Thread: Music that lifts your spirits Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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What music makes you feel more positive towards life?
I'll start with this (also mentioned on the Music that makes you cry thread.)
"I've been down so long, but I'm on my way up again" sung by Magic Sam in the Blues "Out of Bad Luck."
Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll.
Beatles - Good Day Sunshine.
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto 5, first movement.
---
what are yours?
Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on
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Lots. But just 'cuz it's what came into my head when I read the thread title...
Orinoco Flow, by Enya
Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on
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"My Love" by Petula Clark is one.
Posted by Hazel92 (# 15538) on
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most jazz i find, (just cos its one of my favourite types of music)
Posted by Saviour Tortoise (# 4660) on
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Three off the top of my head:
Herbert Howells "Jubilate Collegium Regale"
Copland "Fanfare for the common man"
Bellowhead "New York Girls"
ST.
[ 03. April 2012, 15:58: Message edited by: Saviour Tortoise ]
Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on
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The thing that I can't explain very well is this... On the thread I mentioned that extraordinary superhuman technique can make me squish like a baby.
So why in other cases does it make me grin like a goon? Example: Slava playing Haydn. This is 6 minutes of sheer joy.
Posted by ken (# 2460) on
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Too much to write down.
Lots of bits of Wagner's ring. Especially with loud horn calls in them. The riddle scene from Siegfried might be the best for this.
Lots and lots of ska and old dub reggae. Whose spirits would not be lifted by The Return of Django by the Upsetters? (who were actually mostly Lee Perry) King Tubby! Pablo!
The Levellers singing Lowlands of Holland. Even though its a sad song.
Almost anyone singing Hamish Henderson's Freedom come all ye
Obvious bits of Bach.
Embarrassing to say, but the Allman Brother's Jessica. Even if its now colonised by strange versions played on silly TV programmes.
Sibelius 2nd symphony
RVW Five variants on Dives and Lazarus
Hocus Pocus by Focus. (Or was it the other way round?) And Sylvia.
Steve Hillage in unserious poppy mode. (Its all too much., Not fade away)
The Joe 90 theme. (And Thunderbirds march)
Telstar
Rossini overtures.
The Millwall "No one likes us" song.
Spem in alium
Jimmy Shand (and his band). Almost anything by. Currently rather liking the Lambskinnet set and the Gaelic Waltz set. Brings a smile to the face. Honestly.
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on
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There's something about music in a minor key which lifts my spirits (so Lent is my favourite time of year). At a concert today, for example, I heard John Blow's 'Salvator Mundi' and Purcell's 'Thou knowest Lord'.
Some people find that sort of music depressing, so perhaps I'm just wired up wrong.
Posted by wilson (# 37) on
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quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Hocus Pocus by Focus. (Or was it the other way round?) And Sylvia.
Was that the version from the "Live at the Rainbow" album? Haven't listened to it for years but might try to dig out the tape.
Similarly bonkers - though a different kind of music - is Tonio K.'s "Merzsuite" and that always makes me smile.
Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on
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quote:
Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll.
Yes - and the Lemon Song ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
quote:
Jimmy Shand (and his band).
Closest I have is Richard Thompson doing 'Don't sit on my Jimmy Shand' - which is cheerful but perhaps not quite the same thing. Especially cheerful for RT.
Kids have been at the 45s this afternoon.
Blondie - Hanging on the telephone - put a big smile on everyone's face.
Posted by Gamaliel (# 812) on
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The Undertones, 'You've got my number (why don't you use it?)'
The Buzzcocks, 'Harmony in my head'
Blondie - as mentioned ...
Welsh Male Voice Choirs - particularly 'Gwa Hoddiad' by the Treorchy Male Choir.
Any Welsh hymn in a minor key.
Bach (obviously)
Tallis - yes, Spem in Alium
Some Byzantine chant.
Lots of African music.
Ska
Much else besides ...
Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on
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One I can think of right now is September by Earth Wind and Fire, which is also in the soundtrack of recent French feelgood blockbuster Intouchables (run out and buy the DVD - just out - now!).
In fact I often wonder what I was doing in the late 1970s because I seem to like a lot of soul / motown music.
Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on
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Saviour Torotise wrote:
quote:
Copland "Fanfare for the common man"
Just looked it up on You Tube. So THAT'S what that ubiquitous piece is called. Thanks!
[ 03. April 2012, 20:09: Message edited by: Stetson ]
Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on
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A Man called Adam and "Easter Song", or "Estelle".
