Music and melancholy

[Pilgrim]

Music, as we know, goes right to the emotional core of your brain. In this particular instance, it's melancholy. I characterize melancholy as equivalent to rubbing a bruise, as opposed to getting it in the first place. Rubbing it can feel sort of good, after while.

 

For instance, this morning I pulled up some Henry Mancini on iTunes as I ran my morning electronic trapline. Within minutes I was in a melancholy state. It's not a rare thing to happen, but neither is it an entirely predictable response to Mancini - or any other artist, for that matter. (Never mind comments from you under-50's who think Mancini is inherently depressing. Or who don't know who he was.)

 

There are a couple songs that will sink me into utter depression, but they have distinct, identifiable emotional connections. I really ought to strike them from my iTunes library.

 

Others can lift me out of it.

 

Anyhow, any comments on how music reaches you sometimes, particularly as a mood-changer? I don't mean just the "I like that song" thing, but music that reaches you deeply. What does it do? Why? Predictable? Situation-sensitive?

 

Pilgrim

 

[RodB]

This song (video) seems to be reaching a lot of people around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

[smiller]

Excellent post Pilgrim, and a very evocative description. Melancholy is indeed sort of like a pain that somehow feels good.

 

And nothing can bring it on like the right kind of music. A song that's maybe suggestive of a bittersweet time in the past, or that captures some feelings, experiences, or even fears in a poetic way that hits home. As to which songs, a very personal thing that can't be completely shared with anyone, even those very close.

 

I even have a playlist of such tunes, rarely brought out. How's that for strange?

[Dave McReynolds]

The main time I listen to music with any focus is when I workout. I loaded all my favorite songs on my MP3 player, and find that I skip over the ones that have too slow of a beat. I definitely don't like a frantic beat, which is what I hear when I look into the jazzersize classes. I guess the negative audio stimulation is greater than the positive visual stimulation for me, and for that reason, I probably wouldn't ever sign up for one of those classes. But I find that a certain beat encourages me to keep exercising, and too slow of a beat, even though it may be one of my favorite songs, seems discordant to me in that setting.

[Les is more]

There's a phrase we used in certain kinds of music therapy--"Let the music take you where you want to go."

 

Type of structure, instrumentation, rhythm and personal connections or aversions all make music a very powerful force but one that leaves you with a choice. You can delete, turn off or walk away in most cases.

 

It is so emotionally evocative--maybe because it is inherently made up of vibration as are we on the most basic level. We either resonate or don't with what we hear. If it doesn't resonate with us, we don't fully listen.

 

 

[Quinn]

For me, a lot of it is just the memories that certain songs evoke. Some of the memories are just snapshots like drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette in a dark booth while the music played on the jukebox. Others are full blown spirals down memory lane to the crash at the end. As I've gotten older, most of the melancholy down spirals are short-circuited with, "God, I sure did take things seriously back then."

 

 

[Joel]

I don't think I have the time or words to explain why music can provoke such visceral reactions in me, but it does. Fortunately, they're almost always uplifting in some way. That may be because I've tended my music library to weed out those that would point me the other way. Regardless, it seldom has anything to do with lyrics. Being a frustrated and failed former student of a few instruments, I admire a skillful combination of technical proficiency and phrasing more than a lyric. The beauty of that, done well, can stir my soul like almost nothing else.

 

Back to tending the library, I heard an apt wisecrack today: I love all the music on my iPod. Except when it is shuffling. Then I only like about every third song.

[Pilgrim]

I don't think I have the time or words to explain why music can provoke such visceral reactions in me, but it does. Fortunately, they're almost always uplifting in some way. That may be because I've tended my music library to weed out those that would point me the other way. Regardless, it seldom has anything to do with lyrics. Being a frustrated and failed former student of a few instruments, I admire a skillful combination of technical proficiency and phrasing more than a lyric. The beauty of that, done well, can stir my soul like almost nothing else.

 

 

I hear that, Joel. The Mancini that kicked off the melancholy this morning is, of course, all instrumental. Lyrics can do it, but notas often as the sound of the music, itself.

 

Sometimes, though, it can be the sound of the words not the lyrics(bear with me) of a song. A few of Gloria Estefan's songs evoke deep emotion in me in Spanish, but leave me cold in English translation.

 

One night, as I lay dozing, almost asleep at midnight, I was listening to one of Bach's pieces being played at a campsite next to mine. I could see the shape of the music, squares and rectangles, interlocking to make complex patterns. No drugs involved, and it's never happened just that way again, but that one thing showed me that music is an exercise in mathematics.

 

Pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[smiller]

No drugs involved ...

Those folks at the next campsite didn't happen to give you any brownies, did they?

[vizhip]

Pilgrim -

 

I use music for many things... and depending on what needs to be accomplished - even relaxation - there are different tracks of different artists that I tend to play...

