# What emotions do you feel as a whole from certain composers?



## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

What I mean by this is, say Beethoven, yes he has happy music, sad and angry music, but as a whole, no matter if i am listening to a funeral march of his or the saddest piece he composed, i feel within his music a heroic nature that underlies all of it, where as Tchaikovsky i feel sad, all his music to me whether happy or not i feel this underlying sadness, this over obsessive depression, and in Bruckner's music (his secular music) i feel an underlying anger, and confusion of circumstance, just a few composers as an example (and yes mainly talking romantic era composers) yes i understand i probably hear these underlying emotions as i have researched a lot into the life's of most composers, but i am just interested to know if any of you feel the same way and what you hear, sorry if i haven't worded this well enough, its just been a long day


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## TudorMihai (Feb 20, 2013)

There are a many composers from which you can feel a certain emotion. For instance, in the case of Enescu's works written after the establishment of the Communist regime, you can feel the homesickness and sadness because of the fact that he cannot return to his homeland. Even though this is a film score case, if you hear Korngold's film scores, especially _The Adventures of Robin Hood_, you can sense the fact that he lives in America against his will because he cannot return to Europe as long as the Nazis are the ruling power. These are just two examples. There are many other cases. It works perfectly for composers who are living away from their home country, sometimes against their will.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn - optimism, joy, curiousity, concentration, power, humour, sometimes defiance and conflict
Beethoven - concentration, power, defiance, (sometimes) mourning, conflict
Telemann - lightness, optimism, wonder, balance
Liszt - curiousity, wonder, introspection
Bach - concentration, wonder
Mozart - humour, curiousity, mystery


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Mozart: Happiness, easiness and sublime joy.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Bach - concentration, wonder


Could be also a kind of precise geometric progression, couldn't be?


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

My sensations are too complex as to describe them in words. :tiphat:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Relevant to this thread, and to amuse crudblud:

"Art is intended to create beauty and character. Feeling only comes afterward, and art can very well do without it." --Saint-Saens


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

*Beethoven is triumphant* -- 
-- even his light pieces. I was listening to his King Stephan Overture today and mentally remarked on how light and airy it is, but it interrupts itself with the opening ominous defiant chords every so often. It's like he has to musically say "Top this? You can't. Don't even bother trying." He does show a bit more humility in his later works though.

*J. S Bach is focused intellect.*
I can almost feel my own potential increasing on hearing The Art of the Fugue, though I know there is no real empirical evidence for this effect.

*Vaughan-Williams is nostalgia* -- 
-- for a place I've never been, but it still calls to me. Is there such a thing as genetic memory?

*Ligeti is a feeling I cannot easily put into words.* 
It is something that comes over me on very rare occasions, not nearly as frequently as it used to, much to my sorrow. Writer Colin Wilson describes it as "the value experience" or "Faculty X." It is a mental and spiritual elevation above or beyond our daily autopilot mental state so that one perceives connections and broader meanings to even the most mundane details. For me also it is like a siren song calling me to the outré, or a muse calling me home to something surreal I cannot describe. That's Ligeti.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Ondine said:


> Mozart: Happiness, easiness and sublime joy.


And yet, much of his music seems to me to be subtly tinged with grief. It is perhaps precisely this bittersweet quality that makes his work popular.


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

Beethoven - Furiously bad mood somehow ending with humanity happiness and joy
Mahler - All emotions felt by a titanic god watching the end of the world
Bruckner - Deep spirituality and connection to God between demonic scherzos
Sibelius - Snow, woods, lakes, swans, perfect music (OK, neither of these are emotions)


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I dunno, a lot of this sounds to me like you as a listener are projecting onto not just the music but also the composer. I don't care one way or the other how you experience the music but really this can veer into the sort of guff that came up on another thread recently about Mozart as a divine vessel. 
If you always associate composer A with emotion X you may very well be hearing things that aren't there. I have no problem with that, you could call it added value I suppose, but the flip side is that you might be missing things that _are_ there, and doing yourself a disservice.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Beethoven: joy, hope, optimism (even in his minor key works)
Mozart: hmmm....moody, perhaps anxiety, happiness but tingled with grief as brianvds said before. 
Ligeti: curiosity
*Sibelius:*


