What music do you listen to?

I listen to a lot of stuff: jazz, rock, soul, funk, electronic, experimental/avant-garde, classical (maybe it would be more properly to call it ”symphonic music” or ”music for symphony orchestra”), latin (or as we call it here: ”Spanish”), reggae, metal, some pop, ambient, blues, folk music from around the world, and much much more. It depends to what kind of mood I’m in…

Given the opportunity, I want to write more about classical music (because I guess that no one else will). There are many depressive, gloomy compositions (most of Gustav Mahler’s work, Mozart’s ”Requiem” or at least its first 5 minutes, etc), but one who’s worth mentioning is Richard Wagner.

I prefer to listen to Wagner’s music without any words or without paying any attention to the plot of his musical dramas, because of his controversial opinions on many matters. But the music itself (which was heavily influenced by Schopenhauer’s pessimism) is just brilliant… Pessimism and depression at their purest…

Wagner puts you in a state of agony, anxiety, stress, tension, uneasiness, sorrow, agitation, that goes on and on and on and on, and you’re longing for a redemption, for some kind of catharsis, for some kind of relief, but it never comes… Or comes too late… And when it comes, it lasts for a brief moment, and then you’re back to agony and distress… I can’t think of a better musical representation of life…

Of course, most people know his ”Ride of the Valkyries”, but I think the composition that represents what I’m writing about is ”Faust” (which is based on Goethe’s poem with the same name). Here’s some information about it:

https://www.musicwithease.com/wagner-eine-faust-overture.html

and the composition itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMw0EjLFPXw