A Musical Interpretation of Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia”

Artist Statement

This project investigates musical strategies in relation to emotion in order to best create two soundtracks based on Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (1991). One consistent aspect I found was the idea of music as a subjective experience and therefore something that cannot be measured with complete objectivity. Thaut et al. (2013) explain that “[m]usical meaning is embodied, and its nondiscursive symbols cannot be translated directly into referential denotations” (2). However, there are particular emotional responses that are linked to certain levels of “tempo, mode, timbre, harmony and loudness” (Aramaki et al. 45). A slower tempo and lower tones specifically were found to display sadness in both music and language (Vuoskoski 42). I was interested in the question of which instruments elicited the most potent emotional response, and found that the violin, cello, and viola were rated as the highest in emotional capacity because of their similarities to the human voice (Vuoskoski 44). Finding this, I decided to use the cello and violin as the basis of both of my compositions. This idea of music imitating language was an interesting one to me, and it was a consistent finding throughout my research. Music is most captivating to me not only because it imitates language, but because it goes so far beyond what human language can depict – like a shortcut straight to someone’s heart. Because of the fact that emotion is largely an individualized experience, I knew from the beginning that I would be required to take a significant amount of artistic liberty with this project, and the following paragraphs depict that liberty in association with the research I have summarized above.

Loss

Both compositions begin with the same section that signifies loss (00:00-1:08). Freud posits that “the exciting causes due to environmental influences are, so far as we can discern them at all, the same for both conditions” (251), therefore I composed a section with heavy strings that would represent this parallel aspect of both processes. This section starts with a high-pitched, single pad on note E, which is the exact tone that occurs when a heart monitor flatlines. This is designed to represent the overwhelming nature of the loss when it occurs. As discussed previously, loss is subjective, as is everyone’s experience of it, but to me, this held note helps to make time stand still and give room for the waves of emotions that are about to come with a series of eight thick stringed chords. As I see it, this progression represents a range of feelings that might occur when encountering loss. In my experience, this includes feelings such as regret, sadness, anger, fear, understanding, nostalgia, gratefulness, disbelief, and so on. Shifts in volume for each of these individual chords represent the sweeping nature of these feelings: how they can overcome a person, block everything else out, and then leave them feeling numb in between (with only the reality of the initial loss as input – the continuous heart monitor tone). From this section of loss comes the basis of both the melancholic and mourning parts. The first two chords in this section are darker and less hopeful, so they are the two chords I chose as the basis for melancholia. The last four chords represent more possibility and even hopefulness, so I used them as the basis of the mourning soundtrack. The idea behind this is that each process focuses on different aspects of the loss itself, so by choosing both progressions from the state of loss I can connect which emotions are being experienced in each process.

Melancholia

In order to mimic the process of melancholia outlined by Freud, I chose a simple chord progression in a minor key, consisting of the i and VI chords. The key of B-minor is rarely used in popular music in comparison to keys like C-major and G-major, so there is already a sense of displacement caused by this decision. The chord progression repeats throughout the piece, imitating the cyclical nature of melancholia. At certain points, there is a shift from the major VI chord of B-minor to a minor vi chord, which does not belong to B-minor (the technique is called modal mixture) and helps to add tension to an already restless progression (Thaut et al. 5). One thing that this chordal cyclicality does is mimic the feeling of being caught, which is one of the aspects that causes melancholia to be classified as a pathological state. Freud asserts that a melancholic patient is conscious of “whom he has lost but not what he has lost in him” (254). By settling into this minor key, there is a refusal of conclusion or resolution, and this is intended to produce the effect of this unchangeable lack of understanding. After a few repetitions of these chords, a set of backing vocals is initiated. These, to me, are symbolic of both sighs and cries. In melancholia, there seems to be a sense of exhaustion at the neverending nature of self-loathing and loss, so these vocals represent the journey of both experiencing loss the first time, and reexperiencing it, as is the nature of the pathology (Freud 254;252). Additionally, the chords in this piece shift at a rate of 65 bpm, which is meant to impose a slight urgency in comparison to the slower bpm of mourning (Thaut et al. 9). 

The melancholia outro (2:38 – 3:14) features a decrease in overall frequency, giving the effect of a muffled, almost underwater sound. Not only this, but I also incorporated quiet whispers into the background, which signifies the extreme self-criticism Freud describes in the melancholic patient (255). The entire piece ends with a loud inhale, which represents the fact that melancholia can never truly end; even though the piece cannot go on forever, the idea is that with this breath, there can be an assumption that will start all over again. To me, it also sounds like someone coming up for air before being thrown underwater again, which feels fitting for the internal battle that melancholia is. 

Mourning 

The key difference between mourning and melancholia is the logical resolution of mourning with time. Freud claims about mourning that “[w]e rely on it being overcome after a certain lapse of time, and we look upon any interference with it as useless or even harmful” (252). Two main components arise for me in this passage; firstly, that mourning must feature resolution in its conclusion, and secondly, that there cannot be any taming of the emotional journey that occurs within the mourning process. The piece, therefore, grows quite significantly, with many layers converging before there is a sudden drop off (2:43). This shift signifies the end of the overwhelming nature of mourning and the beginning of the resolution that is to come. The chords in this piece shift at a rate of 60 bpm, which is the typical base rate of a heartbeat. This is a grounding factor that is intended to confirm steadiness even through the chaos of emotions that erupt in mourning (Thaut et al. 9).

The mourning outro (2:43 – 4:23) attempts to capture a regretful acceptance of the initial loss. The first half of the outro is a modulation from B-minor to D-major, which are relative keys. The final chords alternate between the I and IV chords of D-major, both of which are major chords (more uplifting than the minor chords featured in melancholia) and which are strong chords within the key of D-major (the tonic is the strongest, while the subdominant leads the ear strongly back towards the tonic). This sudden pull back from the layers of complexity helps to create a tranquil end to a difficult process, which is meant to capture the conclusion of the mourning process itself.

Works Cited

Aramaki, Mitsuko, et al. From Sounds to Music and Emotions: 9th International Symposium CMMR 2012, London, UK, June 19-22, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, vol. 7900, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013.

Freud, Sigmund. “Mourning and Melancholia.” On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis: “Beyond the Pleasure Principle,” “The Ego and the Id” and Other Works, vol. 11, Penguin, 1991, pp. 245-69.

Thaut, Michael, and Taylor & Francis. Rhythm, Music, and the Brain: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Applications, vol. 7, Routledge, New York, 2013, doi:10.4324/9780203958827. 

Vuoskoski, Jonna K. “What Makes an Instrument Sound Sad? Commentary on Huron, Anderson, and Shanahan.” Empirical Musicology Review, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014, pp. 42-45.