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The Band - Tears of Rage
Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an “appoggiatura.”
An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. “This generates tension in the listener,” said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. “When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good.”
(via Why Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ Makes Everyone Cry - WSJ.com)
Adele’s songs don’t make me cry (except in frustration that they keep playing her same two songs on the radio over and over and over), but identifying appoggiatura as a specific and consistent chill-inducer is pretty cool. This is something I’d noticed as a musician but never knew it’d actually been studied.
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Of Montreal - The Party’s Crashing Us
Please enjoy your Monday.
Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.
“
| — | Jonathan Coulton, definitively. (via merlin) |
Favorite Music of 2011
Favorite Albums (in no particular order)
- Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
- The Weeknd - House of Balloons
- Futurebirds - Via Flaminia
- Wye Oak - Civilian
- Tune-Yards - WHOKILL
- The War on Drugs - Future Weather
- Cults - Cults
- Wild Flag - Wild Flag
- C418 - Minecraft Volume Alpha
- Emperor X - Western Transport
Honorable Mention
- Jay-Z- Watch The Throne
- Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
- Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
- St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
- Black Keys- El Camino
Musical Discoveries in the Last 12 Months
- Pink Floyd - Meddle
- Scott Walker
- Nick Cave/Warren Ellis’ Film Scores
- Das Racist
- Beck - Modern Guilt
- Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
- Blood Bros. - First Blood Mixtape
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Doxology 2011
This year’s recording of the short hymn my extended family sings every year before Thanksgiving. My Dad’s side of the family is huge, so there is usually a big crowd, this year was about 42. The lyrics are:
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
