John Detwiler wrote:

>But back to seperating an entire piece of music from its individual parts.
>When listening to music, I often hear moments, melodies, specific changes
>in harmony, but not the whole picture.  Even when seriously listening, I
>find it difficult not just to concentrate on one part at a time.

This is just a theory, but this could have something to do with listening
to recordings.  There can be two reasons for this.  One is you have a
system that is a superb imager: this can encourage concentrating on one
instrument or whatever.  Given today's multimiking, you can be at the mercy
of the engineers.  On the other hand, you may have just the opposite: a
muddy system.  Again, this is just theory, but the muddiness may force your
mind to focus in on something in order to grab a handle on the performance.
Another suggestion: close your eyes.  Looking at speakers tends to trigger
a narrow focus on something.  In any case, I'm an audiophile, but even I
admit that the hardest thing for a stereo system to do is give the big
picture while not skirting details in big works.

All of which is to suggest attending live concerts in good halls.
I'm guessing you'll find a difference there.  But avoid balconies.  An
ex-player, I like balconies because I like to watch the orchestra and see
how different instrumental combinations work out.  This, however, can lead
to the exact phenomenon you are describing.

One other thing.  You are probably listening to "hard." At the risk of
turning what you're listening to into a "sound bath" try to relax more,
let the music come to you, rather than you boring in on it.

>(I have difficulty hearing key relationships between pieces as well...
>I have a great ear for most other things, but once a new movement begins,
>my mind instantly adapts.)

Can't help you here.  I don't have perfect pitch or anything close, so
I too adjust.  But I must admit, I don't try and listen for key changes
either.  I'll be this can be trained or learned, though, since different
keys do sound different.  I would guess you'd have to bear down to learn
this sound.  (E.g., major keys are brighter or more cheerful than minor
keys--generally.  Eb major is supposed to be a "sunny" key, I think, etc.
Maybe F, too.  YOu might get better stuff on this from other list members.)

My guess is that the learning process for this would be different with
piano than with orchestral instruments because of the piano's tempered
scale, which doesn't allow for slight pitch adjustments.  Orchestral
instruments can make these minute adjustments on a note depending on what
role that note plays in a given scale, e.g., pulling up the leading tone
B natural in the key of C major.

Roger Hecht