# Do you ever lose touch with reality when listening to music? If so, what pieces?



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I've been thinking about this recently.

My life has been tough the last few months. Not just school stuff, but several high-pressure musical things including 2 auditions and some major performances. Also some sadness/despair over a certain secret circumstance I'm in. I've been having some trouble typing and reading things correctly, worse than in the past, dyslexia? Yet this is no real trouble to me since I have excellent grades in my courses. Some hallucination of spots and things moving in the last weeks, but not recently. A few mornings ago, I had just woken up and was half asleep, and started reading my bible, when I heard my name yelled by a male's voice, not exactly anyone I knew. Also my dreams have been so realistic, pertaining to certain concerns in my life that even hours later, I'm still not sure if what I experienced was a dream or something that really happened. This all concerns me. I hope I haven't done a self-fulfilling prophecy by accident, I wrote a story about someone like this almost a year ago, someone spiraling into insanity... dream and reality becoming one... who knows, I might go all Black-Swan soon  (I watched that movie 2 weeks ago, I really sympathized with that poor girl).

And on top of all of this, if I just listen to some piece by Arensky, I leave everything behind. All is well again. I might be stressed, but I can be artificially uplifted in my mood without anything ever changing in my life.

Does this ever happen to you, that you get a loss of touch with reality even for a slight moment when listening to music? It might not necessarily mean your mood changes, but you get an odd sensation of no longer being in the present, but being somewhere entirely different.


----------



## Guest (Apr 12, 2013)

This seems to be a variant of another thread, or perhaps other threads (I don't keep track of all of them), in which the best or most sensible answer is "all," but the OP wants some other answer besides "all."

Anyway, in addition, in this case, I would say that music is real, so all music that I listen to puts me _into_ reality. A deeper, richer, more real reality than anything else (almost) that is usually referred to as "real."

But, that's all as may be. Soon other posters will sign on with the "right" answers, which are "Beethoven's _Hammerklavier_" or "Tchaikovsky's _Romeo & Juliet_" or "the opening to Bach's _St. Matthew Passion_" or something of that sort.

Oh, it's fun.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Frequently, listening in the dark like I have done tonight to Olivier Messiaen's '*Des Canyons aux Etoiles...*' reality cease to exist and the experience of the music posses my senses totally!

/ptr


----------



## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Most definitely
If I am listening and concentrating (doesn't always happen, life gets in the way)
I find that my focus is on the music, nothing else intrudes (it's similar to meditation)
A very enjoyable experience, to be repeated whenever "life" gets in the way (or if you just feel like it)


----------



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I don't know about losing touch with reality. The clarity and logic of great music brings me closer to reality, but the beauty often makes me soar. Yeah, I get lost in the minutiae, I can fade away to another place, my mind is no longer my own. I think this is true of any inspirational art or writing: it absorbs us as deeply as we absorb it...


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

some guy said:


> But, that's all as may be. Soon other posters will sign on with the "right" answers, which are "Beethoven's _Hammerklavier_" or "Tchaikovsky's _Romeo & Juliet_" or "the opening to Bach's _St. Matthew Passion_" or something of that sort.
> 
> Oh, it's fun.


relax 

I agree with you about music (any that works for the listener) intensifying reality, whichever that may be.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

some guy said:


> Anyway, in addition, in this case, I would say that music is real, so all music that I listen to puts me _into_ reality. A deeper, richer, more real reality than anything else (almost) that is usually referred to as "real."


Glazunov does that for me. I almost always feel firmly grounded to reality when listening to his music, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because his emotions are slightly more constrained, and not hysterical like some Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff or Arensky. But with some other pieces, as with T, R, and A, I get feelings of, "I don't belong here. I belong where that piece of music is," or something along those lines.


----------



## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

I agree with the posts about music putting us into or closer to reality. When I am under stress, I sometimes "distort" my reality (or even my personality) by fixating my attention too much on one or a few problems and difficulties, and music brings me "back to reality" and frees me, at least for a while. When I listen to music, I feel more like myself than ever.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

...and this is a moderator? That explains a lot...:lol:


----------



## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Sometimes, maybe. Actually, usually it just seems to intensify the emotions I already have. I don't know.



