# Types of Musical Experiences (Psychological / Subjective)



## StephenTC (Apr 24, 2014)

Please list some of your types of musical experience with some examples of the pieces that evoke that experience for you.
Of course, there are as many musical experiences as there are human emotions, but that is not quite what I mean: see my examples below....

The "Contrapuntal brain overload experience"
- my example: the finale to Mozart's 41st Symphony (the Bernstein)
This is where there is so much going on it seems as if you can feel separate parts of your brain fizzing in response to different parts of the music. There is a feeling of being overpowered - like a mental kind of falling back stunned- but there is a kind of pleasure in it. I am keen to find other pieces with this effect so please let me know of any pieces that work that way for you (I bought the Bach Mass in B Minor (Gardiner version) looking for the same kind of contrapuntal musical high but did not find it as effective as the Jupiter in that respect.)

The "Meditative Stillness Experience": this usually occurs when a piece has a relatively still and quiet middle section surrounded by sections with more movement. The mind goes still, the body is temporarily immobilised, and the world around you seems to go still with you until the movement in the music resumes:
Example: Movement II from Piano Concerto by Carl Vine- Michael Kieran Harvey piano, Sydney Symphony, Edo de Waart conductor.
Example 2: Oh! Ne T'éveille pas encore (Oh! Do not wake up yet) (Berceuse) from 'Jocelyn' (David Hobson (tenor) and TSO version)
Do you have any pieces that work that way for you?

The cathartic "Ecstasy of Grief" Experience: Sometimes this may have more to do with your current state of mind rather than the music. Music I find extremely beautiful can sometimes evoke feelings of grief, about what exactly I know not, that has a pleasurable aspect to it.
Examples: The Ave Maria from Verdi's Othello (esp. the Cristina Gallardo-Domas / Barbacini version), 
The Caccini Ave Maria (esp. the Shu-Cheen Yu (soprano), Sinfonia Australis, Antony Walker version)
(the two Ave Maria's are coincidental I have no emotional commitment to any religion)

[Side note: The phrase "the Ecstasy of Grief" I have borrowed from a Season 2 episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "Passion", which, incidentally, had a scene that made effective use of music from La Boheme]

I am interested to hear some of your own "musical experiences" or if you share some of the above.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I'm more into "meditative stillness". I prefer the solo keyboard and violin music of Bach. This music takes me to a spiritual level I cannot achieve any other way.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The Contrapuntal Brain Overload Experience: I get this with Glenn Gould playing Bach at brisk tempos. Also, with densely textured 12-tone music, like Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, I get it.

The Meditative Stillness Experience: I get this effect when Glenn Gould plays Bach slowly and introspectively, like the Sinfonia Nr. 9 (Two and Three-part Inventions). Also Terry Riley does this to me, esp. the second performance of the "Persian Surgery Dervishes."

The cathartic "Ecstasy of Grief" Experience: it's interesting to note that your choices were vocals. A good soprano can do this for me, too. Strauss' Four Last Songs, and Janet Baker's Kindertotenlieder also. And Lorraine Hunt's Handel Arias.


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2014)

The Transcendent Experience.

Beyond thought, words, explanation, rationality.

When the music touches you directly without mind interference.

When I listen to Gorecki Symphony No3 (Polish Symphony Orch/Wit/Kilanowicz) there are a couple of places where I, unbidden, unwarned, cry a little.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

For "Contrapuntal brain overload experience", Ligeti's Piano Etudes (e.g., Desordre, Automne à Varsovie)

For "Meditative Stillness Experience", the tutti chord in the coda of the first movement of Mahler's 6th (it's just a moment, but what a moment!); the beginning of the second movements of Ligeti's Piano and Violin Concerti after virtuosistic first movements; the second entrance of the piano after the violent initial cadenza in Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, the piano plays an incredibly and incisively melancholic melody; I also second Glenn Gould playing slow moments of Bach, like the Aria in the Goldberg Variations (1981 recording).

For "Ecstasy of Grief", Ravel's Sad Birds! If you want to indulge in the pleasures of melancholy (perhaps in that delicate border with madness), this is the piece. Ravel's 'Le jardin feerique' may be more on the lines of what you had in mind, though.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Contrapuntal brain overload experience: the first fugal section from Beethoven's Großr Fuge

And hey, you've heard Carl Vine then StephenTC! Where are ya from?


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## StephenTC (Apr 24, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Contrapuntal brain overload experience: the first fugal section from Beethoven's Großr Fuge
> 
> And hey, you've heard Carl Vine then StephenTC! Where are ya from?


Hi COAG,

Thank you, I will investigate the Beethoven. I am from Sydney, I heard the Vine piano movement on an ABC (Australian) FM compilation disc and because I liked it and Carl is an Australian I checked out his String Quartets CD (Goldner String Quartet). There was a lot to like about it:
The rhythmic propulsion reminiscent of the part one of the Rites of Spring.
The beauty of spare dissonance not hidden in a large ensemble.
The occasional burst of lyricism within modern sounding harmonies.
The last 3 mins of Quartet 5 - sheer exuberant runaway joy.
Plus, if you want to get your Tango on, a bonus Tango.

Regards,
StephenTC


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I'm more into "meditative stillness". I prefer the solo keyboard and violin music of *Bach. This music takes me to a spiritual level I cannot achieve any other way*.


If there is a God, He resides in the notes that Bach wrote.


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