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Are you young and new to classical music? Those people often want to simplify music with a simple emotional viewpoint. And music is obviously not just emotional.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2013)

Nereffid said:


> I dunno, a lot of this sounds to me like you as a listener are projecting onto not just the music but also the composer. I don't care one way or the other how you experience the music but really this can veer into the sort of guff that came up on another thread recently about Mozart as a divine vessel.
> If you always associate composer A with emotion X you may very well be hearing things that aren't there. I have no problem with that, you could call it added value I suppose, but the flip side is that you might be missing things that _are_ there, and doing yourself a disservice.


...and furthermore, some of the suggestions seem to reflect inferred emotions that the composer may have felt at the time of composition (sorry TudorMihai - I don't anything but 'swashbuckling' from _Adventures of Robin Hood_) rather than emotions the listener actually feels, or emotions that aren't what I'd call emotions ('focused intellect'?)

That said, I can agree that some composers do tend to draw from the same 'emotional pallet', which is why I tend to switch off when Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov are around!


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## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

Beethoven: Struggle,enormous will, the sense of a journey, spiritual.
Bach: Mastery, command, devotion.
Mozart: Mastery, elegance, balance.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> *Sibelius:*


Aaarrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't look away....must...not....give...innn....ugghhhh!!

[edit]For anyone too idle to click the link to COAG's post, rest assured my 'mugging' is not about Sibelius, but the graphic COAG posted which I can't bear to repost!


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

MacLeod said:


> That said, I can agree that some composers do tend to draw from the same 'emotional pallet', which is why I tend to switch off when Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov are around!


I wonder if it may actually just reflect the most famous works of someone and the extremely general conclusions that some wish to draw from that.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Most of us understand this is just an exercise in generalization. Y'all chill out.


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

julianoq said:


> Beethoven - Furiously bad mood somehow ending with humanity happiness and joy
> Mahler - All emotions felt by a titanic god watching the end of the world
> Bruckner - Deep spirituality and connection to God between demonic scherzos
> Sibelius - Snow, woods, lakes, swans, perfect music (OK, neither of these are emotions)


Mahler, yes i feel very much the same, but i only feel so of his first 4 symphonies, from his 5th the funeral march for me marks his change, the fight of the hero, the struggle and the fall, then the 6th and 7th i feel the hero is trying to find his way, he is lost, is unsure and journeying to find heroism again, with his 8th it feels like he embraces it again, "here i am the hero still fights on" and then the 9th i feel he has accepted all that has come and gone, he knows deep down he is a hero but he is scared of leaving it all behind.

Bruckner i only feel that deep connection to god in his religious music, in his secular music i feel his confusion, i feel him being angry at circumstances, his chance of asking god, "why me, all i have done is worship you to the fullest i have devoted everything to you, why do you forsake me as such"

thank you for your comment


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

Nereffid said:


> I dunno, a lot of this sounds to me like you as a listener are projecting onto not just the music but also the composer. I don't care one way or the other how you experience the music but really this can veer into the sort of guff that came up on another thread recently about Mozart as a divine vessel.
> If you always associate composer A with emotion X you may very well be hearing things that aren't there. I have no problem with that, you could call it added value I suppose, but the flip side is that you might be missing things that _are_ there, and doing yourself a disservice.


you misunderstand me, as a whole i feel one emotion, say that characterizes that composer, there personality per say, and yes i hear more than just that in their music, like if i hear something from Beethoven, a sad and longing piece, one of regret and turmoil i still hold within me that his music characterizes heroism for me, so i just see it as part of the journey of the hero, yes i feel its desperation its depression and sadness, but at the bottom of it all i know the hero still fights on, and in a later piece per say the hero emerges victorious, i just see that particular piece as part of the journey of said character, even if by the end the music doesn't resolve into said character that i project onto the composer, i think you do yourself a great diesservice imagining everyone is close minded just cos they are human


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Weston said:


> Most of us understand this is just an exercise in generalization. Y'all chill out.


