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Recent unwelcome shutdowns for Covid-19 leave everyone more stressed.
We all have favorite music - some may raise our mood, some might help alleviate boredom and some we may enjoy listening to all day because it energizes us.
What do you specifically listen to when you are stressed out?
I recently had the pleasure of listening to a cd of Kevin Burke, who is usually known as a traditional Irish fiddler and John Brennan, who's a multi-instrumentalist - mostly electric guitar... the reason I thought about this subject.
Fast Jigs and Reels, etc... come to my mind when I think of Kevin Burke and I didn't really know what to think about John Brennan except he plays electric guitar which usually means something other than traditional folk music.
Shattering my preconceived expectations of these musicians, "The Pound Ridge Sessions" was surprisingly "easy listening", but also very diverse!
This cd, in it's entirety, has been a real stressbuster for me.
You can listen to samples or stream songs from this cd, at Amazon or on YouTube.
- Emily
This "Member's Polls" heading has some wonderful threads to explore - don't miss out!
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i have the lonesome moonlight waltz from that album i think..the album i mean. good stuff
idk if i put on "fiddle" music to destress..thats usually my commute music and ill hit the skip on the playlist (steering wheel button..safety first) to find the correct tune for that morning/evening drive. i guess if i had to pick a style or player it would be martin hayes or one of those freaky 432 hz drone type youtube videos. which brings up some very odd relaxtion videos forewarning. "fiddling" itself CAN be an unwind thing as long as expectations arent set too high. otherwise stress-o-meter can max out for entire home.
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k. d. lang
Oh, specifically violin music? None, but I have some Carnatic CDs on the way. So they will probably be my answer finally.
Andrew
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Mostly chamber music.
I find that most of the chamber music that mixes clarinet with strings is especially good for destressing. Also, a lot of chamber music by Schubert and Niels Gade. (I suspect the latter is not considered a "great" composer only because his music is a bit too cheerful and agreeable.)
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@Gordon Shumway - Oooh, k.d. lang - sure has the mournful Patsy Cline thing going - really like her harmonizing. What's your favorites?
@ABitRusty - wanted to tell you who one of my favorite fiddlers for "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz" was, but the person who shot the video was more concerned with her own name and if someone would "steal" her work (yet puts it on a public platform - but publicity not appreciated?), instead of giving any credit to the musicians she recorded! I can still link and the fiddler (still don't know her name) has a 5-string! County Line Bluegrass Barn - Lonesome Moonlight Waltz
I enjoy Martin Hayes, but it drives me a little nuts when he plays such great little treasures but doesn't always give their titles! I really like this video where he talks about learning almost forgotten tunes from older musicians, like his Dad - you see this? btw, where's the thread you asked for help finding the title to one of his tunes?
@AndrewH - 
...you are joking, right? We'd all be in trouble if lighthearted Chamber Music was frowned upon!
- Emily
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ELCB said
@Gordon Shumway - Oooh, k.d. lang - sure has the mournful Patsy Cline thing going - really like her harmonizing. What's your favorites?
My favourite was All You Can Eat, although it was criminally short. I listened to her a lot before I retired 10 years ago (I've still got 8 of her CDs) - when I got in from work in the evening, I'd regularly put her on the HiFi to relax to. Really she went off the boil in about 1995, although Watershed was a return to form, but I can imagine critics complaining that it was just a repeat of the old stuff.
Andrew
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AndrewH said
I find that most of the chamber music that mixes clarinet with strings is especially good for destressing.
I was never a big fan of the clarinet, but there's a TV programme called Lewis, which has Cosí Fan Tutte's Suave sia il vento on clarinet as one of its leitmotifs, and it sounds truly great. When I replayed my CD of the highlights of that opera, I was surprised to find that Mozart doesn't use it at all (I'm going to have to relisten now in case I wasn't concentrating). If Barrington Pheloung arranged it for clarinet, he did as good a job as Mozart could have done.
Andrew
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Gordon Shumway said
AndrewH said
I find that most of the chamber music that mixes clarinet with strings is especially good for destressing.
I was never a big fan of the clarinet, but there's a TV programme called Lewis, which has Cosí Fan Tutte's Suave sia il vento on clarinet as one of its leitmotifs, and it sounds truly great. When I replayed my CD of the highlights of that opera, I was surprised to find that Mozart doesn't use it at all (I'm going to have to relisten now in case I wasn't concentrating). If Barrington Pheloung arranged it for clarinet, he did as good a job as Mozart could have done.
I think it's more about the way composers have handled the clarinet when writing for mixed chamber ensembles.
I have specific pieces in mind: the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets and clarinet trios, the Crusell clarinet quartets, the Bruch pieces for viola/clarinet/piano, and the Beethoven septet and Schubert octet.
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ELCB said
@AndrewH -
Gade was Mendelssohn's protege and went on to teach almost every significant Scandinavian composer of the second half of the 19th century. Certainly a master of his craft. It's not that lighthearted music was frowned upon -- it's more that Gade got a rather unfair reputation for writing only cheerful music. (One author describes his chamber music as "agreeable but hardly moving.") But I love all his chamber music that I've heard, especially his String Octet.
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I guess I just hadn't planned on spending so much time destressing as you guys!
Per your suggestions, I listened... and to more!
@Gordon Shumway , @AndrewH - Thank you! I thoroughly enjoyed some of the music you both suggested.
Afterwards, I listened to "Niels Wilhelm Gade - Symphony No.3 in A-minor, Op.15 (1847)" - nobody suggested this particular symphony and I wouldn't normally think of this as a "destressing piece" - more an escape adventure, like a sci-fi or fantasy movie. I just ended up drawn to this symphony and admit methods of escape usually help me to destress - guess it's all about how you look at it.
Still, feels like it takes effort on my part, that I need to really focus on a symphony to benefit from one. Most of the time when I feel stressed I want to be quickly washed over with music that takes me back out with the tide, so to speak.
That's when I usually ask "Alexa" to just shuffle songs by "Cècile Corbel". I find her music extremely diverse, some soothing, some melancholy, some bouncy and fun. Her own twist on celtic, folk and pop music can be mesmerizing. The best part of what happens when listening to her arrangements, I feel I want to pick up my fiddle "Mortimer" and join in!
Here's a few tunes of her tunes I like to play along with, a tiny sampling of the FULL range of her music that I enjoy.
- Grains de Sable, Initial(e), En La Mar - I enjoy playing along with these 3!
- C'hoant Dimein
- Vent Frais
- La Valse des Ondines (2016 Remastered)
- La Fille Damnee
I agree with 1 thing - many types of music can help us when we're stressed! Great area to explore new music to try on our Violin, Viola or Cello!
- Emily
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Ack, my damn Carnatic CDs are coming from Florida (prolly the industrial unit next to Pierre's, lol!) and are due in a month's time. I'll be stressed until then.
Andrew
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I don't listen to music to destress. Wouldn't work at all (I don't even listen much to music, period). However, grabbing the viola and playing whatever comes to mind – or even random notes – and focusing on the sound/vibrations can help me stop thinking. Sometimes it even works on headaches 
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