Pianophilia

Timtin wrote:There is another type of music that causes strong emotional responses -
that associated with tragic events in ones past. I know this from personal
experience, and now deliberately avoid listening to one famous work for
this reason. I also avoid creating new associations of this type by not
listening to anything if there's an impending unhappy event or a potentially
disastrous one ahead.

There's some music (mostly rock) that I can't listen to anymore because I associate it with being ill for 6 months with mononucleosis and then rubella during my early 20's. This stuff can elicit dizziness and nausea in one minute if I don't turn off the radio fast enough. Reminds me of Alex in Clockwork Orange accidentally being conditioned to feel sick when he hears Beethoven.

Your idea about not listening to anything if you think something bad is about to happen is a good one.

What do you guys think about this ones?
Bach bwv 1079 - Ricercare a 6
Beethoven Sonata no.31 - Aria and fugue

Tony

lutoslawski wrote:What do you guys think about this ones?
Bach bwv 1079 - Ricercare a 6
Beethoven Sonata no.31 - Aria and fugue

Tony

Yes, Tony, IMHO the Ricercare à 6 is one of the definitely best and most beautiful works ever written.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/ju ... sen-callow

Tackling music & emotion has always been a prickly aesthetic area. Anyone read Rosen's new book?

davida march wrote: Anyone read Rosen's new book?

Books? What are they?

Regards
Curious

Books are apparently

A set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers

.
I also imagine they contain words which contain greater or lesser truths about the author and their readers.
dm

davida march wrote:Books are apparently

A set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers

So in fact a book doesn't have to have anything in it at all...

Regards
Blank

Getting back to the topic in hand:

I remember whilst still in my pre-teens feeling very emotional when listening to 'Suo Gan' from John Williams' soundtrack to the film 'Empire of the Sun', but perhaps this doesn't count as it's a combination of film and music that stirred the emotions?!?

When being introduced to Andrew Lloyd-Webber's 'Pie Jesu' for the first time, I remember feeling decidedly emotional, which was a difficult one, because it was in the middle of music class!

Another, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Gavin Bryars' setting and augmentation of a tramp singing 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', poignant for me because the tramp sings it quietly but with conviction.

Other pieces bring tears to my eyes for different reasons:

Alkan's arrangement of Handel's 'Behold and see' from the Messiah - part of in the former composer's last piece in his Op. 66 - moved me because of what I perceived to be Alkan's humility in transcribing a Handel work to cap his own Opus number. Kevin Bowyer's performance of it is very sensitive too, which adds to its emotional pull.

On the other hand, music (and I realise this term could easily be dropped here) which is performed with such power and visceral energy can bring tears to my eyes and a shiver down my neck! The example I am thinking of here is American Indian singing/chanting. I have a CD of music by Bear Creek. It makes me cry, laugh and feel fear and elation all in one go - incredible stuff, but probably too 'out there' or indeed 'savage' for many or most (in not all) of the distinguished PP members

I could go on, but someone else might want to contribute...

Ferruccio wrote:

lutoslawski wrote:What do you guys think about this ones?
Bach bwv 1079 - Ricercare a 6
Beethoven Sonata no.31 - Aria and fugue

Tony

Yes, Tony, IMHO the Ricercare à 6 is one of the definitely best and most beautiful works ever written.

Are there any transcriptions of this work out there for piano? I can only find it in 6 staves.

There appears to be a piano version of BWV1079 in Berlin State Library,
but it must surely be available elsewhere as well. I'm amazed at how hard
it is locate (I don't know if the music itself would make me cry, but its
apparent elusiveness almost has that effect)!
http://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berli ... 1&cop=:osy

Of course, this work also includes the Crab Canon, which is one those
very few 'palindromic' pieces of music ever written:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtcJSX_YAeg