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Songs and Feelings
May 10, 2015 at 11:27 pm
I was just listening to See You Again, the song used in the Paul Walker tribute in Fast and Furious 7. It's a beautiful song, and the vocals by Charlie Puth are filled with emotion. I find a lot of beauty in the message of the song, that it's a rough time without the people we love that have died, but we'll be able to share it with them again. But then my mind reconnects with reality and I remember that the truth is much sadder, and the people we love are most likely just gone forever. I hate believing this sometimes. It's not fair, but there's nothing to be done about it. I know that ultimately once I'm dead, the lack of an afterlife won't matter to me, but that doesn't keep me from occasionally feeling rage at the unfair finality of death.
Does anyone else ever feel conflicted between songs or ideas that you find beautiful and harsh truth that they are ultimately just comforting lies?
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 12:47 am
I don't think of truth as harsh. I think of it as a fact to be accepted and lived-with.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 1:30 am
Interesting question.
I have always been taken with the Bette Midler song, From a Distance, despite its religious overtones. I really like the sentiments although I obviously disagree that God is watching us from a distance.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 1:37 am
There have been studies to prove that music affects us in a particular way. That is precisely why church uses music to influence its members; an association of feeling good with the message of god reinforces the idea that god is good and loving and real.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 2:00 am
I mean... I think of the countless studies that have been done about the links music has with, well, everything. It makes us more intelligent; it brings us to tears; it has influenced political agendae.
I was a classical music major in college. Part of my thesis for grad school (didn't happen; don't want to talk about it) would have included an analysis regarding the sacred environment many composers found themselves in during the Baroque, Classical, and (somewhat) Romantic eras, yet they wrote their requiems in the most depressing of keys; rarely letting their compositions speak for the exultant libretti written for an almighty god who would be, presumably, sending them to heaven.
Although, most of them probably weren't of the belief they were going to heaven at all, which kind of makes me glad I didn't write that thesis...
Anyway, sacred or secular, music, even crappy music, can have amazing effects on people. It can also have gnarly effects on other animals and plants. If a song moves you to feel, or to think, or even to do nothing, it's doing its job. It sucks to have to face reality sometimes, but I'd rather do it through a well-done piece of music.
Great. Now you got me listening to Mozart's Requiem, which brings out pretty much every emotion I possess.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 2:51 am
A lot of music has very strange and powerful effects on me, and not always in a way I can make sense of.
For example, the song "Winter's Tale" always makes me feel really, really sad. It makes me feel like I have lost the love of my life due to unfair circumstances, and that it has broken my heart. I know it isn't true, my wife is right here! (And I'm not pining for anyone else.) But that feeling gets to me anyway. It's very strange.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 3:07 am
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2015 at 3:08 am by Alex K.)
I'm also very sensitive to music, and I hate it when it tries to induce specific emotions too blatantly. I usually don't listen to that kind of music.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 9:10 am
Some songs I listen to for the lyrics alone, and some just for the music, even when I don't agree with the message
But I can't stand religious music, not because I hate the music itself, but because it gives me a near PTSD attack. I can't take listening to lyrics about god. It turns my brain into mush.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 11:59 am
(May 11, 2015 at 2:00 am)rexbeccarox Wrote: ...
Great. Now you got me listening to Mozart's Requiem, which brings out pretty much every emotion I possess.
That is a great piece of music. My favorite recording of it is of a performance conducted by Peter Schreier. Which one were you listening to?
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Songs and Feelings
May 11, 2015 at 12:05 pm
(May 11, 2015 at 11:59 am)Pyrrho Wrote: (May 11, 2015 at 2:00 am)rexbeccarox Wrote: ...
Great. Now you got me listening to Mozart's Requiem, which brings out pretty much every emotion I possess.
That is a great piece of music. My favorite recording of it is of a performance conducted by Peter Schreier. Which one were you listening to?
Talking about the Schreier Requiem - I finally have it  Haven't had the time yet to really listen to it all the way through, maybe later.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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