Thanks to all for these thoughtful responses!
Learsfool--perhaps I need to introduce more categories, adding the qualifiers critical and non-critical to both "auditioning" (listening to the stereo) and "listening" (listening to the music). But I doubt that non-critical auditioning ever occurs, so perhaps we're down to three.
(1) Auditioning for me is when you're listening to the equipment, or the purely technical aspects of the music software (e.g. tape hiss, dynamic range, etc.). The music in this case is merely the vehicle that allows you to make judgements about the hardware.
(Wine analogy: if you're drinking wine then the wine is the main point of interest and the goal, but to test a new glass and see how it works, you need to put some wine in it, at which point the focus shifts to the size of the opening, the shape and how well it swirls round the liquid, etc.)
(2) Critical listening for me would be when one's particularly attentive to the shape / form / structure / style / etc. of the musical composition and/or of the performance. One might listen critically to a new composition (to see if it's any good), and certainly to different performances of the same work, or to soloists, etc., to home in on aspects of their playing: timing, phrasing, bowing, intonation, etc.
(3) Emphathetic listening (non-critical listening, but not "background" listening) would be more when one's trying more to enter into the spirit of the music, enjoy it for what it is, to connect with it more, well..., emphathetically.
Obviously these aren't hard-and-fast categories, and they certainly aren't mutually exclusive. I'm just trying to pin down tendencies or emphases. I would say that (2) and (3) are equally "attentive", but (2) is more "critical" than (3), in the sense that different sets of faculties are emphasized in each case (intellec vs. emotion). Again, I recognize the limitations of this description (as in what happens, say, when one listens to a Bach fugue). Anyway, this FWIW.
Learsfool--perhaps I need to introduce more categories, adding the qualifiers critical and non-critical to both "auditioning" (listening to the stereo) and "listening" (listening to the music). But I doubt that non-critical auditioning ever occurs, so perhaps we're down to three.
(1) Auditioning for me is when you're listening to the equipment, or the purely technical aspects of the music software (e.g. tape hiss, dynamic range, etc.). The music in this case is merely the vehicle that allows you to make judgements about the hardware.
(Wine analogy: if you're drinking wine then the wine is the main point of interest and the goal, but to test a new glass and see how it works, you need to put some wine in it, at which point the focus shifts to the size of the opening, the shape and how well it swirls round the liquid, etc.)
(2) Critical listening for me would be when one's particularly attentive to the shape / form / structure / style / etc. of the musical composition and/or of the performance. One might listen critically to a new composition (to see if it's any good), and certainly to different performances of the same work, or to soloists, etc., to home in on aspects of their playing: timing, phrasing, bowing, intonation, etc.
(3) Emphathetic listening (non-critical listening, but not "background" listening) would be more when one's trying more to enter into the spirit of the music, enjoy it for what it is, to connect with it more, well..., emphathetically.
Obviously these aren't hard-and-fast categories, and they certainly aren't mutually exclusive. I'm just trying to pin down tendencies or emphases. I would say that (2) and (3) are equally "attentive", but (2) is more "critical" than (3), in the sense that different sets of faculties are emphasized in each case (intellec vs. emotion). Again, I recognize the limitations of this description (as in what happens, say, when one listens to a Bach fugue). Anyway, this FWIW.