Thomas Weelkes, “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending” a Madrigal from 1601.

Firstly, I absolutely loved this exercise. I discovered a lot of things about the music, as well as myself, which surprised me. I chose a madrigal because in Vocal Ensemble last year, we performed madrigals, and they were extremely difficult. Therefore, I hold great admiration for madrigals. I listened to this piece of music for 35-minutes.

At first, it was as though I was listening to this as background music, because I had trouble shutting my mind down and simply focusing on the music. Different tasks continually nagged at my brain, making it difficult to focus on the form, structure and voices. I then moved to a more comfortable spot, and as the recording continued to play, I noticed new things about the voices and music. Firstly, I realized how much energy the performers were exerting. When listening to this madrigal in the background, this went unnoticed, and it simply became a song with many different layers that I couldn’t quite sort out. It seemed a bit chaotic. I also noticed the beautiful layering of the voices, the soft sound of a singer breathing for her next line and the dynamic shifts. I could recall different parts of the piece as they were played/sung, and the basic form of the song became very familiar to me.

What I loved about listening to this piece, was that as I relaxed into this task of being a mindful listener, I put different thoughts out of my mind and was quiet. I find it difficult to not be doing a task, but this exercise this allowed me to really wind down and focus. I began to fall asleep, and realized how my initial thought that this song was chaotic was wrong; it is actually quite a peaceful song. Through giving this song my undivided attention, the value of the piece shifted for me. Rather than it being just another song to listen to on a playlist, I began to appreciate the value in it, and the work that the composer and artists put into it. As a singer, I put so much work into the songs that I will perform; if someone truly appreciated each song that I performed, that would be such a compliment, as they would be really focusing on how much time and effort I put into it.