The dueling banjos type bits in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, between the violin and (I think) the viola soloists. Especially the second movement.
The synth-trumpet tocatta lick at the end of “Forever Young” by Alphaville. This would be the slow version, not the club remix.
And for a single note - the last keyboard bit, nearly drowned out by the wind, at the end of “Wish You Were Here.” It sounds so much like a distant train going by at night, zooming further and further from you… maybe I’m nuts, but I think this one note doesn’t sound quite right on the CD version… it’s too faint.
The very end of Holst’s “Planets” – there comes a point when you’re absolutely sure you still hear the chorus singing very faintly but you’re completely wrong.
The whole chorale movement of Beethoven’s 9th does it for me… but there’s one specific part where the sopranos in the chorus take over, singing something to the effect of “god resides in the canopy of stars above”… just gorgeous.
Also, the beginning of the third movement of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. mmmm.
Beethoven. 7th Symphony. 2nd movement, Allegretto. 80th bar.
The achingly beautiful main theme has been gently introduced and developed with velvet subtlely. The movement builds, fresh voices enter, and the intricately plotted harmonies become grander and more eloquent. The complex harmonic developement reaches the point where it seems so full, so majestic and so perfectly balanced that you would imagine no more embellishment could be added without bringing the whole edifice crashing down. Then in the 80th bar the top strings, weaving the main theme, stun you with a graceful and eloquent full octave leap up to a top E which, extraordinarily, is both a bold departure from what has gone before and yet a perfect extension of it. An unexpected, stunningly creative, shimmering moment of exquisite, sublime musical imagination. Moving, exciting, beautiful and blissfully magical. Spine-tingling wizardry, in fact.
Classical: Aaron Copland’sAppalachian Spring, Second Movement (Fast). I always envision a camera: bunnies hopping (stop laughing, you) at first, then panning to a majestic green, living canyon. It’s a breathtaking moment.
From the same piece, the seventh movement (Calm and Flowing – Shaker Tune: Simple Gifts). Both aurally and in the context of the ballet, the movement is uplifting, hopeful, redemptive.
From rock & roll’s finest album (in my singular opinion), U2’s The Joshua Tree, I have two. There is an instrumental break towards the end of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, just before the “I believe in the Kingdom Come…” verse. The lads fully realize the weary beauty of the song. I love hearing this song on the radio – especially Classic Rock stations. It is so out of place there amidst Loverboy and Aerosmith.
Also on that same CD is Running to Stand Still as sad a song as I’ve heard. I can’t explain.
The only one moment that springs to mind right now is the very first note and following buildup of “Californication” (Red Hot Chili Peppers). My speakers do pretty good bass. Shakes the room.
About 3/4 through Yes’ Heart Of The Sunrise, while the music is alternating between variations introduced earlier - one based on piano, the other based on an interlocking bass/synth/guitar figure, both somewhat pretty - and unexpectedly the whole band comes in (not at the beginning of a measure either) to toss in, oh, 3 1/2 measures of bombast from the introduction. It works musically, and if you appreciate such things it’s Comedy Gold at the same time.
Ianzin, I’m don’t write about music as easily as I listen to it, so thank you for saying what I could not regarding Beethoven’s 7th. The 2nd movement is my favorite piece of music in the entire world, for reasons so ephemeral, so visceral; deep sorrow can turn to utter joy when I listen to it.
I also second the votes for songs from U2’s Joshua Tree. At 2:10:40 in “In God’s Country,” the Edge leaps into my favorite of all his guitar solos. Just blistering! I love it! Love that it was the closing theme for Three Kings.
I’m with Moe on the Tristan and Isolde Prelude. And in Seigfried, I think, there is musical moment that says–this is what it is like to enter heaven.
I also like that intro to Gimme Shelter, where the guitar just really nails it and gets that song moving. Not quite Wagner, though.
Uhmmmm… OK, there’s this part in the fourth movement in Beethoven’s Ninth that is quite contrapuntal in nature (canon? fugue? double fugue?) Men and women just simultaneously belting out the following lines, weaved in a form that is pure… well, Joy:
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken.
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Seid umschlungen, Millionen.
Dieser Kuss der ganzen Welt!
If there is a chorus in heaven, this is what they sing.
The Moody Blues’ “Once upon a Time:” schlocky lyric, melody based on an infantile theme–then comes the chord change between the phrases “I wonder where you are / I wonder if you think about me” and icy shivers run down my back every time. The first time I heard it, I was reduced to tears. I have no explanation for this.
The opening phrase of Leonard Bernstein’s opera TROUBLE IN TAHITI: the clarinet squawks out an eerie little thirteen-note theme that reminds me of a hat set on a head at the wrong angle, and the trio of Radio Ad Singers joyfully crow: “Day! Day! Day! Day!” The chord of the final “Day!” is so full of forced, artificial happiness, thatit sets your teeth on edge. Something is very, VERY wrong in the suburbs. Abandon all hope, ye who enter. Creeps me out every time.
In Barber’s Adagio for Strings, there is a crescendo near the end that provides the climax to the piece. The strings soar higher and higher. The next to the last chord at the “summit” is the nearest thing to having a glimpse of heaven!
Shakes the room.
<---------Hey! This guy’s gold too!