• Thank you to Carol and Steve Bowman, the forum owners, for our new upgrade!

Music

Status
Not open for further replies.
I don't know why we like certain kind of music, but if we talk about past lives, I'm sure they affect our taste in this life.

It can also happen in a not-so-straightforward way. I mean I for example love Irish folk music, but I have no idea whether I've heard/listened/performed it in my previous incarnations in Ireland, or whether I love it just because I miss Ireland (and/or just simply like that kind of music).

Greenknight talked about the Welsh lullaby "Suo Gan" in another thread, and that's one song that gives me "PL shivers" I think - but I don't know for sure. Some others are Bing Crosby's version of "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas" and "Porgi Amor" from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.

These are just a couple of examples, but I think music can act as a very powerful trigger for past life memories.

Karoliina
 
I took my sons to a performance of the pipers from the Black Watch regiment of the Highland guard (I hope I have those names right). Any way, we went just as a night out, not knowing what to expect.

First I should explain my only contact with bag pipes was at funerals of fellow police officers. They always played at a distance and always choked me up...very emotional and appropriately honorable music for them.

We went to this "concert" at Kansas State University. When we got there all of the British/Scottish soldiers were in the lobby greeting the guests. They were dressed in their full formal uniforms (kilts etc.) It was a wonderful experience especially for my youngest son(we're rather isolated out here).

We entered the auditorium, taking our seats, the place was packed. After the opening ceremonies, the lights dimmed and in a very distant place one could hear the faint sound of bagpipes playing. Gradually and very slowly, the sound grew and grew until it burst upon the stage, seemingly from every direction, in a blaring powerful crescendo of wonderful sound. There were twenty or more pipers and drummers playing with an intensity that lit my soul afire. I was overwhelmed and awed, speechless! I looked around, somewhat embarrassed by my watering eyes and pounding heart, and saw the lady in front of me crying in emotion. My sons were in rapt attention. It was a powerful experience.

The rest of the evening was a feast of sound and vibrations...of military precision marching and pageantry. We were honored, truly honored to listen to them.

I know deep inside of me they struck a familiar "note" from somewhere in the past.

Tinkerman
 
Yes that song does give me the shivers also Karoliina. I don't know whether it's PL related or not but there it is.

I could name many songs and music that affects me but I will just cite 2 that gives me totally opposite reactions:

When I heard monks chanting (that music became semi popular recently) I got a panic attack. I couldn't breath and shook all over. I couldn't run away from the headphones fast enough.

But when I hear Mozart's "A Little Night Music" (Sorry I don't know the correct German spelling) my heart soars and I smile and feel so happy. For some reason it reminds me of Autumn and the changing leaves and a crisp breeze blowing early in the morning. And I love all that so the music makes me happy.
 
GreenKnight said:
But when I hear Mozart's "A Little Night Music" (Sorry I don't know the correct German spelling) my heart soars and I smile and feel so happy. For some reason it reminds me of Autumn and the changing leaves and a crisp breeze blowing early in the morning. And I love all that so the music makes me happy.
Click to expand...

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, i believe is the correct German spelling. I'm rather fond of Vivaldi's 4 seasons. In spite of the fact the Spring movement got overused during the 80's as the anthem of the Yuppies.

I have a funny PL-related music story that just happened.

I live in a residential neighborhood a block away from the high school football stadium. This morning, the stadium is being used for a fund-raising activity known as the Corporate Cup.

It has a PA system (I don't have to go to the game to know what's going on on the gridiron) that uses the horn-shaped speakers that were also in use during WWII-they give things a disctinctive sound. And this morning, they decided to wake up everyone in the neighborhood by serenading us with loud music through the PA system to announce the start of the corporate cup.

It was Stars and Stripes Forever, by John Philip Sousa.

I woke up convinced I'd been captured by the Allies and I was in an American POW camp.

That was not a nice way to wake up.

Especially not on a Saturday!

Phoenix
 
I think I have some unusual tastes in music, in that I enjoy most anything up to the early 80s, and since, very little, unless it's from artists I know. I lean toward softer, quieter sounds, so hard rock, rap, and hip hop, as well as disco irritate me. I also never cared for bluegrass, but mostly anything else is cool

And while I like so called Classic Rock, I prefer older stuff, such as Zydeco, blues, and soul from the 20-40s, as well as big band. I also enjoy classical and jazz. If there is one song that always lifts my spirits, it's Waltz Of The Flowers. I fell in love with it the first time I heard my mother play it, and it's still my favorite.

Right now I'm listening to one of my favorite soul albums from the late 60s-mid 70s. But when it's done I'll probably listen to Waltz Of The Flowers. Contrasts in what I listen to have always struck me as a bit odd, but it works for me.

John
 
I love music! Tman, the bagpipes have an emotional impact on me, too. We have a Highland Festival every year and when they march down the street in their kilts playing away I am moved to another place and time. ;)

I feel the same way about the violin. To me -- it is hauntingly beautiful and gives me shivers.

