Attention to Detail: The Classical Music Listening Guide

On this episode, we take a deep dive and look at one scene from Mozart's Magic Flute, the quintet from Act 1. We examine Mozart's unique ability to change musical characters quickly, his use of text painting, and his progressive approach to harmony that was far ahead of his time.  Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we continue our opera SparkNotes series with a review of Mussorgsky's great Russian epic, Boris Godunov. We highlight all the great music from the opera, including the famous Coronation Scene, and summarize the plot in a way that will help anyone looking to learn a bit about this incredible piece, without committing the full three hours! www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to rate, review, and subscribe!

We continue our breakdown of Strauss's striking masterwork Salome, looking at the second part of the opera, including the Dance of the Seven Veils and the famous (or infamous!) final scene! www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to the podcast! It helps us to get out to as many listeners as possible, and we really appreciate it.

On this episode, we break down the first half of Richard Strauss' groundbreaking and controversial Salome, an opera premiered in 1905. Based on a play by Oscar Wilde, Salome is one of the first works of musical modernism, paving the way for much of the music of the 20th century. Just like actual SparkNotes, we highlight all the key musical and narrative moments, to provide framework of understanding that helps when listening to the entire opera! Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to the podcast! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we look at the incredible film composer John Williams, ranking our favorite pieces from his body of work. We are joined by Josh Joyce, brother of Jacob, to break down all of the music from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and much more! Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In celebration of 100 episodes of the podcast, we fashioned a fun musical quiz designed to test our hosts' and audience's knowledge of classical music! Jacob tries to identify pieces from ClassicalFM's Top 100 Pieces, and Hannah answers Jacob's questions that use pieces as clues. We hope you will play along, and remember to celebrate with us by rating, reviewing, and subscribing! Also, check out our new blog!! Found here: https://www.attentiontodetailpod.com/blog

We conclude our series on what to expect from symphonic movements with finales! We look at the history of last movements, spanning from Mozart to Mahler, and listen to some epic finishes. www.attentiontodetailpod.com Keep an eye out for our new blog, coming soon to our website, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the pod!

On this third episode in our mini-series on what to expect in standard symphonic movements, we supplement our breakdown of third movements with a fun game: Minuet or Scherzo? www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to rate, review, and subscribe if you like the podcast!

On this episode we continue our breakdown of symphonic form, now looking at slow movements! We highlight some of the most common types of slow movements and trace their development through musical history. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we begin a series where we break down the main characteristics of each movement of a standard symphony, starting with the first! We discuss what to expect from first movements, listen to some famous examples, and explore how first movements evolved over time! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

After a long hiatus, we are back (!!) with a breakdown of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. This piece is heard on July 4th concerts around the United States, and has a fascinating history and layout. We talk about how the overture was actually originally meant to celebrate Russian victory over the invading French, Tchaikovsky's fusion of the absolute and programmatic styles of composition, and the famous ending!

We continue our series on returning to live concerts with a discussion of how to prepare for attending a performance. Should you listen to the pieces beforehand, should you read program notes, and should different pieces be approached in different ways? We tackle all of these questions, and more, in this discussion! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

As live concerts start to come back, we discuss some of the tricky questions surrounding the daunting world of concert etiquette. Many traditions of the classical concert-going experience can be intimidating and confusing to newcomers, so we try to break those down, examine what is important and what is unnecessary, and share some personal experiences! Resources on ending gun violence: https://www.everytown.org/ https://www.newtownactionalliance.org/ Stats on gun violence

On this episode, we are joined by violinist Kevin Lin and cellist Stephen Hawkey to play a game we are calling Mozart, Haydn, or Other! Kevin and Stephen listen to several clips of music from the Classical era and attempt to identify whether the composer is one of the two great masters, or some other lesser-known composer writing in a similar style. To watch the ISO's Baroque Series mentioned in the episode, click here! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On today's episode, we continue our exploration of winter-themed pieces with Schubert's dark and gloomy Winterreise. The quintessential unappreciated artist, Schubert's music is now at the center of the classical repertoire, and Winterreise is seen as one of the iconic works of German romanticism. Although the music is dreary, we hope you get enjoyment out of listening, with a little assistance from us along the way! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Winter is here! With many of us in the U.S. buried under feet of snow, we thought we would review some pieces of music inspired by winter, starting with Haydn's The Seasons! This little-known oratorio is a real gem, so we hope you enjoy listening! www.attentiontodetailpod.com  

Over the years, it seems that performances of classical music have steadily been getting faster. Why is this, and how does it affect the way we listen? Jacob and Hannah discuss this trend in classical music and the parallels in other genres, comparing recordings of the same piece that take different tempi. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/even-classical-music-is-getting-faster-these-days-748385/ www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we explore the phenomenon of re-listening to music. All of us listen to certain songs over and over, which can help us relax, fuel a workout, or provide a nice background to a party. But listening to music repeatedly can also be an attentive and meaningful process, something that Hannah and Jacob explore in this episode. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode of our Musical Blind Tasting series, we focus on music of the Baroque era! Hannah chooses four excerpts for Jacob to listen to and discuss, and then he attempts to try to guess the correct composer. We hope you'll play along, and if you're interested in some helpful techniques for listening to Baroque music, check out our episode on listening tips!

