# Music so beautiful it makes you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946 "2018-05-10T22:25:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/1 "2018-05-10T22:25:43Z")
Well, what the thread title says. In the past, I have created threads about [weird versions of well-known tunes](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=765413), and about [music that scares the s\*\*t out of you.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=820012) Now, I want to hear about music so beautiful, so exquisite, so unbearably lovely that it makes you cry tears of joy mingled with sadness or even spiritual pain. And, having thrown my hat in the ring, I pony up my contribution right here: My favorite piece of music that I find so exquisitely beautiful that it makes me cry is _ **Spiegel Im Spiegel** _, by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. For those of you who might not know this composition, here is the link: [Arvo Part Spiegel Im Spiegel - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS0FPVOU5e0) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/2 "2018-05-10T22:36:15Z")
For some reason, I always choke up when I hear the late Gabby Pahinui sing [Hi’ilawe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJu3JUrgnZY), a beautiful song about a waterfall in the Waipio Valley. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/3 "2018-05-10T22:53:35Z")
[Grace Vanderwaal’s _Clearly_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCp7488puc) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/4 "2018-05-10T22:58:50Z")
[Wagner’s “Magic Fire Music” from _Die Walkure_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN02iIpN0Es) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/5 "2018-05-10T23:14:38Z")
[Solveig’s Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8AD75_sNJM) This is all wrapped up in childhood memories\*. But yeah anyway, the Peer Gynt Suites are a perfect way to introduce a child to classical/whatever the technical term is music. For me, it’s lasted. \*Being introduced to Tolkien and Grieg at the same age is not a bad combination as it turns out ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/6 "2018-05-10T23:20:28Z")
\*\*Arvo Part, \*\*the Estonian composer - his work _Tabula Rasa_. When I was reading about it, I heard that during the height of the AIDS epidemic, many men listened to it in their final days as a form of release. I could never understand what they were going through, but I get how this piece of music works. Serene, sparse, powerful in gentle elegiac ways. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/7 "2018-05-10T23:47:50Z")
[Henryk Gorecki - 3rd Symphony - Dawn Upshaw singing/London Sinfonietta/David Zinman conducting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcfy3UmnyDY) Unbearably beautiful and haunting. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/8 "2018-05-10T23:51:15Z")
The soundtrack to “American Beauty” stuns me. Not a week goes by that I don’t listen to parts of it. My cousin, a professional opera singer, sang “Danny Boy” at my little brother’s funeral. It was the most incredible version I’d ever heard. I kick myself for not recording his performance. (Though I probably couldn’t ever watch it - now I can’t hear any version of the song without falling apart). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/9 "2018-05-11T00:41:47Z")
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, usually incorrectly referred to as the Pathétique due to a mistranslation from the Russian. First encountered it in my childhood and have been entranced with it ever since. In terms of a short piece of music, it would be _O Mio Babbino Caro_, from the opera _Gianni Schicchi_, one of the most beautiful arias ever written. [And check out this performance.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9PQ7qPkluM) It has to be enough to restore one’s faith in the human race. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/10 "2018-05-11T01:47:26Z")
Read [Dulce et Decorum Est](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est) in College. Bumped into _[In Dulce Decorum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kkLT65fM0)_ by The Damned a few years after getting out of the Army. Gets to me every time. Also, _[Helpless Dancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2W1-69yraU)_ by The Who if I’m not ready for it. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/11 "2018-05-11T02:04:52Z")
[Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MHeNt6Yjs) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/12 "2018-05-11T02:38:48Z")
The Art of Noise - Finale [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pEnPlFQDmuc/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AHmAoAC6AKKAgwIABABGGEgYShhMA8=&rs=AOn4CLD_1391BY_0yIQkL0BQQl50Qp9rkQ "Art of Noise - Below the waste - Finale") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEnPlFQDmuc) Always brought up various sad memories. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/13 "2018-05-11T03:00:48Z")
\*\*Duresori Story \*\*from the Korean movie _Duresori Story - The Voice of East_ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfxgTHUuG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfxgTHUuG0) The movie is a pseudo-documentary of the formation of the Duresori, a choir from Korea’s National High School of the Traditional Arts. The song is about the trials the once reluctant students go through before bonding over their love of music. The three soloists are amazing, especially Im Ha Nui (the third soloist). I’ve heard several versions of this song, but the solo part by Ha Nui (pronounced Ha Nee) is always done by the full choir. Sometimes the coda is left out, leaving the listener with different impression of the song. I prefer it without the coda. Lyrics: Like a light shines in darkness. Singing lightens our hearts We laugh, cry and dream together, when we feel worn out singing the same song … ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/14 "2018-05-11T03:31:05Z")
**Moving Day** from _Duresori Story - The Voice of East_ This mixes elements of traditional musical stylings with modern choir and is a variation of the numerous versions of\*\* Arirang\*\*, the national song of Korea. Like all versions of Arirang, this is a melancholy song dealing with heartache and yearning. Lyrics: Note: The lines that contain araiyo, ariang or surirang have no literal translation or meaning in Korean or English There are so many houses on the hill But no room for our family to rest in I put the memories [away] inside the drawer The roar of the truck hides the laughter of old friends I wake up from dozing and the truck is trundling along The poor trip with my poor Mom and Dad Lying on the beach with my Mom and Dad, we looked at the stars in the summer night That night we cried to the sound of crickets chirping Chirp, chirp We wept to their song ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/15 "2018-05-11T03:51:55Z")
Forgot the link to Moving Day: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_6vZzF0YxJU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6vZzF0YxJU) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/16 "2018-05-11T04:10:23Z")
‘O Holy Night’ belted out by any awesome voice, male or female. But the version that makes me the most weepy is by Mr. Michael Crawford and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. O night divine! ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/17 "2018-05-11T04:35:45Z")
Eva Cassidy and Jeff Buckley both take me there. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/18 "2018-05-11T04:54:51Z")
You don’t even need to know the story, it’s obvious from the feel: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FEMZqYM3Peg/hqdefault.jpg "Cirque Du Soleil O, Nostalgie") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEMZqYM3Peg) ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/19 "2018-05-11T05:49:36Z")
[The Untouchables Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu2FekMaTQc) by Ennio Morricone. [Going the Distance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQkl7qa6RQ) from **Rocky** by Bill Conti. ---
**Author:** ![emu2swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@emu2swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emu2swan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946/20 "2018-05-11T05:55:56Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KXBI2_zH9Js/hqdefault.jpg "Josh Ritter - The Curse") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXBI2_zH9Js) This one. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-so-beautiful-it-makes-you-cry/813946.md?page=2)