I love classical music -- Especially "Moonlight Sonata."

One song that moves me to tears is "Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh", (Oh, My Baby) which is a lullaby that was apparently composed at the time of the potato famine in 1848, when conditions in the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides were nearly as dreadful as in Ireland. A good version is by Canadian singer Mary Jane Lamond.



Aili :)
 
Ailish said:
One song that moves me to tears is "Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh", (Oh, My Baby) which is a lullaby that was apparently composed at the time of the potato famine in 1848, when conditions in the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides were nearly as dreadful as in Ireland. A good version is by Canadian singer Mary Jane Lamond.
Click to expand...

And I want to thank you, Aili, for introducing the song to me. :) I love it, too. Even more so another Irish song you sent me, Hayley Westenra's "She Moves Through The Fair". :thumbsup:

Greenknight, I want to thank you too (again) for reminding me of Suo Gan - I can't stop listening to it now. :D BTW I love to hear monks chanting. It seems I lived in a Benedictine abbey in Poland hundreds of years ago - or had some kind of a close connection to it, which might explain that.

Karoliina
 
I know I've posted something about this in another thread but it seems to apply again.

Smell and Music lay the strongest brain traces in our minds. That means that things we smell and music we hear are the easiest things to remember and for the longest amounts of time. I learned this while studying Microbiology in college so I'm sorry that I don't have a book or specific researcher to direct anyone to.

It seems reasonable to me that we retain some of our DNA so just as we can be born with physical birthmarks from past life trauma, we can be born with memories of events that can be triggered by many things. Music and smell would seem to be one of the easier ways to access these memories.

Vicky
 
Hi Aili, yes one of the unexplored parts of me is the Scottish lure. I feel a strong, strong pull...especially when I hear the music. Now I'm searching for that lullaby!

Hey John, sorry to hear about the fire. Burning leaves to me are like pires of the past. The scent is solemn to me. It speaks of autumn, endings, and goodbyes. Sad yet full of soulful purpose. The smell makes me pause, hesitate in time, and dream of other times. Like music it is powerful. Since you love poetry...it reminds me of my favorite poem, The Layers by Stanley Kunitz, where he speaks of the "slow fires trailing." I can almost feel those fires of the past...the burning leaves take me there.

Peace, Tinkerman
 
The pipes the pipes

Once when I was pretty young - maybe 8 or 9 my family went to the Royal Show (an annual agricultural show like a large county fair for my American friends). The highlight of the closing night's events were the fireworks, but before this there was a parade of bagpipers. I vividly recall seeing them all marching by and remember it shot through me and every hair on my head stood up. I could recall the battle field, the blood, the fire and the fear and all at the age of 8. I remember understanding exactly why the pipes were played going into battle to strike fear into the enemy and give heart to 'our' men.

Another time - as a grown up - I heard a song come on the radio (Stretched on your grave - not Sinnead O'Connor's version, but something more traditional). I had never heard it before this time and I had to pull the car over and burst into tears, my hands were shaking I was a mess! That song still makes me weep - yes it is a sad song, but it does not usually make people burst into tears!
 
That song still makes me weep - yes it is a sad song, but it does not usually make people burst into tears!
Click to expand...

I feel the same way about the song "Molly Malone." As a toddler I had one of those children's tape players and I used to carry it off and sit in the corner of the room and listen to that song over and over again -- and cry my little heart out. Odd reaction for a 2 year old. : angel

Still makes me teary when I hear it.


Ailish :)
 
I wonder if some musical tastes are biological ancestral memories. I love bluegrass, bagpipes, and Brahms, all of which have some linkage to my biological ancestry in the mountains of VA-KY, in Scotland and in Prussia. Other tastes seem more PL related, such as my love for 20s and 30s jazz, or the fact that hearing some old Scandinavian Christmas hymns sent a chill up my spine and evoked powerful images of thick pine forests in winter (I'm pretty sure I was Norwegian or Swedish in medieval times, but I have no biological ancestry from the region).

I am sure that individual songs may have past life associations, but I also think that on a deep spiritual level we are attached to certain tones or harmonies that speak to certain qualities of our souls--and probably to our past life experiences in general terms.

Lonewolf
 
Music?

This is a very interesting thread! I'm one of those who respond strongly to bagpipe music, and I wonder if it is not something to do with the nature of the instrument itself?

I know that that in listening to the "OM" chant, I have a kind of visceral reaction to the "drone" sound of the chant. It's as though it makes me start to physically "vibrate", especially in the area of the solar plexus. Bagpipes also have a "drone" sound. Maybe this "vibration" can somehow act as a stimulus to release emotions we have somehow been repressing?

I have had a couple of instances where a song evoked strong and unexpected emotional responses from me.

Over thirty years ago I was seven months pregnant with my second child. It was a hot summer day, but for some reason I decided to take a walk to a downtown plaza a short distance from where I worked. The Army Fife and Drum Corps was scheduled to give a short performance. I was really not familiar with them, and was surprised to see that they were dressed in 18th century uniforms, wigs and all. The announcement was made that they were going to play an eighteenth century marching song.