To usher out the challenges of 2020 and ring in what we hope to be a healthier and happier year, we put together a musical listening guide! Our guide consists of four selections based on our reflections on 2020, and four selections highlighting our aspirations for 2021. We want to thank all of our listeners for joining us this year, and look forward to more exciting, fruitful, and music-filled times! New Year Playlist: Here www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On today's episode, we attempt to bring the world of blind wine tasting to music! Like expert wine tasters, who can determine grape varieties, regions, vintages, and even specific wines just by tasting, Jacob and guests challenge each other to figure out the region, composer, and time period of little-known pieces of music, listening to short clips blindly and talking us through their process of deduction. On this first part of our blind tasting series, we focus on pieces from the Romantic era! With guests Sasha Scolnik-Brower and Maurice Cohn. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Continuing with our explorations of what music actually is, we examine another key element of music: randomness. We discuss if music needs to be constructed from organized notes, tempos, rhythms, and/or repetitions, or if music is actually everywhere, from the traffic noises outside to the concert hall. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Music is filled with silence. But is that silence actually part of the music? And more importantly, can silence itself be music? We tackle these (and other) interesting questions on this special episode, using John Cage's avant-garde piece 4'33", a silent piece of music, as our jumping off point.  www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We finish our series on era-specific listening tips by exploring the most challenging and diverse sub-genre of classical music, Modern/Contemporary music! Modern music often proves to be especially challenging for new listeners, and can be a big turn-off at classical concerts, but we are here to give you five tips that will help to better understand and appreciate listening to music from this fantastic era! Tip 1: Listen with an open mind (4:06) Tip 2: Appreciating the tonality-atonality spectrum (8:00) Tip 3: Hearing rhythmic figures and gestures (18:48) Tip 4: Noticing different sound qualities and colors (24:28) Tip 5: Asking yourself philosophical, abstract questions that are provoked by the music (30:18) Remember to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're back to our instrument breakdown episodes, this time exploring two members of the low string family, the viola and cello! We're joined by Tanner Menees, violist and Ben Manis, cellist and conductor to discuss these two great instruments and how to listen to them. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In celebration of Election Day, we're offering up a fun listening game to exercise your listening skills and get your civic engagement juices flowing! In this game, we're challenging you to listen to two different versions of the national anthem and try to hear the differences: Original: Link Here Stravinsky's Re-Harmonization: Link Here Happy listening, go vote, and let us know through social media or our website how many differences you end up noticing! https://www.vote.org/

We continue our series on listening tips by examining the era and style of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Wagner, and so many other great composers - Romanticism! We're joined by Hannah to discuss our five points of advice for listening to this highly passionate and emotional music, and hear some great music along the way!Tip 1: Hearing Romantic works through the lens of the composer (8:17)Tip 2: Distinguishing between absolute and programmatic music (15:33)Tip 3: Listening for extremes! (26:07)Tip 4: Noticing fluctuations in tempo (37:31)Tip 5: Hearing differences in timbre/orchestration (46:05)www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're back with some more era-specific tips for listening to classical music, and this time we're talking about Classical (?) style! Despite being a poorly named period in music history, the Classical era boasts some of the greatest composers of all time, including Mozart, Haydn, and the young Beethoven.  Tip 1: Listening for quick character changes (6:07) Tip 2: Listening operatically (11:25) Tip 3: Noticing metric irregularities (21:20) Tip 4: Hearing Sonata form (29:57) Tip 5: Musical jokes! (36:37)  www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In a new series, which we'll alternate with our instrument breakdowns, we provide five tips for listening to a certain style of music. Today's episode is on Baroque music, an era that included some of the most famous and well-respected composers, including J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and others!  Tips 1. Distinguishing between sacred and secular music (4:25) 2. Finding emotional nuance in baroque music (9:02) 3. Hearing simple forms and mapping (18:28) 4. Distinguishing between modern and historically-informed performance (23:45) 5. Noticing ornamentation and virtuosity (30:53) www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In a new series, we discuss how to listen to some of the most important musical instruments that might appear in a classical concert. Today we start with the violin, the highest string instrument, which boasts some of the most popular concertos and sonatas in the repertoire. We're joined by Kevin Lin, Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony, to chat about this amazing instrument! www.attentiontodetailpod.com If you enjoy the show, remember to rate, review, and subscribe!

