# Feed your mood? SAP and "Ars Melancholiae"



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Yep, this is the start of the SAP season. There are remedies, partying and 'full spectrum lighting' being two of them. If the severity can be expected to be bearable anyway, how about the Sublimation Method?

The lute is not limited by the inadequacies of language; it can 'speak' without words, either to the 'undermind' as Denis Gaultier's does in "La Rhetorique Des Dieux", or to the soul, as Sylvius Leopold Weiss' does in "Ars Melancholiae. The effect can be similar - the SAP loses strength, its grip relaxes.

If you are SAP susceptible, try listening to what those guys have the lute say.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I'll have to check out those pieces. If you enjoy Spanish Baroque lute I'd suggest some Gaspar Sanz - really uplifting stuff - I think. My other lute composers of choice are usually Dowland, and J.S. Bach.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I love the Lute Works of Weiss. 
There's a great selection on Vivarte with Lutz Kirchhof

What's the P for. We call it Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK - SAD
Don't normally get the winter blues till after xmas. When January stretches into infinity


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Why would anyone who is grown up and presumably in control of his own life allow his well-being depend on the weather?


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

It's not the weather, it is the lack of light. 
I don't suffer from it myself - but it* is* a documented and researched condition.



> In many non-tropical animal species, activity is diminished during the winter months in response to the reduction in available food, the reduction of sunlight (especially for diurnal animals) and the difficulties of surviving in cold weather. Hibernation is an extreme example, but even species that do not hibernate often exhibit changes in behavior during the winter. It has been argued that SAD is an evolved adaptation in humans that is a variant or remnant of a hibernation response in some remote ancestor.[11] Presumably, food was scarce during most of human prehistory, and a tendency toward low mood during the winter months would have been adaptive by reducing the need for calorie intake. The preponderance of women with SAD suggests that the response may also somehow regulate reproduction.[11]


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

I googled SAP and it came out the well-known software house...

What's the SAP season?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Why would anyone who is grown up and presumably in control of his own life allow his well-being depend on the weather?


Sounds like somebody who's never been through a grey English winter! All eight months of it...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

MagneticGhost said:


> I love the Lute Works of Weiss.
> There's a great selection on Vivarte with Lutz Kirchhof
> 
> What's the P for. We call it Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK - SAD
> Don't normally get the winter blues till after xmas. When January stretches into infinity


Hah! I wrote the post less than half an hour after reading about SAD (I knew about the affliction but not its label). I had a brain fart. The utility of the SAD acronym is obvious; SAP suggests that the malaise saps one's mental strength... but it's a bit of a reach.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Why would anyone who is grown up and presumably in control of his own life allow his well-being depend on the weather?


Why would anyone who is grown up and presumably in control of his own life display a complete lack of understanding and empathy to those who suffer from a medically recognised mood disorder?

Have a read.
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/seasonal-affective-disorder-pro

The word 'allow,' really irks me. People with mental or mood disorders aren't 'allowing' anything.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

MagneticGhost said:


> I love the Lute Works of Weiss.
> There's a great selection on Vivarte with Lutz Kirchhof
> 
> What's the P for. We call it Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK - SAD
> Don't normally get the winter blues till after xmas. When January stretches into infinity


I love the sun, myself-- cheers.

- But winter is all about turning crisis into opportunity_ as well_.

A blackcurrant silk-blend, floral jacquard jacket certainly puts a smile on _my_ face.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Marschallin Blair said:


> I love the sun, myself-- cheers.
> 
> - But winter is all about turning crisis into opportunity_ as well_.
> 
> ...


You do make me laugh MB - nearly had a major hot coffee incident.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Then I'd recommend this CD:









Prussian and Austrian marches, performed by the Berliner Philarmoniker and Herbert von Karajan. This music gets blood flowing in your veins a little faster and makes you pick up yourself and your mood and face life head-on.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I have no problem in embracing "seasonal affective disorder"...._Ahh, the Darkness!_


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## OlivierM (Jul 31, 2014)

Oh, there are seasons ? I hadn't noticed...
My dog likes the forest whether is hot and sunny, or rainy and cold. So do I.
I hope this post wasn't too wagnerian.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> Sounds like somebody who's never been through a grey English winter! All eight months of it...


I would love to live in a climate were they play football during the winter.


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