I am starting this thread for anyone who wants to delve a little deeper into the aesthetics and/or the "Tekne" of the music in which he/she is interested. "Tekne" talk could range from the tech of musical instruments (love the Moog synthesizer!) to virtuosity to music theory.
I'm a very inactive amateur pianist these days, but I still have some vestigial chops. I think my ear is improving, simply due to the fact that I listen to so much music. Right now, I'm listening to a compilation of Mozart piano concertos pretty steadily and I'm gaining an appreciation for the brilliance of the classical formal structure. Three movements; fast-slow-fast; each movement states a theme, develops it, then returns to it. That's a wild oversimplification, of course, and there are other formal structures (suite based on dance forms, e.g.). But one always knows where one is and where one is going. Timeless music.