The Practice--Raising Consciousness with Classical Music

Orpheus, Wikipedia
I'm including another excerpt from my book Whole Music (Soul Food for the Mind Body Spirit).  

If you are an agent or book publisher interested in this title, please contact me at wholemusicexp at gmail dot com.


This exercise comes from the end of Chapter 8.



The Practice--The Art of Listening

The first music appreciation class I took in college featured classical music.  While you could do the following practice with any genre of music, for this session, I ask you to choose one piece of music by a single composer from baroque to contemporary classical music.  For example, you could choose a cello suite by J.S. Bach which would land you in the heart of the baroque period or you could choose Appalachian Spring by contemporary American composer Aaron Copland.

For one week, listen to only listen to this piece of music.  You can listen to the music via headphones or play it within the ambiance of a room.  Listen for changes in key, rhythm, musical themes.

If you don’t find it too distracting, read information on the piece of music, the composer, and the period in which the music was composed.

When you have completed this process and feel that you have delved deep enough into your chosen piece of music, write about your experiences in your music journal while responding to the following questions:

·                     What emotions or images was the composer conveying through the music?
·                     Were you able to distinguish key, tempo, or changes of tone?
·                     Did you ever feel at-one with the composer or the music?
·                     Did this music lead you to other works by this composer or era?
·                     Do you have any emotional, mental or physical changes to report after spending an intensive week with this music?
·                     What images came to mind when listening to this piece of music?

Refer back to your entries in you music diary months from, even a year or two from now, then repeat the exercise.

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