IMO song lyrics are using music as a carrier wave, and we may associate the music with the feelings expressed in the lyrics. That's a bit tainted ... When it c

IMO song lyrics are using music as a carrier wave, and we may associate the music with the feelings expressed in the lyrics. That's a bit tainted ... When it comes to purely instrumental music I won't usually attach emotions to it ... unless it was designed to be 'programmatic' or 'paint a picture' by the composer. Even then, there's no need to play along. I don't buy the "major = happy, minor = sad', that can be more than a little naive. Instrumental music is a rich, rich language, and - for me at least - it often arouses emotions I've never felt before. I'm not so sure that it 'generates' those feelings; I suspect that it CONVEYS them. Which is why the greatest music (in any culture) endures for centuries.