# What piece makes you cry instantly?



## appoggiatura

Music moves us, obviously. The music itself can cause feelings of happiness, true sadness or just intensity. It can bring back memories or make us think of some things that happened in our lives.

But are there pieces that make you cry instantly everytime you hear them? Like... the tears are just there?
Maybe it's strange, but I have this with _Tchaikovsky 4th symphony 4th movement._ 



I think I cry because it's so extremely intense. I can't help it.

There are a lot more pieces that move me, but Tchaikovsky 4th 4th = tears guaranteed.

How about you?


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## Celloman

The slow movement of Mahler's _Symphony No. 6_ does it for me every time.

I will probably cry.

Like a baby.


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## Winterreisender

I'm not sure if I actually cry, but I am always incredibly moved by Schubert's Winterresise (pretty much the whole cycle really, but especially Der Leiermann), and also the Largo from Vivaldi's lute concerto RV 93 (especially the recording by Narciso Yepes):


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## Mahlerian

The ending of _Das Lied von der Erde_.


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## Blancrocher

Monteverdi's L'Orfeo--oh God, I can barely type it!


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## Ondine

Cry?

Depends on the emotional moment, I think. It happened -believe it or not- that Mozart's first movement of his KV 503 made me once cry deeply because it moved things that are out of the scope of this thread.

Strangely, the first bars of that first movement, still moves me very deep and strong feelings that can make me cry in that way.

Also I can't remember exactly which ones and when; but I still can cry with Beethoven's Symphonies.

Another one is Arvo Pärt's _'Für Aline'_. It has a sort of 'beautiful' sadness if such a thing is possible.


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## Ukko

Winterreisender said:


> I'm not sure if I actually cry, but I am always incredibly moved by Schubert's Winterresise (pretty much the whole cycle really, but especially Der Leiermann), and also the Largo from Vivaldi's lute concerto RV 93 (especially the recording by Narciso Yepes):
> [...]


That is the oft heard Largo. Yepes' guitar sound is beautiful, but the melody is more effective for me with the lute singing it.


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## Vesteralen

"All flesh is grass" from A German Requiem
The theme from Out of Africa by John Barry
The entry of the chorus in the Alto Rhapsody


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## Klavierspieler

I have only cried three times to a piece of music: one occasion I cannot remember the piece, one was "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, the last time was Josquin's Miserere.


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## Weston

Vaughan-Williams Tallis Fantasia. I cannot go into why on a public forum.

Also sometimes the slow movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony and the opening of Elgar's cello concerto.


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## Klavierspieler

Weston said:


> Vaughan-Williams Tallis Fantasia


Oh, hey! Here is the cause of the first occasion which I had forgotten.


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## brianvds

Strauss' waltzes make me cry. But not in a good way. 

More to the topic of the thread, Tallis' _Spem in alium_ does it for me big time.


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## Celloman

In the same lines as appoggiatura, a fast, energetic piece is just as likely to make me cry as a slow, sad one.


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## Muddy

I bought a "best of opera" set a while back, when I was on an opera kick. I listened to the music without knowing what I was listening too, just getting a feel for the genre, doing other things on my computer, drinking coffee and getting ready to face another day. A very dramatic selection interrupted the other things that I was doing, and I listened again. I burst into tears! I just lost it. I had to get ready for work, so I jumped in the shower. Damn if I didn't spend the whole shower sobbing! It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. When I finally composed myself (and dried off) I went back to the computer to determine what I had listened to:

Wagner's Liebestod.

It remains for me the most emotionally wrenching piece of music I have ever heard (challenged by Vissi d'arte), and it is why I continue to explore Wagner.


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## ptr

Kathleen Ferrier singing "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen" brings a big gulp in my throat every time I hear it!

/ptr


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## Art Rock

Mahler's _Kindertotenlieder _and _Das Lied von der Erde, Abschied_ come closest.

For personal reasons also the slow movement of Mozart's clarinet concerto - it was the favourite piece of my late mother and we recently used it at my father's funeral.


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## richstieg

Nice Post..... ptr... Thanks..


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## trazom

I rarely ever cry to music, even if I find it very moving; but this piece made me cry when I heard it a couple months ago. The second movement, in some parts, it sound like the woodwinds are conversing. I guess the way Mozart could anthropomorphize the instruments in his compositions is what made me cry, especially the part around 7:48...


