What makes you cry?

Not all music that I listen to has this potential but I would say the majority of classical music in my collection does.  The reason is that any music that has the potential to move one to tears at times is elevated to a special top class in my mind and connects you for life.  I seek out this type of music because it always has a profound and lasting effect on me.  It is simple economic theory really - I do more of what pleases me and I avoid doing things that are not as pleasing.

Music that does not grip or tug at you emotionally at least even briefly is quite forgettable and rather mediocre in comparison for me. 

Luckily, I can find an endless supply of solo piano music (or any solo instrument), chamber music, concertos, lieder, opera and choral to keep me engaged in this way.  One example might be in chamber music where I have been spending years focused first on piano trios and now for the past 8 years working through music for piano and cello.  The A-major sonata by Beethoven that I am currently learning has parts in it that really take me for a spin.  Sadly, if I want any hope of making it through these parts in a rehearsal or practice session, I have to numb my mind out or think about the grocery list or scrubbing the toilet or anything that can distract you away from focusing on the music.  

In most cases, a great composer only lets these magnificent moments only appear briefly.  In a movement of 10 minutes it might only be for 30 seconds.  It is like the silver lining that appears after the storm.

Surprisingly, for me it has nothing to do with man made definitions of the period.  It has to do simply with great music whether it be from the Renaissance through to the 21st century.  

Richard Hawley 'For Your Lover Give Some Time', played it the evening my wife was in hospital recovering from major surgery. Cannot listen to it now at all.

Billy Bragg 'Tank Park Salute'.

Freddie White's version of Guy Clark's "Desperadoes waiting for a Train" - for me it's about the diminution and death of my parents 

 To me he's one of the heroes of this country , so what' she doing dressed up like them old men  

Lucinda Williams - Lake Charles , played over and over while someone close was in intensive care after a suicide attempt.

did the Angels whisper in your ear, hold you close to take away all fear, in there long lost moments 

SJB

I bawl every time I listen to this Clapton album. Must be some subliminal messages in the music, or maybe I really need to get in better touch with my emotions?

Music by itself won't make me cry. Dramatic music during a sad passage in a film might.

However some music will make me feel depressed. I probably associate it (consciously or unconsciously) with a sad event.

One album that comes to mind is David Crosby's ''If I Could Only Remember my Name''. Good album yet I just can't listen to it without getting depressed.

Cry? No. Goosebumps and elation? Yes.

I love that David Crosby album but associations with good and bad emotions, like Bruce's experience, can certainly influence the effect music has on our psyche. 

Every record  a moment.

You could try this:

Iconoclast posted:

However some music will make me feel depressed. I probably associate it (consciously or unconsciously) with a sad event.

Along the same line.

I still have a difficult time listening to Rick Lee Jone's 'Company'.

It's about a girl lamenting a loss of her boy friend. 

For me the event was a loss of my dog who was very dear to me. ( and my late night listening buddy )

"I'll remember you too clearly
But I'll survive another day
Conversations to share
When there's no one there
I'll imagine what you'd say

I'll see you in another life now, baby
I'll free you in my dreams
But when I reach across the galaxy
I will miss your company

Company
I'll be looking for company
Look and listen
Through the years
Someday you may hear me
Still crying for company"

There are several covers on this tune but original Ricki's original version stings me the most. Also partly due to this was one of the last tune I listened with her before her going in for a surgery next morning.

Verdi's Requiem....  The last I heard this live in the intimate Kings College Chapel  , I was hoping no one, including my wife sitting next to me, could see the tears streaming down my cheeks.

Depending on mood sometimes certain Freddie Mecury, and early Sandy Denny songs and often Allegri's Miserere bring tears to my eyes

Simon

Tom Waits... Georgia Lee.

Gets me every time, heartbreaking.

June Tabor's wonderful version of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda from her Airs and Graces is one to seek out, and Christy Moore's Middle of the Island from Voyage - a jolly ditty about a 15 year old dying in childbirth, with beautiful harmony vocals from Sinead O'Connor. Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs' Tears is another one. 

I tend not to cry listening to music - though the above sometimes make me weepy - but I was reading an email at work recently about one of the looked after children who was not expected to achieve any GCSEs but through amazing support from her foster family, school and social worker did really well against the odds, and I found tears rolling down my cheeks. What a wuss. And I simply can't watch the bit at the end of Educating Yorkshire when the guy with the stutter gives his speech...

Iconoclast posted:

Music by itself won't make me cry.

However some music will make me feel depressed. I probably associate it (consciously or unconsciously) with a sad event.

Not a correction to your observation - but I would substitute 'sad'' here.

