Dear colleagues, As a music professor interested in issues of aesthetics,
I'm wondering if list members could shed any personal light on an ongoing
debate regarding the nature of musical experience.  Among writers on
music aesthetics, there are those who argue that although one may be
deeply moved by "sad" music (or 'sad' passages), that experience, however
perhaps marked by a lump in the throat, is not in fact sadness per se
 (if it were, why would we enjoy it?), but rather a general state of being
moved by the beauty of the music.  Others argue that listeners do often
experience genuine sadness in listening to "sad" music, resting their
argument on the (unsubstantiated?) claim that many listeners do in fact
describe their experience that way.  I would be very interested to hear
from list members regarding their own sense of how they experience
quintessentially "sad' music.  For purposes of argument, we must exclude
vocal or programmatic music (which is more concrete and involves other
issues), and all emotional reactions that are affected by non-musical
associations (e.g., the way the piece reminds you of your adolescent
sweetheart, etc.).  I would warmly welcome responses ranging from one
word (e.g., yes/no) on up.

Yrs::: Peter Manuel (Dept. of Art, Music, and Philosophy, John Jay College)