# Why do we listen to sad music?



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

WHY do we listen to extremely serious and somber music like the first movement of Beethoven's C#-Minor quartet or Adagio for Strings?


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

It gives you chills. There is beauty in sadness.


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## tgtr0660 (Jan 29, 2010)

I think over-analizying every facet of our music listening takes some magic away from it. I don't see a need to analize why we like certain emotions in particular. Of course the answer is simple: they appeal to us. That's all.


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Because it resonates with our brain waves!


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## Oliver (Feb 14, 2012)

Because it makes us happy?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

It feels more authentic and profound than happy music.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

For me, listening to sad music is often cathartic. Sometimes you just need to feel really sad before you can feel better, but you can't feel anything; music can be a great help in such situations,


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

I don’t think we could listen to sad music and nothing else, we like to be moved emotionally in many different ways, and it's just one part of the experience. 
It would be pretty boring if we only keyed into one emotion.


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

Because it makes us happy sad?


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

I think it gives us something to relate to, and it also lets us safely reflect on our emotions without all of the fear that comes with the real sad situations in our lives.


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

Life is a valley of endless suffering. It reflects our lives, why do we like dissonance within pieces? Why do we want conflict within storylines? It reflects life itself in a very deep way. Beauty lies within suffering, depression within complacency.

And as we age, it takes on more meaning as we experience more. As a child I hated what my parents considered to be "beautiful music" because it gave me a dark, sad feeling. Now that I've lived a bit longer I understand it for what it is.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

EarthBoundRules said:


> I think it gives us something to relate to, and it also lets us safely reflect on our emotions without all of the fear that comes with the real sad situations in our lives.


True. And with the arias of operas, as many beautiful and great arias depicted the characters' sad situation during that particular moment of the plot.


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## aphyrodite (Jan 9, 2012)

To emotionally torture myself whenever I feel like being suicidal.

That's nothing new, really.


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## fpschubert (Mar 25, 2012)

Maybe the happier folks love more Mozart's music and sadder people love more Schuberts music. I guess it depends on our character. Also I think there are more sad people than happy people in the world.


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

fpschubert said:


> Maybe the happier folks love more Mozart's music and sadder people love more Schuberts music. I guess it depends on our character. Also I think there are more sad people than happy people in the world.


Maybe this is why I hold a slight contempt for Mozart's music. Though some of his string quartets have surprized me with their emotional depth. Death and the maiden is one of my favorites though...


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## aphyrodite (Jan 9, 2012)

fpschubert said:


> Maybe the happier folks love more Mozart's music and sadder people love more Schuberts music. I guess it depends on our character. Also I think there are more sad people than happy people in the world.


Schubert's serenade immediately played in my head. I love that piece.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Empathy.

No piece of music is intrinsically sad - that is the projection we place on it it. The fact that many people place roughly the same projection on a piece of music doesn't make it any less a projection.

We use 'sad' music to play out our own emotions while allowing ourselves to put them at a distance. The extent that we don't entirely 'own' these emotions - feeling they must be the composer's - is the extent that the process is subconscious.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Empathy.
> 
> No piece of music is intrinsically sad - that is the projection we place on it it. The fact that many people place roughly the same projection on a piece of music doesn't make it any less a projection.
> 
> We use 'sad' music to play out our own emotions while allowing ourselves to put them at a distance. The extent that we don't entirely 'own' these emotions - feeling they must be the composer's - is the extent that the process is subconscious.


Empathy is probably the sensible term to use, especially when listening to an aria sung by an opera character about something sad that happened to that character.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

"Its happy for deep people."

(Doctor Who quote)


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm not sure why I listen to sad music, but I know that I only listen to it when I'm extremely disheartened by the events of the day, or simply by remembrance of something utterly shattering, which normally tends to be in one way or another my own fault. :scold:


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## Lenfer (Aug 15, 2011)

Aurelian said:


> WHY do we listen to extremely serious and somber music like the first movement of Beethoven's C#-Minor quartet or Adagio for Strings?


Sometimes it's good to cry. 






*Dawn Upshaw* gets me every time.


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

I'd also like to mention something that I was just thinking about and realized related to the thread:

There are 3 basic ways of dealing with suffering: Fight and flight are the two that we're most familiar with. The third and in my opinion most "transcendental" of the three would be embracing the issue itself. 

Fighting and/or anger is quite common in music and is the first reaction that some people have to the problems. It tends to be a very common coping mechanism in general.

Flight and/or denial of the problems tend to show up in my opinion in happy, poppy tunes which often have no real substance. They are similar to the coping mechanisms that people employ when they simply cannot handle something (the truth perhaps).

