“Listen to music” or “listen for music”

Question

Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

1. The music for which we heard last night at the concert was exceptionally good.

2. The music to which we listened at the concert last night was exceptionally good.

3. The music which we listened last night at the concert was exceptionally good.

Answer 1

Music is generally listened to. We listen for things we are expecting -- the doorbell, the phone, the tornado sirens.

The music to which we listened at the concert last night was exceptionally good.

This is the best choice, although it is clunky. That being said, my suggested alternative is:

The music we heard at the concert last night was exceptionally good.

Answer 2

Only the second sentence is correct, although it would be much more natural to express the same as

“The music (which) we listened to at the concert last night was exceptionally good, ”

where the relative pronoun would be normally dropped in spoken language and could be preserved, or replaced by that, if you wrote the sentence.

Answer 3

Number 2 is grammatically correct, though somewhat awkward. Constructions like "to which" are sometimes used to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. It's more common to simply say, "The music we listened to at the concert last night was exceptionally good."

Number 1 is wrong because "heard" does not take a preposition. You could say, "We heard the music", but you DON'T say, "We heard for the music."

Number 3 is wrong because "listened" DOES require a preposition. You say, "We listened to the music", NOT "We listened the music."

(As to why "listened" requires a preposition but "heard" does not ... I think that's just a rule you have to learn word by word.)