[dmitshur]

From https://whatismusic.info/blog/HypothesisMusicLetsUsPracticeH...:

  > Now let us suppose that the person enjoys listening to music.
  >
  > Music enables the person to feel very strong emotions that lie outside the range of their normal everyday emotions.
  >
  > Music lets a person feel these emotions, almost, but not quite, as if those emotions were real.

I’m quite puzzled by these statements. I enjoy listening to some genres of music. But I don’t see at all how music is connected to experiencing emotions. Isn’t music enjoyable because of completely different reasons? They are hard to describe, but I don’t think they’re “emotions”, are they?

[fg6hr]

Music produces sophisticated colorful shapes that aren't visualizeable, yet visible to our mind, so it sees the shapes, appreciates their complexity and order and creates emotions. Classical compositions produce exceptionally complex structures that can be appreciated only by a few.

[mlang23]

Are you a synaesthetist? I am, and your description pretty much sums up how I experience music.

[hellofunk]

> But I don’t see at all how music is connected to experiencing emotions.

Wow, unless I don't understand this sentence, I'm surprised by it.

Music instills emotional reaction all the time -- it can change your mood, it creates the emotional feel of movie scenes, and all sorts of things. It is connected to emotional response, is it not?

[shurcooL]

Perhaps I shouldn’t have said “I don’t see at all” because that’s an exaggeration. I see some connection, e.g., listening to music can feel “enjoyable”, just not “very strong emotions that lie outside the range of their normal everyday emotions”.

As an example, here’s a random song that has a nice beat and I enjoy listening to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-4-O7GetQ. What kind of “strong emotions outside the normal everyday range” can one feel when listening to it?

I agree certain rare songs can instill strong emotional responses, but that isn’t the case when just listening to random music that sounds good for the first time.

[mlang23]

This comment feels like Commander Data having a similar discussion with Picard...

I can tell you, appreciating music and emotions are deeply connected.

[john61]

Well what is it else than emotion when some Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin or Mozart make me cry?