What to Listen for in Music, written by Aaron Copland, is a classic reading for music lovers and musicians. Although this book was written almost 80 years ago, it still inspires the music today. Copland does not expect that all readers would be a professional musician and recognize every form of music. The main idea with the book is that the only way to appreciate music, is to listen. Actively listening to music will increase your knowledge and make you more aware when it comes to recognizing the composers’ different styles. One point Copland makes is also that readers or listeners tend to listen to various music styles within the same year; this is a mistake. It is impossible to compare historic composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, to more modern composers. …show more content…
Copland mentions that nothing can substitute listening to music, no matter how far we advance. He supports this argument by affirming that one would be in a better situation by just listening to a note being played on the piano, rather than reading books about music. Luckily for the individuals who want to find out about music, the opportunities for listening to music are bigger than ever before. Nowadays, there is significantly more accessibility to music through the radio, CDs, TV, and movies than before these inventions were found.
We all listen to music according to our personal opinions. Many have developed bad music patterns, like listening to tunes as a background to your main activity. So, we need to separate hearing from listening. When we listen, we observe and understand what is going on in the music and listening in a more active way. Something identical with all humans is that we listen to music differently. Some might focus on the lyrics while others focus on the beat. Aaron Copland describes with three separate planes on how we listen to music: the sensuous plane, expressive plane, and sheerly musical