How to Listen to a Symphony

A guide for classical music beginners

Many people, if not most, have it in their heads that classical music is simply not for them. Perhaps on some level they wish they were the kind of person who would enjoy listening to an orchestra play for an hour or two, but in reality it is too stuffy, too boring, and too difficult to really dedicate any time or energy to, and certainly too dull to ever actually love.

However, classical music was written for normal human beings, just like you. The difficulty comes from not having been taught to listen and to love it. If you have never given classical music much of a chance, and yet part of you harbors the secret wish to be one of those people who love it, then consider this your invitation and guide to begin. Want to enjoy a symphony? Here’s how to do just that:

Step one: Give it your full attention. Classical music was not made to be listened to in the background while you eat expensive food at a fancy restaurant, nor to accompany a few brief moments of an elevator ride or a telephone hold. There is much more going on in a symphony than goes on in any pop music that you typically listen to, and thus it requires much more of your attention. The more attention and thought you give it, the more it will give back to you. This will require some work on your part, perhaps even a bit of boredom as you adjust to actively listening to music instead of passively listening. But active listening can be developed and strengthened the more you do it, just like a muscle. Choose a free hour in the morning, afternoon, or evening, in which you will sit down with your favorite beverage and perhaps a little snack, and prepare to give your attention to the music, in the same way you would give it to a good book. If you are willing to complete even just this one step, then you will already be most of the way there to loving it.

Step two: Be willing to listen to it more than once. If you were to buy a $100 dollar bottle of Italian wine, you would not be able to appreciate it and enjoy by simply taking one single, quick gulp. It requires you to aerate it, savor it, let it linger on your tongue, and drink a full glass. A good symphony is just as full bodied as wine. You will not get everything out of it in one listen. If you want to learn to love symphonies, your best bet is to listen to just one at least three times before moving on to another. This will open the symphony up to you, revealing more and more of its inner workings, just as letting wine linger on your tongue allows you to taste the full flavor of it.

Step three: Listen for the form. All symphonies have a form to them, and this can be distinguished even by a novice listener. Most are made up of four movements, each of them with its own distinct flavor, tempo, mood, and themes. Listening for the distinct movements in a symphony is the first and easiest form to grasp, but each movement itself consists of a form as well. The most common forms you will hear are made up of contrasting sections (ABA) and repetition/variation (AABB). This sounds more complex than it is. Pay attention to the opening of the movement. Listen to the melody and instrumentation and try to get it into your memory. Listen for it to develop for a while, and then notice when the instrumentation and melody seem to change to something new. This is a new section. Does that first melody come back later? Does it repeat exactly or does it come back in a new way? Do they weave together? Music is by nature an abstract art, but it is not formless, and listening for these forms will help you listen, understand, and enjoy it.

Step four: Listen for the melodies. Most of the sections in a movement will have their own distinct melodies, and quite often those melodies will be brought back in new ways, woven together with other melodies, or passed along to other instruments, moved up or down, shortened or lengthened. The human ear loves melody; it has a remarkable capacity to remember melody, even more than it can remember words. Thus, as you listen to a symphony, try to remember the different melodies that catch your ear. Then, notice them as they come back again and again.

Step five: Listen for the timbre. Timbre (pronounced tam-bur), is simply the musical term for the quality of sound produced. The difference between a violin, trumpet, flute, voice, harp, and piano playing the same melody is their timbre, the quality and type of sound they make. A symphony is written for the full orchestra, and thus there are many different timbres to be heard in it. Listen for how the melodies you have been paying attention to change in quality and emotion and mood as they are passed around to different instruments. Listen to the difference when simply the strings are playing, or simply the brass, or when the full orchestra comes together. Listen to how the timbre is used to move along the musical story.

Step six: Listen to the harmonies, rhythms, and textures. This is the stuff that’s going on underneath the melody, and in a symphony, that’s a lot. When you first listen to a piece of music, usually the thing that you hear is the melody. You have to listen actively, and dig a little bit to actively pay attention to what’s happening beneath them, and yet this is where so much of the richness of the piece lies. Listen to the difference between fast, beating rhythms and slow, languid ones. Listen for how harmony can change the same melody from sounding happy to sad to angry to glorious. Listen for the change between unison (everyone playing the same notes), homophony (chords accompanying the melody) and polyphony (two or more melodies playing at once). In a symphony, composers usually trade between these frequently, as they unfold a musical drama to the listener. Every time you notice a new change, or a new piece of what is happening, you will grow in your appreciation and enjoyment of the piece.

It’s time now to return to the first two steps. You cannot listen for form, melody, timbre, harmonies, rhythms, and textures, if you only plan to listen one time, or only with half of your attention. Every one of those things is well within the listening ability of a normal human being, even with no musical training themselves. It simply requires time and practice. Then, once you’ve completed the first six steps a number of times, it’s time for step seven: choose another symphony and do it all again! And once you’ve done this, you are well on your way to not just being the kind of person who listens to classical music, but the kind of person who honestly loves it too.

If you have now been convinced to learn to love the symphony, and I hope you have, you may be wondering which symphony specifically to start with. Of course, there are no wrong answers here, but here are a few suggestions. If you want to start with a true Classical era symphony, try Mozart’s famous Jupiter symphony. It has a smaller orchestra, the crisp, exuberant joy of the classical period, and one of the most famous finales ever written. Or, for perhaps the most famous symphony ever written, give Beethoven’s 9th a listen. You will recognize the melody in the finale as Ode To Joy, and the moment when the choir joins in is one of the most sublime moments in classical music. This is a piece every person really should know. If the Romantic is more to your taste, try Dvorak’s symphony no. 9, which is filled with themes and folk melodies from Dvorak’s trip to the New World, and is powerful, exciting, and moving. For a more avant-garde, 20th century work, try Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony, a perfect choice for anyone still questioning whether classical music can be anything other than boring. Finally, if you want something shorter and lesser known, give Mendelssohn’s first symphony a try, written when he was a mere 15 years old.