Effect of Repeated Listenings on Structural Discrimination and Affective Response

Abstract

Knowledge of musical form and of the structural elements that make up that form is basic to musical understanding and, eventually, musical enjoyment.1 Nevertheless, the relationship between liking a specific piece of music and understanding its composition is not always apparent. Establishing such a relationship is important, for the more that is known about creating positive reactions to music, especially art music, the more likely will better teaching methods be developed to achieve these kinds of reactions. Certain educators have indicated that more effective ways of teaching discriminative listening are necessary to achieve greater sensitivity to the formal structural elements of music.2 Listening to music may occur with relatively little awareness of what is happening within the musical performance. However, listening discriminatively necessarily involves some degree of recognition, perception, or identification of musical stimuli by a process of distinguishing and sifting out certain stimulus characteristics. It is not always possible to make fine discriminations of music in one hearing.