The History Of Listening

In this sparkling essay, noted music conductor and educator Leon Botstein explores the meaning of a seemingly everyday activity—the act of listening. In particular, he argues that listening to music helps us interpret our individual lives and our collective sense of self.Botstein argues that the live performance of chamber music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries helped shape the idea of a collective public. Later, music became linked to the Romantic idea of self, and listening became a means of expressing individuality.Botstein reveals how the massive changes in technology in the last century have affected how we listen to music and what we derive from it. With instant digital playbacks, listeners can turn to music not to evoke a feeling but to repeat a sensation. Botstein’s idiosyncratic and passionate defense of the art of listening will appeal to all aficionados of culture, art, and music.