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## mchriste

This may sound weird, but I have a thing with Adolphe Adam's

*Minuit, Chrétiens* (aka Cantique de Noël / O Holy Night)






It just really moves me almost literally to tears when I hear it, but why?? I don't know.
I'm not religious, and also pretty skimpy with my emotions in general, but that melody...

I may be the only person in the world who chokes back tears while watching _Home Alone_! :lol:


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## Schumann

_*These works reach the very deep in me*_

Bach: Cantata #138, BWV 138, "Warum Betrübst Du Dich, Mein Herz" - 1. Warum Betrübst Du Dich, Mein Herz
Bach: Cantata #57, BWV 57, "Selig Ist Der Mann" - 3. Ich Wünschte Mir Den Tod
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #1 In F, BWV 1046 - 2. Adagio
Bach: Harpsichord Suite In A Minor, BWV 818A - Sarabande
Beethoven: Der Glorreiche Augenblick, Op. 136 - Recitativo: Das Auge Schaut; Cavatina With Duetto: Dem Die Erste Zähre
Mozart: Il Re Pastore, K 208 - Act 2: L'Amorò, Sarò Costante
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K 620 - Act 2: Aria: Ach, Ich Fühl's
Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten - Der Sommer: Dem Druck Erliegt Die Natur
Schumann: Waldszenen, Op. 82 - 9. Abschied
Schubert: An Den Mond, D 296
Schubert: Der Blinde Knabe, D 833


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## astronautnic

There are indeed a few (still)...
Brahms violin concerto: adagio
Beethoven: 5th piano concert: adagio
Beethoven: 7th symphony: allegretto
Elgar: Nimrod
Pachelbel: canon in D
and yes, even "boring Wagner" manages it for a few seconds when orchestra is first time in full "flow" during Tannhäuser ouverture.....


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## PetrB

Nothing, really, including "music" where half of what is working on us is the content of the text.

One does not have to be a cold fish to qualify in the "I don't weep due to any music" club... but one has to be not prone to a particular stamp of North European melancholia, at least.... and perhaps being over forty helps, too.

Once in a while, something musical will make me involuntarily groan, recognizing something conveyed in the music which evokes some arena of deep emotion -- that is another form of weeping. I suppose.


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## aleazk

I never cried with music, basically because crying is simply something that can happen to me only in rather extreme situations.
But, in any case, if I were in some vulnerable emotional state, the final number of Ravel's opera _L'enfant et les sortilèges_ ,"Il est bon, l'enfant, il est sage".


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## Pantheon

Arvo Pärt's _Spiegel im Spiegel_ does it for me !
Also Schubert's _Auf dem Wasser zu singen_, and Purcell's _When I am laid in earth_...


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## Vesteralen

Reading PetrB's and aleazk's comments above brought me to a sudden realization:

People with square blocks of speckles for avatars don't cry.

I wonder what Frankie Valli could make of that?


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## aleazk

Vesteralen said:


> Reading PetrB's and aleazk's comments above brought me to a sudden realization:
> 
> People with square blocks of speckles for avatars don't cry.
> 
> I wonder what Frankie Valli could make of that?


lol, now that you mention it, yes, the avatars are similar, I didn't notice that before. A shame that it's not the same for the knowledge about music...


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## Ingélou

I cry at words but music per se, however beautiful, doesn't actually produce tears. Music with *associations* may do.

My father was a boy of 19 on the beaches of Dunkirk. Anything to do with Dunkirk makes me cry. The last chapter of Paul Gallico's 'The Snow Goose', where the artist takes out a 'little boat' and on his last voyage is shelled & the snow goose flies back to the lighthouse to tell his beloved - I remember reading that in a crowded railway carriage & blubbing uncontrollably.

And the opening of Dad's Army, 'Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler', with the Union Jack arrows pushed back by the Swastika & penned within Britain - that always made me cry.

Music that moves me 'in that direction' would be Purcell's 'When I am laid in earth', like Pantheon above - Schubert's Ave Maria - and any of the laments for dead friends by Turlough O'Carolan.


