The last listener type, the perceptive listener, combines the characteristics of the previous three types of listeners but is not limited by them. The perceptive listener does the following:

• Like the casual listener, this person enjoys sound for sound's sake, but asks what is it in the music that makes me feel this way:
  • Is it the way the performer is interpreting the music?
  • Is it because of the volume or speed at which it is played?
  • Is it because it is sung, played by instruments, or because it has a good balance of unity and variety?
  • Is it a combination of all these elements?
  • If so, which combination is at work?
• Like the referential listener, this person may have associations with the music being heard, but also tries to remember:
  • when and where the music was heard most recently and
  • what other works from that composer or performer she knows.
• Like the critical listener, this person is aware of the quality of a performance but goes beyond the technical aspects to seek understanding and appreciation of the human and cultural values embodied in the music.

Furthermore, the perceptive listener:

• attends concerts regularly and listens with concentration;
• uses appropriate musical vocabulary, not lay terms like “mellow” or “upbeat,” to describe music;
• tries to develop an awareness of different musical styles and realizes that there are significant and valid differences among these styles;
• realizes that music is created for many different purposes and by many different kinds of people;
• tries to understand the music and what makes it interesting before passing judgment on it;
• would never decide to dislike a certain kind of music without having listened to it;
• tries to learn something about the music before listening to a live or recorded performance of it; and
• is aware of the fact that a piece of music, regardless of style, might take some time to reveal its structure, meaning and beauty, and is therefore prepared to reserve judgment until hearing it many times.

As you listen to the following piece, reflect on the following questions:

• Is there anything in this music that reminds you of winter?
• How does the composer create mood in this piece?
• What gives unity and variety to this piece?

Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in F minor—one of four compositions that, as a group, form a work called The Four Seasons—is titled "Winter." Fine examples of program music, each of the four compositions depicts one of the four seasons of the year. Vivaldi was inspired by four paintings of the seasons by Marco Ricci (1676–1730), a prolific Italian artist who specialized in naturalistic landscape painting. Although it's not known who exactly wrote them, four poems (sonnets) accompany each movement. Vivaldi linked lines of the poems to specific sections of the music. Below, the sonnet that corresponds to the winter. Winter brings cold winds,the stamping of feet, and chattering teeth. Because this is program music, listen for how the music suggests winter and what specific words in the text might correspond to sections in the music. But remember: you may also try to listen for the musical structure of the work.