Today we're joined by Hannah to break down our final fundamental technique, Mapping! We discuss how to listen to longer stretches of music with focus and attention, hearing landmark points, and how visualizing large passages of music can help to understand the structure of a big piece. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we review the second fundamental technique of this podcast, Hearing Ideas! We talk about how to recognize musical ideas, how to apply this technique, and some common pitfalls. Apologies for the terrible singing, we are working on limited equipment for the next two weeks! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

After many weeks of Wagner, we decided to get back to basics and review our four fundamental techniques, starting with our first technique, Listening Attentively. Our techniques require no background knowledge, rely solely on attention, and help you to find more meaning and enjoyment in listening to classical music!  For the recording from this episode, click here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Our final review of the Ring Cycle! Today we look at Act 3 of Götterdammerung, which includes some of the most famous music Wagner ever wrote, including Siegfried's Death and Funeral March and the Immolation Scene. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We continue our review of Götterdammerung, looking at the gloomy second act. A transition act that prepares the high drama of Act 3, we touch on several important moments, including the famous final trio of Brunnhilde, Gunther, and Hagen. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're on to the final (and our favorite) opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Götterdammerung! Today we review the prologue and first act, which includes some of the greatest music Wagner ever wrote, like "Siegfried's Rhine Journey" and "Hagen's Watch." Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're joined today by my co-host, Hannah Reffett, who returns to help us break down Act 3 of Siegfried! Also, keep an eye out for our new blog, which will be coming shortly at www.attentiontodetailpod.com! All recordings come from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here.

Today we continue with Act 2 of Siegfried, deep in the forest where the dragon Fafner is guarding the Ring. We hear the epic battle between Siegfried and the dragon, the famous "Forest Murmurs," and much more! All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We continue our breakdown of Wagner's Ring Cycle by looking at the first act of the third opera, Siegfried!  All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. Remember to rank, subscribe, and leave a comment if you are enjoying our breakdowns! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we take a break from our SparkNotes-style reviews of Wagner's Ring Cycle to look at the popular soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's famous three-part story that is based on Wagner's epic saga. We examine the use of themes and leitmotifs, rank our famous moments of music, and look at similarities and differences in the plots of these two great masterpieces. All LOTR clips come from the Complete Recordings of the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack, composed and conducted by Howard Shore. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we review the final act of Die Walküre, which opens with the famous "Ride of the Valkyries," and concludes with "Wotan's Farewell," one of the most passionate and heart-wrenching moments in all of music.  If you're enjoying our breakdowns of the Ring Cycle, make sure to rate, subscribe, and leave us a comment! All recording clips from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we continue our review of the second opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle, looking at Act 2 of Die Walküre! All recordings are from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we start our review of the first major opera of the Ring Cycle, Die Walküre! We look at the first act which features the heroic characters Siegmund and Sieglinde, siblings reunited after being separated at birth. All recordings from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, found here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we start our review of Wagner's Ring Cycle with a look at the first opera, Das Rheingold! We explore the important leitmotifs that will come back in the later operas, and listen to important musical and narrative moments.   All audio clips come from the Vienna Philharmonic and Georg Solti, full performance found here.   www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Over the month of August, we'll be boiling down the massively influential (and long) operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle to their most important moments. In preparation for these ten upcoming episodes, we discuss the life and music of the controversial Richard Wagner, and go over what we'll be covering as we review his magnum opus, as well as what we'll leave out.

The classical music community lost a great friend this past week in violinist and conductor Greg Cardi. In the wake of his passing, we decided to record a special episode exploring the relationship between music and grief. First, we interviewed music therapist Suzanne Hanser to discuss using music (and silence) as a powerful healing tool, and then spoke to several friends and colleagues of Greg who shared some of their most poignant memories. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're back with another fantasy sports-style draft, this time picking our most underrated composers! We averaged several Top 100 Composers lists to approximate the general consensus on who the greatest composers are, and then we picked apart the list. Enjoy!Compiled List of Top 100 Composers: Link

Hannah is back, and today we're tackling the tricky world of modern/contemporary music! We discuss some techniques for new listeners to approach this often challenging and intimidating sub-genre of classical music, and predictably get sidetracked philosophizing about the meaning of July 4th and the decline of American exceptionalism.

Today we're joined by Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Professor of Music at Princeton University and author of two books, On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind and The Psychology of Music: A Very Short Introduction. We discuss a variety of topics, including her work on repetition, how to measure musicality, and the parallels between language and music!  To hear the speech-to-song illusion mentioned in the episode, click here. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We're back with our penultimate episode on our pandemic years series, this time reviewing the eventful 1918! We look at Janacek's Taras Bulba and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, two fascinating works of musical modernism.  www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In another musical review of famous pandemic years, on this episode we're tackling the cholera epidemic of 1910. 1910 is a particularly rich year in the history of music, and we decided to review pieces from arguably the two most famous 20th century composers, Schoenberg and Stravinsky!  www.attentiontodetailpod.com