Jeff Buckley:"Hallelujah"-waking up my emotional center?

You're very welcome @Stella Marys.

I know what you mean about Veloso's voice.. and there's such longing too in this song.

Actually, the Portuguese, meanwhile, have Fado, a type of song which also has this longing... stories of women who've lost their men at sea... things like that.

Here's a good selection of Fado music:

Thanks for the music! I didn't know it. It is a delicate sound, and feels like a gentle caress on the heart. Last night, while we were having dinner as a family, I left it playing in the background. It was a great accompaniment!:flowers:
 
Thank you all for the musical recommendations!
I was happy to see this thread on the front page this morning, as Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has come to be a bit of a Christmas carol for me and a way I like to start the new year.

Mike Ferris’ Mercy Now is a song I’ve never heard, but it was a wonderful way to wake up this morning. I think also it is especially poignant for me in the current atmosphere. I needed the reminder 💗
 
Hallelujah seems to be common to many languages? @Chu is this correct? The sounds themselves seem to have a particular vibrational effect. How ancient is the word Hallelujah?

Here is another version sung by a group of Russian children. Again it brought tears to my eyes and the lyrics translated into English subtitles are very moving.

 
To summarise, this thread is about Love, of the kind that is the creative power of the universe. This can be reflected in our interpersonal relationships with another human being. Such that when we experience a perceived loss of the one loved we realise our connection to the creative power through our emotional centre. And listening to these songs can also invoke this experience that then humbles us.

I wonder what would be the effect of learning to sing a version of hallelujah and if we did it together?
 
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The last two verses make the song for me:

There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never even show it to me, do you?
And I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove, she was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much.
I couldn’t feel so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come here to London
Just to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I will stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

It is a celebration of the sense of union, a mourning of the loss of that sense. And it is the submission to the lessons we face.
It holds that note of longing, but it also brings a note of strength and joy of having known at the end.
Just wonderful.
 
To summarise, this thread is about Love, of the kind that is the creative power of the universe. This can be reflected in our interpersonal relationships with another human being. Such that when we experience a perceived loss of the one loved we realise our connection to the creative power through our emotional centre. And listening to these songs can also invoke this experience that then humbles us.

I wonder what would be the effect of learning to sing a version of hallelujah and if we did it together?
Hi, gottathink! Today in the morning, I came to some similar reflections. I think and feel that these sounds help us remember that despite the pain, life is beautiful. Suffering transforms us into understanding and empathetic beings.
This combination of musical notes and the combination of words, with their meaning, are like access routes, as you rightly say to "the creative power of the Universe".

I remember hearing someone say that after listening to this kind of songs "you feel better". Of course, there is a kind of tuning that helps us to balance ourselves.
How important it is to select music that serves a higher purpose, to look for sounds that inspire that loving and altruistic part of the human being!

I find this dialogue between Alejo and Chu very interesting.

Language, sounds and Intelligent Design, page 8:
Another thing that occurred to me is that the language we use to speak ourselves, or about ourselves, can determine our emotional and mental state.. and maybe eve our physical health.
Chu:
Yes! Maybe that's why positive affirmations work well for so many people, as long as they aren't based in New Agey beliefs. And why NLP also works (for bad and for good). And why we have to be careful with our internal dialogs. If sounds have multiple layers of meaning, and so do words, then perhaps it's even more complex than that. One aspect is the "word meaning", and changing it can affect our emotional and mental state. And another one, the deeper meaning each word carries, and which we aren't aware of at all.

Ant the other thing that occurred to me, that I haven't thought deeply about is, if the sounds of language are small particles of a longer sound, how does music or melody can have similar effects? Sometimes we can listen to a melody and we know it's sad, or happy.. maybe I am thinking the wrong way about it and it's more about rhythm and beat and things as such.. but I now find it curious.

As if, we took a language particle and extended it (or zoomed in on it), if that makes sense.
Chu:
Interesting possibility. I would think it may have to do with harmonics in sound, but also everything else combined: pitch, rhythm, language sounds if there are any, the sound waves themselves, the specific combinations of notes, etc. etc. A mystery.
:-)
 
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