Maximum Personal Emotional Reaction to Particular Recording

[Ron Resnick]

To which genre of music do you experience the greatest emotional connection?

Is there a particular genre of music which, in general, tends to make you tear up?

Are there one or two or three particular tracks, regardless of genre of music, which make you tear up?

If you are primarily a classical music listener, is there any rock or pop track which makes you tear up?

If you are primarily a rock/pop music listener, is there any classical track which makes you tear up?

Do your answers to these questions change whether you are listening to the tracks in question live or listening to the tracks in question on your stereo?

 

[Ron Resnick]

I'll go first:

I am primarily a rock/pop music listener. I am extremely lyrics-oriented (which is not a surprise if my favorite genres of music are pop and rock).

There is not a single classical music or jazz music track I have heard live or in front of a stereo which makes me tear up. The closest would be the finale of Mozart Jupiter Symphony No. 41, both live and in front of a stereo.

For decades I felt the saddest song I've ever heard in my entire life is the Freedom Sessions version of "Hold On," on Sarah McLachlan's album Fumbling Toward Ecstasy, The Freedom Sessions. This statement held true until just a few months ago when Elliot Goldman introduced me to the song "She Used to be Mine," the main song Sara Bareilles wrote for her musical, Waitress.

I have listened to "She Used to be Mine" via original performances by Sara Bareilles as well as by at least 10 different covers by other singers, over 150 times in the last few months. My emotional reaction to this song is unlike anything I've ever experienced before in music.

One reason I've been listening to it over and over and over is to try to inure myself to it so that my emotional reaction is dampened over time.

 

[hopkins]

Most of the music that strikes a chord for me is performed by artists that are no longer alive, so I can't know whether I would feel any differently hearing them live.

This is going to sound corny, but it's a dark world we live in - there is so much cruelty, despair, mediocrity, etc... Art, in general, moves when it reaches what I consider to be a state of perfection - then I am simply amazed at what we, humans, CAN accomplish. There are, of course, many different forms of expression, and "genres", so perfection is not an "absolute" - many artists reach perfection in their own medium and "style". As a result, I can be moved by any art form: dancing, music, literature, painting...even sports!

This sense of perfection is accompanied by a sense of awe, of astonishment - it is incredible, in the sense that we can hardly believe it is possible.

There are no need for examples. But concerning music, I'll add that great systems are not required to experience these emotions.

The movie "Philadelphia" has a great scene in which Tom Hanks plays Maria Callas, and communicates those feelings which I think many viewers as a result have experienced while watching that scene:

 

[hopkins]

There are many movie scenes that illustrate, often by "contrast", the emotional power of music.

 

[Ground Control]

There are many songs from musicals that make me tear up but I think many have the support of a visual influence that make them strike deep to the soul so I don’t count them.
Other than these,
Joni Mitchell, “Court and Spark”
Beatles “For No One”
Since I listen 70% classical, 15/15 jazz/rock.
Brahms, Cello Sonata no. 1 E minor op. 38 “Wigmore Hall” is very emotional for me, but no tears.