Does the enjoyment of music fade with age ?

[Alison]

I have to say I do look back on a time when I used to go absolutely

crazy about pieces of music and don't so often have these experiences

now.

No doubt it's to do with the thrill of encountering the great works for the first time.

Nothing like the first days and weeks of a loving relationship !

Yes, there are still new things to discover: new pieces, new things about known works etc

but may I ask you the thread title question.

And .. do you recognise in yourself a tendency to try to recreate those musical ecstasies of yesteryear

and never quite succeeding ?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er not really Alison, music has been my most successful marriage with a long and ripening enjoyment and i still go nuts when some new piece catches me ... and i am still genuinely surprised ...

[salymap]

I suppose I still look back on live concerts and rehearsals and largly stick to what I've heard and loved over about 65 years.
However, occasionally a new piece grabs me, a Haydn symphony I haven't really listened to before, the Mozart Quintet for winds and keyboard, K452 {?} and things like that.

I 've given up on new tome, thickly scored and long works because I have tinnitus now. There are still works to be discovered though.

[Mary Chambers]

I don't feel that it fades exactly, but it does change, for me at least. In my teens and twenties, and later, there were so many new discoveries to be made. I went to concerts and operas fairly indiscriminately, and listened to everything I could, voraciously. Now I have sorted out the sorts of music I particularly enjoy, and am much more choosy. I still listen to new pieces, but nothing much has stuck in my mind.

When I saw that Barenboim was doing all the Beethoven symphonies, my first thought was 'Not Beethoven again' - but I shall listen when I can, all the same. Every performance is new. But once (lost in the mists of time!) the symphonies themselves were new to me. I do wish I could recapture that experience of hearing great works for the first time.

[doversoul1]

Alison
I think I can say that, too. The way I used to wave about the LP of my ‘new discovery’ and talked endlessly about it... I don’t do that now. I get excited about new discoveries as much as I used to do but, when I think about it, I was probably excited about being excited when I was young, plus an element of showing off.

These days, I enjoy the music without spending energy on being excited about (if this makes sense). Also, reading this Forum and knowing that there are others who are excited about the same music calms me down a lot. And of course, there is no point in my trying to show off on this Forum.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No.

As with other things, I don't have as much ... err ... stamina as in the days of my youth (I'm in me fifties), but the intensity and pleasure I get from individual pieces of Music is, if anything, increased since then. And I'm as keen as ever for new (to me) Music, so I still experience hearing great works for the first time: last weekend I heard Bach's BWV201 for the first time. Put quite a spring in me step. And Krevine's recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies made them new all over again.

[gurnemanz]

'No' would be the answer. I am completely untrained musically and as the decades have gone by my grasp and appreciation of what is going on in classical music has deepened. Also, familiarity with an increasingly wide range of music has enriched the whole experience and worked as a kind of cross-reference giving new insights. In this way, I find I can constantly hear things differently even when going down well-trodden paths.

Having said that, I think it can be useful to take a "holiday" from works I know extremely well and then come back to them fresh after a deliberate gap in time

[Petrushka]

I don't feel that it fades exactly, but it does change, for me at least. In my teens and twenties, and later, there were so many new discoveries to be made. I went to concerts and operas fairly indiscriminately, and listened to everything I could, voraciously. Now I have sorted out the sorts of music I particularly enjoy, and am much more choosy. I still listen to new pieces, but nothing much has stuck in my mind.

When I saw that Barenboim was doing all the Beethoven symphonies, my first thought was 'Not Beethoven again' - but I shall listen when I can, all the same. Every performance is new. But once (lost in the mists of time!) the symphonies themselves were new to me. I do wish I could recapture that experience of hearing great works for the first time.

This is pretty much my experience as well. I used to listen to an awful lot of modern music via R3 in my teens and twenties but like Mary I have, at the age od 58, managed to sort out what does it for me and what doesn't.

Having said that, I am attending the Barenboim/Beethoven/Boulez Proms from Monday onwards and am as excited about listening to Boulez I've never heard before as I am about Beethoven.