Yes, of course.



aleazk said:


> My sensations are too complex as to describe them in words. :tiphat:


Not even an apporach, @aleazk?


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

starry said:


> Are you young and new to classical music? Those people often want to simplify music with a simple emotional viewpoint. And music is obviously not just emotional.


yes i am young i am not trying to generalize or simplify with one emotional viewpoint, why would i want to close myself off to the beauty of music by being close minded like that, i am just asking if anyone views a certain underlying character in a composers work, their personality, if i played a Beethoven to you, instantly you would know its a Beethoven, he has an underlying character, i am just trying to get an idea of how people see certain composers, if they see a main character trait, if you choose to disparage me in my love for classical music and tell me how it is i should listen (as it is all subjective) and have nothing to add then why choose such a thread, everyone listens differently if you don't agree with the general ideas of this thread there are a vast selection of threads that may suit your pallet, i was not asking for your advice on how i should conduct my listening habits, if you have a question ask, don't stand on a high horse and tell me what i am doing wrong as you may find that you have misunderstood my question


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

starry said:


> Are you young and new to classical music? Those people often want to simplify music with a simple emotional viewpoint. And music is obviously not just emotional.


And some people have nothing positive or supportive to say, but hey ho it's a free world. If a persons response to classical music after six decades of listening to it and playing it is 'cool man' or 'it makes me all emotional' then so what.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

themysticcaveman said:


> if you choose to disparage me in my love for classical music and tell me how it is i should listen (as it is all subjective) and have nothing to add then why choose such a thread, everyone listens differently if you don't agree with the general ideas of this thread there are a vast selection of threads that may suit your pallet, i was not asking for your advice on how i should conduct my listening habits, if you have a question ask, don't stand on a high horse and tell me what i am doing wrong as you may find that you have misunderstood my question


I don't know why you are taking it so personally with some over the top reaction, it sounds like you have insecurity on this. I've just seen _so many_ threads on this kind of topic before. So my post wasn't all about you at all, and I wasn't giving you advice either.

And actually I did have something to say on this topic beyond that post, but noticeably it wasn't replied to at all.



starry said:


> I wonder if it may actually just reflect the most famous works of someone and the extremely general conclusions that some wish to draw from that.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

starry said:


> [...]
> And actually I did have something to say on this topic beyond that post, but noticeably it wasn't replied to at all.


"I wonder if it may actually just reflect the most famous works of someone and the extremely general conclusions that some wish to draw from that."

Of course it _may_. And it may reflect the reading of bios and liner notes. After a very short time it may be difficult to separate one source from another. If the first work of Tchaikovsky one is familiar with is the 6th symphony, a distorted notion about the total of his music can be formed. After that, damn near all of his music can be bent in the listener's mind to fit that notion.

Hah. It turns out that it's pretty easy to 'get bent'.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Shostakovich: 
Ligeti: 
Ades:


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2013)

starry said:


> I've just seen _so many_ threads on this kind of topic before.


But perhaps mysticcaveman hasn't?

As for your point about generalising from one or two particular works, are you saying that, for example, the two composers I cited cannot be typified as writing emotionally one-dimensional music?


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

starry said:


> And actually I did have something to say on this topic beyond that post, but noticeably it wasn't replied to at all.


sorry judging on your disposition i assumed it was a statement rather than something to add to the discussion, excuse me for my assumptions


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

Hilltroll72 said:


> "I wonder if it may actually just reflect the most famous works of someone and the extremely general conclusions that some wish to draw from that."
> 
> Of course it _may_. And it may reflect the reading of bios and liner notes. After a very short time it may be difficult to separate one source from another. If the first work of Tchaikovsky one is familiar with is the 6th symphony, a distorted notion about the total of his music can be formed. After that, damn near all of his music can be bent in the listener's mind to fit that notion.
> 
> Hah. It turns out that it's pretty easy to 'get bent'.


i make my judgements on Tchaikovsky after long immersing myself in his works, after reading many of his letters of correspondence with his patron Von Meck, his program notes on the fourth and his judgements on his own compositions, and no i didn't just listen to the 6th and make a general assumption, i don't listen to him much anymore due to me being a bit obsessive with his music a while ago


