Music as Anger Management?

[Air]

I'm sure others let our their anger this way too.  What music works best for you?

This one works for me all the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9UfTeqjKWo&feature=PlayList&p=9E921F6B1097056A&index=3
(Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 3rd movement)

[springrite]

Rage over a Lost Penny worked wonders when I lost everything when I divorced from my first wife.

Wait, I did not listen to that work then. She took that CD as well...

[mc ukrneal]

I'm sure others let our their anger this way too.  What music works best for you?

This one works for me all the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9UfTeqjKWo&feature=PlayList&p=9E921F6B1097056A&index=3
(Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 3rd movement)

You might like this as well then (just the first minute or so): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8BYZnUcJ_A

Of course, Alexander Nevsky Battle scene may work for you as well! 

Personally, I tend to like some light piano music to take away the anger (and plenty to choose from). The Fields of Pelenor from the third disc of Lord of the Rings works well too if I want something stronger. I also enjoy the Wolf's Glen scene in Weber's Der Freischutz (when he calls for Samael and starts counting). The build up in that is outstanding (and gets pretty violent by #3), with some release at the end. I get worked up just thinking about that scene! In that sort of mood, anything loud and fast will do in a pinch though.

[MN Dave]

Seems like a bad idea to me.

[offbeat]

The cynical scherzo from Mahler 9 always gets my anger out in the open 

[Brahmsian]

A Beethoven scherzo is a great release for me.

The scherzos of Beethoven Symphony No. 3, 7 and 9 make for some great fist pumping.

However, the Grand Prize goes out to Bruckner's Symphony 9 scherzo! 

[snyprrr]

Music soothes the savage beast

Where does this cliche come from? Anyone?

[Gurn Blanston]

Music soothes the savage beast

Where does this cliche come from? Anyone?

It's breast, actually...

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697

[Franco]

Music soothes the savage beast

Where does this cliche come from? Anyone?

It's "breast" not beast

But I don't know who said it.

[Franco]

Well there you go - I would have guessed Ol' Will.

[Gurn Blanston]

Well there you go - I would have guessed Ol' Will.

Yep, he's known fer'it.

[MN Dave]

Hell, even I knew that.  0:)

[jochanaan]

As a performer, I cannot play well when I'm angry.  But great music often takes my mind away from my anger and restores my emotional balance simply by forcing me to concentrate on it instead of what I'm angry about.

[greg]

I'm sure others let our their anger this way too.  What music works best for you?

This one works for me all the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9UfTeqjKWo&feature=PlayList&p=9E921F6B1097056A&index=3
(Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 3rd movement)

Hell yeah! Metal!!!     

[Air]

Hell yeah! Metal!!! 

It has nothing to do with head-banging. (there's other music for that, most of which doesn't work as anger management) You'd be surprised but it's not the ear-splitting earth-shattering dissonances that release anger (again, there's other music to do that!).  For me, it's a more human aspect, how your anger seems to be harvested, meditated on, romped to, mocked even (as if saying: are you really angry again?  that's just pathetic.), and finally destroyed once and for all by the blast of energy.   

Again, this is not depression.  If I'm depressed I run Le Nozze de Figaro or Les Indes Galantes a couple times through.  For anger, it takes a quite different recipe, not just "optimism" or "soothingness".  These tend to provide temporary solace, maybe some pleasure to the ears, and a  bit of nostalgia.

I don't really think battle scenes like the one from Nevsky does the job at all.  Why energize your anger?  It never made sense to me.

[greg]

What about 3:40 from this video? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/1DND8S_CF_g

[mc ukrneal]

I don't really think battle scenes like the one from Nevsky does the job at all.  Why energize your anger?  It never made sense to me.

It's a release, not an energizer (at least for me).  The only classical music that makes me angry is when I hear atonal or similar styled music. It's ike instant anger for me. 

[jowcol]

If I want to release it through catharsis, it's either some very non-PC rock (recently Monster Magnet does that for me) or very atonal free jazz that I can scream along with.

If I want to turn into melancholy, I turn on the blues or Moussorgsky.

If I want to chill out, it's baroque or impressionist piano.  My favorite way to let go is to like in a darkened room and listen to the middle movement of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit (sp?) on infinite repeat.