Dinner Music

Classical Harp Patricia Spero

mello cello Sherrill Roberts

For me almost any Bill Evans works well, especially later Bill and solo Bill.

But my wife. . . prefers no music. And she generally wins.

I’m with her. Music is not background. Listen, or not listen.

Crazy talk. Nat King Cole is my go to breakfast with the paper music…lots of others. Music is for life.

While there are plenty of opportunities to listen critically, sometimes it’s nice to have some music on in the background. Right now as I browse the internet, I have some Gregory Porter playing in the background.

If there is music within earshot I am unable to ignore it. I must listen. There is no such thing as background music any more than there are “background” fireworks. If someone is talking to me over music I need to actively try to pay attention to them.

An amusing aspect of this is I am familiar with a good deal of rock and other pop music I would never otherwise listen to as it is piped in everywhere - grocery stores, commercials, TV show soundtracks, car dealerships, etc.

2 Likes

Elk I am like you.

“Listening” to music while cooking, studying, eating, working out, etc… is baffling to me. Even more baffling is the so called office system. How can someone work and concentrate on that work while “listening” to music.

I know that I am in the minority and I know that there are professional papers about playing music and taking test or studying, but I do not qualify that as “Listening”. “Listening” is an active engagement of the mind.

I read the book “Chopin in Paris” by Tad Szulc. In it are described the soirees of George Sand in which Chopin would improvise for hours at the piano with everyone in the room actively listening. Could someone expect a roomful of people today to do the same?

Our minds are cluttered by the demands of multitasking.

I’m definitely in the “like music in the background at times” category. With ADD I need something to keep myself a bit “distracted” so that I don’t hyperfocus on unproductive things. I always have the TV on, or music on, or something otherwise playing thru the system when I sleep - without them I can’t get to sleep… Somehow tho, when I need to, I still hear “anomalies” in the music even when it’s in the background - a click or pop or stutter or discontinuity of other sorts. My wife is always kidding me when I say that I haven’t heard such and such before - she’s been there when it played but didn’t impinge on my consciousness.

I always used to have a system in my office and played music all day…

MVC-002F.JPG

Seeing Ted’s picture reminds me that my office has nothing in it other than a computer, a phone, and a blank notepad with a fountain pen.

I d not need/want anything personal, printouts, etc.

My preference for lack of visual noise is probably related to my approach to music.

what a crab

my bruhthuh

Huh??