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

themysticcaveman said:


> i make my judgements on Tchaikovsky after long immersing myself in his works, after reading many of his letters of correspondence with his patron Von Meck, his program notes on the fourth and his judgements on his own compositions, and no i didn't just listen to the 6th and make a general assumption, i don't listen to him much anymore due to me being a bit obsessive with his music a while ago


OK. I was not targeting you. I do have some reservations about allowing biographical data to impute emotional coloration to a composer's music - when _anybody does it._


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

MacLeod said:


> But perhaps mysticcaveman hasn't?
> 
> As for your point about generalising from one or two particular works, are you saying that, for example, the two composers I cited cannot be typified as writing emotionally one-dimensional music?


I never said one or two works, I said more famous works. Maybe it's just better to get out of a potentially stereotypical view of a composer anyway. I'm no expert on Rachmaninov but Tchaikovsky I feel was capable of some variety.

And obviously some people may not be familiar with threads made here in the past, but I never said they would be. I was simply stating what I said before on a similar thread, and I then stated that in case it wasn't already clear.


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

starry said:


> I don't know why you are taking it so personally with some over the top reaction, it sounds like you have insecurity on this. I've just seen _so many_ threads on this kind of topic before. So my post wasn't all about you at all, and I wasn't giving you advice either.


i was trying to clear up more question a bit more as it was clear that you were unable to understand it, its pretty clear that you still don't, as well as reacting to the fact i found it quite rude you telling me i was a young listener and trying to simplify things, and you say its not at all about me? then please enlighten me as to who it is? cos it seems pretty clear that it being on this thread it was directed at me, i tried to clear things up more for you to understand and you tell me i am insecure, oh well can't expect moral interaction on the internet can i now


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

Bix said:


> [...] 'it makes me all emotional' then so what.


Because many people fear emotions. Emotions have had bad press in a culture where _'emotionless'_ thoughts are worshiped while emotionality is a sort of 'second class' and 'non desirable' attitude toward life and living. All this is just culture programming.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

themysticcaveman said:


> i was trying to clear up more question a bit more as it was clear that you were unable to understand it, its pretty clear that you still don't, as well as reacting to the fact i found it quite rude you telling me i was a young listener and trying to simplify things, and you say its not at all about me? then please enlighten me as to who it is? cos it seems pretty clear that it being on this thread it was directed at me, i tried to clear things up more for you to understand and you tell me i am insecure, oh well can't expect moral interaction on the internet can i now


It's not all about you because I've said it all before elsewhere here. I wasn't telling you that you were anything, I was just asking for background, actually asking a question. Your answer could have proven me wrong in any assumption I had which would have been fine, but I don't think it did.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Relevant to this thread, and to amuse crudblud:
> 
> "Art is intended to create beauty and character. Feeling only comes afterward, and art can very well do without it." --Saint-Saens


... and decades before Stravinsky said music was incapable of expressing anything. 
The retro-conservative Saint-Saens was an advanced modernist, it seems


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Weston said:


> Most of us understand this is just an exercise in generalization. Y'all chill out.


Like discussing the aesthetic qualities and our emotional reactions to, say, ground fog? i.e. a discussion with the rule one never gets specific?  Funnnny.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

themysticcaveman said:


> you misunderstand me, as a whole i feel one emotion, say that characterizes that composer, there personality per say, and yes i hear more than just that in their music, like if i hear something from Beethoven, a sad and longing piece, one of regret and turmoil i still hold within me that his music characterizes heroism for me, so i just see it as part of the journey of the hero, yes i feel its desperation its depression and sadness, but at the bottom of it all i know the hero still fights on, and in a later piece per say the hero emerges victorious, i just see that particular piece as part of the journey of said character, even if by the end the music doesn't resolve into said character that i project onto the composer, i think you do yourself a great diesservice imagining everyone is close minded just cos they are human


