Mood Altering Music

[Keemun]

I was in a bad mood for a while this afternoon, but I just finished listening to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, and I feel that my mood has improved some.  I've had similar experiences with other works, but cannot really remember them right now.  What works do you find have the power to affect/alter your mood, and in what way?

[Mark]

When I'm tired, only the 'Eroica' Symphony will rouse me.

When I'm overwrought, pretty much anything by Palestrina will sooth me. 0:)

[BachQ]

Mars from The Planets always puts me in a fightin' mood ........

[EmpNapoleon]

I was just eating at a restaurant.  Like all restaurants, this one played music, even though not everyone likes the same type of music.  Hillary Duff's song "Let the rain fall down" came on, and I was thrown into the mood of the song.  I couldn't escape.  My friends said that the music didn't bother them, and that they hardly knew it was on.  True, I have a low tolerance for unwanted noise.  But I'm sure that the music was effecting the moods of all the people in the restaurant.  Music possesses powerfully.

Does the composer place the moods in the music or do the moods in the music depend on the listener.  Both, I think.

[some guy]

I don't really think about my moods when I'm listening to music. I'm listening to music!

But, having said that, I did notice a couple of years ago, when I was working a really stressful job in a large corporation, that 60 or 70 minutes of Merzbow would be really soothing.

Something stronger and more durable than any of the petty squabbles in that place, for sure!

Still, music is music. I noticed a thread somewhere--I never went to it--that was "What music makes you weep?" The only thing I could think of was "If I'm weeping, I'm not listening to the music."

[Bonehelm]

Swing jazz like Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing! makes me wanna dance.

[hornteacher]

I was in a bad mood for a while this afternoon, but I just finished listening to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, and I feel that my mood has improved some.

How interesting.  I would have thought that movement would bring one down even more as it is a funeral march.  Why do you think it had the reverse effect on you?

[Renfield]

How interesting.  I would have thought that movement would bring one down even more as it is a funeral march.  Why do you think it had the reverse effect on you?

Catharsis, to quote my ancestors of (very) old.

[Don]

I was in a bad mood for a while this afternoon, but I just finished listening to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, and I feel that my mood has improved some.  I've had similar experiences with other works, but cannot really remember them right now.  What works do you find have the power to affect/alter your mood, and in what way?

The majority of Bach's works always pick me up.

[Harry]

The Waltzes of Strauss will do the trick to cheer me up, but depending of where my emotions are, any kind of music can quickly turn me into deep depression....

[val]

When I am in a bad mood or tired I don't hear music.

[Keemun]

How interesting.  I would have thought that movement would bring one down even more as it is a funeral march.  Why do you think it had the reverse effect on you?

Catharsis, to quote my ancestors of (very) old.

I think the beauty of the music acted as a sort of spiritual reminder of God's presence, which in turn acted to relieve my bad mood.  In other words, Catharsis: "(a) purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art; (b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension." 

(Thanks Renfield for identifying what it is called.  )

[longears]

I was in a bad mood for a while this afternoon, but I just finished listening to the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, and I feel that my mood has improved some.  I've had similar experiences with other works, but cannot really remember them right now.  What works do you find have the power to affect/alter your mood, and in what way?

I think the beauty of the music acted as a sort of spiritual reminder of God's presence, which in turn acted to relieve my bad mood.  In other words, Catharsis: "(a) purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art; (b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension." 

I find virtually all music is mood altering, if I give myself to it.  The catharsis you experienced is the primary reason I listen to music, and the primary reason I enjoy Sibelius, Bach, and late Beethoven above all other composers, for their music uplifts my soul more consistently than most others.  When I used to have to drive in rush hour freeway traffic, I found that nothing eased my angst so well as a late Sibelius symphony or tone poem, a Bach violin concerto, or damn near any Beehoven piano sonata!

For something a bit more off the beaten path, I highly recommend this:



And if you need something to help you shake a pissy mood, I don't see how anyone could stay bummed while listening to Mendelssohn's Italian symphony!

[Florestan]

The Barber of Seville rescued me from a depressive mood one day. Especially the Pace e gioia scene. 

[marvinbrown]

The overtures of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro always put a smile on my face  . 

  marvin

[hornteacher]

I think the beauty of the music acted as a sort of spiritual reminder of God's presence, which in turn acted to relieve my bad mood.  In other words, Catharsis: "(a) purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art; (b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension." 

Fantastic, I can throw away my medication and buy more Beethoven!

[EmpNapoleon]

Every piece of music I've ever heard has altered the state of my mind, if only for half a second.  Listenting to/understanding music is possible only when you affirm the feelings represented in the music.  Even in a song you don't like, you need to feel for some short duration the moods that the song puts in others who like it; then, you feel, "I know what this music is trying to pull on me and I don't like it."  In a song I dislike, I often feel a mood it produces in me, then shiver in embarassment for having felt it.

But it's difficult to talk about moods with the "good music" discussed here.  When we think of mood, we think happy, sad, angry, etc.  Is guilt a mood?  Has it ever been represented in music?  Sympathy?  Are guilt and sympathy parts of the pathos of music, or its consequent catharsis?   

In other words, Catharsis: "(a) purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art; (b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension." 

Purification from what?  Bad moods?

[EmpNapoleon]

When discussing the effects of classical music, most people prefer to use virtues than moods.  I'm not sure they're different.

[Keemun]

Fantastic, I can throw away my medication and buy more Beethoven!

  You might want to hold on to the medication, it's probably more effective and reliable. 

[hornteacher]

  You might want to hold on to the medication, it's probably more effective and reliable. 

Okay, but I'll buy more Beethoven anyway.......just in case.