Music for Remembrance

Can the power of music capture the importance of a memory or emotion? This week marks two great events in Western history - the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 96th anniversary of Armistice Day. Thousands of balloons were released into the night sky this Sunday in Berlin in celebration and remembrance, and millions of Americans will spend Tuesday, November 11, reminiscing over their own experiences with war and peace. So what does this mean in music? A recent study by Liila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch explores the relationship between 'sad' music and positive emotions; in other words, sad music which makes listeners a bit more cheerful. Tom Jacobs of the Pacific Standard recently shared concepts from the study this month, but it bears further questioning. How can music help in the process of remembering and mourning? The study by Taruffi and Koelsch explains that melancholic music, such as Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, actually elicits a variety of emotional responses including empathy, peacefulness and nostalgia. The contemplation of war and peace in music surely reaches the same emotional catharsis. For example, the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1989, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, was well-documented for this very reason. Although the piece's final movement is centered around Friedrich Schiller's poem, "Ode to Joy," the context of the 1989 performance and Bernstein's choice to change the chorus's text from "Freude!" ("Joy!") to the emotionally-charged, "Freiheit!" ("Freedom!") gives the text an entirely new meaning. Clearly the language of music can express much more than mere notes. Here is the full concert with an opening commentary, the music starts at 3:48 mark.