Your Nerve-Soothing Composer of Choice

[vandermolen]

Coming into the thread late (the title made me think it was just another one of those typical poll threads...sorry, Andrei!)

Dealing with my mother in her last years was stessful enough, living in the same house with no long distance driving or other relatives in bad health. I can only glimpse what's going on with you!

Composer suggestions...Taverner's Protecting Veil (and possibly other works of his) and much of  Part. Especially as both composers were overtly expressing Orthodox Christianity in their sacred works.

+1 for the Protecting Veil.

[some guy]

Two things.

One is that I have found in practice that the music that is most soothing when my nerves are shot is often as not music that has a high level of energy--"calm" music will have the effect of making me more irritable. (I played some Merzbow in the car on a longish drive with my youngest son and some of his friends. The friends were pretty wound up by the relentlessly high volume and, to them, harsh sounds. My son went to sleep. At our destination, my son woke up and said "Merzbow is so soothing, isn't he?"

Two is that music--at the very least the types of music that classical lovers listen to--is, um, fairly complex. Terms like dark and bright and soothing vastly oversimplify the situation.

[Roy Bland]

RVW Eight.

[greg]

Two things.

One is that I have found in practice that the music that is most soothing when my nerves are shot is often as not music that has a high level of energy--"calm" music will have the effect of making me more irritable. (I played some Merzbow in the car on a longish drive with my youngest son and some of his friends. The friends were pretty wound up by the relentlessly high volume and, to them, harsh sounds. My son went to sleep. At our destination, my son woke up and said "Merzbow is so soothing, isn't he?"

Two is that music--at the very least the types of music that classical lovers listen to--is, um, fairly complex. Terms like dark and bright and soothing vastly oversimplify the situation.

I was about to mention Merzbow.

He was my go-to at the end of the long, undesirable to say the least, work days where I was 200% tired at the end of the day. And extremely irritated. It's more of a relief to listen to something like that, to be real for a second when you have to be polite to people all day, rather than to try to manipulate yourself to becoming calm by listening to something "calming." That would just make more more annoyed.

[Christo]

RVW Eight.

+1
Which performance? I - always in a minority position - often return to Thomson's, sometimes Slatkin, Previn, Boult. And you? 

[some guy]

I was about to mention Merzbow.

He was my go-to at the end of the long, undesirable to say the least, work days where I was 200% tired at the end of the day. And extremely irritated. It's more of a relief to listen to something like that, to be real for a second when you have to be polite to people all day, rather than to try to manipulate yourself to becoming calm by listening to something "calming." That would just make more more annoyed.

Yep!

Not something else that's attempting to manipulate me. Something that is just itself and stronger even than my fatigue or irritation.

Fortunately, I have had few moments recently where I actually need that something. My life over the past 14 years has been pretty calm overall. I always like listening to Merzbow, regardless.

Besides, how many pieces of "classical" music stay calm long enough to calm one down? One of the qualities of art music is that it's constantly changing. Not many pieces that are unremittingly calm from start to finish. I think of Mahler's 2nd, here. I've only seen it performed once, sadly, but the two long, slow, soothing bits--you know the ones--soothed different audience members to sleep. The first one a woman, who's reaction to the fortissimo outburst from the whole ensemble was a startled yelp; the second one the guy who had laughed at her discomfiture only to yelp in his turn at the second outburst, proving that poetic justice is a real thing.

[vandermolen]

+1
Which performance? I - always in a minority position - often return to Thomson's, sometimes Slatkin, Previn, Boult. And you? 

Not addressed to me but I'd go for Previn. Thomson also VG and both Boult's are fine.

Separately I was rather touched by this music which accompanied a moving BBC Radio 4 programme recently called:

'Sketches: Stories of Art and People - Not Forgotten'

It is 'New Age' rather than classical and may be considered 'naff' by some but I found it rather touching. It is 'Re-Member' by Olafur Arnalds:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oAhO5eegMfY

It's from this album:

[greg]

Yep!

Not something else that's attempting to manipulate me. Something that is just itself and stronger even than my fatigue or irritation.

Fortunately, I have had few moments recently where I actually need that something. My life over the past 14 years has been pretty calm overall. I always like listening to Merzbow, regardless.

Besides, how many pieces of "classical" music stay calm long enough to calm one down? One of the qualities of art music is that it's constantly changing. Not many pieces that are unremittingly calm from start to finish. I think of Mahler's 2nd, here. I've only seen it performed once, sadly, but the two long, slow, soothing bits--you know the ones--soothed different audience members to sleep. The first one a woman, who's reaction to the fortissimo outburst from the whole ensemble was a startled yelp; the second one the guy who had laughed at her discomfiture only to yelp in his turn at the second outburst, proving that poetic justice is a real thing.

Lol yep. I'd consider anything from early Romantic era classical onwards to be the sort of first "prog rock" of music, due to the more dynamic and storytelling nature.

The unpredictability isn't what I'd consider relaxing. In some ways Merzbow could be considered relaxing due to it being more comparable to white noise, and... fans or tv static can be helpful for sleeping. 😁

[Roy Bland]

+1
Which performance? I - always in a minority position - often return to Thomson's, sometimes Slatkin, Previn, Boult. And you? 

Surely all great performers (particularly Slatkin) but IMHO this is better despite old sound quality

[vandermolen]

Surely all great performers (particularly Slatkin) but IMHO this is better despite old sound quality

Yes, that's a fine disc, I agree, also for 'A London Symphony'.