Mozart

[K9QJ]

Remember that movie? I thought it was GREAT! My question is this: Can a meastro actually HEAR the music in his head by looking at the sheet music? At one time my morse was so fast it seemed like I was hearing voice. After 35 years my code speed went down of course,( It didn't take long to recover), but I go back to my original question. Does anyone know anyone that good at music? Can a conductor actually hear the music simply by READING the notes?

[AE6IP]

Yes. Very good musician can hear the music by sight reading it.

Within limits. The score tells you a lot about the music but not everything, and you have to know a great deal about the history of the music to know how to fill in the missing bits.

[k4kyv]

I have studied several foreign languages and become fluent in a couple of them, studied the alphabets of other obscure languages such as Amharic and Tigrenia (spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea), and studied, understood and worked with mathematical formulae including integral and differential calculus. Even more astounding, I have somehow managed to achieve that next-to-impossible, super-human skill, of learning to copy Morse code by ear.

Yet I have never been able to make any sense out of musical notation. I have tried to figure it out, but I might just as well try to read Arabic or Chinese (which I have never studied) as to read music. To me, it defies all logic.

[AE6IP]

There are many kinds of musical notation, but they really shouldn't defy logic. They're simply shorthand for saying things like 'now play a C# loudly and hold it for the next three beats'.

I find the classical western notation that most of us think of as 'music' when we talk about reading music to be much easier to follow than chinese (which I have studied and failed to learn.)

What gives you problems?

[G8ADD]

I'm a bit out of practise nowadays, but I used to be able to read an orchestral score and hear the orchestra in my head. Look at it another way, a composer writing a symphony hears it in his head and then writes down the orchestral score. Well, some work it through on the piano first, but others (I believe Shostakovich was an instance) wrote their thoughts out straight into orchestral score.

Funnily enough, a facility in reading music was no help whatsoever in learning CW!

73

Brian G8ADD

[ac3p]

I don't think there is a correlation between reading music and learning morse code.

A country-western musician was once asked if he could read music. His answer was "Yes, But not good enough to spoil my playing".

I learned morse but can't read music well enough to spoil my sending. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[n0jaa]

Quote[/b] (K9QJ @ Jan. 07 2007,02:03)]Remember that movie? I thought it was GREAT! My question is this: Can a meastro actually HEAR the music in his head by looking at the sheet music? At one time my morse was so fast it seemed like I was hearing voice. After 35 years my code speed went down of course,( It didn't take long to recover), but I go back to my original question. Does anyone know anyone that good at music? Can a conductor actually hear the music simply by READING the notes?
According to historical accounts, Ludwig van Beethoven could hear music in his head after he went deaf. #He was so well attuned to his piano that, after he became profoundly deaf, he wrote some of his best music by the simple reason that he KNEW what the notes should sound like, even if he could no longer hear them.

Mozart once said this about Beethoven when the latter was still in his teens: #"Watch out for that one, he's going to have something to say one of these days."

Not only did Beethoven have an intense memory of musical notes, he was also one of the first truly-independent composers, in that he never received a commission to work for a king or church. #Today, we would call Beethoven a "free lance" composer.

Now, about the movie: #although it was an exceptional movie, it nevertheless was not too accurate. #Mozart was a playboy, yes, but not to the extent that the movie suggested; however, he was very loose with his money. #And contrary to the movie's statements, Antonio Solieri never tried to kill or otherwise poison Mozart, and he never finished Mozart's Requiem or helped Mozart write it. #The Requiem Mass was finished by devoted scholars of Mozart.

[K9QJ]

Quote[/b] (n0jaa @ Jan. 08 2007,12:02)]Quote[/b] (K9QJ @ Jan. 07 2007,02:03)]Remember that movie? I thought it was GREAT! My question is this: Can a meastro actually HEAR the music in his head by looking at the sheet music? At one time my morse was so fast it seemed like I was hearing voice. After 35 years my code speed went down of course,( It didn't take long to recover), but I go back to my original question. Does anyone know anyone that good at music? Can a conductor actually hear the music simply by READING the notes?
According to historical accounts, Ludwig van Beethoven could hear music in his head after he went deaf. #He was so well attuned to his piano that, after he became profoundly deaf, he wrote some of his best music by the simple reason that he KNEW what the notes should sound like, even if he could no longer hear them.

Mozart once said this about Beethoven when the latter was still in his teens: #"Watch out for that one, he's going to have something to say one of these days."

