For those of you who don't know, I'm taking a music course as my elective this term, just to offload some work so I can focus on other stuff (like my fourth year design project.... which isn't, well, going very far to this date). I had originally meant to take it for the sake of it being a bird course, and yes, it is a bird course... it's so 'birdy' that I can't even explain in in words (and to think that the instructor was aiming for a 65% average for the midterm... well, I have nothing to say about that). But besides it being an uber-bird course, I've actually been enlightened on the history context and development of what we call a 'symphony' (the piece of music, not the orchestra as many people get orchestra and symphony mixed up). In particular, I'd have to say that studying one of Mozart's symphonies (no. 40, his second last symphony) has been by far the most interesting and eye-opening for myself.
In case you don't know, I used to be one of those people who couldn't stand Mozart (I wouldn't say I'm a Mozart-hater, but I just don't appreciate it as much as other people do). Well, after the instructor talked about Mozart's 40th and me reading up some more and listening more carefully to his music, I've come to understand and appreciate Mozart's musical innovations - I had previously thought of him as boring and predictable, but after examining his later works, I've noticed small, but incredibly neat and useful music devices that he introduced to his music. While I appreciate and now start to like Mozart's music, there's still one Mozart piece I cannot stand (it's on par with Pachelbel's canon... grrrr): Eine Kleine Nachtmusik <--it drives me nuts to play or listen to it - overplayed for what its musical content's worth.
