Emotionally draining music

[George]

As soon as I heard "drained," my first thought was Shostakovich.

Me too.

[Bunny]

The music I find that drains me emotionally is never music I love.  I feel emotionally drained when I have to listen to something I find distasteful.  It takes a lot of discipline and emotional control for me to stay still and actually listen to it without getting agitated.  I find great tragic symphonies such as Mahler's 6th, the Shosty 11th or 7th, Sibelius 5th or operas  such as Tosca, Rigoletto, or Butterfly more cathartic than draining.  After listening I feel restored and quiet, but also energized. 

[Novi]

The music I find that drains me emotionally is never music I love.  I feel emotionally drained when I have to listen to something I find distasteful.  It takes a lot of discipline and emotional control for me to stay still and actually listen to it without getting agitated.  I find great tragic symphonies such as Mahler's 6th, the Shosty 11th or 7th, Sibelius 5th or operas  such as Tosca, Rigoletto, or Butterfly more cathartic than draining.  After listening I feel restored and quiet, but also energized. 

That's an interesting post, Bunny. I hadn't thought too much about the term and had actually conflated 'emotionally draining' with 'cathartic.' I'll have to rethink ...

[BachQ]

I feel emotionally drained when I have to listen to something I find distasteful. 

If something is distasteful, then you won't become emotionally attached to it, and therefore it won't drain you emotionally .........

[PSmith08]

I'll avoid the issue on how best to deal with "draining," so:

As far as my money goes, what could be more emotionally draining than Der Ring des Nibelungen in general, and Götterdämmerung? Watching the characters appear and develop from Das Rheingold to Siegfried can be a pretty draining experience, especially the decline and fall of Wotan. However, to see everything come together with a grim fatalism: that's a drain. The world (or, at least, the world of the gods) ends. That's fairly depressing.

As for non-classical music, Johnny Cash has three or four (more than that, but specifically off the American series) that would be solid contenders. "Unchained" off the eponymous release, "I See a Darkness" off Solitary Man, "Hurt" off The Man Comes Around, and "Redemption Song" off the Unearthed set. "Hurt" got a lot of airplay and a lot of coverage, and that sort of blunted its effect, but - fresh - it is a draining song. The rest of them, from Jude Johnstone's "Unchained" to Will Oldham's "I See a Darkness," are pretty intense. I might say that Johnstone's own version is less powerful and Oldham's more so, but that's my opinion.

[Bunny]

If something is distasteful, then you won't become emotionally attached to it, and therefore it won't drain you emotionally .........

I don't think this is a matter of attachment at all.  I don't go cold when I feel extreme distaste; revulsion is not a calm emotion for me.  It's extremely visceral, and takes a lot of energy to control my reactions to such things.  That effort can leave me feeling extremely tired, drained, and sometimes even apathetic. I feel drained after dealing with a nasty clerk at an airlines checkout counter;  Mahler or Shostakovich make me feel more in touch with my emotions in a very postive way.  The music makes me feel stronger, and soothes my ill feelings.  If I'm angry and anxious, I'll listen to the Mahler 6th and when it's over I feel renewed and energized; the worst has been met and I feel as if I could conquer the world and overcome any obstacle.  It's antipathy and especially  boredom that saps my vitality.  Nothing is more enervating than spending energy paying attention to boring music, films, books, people, food, jobs --  I think you get the picture.

[Bunny]

I'll avoid the issue on how best to deal with "draining," so:

As far as my money goes, what could be more emotionally draining than Der Ring des Nibelungen in general, and Götterdämmerung? Watching the characters appear and develop from Das Rheingold to Siegfried can be a pretty draining experience, especially the decline and fall of Wotan. However, to see everything come together with a grim fatalism: that's a drain. The world (or, at least, the world of the gods) ends. That's fairly depressing.

As for non-classical music, Johnny Cash has three or four (more than that, but specifically off the American series) that would be solid contenders. "Unchained" off the eponymous release, "I See a Darkness" off Solitary Man, "Hurt" off The Man Comes Around, and "Redemption Song" off the Unearthed set. "Hurt" got a lot of airplay and a lot of coverage, and that sort of blunted its effect, but - fresh - it is a draining song. The rest of them, from Jude Johnstone's "Unchained" to Will Oldham's "I See a Darkness," are pretty intense. I might say that Johnstone's own version is less powerful and Oldham's more so, but that's my opinion.

You get depressed; I feel like a survivor.  Nothing is more energizing than realizing that you have survived and can continue your life.  Changed perhaps, but stronger for the experience.

[PSmith08]

You get depressed; I feel like a survivor.  Nothing is more energizing than realizing that you have survived and can continue your life.  Changed perhaps, but stronger for the experience.

