Musical Catharsis:

      It seems like there should be some sort of basic relationship between a musical piece, the emotions it creates, and the working out of those emotions (catharsis), which it provides. Should the point of music be to work out emotional difficulties? For example, suppose that for each specific moral dilemma a person is in, the emotions that are generated due to that dilemma can be represented musically, with a precise musical recount of the feelings that the situation created. In a sense, the music can re-tell the story of whatever happened, causing the listener to experience previous memory episodes, but through emotion. However, these specific emotional/musical cues are primes for the actual physical memory of the situation. So in further detail, suppose that a person learned to associate a certain location with a symphony (let’s say, an orchestra of at least 30 pieces, and the length of the music should be ten minutes or so). But not just the general aspects of the location, details as well (such as texture of walls, smells, people in environment, location of specific objects, and their relation to other objects, colors, sounds, tastes, etc…), specific characteristics, the “feeling” of a place, specific emotional attributes that the location generates, or the experiencer’s emotional response to the location. Would the experiencer associate the emotions of the musical piece with the emotions of the location (as well as the “feeling” of the place, people, smells, and all other stimuli)? And what does this do? Does the brain make a connection from the emotions and the resolution of those emotions (musical harmony) that a musical piece generates, to the environment in which the music is first heard? But not just the environment, but also the entire experience of that environment, so basically all stimuli the brain is experiencing while receiving the piece.

      So for example, suppose a symphony plays a series of measures which cause a listener to experience the sensation of sadness, and then the relative sensation of happiness, while at the same time, in the listener’s world, they are going through a divorce or something. There will be all sorts of emotions, in theory, that are sturred up during the symphony, but are related strictly to the individual’s life experience at the moment. So they are experiencing a emotion of longing let’s say, and that is held next to the emotions of sadness and happiness. The question is, what is the analogy of sadness to happiness, to longing? How are these emotions mixed together in the brain?