Springsteen live at Hammersmith Odeon in 1975 singing Thunder Road.
The part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, right after the Turkish March and before the chorus returns - but in the version with Bernstein conducting the Vienna Symphony. The Ode to Freedom version, which I also have, is great but not sublime. Also, that moment when the Third Movement of the Fifth Symphony becomes the Fourth Movement. Oh, the suspense!
And on a more mundane note, “The Bell” in Tubular Bells 2 by Mike Oldfield.
This is such a beautiful movement from Gorecki and the Soprano just pierces you.
Kinda surprised I’m the first to mention the part in “Gimme Shelter” where Merry Clayton’s voice breaks on the high “Murder” and you can just faintly hear someone in the background (probably Mick Jagger) say “woo!” because she was getting into it so much.
I loves me some Pearl Jam… the songs with “moments” that get me:
Footsteps (…I got scratches all over my arms)
Tremor Christ (“the smallest oceans”… then the final verse)
I Got Id
and the mother of all “Pearl Jam moments,” at perhaps the best place to see a concert (MSG):
Release
Geez, where to begin?
Gethsemane, from Jesus Christ Superstar was probably the first piece of music that I loved more than life itself, and it still gives me chills. The 2000 version with Glenn Carter is the best so far, with the slightly extended ending. He holds the last note for about a week and it just sends shivers up my spine.
Verdi’s Otello, Act III, in the scene where the Doge is visiting and Otello, and Otello, unable to hide his jealous rage, throws Desdemona to the floor. Desdemona sings something like “The Sun warms the sea and sand, but does nothing to warm my heart.” It starts slow and melancholy, and just builds and builds and builds, and just as the giant tutti downward scale of full orchestra and chorus is about to resolve on the last note… Otello has another ouburst and takes it into a completely different direction. Thrilling!
And of course, the Willow Song and Ave Maria, and the un baccio last kiss scene, and Iago’s Act II aria… The whole opera is fantastic from start to finish.
Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, the ending (Return to Life of the Petrified Knights?). Talk about building to a climax!
Let’s not even talk about Le Sacre du Printemps.
Thank you, yes, Into the Void. I knew that didn’t look right . . .
“White Feather” from Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood (the version on Disc 1) makes me stop breathing until it’s done.
The “it’s only teenage wasteland” line leading up to, and the second set of verses ("Sally, take my hand…) in “Baba O’Riley” are similar.
Ravel’s Bolero. The key change.
Huge cliche, but Nessun Dorma, the part where the choir kicks in. sob
More obscurely. I love all Carlos Garldel (great tango singer) songs, but as we are talking about moments, I specifically like the little run-back to the chorus of Mi Buenos Aires Querido. It’s around 2.09 to 2.11.
And really obscurely, I love love love this old Italian song Porta Romana Bella and what makes the song is the way at the end of each verse (first one 0.08/0.09 and the 0.16, but recurs throughout) they sing slightly off-key. It just makes the whole thing so heart-breaking and tragic. I’ve tried to play it on the harp, but on an instruments that can’t bend notes the melody falls completely flat. I’ve known the song of almost 30 years, but it still makes me cry a bit sometimes.
Oh, God yes.
Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is not a piece to be taken lightly. Heard as background music it isn’t very impressive…slow, dissonant and repetitive. Give it your full attention. Turn off the lights, draw the blinds, close your eyes, and just absorb it. Be aware that it begins very quietly and takes fifteen minutes to work up to full volume, so don’t crank it up to 11.
My contributions feel a little pedestrian compared to others, but…
Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Wizard In Winter. The first time I heard it, and every time since, I was absolutely transfixed by the music. In a similar vein, Blue Man Group’s Drumbone sequence is just incredible, especially if your speakers have strong bass.
Guitars also do it to me more easily than other instruments. I can never get enough of the opening riff to Money For Nothing, and the guitar work in Avenged Sevenfold’s Bat Country is even more addictive.
