Music that evokes an emotional response
From a Facebook group post today:
Name a specific musical artist, for whatever reason, that is always able to draw a visceral emotional response from you. And if you’re comfortable, share the reason why!
Rather than respond just on that Facebook group, I thought I’d post here, both because a few more people would read it, and because it’s just the sort of music nerd thing that I will want to answer with my own spin. In this particular case I’m going to give at least three answers, just because I can.
First I’m going to go back to high school and pick the first piece of classical music I really fell head-over-heels in love with: Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. It really clicked in order for me - first the lovely first movement (especially the slow theme in Eb major), then the slow middle movement, then the big theme of the third movement which is first introduced as a slow piano solo in Bb major, and is then driven home as the big finale. Such fantastic stuff. Grabs me every time. I bought a score of the concerto and learned all the easy piano parts, but never managed to work up all the fast nasty parts.
I have several recordings of Rach 2, but my favorite is one I just came upon a few years ago: Stephen Hough with the Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Hough plays it fast and rowdy. I think Sergei himself might approve. Here’s a couple minutes of a live recording that gives you an idea of the quick tempo:
If I move on to my adult years, there are a few artists whose music has resonated with me like no other.
My nostalgia pick is Rich Mullins; I became a fan in high school, played and sang his music repeatedly, spent a couple days in shock when he died, and continue to count him as a huge influence on my own musical instincts. The song of his that gets a reaction now is one that I didn’t necessarily love as much as a kid, but that resonates hugely now as an adult.
My folks, they were always the first family to arrive with seven people jammed into a car that seated five there was one bathroom to bathe and shave in six of us stood in line Hot water for only three, but we all did just fine Talk about your miracles, talk about your faith My dad, he could make things grow out of Indiana clay Mom could make a gourmet meal out of just cornbread and beans And they learned to give faith hands and feet And somehow gave it wings
My dad was a piano tuner from Nebraska, not a farmer from Indiana, but outside of that… this is pretty easily the story of my family. I almost never get through it with dry eyes.
Later on I’d point to the music of Andrew Osenga (“Early in the Morning” and “Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates”) and Andrew Peterson (whose Behold the Lamb of God is, in my book, one of the few perfect Christian albums ever).
The first song that comes to mind from lately, though, is “Wait for It” from Hamilton. (Yeah, I’m talking about Hamilton again. Deal with it.)
In a recent interview with the Hamilton cast, Leslie Odom Jr. (who plays Aaron Burr) as his favorite - the moment of tension and focus in the production that ropes the audience in. It’s tough to perform, but when it’s right, it’s amazing. It’s a beautiful song, and the lyrics of the chorus elicit a response from me every time. In it, Aaron Burr reflects on the challenges and losses in his own life:
Life doesn’t discriminate Between the sinners and the saints It takes, and it takes, and it takes And we keep living anyway We rise, and we fall, and we break, And we make our mistakes And if there’s a reason I’m still alive When so many around me have died I’m willing to wait for it
There’s a desperation and intensity to Burr’s cry in this song that grabs me hard - the desire for real meaning, the joy and the pain of life… man oh man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReTP6x_sDiM
So there you go, songs that provoke a visceral reaction from me. Do you have any of your own?