Well, I apologise if I came across too heavy-handed. I certainly wasn't imagining you as close-minded. 
In fact what I said was "you may very well be hearing things that aren't there. I have no problem with that, you could call it added value I suppose". I _really_ don't have a problem with people adding their own interpretation to the music, as I do it myself from time to time (seeing as you mention Mahler, I have some very specific images that I associate with particular bits of the symphonies that I know Mahler would regard as ridiculous). If it increases your enjoyment of the music then I'm all for it. My point about doing yourself a disservice is simply that if you go to the trouble of imposing a fairly specific way of listening onto the music, then you run the risk of missing something the composer might have intended you to hear. As the old line goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Where, for instance, does the hero fit into Beethoven's Bagatelles?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Nereffid said:


> [...]
> Where, for instance, does the hero fit into Beethoven's Bagatelles?


unless the notion is stretched a lot, the hero fits only into some of the 'middle period' works. Before ~Op.31 there is an explorer, and in the late works a discoverer.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Maybe in the late string quartets it's Desmond the Moonbear.


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## Joris (Jan 13, 2013)

Brahms: tenseness, no emotion
This sounds negative but to me it sounds very pure and satisfactory when you get the grip on it


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

And of course the performers have quite a big say in how a work is perceived by the listener.


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## Downbeat (Jul 10, 2013)

starry said:


> Are you young and new to classical music? Those people often want to simplify music with a simple emotional viewpoint. And music is obviously not just emotional.


I understand your point, though as an (almost) seasoned listener myself, I tend to hear individual composers' 'sounds', too. I suppose the very best ones know how to provoke more than one 'emotion' out of the listener, rather like a very good actor knowing how to play different characters convincingly.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Just be happy and thankful that many of us CAN feel notional when listen ending to these great pieces as more are out there that don't especially the weird modern sounds.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I think any good composer (not just the very best) has to provoke more than one emotion. As I've said before I think the tendency to look at music as being about atmosphere and emotion and wallowing in one kind of feeling derives from how some modern popular music is made. Some of it is literally perfomers making a living off just creating a sound, an emotion, an atmosphere and just repeating that from song to song. But not all music is like that, and certainly classical music isn't normally like that.


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## Forte (Jul 26, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Just be happy and thankful that many of us CAN feel notional when listen ending to these great pieces as more are out there that don't especially the weird modern sounds.


What if I find avant-garde music emotional?

Maybe it escapes the minds of some people that music they consider "annoying" or "weird" or even "ugly" might be beautiful to any one of the other seven billion people on the planet.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm not looking to experience base emotions such as sad, happy, angry, etc. when listening to music. I'm interested in creativity, originality, and superior musical intellect in the construction of a work. For instance, I really enjoy Ligeti's music because he thought so deeply and skillfully about the construction of his pieces. He possessed a lot of knowledge concerning acoustics and microtonality, which enabled him to create highly original and beautiful music.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

starthrower said:


> I'm not looking to experience base emotions such as sad, happy, angry, etc. when listening to music. I'm interested in creativity, originality, and superior musical intellect in the construction of a work. For instance, I really enjoy Ligeti's music because he thought so deeply and skillfully about the construction of his pieces. He possessed a lot of knowledge concerning acoustics and microtonality, which enabled him to create highly original and beautiful music.


That's the same with me too. I found it particularly difficult to come up with emotions like the thread says. Perhaps this is the reason!


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

starthrower said:


> I'm not looking to experience base emotions such as sad, happy, angry, etc. when listening to music. I'm interested in creativity, originality, and superior musical intellect in the construction of a work. For instance, I really enjoy Ligeti's music because he thought so deeply and skillfully about the construction of his pieces. He possessed a lot of knowledge concerning acoustics and microtonality, which enabled him to create highly original and beautiful music.


Classical music is just more academic, and that's not a negative description, it's just more intellectual.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> That's the same with me too. I found it particularly difficult to come up with emotions like the thread says. Perhaps this is the reason!


I think a lot of music (and most of the music I love the best) tries to provide an aesthetic experience, or to evoke an unusual state of mind -- not to overtly arouse emotions. The latter is easy and often cheap.


