As for a week without music, I can’t see that happening. At least, not while I’ve got some paid writing gigs at hand. I might be an interesting experiment, but I think you can probably picture me rocking back and forth on the floor, drooling into my lap. Or flicking the lamp light on and off (a la FATAL ATTRACTION), except that I wouldn’t even be allowed the Puccini that accompanies it!

As for the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, thank you for not suggestion Bach or Hummel. ;)

When we discover something that gives us pleasure, we naturally want more of it. Whether it’s food or sex or music, we think, “If a little of it is nice, more of it will be even better.” This philosophy, if taken to its natural conclusion, ends up with disastrous results. It ends up deadening the ability to truly experience the pleasure at all. The glutton started by truly enjoying food, but in an insatiable quest for more, he finds himself eating constantly, but not really tasting anything.

Can the sin of gluttony apply to music? Well, you write that you are almost constantly listening to music, and yet failing to experience the joy it once gave you. Sounds a bit like a person who is eating constantly without savoring the food. Maybe Jim Lochner is a musical glutton!

The Greek admonition of “Nothing in Excess” isn’t to suggest depriving yourself of anything, but rather to avoid the joy-killing effects of gluttony. The idea is to learn to truly experience the food, the sex, and the music. The goal is to sensitize your palate, not to kill it. And excess accomplishes the latter. The Greek philosopher Epicurus understood this, and so advocated pleasure by enjoying things in modest quantity. To be an epicurean means you get the maximum pleasure out of food, sex, and music because, taken in small amounts, you can actually savor the food, relish the sex, and hear….really hear…the music.

The other inscription on the temple at Delphi was “Know Thyself.” No one can know you like you can know you. Friends, family, a therapist, a counselor, or even Lucy Van Pelt cannot get inside your skull. Only you can know if you are a musical glutton. If you find that you are, you might want to try this exercise: Spend one week with no music. Not a note. That’s going to mean no movies or TV, since the idea is to “cleanse the palate” completely. In our culture, it’s very hard to avoid music, but it might be worth the effort. At the end of one week, put your headphones on, close your eyes and listen….really listen….to Mozart’s clarinet quintet. It may be a life-changing experiment that will reconnect you with your love of music.

You’re welcome! I didn’t take those videos myself, I was just lucky to find them on YouTube. Pass ‘em on!

I think we must be some of the few who enjoy the new Trek score unequivocally.

I put your blog in my Google reader as well.

Thanks for the link to your great article. Everyone should read it.

P.S. I put your blog in my Google reader. Now add some more posts! :)

I also can’t really remember when the last time was that I only listened to music without multi-tasking. I am always either doing algebra, surfing the internet, or reading. But I am also always paying attention to the music, and don’t usually have a problem focusing on both at the same time.

Funny how you started out the article talking about how you want music here and now when you buy it. I have to resist this same urge when it comes to downloading music. I can either get it in better quality, with liner notes and CD case sometimes for less (used on Amazon), or I can download it and have it right now. Shouldn’t really even be a temptation, but it is.

As far as really getting to know the music (and I talk about it in my article on Patrol, see link at the bottom), when I really love a score, I often want to study it, and find out what things are missing on the album, sometimes creating a complete edit for myself. Yes, I am one of those obsessive fans. This labor of love is something that I really enjoy putting the time into, as I become familiar with the work on a level I otherwise wouldn’t. I worked so hard on a complete edit of the score for Temple of Doom when it came out last year, that I feel like I know that score perhaps better than any other in my collection. Perhaps because of this, it is also one of my favorites.

So anyways, those are some of my disjointed thoughts on the matter. Very good article.

Here is the link for my article on Patrol: http://www.patrolmag.com/arts/1679/the-greatest-story-ever-composed

And my CD player (which has an iPod dock too, ironically!):
http://bit.ly/GDdmi

Makes CDs fun again! :)