After not conscientiously listening for a long long time, I decided that I better buck up and start mugging the crap out of my ears from now on. Last night I listened to Varese... erm, hmm, he's fine, there are some things I really like (and in fact some of the compo assignments got partly influenced by him), but there were also some parts that were too eeek for me. Unfortunately, I've been slacking for the whole of today other than practising in the morning. So I decided to listen to Mahler's Symphony No.1 just now. I love it! Perhaps other than a few cheesy moments... but maybe the 'cheesiness' occurs to me only because too many composers have copied his style for so long that these things have become yucky cliche stuff. Mahler is just superb for all the lyrical, long, 'heart-melting' (not as heart-melting as Sibelius' Violin Concerto heh), 'stretched', 'sighing' melodic lines! Haha those are just my own descriptions, I dunno why I never fell in love with Mahler before today, maybe it's cos I haven't been listening to a lot for ages, or if something was playing I just didn't actually pay much attention to what I was hearing. *Contented sigh* I'm glad I really listened today.

I guess from now on I have to listen to much more everyday, or I have no idea how I'm going to pass my exams next term! Yay. Nothing like a fresh start to inspire me to work harder. (Just hope it's going to last me the whole term lor... >.<)