# What are the most dream-like/atmospheric symphonies/pieces you have heard?



## Kajmanen (Jun 30, 2017)

As the title says.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

I don't know about "most" but the third movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony comes to mind right away. Oh my does it. 




I am thinking there may be a few Debussy pieces that would qualify, maybe even better qualify, but I am not as up on Debussy.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Copland. Appalachian Spring.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Symphony 2 , Schumann


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21, Mvt. II


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## arthro (Mar 12, 2013)

The development section of the sonata form I would guess is most susceptible to dream-like qualities ... i.e. the good ones would have a hint of random meandering ... I really like the ones that lose their way to a certain extent.

Problem with recorded music is that after the first few hearings, as a listener, it's hard to maintain that dream-like impression. So the listener's state I think plays a role 

In any case. a few pieces have "dream" in their title (Elgar, Mendelssohn) or program notes. Literature is taken by dreams so any music aossicated with those works should count.

Film music I think has special ways of conveying dreams ... the harp is the go-to instrument there I guess.


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

For me, the term "atmospheric" conjures up works like Ligeti's _Lux aeterna_ (yes, I would say it is even more atmospheric than his _Atmosphères_!) or most works by Debussy.


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

I find Brahms music for solo piano highly dream-like

*3 Intermezzi Op.117* is totally like the sequence of a dream. He even titled it with the following poetic lines:
_"Schlaf sanft mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schön!
Mich dauert's sehr, dich weinen sehn."_

_"Sleep softly, my child, sleep softly and well!
It breaks my heart to see you weep"_

*4 Ballades op.10*, in the correct hands (e.g. Gould), is pretty hypnagogic.

Schubert's Adagio from *String Quintet in C major*. A wet dream, in a good sense 

Debussy's *Pelléas et Mélisande*. The whole opera has a mood of a dream.

Wagner, the prelude from *Tristan und Isolde*, *Parsifal*, and *Lohengrin*.

Janacek's *In the Mist*

Messiaen's *Éclairs sur l'au-delà*

A lot of Takemitsu music, but I will nominate *Nostalghia*.


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

Also, most movements from Crumb's _Makrokosmos_ I and II.


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## nature (Jun 25, 2017)

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Symphony no.7 "Angel of Light". Especially the 3rd movement.

EDIT:
As no one mentioned it specifically yet:

Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.
Perhaps the best known piece that effectively evokes a nostalgic and dreamlike atmosphere.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Faure's Pavane.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Faure's Pavane.


There we go. Yes. Very much.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

The first piece that came to my mind was Debussy's _Nuages_ from his 3 Nocturnes.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2017)

Georg Friedrich Haas: _Limited Approximations_, _Traum In Des Sommers Nacht_, _...Und..._, etc...


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

The slow movement of Bartok's second piano concerto comes to mind.


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## nature (Jun 25, 2017)

"Neptune, the Mystic" from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite is another one that fits what you're after OP.

Perhaps also Eric Whitacre's "Deep Field"? 



Another atmospheric and space themed piece. Huge walls of sound.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

So many, but here are a few that immediately come to mind:

Brahms: Symphony 3, 2nd movement
Brahms: Symphony 4, 2nd movement
Brahms: Double Concerto, 2nd movement
Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad
Debussy: Nuages from Nocturnes
Debussy: Claire de Lune
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto 1, 2nd movement
Tchaikovsky: Symphony 5, 2nd movement
Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night's Dream, Nocturne
Rachmaninoff: Symphony 2, 3rd movement


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

For an ethereal sound probably _Neptune_ from _The Planets_, or the Interlude from Ravel's _Daphnis et Chloé_ suite I. Probably because of the choir sound.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Jean Sibelius' "Scene with Cranes", is one of the the most haunting, atmospheric and dreamlike pieces I ever heard:


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Some dreamy piano pieces:

Alexei Stanchinsky - Prelude in the Lydian mode





Leo Ornstein - Morning in the Woods





Nikolai Roslavets - Three Etudes, No. 2


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Two Ravel works, 'Une Barque Sur L' Océan' from 'Miroirs' and 'Le Jardin Féerique' from 'Ma Mère L`Oye'.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Tchaikovsky first symphony is nicknamed Winter Daydreams, here's the third and my favorite movement:





Reinhold Glière's symphonic poem The Sirens surely qualifies:


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)




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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

DeepR said:


> Nikolai Roslavets - Three Etudes, No. 2


I'd call it a fever dream on hallucinogens. Or an alien crystal cave with light giving bugs.
When I first heard this piece years ago, I had never heard anything like it. I wasn't used to this kind of unusual harmony at all and I almost felt literally sick to my stomach, yet I was strangely fascinated. Now I love it.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun.

Edit: I didn't see nature's mention of this piece when posted this the first time.

Also, some additions:
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (entire ballet).
Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

*Salvatore Sciarrino*'s _Un'immagine di arpocrate_ for piano and orchestra with choir definitely fits the parameters of the OP. It's on this disc:


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## KJ von NNJ (Oct 13, 2017)

Sibelius - Symphony #3, 2nd movement.
Sibelius - The Swan of Tuonela. From "Four Legends from the Kalevala"
Wagner - Siegfried, Forest Murmurs
Wagner - Die Walkure, Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music
Wagner - Das Rheingold, Introduction - Vorspiel
Mahler - Symphony #4, 3rd movement - Ruhevoll
Mahler - Symphony #5, Adagietto
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G, 2nd movement
Bruckner - Symphony #8, 3rd movement - Adagio
Nielsen - Saga Drom and the opening of the Helios Overture. 
Respighi - Three Botticelli Pictures, The Adoration of the Magi

I could go on all night with this thread topic. The key word here is "atmospheric".


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Sibelius - Tapiola
Bruckner - Symphony 9, 1st movement
Vaughan-Williams - Symphony 5, 1st movement


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'd like to nominate the 4th movement of Mahler's 3rd symphony; the 3rd movement of Vaughan-Williams' 7th and the finale of his 6th symphonies; and the second section of Gorecki's 2nd symphony.


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## Harmonie (Mar 24, 2007)

Definitely some Ravel


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

I enjoy dream-like and atmospheric music, as long as it is still lyrical. I don't care for music that steps out and becomes sound effects. There is a very hard to define line there, and playing with that line is a wonderful tension, an added drama to the music.

Its a lot like jazz in this aspect. There is a line between an improvisation related to the chord and melodic structure of the tune, and a seemingly random bunch of notes seeking to avoid structure, consistency or sense of any kind. And playing with that line, stretching away from the tune to the extent that the path back seems impossible, and then relieving the developed emotional tension by showing how we really haven't moved that far. That drama is exquisite.


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