Radio 3 is – on its breakfast show – focusing on building a playlist based on the theme “the Tingle Factor”. Some time ago I wrote a post on that subject and it was always likely that I would return to it. Sitting here listening to the opening of Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony was all I needed to trigger that return!
Within the Radio 3 playlist I have been struck by just how many of the list would not be on my own “tingle moments” list. There are – so far – sixteen entries on the playlist – there is, perhaps, just the one that ‘might’ qualify for my own playlist. Perhaps that is because my own definition takes a narrow-ish view of what constitutes a “tingle”.
The Radio 3 Breakfast list and the associated event at the Wellcome Collection includes all “physical” effects – whereas I would restrict it to that “hair on the back of your neck standing up” moments that are – perhaps – more rare. My previous post focused on a single example – from Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony – and that remains the “most tingling” of all for me. It is far from the only one – the climax of Sibelius Five has a similarly positive effect.
For me – I would agree with the statement on the BBC website that “the ‘tingles’ are a personal experience” and that “two people listening to the same piece of music will not necessarily share the same experience” – but I would differ when it comes to “sad music is more likely to generate the effect than happy music”. For me – the ‘tingles’ most often come from those moments of “triumph” – the Mahler and the Sibelius are both examples of this.
Another is the ending of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony – although in contrast I also get a shiver – perhaps of anticipation – as the cellos soar up in the opening bars of the same piece of music. Anticipation – knowing that the climax is coming – is evident in many situations – although it is not always the same feeling. I think it probably depends on what is being anticipated – it could be “the tingles” – but it might also be simply “pleasure” or “calm”.
It is important to say that there are other emotional/physical responses to some moments in music – and I will, perhaps, come back to examples of “non-tingle” effects in a later blog.
Another guaranteed moment of “tingling” are the high Cs in Allegri’s Miserere. Each recording manages to produce that response – but it is even more magical when it is heard live. This is – of course, quite a different sort of music to the Bruckner, Mahler and Sibelius that I have previously mentioned – and it shows that it is not just the big, noisy, endings that tingle.
I think that – as I have mentioned before – a lot of the effect of music is to do with the memories it evokes – however the interesting thing about my “tingle factor moments” are that they are (I think) entirely divorced from ‘specific’ memories. I think of another tingle inducing moment – the ending of Mobile for Seven Orchestras by Lawrence Leonard (performed at the Hoffnung Astronautical Music Festival) when the choir – in what seems like an unlikely key – sing Sir Arthur Sullivan’s The Lost Chord. This “hit” me the first time I heard it (perhaps it was the screaming horns that did it!) – and has never gone away!! It is most certainly not associated with anything other than the recording itself.
I think that is true for most of my tingle factor moments – they have just ‘popped up’ – not necessarily for any reason other than the music itself. Others include the opening of Schubert’s “Great” C Major Ninth Symphony; The “big tune” when it first appears in Brahms’ First Symphony; the triumphant rendering of the theme by the brass at the end of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide.
There are a few that have associated memories – Ron Goodwin’s The Trap – is high on that list – I guess many won’t even know the name – but it is used as the theme tune for the TV coverage of the London Marathon. That not only gets the hairs standing to attention on my neck – it also starts my legs twitching ready to run!!
For me – the “Tingle Factor” is inextricably linked to “high points” – big tunes – huge chords and, as I said, in some way a sense of triumph.