Gouryella's title track is also a really smooth and uplifting piece. In fact, pretty much everything by Ferry Corsten gives me a lift.
Posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus (# 2515) on
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Janacek - Glagolitic Mass
Neilsen - Symphony No 5
Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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The end of Mahler's 1st symphony, which doesn't only lift my spirits but has me on the edge of my seat. Listen here, from about 13:20. I want to be the triangle player in the last few bars!
And the opening of Bach's Christmas Oratorio takes some beating. (I love seeing Gardiner conducting this - he's so obviously enjoying it all.)
[ 03. April 2012, 22:00: Message edited by: Adeodatus ]
Posted by Martin L (# 11804) on
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In the dead of winter, there's nothing like California beach music to cheer up this Midwesterner.
The Beach Boys
Jan and Dean
The Rivieras (nothing like "California Sun" to say "Take that, winter!")
Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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We're talking about music whic doesn't just make you feel good whilst listening to it, but which actually changes your mood. There are lots of these, and the mood you end up with can vary but the change has to be positive.
Here's some more that work for me.
Beethoven - 9th symphony, last movement.
Bach - Jesu joy of man's desiring.
Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries.
Meatloaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light.
Carpenters - Goodbye to love, for the way it starts as a sad ballad, building to a rock guitar solo at the end, taking your emotions with it, ending with a stupid grin on your face. Or is that just me?
Guns and Roses - Sweet Child of Mine.
Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like you. "I feel wo ho woo." In fact just thinking about Bohemian Like you works without listening to the music.
Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on
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While I am decidedly not a "hippie trail" sorta person(I have little interest in Buddhism etc, and can't imagine a more unpleasant holiday than backpacking around SE Asia), the imagery and overall feel of The Road To Shamballa usually gets my spirits up.
The song was put to rather odd use in the opening scenes of the movie Drowning Mona, a raunchy black comedy which had nothing to do with any of the things alluded to in the lyrics.
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on
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'What's the frequency, Kenneth?' - REM
'The Creation' - Haydn
'Sledgehammer' and 'Big Time' - Peter Gabriel
'Dream of Gerontius', specifically the Demons' Chorus and the run up to and including the full 'Praise to the Holiest' moment - Elgar
Film Score from 'Henry V' - Walton.
Most things by The Stranglers and early Squeez.
Gothic Voices doing early medieval stuff.
Currently, Paulo Nutini and Jan Garberek with the Hilliard Ensemble.
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Balaam:
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto 5, first movement.
Yeah, but all of them! They've never failed to fix a bad day at work. As I'm singing the various instrumental parts while traveling in my car, there is nothing wrong in the world.
Posted by piglet (# 11803) on
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Lots and lots.
La Mourisque by Susato, which always makes me smile.
Cwm Rhondda with James O'Donnell's magic descant
O clap your hands by Gibbons.
Anything else by Gibbons.
Ditto Byrd, Tallis, Praetorius and most of their contemporaries.
Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams
The Hallelujah Chorus
and for when I'm being less serious:
Bohemian Rhapsody and more-or-less anything else by Queen
Vienna by Ultravox
Whatever you Want by Status Quo ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Too much to write down.
Lots of bits of Wagner's ring. Especially with loud horn calls in them. The riddle scene from Siegfried might be the best for this.
I agree. Someday, I'd like to go to Bayreuth. I find Ride of the Valkyries, particularly our CD with Von Karyjan (sp.?) is particularly good when I am driving someplace in a hurry or just thinking about doing so.
Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on
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Almost forgot: It by Genesis (for instance, here performed live, between In the rapids and Watcher of the Skies by tribute band Giraffe). Very uplifting (apart from the explicit drug reference ) and one of the band's most underrated songs in my view.
[ 04. April 2012, 05:41: Message edited by: Eutychus ]
Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on
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quote:
Any Welsh hymn in a minor key
'Jesus, lover of my soul' uplifts me with a certain denominational pride, and the uplift has been doubled since an old man taught me a filthy limerick which begins 'A girl I met in Aberystwyth ...'
quote:
Currently, Paulo Nutini and Jan Garberek with the Hilliard Ensemble.
Wow - a collaboration I'd never have thought possible. Does Jan play a doo-wop baritone line while the Hilliards chip in with the sham-a-lam-a-ding-dongs?
Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Balaam:
Guns and Roses - Sweet Child of Mine.