Embracing the problem and/or acceptance is last of these three. It isn't so much a coping mechanism as it is a resolution of the coping mechanisms, though it can be used as one as well. This is relayed through sad, reflective music, the listener finally having trancended the other emotions and able to fully grieve the tragedy of life. 

Haha I always feel like I'm writing an essay for my professor when I post on this site... though a rough and error-ridden one I'm sure. 

Hopefully that made some sense.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Iforgotmypassword said:


> Life is a valley of endless suffering. It reflects our lives, why do we like dissonance withing pieces? Why do we want conflict within storylines? It reflects life itself in a very deep way. Beauty lies within suffering, depression within complacency.
> 
> And as we age, it takes on more meaning as we experience more. As a child I hated what my parents considered to be "beautiful music" because it gave me a dark, sad feeling. Now that I've lived a bit longer I understand it for what it is.


I was going to say something very similar.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

fpschubert said:


> Maybe the happier folks love more Mozart's music and sadder people love more Schuberts music. I guess it depends on our character. Also I think there are more sad people than happy people in the world.


Hmmm...that doesn't explain why Tchaikovsky, one of most emotional and unhappy of composers, was moved by Mozart's music above all others.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Aurelian said:


> WHY do we listen to extremely serious and somber music like the first movement of Beethoven's C#-Minor quartet or Adagio for Strings?


I generally don't like dark music, but those two you mention are not as dark as some things, so I like them. Beethoven (like eg. Brahms) usually gives me a boost at the end, no matter how dark or sad he starts off (as in that string quartet).

I think the Barber piece does strike me as sad, but it also gives me hope for whatever reason. I think it's what people have said, a sense of letting it all out, catharsis.

Some very dark things I avoid due to it being too close to the bone, but others I do come back to regularly, just to let out & experience those emotions through the music. Bach's _Chaconne_ from_ Partita for solo violin #2_ is one of these works, but there are others. This work ties into the empathy argument, it being written around the time of the death of Bach's first wife. I find this kind of autobiographical element in many of these kinds of works.


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

aleazk said:


> I was going to say something very similar.


Well please go ahead and say it. I won't blame you for stealing my thunder I promise.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

> This is relayed through sad, reflective music, the listener finally having trancended the other emotions and able to fully grieve the tragedy of life.


Indeed!, human nature is a tragic one (because of the _existence_ of death). Also it's curious that some composers have written very reflective music near the end of their lives.

The final cadenza from Ravel's "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand":






Man, it's so sad, but in a very deep way, real sadness and melancholy.

(see also the second cadenza






starts at 5:55)

Ravel composed this in 1931 and he died in 1937 (although he was very ill since circa 1932)

One of Ligeti's last piano etudes, "Pour Irina":






Composed in 1997 I think, he died in 2006. Again, very reflective, and I can hear some anxious desperation.


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

Wow, more Mozart bashing. His music is too sunny, too fluffy.

Refuting this would be simple if there were not so many examples to choose from! 
But here is one:


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

I don't listen to Adagio for Strings, and it's not like everyone will like every sad music there is. Besides, "sad" is relative.


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

How about another example of bubbly inconsequential Mozart, a trifle really, a frolic:


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

For me, there is no music as profoundly sad as the following:






and:






When I die, I want to be listening to this music and holding my dear wife's hand. This music, so heartbreaking, somehow still ascends to heaven. This music somehow smiles through tears. In the Cavatina, Beethoven releases a lifetime of suffering to the universe, and by the end the sadness has been miraculously transformed into a sublime peace. And in the Lento, for me, the opening bars are like the lifting of the veil that separates humanity from divine truths.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Life is depressing. So why not make music depressing to show honesty of their real emotions.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Olias said:


> "Its happy for deep people."
> 
> (Doctor Who quote)


Good one! :tiphat: One of the many great quotes from one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time, Blink.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Muddy said:


> When I die, I want to be listening to this music and holding my dear wife's hand. This music, so heartbreaking, somehow still ascends to heaven. This music somehow smiles through tears. In the Cavatina, Beethoven releases a lifetime of suffering to the universe, and by the end the sadness has been miraculously transformed into a sublime peace. And in the Lento, for me, the opening bars are like the lifting of the veil that separates humanity from divine truths.


Beautiful!


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2012)

To me, tragedy in both literature and music is more profound than comedy. It touches us on a deeper level.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I think more people respond quicker to 'depressing' music simply because it's easier to understand, not necessarily because it reflects the human condition. It's always easier to feel sorry for one's self through music...


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Life is depressing. So why not make music depressing to show honesty of their real emotions.


_Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way_

Viktor Frankl, psychologist and Holocaust survivor, _Man's search for meaning_


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Schubert's most profoundly moving music is so sad. It's just like the man is contemplating resignation himself. Oh god, I love him..


