Musical questions and answers thread

[Bryn]

What a pathetic question.

Surely not. After all, the English has a rather vulgar different usage than the French.

[jean]

"What is the harmonic relationship, in the key of C, between C, G, and B flat?"

My question is, can anyone see what would be the point of that question?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"What is the harmonic relationship, in the key of C, between C, G, and B flat?"
My question is, can anyone see what would be the point of that question?

Wouldn't it depend on the context of a specific work in which such harmonic/tonal relationships appeared? (I'm "automatically" drawn to imagine Tonal relationships - a Primary relationship - between the Tonic and Dominant - and a Secondary (or even Tertiary) one between the Tonic and the Relative Major of the Dominant minor.) Just as a chord sequence (as suggested by "Harmonic Relationship") it's I - V - bVII.

[greenilex]

Can I ask ( very humbly ) whether musicians remember every piece they have ever heard...in the sense that it sounds familiar, or in more detail?

Is musical memory different in important respects from verbal or visual memory?

Can you be sure you have never heard something?

[Serial_Apologist]

Can I ask ( very humbly ) whether musicians remember every piece they have ever heard...in the sense that it sounds familiar, or in more detail?

I would have thought that varied from musician to musician, just as among the general population as a whole! The more tonally-centred music that I get to hear these days, the more I seem to recognise it from something I have heard before! But there again, I'm not really what society would call a musician, just a dabbler (But isn't everyone a musician to some degree?)

Is musical memory different in important respects from verbal or visual memory?

Interesting question - one for the brain experts!

Can you be sure you have never heard something?

Paul McCartney wasn't sure if he'd heard "Yesterday" somewhere else, or dreamed it, was he??

[Pabmusic]

Can I ask ( very humbly ) whether musicians remember every piece they have ever heard...in the sense that it sounds familiar, or in more detail?

Is musical memory different in important respects from verbal or visual memory?

Can you be sure you have never heard something?

I am confident that I've never heard something that I had heard before, but thought I'd not heard it. However, I have many times dismissed something by title, because I thought I'd never heard it, only to realise when I listened to it that I had heard it.

What a thought to capture in words!

[Serial_Apologist]

I am confident that I've never heard something that I had heard before, but thought I'd not heard it. However, I have many times dismissed something by title, because I thought I'd never heard it, only to realise when I listened to it that I had heard it.

What a thought to capture in words!

Sorry???

Good to hear from you, Pabs - I hope and trust all goes well with you?

[jean]

I think it just needs an adverb (such as sometimes?) in the first clause - because I doubt if the confidence expressed is always and everywhere the case!

[Pabmusic]

Sorry???

Good to hear from you, Pabs - I hope and trust all goes well with you?

It does indeed, SA, but I'm exceedingly busy, finishing a big project.

[Pabmusic]

I think it just needs an adverb (such as sometimes?) in the first clause - because I doubt if the confidence expressed is always and everywhere the case!

I think it probably needs re-casting, but you're right.

[Serial_Apologist]

It does indeed, SA, but I'm exceedingly busy, finishing a big project.

Great! - best of luck with whatever that is, Pabs.

[Pabmusic]

Great! - best of luck with whatever that is, Pabs.

Oh - you'll hear about it...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As S_A suggests, I think it might be different for different people. I have heard the three Rawsthorne symphonies 18 times each in the past 12 months, but I cannot at this moment recollect anything about them. I am sure that if someone were to play me an excerpt without telling me what they were playing, I'd "know" the Music - be able to sing along with it - without being able to identify it ("Ah! That's the second movement of Rawsthorne's Third Symphony" sort of thing). On the other hand, I can remember vividly at least the opening of a work for solo 'cello by Simon Cummings called gravest one which I have only heard once, some fifteen years ago: the impression the sounds made (a passage beginning at the very top of the instrument's register, gradually descending in irregular rhythmic patterns like a falling leaf buffeted by breezes) has remained with me. I can also remember much of the rest of the piece from remembering the sight of the 'cellist's (Arne Deforce) hand and arm movements, and the intensity of his gaze between Music stand and glances at his 'cello.

What of my memory is an accurate recollection of the Music I actually heard (whether I'd recognize and identify the piece if I ever heard it again) - or even, potentially embarrassingly, whether the piece I remember was actually Cummings' or by one of the other young composers whose 'cello work was being workshopped! - is another matter.

I don't know if that's any help at all? And someone more informed might be able to provide facts about Musical memory/recollection in Alzheimer or such medical cases as that (terrible example) of Clive Wearing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y

[EdgeleyRob]

Is Czerny's 'Practical Method For Beginners On The Pianoforte Op.599' worth buying,or is it outdated ?
If not what would piano playing forumites suggest as an alternative for a beginner like myself ?
Clementi scales and exercises maybe ?

[vinteuil]

.

... I began with things like Stravinsky's les Cinq Doigts -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_cinq_doigts

- and the earlier books of Bartok's Mikrokosmos -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikrokosmos_(Bart%C3%B3k)

Plus of course the easier Bach - preludes, inventions, etc.

Have you found yourself a teacher, or are you doing it all by yourself??


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