I doubt there's any music that will make everyone cry - the effect is too culturally and personally moderated.

For 'wistful'  I would recommend Sandy Denny 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes'  and  a rediscovered joy - Chicken Shack 'I'd Rather Go Blind' . Both available in many versions and one may work for you.

Like many English boys I had crying beaten out of me at an early age. I seem to have spent my life re-learning how to do it. Although I retain a vestigial shame at such emotionalism the 'buttons' for display have been formed from very, very emotionally intense periods in my life.

My life - not yours. Also, My life and not that of the songwriter.

Van Morrison's 'I Need Your Kind of Loving' is about something personal to him. I found enough in the words after the death, in the autumn, of someone ridiculously young and dear to me to be a key to unlock and express the emotions I felt. For me, it is a brutal key - I listened to it while checking the title and, yes, I cried again.

For most - it will be about the loss of love of a partner. The lyrics make more sense that way.

You're truly in trouble when Country music appeals. Johnny Cash, at the end of his life, sang with an intensity that rightly repels the living - entitled as they are to ignore illness and dying. His rendition of 'Hurt' (mentioned above) is raw, uncomfortable and - true.

I was investigating 'American V: A Hundred Highways' on Amazon and the 1st track 'Help Me'  - made me cry.

I hope you'll never come up against the effectiveness of such raw songs but, as Noel Coward observed "Extraordinary how potent cheap music is".

Perhaps not 'cheap' - bought at great cost.

To cry with joy - Mbilia Bel - 'Boya Ye'

Music is a great companion - in the good and in the bad times.

Adam, I really enjoyed that reply. There is really no limit to the pieces which can move us, some by association with people we have known, and others by an innate appeal to our 'inner self'. Sandy Denny was such a loss at her age, and Meet on The Ledge brings her (and my best friend who left us four years ago) back to life, and tears, frequently.

Schubert's 'Trout' quintet - (and the related song "Die Forelle" ) brings me back to my childhood, where my father used it as a 'soundtrack' to his 8mm Cine efforts ,never ceases to move me. 

One of my greatest 'blockbusters' is Buffy St Marie's "My Country 'tis of Thy People    You're Dying'. A 24 bit version would be a real treat.

This has always had a profound effect on me. A lamentation on events in Poland during the Second World War.

Band-Jono great new LP "Silence" song Turn Around.  This band is so talented, like a modern day Queen.

This one is a bit weird. Caravan from Van Morrison's It's Too Late to Stop Now live album nearly brought me too tears - certainly had a lump in my throat. Not because it is a particularly sad track. It is the first time I have heard this album and it is simply brilliant. I know it sounds corny but I was transported to the live setting. The Caravan track was so 'live' it took my breath away. The (almost) tears were due to the sheer joy listening to this track (and album) brought. And I promise you, no other substances or stimulants were involved.

As I say - weird!

Brother, can you spend a dime?  

Bing Crosby (but also many others)

Where did you sleep last night?  Nirvana Unplugged

O soave fanciulla. Bohème, Puccini. Beecham. 

You know what's coming later and .....

Hungryhalibut posted:

I tend not to cry listening to music - though the above sometimes make me weepy - but I was reading an email at work recently about one of the looked after children who was not expected to achieve any GCSEs but through amazing support from her foster family, school and social worker did really well against the odds, and I found tears rolling down my cheeks. What a wuss. 

Wuss? No. I think it says more about your humanity, Nigel.

Like our esteemed Mr Meredith above, I suspect any natural inclination to tears was conditioned out of me at an early age.  But some music can certainly cause a serious lump in the throat before 'control' is reasserted.  It's female singers for me.  Nerina Pallot's Sophia is one that springs to mind.

Mike

David O'Higgins posted:

It's a while since I've been moved to tears, but the 24 bit Ghost of Tom Joad has just done the trick. Highly recommended.

The RATM version?

I cry watching cartoons, if there was an award for it I would be a gold medal holder and if music is moving me, especially if I have had a drink or two, it is quite likely that it will move me to tears.  If it isn't moving you or thrilling you why bother to listen to it?  Could be any song depending on the night and the mood but I avoid In Loving Memory by Alterbridge which is a beautiful song about loss but which reminds me of my dad so much that I can't listen to it all the way through.  Jazz and the Smiths also make me cry but that's another story 

MDS posted:

Like our esteemed Mr Meredith above, I suspect any natural inclination to tears was conditioned out of me at an early age.  But some music can certainly cause a serious lump in the throat before 'control' is reasserted.  It's female singers for me.  Nerina Pallot's Sophia is one that springs to mind.

Mike

Brilliant, emotional song by a brilliant artist