# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/21 "2011-07-07T08:42:03Z")
Yes, and it often happens when I’m singing in my chorus. If a passage is particularly moving, and especially if it has a deep personal meaning, I get all choked up . . . not the best thing when you’re trying to sing. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/22 "2011-07-07T11:16:14Z")
Yes. Geddy Lee wailing “Christ, what have you done?” in the song The Pass does it for me, and I don’t know why. Lots of songs do er…TMI, but when I’m having my monthly hormonal battle. I have a playlist for this purpose, to get it out of my system so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/23 "2011-07-07T14:38:27Z")
“When She Loved Me” from _Toy Story 2_ (mislabeled in this YouTube post): [Toy Story 2: When Somebody Loved Me. - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px0j1EHF8Y0) Many hymns make me puddle up. So did a recording of Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful,” just this week. ---
**Author:** ![ScatteredFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@ScatteredFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScatteredFrog)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/24 "2011-07-07T14:42:47Z")
The first time I heard “'Til I Die” by The Beach Boys, I wasn’t moved to tears, but I was moved practically to temporary paralysis…such heartbreak and divinity at the same time…and when I heard Brian Wilson perform it at B.B. King’s in 2000, THEN I was moved to tears…my wife and I both…something about the vibe… ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/25 "2011-07-07T14:44:07Z")
Yes, particularly- [Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, Largo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)#The_song_.22Goin.27_Home.22) ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Baroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Billy\_Baroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Baroo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/26 "2011-07-07T16:25:31Z")
Music can reach the nonrational part of consciousness that yearns for awe, mystery, and wonder. Human nature includes an urge for religious ecstasy and attraction to the sacred. It’s a brain chemistry that can arise from rituals such as singing/listening to music, praying, meditating, drug use, experiencing art. Making you feel strongly is really what music is for. > [@panache45](#): > > Yes, and it often happens when I’m singing in my chorus. If a passage is particularly moving, and especially if it has a deep personal meaning, I get all choked up . . . not the best thing when you’re trying to sing. Right on. Times for me that spring to mind: Handel’s Coronation Anthems (e.g. [Zadok the Priest](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l3roWB-woE)) Brahms Requiem (e.g. [Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0YOPoj4t0)) During rehearsal, I identified the parts that would wreck me. When they occurred during the performance, I would vise-grip my emotions and concentrate on mechanics. The one that I’ve always found bizarre when it gives me that despairing, original sin, I’m-such-a-fucking-fraud, panicky tearfulness is [You Oughta Know](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPcyTyilmYY). Distilled existential rage. No happily every after ever. Fraught. Anyway, if you haven’t been deeply moved by music… well, there’s a [meme](http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/001/240/youre_doing_it_wrong.jpg)for that. ---
**Author:** ![Viridiana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Viridiana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Viridiana)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/27 "2011-07-07T16:32:04Z")
Happens all the time. There are three different kinds for me. The beautiful sounds cry, the sadness cry and the corniness (of sounds) cry. The corniness cry is especially funny. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/28 "2011-07-07T16:39:46Z")
I wrote a paper in my undergrad (b.a. And m.a. In musicology), where I explored sentimentality in music, and what sounds invoked pathos and sentimentality in a westerner’s ears. I tried tracing it back, at least in classical music, to the orientalist sounds of the gypsy. Not exclusively, of course, but that’s certainly part of. The portamento swells of strings, the tinny vibrato of a solo violin, the quasi-mystical oboe or English Horn (someone mentioned Dvorak), in essence a synecdoche for the Turkish _zurla_. One of my very few fields of expertise, i’d like to think. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/29 "2011-07-07T19:51:49Z")
Fanfare for the Common Man, and most patriotic music completely reduces me to a puddle. It’s gotta be age, right…?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/30 "2011-07-07T21:19:02Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > 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. The [Youtube video of the Handel’s Messiah Christmas flash mob](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE) gets me every damned time. So does Kathy Mattea’s [“Where’ve You Been?”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5Uog-MDGo) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/31 "2011-07-07T22:03:46Z")