Huilunsoittaja said:


> My life has been tough the last few months. Not just school stuff, but several high-pressure musical things including 2 auditions and some major performances. Also some sadness/despair over a certain secret circumstance I'm in.


I'm sorry to hear this.  I have my own secret circumstance. I hope things improve for you soon!


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Klavierspieler said:


> Sometimes, maybe. Actually, usually it just seems to intensify the emotions I already have. I don't know.
> 
> I'm sorry to hear this.  I have my own secret circumstance. I hope things improve for you soon!


Well, some of it's resolved. I did my first opera performance this evening and it went well, but I also got an email this evening saying I didn't get into an Orchestral Institute I auditioned for 2 weeks ago. So, mixed emotions, relief, frustration...

Things will only improve when someone leaves my life forever...


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

First, my commiserations. You have listed, in combination, the reactions to a classic case of big-time stress.

Typical, btw, for an undergraduate or grad student who has many obligations and deadlines across so many areas, plus, being 'young,' many other 'youthful' personal involvements.

The good news it is truly temporary, a good deal of what is taking it out of you will be relieved, as always, at the end of the semester you are now in 

Many have wondered while in the middle of it, since student stress and 'fallout' is so well-known, why universities and colleges do not adjust their syllabus in order to prevent more students being similarly stressed out from one generation and semester to the next.

None of that is on the syllabus, but in life after school, all the things creating tension and stress which you've related or allude to can happen just as much and just as often (if not in greater extreme) in regular doses, and also in far more than inconvenient clusterf___s, with the added gloss that once in the swim of adult life and making a livelihood what is at stake is not a matter of failing a course one can take over, regardless of the expense, but instead involves circumstances where it can make or break you, lose you your job, etc.

So, all that has remained not-adjusted for school life, the knowledge that life after school can be as rough if not rougher from time to time. Ergo, it is an experience you must learn how to handle, and a 'test' you must pass.

Thank your stars it is neatly scheduled around trimesters or semesters, rather than coming at you randomly, with no scheduled end of term in sight 

ADD: as per the OP. I have always tended to get 'completely involved' in pieces I choose, prefer, listen to, study to perform, or comps I am in the midst of making. 

Often enough, I've put music on -- for listening -- as a focus / distraction away from worries I know are 'just worries,' vs. "solutions" or "strategies to solve a problem." Sometimes, so focused, the conscious linear thought part of the mind stills, and the intuitive aspect has more uninterrupted time to go to work on the same problem, more likely to later surprise you with 'all of a sudden' knowing what to do, worry about or not worry about.

As bad as it may seem, if you can 'escape' into a piece of music in the middle of a stressy cluster of events, you do not yet know the greater extremes of stress: at those junctures, being able to concentrate on anything like a full length symphony becomes virtually impossible, which relegates anything with lesser degrees of stress, as real and uncomfortable as those are, to the status of 'first world problem.'


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Regarding the mild hallucinations and dreaming while awake symptoms, I had this happen over a year ago and it gradually got worse and worse. I was also wanting to sleep all the time and at inappropriate times. It turned out to be sleep apnea. I was not getting proper dream sleep and so was dreaming while awake -- or sort of awake, though I had dreams while sleeping too and they seemed vivid to me. All is better now after getting diagnosed and treated! Usually this happens in older people who are overweight, but it can happen to anyone. Worth keeping in the back of your mind if you find your self with unexplained fatigue and bizarre mental states.

Regarding music taking me away, I would say it always does that to an extent. That may be one of its main functions. Naturally if I'm down I wouldn't want to try being artificially perky by listening to some happy Scarlatti sonata for instance. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes wallowing in music similar to my mood is therapeutic. On the other hand this approach does not work with stress. I do not want stressful music when I'm already stressed. I'm not sure why there is this large of a difference. Lately I have noticed that too much stress lessons my ability to be taken away by the music, and this is very frustrating. That may be age related as well as explained by PetrB above.


----------



## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Yes! But what piece(s) send me, and to where exactly in my musical Nivana, is dependent first on my mood. This determines my listening selection, which, if appropriate (i.e. the music matches my mood) transports me to that special place of unreality. The moments are usually fleeting - but they are indeed "touching the Face of God" moments. Pity we can't stay there, but then again, we are at least reminded that these places do exist and wait for us (in those special times of need when necessary). This, as the OP suggests, can be a tremendous a source of comfort for all connoisseurs of music. It is for me. So, to the OP question... yes again.


