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Recent talks with Michael and Richie have made me start to think about sad music - specifically music that can make you cry. Michael gets sad at Wagner, while Richie - and Amanda, and seemingly a bunch of others - are got to by the second movement of Barber's Violin Concerto.
I listened several times to the violin concerto, especially the oboe solo, and it just never really got to me. I don't know why - maybe because I have a hard time sometimes having oboe music affect me. I just listen to it too clinically. Or - more likely - I just don't know it well enough and have a personal connection to it.
I always wonder how much of music intrinsically affects you, and how much is part of your experience with that music. Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium" can reduce me to a sobbing mess, but a lot of that is because I listened to it on infinite repeat when I fought and broke up with Matt. Berceuse and Finale from Firebird [especially the horn rips going into the 7/4] usually bring me to tears because it's so beautiful, but that's also because I have such good memories of playing it with PMEA Orchestra. I've just given up on listening to the Quantz Trio-Sonata because of Shannon.
There are sad pieces that I don't have a big emotional connection to, though. Barber's Adagio for Strings, of course. Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations. Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. A lot of bits and pieces of Poulenc, especially the second movement of the oboe, bassoon, and piano trio. And of course, Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold," 'cause it's just so...powerful.
Pop music is another story. Songs with words don't get me as much, for whatever reason. The one exception will always, always be Warren Zevon's "Don't Let Us Get Sick." Others include Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" and Rufus Wainwright's version of "Hallelujah." Sigur Ros' "Untitled Six" usually has me teary by the end.
I'm sure there are others, that I'm not thinking of at the moment. What is it, exactly, in music, that makes it so sad? The first fifteen seconds of Adagio for Strings - just long enough for the first violins to change notes - I hear immediately as incredibly sad, and I couldn't tell you why. I have no particular emotional connection to the piece. I've never heard it played live, I've never played it myself, I've known no one that died who had it as a favorite song...nothing like that. I just hear it as one of the saddest pieces ever written for instruments.
Hmm. I think I need to look up sadness in music and see who's written about it.
[Ignore the weird video. For some reason, it was the only one on Youtube with the correct version.]
I listened several times to the violin concerto, especially the oboe solo, and it just never really got to me. I don't know why - maybe because I have a hard time sometimes having oboe music affect me. I just listen to it too clinically. Or - more likely - I just don't know it well enough and have a personal connection to it.
I always wonder how much of music intrinsically affects you, and how much is part of your experience with that music. Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium" can reduce me to a sobbing mess, but a lot of that is because I listened to it on infinite repeat when I fought and broke up with Matt. Berceuse and Finale from Firebird [especially the horn rips going into the 7/4] usually bring me to tears because it's so beautiful, but that's also because I have such good memories of playing it with PMEA Orchestra. I've just given up on listening to the Quantz Trio-Sonata because of Shannon.
There are sad pieces that I don't have a big emotional connection to, though. Barber's Adagio for Strings, of course. Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations. Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. A lot of bits and pieces of Poulenc, especially the second movement of the oboe, bassoon, and piano trio. And of course, Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold," 'cause it's just so...powerful.
Pop music is another story. Songs with words don't get me as much, for whatever reason. The one exception will always, always be Warren Zevon's "Don't Let Us Get Sick." Others include Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" and Rufus Wainwright's version of "Hallelujah." Sigur Ros' "Untitled Six" usually has me teary by the end.
I'm sure there are others, that I'm not thinking of at the moment. What is it, exactly, in music, that makes it so sad? The first fifteen seconds of Adagio for Strings - just long enough for the first violins to change notes - I hear immediately as incredibly sad, and I couldn't tell you why. I have no particular emotional connection to the piece. I've never heard it played live, I've never played it myself, I've known no one that died who had it as a favorite song...nothing like that. I just hear it as one of the saddest pieces ever written for instruments.
Hmm. I think I need to look up sadness in music and see who's written about it.
[Ignore the weird video. For some reason, it was the only one on Youtube with the correct version.]
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