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Copland's Three Levels Of Listening To Music

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"The selections by Copland, taken from his 1957 book What to Listen for in Music, express his belief that one listens to music on several planes-the sensuous, the expressive, and the sheerly musical. After a brief discussion of what constitues each of these planes, he admits that rarely does one listen on only one plane, but rather the astute listener is constantly moving from one plane to another as the musical work unfolds," (Pitman) Aaron Copland discusses three levels of listening to music: sensuous, expressive, and sheerly musical. The sensuous level, or plane, is the most basic, but pleasurable level of enjoyment. This level of listening requires the least amount of brain power; therefore we usually engage this level when we use

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