----------



## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Reality, to me, is not the demands that are thrusts upon us by the society, nor the dilemmas it puts us into, nor any outside expectations. However, I tend to take those things for reality, for what is really important. What helps, is to remind myself, through music, for instance, of the truly meaningful things. To keep sane is everyone's foremost task. And the external circumstances of one's existence (code name: "reality") are the biggest obstacle. They are not meaningful in themselves, yet we feel ourselves at their mercy. This bizarre disproportion produces the most dangerous stress. Listening to music, that is finding true meaningfulness entirely in oneself, helps easing that stress.


----------



## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

If I really want to escape from it all and leave reality behind, I need music that (I feel) is about much more than earthly matters... it needs to be completely "out there"... vast, dense and grand in scope, so it makes me feel insignificant and part of the stars, the universe and beyond. There is little music that takes me there. One piece in particular I'd like to mention, and one of my favorite pieces of music, is the truly magnificent "Altus" from Steve Roach (electronic/ambient). It's like standing at the edge of infinity.
It's difficult to listen to in the beginning, but I've been building a relationship with it for over 10 years and my appreciation has only increased.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

You and me both, Huilunsoitaja. Seriously. I am finally coming out of the stress, but my focus on auditory things and sensations is too much sometimes.

It sounds like you are deeper into something I have been experiencing.

In my explorations of Renaissance music, I have found great comfort in virginal music. Its weird how ones perspective can shift when era fixations change.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Glazunov does that for me. I almost always feel firmly grounded to reality when listening to his music, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because his emotions are slightly more constrained, and not hysterical like some Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff or Arensky. But with some other pieces, as with T, R, and A, I get feelings of, "I don't belong here. I belong where that piece of music is," or something along those lines.


This makes sense to me too. I usually go to Haydn for that, maybe I'll give Glazunov a try.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

In response the recent posts, I wasn't trying to draw attention to my circumstances. I was laying down a background of emotion to show how music can make you forget all that. Reading the posts, I can see that no who has spoken yet has quite experienced what I have... no one here has yet experienced what it's like to "lose it" to music.

I see what people are saying about that music is the "true reality." Yes, I believe that too, in the long run. Music all points to something greater than itself, the absolute Truth, and that's how it can push us to keep going in life. That could explain my emotional response to Glazunov, which very much grounds me in the present. But I wasn't quite talking of that. I don't think I'm seeing a "true reality" when I hear a piano piece, and I'm suddenly transported back 130-something years ago to a salon room, with an orange sunset outside and the composer playing the piece on the piano. A great yearning to be right there, standing by that piano. That's what I meant by loss of touch with reality, there's no evidence that that imagination of mine ever existed in real life.

I had another hallucination yesterday, I think. I saw a small brown fuzz ball on my leg that resembled a blurred spider, so wiped it off with a towel, but I didn't find it anywhere again on the ground or on the towel, it just kinda disappeared into thin air...


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I've gotten deep into it, I have to admit, but you are probably right that I am not adventurous enough to have been that far into it. I get too self conscious and there are too many people in my life who would tell me I'm not right in the head( I mean that literally, without it being a jibe at you, since I respect getting deep into music, and know that one can retain their good sense, while getting into things like this, though do be careful, I'd say). 

I know this buddhist monk who admitted to me that music is comparable in potency(possibly it was a jest since he values his practice highly) to buddhist practice for something that is similar to what you describe above, about it being true. I tend to think of music as a drug these days sometimes, other times, its a discipline to which I'd like to establish religious, but not fanatical, devotion(maybe some day when I get my priorities in life working in a way that is more agreeable to my health and pragmatic functioning). 

Music can seriously be magical...but its good to be practical about music too, I suspect. I would let a more experienced member answer this though.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Since my imagination has been very finely attuned to earlier music and really "logical music"(Bach, Medtner, Haydn, CPE Bach, and other such consistent composers) its perhaps based on what I listen to. I don't know either. I don't hallucinate, but I do sometimes feel like time slows in recent history. Its a sensation that I haven't had in a long time. I feel that way when I listen to "De Cabezon" on the keyboard, but its partly because I know the music is so old and its sounds so meditative.

