# Classical music conveys strong emotions



## siervocal (Nov 21, 2008)

Okay, so the reason I am in this forum is because I absolutely love classical music. However, not too long ago, I began listening to some pieces more closely, and I found out that some of them make me want to cry. I can't explain why or how, but "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" for example, makes me get that knot in my throat. I am wondering if this is usual in all classical music lovers or if I'm just a strange person haha. I hope I can find someone who relates to this effect.

Also, other feelings are achieved within me such as happiness, joy, excitement, or sometimes even anger. So it's not just all sorrow.

Thanks for all the replies.

-Carlos.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I've had several instances of this, especially in a Mahler symphony or toward the end of Sibelius' Seventh symphony. It isn't weird. I think most of us have those pieces that just get to us in ways that nothing else can.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

I would say it's not uncommon for music to bring about strong emotions. Crying is probably pretty widespread. We all listen to music because we want to be touched. When we are moved to our cores, crying is a natural response.

I have been moved to tears many times while listening to good music. Once at a live concert of one of my favorite composers, I was whipped up into such an emotional frenzy as the work came to a smashing close that my arms and hand went numb for about ten minutes. I could not move my fingers! I'm not sure why it was my arms and not my legs or something like that, but that was a pretty undeniable physical reaction. Oh, and I did have tears, too!


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## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

You aren't alone 

Jesu makes me feel the same way. I also love the triumphant feeling. Sometimes when I'm listening in the privacy of my room I will nigh-involuntarily launch into vigorous "conducting" motions... the longhair's air guitar, I suppose


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## Herzeleide (Feb 25, 2008)

I like epic, tearful masterpieces such as Bach's _Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach_ and minuets from Haydn's string quartets.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

A long time ago I lived a wonderful experience. As a student I went hitch-hiking with a girlfriend in the north of England. We didn't have much money and it was actually late February so it was very cold. We slept in a tent in two sleeping bags zipped up as one big one! anyway We reached York and had run out of cash except for enough to by a couple of Mars bars and a bottle of milk. We were actually quite hungry but we spotted a poster for a performance of the Bach St, John Passion at York Minster Cathedral and saw that we could either eat or her Bach in Yorkminster. No contest; we payed the ticket and sat freezing and hungry in the back row. It was not a great orchestra or an eceptional performance but the scene was set. When the choir came in with that 'Lord, Lord!' in the opening Chorus we both instantaneously burt into floods of tears! Sorry if this is a bit poetic but this was a real defining moment in my life.
FC


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Yes - I've been moved to tears and all manner of emotions many times and not just with classical music. I once read somewhere that of all the arts music has the most profound physiological impact. Even in tear-jerker movies it may be the music that by and large is creating the effect.


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## Isola (Mar 26, 2008)

Yes if not for the music I wouldn't have cried my eyes out (and felt embarrassed) in the cinema. I remember when watching the brilliant film_ Life is Beautiful _(_La Vita è Bella_), soon as the music started I knew I was finished.


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## willimek (Mar 31, 2013)

Music and Emotions

The most difficult problem in answering the question of how music creates emotions is likely to be the fact that assignments of musical elements and emotions can never be defined clearly. The solution of this problem is the Theory of Musical Equilibration. It says that music can't convey any emotion at all, but merely volitional processes, with which the music listener identifies. Then in the process of identifying the volitional processes are colored with emotions. The same happens when we watch an exciting film and identify with the volitional processes of our favorite figures. Here, too, just the process of identification generates emotions.

Because this detour of emotions via volitional processes was not detected, also all music psychological and neurological experiments, to answer the question of the origin of the emotions in the music, failed.

But how music can convey volitional processes? These volitional processes have something to do with the phenomena which early music theorists called "lead", "leading tone" or "striving effects". If we reverse this musical phenomena in imagination into its opposite (not the sound wants to change - but the listener identifies with a will not to change the sound) we have found the contents of will, the music listener identifies with. In practice, everything becomes a bit more complicated, so that even more sophisticated volitional processes can be represented musically.

Further information is available via the free download of the e-book "Music and Emotion - Research on the Theory of Musical Equilibration:

www.willimekmusic.de/music-and-emotions.pdf

Enjoy reading


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Asking "why?" is usually a laudable thing. Some people can be greatly invested into finding the answers. Does it improve the quality of their life and experiences? In this case, does understanding a volitional process make you appreciate music more, or less?


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