I rarely, if ever, feel jaded about certain pieces (even Bolero or 1812) but, like gurnemanz, I do leave them aside for a while in order to prevent that happening.

[Serial_Apologist]

One's tastes do change over the years - in my case quantitavely rather than qualitatively. The soundworld that so excited in the 1960s, my youth, seemed part of a larger picture of positive change; one wanted to get "with it" and discovered it was there to be "got with", and the rewards were great. One remembers the sheer euphoria of the final movement of the Bartok second piano concerto, the mind-blowing effect of the slow movement of the Music for Strings, harp, Celesta and Percussion, and playing these to one's friends and watching their faces transform. It's the works that still make me wonder, how did the composer do that?, that continue to blow me away on every good performance: Erwartung, Pierrot Lunaire, Chronochromie, Gesang der Jungelinge, all communicate some sense of deeper mystery, almost beyond means, tried and tested or otherwise.

[amateur51]

One's tastes do change over the years - in my case quantitavely rather than qualitatively. The soundworld that so excited in the 1960s, my youth, seemed part of a larger picture of positive change; one wanted to get "with it" and discovered it was there to be "got with", and the rewards were great. One remembers the sheer euphoria of the final movement of the Bartok second piano concerto, the mind-blowing effect of the slow movement of the Music for Strings, harp, Celesta and Percussion, and playing these to one's friends and watching their faces transform. It's the works that still make me wonder, how did the composer do that?, that continue to blow me away on every good performance: Erwartung, Pierrot Lunaire, Chronochromie, Gesang der Jungelinge, all communicate some sense of deeper mystery, almost beyond means, tried and tested or otherwise.

I completely agree, S_A - I'm by no stretch of anyone's imagination a musician but I love it. It amazes me that each year I make new discoveries, often guided by such wise advice that I find on here, on Radio 3, on Spotify, in concert halls

It's a wonderful life y'know

[teamsaint]

Over the years I have learned to trust the judgements of others in guiding me to new music.
Time was, I wanted to seek it out on my own,maybe with just a nudge in the right direction.Perhaps I never had quite the right musical Guru !
However, there is so much still to be discovered , and how much time is uncertain, so i decided a while ago to use the whole world of advice and expertise that is out there. hence my frequent questions on these boards to help me find the best music in its best guises. Its not a foolproof method, but its a help, and a timesaver.
The other thing that helps is to look to genres that I have too little knowledge of. For the last few years I have spent some of my time trying to find the best in modern folk music....and its a rich seam.... but I rather pragmatically take what is easy and classy (Show of hands, Bellowhead, Richard Thompson) and move on without worrying too much about the little gems that I might miss.there is so much that has been recommended to me, that I am sure in most cases is well worth the effort, that I simply haven't had the time to investigate. Luckily for me, Bruckner is a recent "discovery"....something I want to listen to more of every day.If I keep my ears open, good things will come my way...and they do. Can't see that stopping.Hope not.

And another thing....its the one thing that never really disappoints. Football is my other passion.....which frequently, and increasingly, does my head in..and at startling financial cost !!

[Pianorak]

No - on the contrary. Admittedly, I am not very adventurous in my musical tastes. Too easily distracted by extraneous noises to be completely at ease at live concerts I am more than content to listen to recorded music (as long as it's piano! ). I do think we live in a golden age of pianism - so many established pianists still to be discovered - and so many young talents emerging day after day - so many different interpretations which make one marvel, reassess and reconsider and, of course, occasionally exclaim in total exasperation: No!! - It's a journey I don't think I could ever tire of.

[cloughie]

No - it just gets better, whther listening or performing. Always something to explore or take to pieeces or shout at the radio about.

[EdgeleyRob]

On the contrary,for me it gets better and better.
Always discovering new stuff (most recently the music of Martinu).

[teamsaint]

On the contrary,for me it gets better and better.
Always discovering new stuff (most recently the music of Martinu).

I can't really get on with the Martinu PC's......

Must try the symphonies though. !