Easy Songs to Do a Listening Guide to

This author has been an educator, conductor, and trombonist for the past 40 years. His experience qualifies him as an expert in this field.

The 3 Levels of Music Listening

Aaron Copland, was a famous American composer, writer, and conductor. In his book, What to Listen for in Music, he explains the concept of three different levels of listening in music.

Level 1: Awareness, passive listening

The first is a basic level that encompasses the awareness of sounds and/or music around us. This level requires a very small amount of brainpower. We usually associate this level with "background music."

Level 2: More awareness, some breakdown of the music, active listening

The second level is where the brain kicks in and it is able to help us identify sounds that we recognize. This would include environmental sounds, people's voices, and music examples that we have stored in our brains. This level requires some concentration, as we can feel some sort of emotion from the music, even if we can't identify it. But we do know it's there. Most people listen to music at this level. No commitment to analysis.

Level 3: Full commitment to analysis, high leve active listening

The third level of listening to music falls in the category of "analysis mode." Many people do not reach this level because it requires the brain to analyze all aspects of the music. This could also be called the "musicians listening mode."

Understanding how music is put together opens many new genres for listening. Read on to learn more.

Elice Moore

The 5 Elements of Music

We can learn a lot about music and how to listen better if we learn to listen like a musician. We don't have to have the instrumental or vocal skills to do this, but thinking on this level will allow us to learn and appreciate what a musician goes through every day. It is second nature to them.

Musicians listen and perform music using the five basic elements of music.

• Rhythm: Organized sounds and silences in time.
• Melody: Series of notes (pitches) that move in time, one after another.
• Harmony: Two or more notes played at the same time.
• Form: Blueprint of a piece of music. The different sections.
• Timbre (pronounced Tam-ber): Tone color or quality of the sound.

Listening Exercise

In this exercise, we will be listening to a piece of music called: "Fanfare for the Common Man." This composition was written by Aaron Copland. It is a very vibrant and ceremonial piece of music and a relatively short performance.

To make this an easy exercise, I have provided a video example for you to click on, accompanied by a chart below it to follow along with why you are listening.

• Please listen to the different combinations of instruments. Brass and Percussion
• Listen for the blend of the four different brass instruments: Trumpets, French Horns, Trombones, and Tubas. This is the element of music called—Timbre (Tone Color).
• The rhythm in this composition is very simple. Quarter and eighth notes.
• As you listen for the melody, you will find that this is not your regular type "melody", but often referred to as a "theme."
• Harmony in this fanfare is simple but powerful.

List of Musical Elements: "Fanfare for the Common Man"

Time	Instruments	Family
0:04	Gong, Timpani, Bass Drum	Percussion
0:05	Timpani, Bass Drum	Percussion
0:10	Gong	Percussion
0:24	Trumpets	Brass
0:46	Timpani, Bass Drum	Percussion
0:51	Trumpets, French Horns	Brass
1:07	Timpani, Bass Drum	Percussion
1:09	Trumpets, French Horns	Brass
1:20	Gong, Timpani, Bass Drum	Percussion
1:29	Trombones, Tubas	Brass
1:32	Timpani	Percussion
* after this point all brass and percussion are playing together.

The 6 Periods of Classical Music (Western Art Music)

History provides us with six distinct periods in western art music. Over the years we've come to call all of it classical, but an educated listener will start to understand the differences between artists from different eras.

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1. Medieval (800–1400)
2. Renaissance (1400–1600)
3. Baroque (1600–1750)
4. Classical (1750–1825)
5. Romantic (1825–1900)
6. Modern (1900–present)

Below is a list of compositions to seek out from each period and I've included a representative video as well.

1. Medieval Period (800–1400)

Composition	Composer	Country
Messe de Nostre Dame	Josquin Des Prez	France
J'aim sans penser	Guillaume de Machau	France
Antiphon; O quam mirabilis est	John Dunstable	England
A poste messe	Hildegard von Bingen	Germany

2. Renaissance Period (1400–1600)

Composition	Composer	Country
Missa Ave maris stella	DesPrez	France
Vespro della Beata Vergine	Monteverdi	Italy
Preludio no 4	Elias Mertel	Germany
Sonata pian' e forte	Giovanni Gabrieli	Germany
Domine secundum actum meum	William Byrd	English

3. Baroque Period

Composition	Composer	Country
Concerto for Two Cellos	Antonio Vivaldi	Italy
Royal Fireworks Music	George Frederick Handel	Germany
St Matthew Passion	Johann Sebastian Bach	Germany
Rondeau des Indes Galantes	Jean-Philippe Rameau	France
Prelude and Fugue in D Major	Bach	Germany
Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs	Lully	France
Brandenberg Concertos	Bach	Germany

4. Classical Period (1750–1825)

Composition	Composer	Country
Trumpet Concerto in A-flat Major	Franz Josef Haydn	Austria
Symphonies 1-9	Ludwig van Beethoven	Germany
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Austria
Symphonies 4 & 5	Franz Shubert	Germany
String Quartet No. 62, Op. 76	Haydn	Austria
Exsultate Jubilate	Mozart	Austria

5. Romantic Period (1825–1900)

Composition	Composer	Country
Turandot: Nessun Dorma	Giacomo Puccini	Italy
Symphony Fantastique	Hector Berlioz	France
New World Symphony	Antonin Dvorak	Czechoslovakia
Hungarian Rhapsody no 2	Franz Liszt	Germany
Ride Of The Valkyries	Richard Wagner	Germany
Nabucco - Overture	Giuseppe Verdi	Italy
Symphony No 4	Peter I.Tchaikovsky	Russia

6. Modern Period (1900–present)

Composition	Composer	Country
Symphony No. 5 in D minor	Dmitri Shostakovich	Russia
The Planets	Gustav Holst	England
Rhapsody in Blue	George Gershwin	United States
Battle On The Ice	Sergei Prokofiev	Russia
Semper Fidelis March	John Philip Sousa	United States
Telemusik	Karlheinz Stockhausen	Germany
Hungarian Sketches	Béla Bartók	Hungary

100 Classical Music Pieces

To help you with A Listening Guide to Classical Music is the 5 CD collection of 100 music pieces. I purchased this collection some years ago and listen to it often. I highly recommend this set.

The 5 CDs include music from the listening list I provided along with several others from the various musical periods.

Further Reading

• Differences Between Hearing and Listening
  Many people do not know that there are differences between the words Hearing and Listening. Read on to discover how these two words work for you.
• The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
  The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach has for centuries been regarded as standard music for the church as well as a primary foundation for musicians to study young and old alike. Read about and listen to the music of this great Baroque composer.
• Why Not Listen to Classical Music?
  With all the choices in music to listen to today, it's no wonder that many people shy away from music that they don't understand.This article will give you helpful information so that you might say - Why not listen to classical music.
• Listen to Music Through Form
  Form in music is the structure or "blueprint" of the composer. This article will show you how you can listen to music through the form and understand it better.

© 2018 Reginald Thomas

currylikedy.blogspot.com

Source: https://spinditty.com/learning/Listening-Guide-for-Music

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