2. Did Hodges’s reflections or playlist change how you feel about classical music?

[smkelly]

Hodges describes classical music as a genre "at the dusty peak of Western high art, one in which contemporary American culture is increasingly less interested."

Have Hodges's reflections or her accompanying playlist enhanced your appreciation for this art form? What were your impressions of classical music before and after reading the book?

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hsXC ... 567b6c42ad

[erebus]

Just thought I should probably post a link to the Gabriela Montero video that the author refers to with regards improvisation.
• Gabriela Montero - Improvisations, Brahms & Ginastera (Full Performance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXG-2LukrE

Personally as a musician I was first a singer and listener and when I picked up musical instruments it was to create my own music.
I always felt a strong sense that historic forms of music should be preserved, but at the same time I never took to the stringent discipline required to "play whatever is written on the page".

Reading this book pretty much reinforces a lot of how I feel about the history, and colonialism of music. Listening to school choirs singing Anglicised versions of North American Black spirituals, feels so clinical - a real mismatch for songs that are supposed to elicit joy, hope, awe and togetherness. I was a teenager before I really started to notice this. I had been raised in my earliest years listening to everything from Bach and Tchaikovsky to Pink Floyd and Joni Mitchell, and all those Jim Henson songs... and people looked at me with great suspicion in the 90s when I likened a lot of Baroque music to Techno or EDM (I feel vindicated by how many rap and electronica artists now use Canon in D).

When I was about 12 several adults asked me where I had "learned all the songs I sang" (or hummed or whistled). I was only just beginning to learn that some people think that music is re-creating something they heard; it never occurred to them that people can make up their own.

• Niccolo Paganini - La campanella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ruHDWSNvB8

and omg Paganini, what a rockstar. Kind of like a stunt-violinist (similar to Steve Vai's "stunt guitarist" status).
The mad pizzicato, aggressive percussive bow attack on the strings.. more like a snare drum, and those ridiculous chords and harmonics.. is all supposed to sound fun, energetic, whimsical and free.. but SO TECHNICALLY DIFFICULT to recreate.
It honestly sounds like he decided.. it's too hard to find a piccolo player so I'll just make my violin sound like a flute.

[Dee]

They did not change how I feel about classical music, but as a History/Secondary Education Major I learned more about the composers she described, and I feel like I have a better understanding of them and what may have driven them.

[Coreyrdot]

Yes - now I'm seeing Johann Sebastian Bach as the Spike Lee of the 18th century

[Lise Khokhlakov]

Yes, Hodges’s reflections and playlist did change how I feel about classical music.

I’ve always had a deep appreciation for it, shaped by years of playing several instruments from my early school days into adulthood. Growing up in the Bugs Bunny generation, I was unwittingly introduced to Rossini’s overtures and Mozart’s The Barber of Seville through cartoons long before I could name the composers. That early exposure fostered both familiarity and affection.

As a scientist, I’ve often approached music with an analytical mind, but Uncommon Measure offered something different. Hodges reframes classical music through an intensely personal and poetic lens—one that merges emotion, memory, and embodiment with musical structure. I had never thought to examine rhythm as a stand-in for lived time or phrasing as a metaphor for grief and joy. Her perspective deepened my appreciation by peeling back layers I hadn’t thought to explore. It was like hearing a familiar piece played in a new key; something shifts, and it stays with you.

[Lise Khokhlakov]

I really enjoyed your response—especially the image of Paganini as a “stunt-violinist”! That’s such a perfect way to describe the wild energy and technical audacity in La Campanella. I also appreciated the Gabriela Montero link—her improvisations feel like a bridge between tradition and personal expression, and I think Hodges would wholeheartedly approve of that kind of creative freedom.

Would love to hear more about how you balance your own creative instincts with the history behind the music you play!

[Mher1]

I can agree with Hodges that American culture doesn’t give classical music as much credit as it deserves.

I haven’t listened to the Spotify playlist just yet, but I plan to tonight. I did watch the Gabriela Montero improvisation video and listened to both the Violin Concerto in D Minor and the Partita No. 2 in D Minor that were mentioned in the book.

While I have enjoyed listening to classical music for years, hearing her talk about those pieces before and after listening to them did help me appreciate them a little more. It’s fun to hear about music that had such a large impact on someone else. I’ve always enjoyed how certain classical songs or part of songs can bring out so much emotion in me. After reading the book, I may take time to think more about why I’m feeling those emotions while listening.