Classical Music Concert - Personal Statement Example

ical Music Dear Anthony, How are you doing since we left college and saw each other three years ago? I hope you are doing fine. How is Theresa? Give her my warm greetings and let her know that my eyes yearn to see her beauty once more. As you know, I love classical music. Great classical music makes me long to dance, hug people, laugh, and write long letters to friends as I am now doing. It also makes me create silly poems or art. It inspires me. Can you imagine what would happen if I were at a classical music concert and I began doing all these things? I have attended many classical music concerts in my life. I know that there are a few things that can help you understand classical music despite being new to it (Reeves 44). I have told you many times that a classical music concert is remarkably different from attending a popular music or jazz concert. Performing classical music requires concentration from the audience as well as the performers. The audience sits together and clears their minds with the hope of being lifted to greater places by the music. Although you may be intimidated by the formality of classical music concert, etiquette rules for the format are simple and straightforward when you get used to them (Carrick 168). You need to learn classical music. It is commonly referred to as knowing the Mozart effect. Many people agree that listening to classical music makes a person momentarily smarter. It will increase your IQ by a couple of points. You also need to tap into the emotions of classical music. Listen to Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2. You may not think that it is a rounded binary form with a C. Many do not even realize that Chopin wrote it when he was twenty-one. You also may not realize that it is a nocturne and meant to be played at the end of the evening. It should start with sonorous melodies and finish with subdued passion. I know that for a newbie, classical music appears very technical to you. However, there is much to learn and what brings people back is the fact that the classical music conjures emotions (Moran 7). When you listen to classical music, especially from the Romantics and Impressionists, the imagination goes in every direction. For example, as the song plays, you might find yourself imagining walking along the Seine on the first summer’s day. You could also recall the competitive soccer match that you played a while back. In my case, parts of literature come to mind including books that I read as a child. I think that you will benefit from the numerous visceral feelings that will transport you to a different time, evoke memories, and inspire imagination about the future. Those are some of the things classical music can do for you (Deutsch 14). Besides, by understanding classical music, you will also learn the language of the classics or the language of beautiful music. By the term language, I do not mean that you will have to acquire new languages such as Italian, French or Spanish. Northwestern University researchers have discovered neural connections when playing or listening to classical music. It prepares the brain to learn new sounds and languages. This particular research used Vivaldis compositions showed that participants had higher scores in verbal fluency their language as well as foreign languages after listening to classical music (Washburne 32). Classical music causes relief from stress. It has effects similar to valium. For example, when you listen to Mendelssohn for thirty minutes, you get the same effects that a heart patient gets when taking anti-anxiety drugs. The best thing about classical music is that you do not need to undergo triple-bypass to relieve stress. Listening to any traditional music type, whether in your home’s background or at an actual concert will assist you do some intense relaxing (Wilson 121). Also, classical music helps you experience emotions such as love, sorrow, and joy. One of the coolest people in classical music is Benjamin Zander, who is not only a composer, but also a TED Talk presenter and a teacher. For him, classical music is all about finding new possibilities, new meanings, and new connections. He also encourages people to listen to music from start to finish. He implores people to pay attention to the whole song by following its beat the entire time like it is a living being. While listening, he encourages you to think of someone who you value but is no longer there, like a lover, a grandmother or someone you loved. Hold that person in mind and at the same instant listen to Chopin’s Prelude from B to E. You will hear what Chopin has to say. The reflections that go through your mind range from melancholy, to happiness and love. It helps you meditate on the human condition. Then, it ends in the beauty, truth, and catharsis (Reeves 46). Back when we were in college, I noticed that during long and boring lectures, I processed aural data based on what was in my arms. I was a manic doodler. I do not comprehend why, listening to music with something in my arms raised my attention in learning. You know that I am a kinesthetic listener. Whenever I become motionless, I quickly lose concentration and withdraw into my imagination. The stillness makes me focused on my internal world until a person pulls my attention back out again. It makes me tune out aural, and visual data are coming towards me. I can be very motionless (Carrick 170). Whenever I have attended a classical music concert, I find that doing everything easy except for holding still. If I could be more active, not noisy, I would attend more concerts than I have. If I can be allowed to dance or walk, so long as I have a pencil in my arms, I will be okay because, without