# Are you ever moved to tears by music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120 "2011-07-07T02:24:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/1 "2011-07-07T02:24:54Z")
I am, when I hear something beautiful enough. My particular vulnerability is unaccompanied choirs. The tears are involuntary, not particularly emotional, and seem almost physically caused by the musical tones themselves, and in almost the same way a loud screech can make your eyes water. (The musical tears are much nicer, of course.) Anybody else do this? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/2 "2011-07-07T02:26:01Z")
It happens to me, and more often as I get older. My weak spots seem to be violins and plaintive voices. And choirs, too, come to think of it. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/3 "2011-07-07T02:27:18Z")
Happens to me a lot. It’s odd because I really don’t cry at much else. ---
**Author:** ![Bloodless\_Turnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/4 "2011-07-07T02:27:26Z")
Definitely more often as I get older. But, I’ve always been deeply moved by symphonic orchestral concerts. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/5 "2011-07-07T02:27:56Z")
Whenever I hear the album _In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea_ by Neutral Milk Hote, all the way through, I’m usually choking back tears by the time Two-Headed Boy Part II rolls around. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/6 "2011-07-07T02:32:23Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Happens to me a lot. > It’s odd because I really don’t cry at much else. I don’t cry at _anything_ else. Knock on wood, it’s been a few years, but … I’m not much of a crier. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/7 "2011-07-07T02:37:36Z")
only if it’s something associated with a powerful event. Film score tends to do that to me… for example, the piece “I Could Have Done More” from the _Schindler’s List_ score gets me every time. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/8 "2011-07-07T02:40:20Z")
Yes, often, but only from ‘classical’ music. Just a rush of emotion, and welling tears, associated with nothing in particular. It’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/9 "2011-07-07T02:44:50Z")
Never. Music has never meant much to me. As I get older, though, many things that never affected me before now move me to tears; moments in books and TV shows… so who knows? Maybe music will start to affect me one day. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/10 "2011-07-07T03:00:58Z")
Yes. As I’ve gotten older, some classical music is so unutterably beautiful and/or majestic to me that I do tear up. Beethoven’s 9th, Ravel, Debussy, and others. Also _America the Beautiful_ and the Wilhousky arrangement of _The Battle Hymn of the Republic_. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/11 "2011-07-07T03:31:57Z")
Admittedly it’s the situation as much as the music, but [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zzfdlxjx4Y&feature=related) is the first thing that came to mind when I saw the OP’s question. ---
**Author:** ![lilbug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b487fb/32.png) [@lilbug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilbug)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/12 "2011-07-07T03:38:48Z")
Yes! I’m big ol’ sap! Especially if they trigger a personal experience or a memory. Today I was watching a movie with a particularly touching scene. I was good until the song complimenting the scene started playing… then I lost it! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/13 "2011-07-07T04:15:35Z")
Yes, often. Handel’s “Messiah” is guaranteed to bring the tears, but there are others. Music has always been an emotional experience as well as an intellectual one for me. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/14 "2011-07-07T04:48:01Z")
Yes. Various classical songs usually get me. The 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th and the last movement of the 9th. Purcell’s Trumpet Tune and Jeremiah Clark’s Trumpet Voluntary when blasted on an organ. The middle movement of the Bach Double Concerto. Then there’s Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” and a particular quasi-pop arrangement of “Hamalach Hagoel” which I’m sure no one here has ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![branjon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@branjon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/branjon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/15 "2011-07-07T05:02:02Z")
> [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](#): > > Whenever I hear the album _In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea_ by Neutral Milk Hote, all the way through, I’m usually choking back tears by the time Two-Headed Boy Part II rolls around. This. Every time. ---
**Author:** ![Tess\_Trueheart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Tess\_Trueheart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess_Trueheart)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/16 "2011-07-07T05:15:55Z")
Absolutely. It has happened on a first listen (recording or live concert), a repeat listen where I suddenly get it, and embarrasingly while performing. Once as part of a huge choir and orchestra - the music was epic but I was also exhausted from repeat shows. Another time almost the whole choir lost it onstage (we dedicated the last song of the concert to one of our members who had recently been killed by a drunk driver - that piece was her favorite of the semester and it spoke about finding peace and rest). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/17 "2011-07-07T05:24:26Z")
Moved from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/18 "2011-07-07T06:11:15Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Moved from IMHO to Cafe Society. Aw. That wasn’t my intent. This isn’t about music as such - it’s about a psychological phenomenon. A lot of posters have mentioned the tearyness gets worse with age, and I agree. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/19 "2011-07-07T06:49:42Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > I am, when I hear something beautiful enough. My particular vulnerability is unaccompanied choirs. Fairly often. When I saw the Bulgarian Choir at a church in Chicago, with this large group of women singing not 20 feet from me, their voices literally making by chest resonate in sympathy…it was so beautiful I wept. Kate Bush’s _The Ninth Wave_, the second side of her album _Hounds of Love_ can easily move me to tears. Warren Zevon’s last album _The Wind_, especially the song _Keep Me In Your Heart_ would make a statue cry. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/20 "2011-07-07T06:59:45Z")
OMG that Warren Zevon song reduces me to tears every time. Choirs, especially at Christmas. Handel’s Messiah. I’ve been re-watching the first season of The West Wing the last few days and even that theme song gets to me. Must be old age. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120.md?page=2)