Jeff Dunn writes:

>Commentators on music commonly refer to this or that piece as being
>'nostalgic' expecting their readers immediately to understand what they
>are talking about.  Of course what they mean by a piece BEING nostalgic
>is that it is presumed to make a majority of listeners FEEL nostalgic
>or empathize with nostalgic elements in the music.  But what really
>IS 'nostalgia' in music?

Great topic!  I am eager to see what conversation this brings.

I am not so quick to try to use your razor:  the reality of any attempt
to separate "being" from "invoking" is much too slippery for me, especially
when I do respond so keenly to music and I have no complete idea of what
put those emotional qualities there.  This is even after studying books
about the "meaning" in music, and even after performing many types of
music with the goal of discovering and projecting those meanings.

I know I felt emotions akin to 'nostalgia' when I was only two or three
years old, although I had never heard of that word ...  and I remember
those feelings clearly although it was many decades ago.  I also remember
a certain pleasure I experienced in feelings that could only be described
now as 'bittersweet.' They were not IN me at the time, and they came from
the music.  I was used to playing with my little toys while listening to
different kinds of music, and the music caused me to act out certain games,
to dance, to sing, to ponder.

My entire record collection consisted of the Nutcracker Suite, Dvorak's
New World Symphony, and an album of RCA Victor collector's items (recorded
on only one side) left by an indigent former employee of that company who
rented a room from us for a short time.  There the Chaliapin rendition of
the Song of the Flea, some violin solos, and some arias from opera ...
Sextet from Lucia, for instance.

I often listened to Nutcracker Suite, and the oboe solo in one of
the dances always made me imagine 'sad' things.  In my play, I'd make
believe the toys were in different situations (abandonment, orphanhood,
disappearance and reappearance) to go with that 'sad' oboe.  Fairytales
would impose themselves on the music (I didn't know the story of 'The
Nutcracker' so I made up my own.  The Largo from the Dvorak also gave
me a little thrill of 'sadness.' At no time do I remember labeling those
emotions, however.  In fact, I was secretive about it.  I thought I was
the only one who knew about the world of music feelings.

And I was not morose as a child.  I also was easily thrilled by triumphal
music, fast and 'happy' music, and especially excited by the Toreador song
from Carmen.  I'd sing along in pigeon French...  It didn't matter that I
had no idea what the song was about.

I think it is VIRTUAL nostalgia that you may mean.  In order to be
nostalgic, one must have actual memories ...  but in order to feel the
emotion in music, one responds to the virtual emotion in the music.

Do we pick music to fit our mood or does the mood come from the music?
I'm not waffling:  I believe it works BOTH ways.  And one super attribute
of music is that you can feel several emotions at once!

>I don't see how the music can waver.  Certainly the listener's thoughts
>can waver.  Yes music can provide solace.  But is it at the same time a
>stern schoolmarm shaking the listener like some movie character saying
>'Snap out of it!'?

Of course music "wavers.  In a sense, the music IS that (not so stern)
schoolmarm that you evoke, helping us to deal with our own emotions by
spelling them out for us ... but for some reason I cannot fathom, music
only works on some people who are open to that experience.  Sometimes the
rest of the class is just not paying attention.

Mimi Ezust