Music for my ear

May 1, 2007 8:17 PM

I need some recommendations for a complex and variable piece of music for some intentional hearing exercises.

I have been diagnosed with sudden idiopathic neurosensory hearing loss (just one side). At first I had no hearing at all, and now two weeks later, I seemed to have regained a small amount. While the doc said that my chance for full recovery is guarded, he mentioned that he had another patient with the same problem who seemed to be able to regain his hearing by doing some intentional hearing exercises. Essentially the guy chose a complex piece of music and listened it to every day trying to pick out more sounds. I'd like to try it. I need an instrumental piece, probably around 10-20 minutes, and I guess that some classical piece is probably best (although any suggestion is welcome), but I have no idea where to begin. I am hoping for something that will capture my attention, since I plan on listening to the same thing everything day. It needs to be complex and have a variety of sounds.

posted by sulaine to health (21 comments total)

Your recommendation reminds me of a song by the band Tortoise called 'Djed' from the album 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die'. It rings in at 21 minutes long and consists of many different types of instruments riffing including xylophone in a post-rock riff. Good stuff.
posted by ronmexico at 8:36 PM on May 1, 2007

Stravinsky. Petrouchka or Rite of Spring.

Long, much to explore.
posted by sourwookie at 8:36 PM on May 1, 2007

While it was definitely not the first thing that came to mind, ronmexico's suggestion should fit the bill and while not classical, I love Tortoise so I have to agree.

Another non-classical suggestion is Godspeed You Black Emperor. Tracks tend to clock in at about 20 minutes and will build from quiet selections of found noise to deafening levels of sound.

Finally, I'd say look into some Indian classical music. Ali Akbar Kahn, Zakir Hussain, Shivkumar Shurma, Sultan Kahn, and Nikhil Bannerjee are some of my favorites. Many of these performances will begin with alap which is slow and droning and build from there.
posted by sanko at 8:59 PM on May 1, 2007

Bernard Parmegiani
posted by rhizome at 9:10 PM on May 1, 2007

Last year Wired magazine profiled a dude who tested out improvements in his cochlear implants by listening for the different timbres in Bolero. For me, the thing that has most consistently invited and rewarded repeated close listening is a collection of Blood, Sweat, and Tears hits. To each his own.

Jumping on the post-rock bandwagon, I'd say you could get lots of different kinds of sounds out of Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, by Do Make Say Think. Jumping back off, I think you could also do it with Phish, the Grateful Dead, the Duke Ellington orchestra (especially in the Blanton-Webster era), Birth of the Cool, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, or Alison Krauss and Union Station. Bluegrass, jam bands, big-band and big-band-influenced jazz ... there are a lot of complex and enjoyable musics out there. Play around, you'll find something you like.
posted by eritain at 9:34 PM on May 1, 2007

Wow- what a fascinating and wonderful method of treatment for what must be a devastating situation.
My suggestions are pieces that I would love to listen to each day, both because they are wonderful and because they are so complex.
Bach instrumental music: Goldberg variations (solo piano), Violin Sonatas and Partitas (particularly the fugues, or the D minor Chaconne), Cello Suites. While these pieces are for solo instruments, there are many layers and voices and textures to discover.
String quartet music: Beethoven and Bartok string quartets.
Ravel chamber music: Duo for violin and cello, Piano trio, String Quartet.
Best of luck to you, and please keep us posted!
posted by purplefiber at 10:25 PM on May 1, 2007

If you're looking for something that will reall make you work to identify the sounds, I recommend MIMEO's Hands of Carravaggio with John Tilbury. It's a large electr-acoustic group with a pianist (and another pianist playing inside the piano, tasked with trying to frustrate Tilbury).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:01 PM on May 1, 2007

The Planets, by Holst.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:32 PM on May 1, 2007

Seconding Holst's The Planets. There are some beautiful pieces in that collection.

Really, any classical piece can work for this - I've trained my ear to be sharper by picking out the harmonies in many pieces, as you're wanting to do. It's difficult, but fun, to try and NOT listen to the melody as we all tend to do. Humming along with what you are listening to may help you. It will both confirm that you're not listening to the melody, and may reinforce your training (at least, it always did in my experience).