Oh, and this is totally goofy, but on American Idol, when David Cook did “Billie Jean,” he held out a note for an impossibly long time, and just when you thought he was done, he took it up a half-step and held that for a few seconds longer!
so many, so many.
Pink Floyd could provide a thread by themselves but I think the guitar solo in the middle of “Mother” is possibly the most wonderful 30 seconds in modern rock music.
And considering what a bad rap prog-rock gets for being self indulgent, it is restrained, sparse, brief and beautiful…a goose-bump moment.
Also, Elbow’s “scattered black and whites” particularly when the young boy is sitting listening to his grandfather…wonderful.
Dave Gilmour’s solo in the middle of ‘Time’.
Beethoven’s 7th, 2nd movement, when the final, highest violin line of all adds to the crescendoing theme and dips one complete octave during a phrase. You can hear it here at around the 2.12 mark.
Eric Johson, ‘Cliffs of Dover’, studio version. When he reaches the cadenza section and can just go wild with an inspired, playful, dizzying section before coming back to repeat the main tune one more time.
Bach, Cello Concerto 6, Prelude. All of it. Excellent Rostropovich version here, ignore the inane and irritating start featuring lots of horrible church bells; the genius begins at 1.10 .
Mike Oldfield, ‘Tubular Bells’ opening. The hypnotic riff that launched Oldfield’s career, allowed Virgin records to take off, helped to popularise ‘The Exorcist’, inspired a whole generation of derivative ‘New Age’ instrumental music (bad thing or very bad thing, discuss) and still hasn’t been bettered by Oldfield or anyone else.
Mike Oldfield, ‘Ommadawn’ Part 1, the final guitat solo and scream; and Part 2, when for just 16 bars the whole Oldfield ‘orchestra’ joins in for one final, plaintive, haunting, tragic, stirring, beautiful, straining reprise of the main theme (slowed down) just before the bodhran kicks in and we get the final, giddy, whirling dervish ‘duelling guitars’ workout.
Hazel O’Connor, ‘Will You’, when you think the song is over, and then the drums announce introduce the instrumental reprise including that brilliant, beautiful, swirling, passionate sax solo.
Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love’, that riff, especially when the bass guitar kicks in.
So many to list, so little time.
The very end of Debussy’s “Claire de lune”, where the harmony resolves back to the original D flat major.
Beethoven’s 9th, 4th movement, “misterioso” section. Starting with chorus singing “Such’ihn über’m Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen.” “Seek him then beyond the canopy of stars! He must dwell beyond the stars!” through the recurrence of the main melody with counterpoint. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXeZz_SokDA#t=1m09s
Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers”, duet “Au fond du temple saint”. The baritone has a simple melody that rises by half and whole steps while the harmony moves around him, finally resolving in singing with the tenor “Oui, c’est elle, c’est la déesse” “Yes, it is she, it is the goddess”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdb94HbyRko#t=1m19s
Handel’s Messiah, “For unto us a Child is born”. Final appearance of “And the government shall be upon His shoulder”, crescendoing to the last “Wonderful! Counselor!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQddqu3G7M#t=3m15s
Many, many more.
The Banks of Sweet Italy, the fourth note. Your dog’ll go :eek:
About two minutes into Jimmie Lunceford’s Jazznocracy. Just when you think it couldn’t get any hotter they turn it up a couple of notches.
Mahler - Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen - I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this piece without getting watery. The English Horn intro has me before the words even start. 
Ralph Vaughn Williams - Dirge for Two Veterans (from Dona Nobis Pacem) - From 3:02-5:27
When I was living in NY, I used every visiting friend/relative as an excuse to see Phantom; I probably saw it like six times, and Music of the Night always gives me goosebumps.
Extreme’s version of *Love of My Life *, originally a Queen song, is downright amazing. Play this on a guitar and women are putty in your hands.
As an aside - I often get requests from girls to do Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’, which suggests to me they haven’t actually listened to the lyrics…