Synopsis Of The Essay 'How We Listen' By Mortimer J. Adler

Writer and composer, Aaron Copland, in his book, “How We Listen,” divides listening into three planes: the sensuous, the expressive and the sheerly musical. Copland argues throughout the work that “[listeners] can deepen [their] understanding of music only by being a more conscious and aware listener.” (Copland, 15) Copland’s strategy of breaking the text up with the three planes of listening helps the reader understand his message in a more complete way.

I now realise that the Arts, including music, creates opportunities to engage, inspire and enrich our lives. Music making and responding can challenge, provoke responses and enrich our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, our communities and the world.

This speech is Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address for incoming freshman students. He addresses that music isn’t apart of arts and entertainment rather music is an invisible force that helps us piece ourselves together. Paulnack believes that music is an essential part of life and goes to prove it by telling his experiences with it. He describes the first moment he truly understood music and the impact it has on people. Paulnack portrays the day after 9/11 after he struggles to find any meaning in being a pianist. After a long time of questioning himself he observes the city and notices something. He sees that in this time of grief and sadness people are singing. From this he learned that music is a form of expression, it allows people to express their feelings when they have no other words to describe them. Paulnack goes on to describe what he says was the most important concert of his life. He and a friend were playing a concert at a nursing home. During their performance, one man began to cry, it was at that time Paulnack knew the man was a veteran. After Paulnack and his friend finished the piece, they announced that the piece they were playing was Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was a work

     The first of the authors he spoke of was Gertrude Stein. He portrayed her as a talkative, outgoing, and somewhat overbearing person. She was very critical about writing. She said that she really

Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’

The author’s main idea and purposes are revealed by a series of anecdotes and allusions. The author gets very personal about the subject, as if she was going through the realization herself. You can see her opinion by the way she refers to certain things. For example, the author brings up an old memory from her childhood in paragraph nine. When she is describing the boxcar children, the words she uses are almost as if they were too

The abundance of harmonies never loses the thread to his audience. Furthermore, the opening of the slow movement inspires the imagination and attention of its listeners. All these elements make this piece one of the most successful concertos in the musical history.

This trait in Ellis’s writing and teaching style is what really grabbed me and got me interested in the book. How wise is the person who realizes that as scholarly as they may be, there may always be a better opinion out there? Joseph has presented to me a most noble way to write. He has circumvented my prejudice against authors who insist that their ideas and methods are the only thoughts that exist.

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen of the Multi-cultural convention, I have been selected to address the statement, “The Language used by composers has the ability to present responders with opportunities to challenge their perception of self and the world”. I will be doing so by closely analysing the language used by Komninos in ‘Hillston Welcome’ and ‘Back to Melbourne’ and John

This essay explores the influence composers had on the musical output of John Williams. Throughout his career, Williams has been able to provide his audiences with emotions and thoughts that were brought upon with the use of his musical compositions. Williams’ work has been able to capture the thoughts and feelings of individuals both onscreen and off screen. His film scores were able to tell a story in ways that previous composers were not able to.

Memorable Closer: Music is often overlooked as a type of entertainment but if we listen closely and allow ourselves to fully dive into the world of music, we can learn how to appreciate the beauty of this universal

Following the identification process of a purpose, a composer needs to appropriately approach their audience with that purpose in mind. The world is filled with an immensely large, diverse population, so, it’s important as a composer to understand exactly who is being

For example, most people listen on the sensuous plane by just losing his or herself in the mellifluous sound and rhythm of a music. Instead, Copland argues that people should also listen on an “expressive” and “musical” plane as well. The “expressive plane” of listening to music is where people begin to propose their own opinions of what they think a music really means; in Copland’s opinion, he believes that the “expressive plane” is a controversial ground where the meanings of a music are always shifting for everyone. As for the “musical plane” of listening, this is the last step where Copland suggest people to listen to the harmon and tone color of a music; this step allows people to listen for and learn about musical forms and such. Overall, all these steps lead back to Copland’s purpose of helping people enrich his or her’s musical experience.

The idea of looking beyond the page allow one to indulge in the true emotions behind a musical piece. While music does not use words to convey emotions it does poses a set of melodies it follows to appeal to listeners. By utilizing repetitive patterns of sound listeners are able to interpret the message the composer it attempting to portray about life. Freud contends that meaning

This afternoon, I went to the music concert hall where is located in the music building for the listening hour, a small noon-time concert which is performed by the staff and students from the music majors. Since it is a free noon-time concert, most of the audiences just wear the t-shirts and jeans to the concert. Dresses are not required for the concert. The performance today is given by the Ananda Jazz Ensemble. They have played “Running Away”, composed by Bob Marley; “Madalena”, composed by Ivan Linz; “Conejitos y Ananda”, composed by Abi Romero; “La Bikina”, composed by Ruben Fuentes; and “Chukaro”, also composed by Abi Romero. Because this is a Latin Americdan Journey, all of the music performed is jazz music. All pieces played in the concert are an ensemble of piano, bass, and drums. During the concert, I was trying to be a perceptive listener; I enjoyed the music with concentration and paid attention to the music’s unity and variety, such as the dynamics and tempos. I also tried to associate the music with a picture when I listened to it and understand the emotion in the music.