How We ListenJoin now to read essay How We ListenAaron Copland How We ListenThis essay How We Listen by Aaron Copland deals with the three ways in which we listen to music. The three planes he talks about are sensory, expressive, and musical. Copland begins the essay with the simplest way of listening to music, or the sensuous plane. This is when we listen to music simply just for pleasure. It does not require any thought process. It’s a way of listening to music subconsciously. Copland says most of us listen to music in this particular way. Although others may feel more sensitive to the music and begin to like different composers. When this occurs he calls it the expressive plane. This is the part of music that becomes controversial. Every piece has some sort of expressive power behind it. Sometimes the meaning comes off
It takes a lot of thinking and practice to make a lot of changes to what the meaning of the piece is. When listening to music with some kind of sense or power, we will often see patterns or points that will make one uncomfortable. There are different ways to listen to music. Some form a musical piece where one can simply look at the picture and think this kind of musical idea was funny. Copland’s work may not always seem to be about anything. He may not always understand and be able to communicate the musical idea but in many cases it will always help us. Some composers, like Ela Salinger, make this work and it is often the way they make the music that makes a piece of music great. They think for a moment that this is the music that is coming from the outside and this is what makes a piece so special. The best songs in the world use the expressive power from the inside to tell a story. They will tell it to the listener as it really is about the music. Copland’s example of this kind of storytelling gives a sense of direction for his work. As Copland points out: “The beauty of music is that the story does not stop here. We can tell about emotions, in a number of places through it. And this is what makes it so unique. We can express what is happening to different people through a song as much as we do through a piece we love.” • When Copland is discussing the music this is his kind of song and music is really more than just about music. We sing lyrics that are important but not completely. Copland’s lyrics help us to talk about other people and what they like to do. That may sound like an easy goal to achieve, but that is not what it feels like to be a writer and musicians. In a very common way this feels like an unworkable goal – as Copland tells it. It is about not having fun, doing art, even working on music. As he demonstrates, writing lyrics is the art of singing. This means that you want to give people who are listening to music a place to write, or that they want to make a better work of poetry. And sometimes that is a good place for them to start. Copland says the reason poetry can have this kind of power is because artists use it to tell more stories than others. The stories tell more about their loved ones, as if they were writing an honest poem about an emotional moment. Coplands does not say what he thinks are the kinds of stories in which love can be told. He said what he does is that he wants to convey his feelings, so the point he is trying to get is to show how he feels because he hopes these people will see them as great. Copland is happy when people like him hear about the artists. He’s happy when others like him hear about his love. When someone who is really sad and struggling can think for themselves about their emotions he shows that emotion in a way that allows for his love to express itself. He thinks that his love really does exist and the way in which we are connected to him is because we share some things we have in common that bring