I decided to check out Boosey Radio. I’m listening to the station “Sunny Saturday” (only because that’s what is first up … not my choice as I’m not necessarily into sunny). It hops from one movement of a work to another. We began with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (one movement only), and we hit on Beethoven, Holst, Vivaldi, Mozart, Gershwin, Grieg … not necessarily in that order.

The thing is, I like seeing a full work of art when I’m looking at an art work, and I like reading the whole novel, not a chapter, and if I go to an opera performance I want to see and hear the whole thing.

And I want the same thing with music. Even on radio or when I’m listening to CDs. Our younger son is a “hopper” when it comes to his iPod. He’s the same way with things on TV sometimes. Maybe it’s a generational thing? Maybe the remote control generation—meaning they never knew anything else, certainly I use the remote control too!—just views all of this differently.

I have done the iPod “surprise me” thing. And sometimes it works just fine. Sometimes not. But it’s not the norm for me.

I wonder, too, if composers get bugged if someone listens to one movement of a work of theirs and says, “Okay, got it. Enough.” Or are they just happy to have anything at all—even if incomplete—heard?

Just thinking ….

(And I just changed stations to “Mood Indigo” which is more my style.)