'How to listen to music' by Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim launches a new digital-only label

PERAL MUSIC will document Daniel Barenboim's work as conductor, pianist and chamber musician

'I want to try and look at the future. I want to really get myself into the mentality of the digital world.' Daniel Barenboim

[ariehchrem]

when he said shopping list I thought he said Chopin, Liszt...

[TheParadisecove]

"Listen to and focus on the first note and don't let it go...and then fly with it to the last note..." Daniel Barenboim

[amormusica]

What a great musician!!!
"Even when the music is about suffering, we enjoy it" / "Music never loves or smiles, music never cries, it always smiles and cries at the same time" - Daniel Barenboim

[gymcapybara]

Does anyone actually realize how genius this man is. He plays all of Beethoven's sonatas by memory.

[fabiocangero]

I really do think that what he says is the perfect answer to give to those people who tell me 'I'm not a musician, how could I appreciate classical music?'. That's the point: music breaks with labels, and by the time we listen to music we interact with another world, an unknown one which can be discovered only through the mystery of sound. Thanks Maestro, thanks for saying it so poetically, with glazing eyes full of love for your noble job.

[anthonyjackes]

These are not only words of a professor, but teachings of a master. A man that talks about a very profound spirituel experience that people can have with the sounds. Even with the sounds of silence...great, Maestro!

[alexmelia]

'hang onto the first note.. fly with it… until the end'  Great truths can often be told in very few words.  What a great man.

[andreaaabreww]

"You fly with the music until the last note." - Daniel Barenboim 

[LyndseyMacPherson]

What a treasure! "The more you give, the more you get back." I truly hope Maestro Barenboim gets back every joy and inspiration he has given us tenfold, for he fills our universe with more beauty than we'd ever dared hoped to find.

[juanferestrada]

That’s right! the main reason people don’t find classical music enjoyable is because all the music they have known and liked in their life is popular music made to be enjoyed without an effort. It doesn’t require you to know anything about how music works or anything, you just like the lyrics, you think the sounds are cool or maybe you even start liking it because of the song video or because you like the looks of the singer/band, etc, and most of the times it’s just kind of a nice background sound.

People just aren’t used to really pay attention to music and they can’t sit down and listen to a piece without getting distracted in their minds when 15 seconds pass.

It’s the same thing that happens to a lot of people when they try to read a book, and in certain moment the eyes keep following the letters but their mind is gone somewhere else, and after a while they realize and they go back and re-read. It’s hard to concentrate.

The problem with music is that you can’t go back to where you got lost. You missed it and you are more and more confused as time passes and as you don’t understand anything the sound starts getting irritating, especially if your hearing a full orchestra.

It’s really understandable how people speak or looks around or doesn’t know what to do during a concert. It’s as if they were watching a movie in a language they don’t understand very well and also they can’t concentrate and miss parts. They couldn’t hold on to it as maestro said.

Other things that contribute to not being able to concentrate because you don’t know what you’re supposed to hear:
- Not a full understanding of harmony hence your brain not being able to feel it and flow with it.
- Not knowing every single instrument of the orchestra hence not knowing what is producing the sound and just hearing a bunch of different blurry timbres.
- Not being familiarized with stuff like differentiating melody from accompaniment, main material from bridge material, the basic most usual forms, counterpoint, and how rythm works.

This will probably not even be read by anyone and if it does most likely it’ll be someone that knows the stuff I wrote, but if maybe it gets read by someone curious that is just starting to explore music, I would really like to recommend Aaron Copland’s book ‘What to listen for in music’ (and his music too) and I really encourage you to keep discovering music because what maestro Barenboim said is true! The enjoyment and pleasure music can give you is OUT OF THIS WORLD!! 😜😜

[museme]

Bravo Maestro! Music smiles and cries at the same time, so true. Thank you.

[vitamc]

Not many people can give themselves to the music, but those who can, know that it feels amazing. You almost feels as if the composer is speaking to you in a language that is both foreign and familiar at the same time. To talk with Barenboim for even 5 minutes about music would be an absolute dream; though, 5 minutes would be no where near enough!

[diogoduarte]

I never had listen to music the way you describe it. With all my heart thank you for your words Mr. Barenboim

[edelgar]

…the will to attach yourself to it…. Sometimes you don’t need the will. The beauty of the music grabs you, so you stay with it even beyond the last note.

[ismireghal]

2:49 "it always smiles and crys at the same time" very true for some pieces more than others, it is as if happiness and sadness, seeming opposites in the world we experience, reveal their true dual nature in emotional music.

And feeling good about sad music is not macabre as you already pointed out. Sadness is not really the bad thing, the bad thing is not knowing why you feel a certain way and misunderstanding yourself and the world. Music now can perfectly describe feelings for us wich we then can understand (re)experience in a cleansing way.

[asriver]

I can't work with music I don't fully understand. Ever since I was 5 years old I would find I loved certain songs more than others, and I would ask my dad to replay them over and over. I would listen to the songs I loved the most what many might call an unhealthy amount of times. It wasn't until I fully understood a song, until I memorized every instrument, every word, every moment of it, that I would move on to obsess with a new song. These songs that I would fully understand, this is the music I could work and study with (or at least pretend to), because of my understanding of these pieces, I could put them in the background, and they would help me set my mind in a certain state, often tied to the feelings and the mood that I personally associated with that specific piece. If I try to do any kind of work or activity with a song in the background, a song that I don't know, that I don't fully understand, to its core, I can't do anything.

In a way, I think this goes in hand with what Mr. Barenboim is saying here. I never take music for granted, it's not an accessory or something I use as a tool. Rather, its a state of mind, it's like changing the settings of a TV to fine-tune the watching experience, only with music it's more like fine-tuning the experience of life. It sounds corny, but I think it makes makes sense.

[musikalitet]

brilliant brilliant brilliant, , , music always "smile and cry at the same time…." genial

[christianvennemann]

I'm at the intermediate level of piano-playing, and Daniel Barenboim and Arthur Rubinstein are my two biggest piano heroes! 🙌🙌

[karlakor]

The act of listening to music in today's society no longer requires concentration, due to its on-demand availability in so many forms.  Unfortunately, most people today listen to music only while doing something else.  Only at a concert, where there is no possibility of doing anything else, when one's attention is undivided, is there the opportunity to listen with concentration.

[kellicoffman]

I absolutely loved this talk. As a classical music lover I have been listening to videos on listening to classical music to improve my listening. Also I took music appreciation in college in both cases I felt so much technical theory can intimidate a person just listening for the first time. As he makes it clear you listen for the beautiful sounds and entertainment. I admire him both as a conductor and musician