Best of luck in getting your hearing back to normal. I hope you can keep us updated on the benefits of this type of therapy!
posted by odi.et.amo at 5:59 AM on May 2, 2007

I think that even though Bach is intellectually complex, the works for solo piano/violin/cello might not have the textural complexity that ensemble works might have. I would recommend something with many different timbres to color the polyphony. I like sourwookie's idea of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Or a good fugue. Maybe one of the symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich...? Or maybe William Schuman's third symphony, which has a good contrapuntal passage.
posted by bassjump at 6:03 AM on May 2, 2007

Assuming that by variety of sounds you mean layers of contrasting instruments and timbres, you could go for popular 19th or 20th century orchestral music. Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov in particular are known for their orchestration.

Ravel- Daphnis and Chloe
Mussorgsky- Pictures at an Exhibition
Rimsky-Korsakov- Scheherzade
Stravinksy- Firebird (and other Stravinsky works as mentioned upthread)
Debussy- La Mer
Prokofiev- Romeo and Juliet

If you're after something a bit more startling, maybe some John Adams- Harmonielerhe springs to mind. Or Varese- Ameriques?

In a non-classical vein you may get some good mileage out of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
posted by Coaticass at 6:18 AM on May 2, 2007

Kind of on what odi.et.amo said... Something with vocal harmonies might be good to start with. When friends ask how to start harmonizing (which is all about hearing), I usually tell them to find music they already like with two- or three-part harmonies, then learn them well enough to sing along with each harmony. It's pretty challenging and fun, too.
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:48 AM on May 2, 2007

Some that might suit

Brian Eno - Ambient Works
Satie - Parade (Musique concrete piece, essentially the forerunner of sampling so plenty of different sounds)
Gavin Bryars - Jesus' Blood (Half hour repetitive piece with a very slow orchestral build up)
posted by TwoWordReview at 6:59 AM on May 2, 2007

Wow, thanks for all the ideas. I put a bunch of them on hold at the library and I hope something will work for me.

The ENT didn't seem to put a whole lot of faith in this method, but I am pretty much ready to try anything.

I'll post some updates with how it goes...
posted by sulaine at 8:11 AM on May 2, 2007

All good suggestions and I don't know exactly what you need, but I would recommend that you go with any of the twentieth century orchestral examples above for the reason that they'll have more dynamic (i.e. volume) variation than earlier pieces. Not that there's anything wrong with Bach!
posted by ob at 8:37 AM on May 2, 2007

10ish minutes might be preferable, eh?

I'd try Salonen's "Helix", recently premiered, seen/heard here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0-8_hWpXgE
posted by stance at 8:53 AM on May 2, 2007

It definitely sounds like you would benefit from listening to some Steve Reich, specifically "Different Trains" (it's a set of three movements/songs). Each movement is about 10 minutes long and up to the ~30 minute whole. He's a "neo-classical" composer, and falls somewhere between classical and modern.

Also, I don't know if it would help or not, but the pieces are also comprised of a lot of found sound and dialog, in addition to the music.

It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, so just give it a whirl. You can sample it on his main Myspace page (I can't send a link because it's blocked at my work).
posted by JacksonEsquire at 12:06 PM on May 2, 2007

Will you be listening with both ears, just with the affected ear? If both ears, then you might want to consider music that has more noticable stereo qualities (ie call and response segments). If one ear think about getting a mono recording of whatever music you select so the stereo aspect doesn't get in the way.
posted by yarrow at 3:17 PM on May 2, 2007

Coaticass's suggestions are great, and your library probably has CDs of orchestral music by Tristan Murail and/or Kaija Saariaho, the best-known "spectral" (highly sound-focused) composers. They write constantly evolving, delicate, fascinating music that I think would be perfect for what you need. If you hear and like these, feel free to email me (in profile) for more suggestions.
posted by allterrainbrain at 11:15 PM on May 2, 2007

I plan to listen a few times with both ears to become familiar with the piece, but the point will be to listen with the affected ear to try and hear more each time, without the help of the fully functioning ear. So stereo qualities would be bad.
posted by sulaine at 9:44 AM on May 3, 2007

You say instrumental music, but I'm assuming this is because you don't want to focus on words so much. Bach's Mass in b minor is a vocal and full orchestra. The words are in Latin, and is musically complex. It's an option.

sourwookie and Coaticass both have great suggestions, IMO. The Planets and The Firebird are good choices. Prokofiev's violin concertos are also interesting and complex pieces. I'd also try Bartok's Dance Suite. Shostakovitch's Symphony No. 5 also rocks.
posted by jeversol at 10:37 AM on May 3, 2007