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Emotion Provoking, Tear producing classical stunners?

8K views 84 replies 34 participants last post by  DeepR 
#1 ·
Is it just me - or do some classical pieces stir up emotion that produces that 'lump in the throat' or even a rolling tear down the cheek? Is it even powerful enough to influence your mood?? For me among many has to be.....Senza Mamma or even Elijah - Es Ist Genug, So Nimm Nun, Herr, Meine Seele.....Mendelssohn. Do you find yourself selecting a piece to either change or help your mood?

Regards....Sean.:confused:
 
#12 ·
The first OP:
I'm sure I will select a more ebullient and 'up' piece at times because it is that, but other than that, music is to me more food than medicine to enhance or change moods.

To this Q:
Emotions are thoughts, so can have just as great a range and nuance in the area as more 'cerebral' thoughts.
I noticed you're naming things all with text -- the verbal content sure to influence.

Do you have pieces which have no 'program' about them, no personal association as, say, you were listening to it when you got the news that a friend died, etc. which move you just as much?

Though it is not my area of interest, I think that might be an interesting survey for you to make.
 
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#33 ·
For some reason, the second of Chopin's Trois nouvelles études has a profound tear-jerking effect on me, with its wistful sadness. Not sure whether anyone else on the planet experiences the piece this way. And the same thing happens with Tallis' Spem in alium.

For the rest, I suppose I am affected by the same old sad warhorses as everyone else: Barber's adagio for strings, for example. And the slow movement from Mozart's piano concerto no. 23.
 
#39 ·
For some reason, the second of Chopin's Trois nouvelles études has a profound tear-jerking effect on me, with its wistful sadness. Not sure whether anyone else on the planet experiences the piece this way....
*raises hand* I do! I do! So wonderful to find someone else who responds to it the same way.

And then this aria. I love it in many incarnations, but when Bjorling sings it, I'm in tears almost from the first note:



In this video, I sometimes watch his face at the end, wondering if he's realizing how sublime it was. I hope so.
 
#37 · (Edited)
I'm more than guilty of 'misusing' Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet in a similar manner. I would be hard pressed to name any specific emotion I get from it, but I certainly like being there. At one hour and twenty-nine minutes, I still put it on repeat play... a lot.
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#41 ·
Yes - absolutely

First time it happened was in a record shop (anyone remember them???) when I was first getting intoo classical music and I grumbled that Kanawa's version of Chants d'Auvergne had disappointed me and the owner put on the version by Victoria de los Angeles. I can still remember the tingle down my spine and the tears leapt to my eyes. Wonderful stuff - stilll does it for me, even now.

since then, has happened many times to me. Always at a concert when I hear some Berlioz (must be the release of tension that builds up in anticipation and expectation) but on record there's loads of stuff ..... for example (in no particular order) some recent examples include:

Maria Yudina playing Bach
Maria Callas singing Bellini
Carlos Kleiber conducting Beethoven's 7th
Zara Dolukhanova singing Shostakovich's Songs from Jewish Folk
Nathan Milstein playing the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto

Don't suppose we'll ever work out why it happens to some people more than others, but it is very real for me
 
#44 ·
Middle movement "Emperor" concerto.
Can't make it through it,:cry:
 
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#45 ·
Music doesn't make me cry real tears. Feeling profoundly sad is usually as far as it goes with me. Music which is about death usually stirs this emotion, whether it's sad and slow, chiming in with melancholy feelings, or solemn & stately, reminding me that all the pomp of earth will pass. An example of the first is Carolan's Farewell to Music:



An example of the second is Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, which I believe was also used for the composer's funeral.

 
#52 · (Edited)
Music doesn't make me cry real tears. Feeling profoundly sad is usually as far as it goes with me. Music which is about death usually stirs this emotion, whether it's sad and slow, chiming in with melancholy feelings, or solemn & stately, reminding me that all the pomp of earth will pass. An example of the first is Carolan's Farewell to Music:



An example of the second is Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, which I believe was also used for the composer's

funeral.

I'm surpised to hear that from you. In my case it's the voice, there are certain singers who I can only listen to alone.
 
#46 ·
Sometimes the sheer beauty of a piece will draw tears from me.
Like the overwhelming beauty of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony.
Or the beauty of a Mozart aria.

I think I've shed more tears from overwhelming beauty than sadness actually.
 
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#50 ·
As much as I enjoy those bombastic adagios along the lines of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, I find myself far more moved by pieces which are restrained, melancholic and reflective. Therefore I think of Grieg's Piano Concerto (2nd mvt.) or even something as simple as Couperin's Mysterious Barricades. Perhaps Vaughan Williams' 5th Symphony as well, a piece which has a great nostalgic effect for me. Or Mozart's Laudate Dominum from the Vespers.

 
#53 ·
Sometimes I cry during a piece I'm listening to, right at the moment it hits me, but I also have cried a few minutes after I finished hearing a piece, sometimes even longer than that, when all has fallen silent. I think in those instances, it's because the ending made an impression on me that took me a while to process. Also, extramusical things have made me cry. For example, thinking about Shostakovich's life situation at the time of the 5th Symphony while listening to the Largo can do it for me. I can almost imagine him embracing his son and wife in that movement, whispering, "Is it too much to ask that I not be taken from you? You're all I've got." I learned in Music History this past semester that this sentiment was recognized by many of the listeners at its premiere, who were having their own loved ones be taken away in the Great Terror... :cry:
 
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