Typically, I don’t really listen to classical music unless it’s the only music available to me. Reading Copeland describe the sensous and expressive planes makes me think about my involvement in music, and I listen to a lot of music. I feel myself connecting to music on both of these planes, depending on my mood and the music itself.
Beethoven and Tchaikovsky work in the same genre yet are two completely different musicians, to me. I think that Beethoven isn’t harder to pin down in what it means but it is rather less ambiguous than Tchaikosky. His music does have some unpredictable tunes and melodies that rather flow very excitedly, rather than smoothly. However, his music is as I interpret it to be, it is just pushed in a direction according to the song’s melody.
Tchaikovsky’s music isn’t more predictable but his music does flow more smoothly that Beethoven’s perhaps. The mood generally stays pushing the listener in the same direction through his music, without too many leaps of changing tone, like Beethoven. Both musicians are great, they are just very different in producing music. Through the tone of the played notes, the musicians can change the emotional feeling their music elicits, which is how I think these two artists mainly differ. I personally like Tchaikovsky more than Beethoven because his music is smoother and elicits a different reaction from me than from Beethoven.