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I learned something pretty profound from my mother about sad music. She had Parkinsons and was in a very nice assisted living home. I had just taken up the guitar, and quite honestly although my voice is good, my guitar playing is pretty primitive. I learned a bunch of cowboy songs (G-C-D7) and played them for her in her room. She loved it because she was my mom.

One day I came to visit and play for her and she announced that she had arranged with the activities director for me to play in their great room for everyone in the home right after lunch. Of course I was terrified, but as we had lunch and the time grew closer, I started thinking of the songs I could play... Streets of Laredo, Faded Love, Old Paint, Red River Valley... I started to panic because I suddenly realized that every song I knew involved death or the loss of a loved one.

My mom told me not to worry, everything would be fine. When the time came, I was sweating bullets. There were at least 25 old folks in front of me with their walkers and wheelchairs. I nervously apologized for only knowing sad songs, but cowboys had sad lives. I launched into my set.

I had about 30-40 minutes worth of songs, and I held back Faded Love and Red River Valley because they were the saddest songs I knew. But I came up short at the end and had to play them. After Faded Love, everyone was quiet, so I just bit the bullet and started playing Red River Valley. After the first verse, I heard a soft sound in the room. They were singing along. As the song progressed they sang out more until everyone was joining in.

When I finished every single one of them shook my hand and thanked me and told me the music was beautiful. When i took my mom back to her room, I told her I was surprised that the sad songs were so well received. She said that all of the musicians that would come to the home would play happy music, which was fine. But old people have lost people close to them... And their homes... And their lifestyles. Sometimes they want to feel their sadness. It makes them feel better.

If anyone would know about that, it would be my mom. I played for her and everybody at her home every Sunday afternoon until she passed away over three years later. I didn't know that many songs. I sang the same ones over and over but they always appreciated it.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

peeyaj said:


> Schubert's most profoundly moving music is so sad. It's just like the man is contemplating resignation himself. Oh god, I love him..


Schubert: Whenever I attempted to sing of love, it turned to pain. And again, whenever I tried to sing of pain, it turned to love.


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## Iforgotmypassword (May 16, 2011)

bigshot said:


> I learned something pretty profound from my mother about sad music. She had Parkinsons and was in a very nice assisted living home. I had just taken up the guitar, and quite honestly although my voice is good, my guitar playing is pretty primitive. I learned a bunch of cowboy songs (G-C-D7) and played them for her in her room. She loved it because she was my mom.
> 
> One day I came to visit and play for her and she announced that she had arranged with the activities director for me to play in their great room for everyone in the home right after lunch. Of course I was terrified, but as we had lunch and the time grew closer, I started thinking of the songs I could play... Streets of Laredo, Faded Love, Old Paint, Red River Valley... I started to panic because I suddenly realized that every song I knew involved death or the loss of a loved one.
> 
> ...


This story made me about as sad and nostalgic as the elderly people that you played for.


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## misterjones (Oct 9, 2007)

I've never heard any sad music, and that includes the above samples. But that's just my perspective.

And thanks for the Quasthoff clip. I was certain that there was a classical music singer who was a dwarf - was it merely part of some odd dream? - but I couldn't find any references to one on the internet. Though Quasthoff likely has a birth defect/condition other than dwarfism (Thalidomide?), he might be the person I was think of. He has an exceptional voice. Powerful, yet smooth as silk.


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## LudwigNAV (Mar 20, 2012)

Sad music reaches me in a way that other music does not: sadness is such a powerful emotion that when it hits you, through music or other means, you cannot help but be so completely transformed by it. When I hear sombre notes or melodies that raise my nostalgia or make me pensive or sad, I know I am immediately going to like the piece I am listening to.

For those of you with iTunes U, check out the course 'Music and the Brain' and more specifically there is a section about why people listen to sad music. For a 20 minute podcast it's worth checking out. I especially enjoyed the part about novelty in music mostly because I was thinking of that problem recently and couldn't quite collect or phrase my thoughts.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

misterjones said:


> I've never heard any sad music, and that includes the above samples. But that's just my perspective.
> 
> And thanks for the Quasthoff clip. I was certain that there was a classical music singer who was a dwarf - was it merely part of some odd dream? - but I couldn't find any references to one on the internet. Though Quasthoff likely has a birth defect/condition other than dwarfism (Thalidomide?), he might be the person I was think of. He has an exceptional voice. Powerful, yet smooth as silk.


Yes, Quasthoff was a Thalidomide baby. And he does have _such_ a beautiful voice. He is on the recording I have of the St. Matthew Passion, and his rendition of "Mache dich, mein herze, rein" is the best I have heard.


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