# What is the most beautiful song you have ever heard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369 "2008-11-25T02:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/101 "2008-11-26T01:55:27Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I’d say “Ave Maria” by Schubert That’s what I came in to say. Even my atheist Dad likes this song. A lot. ---
**Author:** ![Morgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Morgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/102 "2008-11-26T06:24:56Z")
[Everybody’s Changing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKVPe677Jc) by Keane. It always makes me a little weepy for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/103 "2008-11-26T06:44:58Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > That’s what I came in to say. Even my atheist Dad likes this song. A lot. You don’t have to be part of a group to like something that came out of it. I’m an atheist and one of my favorite songs of all time is Amazing Grace, and one of my favorite books is the bible. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/104 "2008-11-26T10:50:03Z")
Beethoven - [Piano Concerto no 4, 2nd movement](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic1k7V-w-Xg) Many have associated this piece with Orpheus’s taming of the Furies, but there is one school of thought which believes it is an allegory for his own worsening deafness (the sinister unison strings, against which the solo piano struggles, and is finally fully engulfed at the end); the piece was written around the same time he first confides that he is losing his hearing in one of his letters. In that light, I find the piece not only beautiful, but soul-crushingly terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![deadindays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@deadindays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deadindays)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/105 "2008-11-26T15:21:57Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Nicolai Gedda singing [“Je crois entendre encore”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o_Y3FALzyU) from Bizet’s _Les pêcheurs de perles_. > > A nice enough aria on its own merits, but Gedda makes it something else entirely. Wow that’s exactly what I was looking for. Absolutely beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![deadindays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@deadindays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deadindays)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/106 "2008-11-26T15:26:56Z")
Someone already mentioned God Only Knows. I agree. Someone wrote down a couple of songs by Nick Drake. I’d like to make a couple of contributions: Nick Drake’s Place To Be and Israel “Iz” Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole’s Over The Rainbow. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/107 "2008-11-26T17:59:35Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I don’t know about most beautiful ever, but when I want something nice, I load up Farewell, by Apocalyptica: [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zdnD8660\_W0](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zdnD8660_W0) Huh, here I was thinking I’d get my ears boxed if I posted an Apocalyptica vid - but since you broke the ice, so to speak, my personal favourite evocative song is [Quutamo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ProJdNqO2Ww). The strings in the intro get me, every time. (Though, forgive, but the audio quality in the song deserves to be listened to with a good headset, as the bass is important.) ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/108 "2008-11-26T18:02:52Z")
Biz Markie’s _You Got What I Need_🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/109 "2008-11-26T18:17:11Z")
[Over the Rainbow](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr-alr7P_qk) by [Israel Kamakawiwo’ole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo%27ole) Joe ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/110 "2008-11-26T18:19:25Z")
When I am trying to sleep I run \*The Vilja Song \*from Lehar’s \*The Merry Widow \*through my mind. Sometimes that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/111 "2008-11-26T19:41:22Z")
I’ll nominate Diane Schurr’s Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry. You can tell she is crying in the last few lines of the song. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0wJInXEJ0) ---
**Author:** ![ZenDenizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/fbc32d/32.png) [@ZenDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/112 "2008-11-26T19:43:16Z")
I Burn For You by Sting ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/113 "2008-11-26T20:05:30Z")
The closing credits song from the film Spirited Away is stunningly beautiful [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuT0rC-zGvg) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/114 "2008-11-26T20:50:43Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#): > > Daphnos et Chloe: Ravel [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBLdMySuaEg&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBLdMySuaEg&feature=related) You really need the chorus for the full experience. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BotBJVg0ECM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BotBJVg0ECM) ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/115 "2008-11-27T01:06:13Z")
I fourth or fifth **Ode to Joy**. There’s a reason it’s such a famous, nearly cliched, melody… which is that it is just so simple and beautiful. The 4th movement of Beethoven’s 9th is the perfect marriage of simplicity and complexity, of beauty and bravura artistic mastery. As for things written in the past 50 years, it’s hard for me to really accurately assess something I’ve still only recently become familiar with, but I can’t say enough good things about **The Song of Purple Summer** from _Spring Awakening_ by Duncan Sheik. ---
**Author:** ![phxfyrball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@phxfyrball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxfyrball)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/116 "2008-11-27T02:21:42Z")
“Superstar” by The Carpenters ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/117 "2008-11-27T02:28:08Z")
Another vote for _“I Will”_ (the original). ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/118 "2008-11-27T05:18:41Z")
I’m partial to Vienna Teng’s “Lullabye for a Stormy Night” lately. Sweet melody, touching lyrics, soothing delivery… (Sorry, only link I found was a Doctor Who mashup! 😕) ---
**Author:** ![Euryphaessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/119 "2008-11-27T07:41:26Z")
Redeemed by Charlotte Martin. I can’t find a good YouTube link, but it’s really a gorgeous song. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369/120 "2008-11-27T07:55:03Z")
Poliahu written by Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett [http://www.huapala.org/Po/Poliahu.html](http://www.huapala.org/Po/Poliahu.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-beautiful-song-you-have-ever-heard/474369.md?page=7)