writing, I may lose the idea for good. When I sit close to musicians where I can see their skills, I tend to focus more. If the concert hall had screens all over so that the cameras focused on the fingers of the instrumentalists and violinists, my short attention span would be kept under control (Moran 16). I believe that you and many other people would like to get into classical music although you do not how to. Classical music is a mysterious form of art with very few people understanding what is going on. Nevertheless, everyone knows and talks about Beethoven and Mozart. The foundation of classical music is its patterns. For people who are new to music, such patterns are difficult to pick out. Classical music requires a brief talk to be given before any performance begins. Music theory would be discarded, and the audience would focus on the fundamental questions. For example, what are the primary melodies and how do they transform? What is the assembly of the piece? Maybe, it would interest the listeners to learn the article and its composers. If the audience gets responses to the above questions, it will not find classical music boring and so long (Reeves 55). Another improvement I would suggest enabling people like you to enjoy classical music, is the use of the screens that show subtitles. The monitors can be used to learn the music with the assistance of a booklet that shows the program. Also, there should be more enlightening and sensible programs. In most concerts, the programs do not have any discernible logic and having a single theme may help. The unifying theme gives people something to talk and think about. For example, it may be very interesting to compare two different works by a single artist. A short speech before the event begins can help people search for these differences. They can understand what changed from one piece to another. They can also read earlier works and whether or not the composer’s style has changed (Deutsch 46). What are the common aspects of the two parts that identify them as works of the same musician? Playing modern artists’ works is a great thing. However, any program with new works should also contain a strong melodic classic. Modern music can be very challenging to listen to even for lovers of classical music. Having one famous song play after a new one gives people a reason to attend the concert. Show organizers should ensure that listeners leave having something to discuss. When people understand a piece, then the knowledge and impact of classical music grows as well. For first-time listeners like you, the emotional response towards classical music can be weak. It mainly happens when that music is removed from Mozart or Beethoven. If you leave the concert with an understanding of how everything works, you will be compelled to come back (Washburne 36). As you know, besides to my love for classical music, I play classical piano. I also love jazz, world music concerts and folk. The reason many lovers of classical music do not attend concerts is because it is very expensive to get a good seat. If one gets a bad sitting position, they become too far removed from the musicians. Also, some venues have worse acoustics than others and parking presents a problem because many people use public transport. Classical music concerts as social events do not interest many because they appear boring, with many ladies wearing expensive necklaces and men in tuxedos. Besides, many concerts have egotistical and self-absorbed conductors, which does not leave enough room for the actual personalities of the musicians to show. I know that you sometimes listen to classical music on your own at home (Carrick 175). The upcoming concert, I think is fantastic. It will feature Eric Tanguy with Sonata for Violin and Cello and Ludwig van Beethoven with String Quartet in D major. Also, Gabriel Faure will perform Piano Quartet No. 1 while Maurice Ravel will perform String Quartet in F major. Philip Glass will perform String Quartet No. 3, and Claude Debussy will perform Clair de Lune. There will also be Ferguson/2Cellos/U2 with Where the Streets Have no Name and Astor Piazzolla will perform Tango Ballet for string quartet. Anthony, you have no children yet. Therefore, you will not be seated in the foyer. Please be punctual because if you arrive late, you will seat where the house staff directs you to sit (Reeves 61). I hope to see you during the upcoming concert. I assure you that you will love listening to the music. I also doubted that I would enjoy until a relative asked me to attend a concert, and it won my heart. If you are interested, kindly let me know so that I purchase a ticket for you early enough before they get sold out. Yours Sincerely, Brian Kingsley Works Cited Carrick, Richard, et al. "A Personal Relationship to the Art of Music: A Research Project in Progress from the New York Philharmonics School Partnership Program." Teaching Artist Journal 10.3 (2012): 168-176. Deutsch, David Henry. Music Made Meaningful: Social Reforms and Classical Music in British Literature and Culture from 1870 to 1945. Diss. The Ohio State University, 2011. Moran, Nikki. "Music, bodies and relationships: An ethnographic contribution to embodied cognition studies." Psychology of Music 41.1 (2013): 5-17. Reeves, Aaron, Emily Gilbert, and Daniel Holman. "Class dis-identification, cultural stereotypes, and music preferences: Experimental evidence from the UK." Poetics 50 (2015): 44-61. Washburne, Christopher J., and Maiken Derno, eds. Bad music: the music we love to hate. Routledge, 2013. Wilson, Mary Katherine, Sarah Marczynski, and Elizabeth OBrien. "Ethical Behavior of the Classical Music Audience." Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 16.2 (2014): 120- 126. Read More