These are the Songs That I Sing When I'm Sad

by Jane Miller and Brian Quirt

Commissioned and created by Toronto-based theatre company Nightswimming.

Singing is a potent tool for expressing and releasing emotion. Any emotion, but it just so happens that sad songs feel so good. In each performance, Jane sings and tells stories about the sad songs in her own life, and invites the audience to share the songs that they sing (or play or listen to) when they’re sad. It’s a rare opportunity to hear a superb singer up close and personal as she delves into the link between deep emotions and the musical elements that make sad songs so addictive.

Sadsongs.ca is designed as an online companion to the theatre performance to give you an opportunity to revel in the pleasures of singing sad songs. And a chance to spy on your neighbours and see what songs move them. Please contribute your sad songs to our playlists, and explore the playlists of songs that audience members suggested during each performance.

Nightswimming is fascinated by the songs that people repeatedly return to, many with melancholy content (such as breakup songs), as well as songs that people reach for that are joyful or beautiful or triumphant. During the show, Jane draws out the beautiful, moving, often hilarious audience stories behind these songs, illuminating the events that create this unbreakable bond of singer, song and emotion. You’ll leave Sad Songs with a fresh view on sad songs and needing to listen them anew.

Publications to Zatorre’s Lab, from the Montreal Neurological Institute