# Raised heartbeat - Different Trains?



## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

I tried listening (again) to Steve Reich's _Different Trains_ yesterday.

My ears are fine with it and I can see the interest and the worth of the piece, but every time that I try to listen to this particular piece of music, my heartbeat starts racing and I feel physically unwell. I think it is the hooting of the whistle, the sharp high notes, but above all, the pushing rhythm of the piece - and put together, they combine to make me feel very peculiar. I've tried a number of times to listen to this piece, and every time, I feel the same and I have to stop.

Does anyone else have a similar experience - either with this or with another piece - where their ears and mind are ok with the music but they feel unwell for some other reason?

(please - this is not a request for examples of you just slagging off a piece of music or a performance that you don't like)


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

A racing heartbeat and feeling physically unwell is, by any measure, a negative physiologic reaction. I'm not so sure your mind is really okay with the 'music'. Personally, I look to music to have a positive physiologic response, preferably calming, and I would avoid anything that had the opposite effect.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2016)

So Phil Collins and vomiting doesn't count then?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

It's your unconscious mind. Maybe you were molested on a train journey.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Just Bartók's _Concerto for Orchestra_ when I was young. I outgrew the physiological aversion by my teens, and now enjoy it. I've not listened to Reich's _Different Trains_. I hesitate to give it a listen, if it affects one so badly.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Antiquarian said:


> Just Bartók's _Concerto for Orchestra_ when I was young. I outgrew the physiological aversion by my teens, and now enjoy it. I've not listened to Reich's _Different Trains_. I hesitate to give it a listen, if it affects one so badly.


What about Bartok?


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I don't know... All I really can say is that my mother brought that record home one day, and played it, and I had to lie down in my room, wracked by nausea, with the door closed. It happened more than once. But I'm better. Bartók is one of my favourites now.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Headphone Hermit said:


> I every time that I try to listen to this particular piece of music, my heartbeat starts racing and I feel physically unwell. I think it is the hooting of the whistle, the sharp high notes, but above all, the pushing rhythm of the piece - and put together, th
> Does anyone else have a similar experience - either with this or with another piece - where their ears and mind are ok with the music but they feel unwell for some other reason?


Wow, I've never had that happen. I've heard pieces which made me mad, happy, melancholic, or sad, but not anything that intense.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

No particular work comes to mind, but some music can cause me great nervous irritation. I seem to need variety and change, and anything highly repetitious quickly becomes excruciating. Minimalism is out, and the repetitious theme music on radio programs, which is usually some obsessive jazzy or folksy thing, can drive me up the wall, especially if I hear it every day and it becomes an earworm. I also experience disgust at certain voices, mostly the whiny little voices of popular girl singers, not to mention the stupid tuneless crap they sing. Leaving a store that's pumping in that stuff feels like escaping from prison.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2016)

Does this article throw any light on it, HH?
https://www.theguardian.com/science...ing-the-chills-and-thrills-of-musical-rapture


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Headphone Hermit said:


> I tried listening (again) to Steve Reich's _Different Trains_ yesterday.
> 
> My ears are fine with it and I can see the interest and the worth of the piece, but every time that I try to listen to this particular piece of music, my heartbeat starts racing and I feel physically unwell. I think it is the hooting of the whistle, the sharp high notes, but above all, the pushing rhythm of the piece - and put together, they combine to make me feel very peculiar. I've tried a number of times to listen to this piece, and every time, I feel the same and I have to stop.
> 
> ...


Just a thought - did you ever get 'trainsick' when you were younger?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> It's your unconscious mind. Maybe you were molested on a train journey.


Very helpful. I'm sure HH feels loads better now. 

From personal experience, I used to get nauseous and very panicky in nightclubs where they play that kind of music, at literally deafening volume, that just goes 'BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!' with some kind of screamed vocals on top. I always thought that this was mostly a reaction to the music itself, though undeniably there were other factors: my social phobia, the awful miasma of cigarette smoke, the fact that I was always sober. I don't know if that kind of hyper-aggressive pop is tolerable when you're stoned, and I don't really want to find out! 

I don't know how relevant my experiences are, as HH's experience seems to be be just about the music and maybe not a phobic reaction per se.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I can't think of any classical piece that has this effect on me, but recently I noticed there is one progressive rock / alternative rock piece called "Pain" by the group Blackfield. I love its gentle introverted beauty, but after only a minute or so I start feeling like the world is coming to end, that I am losing everything I ever loved. I have no idea why this is. It's not the words. I seldom pay attention to words. Maybe the melody, otherwise pleasant, somehow evokes the creeping inexorable passage of time that can never be turned back and at my age it strikes deep. So while I don't feel sick exactly, I feel a barely endurable bittersweet melancholy.


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

I have never listened to the piece but I've had *many* *wonderful* train trips (in Europe); as for the US--only half-decent between NY-Philadelphia-Washington on the Acela.

Edit: I forgot that I have also taken rides on historic railroad lines in the US; they were interesting and enjoyable; the two things I liked the most was the history/importance of those railroad lines and the treacherous territory they covered.

Anyway, so that we are all listening to the same performance.






Here goes...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Antiquarian said:


> I don't know... All I really can say is that my mother brought that record home one day, and played it, and I had to lie down in my room, wracked by nausea, with the door closed. It happened more than once. But I'm better. Bartók is one of my favourites now.


Apart from the last sentence I agree


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

DaveM said:


> A racing heartbeat and feeling physically unwell is, by any measure, a negative physiologic reaction. I'm not so sure your mind is really okay with the 'music'. Personally, I look to music to have a positive physiologic response, *preferably calming*, and I would avoid anything that had the opposite effect.


Well, we each have our own ideas about music, but 'preferably calming' isn't what I have ever looked for in music - I very much like music that excites and stimulates me


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> Just a thought - did you ever get 'trainsick' when you were younger?


Nope. I enjoy trains (but we don't have the same type of train whistle that Reich used over here)


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

TalkingHead said:


> Does this article throw any light on it, HH?
> https://www.theguardian.com/science...ing-the-chills-and-thrills-of-musical-rapture


Thank you - interesting article - I'll keep an eye out for more about this differential feeling for music :tiphat:

BTW - it is spooky that I thought of the thread and two hours later this article is posted!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Headphone Hermit said:


> I tried listening (again) to Steve Reich's _Different Trains_ yesterday.
> 
> My ears are fine with it and I can see the interest and the worth of the piece, but every time that I try to listen to this particular piece of music, my heartbeat starts racing and I feel physically unwell. I think it is the hooting of the whistle, the sharp high notes, but above all, the pushing rhythm of the piece - and put together, they combine to make me feel very peculiar. I've tried a number of times to listen to this piece, and every time, I feel the same and I have to stop.
> 
> ...


That's interesting. I have a similar negative reaction when I hear Brahms' *Academic Festival Overture.*


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