 

For a while, I would find some tracks from a movie that were not included in the soundtrack for that movie and thus I would tape sections, and use them for mood...

 

Music has always been a very powerful method of getting a mood across... that is why your better movies put a lot of effort into getting a super composer to provide the perfect setting for a scene...

 

I have always said that a movie can be judged by its sound track... and for the most part, I still agree with that... I just wish that the script writers could get closer to what the book invokes for imagery )))

 

Regards -

-Bob

[Fugu]

There are a couple songs that will sink me into utter depression, but they have distinct, identifiable emotional connections. I really ought to strike them from my iTunes library.

 

Yeah, get rid of them. I have a few like that, tied to specific events. Thankfully they aren't radio or satellite played tunes, so why torment myself with them on my ipod?

 

 

Ronnie Earl is a blues/ jazz guitarist who suffered for many years (and still does I'm sure) with depression on top of drug and alcohol abuse. Many of his CDs really grab me- in part because I know a bit about the torment he felt personally as he wrote the songs, and in part because he's one of those who can make a musical instrument "speak"- or more accurately I guess, bypass your brain's speech centers and just project emotion directly to you.

 

Luckily he's got some more upbeat tunes as well.

 

When I know I'm really in a hole is when music can't lift me out, and I spend my time listening skipping to the next song and not liking that one, either. That's a danger sign for me- I need to do something to get out of the hole.

[russell_bynum]

I don't think I have the time or words to explain why music can provoke such visceral reactions in me, but it does. Fortunately, they're almost always uplifting in some way. That may be because I've tended my music library to weed out those that would point me the other way. Regardless, it seldom has anything to do with lyrics. Being a frustrated and failed former student of a few instruments, I admire a skillful combination of technical proficiency and phrasing more than a lyric. The beauty of that, done well, can stir my soul like almost nothing else.

 

 

I hear that, Joel. The Mancini that kicked off the melancholy this morning is, of course, all instrumental. Lyrics can do it, but notas often as the sound of the music, itself.

 

Sometimes, though, it can be the sound of the words not the lyrics(bear with me) of a song. A few of Gloria Estefan's songs evoke deep emotion in me in Spanish, but leave me cold in English translation.

 

One night, as I lay dozing, almost asleep at midnight, I was listening to one of Bach's pieces being played at a campsite next to mine. I could see the shape of the music, squares and rectangles, interlocking to make complex patterns. No drugs involved, and it's never happened just that way again, but that one thing showed me that music is an exercise in mathematics.

 

Pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup.

 

Mancini was a musical genius. And it will warm your heart to know that despite the fact that I'm a whippersnapper, not only do I know who Henry Mancini was, but I heard him in concert once. I believe it was 1993, less than a year before he died. I sat through most of that concert with my eyes closed...the music was just better without the visual distractions.

 

For my money, it's hard to do any better than one of Bach's Organ Fugues.

 

Music will make or break a movie.

 

There are some songs that I can not listen to when I'm driving unless I want to have a conversation with the long arm of the law.

[sgendler]

There are some songs that I can not listen to when I'm driving unless I want to have a conversation with the long arm of the law.

 

I have a playlist of just such material. It gets played often when I ride. Far more often than it should be.

[SeanC]

Regardless, it seldom has anything to do with lyrics. Being a frustrated and failed former student of a few instruments, I admire a skillful combination of technical proficiency and phrasing more than a lyric. The beauty of that, done well, can stir my soul like almost nothing else.

Yep. When it comes to melancholy/wistful/pensive moods, it's all about those minor chords. Of course, good song writers can pen lyrics to those minor chords to amplify the effect. For example, think of the Beatles' Yesterday, in particular McCartney singing "Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say." The notes on "why," "had" and "go" form a minor triad, but the lyrical phrasing is equally melancholy. The Beatles were masters at that. In the purely instrumental realm, so was Mancini. Thomas Newman is another master of the minor key. I listen to his soundtracks for American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Shawshank Redemption when I'm in the mood for some good melancholia. Hans Zimmer can be pretty good, too (I'm thinking of some of the tracks on The Thin Red Line).

 

I'm sure there's some science behind all this, some psycho-acoustic explanation as to why minor chords affect us so differently than major ones (e.g., Thomas Newman vs. Francis Scott Key), but knowing the why wouldn't change the how.

 

Back to tending the library, I heard an apt wisecrack today: I love all the music on my iPod. Except when it is shuffling. Then I only like about every third song.

That is so true... when shuffle's having a good day, that is. On bad days, I want to beat the shit out of whoever programmed the random function.

[russell_bynum]

There are some songs that I can not listen to when I'm driving unless I want to have a conversation with the long arm of the law.

 

I have a playlist of just such material. It gets played often when I ride. Far more often than it should be.

 

I can't do that. Music on the bike is only to occupy my brain on the boring freeway stuff. In the twisties, I find it too distracting...or I just tune it out (and then what's the point?)