Pretty much anything from Appetite for Destruction works for me ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posted by kankucho (# 14318) on
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As a film student, back in the day when we shot everything on 16mm celluloid and stuck it all together with bits of tape, I found myself in a hopelessly cluttered editing suite, gazing forlornly at a whole load of footage of show horses which was stubbornly refusing to form itself into any kind of meaningful narrative — and this less than 24 hours before I was due to present a completed centrepiece for my final degree assessment.
My tutor handed me an LP by the Black Dyke Mills Band and suggested I try cutting some sequences together using one of the tunes as a soundtrack. One piece on the album was TJ Powell's The Contestor. It marched along with a springy, determined, confident air. And, conveniently, the tempo matched (near enough) the movements of a woefully tuneless local brass band that I'd filmed previously and then shelved, so I was able to cut short snippets of them 'miming' to this altogether better performance of an entirely different piece of music to the one they'd been playing.
It worked! The film virtually edited itself from thereon and got me the final grade I'd hoped for but had latterly despaired of attaining. But the main thing was that in those last dark hours (literally and figuratively!) in the editing suite, I felt the music itself spurring me on to make that last dash for the tape just when I'd all but given up. I'm no more a brass band aficionado now than I was back then but I still play The Contestor from time to time when I feel in need of a spiritual boost.
Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on
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quote:
Someday, I'd like to go to Bayreuth
If you do, you might bump into Walid Jumblatt and the Druze Militia men. Who sound like they might be an uplifting beat combo...but aren't.
[ 04. April 2012, 15:22: Message edited by: mark_in_manchester ]
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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If we're talking music that actually, positively, changes your mood, I find Friedrich Gulda's witty little piece, For Rico, irresistible. It makes me smile.
Posted by Saviour Tortoise (# 4660) on
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quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
quote:
Currently, Paulo Nutini and Jan Garberek with the Hilliard Ensemble.
Wow - a collaboration I'd never have thought possible. Does Jan play a doo-wop baritone line while the Hilliards chip in with the sham-a-lam-a-ding-dongs?
Oooo, those albums are great. Beautiful, ethereal, powerful. Many a night of study at Uni in the mid 90s was smoothed with "Officium".
I urge anyone who's never heard them to give them a go. Mostly very early choral music (although some modern stuff on the second two albums, I think) with Garberek improv sax soaring over the top (or indeed, on occasion, grumbling underneath.) Fabulous stuff.
Posted by Mamacita (# 3659) on
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The Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"
Cat Stevens, "Peace Train"
"Love Divine, all loves excelling" sung to Hyfrydol. Only that combination.
Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on
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Britten's 'Rejoice in the Lamb'
I particularly enjoy the Mouse aria, and of course there's also the line 'Let Balaam appear with an ass' in honor of our OP poster.
Posted by piglet (# 11803) on
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I should have added Master Tallis's Testament by Howells. I can't fail to feel uplifted by that wonderful crescendo and then the completely pianissimo ending.
Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
'Let Balaam appear with an ass'
Which he does.
Posted by Barnabas Aus (# 15869) on
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Renaissance choral music does it for me. On Tuesday evening last my wife and I attended a performance, by the Australian a cappella ensemble The Song Company, of Lassus' The Tears of St Peter, in the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. In 45 years of concert-going, I have never seen an audience so rapt. At the conclusion, there was dead silence for about a minute following the last reverberations, until at last the conductor turned to face the audience who erupted in applause.
In more modern idioms, The Dream of Gerontius and the War Requiem have me on a high. Years ago, I was coming home from a performance of the latter when I met two teaching colleagues on the train who were returning from a rock concert. It was debatable who was on a greater high, them or me.
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on
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quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
Wow - a collaboration I'd never have thought possible. Does Jan play a doo-wop baritone line while the Hilliards chip in with the sham-a-lam-a-ding-dongs?
Okay - I can see I wasn't clear, you naughty person. But Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble certainly do do music together - though I'm glad to say Mnemosyne (or however it's spelt) doesn't feature a single doo-wop or sham-a-lam.
Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on
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I'm glad you liked it
Posted by passer (# 13329) on
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For the last 40-odd years, the track I put on when feeling glum or despondent, which leads me to smiling good spirits, is Ducks on a Pond by The Incredible String Band. A typical Robin Williamson mish-mash of Celtic and Christian motifs, it even has a seasonal reference in the verse where the mood-switch occurs, with the mentioning of things which are contrary:
Peacocks talking of the colour grey
Awaking soundly in darkest day
A howling tempest on a silent sea
Lovely Jesus nailed to a tree
It starts out in sombre minors, and takes me on a journey, past a nursery rhyme, to a joyful rocking finale featuring, of all things, the kazoo. Works every time.
