Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Why the attraction to sad pieces?

Why are people attracted to sad, melancholic or haunting compositions?

I'm including myself in here. I don't know why but it is the kind of classical music I like playing and listening to.

Intriguing question! I don't know why, either, but it is true of me...I'd rather listen to a slow, sad piece than a bouncy happy one most days.

...maybe the slow pace is physiologically calming?

Hmmm....I know I'm definitely attracted to haunting compositions both listening as well as playing.

I suppose it's because we live in such a busy world that by listening to these pieces it will help us relax and just slow down??

Me too!. Whats really weird is that I am not a calm person so I guess that calm music gives me a kind of balance in life.

Even with popular music... everybody likes a good break-up song. Even if one hasn't lived through whatever the song is saying, one feels related to the lyrics of melancholic music.

For now, I'm sticking with classical music to play on the piano. I find myself always selecting this kind of pieces to play, that's why I usually go with Chopin. Besides being, in my opinion, the greatest composer of all time, his music has this poetic feeling about it, which is hard to find with other composers.

For lack of a better term, dance music moves your base. We all tap, bounce, stomp, and even dance to music that was designed to do just that.

Slow, sad, melancholy pieces reach us at a deeper level that can cause stillness (even slow dance stuff - like EJ's "Sorry Seems to Be...").

There is something to the total surrender to a piece that soothes the soul. We turn off the lights, get comfortable, and allow the music to take us for a short time.

The question is why. I think it is because it is like deep tissue massage. It hurts so good kinda thing that we all crave. It is like we understand that practicing emotions is healthy. And, we know instinctively it is good for us and makes us more whole then without the experience. If we practice recovering from sad music, we are better prepared to recover from anything. And the "rush" of calm that comes during and after is desirable.

A valuable skill in life, I would think.

Yeeees! Sad music!!! I love it. I always prefer sad music than happy music, this is also because I'm quite a sad person.

karaeloko: To me, the greatest EVER was Beethoven. But, yes, I love Chopin's music with all my heart.

if you guys want i live pretty close to mexico and can pick you guys up some prozac for say 50 a bottle.....hahahahahahaha.

seriously i think there is enough sadness in the world without listening to it....

Sad music......I don't know why I like it so much. It always reminds me of all of the beautiful girls that I fell in love with when I was a kid that dumped me

Maybe, because love can give us the greatest joy and also the greatest sadness. What better way to express both than through music.

Ya, I love opera. As if you couldn't figure that out.

They're usually slow. That makes them easier to play.

Easier to get a more controlled tempo, but not easier in the sense of making music. There are slow pieces that need much more work on musicality than quicker ones.

I like sad pieces because a lot of time they have great power to them.

Think of the famous Choin Funeral March theme - if you play it with a single-note melody it sounds sad. But when those huge minor chords are played instead, the theme becomes HUGE.

Which is why I love Rachmaninov as well - that very same combination of melancholy and power.

Sad music is romantic!

LOL, I was just thinking the exact same thing!

Because girls like it... And I think why they like romantic pieces is clear.

Sad music? Not me, an emotional piece is fine now and then but I'd much rather listen to up-beat jazz, lively movements, happy standards etc.

To me they are also much more fun to play. Even if the peice is slow it doesn not necessarily mean it has to be sad or in a minor key.

Don't worry, be happy or Hakuna Matata.

I'll just keep my feet tapping :-).

I thought of this thread while watching TV last night. It is a new series called 3lbs. I guess that's the weight of the brain, and the story line revolves around people who have to have brain surgery. (Better this than watching those reality shows!)

Anyhow, the brother (a high-power lawyer) of a woman undergoing an extremely high-risk brain operation is pacing the waiting room floor, seething with anger that she consented to have this done and with the doctors who are actually performing it knowing the odds that she'll live through it are about 20%. He was threatening to sue everyone involved.

One doctor came by and told the brother not to feel anger but to feel sad. The brother looked at him with loathing and walked away.

A short time later, the sound of a piano was heard (when was the last time you saw a piano in a hospital?)...anyhow, the camera showed the brother sitting at the piano and playing a lovely, haunting and SAD Chopin waltz. His eyes were glistening as he played.

The camera panned back to the doctor's face, which told it all.

The brother finally was allowed to express his sadness and fear at his sister's condition, and he did so with music...in this case, Chopin.

I think (perhaps this had been said before) sad music gives us permission to cry..even for men, who aren't "allowed" to do so under ordinary circumstances.

Kathleen

What I'd like to know is why pieces in minor keys are associated with sadness, and major keys with happyness ?

I mean you hear a piece in minor key and it sounds melancolic, why is that ? Is there some scientific explaination behind this ?

Very interesting question...

I agree with others, it's probably the calming, relaxing character of the music that people find enjoyable. To give the best example I can think of, it's like the difference between soaking in a hottub and going to the beach to swim in the ocean. One is relaxing and the other invigorating; both are enjoyable, yet, I would take a hottub anyday.

Now, I do think fast, upbeat music is fun , especially when you are playing it, but I still prefer slower, calmer music which is often times sad. I prefer Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini over Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.

For an interesting study of the emotional responses evoked by certain chords -- in particular, minor add 9 (anguish) and m7b5 (crisis) -- and the use of those chords in film and TV scores see:
http://tagg.mediamusicstudies.net/articles/xpdfs/musemeuse.pdf
http://www.tagg.org/articles/xpdfs/jochen0411.pdf

My theory on the attraction of sad songs would be: Music is a language of emotion. The more directly music evokes emotion, the more powerful it is. If we are particularly susceptible to an emotional reaction to certain chords, progressions, etc., we are likely to be particularly attracted to music characterized by such chords, progressions, etc., simply because of the power it holds. So, for example, if minor add 9 tends to reliably produce a strong emotional reaction -- sad in nature -- we will be attracted to songs that use it.