Why can music make us cry?

[LegoGE1947]

I had a theory that we in the west are conditioned, like Pavlov’s dogs: emotions can be triggered and controlled through music. I once tried out my theory while on piano, leading a trio at a small dance. I played a tune at a fast tempo in a major key and everyone jigged ecstatically around the floor. I slowed down the tempo and all danced closely smooching. I continued, playing the same song slowly but in a minor key and they were still cuddling, but many were weeping. I wondered if we could all be controlled by music in Huxley’s brave new world.
But I still dont know why I cry when Rimsky-Wotsit’s Scheherezade plays. A lot of it is in a major key

“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by the Hollies is a rock song that makes me cry. Peeling onions also makes me cry but that’s another story!

 

[oval]

youtube.com/watch?v=RkXmVB6-L8E&feature=related
I listened to this earlier on a post with a link. But the link had someone playing it on an organ. The link didn’t last long before it was cut off. The music just hit me. I can’t explain it. It made me cry. This link is not the same link. Same music though, but this version doesn’t make me cry. But when I went to post the link, I had originally heard and cried, I cried again.
Heres the link that made me cry youtube.com/watch?v=PEzuXJ0rOJM

Good find…bravo.

For music to be effective, there needs to be a sense of intelligence. Reason being we will not allow it to guide, carry our selves on the wave of suggested sounds being introduced …Music would be an assortment of sound waves. We are made of energy, waves living within waves. The music suggests the listeners environment by a translation put forward in sound wave form. In this piece the mood and disposition is made at the outset and achieves a reflective source in its origin, it is quiet, patient and asking. It is honest, sincere and with a patient heartbeat as well, making no mistake in the found asking of all, from a position of relative solace and compliance to being somewhat powerless, comfortable…this further qualifies the introduction with attribute acceptance. The listener “if” can relate with the sincerity waits to see, what shall be with this idea, in how to be. Nature then joins the disposition with softness, power, unmistakable compliance with what…? the initial disposition…now then the nature of all that is …is recognizing the person set forward in the introduction…the conclusion is that …all that is…is compassionate…the rest of the piece I don’t need to listen to but will… in a way it would basically represent the journey above described…this one is like the cross section of a person saying a humble prayer in their own way, . and asking for nothing…and is found to be…in the most good company, not alone…recognized by all that is ( a potential worthy unique person contribution…mans biggest fear…the tears come forward…everything is going to be .ok. after all. In music there are all kinds of relationships and connections going on in many ways.This is just an opinion…I’m not looking for arguments.

I like this particular arrangement of this piecehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMVKmYuZ8Hs&feature=related

( try not to watch the pictures…it a distraction and the music is good enough without it…its import…let your mind engage…no suggestives…

 

[IanGE]

“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by the Hollies is a rock song that makes me cry. Peeling onions also makes me cry but that’s another story!

That explains it: one of the dancers was peeing an onion when I changed to a minor key!

 

[LegoGE1947]

That explains it: one of the dancers was peeing an onion when I changed to a minor key!

Peeing an onion? Ordinarily people grow onions in gardens!

 

[StrawberryJam]

i can understand how it can make us happy, i think.

but why can a beautiful piece bring tears to our eyes.

(other than associating sad memories with it, i mean.)

Music is an extention of our expression.
One does not need to associate tears with sadness.
We can cry for many other reasons.

 

[Drinkgasoline]

Certain specific sounds and notes can remind people of past, stimulate the emotions and make people feel emotional, nostalgic and a host of other things.
This is mainly due to how humans have been brought up around music but also that these sounds are pleasurable to the ear. I’m not too sure about it as I’ve ever never researched it, but I presume (some) pleasurable sounds result in endorphins being released, some sounds releasing more than others, and this leads to either a happy, pleasured feeling or as described a host of other emotions.
Fascinating indeed, not only from a philosophical standpoint but also from a scientific one… Will have to look into it.

 

[snarflemike]

Music (the kind the OP speaks of) is a whisper of our true home, our true nature. It whispers to us “this is what you are, this is where you belong.” And those things are so deep, so profound, so beautiful, that we feel joy and longing and separation, and that is why we cry.

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

Music is mathematically perfect and travels in sound waves proportionate to the score that defines it. Sound waves can travel indefinitely until stopped by a force. Certain sound waves can move objects.

God loves music so much, it is said that the Seraphim follow him around singing the Hosana perpetually. It’s also believed that all sounds (past, present & future) come together to form the Seraphim’s perpetual serenade of Hosana.

Emotions are invoked by music because of the tempo, pitch, and dynamics of the music. Music can arouse all emotions.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Music is mathematically perfect and travels in sound waves proportionate to the score that defines it. Sound waves can travel indefinitely until stopped by a force. Certain sound waves can move objects.

God loves music so much, it is said that the Seraphim follow him around singing the Hosana perpetually. It’s also believed that all sounds (past, present & future) come together to form the Seraphim’s perpetual serenade of Hosana.

Emotions are invoked by music because of the tempo, pitch, and dynamics of the music. Music can arouse all emotions.

Why does music in a minor key seem to evoke sadness where as a major key seems to do the opposite?

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

Minor is more deep, & paired with a slow tempo invokes melancholy. The sound waves are thus longer in stride & lower in the spectrum. When you watch it bounce off an object it does so with more power and deeper penetration.

Major is more standard and can be used as base for all emotions. The sound waves are not too quick, nor too far out of standard range.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Minor is more deep, & paired with a slow tempo invokes melancholy. The sound waves are thus longer in stride & lower in the spectrum. When you watch it bounce off an object it does so with more power and deeper penetration.

Major is more standard and can be used as base for all emotions. The sound waves are not too quick, nor too far out of standard range.

I have heard some minor key songs that evoke a happy emotion. Usually they happen to be up-tempo.

 

[tomarin]

Why does music in a minor key seem to evoke sadness where as a major key seems to do the opposite?

I’ve read that this is culturally conditioned. That is, it seems that way to us because we are taught to perceive it that way. In other societies most of the music is in a minor key and it is not perceived as intrinsically sad for that reason.

 

[oval]

Comments…?

youtube.com/watch?v=Ii1tc493bZM

 

[oval]

The 3rd and the 6th are diminished…from major in the minor from the root…so it is more closed…suggesting experience, perseverance…barrier, reserve, caution …minor.

anyway this one won’t make you cry because its extended a little more evenly or you could say listenable without a pronounced moment, an extended good moment over all for the most part…quiet and clean, settled at least from the outset. good for the mind towards the day end. doing the dish’s with patience or a resolve to a few chores…good balance, patiently tempered and meaningful intellectual resolve.

youtube.com/watch?v=ueLqLYC6Wdk&feature=endscreen&NR=1

 

[Portofino]

It’s been observed that not only does music quite viscerally and powerfully evoke emotion, but also memories of the past. There is nothing quite like music for evoking nostalgia.

I’ve read the same thing, oddly enough, about the sense of smell. Imagine someone who is grown up, and who suddenly smells the perfume that his mother used to wear, when he was a child.

There is something about sound and odor that is more sensual, somehow – non-verbal, more visceral. It can stir “deeper” parts of ourselves.

Speaking to some of the comments made about “minor keys” being sad, I’m also struck at this association between “slow music” and melancholy. Depression is, indeed, a “slow emotion”; the severely depressed can move slowly, very slowly (cf. the opening of Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia”). All of life is in slow motion for severely depressed; even getting from the bed to a chair is an accomplishment. Joy, on the other hand, has a faster tempo – it bounces.

Strange how the very tempo of the music–the timing, so to speak–can evoke such specific emotion.