They began to play -- a very cheery upbeat song, nothing doleful at all. To my own surprise, the thought flashed through my mind "I'm never going to see him again!", and I burst into tears. I absolutely could not control the sobs racking my body, and I finally pushed my way through the crowd, and RAN all the way back to work.

I have absolutely no idea what the song was called, and I've never had any other "memories" that seem to be connected to that experience.

There are two songs from the WWII era that evoke bittersweet emotions from me, "I'll Be Seeing You", and "Someone to Watch Over Me". Tears came to my eyes the first time I heard both of these songs, but nothing like the gutwrenching emotion I felt in hearing that marching song.

Oh, and for some reason I'm a big fan of Cole Porter songs, and that's a bit odd for a sixties-era hippy!

Sorry for the length of this post, but this thread did evoke some strong emotions from me!

Lynn P.
 
A lot of different songs and pieces evoke emotion in me. Most of them evoke some sort of sadness.

Horst Wessel Lied is a big one because of my life as Johann. I feel great pride when I listen to it, almost to the point of tears. I have felt the occasional need to salute in the Nazi fashion. It has been made quite clear where my sentiments laid.

The strongest emotion I've ever had was tied to a song from the soundtrack of Rob Roy. It's called O'Sullivan's March by The Chieftains. This song was played while I was visiting the Irish Brigade monument at Gettysburg on St. Patrick's Day weekend. The emotion of being on the hallowed ground of the men I considered to be collective ancestors of myself and the raw traditional air to the song made me fall apart. I do not have the feeling that I was ever among those men, but my connection to Ireland and that area of the world at large is very strong.
 
Interesting, Moonlight sonata also gives me Pl shivers. And also Tannhäuser overture and Madame butterfly´s aria "un bel di vedremo".
Some military marches and the first part of the German anthem produce me the same effect.

Anyway, I haven´t had any Pl memory regarding these songs...
 
Music is a big part of my life, and probably from birth, but here is my earliest concious memory of how it resonated with me, a 'flashbulb' moment. I am about 4 years old, holding my dad's hand walking on a downtown sidewalk beside Eaton's. All of a sudden, I hear, down the sidewalk and around the corner of Eaton's, in the near distance, the most wonderful sound I had ever heard (and the first time I had heard it). It was 40 years ago, but I have to laugh at how I still can remember as if it was yesterday, what a totally overjoyed, excited little girl I was...at the sound of the marvelous bagpipes! My whole body just 'vibrated' , I felt I needed to be with them NOW. My dad was pretty stern and I usually behaved when out with him,: angel but the urgency to be where that awesome sound was overode everything, I broke away from him and bolted down the sidewalk, around the corner, and finally, staring in utter joy as the Lakedhead drum and pipe corp (I think that's who they were) piped on by. My flabergasted (English) father caught up with me a moment later, muttering 'BLAH-dee bagpipes!' :butbut: (probably the only time I'd ever heard any profanity from him, he just wasn't given to it). Although I was so young and trying to understand these new feelings of pride, honour, sentiment, sorrow, joy etc. (that music connected to battle, nationalism, a 'people' etc. as bagpipes, for instance are) I knew that somehow, the bagpipes were a part of these things, and I spent the next few minutes, unsuccessfully trying to convey this to my dad!
I couldn't understand why he wasn't as excited about the bagpipes as I was- he was still pretty cross at my suddent 'bolting' lol. (My mom explained years later that, when my dad was in WWII, they were 'piped' in and out of a lot of events like new bases, or especially, funerals, and he also heard them at a lot of funerals for fellow fallen firefighters thru his career, so he had his own, less happy 'vibrations' )
While a lot of music has touched me over the years, making me happy, or cry etc. I know that bagpipe experience was 'different' somehow, the music was instanlty familiar with so much packed into it tho I'd never heard it before!
 
Interesting thread.

Have you heard Enya's "Deep Forest Lullaby"? There are several versions. The one I like is very primieval. It gave me PL shivers. It was like I was transported back in time - safe and secure nestled in loving arms in the deepest of forests. Yet lovingly hopeful. A time of innocence.
.
 
I have a version of the same song -- it's labelled by Deep Forest with Enigma...... It could be Deep Forest did the same song with both Enya and Enigma, I'm not sure.

Something to check out! :D
 
Classical music hits me the hardest....I grew up listening to the old classic rock, country,etc in my home and had virtually no exposure with classical music. However, there are dozens and dozens of them that when I hear them, I seem to KNOW them as if I had been listening to them over & over & over. I can envision huge ballrooms, the dancing, the atmosphere, the magic of the music.
Also, like Tinkerman, bagpipes seem to get to me,too.And every time I have gone to a Native American pow wow, the sounds of the drums,singing & chanting seems to hypnotize me... almost like taking me back to another time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top