 

In the car is a different story.

[vizhip]

Mancini was a musical genius. And it will warm your heart to know that despite the fact that I'm a whippersnapper, not only do I know who Henry Mancini was, but I heard him in concert once. I believe it was 1993, less than a year before he died. I sat through most of that concert with my eyes closed...the music was just better without the visual distractions.

 

For my money, it's hard to do any better than one of Bach's Organ Fugues.

 

Music will make or break a movie.

 

There are some songs that I can not listen to when I'm driving unless I want to have a conversation with the long arm of the law.

 

The White Dawn by Mancini is AWESOME in my opinion... listening to a full orchestration of it can send me elsewhere...

 

and yes... there are some songs that I definitely use for getting places FAST... )))

 

Regards -

-Bob

[vizhip]

Yep. When it comes to melancholy/wistful/pensive moods, it's all about those minor chords. Of course, good song writers can pen lyrics to those minor chords to amplify the effect. For example, think of the Beatles' Yesterday, in particular McCartney singing "Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say." The notes on "why," "had" and "go" form a minor triad, but the lyrical phrasing is equally melancholy. The Beatles were masters at that. In the purely instrumental realm, so was Mancini. Thomas Newman is another master of the minor key. I listen to his soundtracks for American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Shawshank Redemption when I'm in the mood for some good melancholia. Hans Zimmer can be pretty good, too (I'm thinking of some of the tracks on The Thin Red Line).

 

I'm sure there's some science behind all this, some psycho-acoustic explanation as to why minor chords affect us so differently than major ones (e.g., Thomas Newman vs. Francis Scott Key), but knowing the why wouldn't change the how.

 

Geez... trying to make me relive my music education and theory days ???

 

Still... I have to agree with you... and there are a NUMBER of different composers that have excelled in the film business... and thus MADE the films what they are...

 

Regards -

-Bob

[Gary in Aus]

My wife and I visited Gallipoli in 1977 after we had both finished university and travelled to Europe for a holiday and like most Australians who have visited Gallipoli it made an impact on us that we never imagined.

 

A few years later the movie Gallipoli was released and Albinoni Adagio was played during some of the movies most tragic scenes, since then this music has always reflected the death , glory and tragedy that our soldiers endured at Gallipoli.

 

This music reminds of Gallipoli and when we were back there about 4 years ago for Anzac Day , they played it through the loud speakers and our emotions just all came together , a lot of sadness.

 

If you play this ,do it when you have the time to just sit and reflect on the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4dpbk8YBs

 

Another piece of music that makes me stop and listen and reminds of sadness

 

we had been to the memorial at Lone Pine and were driving back down to the jetty to catch the ferry back to Cannakalle.

2 Kiwi ,2 RSA and 2 Aus in the minivan , our guide had read Attaturks Pledge , which by itself brings a tear to your eye , however when he finished the pledge , the minivan pulled over and we watched the sunset over the battlefield , he played this song as we sat in silence.

 

This song brings memories of that day and refreshes my respect for those who fought for us and the sadness of the place.

 

'And the band played "Waltzing Matilda", As we stopped to bury the slain. And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs; And it started all over again.'

Eric Bogle

 

The Words of Ataturk

These words attributed to Ataturk are inscribed on a memorial at ANZAC Cove

 

"Those heroes that shed their blood

and lost their lives;

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies

and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side

here in this country of ours.

You, the mothers,

who sent their sons from far away countries,

wipe away your tears;

your sons are now lying in our bosom

and are in peace.

After having lost their lives on this land they have

become our sons as well."

 

 

[Pilgrim]

Another piece of music that makes me stop and listen and reminds of sadness

 

A poignant post, Gary.

 

And if I ever feel suicidal and need that last little push over the edge, I'll tune up that ballad.

 

Pilgrim

[Gary in Aus]

Pilgrim,

 

and now for something completely different !

 

CAUTION MAY OFFEND

 

 

[Pilgrim]

Pilgrim,

 

and now for something completely different !

 

CAUTION MAY OFFEND (Somebody is definitely going to Hell over that one.)

 

[Yeeha! Stephen]

This one does it for me...

 

The movie Castaway theme song, by Alan Silvestri

 

 

He's done a lot of Movie sound tracks for Robert Zemekis.

 

I know, I know - Show Tunes - Yuk

[Cheechoo]

Music is important and truly is the universal language to me. I tend to gravitate toward the melancholy for some reason....guess I like rubbing bruises.

 

I guess I am more of a simpleton as I seem to favor acoustic/folk music these days. Lately, Jackson Browne has been doing it for me and I recently attended his concert. BUT the LYRICS are an important part of the total package and along with the minor keys they complete the story.

 

No fair committing suicide over you lost love, but here are two of my more recent favorites (they are not new):

Song about losing Daryl Hannah

 

As JB is on tour, there are more recent performances available on Youtube.