What music can you listen to regardless of what mood you are in?

[vandermolen]

For me:

Sibelius

Milford

Novak

[prémont]

For me:

Anything except Romantic music.

Fortunately I am very rarely in the mood for Romantic music.

[North Star]

Anything except Romantic music.

'Anything except Romantic music' includes e.g. Stockhausen, though  0:)

It is not often when Bach, Mozart, Ravel, Chopin, Janáček, Prokofiev, Sibelius, or Schubert doesn't suit my mood.

[prémont]

'Anything except Romantic music' includes e.g. Stockhausen, though  0:)

Not really. The question was "what music can you listen to regardless of what mood you are in" , and Stockhausen does not fit in here, because I can not listen to Stockhausen regardless of what mood I am in.

Well, I should have written "almost anything except Romantic music".

[North Star]

Not really. The question was "what music can you listen to regardless of what mood you are in" , and Stockhausen does not fit in here, because I can not listen to Stockhausen regardless of what mood I am in.

I'm pretty sure you should exclude music that you cannot listen to regardless of your mood from the group of music you can listen to regardless of your mood. Now, if the question was about music whose listening is never hindered by ones mood, I'd agree.

[Todd]

Debussy solo piano music; Haydn string quartets, Op 64 & forward.

[amw]

Nothing I've found yet, but Schumann piano music comes closest.

[The new erato]

Allan Pettersson. Always lifeaffirming, really.

[Brian]

Dvorak, naturally, which is why when somebody said today is his birthday I ditched my previous playlist out the window.

Beethoven roughly from Op. 31 to Op. 93.

The Schubert masterpieces.

and the album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus.

[some guy]

All.

[Mirror Image]

It seems that I can always listen to the Impressionists (Debussy, Ravel, Koechlin, etc.) regardless of my mood. I would also add in Sculthorpe, RVW, Takemitsu, Schnittke, Pärt, and lately Silvestrov.

[Wakefield]

For me:

Anything except Romantic music.

Fortunately I am very rarely in the mood for Romantic music.

I prefer not disapprove complete genres, excepting when they are notoriously infamous. But it's just me.

[Jo498]

Music for *all moods* has to be somewhat "neutral". Too intense will not do in many cases, even if it was my favorite music. Hardly any vocal music will do. Some piano and chamber music will probably do the best. E.g. the "lighter" Bach keyboard stuff like the French suites, also some Handel and some Scarlatti (the latter can be too hectic, though). Also Baroque chamber music. A lot of Haydn, some Mozart, but he tends to be to relentlessly cheerful or too emotional. Some early Beethoven, e.g. op.2/2 or op.14. Certainly not Schubert's big sonatas but a few of the shorter piano pieces or the "Arpeggione Sonata". Chopin's Mazurkas, late Brahms piano pieces (although some are too intense/sad).

But usually it is easier to pick music to fit the mood, there is enough variety.

[some guy]

Music for *all moods* has to be somewhat "neutral".

Two things occur to me. One is that you have completely discounted the power of music to change your mood.

The other is my sense for myself (and thus possibly non-transferable) that my moods (which are transitory) and my love of music (which is permanent) are neither connected causally nor even occupy the same space.

My "moods" have absolutely nothing to do with what I listen to or when. I neither listen to music to enhance my mood, to complement my mood, or to change my mood. I listen to music to hear me some nice music. My moods have no say in the matter. When I was a kid, and just starting out listening, sure. A friend's brother died, and I went straight to my room and put on the Pathetique.

But that kind of thing was rare for me even as a kid. And indeed, it felt wrong to have done that. Wrong because self-indulgent--an actual death, and I'm only interested in indulging my mood?--and wrong to use a wonderful piece of music to indulge myself. It seemed inappropriate, as a response to death and as a use of music.

I'm surprised that for those of you whose moods and whose listening is connected, however, that the music you love seems to have no capacity to override your moods. That takes me aback, indeed it does.

[Mandryka]

I listen to music to hear me some nice music.

Don't you find that what you think is nice at one time may just be not very engaging or even annoying another? I do. And one way of accounting for that changed response is by saying it's caused by a changed mental state on the part of the listener. Mood has to be a serious contender for the mental change, doesn't it?

This is why all the record reviews which just say "I like X", "Y is no good" etc, the sort of thing you read all the time, and in much more respectable places than internet forums, are totally worthless. Worse than worthless - egocentric.

[Jo498]

I have not discounted the mood changing power at all. And I usually do not listen to music to improve or mirror moods either.
But the question was what music I would listen to regardless of mood. And in my experience there are both certain moods when I will not enjoy some kinds of music (or enjoy them less) and there is also music for which I have to be in the proper mood.
It's not that I get depressed (or relieved of depression) when listening to e.g. Schubert's Winterreise, but that nevertheless, Winterreise, especially complete (and listening to only parts of it is often not satisfying for several reasons), is a long, serious, and emotionally gripping piece and there is quite a spectrum of moods where I do not want such an experience or moods that simply are not conducive to it.
The same is true for many "big" and/or emotionally gripping works.

[Karl Henning]

What music can you listen to regardless of what mood you are in?

Not sure there is any.  Vivaldi, Chopin, Haydn, Prokofiev, & Stravinsky may come close, though.

[some guy]

Well, between us, Karl and I seem to have the entire gamut pretty well covered.

[Karl Henning]

[jochanaan]

Don't you find that what you think is nice at one time may just be not very engaging or even annoying another?...

No.  Whether I love a certain piece of music has nothing to do with the mood I'm in, and therefore I can listen to all of my perennial favorites regardless of my current mood.  And I also find that I don't have to be in a certain mood to be interested in new music.  If it's good, my mood will be good whatever it was before listening; if it's not good, even my best moods don't last through it.