Often times, I have ideas about a composer that prevent me from hearing the music. Sort of the musicological perspective..."can read but can't hear," lol. Except I can't read music very well either. Maybe "can read into, based on non musical motivations"


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I am sorry to read of your worries. I am retired now but when I was at university, I suffered great mental anguish & felt things far too intensely. It is nice to be older & calmer but I shall never again feel the beauty of young green leaves hanging over a riverbank as directly as music & poetry combined. I hope that everything will improve for you and that music will continue to be a solace and an epiphany to you.

While I was at university, I went to a concert of Indian music, a sitar & tabla player, and as I sat in the dimly lit hall, I felt as I were floating along the boarded ceiling, and the marking on every board was filled with perfect beauty and ... well, 'significance' is the only word that will do. The repetitions & cadences of oriental music are conducive to a mystical state of mind, I think.

But these moments are not predictable. A few months ago I was playing for the first time the Brahms waltz from Suzuki Book 2 along with my violin teacher and as I moved into the crescendo in bars 10 - 15, I stopped feeling nervous & suddenly had an exquisite & timeless experience of absolute joy. Unrepeatable, and unforgettable.

Music - what a blessing ...


----------



## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

Huilunsoittaja I know this doesn't address your question but the symptoms you describe are disturbing and I think warrant seeing a professional. Hallucinations and hearing voices are not normal and should not be disregarded. Even your dyslexia symptoms may be a sign of something worse. Please seek out a doctor and rule out any serious mental or physical illness. I speak from experience here!

Kevin


----------



## Borodin (Apr 8, 2013)

Making me lose touch with reality? I don't need music for that, it comes naturally!



Huilunsoittaja said:


> Glazunov does that for me. I almost always feel firmly grounded to reality when listening to his music, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because his emotions are slightly more constrained, and not hysterical like some Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff or Arensky. But with some other pieces, as with T, R, and A, I get feelings of, "I don't belong here. I belong where that piece of music is," or something along those lines.


I'm with you on this. Glazunov and Borodin make me feel more down-to-earth, but more surreal than real.


----------



## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

That happens quite frequently here, I think: people lose contact with reality then post all kinds of things.


----------



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

What is reality?

Sometimes I have really interesting experiences with music.

I once listened to Haydn's 43rd symphony and it lifted me into a sense of contentment for some time, and that a time where I don't feel contented very often at all.

I recently went to a concert where the pianist pulled off a fantastic performance of Chopin's scherzo in b minor. I really felt as if I could be composing it, somehow I got so into the ideas that I could imagine myself as in Chopin's shoes coming up with them putting them together. I even felt very good about myself for doing it so well, in a kind of second-hand way :lol:

I usually get lost in the musical world when I listen (at least if its good). But I rarely lose my own outlook at the same time. Or at least I come back very heavily down to earth once it finishes (or the minuet starts :lol


----------



## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Reality is highly over-rated. When I listed to music, I want to become one with the music. Some pieces are easier for me than others, but a good set of headphones makes it all easier. I have, in other threads listed some of my all time favs. One of the reasons they are my favs is because I can become them more completely than with others. Here they are again. 

Wagner. Take your pick. But the later works are my favs. The Ring and Parsifal especially. If I'm looking for a quick fix, I'll go for the orchestral versions and preludes. 

Bach. Passacaglia and Fugue in Cminor, Brandenburg Concertos, Great G Minor prelude and fugue, Little G minor fugue, Jig Fugue, Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor, Toccatta and Fugue in F Major, Art of the Fugue.

Gottschalk. A Night in the Tropics, Pasquinade, Souvenir de Porto Rico, The Banjo, Bamboola.

Beethoven Sym #7

Ravel Bolero,

Tchaikovsy Sym #6, March Slav (odd, I know).

Weinberger, Polka and fugue from Schwanda (must be the choral version)

Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances

Shostakovich, Sym #4, 5, 

Saint-Saens Bacchanal from Samson and Delilah

These are almost as good a prozac. Even better for the short term.


