of the machine apart from the internet radio and Spotify. It happily runs an iPod so I imagine a memory stick would work too. Trouble is I'm still wedded to the old album on its own disc concept (despite carrying lots on several iPods). Certainly a solution when CD-rs vanish from production.

Havana, Cuba - Fishermen stand along the seafront boulevard El Malecon during sunset Photograph: Enrique de la Osa/Reuters http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jun/16/best-photographs-of-the-day-football-fans-brexit

Read this very quickly yesterday and enjoyed it thoroughly. As others have said, there won't be much there that long term listeners won't have picked up on; but I suspect it will be very useful to new listeners and I, as an occasional church goer, found lots to get me thinking. I like its practicality - a straightforward, plain speaking guide - no arty-farty wishful-thinking or up in the clouds mysticism (except for a brief section when he talks about the point when your enjoyment defies rational explanation....and despite being a hard-core materialist I know what he means there). He's very good at identifying the barriers to listening to freely improvised music. Though one of those barriers - the lack of a regular beat - is actually one of the things that has always attracted me to the music. I think I got drawn to rock in the early 70s in spite of the beat rather than because of it!. The one I really recognise is the problem of length - most extended pieces in other genres follow some sort of standard pattern that you unconsciously use as a grid to guide you over the 30 mins or whatever. Without that free music can sound like one incident after another. I tried out some of his suggestions there on three pieces yesterday at 30 mins, 15 mins and 15 mins and got so much more out of the experience. I also like his ending where he dismisses the idea that improvised music is somehow superior to other types of music; it's just a different and distinct way of making music with its own riches if you choose to explore them. A wise little book.

Does for me. The Naim CD/streamer I bought last autumn is especially sensitive to some Cd-rs I've made - throws up 'check for dirt' or 'no disc'. With every one running a pen around the hole about twenty times (sometimes more) has done the trick. As far as I can remember the only problems I've had with commercial discs are from Hyperion (they also had the leaking lacquer problem around 1990!). As they advised me, running the pen around has always done the trick. Makes no sense to me but it works.

Yes, that's a great read too.

BBC1 From a few weeks back but only just got round to this. Excellent drama that has you squirming in your seat as the undercover policeman married to a civil rights lawyer sees his anonymity slowly stripped away. Adrian Lester and Sophie Okonedo are superb. Came under some criticism for being unrealistic from someone who lived through a similar experience. But as drama, very powerful with lots of moral ambiguity. Mum (BBC2) Really nice series of 30 minute comedies - bitter-sweet based around a mother recently bereaved and her dealings with her family. Overplays the incomprehension of the 20-somethings to 'old people' and they do come across as all airheads, but gently funny nonetheless. Suburban, middle class comedy, perhaps (like 'Nina' on BBC1) but that's my world.

No 2 Anglican church music - always have an ear for this, probably because I grew up going to Catholic churches where the music was very uninspired. The title piece really stands out - something of the RVW Tallis Fantasia about it (but with voices).

I know what you mean. There's a tendency for a certain type of 'academic' writing (I'm not trying to do a Gove there, writing off all experts!!!) to get lost in its own world. I'm reminded of a book by Bill Cole on Coltrane which I gave up on, so lost was it in trying to prove some obscure theory. Someone who could write a great book on the subject would be Alyn Shipton - his history of jazz from ten or more years back had definite opinions and interpretations that were controversial but it was all written with clarity and good narrative drive. I have the Spillett book on the the shelf but haven't read it yet - but what I've read of his elsewhere makes me think he could also write a great book. He's got the first hand experience you mention but he seems to also have that ability to stand back and see things more broadly.

8 of first. Disc 2 of the Colin Matthews - very enjoyavle disc of shorter pieces, full of colour. Extracts from "Gotterdammerung" from disc 4 and 5 - a nice long slab of the conclusions to final scene included.

I've never had a burner die on me - the computers I've owned tend to give up the ghost after 4 years but the burners (standard fitting) have been going strong up to the whole machine dying.

Beware! It reads like a piece of GCSE sociology coursework, very much from a half-digested Marxist perspective. There's lots of useful information in it but the interpretation imposed on the history is rather embarrassing (unless you're a die-hard Morning Star reader). Reminded me of some of the Marxist history I read back in the 70s where events were squashed into shapes to fit a predetermined concept of the shape that 'history' is 'scientifically' determined to take - the only difference being that Heining is a real amateur compared with most Marxist historians. I don't like putting music or books down but I'd describe this one as atrocious. Hard to find now but John Wickes 'Innovations in British Jazz Part I 1960-80' is packed with information. A bit strung together and riddled with poor proof-reading (sentences which vanish at the turn of a page) but it's probably the most useful survey I've come across. No sign of Vol 2 17 years after publication. http://www.rermegacorp.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RM&Product_Code=JOHNWICKESInnovationsinJazzvol1&Category_Code=678 Colin Harper's "Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the Emerald Beyond" is worth considering. Although it's a bio of the guitarist, Harper explores the world he was working in through the 60s and 70s and gives an excellent picture of the jazz (and pop/rock/session) world of the time.

I've always bought mine from the local supermarket when they've had half-price offers. But they've not stocked them for the last few months - had to go to Amazon to replenish. I wonder, with other storage methods now being relatively inexpensive, whether these may go the way of the cassette tape. A pity as, even though I largely download, I still like having recordings on a disc to play in the house.

No 7

Extra Protection?!!!!!! The mind boggles. I've used these for many years without problem. Occasionally the disc won't play but running a pen around the hole a few times sorts it out. A trick I learnt from Hyperion records when one of their commercial discs wouldn't play. I was advised that a little bit of friction would remove excess molecules!!!!! Not convinced by the explanation, but it works.

A bit later... Disc 4 of Delius - Florida Suite, Brigg Fair and shorter things. Hoped it might bring summer back.

Disc 10 - 30, 31, 32 Middle 1 is Colin Matthews - disc 1 - Landscape and Cello Concerto 1. Disc 1 of latter.

Thought this was rather an old-fashioned sort of film. Reminded me of the way historical films were made in the 60s/70s rather than the 90s. Revolution and Romance (BBC4) Enjoyable three part history of music in the 19thC. Suzy Klein can't help herself joining in, dressing up and resorting to cheesy visual puns but it's all very easy to watch. Made me listen to some things that I've never really cared for. And I really need to hear/watch 'Die Freischutz'.