Not only did Beethoven have an intense memory of musical notes, he was also one of the first truly-independent composers, in that he never received a commission to work for a king or church. #Today, we would call Beethoven a "free lance" composer.

Now, about the movie: #although it was an exceptional movie, it nevertheless was not too accurate. #Mozart was a playboy, yes, but not to the extent that the movie suggested; however, he was very loose with his money. #And contrary to the movie's statements, Antonio Solieri never tried to kill or otherwise poison Mozart, and he never finished Mozart's Requiem or helped Mozart write it. #The Requiem Mass was finished by devoted scholars of Mozart.
You are absolutely correct on all accounts. I never meant to correlate Morse with reading music... only that they have common ground in that they are both "learned" not by osmosis but study and practice. Mozart perhaps being the exception in that he was a pupil at age 4 or 5. So he was in "University" when still a boy. Anyway, the greatest class I learned in high school was "Music Appreciation", I'm really glad I took it. It taught me something priceless... classical music, and as a result, a respect for all music. (Rap excluded), which isn' t music of course.

[k0ews]

Yes, I can hear music in my head when looking at a score. I do it every day. Depending on the ensemble, it's not as hard to hear say, a jazz band, were there are fewer transpositions than say a full orchestra, but honestly it comes down to the ensemble you are used to. As a matter of fact, most conductors don't even use score once the piece is learned. There's an old adage in this trade, "Better to have the score in your head than your head in the score."
Anyway, when I study mine, I can "hear" it. My main genre is concert band and jazz band.
I just arranged something for my jazz band, and yes, I can "hear" the parts before I put them on paper as well. I rarely ever get anywhere near a piano when I'm doing this.

[AG3Y]

Sure, a truly accomplished Musician not only can but MUST be able to hear the music in his head before he sounds it out with his instrument, be it a piano or organ, string, wind, or other kind of instrument. If he could not, he would have a terrible time trying to keep up with the other musicians in his group.

When I pick up a new piece of music in my choir group, I rarely attempt to sing any of the tune on the first go around. But by the time the director is ready to work on parts, I virtually have my part memorized! And I am by no means, a "truly accomplished musician"!

As far as the musical abilities helping with code, we had a discussion on this a short time ago. I do believe that someone with a "musical ear" does have a smoother time of learning CW, especially as he realizes the cadence and pattern of the formation of letters and words.

73, Jim

[WA2DYA]

This is Mozart's 250 th birthday year. He's as close to immortal as anyone can hope to be.

--- CHAS

[n0jaa]

One thing a lot of people don't know about Mozart is that he wrote a good deal of music for the pipe organ. #It's unfortunate that most classical music stations don't play it much, but Naxos has a huge library of Mozart's organ music. #Mozart also transcripted his 40th Symphony for the pipe organ, which I heard once a few years ago. #A very refreshing take.

These days it seems that most main-line (read corporately owned) classical music stations are more interested in playing Mozart's operas, symphonies and piano concertos than in his many minor works. #It seems, actually, that these stations are like that for most composers.

The one thing I like most about classical music: #although I have been listening to it since age 14, I still hear music from composers I have never before heard of. #These discoveries excite me more about classical music than any other musical genre.

I have a membership with Musical Heritage Society; they are very good at showcasing little-known composers and/or their works.

[AG3Y]

Paul, I have been working on my "Records to CD" project for several years, now, and just recently was given a collection from several Musicians in the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. You would be surprised at some of the music that has re-surfaced from those albums! Several of the recordings look as if they have never been on a turntable platter, and some are even sealed in the original shrink wrap! I think I'll get off the computer now, and go over to cut some more CDs!

73, Jim

[n0jaa]

Oh, I don't doubt it. #There is doubtless much classical music that has yet to be transferred to CD. #I venture further to say that there may be literal mounds of classical music that have yet to recorded to ANY medium! #An example: #very few people know that Leroy Anderson (1908-1975), who wrote vignettes such as Sleigh Ride, The Typewriter, The Penny Whistle Song, The Syncopated Clock, etc., also wrote a piano concerto (Concerto in C Major for Piano and Orchestra).

Anderson worked on this concerto for many years; even so, he thought it never good enough to record or perform, so after its premiere in 1954 (Anderson was the conductor with Eugene List as piano soloist), he put the manuscript away; the concerto was never performed again during the composer's lifetime. #Music scholars believed the manuscript to have been lost until it was released by his wife, Eleanor, in 1988, almost 30 years after its premiere.