Our reaction to music isn’t always “joyful” pleasure.
One evening, Hector Berlioz, a French composer, started sobbing loudly at a concert. The person sitting next to him asked if he wanted to go out to the lobby. Berlioz replied, “What?! Do you think I come here for pleasure?” The melancholy and grief he experienced from the music obviously gave him a certain pleasure. This is why we enjoy crying at a sad movie or story. It’s cathartic to get in touch with all our emotions, good and bad, and express them. Music is a safe way to do this.
Music helps us get pleasure from even negative emotions.
When music puts us in a sad state, we feel that maybe the pain occurred for a reason. There is always a resolution in music, from dissonance to harmony, and we can identify with that since life is a series of ups and downs, conflict-resolution, sadness-joy, stress-relaxation. When we allow all the emotions to come to the surface, it is cathartic. Wayne L. Misner, owner of Healthcare CIO, says, “Songwriters somehow have learned to share my memories, your memories, and with their memories merge them into a song ball. Forever bouncing the song ball off us, they play dodge ball, hitting our minds and hearts.”
It’s healthy to get in touch with our emotions, both happy and sad.
Like Berlioz, go ahead and experience the “pleasurable grief” from music. Choose any kind of intense music that stirs your emotions, and let it help you get in touch with your inner needs. Learn more about how music is so powerful “Music, Healing and Harmony” Music, Healing and Harmony: Sally Fletcher: 9780961551308: Amazon.com: Books