Comfort Zone --- Good or Bad?

[Mirror Image]

I also find that regardless of the time and leisure needed, I am not always into "intense" music. If pieces are both long and intense like Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner, they need special occasions... Applies for me even to late Beethoven and Schubert where it is a bit mitigated that not all pieces are so long and they are chamber music, so not as loud...
This is of course mainly a "problem" of recordings. A live concert or opera is and was usually rare and special enough to be in the state of mind to appreciate e.g. Wagner (although his operas are so long that they are also strenuous in the theater).

This is certainly true, too. For me, it's all about mood or whatever I'm currently wanting to hear in the moment. I do like listening that offers contrasts. For example, I'll listen to a work from Penderecki and then turn around and listen to a Debussy solo piano work. It's always a good thing to mix things up and this will further engage the listener and keep them on their toes.

[Florestan]

Cross-posted from the recently blown away thread:

Honestly, during this bloody pandemic years and this bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine the Late Classical / Early Romantic era has been the one I've enjoyed the most. Its essentially cheerful and life-affirming nature, tinged with just the right amount of melancholy, nostalgic or sad overtones, its formal and emotional balance, its making no heavy demands on the listener's part and its unassumingly and unpretentiously offering a welcome respite from the stress-and-storm of daily life make it the ideal listening for me. In a world replete with suffering, violence and incertitude, this joyful, genial and reliable music is exactly what I need to preserve my sanity.

[Mirror Image]

I under the sentiment, Andrei, but sometimes I need to vent and I feel that some intense, aggressive music helps me get this out of my system. It's actually rather therapeutic.

[Florestan]

I under the sentiment, Andrei, but sometimes I need to vent and I feel that some intense, aggressive music helps me get this out of my system. It's actually rather therapeutic.

Oh, I'm sure it is. Fight fire with fire, right?

[Jo498]

Music - expanded some, contracted some. I probably expanded most between my mid-20s and mid-30s when I tried to get a bit into Jazz and Indian/Persian/some other World music but in the last 10 years I concentrated again on classical music. And within classical music I also came to the conclusion that a lot of obscure composers/works are so for good reasons
Literature - similarly; when I was young I took on "challenges", like Ulysses, not anymore.
Painting - Not sure; probably contracted. I went to museums and exhibitions including modern/avantgarde stuff a lot as teenager and in my 20s (I had a friend living near Cologne that has Museum Ludwig etc.). Not so much anymore and I think I'd be very picky about a lot of art after the early 20th century, i.e. I have become more conservative in visual arts.
Movies - was never interested all that much, don't like the people and the popcorn smell, so while I like the big screen and think there are lots of movies that cannot be properly appreciated on a small screen, but that's what I do anyway, if I watch them at all. I have not been to a movie theatre for more than a decade; I used to go somewhat frequently in my 20s but mostly on dates

[Florestan]

Music - expanded some, contracted some. I probably expanded most between my mid-20s and mid-30s when I tried to get a bit into Jazz and Indian/Persian/some other World music but in the last 10 years I concentrated again on classical music.

Well, my music comfort zone expanded strictly within the "classical music" realm. I lost interest in any other type of music 25 years ago and never recovered it. That being said, while driving in Bucharest I listen to nothing on car radio except a radio station called "Romantic FM" which features "romantic" "pop" music from 25 years ago and earlier, not only English/US but also Spanish, Italian and French --- and honestly, the latter three are much more to my liking than many of the English/US ones. 

And within classical music I also came to the conclusion that a lot of obscure composers/works are so for good reasons

Yes, absolutely.

[Florestan]

Movies - was never interested all that much, don't like the people and the popcorn smell, so while I like the big screen and think there are lots of movies that cannot be properly appreciated on a small screen, but that's what I do anyway, if I watch them at all. I have not been to a movie theatre for more than a decade; I used to go somewhat frequently in my 20s but mostly on dates

My latest "sortie" to a movie theatre was on June, 1st (International Children's Day, quite popular in Romania) when my son took me, my wife and his godparents to a cartoon movie called "Bad Guys". It was not bad but too long. 

99% of my movie-watching is on Netflix.

[Florestan]

I've not read about it, but looking at the timing of the linked performance, it is clearly wrong from a historical perspective.

Absolutely. Think of it this way: back then concerts usually featured two symphonies, two instrumental concerts (the movements of which were often splitted and interspersed), several solo instrumental pieces and several vocal numbers. Had they been taken at such slow speeds, and taking into account the breaks, the concerts would have started at 7 PM and ended at 7 AM. 

If anything, I suspect the tempo back then was generally swifter than today, at least in non-vocal music.

[Jo498]

I had never really serious interest in "pop" (rock, wave whatever) music. I mostly ignored this as a teenager. I dabbled a bit with jazz a few years after I began listening to classical and I listened to some popular music for social reasons but rarely got a CD. I have maybe 50-70 CDs with Jazz, Pop/Rock and 60s Folk music as well as some Klezmer and Indian/Persian classical (compared to >4000 classical).

But the Indian or Persian classical music is a pretty good case for me that it can be just too much work to expand the "comfort zone". This music does not sound offensive to me but because of the different tuning systems it sounds always like slightly out of tune. Then the typical pieces are 10-30 min long improvisation on their traditional patterns (whatever the technical names are). It can be atmospheric once but eventually I am bored and have to decide to leave it or to do a lot of listening and reading to get into it, so it doesn't sound like pointless out of tune noodling. And I am just not sufficiently entranced by the music to spend so much time and effort. A few months ago I accidentally got a disc of "Sufi" world music. This was similar, just more grating and less relaxing, I listened at most twice and then gave it away. It would be similar for a lot of avantgarde Western music, I fear.  It's like having to learn Russian to better appreciate Dostoevsky, most people cannot expend such an effort, unless they are extraordinarily talented or wanted to learn Russian anyway.

