It started with a feeling, not in the ear, but in the gut. Music had always been an intensely corporeal experience for me. When I listened, and especially when I played, the sound only seemed to start in my ears before making my whole body vibrate in sympathy. It felt as though there were reverberant […]
Author Archives: Joseph Kreider
… is a writer and teacher based in the U.S.
Posted inEssay
Listening to Classical Music in Recovery
Long before I became addicted to—or had even tasted—alcohol, I was hooked on music. Ever since discovering classical music’s mood-altering effects at the age of ten, while listening to the “Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s “Requiem,” I had abused it like a hardened junkie, turning to it constantly to regulate moods over which I had increasingly little […]
Posted inRankings & Roundups
Eight Unintentionally Funny Works of Classical Music
One of the great joys of getting to know classical music is learning to recognize how funny it can be. Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony may not seem like a particularly interesting piece the first time you hear it, but once you can appreciate the ways it subverts the conventions of classical development—the last movement razzes the […]