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2013)

Ondine said:


> Because many people fear emotions. Emotions have had bad press in a culture where _'emotionless'_ thoughts are worshiped while emotionality is a sort of 'second class' and 'non desirable' attitude toward life and living. All this is just culture programming.


Not sure which culture you're referring to. If anything, in the UK, we're veering towards a culture where the emotional is disproportionately favoured and the cerebral regarded with scepticism - especially if reason an intellect is used to criticise long-held emotional beliefs.



starthrower said:


> I'm not looking to experience base emotions such as sad, happy, angry, etc. when listening to music. I'm interested in creativity, originality, and superior musical intellect in the construction of a work.





ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> That's the same with me too. I found it particularly difficult to come up with emotions like the thread says. Perhaps this is the reason!





starry said:


> Classical music is just more academic, and that's not a negative description, it's just more intellectual.


Unacceptable generalisation. Some classical music offers a deliberately cerebral, some an emotional experience.



KenOC said:


> I think a lot of music (and most of the music I love the best) tries to provide an aesthetic experience, or to evoke an unusual state of mind -- not to overtly arouse emotions. The latter is easy and often cheap.


And there's some cheap classical out there.

What individuals get out of music is what individuals get out of music: whether the composer put it there (intentionally or otherwise) is another matter entirely. I certainly don't picture a long succession of composers, posed a la Rodin's Thinker, all deliberately structuring their music to meet the needs of an emotionless intelligentsia!


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## themysticcaveman (Jul 9, 2013)

i see many people here are more interested in the intellect of the music, and yes i too am very interested in the form and structure of pieces, and how the composer develops the piece, i have a library full of scores and one of my favorite things to do is to follow while listening, it does not mean that i close myself off to the music, many people misunderstand me in this thread as i say, what base personality trait do you feel from a composer? not every damn piece has to embody that, but throughout their catalog of works you will find it being their main theme that they will surely almost definitely come back to, and those that do not get a feeling from music (and open your minds up a little more, any feeling) i would say what the romantics set out to achieve was greatly lost with your cut off search for intellect


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2013)

Intellect and emotion are not separate. I get a great deal of pleasure - emotional pleasure - out of picking out the intricacies of a piece. As others have said, whilst some music can play on a fairly crude emotion, I prefer music where the emotional response is more complex, intertwined with the intellectual.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

MacLeod said:


> Intellect and emotion are not separate.


Exactly. Classical music is like that, it's not wallowing in emotion. We'll keep getting emotion threads though.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

themysticcaveman said:


> many people misunderstand me in this thread as i say, what base personality trait do you feel from a composer? not every damn piece has to embody that


Well, in fairness, your OP did say



themysticcaveman said:


> Beethoven, yes he has happy music, sad and angry music, but as a whole, *no matter if* i am listening to a funeral march of his or the saddest piece he composed, i feel within his music a heroic nature that underlies all of it


I regarded "no matter if" as implying that you _were_ referring to every damn piece. My argument is that you have to start off knowing (preferring?) certain works by Beethoven that transmit a heroic nature in order to identify a "base personality trait" of heroism; if you knew him from, say, the bagatelles, such a personality wouldn't be in the least bit obvious. Hence projection.

(I'm not saying there isn't, _overall_ a basic personality you can apply to a (Romantic) composer; just that attempting to find evidence of said personality in every composition is futile)


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## Guest (Aug 5, 2013)

starry said:


> Classical music is like that, it's not wallowing in emotion.


You seem keen to describe _all _classical music in specific terms. And you still seem keen to separate the components of emotion and intellect.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Everybody makes generalisations, but I'm definitely not separating emotion and intellect like some others always do here.


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## Joris (Jan 13, 2013)

What are the big pros for listening in a emotionally detached manner, listening to form (not just sonata form and all, although that is form too), not letting your mind wander while you listen?

Not that I have an opinion on this, but usually it interests me when certain parts of a piece can enthuse me, even for brief moments, and emotion is interesting to me; when you listen to music you can feel different emotions in the same way you can read events you haven't experienced before in a book.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

I wanted to revive this thread a little bit with an intent to post some examples of *humor* in music - well, and funny musicians too- like in this video.

in fact I think it's better to create a new topic for examples of humor in music - Beethoven was such a good one at composing jokes in music.

