Net emotion

Music has the power to inspire emotions and thoughts that would otherwise not have existed in that moment or many moments beyond. I've never denied that. I have questioned the authenticity of a musically inspired emotion compared to feelings generated from the usual course of interaction with the 'real' world. Whatever 'real' is, and that is of course the gaping hole in my proposition.

That aside, the question I ask myself sometimes is 'what are those emotions swirling around when a piece of music gives you tingles on your skin, a lump in your throat or a tightening in your chest?'. The labels we give emotions may not describe all there is to feel, just as there isn't a word for every colour (but I suspect there are more words for colours than there are for feelings). It's the blend of emotions that come together to create a unique feeling at that moment in time - and mostly it is probably inaccurate to suggest a particular emotion explains that feeling. But I still find it an interesting puzzle to solve, a forensic investigation into what it is that feeling is and why it is there.

What do you get when you mix happiness with sadness? Or are they inseparable? Sadness trailing in the wake of happiness like a comet's tail. The joy and awe at some beauty or perfection fringed with the sadness at the transience of the moment and the absence of others to share that moment. What is the net emotion? Can it be described? Or do we just take a deep breath and carry on, never quite sure what it was that just lurched forward from deep within.