Does Sad Music Make Us Happy?

Still not quite ready to sit down and write folks…this is an interesting topic I explored in a blog in 2014 that I am sharing again…

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In 1972, a member of the English faculty of the College in which I was working chose to move out of the province, and while downsizing prior to his departure he sold me his turntable and record collection. I still have some of the records—now collectors’ items. One of them was a performance by a musician by name Michael Rubin, an American violinist who is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20^th century. He died in 1971 at the age of 35, and as such the release was hardly a year old. One of the tracks in the l.p. was a short piece called Meditation: from Thaïs. It is written for solo violin and orchestra.

I had to admit that I had never heard such a sad piece before in my life.

The Meditation is a symphonic entr’acte performed between the scenes of Act II in the opera Thaïs written by French composer Jules Massenet, and the piece is approximately five minutes long. The story is about Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, who confronts Thais, a beautiful Hedonistic courtesan and devotee of Venus and attempts to persuade her to leave her life of luxury and pleasure and find salvation through God. It is the time of reflection following the encounter that Meditation is played. The choice for Thaïs is painful because she is in love with the monk.

I have brought this up because quite recently I happened to read results of independent studies done in Tokyo and England. Their findings posit that sad music makes a person happy. Kazuma Mori and Makota Iwanga of the Hiroshima University in Japan, who have published the results of their research in Frontiers in Psychology, claim that perceiving sadness in music can actually induce pleasant feelings in the listener.

The feelings evoked by works of art aren’t direct, real world emotions but aesthetic ones. There is a difference between emotions perceived and those actually felt. In other words the listener does not actually experience the conflict going through the mind of Thaïs and instead enjoys it vicariously. We all feel ‘good’ watching a sad movie, reading a sad novel or watching a sad play because we are in a safe place while indulging in the emotion.

In a study at the universities of Kent in England and Limerick in Ireland, done approximately at the same time, researchers found pretty much the same thing as their Japanese counterparts. Their findings were published in the journal Psychology of Music. According to them one motive for listening to sad songs was due to the music’s being perceived as ‘beautiful’. Researchers found that the “beautiful” music offered a direct correlation to mood enhancement.

Music generally impacts our emotional state, which is why it is extensively used by therapists to help clients improve their health is several domains, such as cognitive functioning, emotional development, and social skills. Moving to music is a very popular component in the therapy protocol. I have used music extensively in drama to help develop character and portray emotions.

I am not very familiar with the whole repertoire of western music and so I was curious to find if there are many pieces like Meditation and I found several. I mention one in particular, Schubert’s String Quintet in C. It is “lyrical, plaintive, nostalgic….” What is important are the circumstances under which he wrote the piece. His health was sinking, and the piece which possesses ‘bottomless pathos’ reflects the pain and the mental turbulence he was going through. He did not live to hear the piece performed. He died when he was only 31.

However, among the 10 best classical ‘tear- jerkers’ I prefer Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. One critic wrote, “It is full of pathos and cathartic passion, it rarely leaves a dry eye.”

I am sure many of the readers have heard Meditation at one time or another. However, I am strongly suggesting that you listen to (and watch) the performance of Hungarian musician Katica Illenyi. You could not be blamed if you thought that Katica was actually playing the role of Thaïs while playing the violin. Please click on the video below:

Coming back to the question raised by the title. I believe that the terms ‘sad’ and ‘happy’ need to be clarified. People who watch operas and some of the Bollywood movies would have noticed how the hero or heroine burst into song while portraying an agonizing scene. While the character is in pain, the audience is not. The listener is just sympathizing, feeling it vicariously through the artist’s experience. Though we might tear up and reach for Kleenex, we are not ‘hurt’ as the character is. In The Sound of Music when Maria sings “These are a few of my favorite things”, the song leaves us in a ‘happy’ state even though our own list of favorite things might be different.

NUMBERS

2.

The age of a Florida boy who on the 6^th of June fatally shot his father in the back. This makes the boy the youngest murderer in the world.  His mother, Marie Ayala,28, has been charged with manslaughter.

20 million.  The number of AK 15 assault rifles in the US. Yet they had to import baby formula from Europe and Mexico.

6.7 million. The number of Ukrainians who are refugees in other countries. Of this 3.6 million are in Poland.

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Entertainment time. Don’t miss the following short video sent by my daughter Radha. Astonishing!