Posted by perisphere (# 17033) on
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This is actually the discussion thread that tipped me over the edge of hesitation and got me to join the Ship, so thank you, Balaam!
A friend once asked me what music I would want to hear if I were on my death bed, and that's where my mind went with the OP. My choice would be the Sanctus from Bach's Mass in B Minor--- I just ride on those notes, soaring and spiraling into a better place. Happens to me every blessed time I hear this music.
And when I am in an especially snarky and irritated mood, a good blast of Laura Nyro's Stony End (and Wedding Bell Blues, and everything else on that album) will get me rollicking and cheerful in a flash. Excellent therapy directly following committee meetings.
Posted by Mogwai (# 13555) on
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The Beach Boys at their most inspirational:
Late at night I think about the love of this whole world
Lots of different people everywhere
And when I go anywhere I see love I see love I see love
and
Together my love...
Let the love I have for you live in your heart
And be forever
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on
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I heard Jan Gabarek with the Hilliard Ensemble at Exeter Cathedral (by candlelight). They were singing and playing fragments of the earliest music which had ever been found, and improvising on the same. It's a very eerie sound, especially when you realise that they were bringing alive music which hadn't been heard for many centuries, and also filling in the missing gaps, as it were.
If you like your early music spiced up a bit, then try Baroque music from the New World. There's none of the laid back, soporific style that European music of the time has - but altogether more upbeat and sunny.
Meanwhile, as I have one day left until I really ought to be playing happy, joyful, Easter music, here's a little taste of Pergolesi to enjoy.
Posted by leo (# 1458) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
I heard Jan Gabarek with the Hilliard Ensemble at Exeter Cathedral .
We had parts of their music at Stations the other night.Inspiring.
Posted by Spawn (# 4867) on
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quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Hocus Pocus by Focus. (Or was it the other way round?) And Sylvia.
Sylvia is sublime, Hocus Pocus is an abomination.
Any brass band music.
Any AC/DC from the Bon Scott days.
Eric Clapton 'Tears in Heaven' and Layla.
Nick Drake has the power to both depress me or lift my spirits depending on my circumstances.
Thin Lizzy, The Boys are back in Town.
And in the embarrassing category, Jason Mraz 'I'm Yours'.
Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on
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Thin Lizzy reminds me - Gary Moore and Parisian Walkways. powerful stuff.
Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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Yes, Cat, powerful indeed.
Talking of Gry Moore reminds me of another great, late Irish guitarist.
Rory Gallagher - Moonchild. After the advert.
Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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Skimming back up the thread... pereshere, glad to be of assistance.
I agree about the Sanctus, in fact any part of the Bach B minor mass does the trick.
On a Baroque trend - Handel, "For unto us a child is born," even when it isn't Christmas.
Posted by Polly (# 1107) on
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Lots of U2 but their music has another dimension when heard live.
Sara Mclachlan - Angel
Goo Goo Dolls- Iris
And at the moment muvh of Switchfoot's Vices Versa album.
Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on
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quote:
Any brass band music.
Eric Clapton 'Tears in Heaven' and Layla.
hey Spawn - spinning at 45 on the wheel of steel tonight, we had Layla - but the B side is arguably better (Bell bottom blues, you made me cry...).
And also the Black Dyke Mills band, Abide With Me and Deep Harmony (7" EP).
You'd have liked it.
I love singles - never has giving to charity shops generated such eclectic fun.
My interest in listening to music seems to be an inverse function of its availablility; presented with an internet's worth of infinite variety, my interest in listening to it asymptotes to zero. But give me three scratched singles...
Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on
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Bumped.
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
Thought we might need something to shake the mood.
Goin' Up the Country
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
Great choice, Twilight. Similarly, this cheers me up no end.
Posted by Pine Marten (# 11068) on
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Oops, , apologies. Thought it sounded familiar...
Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on
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Yes,sorry, I should have guessed there would be something similar.
Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on
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Last night there was an old live performance by Bob Marley and the Wailers on the Sky Arts 1 channel.
I've always liked Marley's music, but it never had that WOW factor on record. But as a live performer what can I say...
I still feel good the next morning.
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