Yes! many of the usual suspects, listed above, will do it. There’s a sub-set of contemporary music, I don’t know what it’s called - emo? Plaintive wailing, crashing emotion. Like ‘The Reason’ by Hoobastank. Or Snow Patrol during a particularly harrowing episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I sit weeping into a tissue as though someone I knew had died.:rolleyes:. The power of cheap muziks! Some showtunes, too, from Phantom, and Godspell. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/32 "2011-07-07T22:23:42Z")
Beethoven’s Ninth will do it almost every time. ---
**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, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/33 "2011-07-07T23:31:20Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > The [Youtube video of the Handel’s Messiah Christmas flash mob](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE) gets me every damned time. YES! I look like a freaking idiot whenever I watch that, trying to hide the fact that I’m crying at a flash mob, ffs. And I’m not clicking on that second link. No time to cry today. ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/34 "2011-07-07T23:38:35Z")
Usually when it’s associated with something personal. When my husband and I had to drive our beloved 12-year old bulldog to the vet’s office for our final goodbye, I had her on my lap, hugging her with all my might and my husband and I were both just SOBBING as the song **“Tuesday’s Gone”** by Lynryd Skynryd played on the radio. She’s been gone for nearly 4 years now and I still can’t even think about that song without choking up. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/35 "2011-07-07T23:47:38Z")
Never with classical music, which I guess makes me odd. But there are a few songs: “Nightswimming” by R.E.M. “Tonight We Fly” by The Divine Comedy When I was younger, Husker Du’s “Eight Miles High” and “Celebrated Summer” could do it, which seems strange for hardcore punk, but there was a lot of pain in them. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/36 "2011-07-07T23:51:18Z")
Only if it is a sad song, or the piece of music is associated with an emotional event. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/37 "2011-07-08T14:08:11Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Warren Zevon’s last album _The Wind_, especially the song _Keep Me In Your Heart_ would make a statue cry. Did he know it was going to be his last? He sounded like hell on that one but his strength was always more in his lyrics and earnest delivery than his voice. Classical music does nothing for me. But I have to be on my guard with Who or Kinks. And I only listen to Warren Zevon when I’m alone. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/38 "2011-07-08T17:41:15Z")
I just get overwhelmed emotionally and don’t know what else to do. It’s a beyond joy feeling more than it is a sad or mournful feeling. It’s just female singers, too. Guys just don’t do it for me (except the Dead). I remember one of the first times it happened my wife and I stumbled upon a free Cassandra Wilson concert in Central Park years ago and Cassandra started up and my wife was like ‘this is pretty good’ and I’m standing there shaking and sobbing with tears running down my face. WTF man? I get the same way (though not as dramatic) when I’m playing sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/39 "2011-07-08T18:13:49Z")
Yeah, _When She Loved Me_ is definitely pretty high on the list. Also, in the 3rd Act of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin (both by Wagner) there are sections that bring tears to my eyes almost every time I hear them live. Another strong contender: the middle section of Holst’s _Jupiter_ from The Planets. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120/40 "2011-07-08T19:26:19Z")
> [@mack](#): > > I just get overwhelmed emotionally and don’t know what else to do. It’s a beyond joy feeling more than it is a sad or mournful feeling. It’s just female singers, too. Guys just don’t do it for me (except the Dead). I remember one of the first times it happened my wife and I stumbled upon a free Cassandra Wilson concert in Central Park years ago and Cassandra started up and my wife was like ‘this is pretty good’ and I’m standing there shaking and sobbing with tears running down my face. WTF man? I get the same way (though not as dramatic) when I’m playing sometimes. I have a theory (unconfirmed as yet) that preferred-sex singers’ voices affect us more than non-preferred sex singers. My husband will listen to just about anything, as long as it’s sung by a lady. I have the same tendency with male singers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ever-moved-to-tears-by-music/588120.md?page=3)