----------



## hello (Apr 5, 2013)

I wouldn't call the experience "Losing touch with reality", but my first time listening to La Monte young was pretty surreal.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Kevin Pearson said:


> Huilunsoittaja I know this doesn't address your question but the symptoms you describe are disturbing and I think warrant seeing a professional. Hallucinations and hearing voices are not normal and should not be disregarded. Even your dyslexia symptoms may be a sign of something worse. Please seek out a doctor and rule out any serious mental or physical illness. I speak from experience here!
> 
> Kevin


Yah, I'll talk to my mom about it, she has a nursing degree. I've been looking up stuff on the internet, and haven't been successful at finding anything _not _serious as the cause. I could be having just extreme fatigue (like delirium), I had a small tension headache earlier today but medicine took it away. I mean, otherwise, I've been eating properly, normal heartrate, not having trouble sleeping, can focus on my studies well, it's not affecting my focusing on music (notes are always clear on the page), etc. It's just once in a while, if I do happen to be tired, or in a sleepy mood, things happen like this.

Maybe I HAVE been listening to too much Arensky :lol:.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Great idea to talk to your mother. You've been living very intensely; I'm glad that your eating, sleeping etc are okay. Wishing you all the best...


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Yah, I'll talk to my mom about it, she has a nursing degree. I've been looking up stuff on the internet, and haven't been successful at finding anything _not _serious as the cause. I could be having just extreme fatigue (like delirium), I had a small tension headache earlier today but medicine took it away. I mean, otherwise, I've been eating properly, normal heartrate, not having trouble sleeping, can focus on my studies well, it's not affecting my focusing on music (notes are always clear on the page), etc. It's just once in a while, if I do happen to be tired, or in a sleepy mood, things happen like this.
> 
> Maybe I HAVE been listening to too much Arensky :lol:.


I did talk to my mom, she says not to take it too seriously. She said it's likely a series of migraines (they can have numerous symptoms including messed-up vision and spots) and tension headaches all from stress. She just told me to sleep more. It'll likely all go away when the semester ends.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Great news! Hope you're able to relax & enjoy life a little more.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

...could be a tumor, or narcolepsy. Ever had a head injury?


----------



## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

The beauty (in widest sense of that term) of music can certainly take you away from the arrogant ignorance of most of humanity. It's certainly helped me for most of the last 10 years.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Never underestimate fatique and the obsessions and stress that creates it, I'd say.


----------



## Ritter (Apr 11, 2013)

*Do you ever lose touch with reality when listening to music? If so, what pieces?*

Almost always when I listen to music, especially opera... I wish I could devoted my entire life to music.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

> The beauty (in widest sense of that term) of music can certainly take you away from the arrogant ignorance of most of humanity. It's certainly helped me for most of the last 10 years.


I think most people develop a relationship with God for the same reason. Maybe that's the problem; music was created by Man. Perhaps the priorities are not in order. I've always heard it as "God, family, then work."


----------



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

clavichorder said:


> Never underestimate fatique and the obsessions and stress that creates it, I'd say.


And I'd second that...


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I did my first opera performance this evening and it went well


what opera was it?


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

deggial said:


> what opera was it?


Mozart's Idomeneo, I'm playing 1st flute. So, 2 performances done so far, 2 more to go. 

@ Clavichorder indeed! Just you read what I'm about to talk about on the What Happens in your Life Thread that I did today...


----------



## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

I first listened to Daphnis et Chloe when I had a 39C fever and lied down for 4 hours listening to it 4 times and I was mesmerized. The beginning quartal and quintal harmonies with the sparse orchestration (at least until the tutti) with the tremolo triplets in the strings were absolutely perplexing.


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Mozart does this for me. He takes you away to a beautiful world you wish existed. Just turn off the lights and put on some Mozart and use your imagination.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Since you're feeling anxious, I bet you'd sound really good on some Schoenberg...it would match the mood perfectly.


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> Since you're feeling anxious, I bet you'd sound really good on some Schoenberg...it would match the mood perfectly.


That would just make things worse. lol


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

...or maybe some metal music, like Children of Bodom.


----------



## Prezification (Sep 21, 2012)

I was listening to "Lontano" by Ligeti. 



I'll tell ya what... listening to the eerie chords at full blast while staring into the face of such an ugly man put me in a new place. It felt... uncertain... uncertain and hypnotizing.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

All the time......... and which reality are we talking about!


----------