Perhaps this is the ambiguity expressed in Chéreau's 1976 production, when - at the end of Götterdämmerung - the Gibichung vassals face the audience in silence for what seems like an eternity. It could be "We're on our own now," a depressing-enough thought, or "It's up to us to rebuild," a hopeful thought. Though that's just rampant speculation on my part.

In any event, I don't dispute your point - in fact, I'd say it just comes down to one's own emotional makeup.

[val]

MOZART: String Quintet K 516

SCHUBERT: Winterreise

BRUCKNER: 9th Symphony

WAGNER: The 3rd Act of Tristan und Isolde

MUSSORGSKY: Boris Godunov

SHOSTAKOVITCH: Symphony 14

SCHOECK: Lebendig Begraben

[BachQ]

I don't go cold when I feel extreme distaste; revulsion is not a calm emotion for me.  It's extremely visceral, and takes a lot of energy to control my reactions to such things.  That effort can leave me feeling extremely tired, drained, and sometimes even apathetic. I feel drained after dealing with a nasty clerk at an airlines checkout counter;  ***  It's antipathy and especially  boredom that saps my vitality.  Nothing is more enervating than spending energy paying attention to boring music, films, books, people, food, jobs --  I think you get the picture.

Why would you listen to music that is revolting to your sensibilities?  I never do. 

And if you do listen to such repulsive, revolting, repellent, sickening, appalling, abhorrent, loathesome music, why would you invest any energy into it?  Is it forced upon you?  (in which case we'd like all of the details, please  )

How can you be "emotionally drained" by something that either you avoid or you utterly fail to resonate with?

[BachQ]

BRUCKNER: 9th Symphony

Are you more "drained" by Bru 9 than by Bru 8?

[Sergeant Rock]

Are you more "drained" by Bru 9 than by Bru 8?

I am, for the simple reason that 9 is, overall, a darker more disturbing work than 8, full of negative emotions. The elation I feel during the Scherzo or in the Finale of 8 is uplifting rather than draining. I immediately want to hear it again. A critic once called the Eighth's Scherzo, the machinery of heaven. I hear the Scherzo of 9 as the machinery of hell. It's demonic. The Adagio sounds to me like someone completely losing faith...in his beliefs, in life itself. The demons have won. I end up pondering mortality, specifically, my own.

Sarge

[BachQ]

I am, for the simple reason that 9 is, overall, a darker more disturbing work than 8, full of negative emotions. The elation I feel during the Scherzo or in the Finale of 8 is uplifting rather than draining. I immediately want to hear it again. A critic once called the Eighth's Scherzo, the machinery of heaven. I hear the Scherzo of 9 as the machinery of hell. It's demonic. The Adagio sounds to me like someone completely losing faith...in his beliefs, in life itself. The demons have won. I end up pondering mortality, specifically, my own.

Sarge

Now that is an excellent response ........ Which leaves me emotionally drained .........

[Bogey]

I am, for the simple reason that 9 is, overall, a darker more disturbing work than 8, full of negative emotions. The elation I feel during the Scherzo or in the Finale of 8 is uplifting rather than draining. I immediately want to hear it again. A critic once called the Eighth's Scherzo, the machinery of heaven. I hear the Scherzo of 9 as the machinery of hell. It's demonic. The Adagio sounds to me like someone completely losing faith...in his beliefs, in life itself. The demons have won. I end up pondering mortality, specifically, my own.

Sarge

Might I ask that you visit the Bruckner Abbey Sarge and post your rec. for a 9th....then you do not have to field 7 hours worth of potential pm's from yours truly.  

[BachQ]

then you do not have to field 7 hours worth of potential pm's from yours truly.  

Now that is some serious coercion ........ 

[Sergeant Rock]

Might I ask that you visit the Bruckner Abbey Sarge and post your rec. for a 9th....then you do not have to field 7 hours worth of potential pm's from yours truly. 

An offer I can't refuse 

Sarge

[Grazioso]

Pettersson's Symphonies are draining for me, even one movement can stop me in my tracks altogether.

Ditto. Some of the most personal and emotionally exposed--if not intense--music I've heard. Shostakovich can now strike me as rather light (and at times flippant) by comparison.

[Harry]

Hartmann's First Symphony took it out of me, IIRC.

And then you bloody sold it to someone else instead of me, yes I remember, very draining.
I will not forget dude!

[Mark]

And then you bloody sold it to someone else instead of me, yes I remember, very draining.
I will not forget dude!

Aah! But I copied them to CD-R before I didn't sell them to you.

[Steve]

And then you bloody sold it to someone else instead of me, yes I remember, very draining.
I will not forget dude!

I'm sure you've already aquired it, Harr 

Anyone have a Bruckner 8th recommendation?