[Florestan]

I had never really serious interest in "pop" (rock, wave whatever) music. I mostly ignored this as a teenager.

The only real, keen, committed interest I ever had besides "classical music" was on heavy metal, go figure! I grew my hair long, wore leather jackets and boots and was a dedicated fan of Metallica and Manowar --- and all this was taking place a few years after discovering "classical music", more precisely during my university years. After I graduated, my interest in heavy metal dwindled more and more until it faded away for good. I haven't played my heavy metal cassetes or CDs since I can't remember when, nor do I feel any need to hear this kind of music again. Péchés de jeunesse 

[Mirror Image]

Oh, I'm sure it is. Fight fire with fire, right?

Well, the composer's music releases the emotion so I don't have to.

[Todd]

Revisiting the Historical Tempo Reconstruction site mentioned earlier, I decided against 106 and instead opted for the just shy of twenty minute Op 78: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAkSw3-hhP0

Not unexpectedly, it is just way too slow and is almost unlistenable.  I know Beethoven had hearing issues, but nothing that would lead to this.

It turns out that according to Alberto Sonna, Schubert, too, meant to have all of his piano music played as though someone just learning the instrument would take a shot, including a fifty-one minute Wanderer Fantasie, and an over hour long D899.  Even Tzimon Barto would raise an eyebrow at that timing.

[LKB]

As far as my musical comfort zone is concerned, l essentially enjoy what I've been enjoying for decades, and rely upon the occasional happy accident to expand the parameters.

For instance, in 2003 a friend purchased the soundtrack to the film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and we relaxed with it for part of a lazy summer afternoon. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the folk/bluegrass/ country offerings on the CD, and since then have remained open to the artists associated with the film.

And just a few years ago, l stumbled across Roy Orbison and Queen, and am enjoying each in their fashion.

( Ha! As l completed the above, the sound system in this restaurant began playing Queen's Crazy Little Thing called Love. )

[Carlo Gesualdo]

Florestan one of the best European and a Latin cousin in language, Deprofundis agree , we all have confort zone and phases, I use to be i nsuper modernism , now I evolve out of it, I don't know why, perhaps I have T-Rex DNA im prehistoric ancestry in Francia and Murcia?

Good know so yes I am compelled to listen to ''alte musik''. more and more digging gregorian and various chants of years 1000, the deep end of classic far ancient lore, anyone ever think of making and album whit all Petrus DE Cruces atributated music, I beleive there is not much but perhaps this could make a full short cd has I speak of his output.

So this is my confort food in a way yeah Deprofundis squatting year 1000 time travel happen.

[Madiel]

(This thread is inspired by two separate ongoing discussions in other threads.)

We all know what a comfort zone is, musically speaking.

What do you think, staying mostly within one's comfort zone is bad or good? Discuss.

Neither. It depends entirely what you, as a listener, want out of music. The fact that what gives you satisfaction is different to what gives someone else satisfaction is a large part of why a wide variety of music exists.

[Madiel]

Honestly, I fail to see the relevance even for this thread, where people with a keen interest in classical music discuss the comfort zone in classical music. That the vast majority of people have no use for classical music is, well, irrelevant.

Hmm. You didn't actually specify that it was the comfort zone in classical music.

It is kind of funny in a way to have a discussion about 'comfort zone' that can only stay within classical music, where all of the participants feel reasonably comfortable...

[steve ridgway]

I gradually expand my comfort zone - six years ago for classical music it was nothing whatsoever.

[Todd]

It is very, what's the word ... eccentric doesn't seem right (maybe, cultish).

The word you're looking for might be "charlatan".  Hey, more power to him.  I plan on revisiting the Schubert at some point to see how painful it is to hear.  Barto's Schubert was one of the few on ClassicsToday to receive a 1 for artistic quality, so this may be a negative value.  (Barto backs up his bizarre conceptions with superb playing.)

I didn't know who Tzimon Barto was, so I went and looked him up, and I will say I am a big fan of his, if not just for the hair:

The 80s was the hair decade. 

[Todd]

Hmmm. I don't think that is the right word, as I believe he is being authentic and sincere; he just holds onto a reality that the rest of us (save his mentor?) live in.

Fair enough.  Misguided true believers are out there. 

Barto is an acquired taste to be sure, and one must be willing to accept idiosyncratic and self-indulgent playing.  Sometimes it is magnificent.  I suggest adding Russell Sherman to your list.  He can evoke very negative responses as well.

[Szykneij]

As far as my musical comfort zone is concerned, l essentially enjoy what I've been enjoying for decades, and rely upon the occasional happy accident to expand the parameters.

For instance, in 2003 a friend purchased the soundtrack to the film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and we relaxed with it for part of a lazy summer afternoon. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the folk/bluegrass/ country offerings on the CD, and since then have remained open to the artists associated with the film.

Yes, excellent soundtrack and a very entertaining movie (one of the few films I enjoy re-watching.) Shortly after the film came out, I had the opportunity to see Dan Tyminski perform live. Prior to the movie, I was unaware of who he was.

I'm curious if those who choose "bad" regarding comfort zone extend their opinion to genres outside of classical, or limit themselves to new discoveries and challenges within the classical realm.