I find this video to be very funny one, not just because of music, but a conductor as well


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## James Mann (Sep 6, 2016)

helenora said:


> I wanted to revive this thread a little bit with an intent to post some examples of *humor* in music - well, and funny musicians too- like in this video.
> 
> in fact I think it's better to create a new topic for examples of humor in music - Beethoven was such a good one at composing jokes in music.
> 
> I find this video to be very funny one, not just because of music, but a conductor as well


Very good chap!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Debussy; Liszt; Bruckner; Schubert:

Is "boredom" an emotion?


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

hpowders said:


> Debussy; Liszt; Bruckner; Schubert:
> 
> Is "boredom" an emotion?


no boredom isn't an emotion...in my classification , therefore it doesn't count


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

I just feel anger when I listen to composers. Sometimes I feel homicidal or Suicidal thoughts


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

helenora said:


> no boredom isn't an emotion...in my classification , therefore it doesn't count


Okay. Thanks for the clarification:

From Bach : :angel:

From Beethoven: :cheers:

From Bruckner: :trp:

From Liszt:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Friendlyneighbourhood said:


> I just feel anger when I listen to composers. Sometimes I feel homicidal or Suicidal thoughts


You've come to the right place.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

hpowders said:


> Okay. Thanks for the clarification:
> 
> From Bach : :angel:
> 
> ...


haha, nice. yeah, Beethoven-Brotherhood oder Bruderschaft

Bruckner , I loved this smile. Don't you think this smiley face could relate to Wagner as well...

Liszt , good, then I would recommend people to listen to his Dante Sonata and Mefisto valse if they have an insomnia


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## gutswy (Oct 11, 2016)

Some pieces do not invoke one type of emotion, it can be many emotions mixed into one if that makes sense. E.g. when I'm listening to Bach I feel happy and sad at the same time.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

helenora said:


> haha, nice. yeah, Beethoven-Brotherhood oder Bruderschaft
> 
> Bruckner , I loved this smile. Don't you think this smiley face could relate to Wagner as well...
> 
> Liszt , good, then I would recommend people to listen to his Dante Sonata and Mefisto valse if they have an insomnia


Yes. :trp: to Wagner too, definitely!

:cheers: to the composer of Parsifal, Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger and my all-time favorite Götterdämmerung.


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Bach - The phases of life, the origins of existence, the mystery of the unknown
Beethoven - Heroic battles, the power of life and death
Bruckner - A conduit to the supernatural
Wagner - The theatre of life, the sadness of war
Mozart - The happiness of a genius (pre-requiem), the anxiety of the end (requiem)
Handel - Class and elegance


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Friendlyneighbourhood said:


> I just feel anger when I listen to composers. Sometimes I feel homicidal or Suicidal thoughts


Won't last long, you get uses to it.


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

julianoq said:


> Beethoven - Furiously bad mood somehow ending with humanity happiness and joy


That's just a summary of the ninth symphony you're giving here ;-)


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## scott777 (Oct 9, 2016)

hpowders said:


> Debussy; Liszt; Bruckner; Schubert:
> 
> Is "boredom" an emotion?


How can you find Debussy and Liszt boring? In their defence, i'll describe 2 of my faves:

Debussy, La Mer - 1905, one of my fave bits in all of 20th Century music, with some mighty powerful climaxes, incredible orchestration, incredible originality, not really emotional music, but quite a ride.

Liszt wrote much exciting orchestral music, but actually I prefer his piano music, bits like Liebestraum and first 6 Trascendental Etudes. I recommend Etude 3 'Paysage', which is I think one of the most beautiful pieces ever written - it is highly romantic, but tinged with so much nostalgic sadness.


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## scott777 (Oct 9, 2016)

Friendlyneighbourhood said:


> I just feel anger when I listen to composers. Sometimes I feel homicidal or Suicidal thoughts


Is it Jealousy?


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