{"id":2198,"date":"2020-10-26T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/?p=2198"},"modified":"2021-01-31T10:47:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:47:48","slug":"more-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/?p=2198","title":{"rendered":"More listening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been carrying on with my music project.  It\u2019s been full of surprises — what I’d call a success, in other words. I think I am learning to listen<\/em>. What began as a systematic, linear move through Tom Service\u2019s list of 50 composers (see earlier post) has already branched and morphed. However I have not abandoned the list.  I have come across other composers who aren\u2019t on the list and added them at the end of this one. I\u2019ve started listening to music on BBC radio 3 (FM music station) pretty regularly — at least several times a week, listening closely enough, long enough to fall in love with some specific piece.  This week I was \u201cofficially\u201d listening to Arvo P\u00e4rt — the Estonian composer of an absolutely unique, clear, maybe \u201ctransparent\u201d kind of music.  Against the discord and utter confusion everywhere in the world, it seems to offer a gentle, firm resistance, some reassurance that we\u2019re right to take the time to listen, if for no other reason than that it\u2019s possible to hear a broad, durable peace.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interspersed with P\u00e4rt this week was a prize-winning jazz \u201ctake\u201d on Mahler by pianist Uri Caine and a haunting little song, called Sogna fiore mei<\/em> [Dream, my flower] by a contemporary Italian composer. It was published with a collection of commissioned compositions that use Italian Baroque music as source material. That already sounds good to me, but it turns out Ambroglio Sparagna is also a wonderful performer with a sense of humour and an infectious rapport with all kinds of different communities.  Often, he plays accordion and everybody dances — and laughs.  It seems a long way from P\u00e4rt\u2019s pared-down clarity. But is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This learning is messy stuff — weeks intersect with one another…expand and contract, reach backwards and forwards, persist in your mind — or not. The only steady thing is the surprise — every day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is the sleeve for one of P\u00e4rt’s best-known works, F\u00fcr Alina<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been carrying on with my music project.  It\u2019s been full of surprises — what I’d call a success, in other words. I think I am learning to listen. What began as a systematic, linear move...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":" learning and listening","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[388],"tags":[404,402,403],"class_list":["post-2198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-ambroglio-sparagna","tag-arvo-part","tag-uri-caine"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2245,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions\/2245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}