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## Bas

Dido's Lamentation aria, the 'They hand Belinda' recitative before this aria and the chorus that ends the opera, by Purcell, practically always.

From Schubert's Winterreise 'die Post' sometimes makes me cry.

Both of Mendelssohn's Violin Concertos.


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## Neo Romanza

I don't really cry to music, but there have been a few times in the past where I have. The _Adagietto_ movement in Mahler's 5th has gotten to me one time several years ago and also the _Romanza_ movement of RVW's 5th has also brought on some tears. But these were pretty rare occasions and perhaps something particularly distressing was happening in my life at the time. I can't really remember.


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## aleazk

Neo Romanza said:


> I don't really cry to music


Your square block of speckles for avatar is very odd!.


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## schuberkovich

Dvorak: Cello Concerto 2nd movement
Schubert: String Quintet 1st movement
Schubert: Der Leiermann from Winterreise
Mahler: 2nd Symphony 4th movement
Beethoven: Emperor Concerto 2nd movement
*Beethoven: op.132 3rd movement "Heiliger Dankgesang"
*

But it's not as if every single time I hear these works I start crying - I have to be in a certain state of mind.


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## Cheyenne

Crying instantly would be more than a little exaggerated, so I will treat this topic as everyone else has: to wit, by simply itemizing pieces that have managed to shake a tear or two from me, and perhaps elaborating on the origin of these emotional episodes. I have expounded my experiences on the subject at least once before, and the list back then was, slightly altered by removing ones I'm no longer certain of, as follows: 

- Schnittke, Violin Concerto No. 4 (Kremer)
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15 (Järvi)
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10 (Rozhdestvensky)
- Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 8 (Hagen)
- Mahler, Symphony no. 9 (Bernstein, NYPO)
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 (Furtwängler 1942)

To those I can add two others -- both instances recorded near the time they occurred so that I am certain of them taking place: 

- Schubert, Death and the Maiden Quartet (Takács Quartet)
- Haydn, Symphony 82 (Bernstein, NYPO)

The most absurd of these, which must undoubtedly be the Haydn one, I will address first. There is, as I stated at the time, something very moving about the high spirits invariably displayed in his compositions; Mencken categorized his music as 'a girl on your knee' with 'another and different girl in your heart,' meaning, obviously, that the optimism was not merely superficial but also significant, ingrained: inhabiting his very soul. It does not merely warm the surface, but also inflames the imagination and lightens the heart; and it is there that Haydn may be truly touching. I was reading a biography of his while listening to the symphony, and reached the climax just as the coda of the symphony kicked in -- the juxtaposition of the biographer listing Haydn's compositional accomplishments and the orchestra letting the beautiful finale sound finally got the better of me, so that some tears were gently released onto my face as I closed the book with great satisfaction. 

Schnittke and Shostakovich led me to a very different path, basically the exact counterpoint of that to which Haydn quite often guides me. All of the important points, so to speak, were peaks, codas or other climaxes of some sort, in which the orchestra revolts or the quartet plays in unison. They communicated a certain confrontational excess, which can almost be said to 'scare' me, and subsequently induce a reaction quite natural to that state of mind. 

The power of Mahler's ninth symphony I cannot at present adequately articulate; the Furtwängler recording simply needs to be listened to. On that recording of the Death and the Maiden quartet I'd rather not comment too, for listening to it was surprisingly intense; and though the experience was not altogether disagreeable, it was not one I have opted to repeat since.


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## Blancrocher

Cheyenne said:


> Schnittke, Violin Concerto No. 4 (Kremer)


I was only put onto this work recently thanks to a couple recommendations on the forum. I agree it's a moving work!


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## Joris

J.S. Bach - BWV 147 Choral '_Wohl mir, dass ich Jesum habe_'


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## Tristan

Two pieces of music that have made me cry in the past are the _*Finale*_* to *_*Swan Lake*_ by Tchaikovsky, and _*Le jardin feerique*_ from _Ma Mère L'Oye_ by Ravel.

The reasons for it are complicated. With Swan Lake, the live ballet plays a role in my reaction to it. Seeing the story and the scenes that go along with the finale music is what brought me to tears--it's the combination of it all. But it is most of all the music. I think it's one of the most spectacular finales in all of classical music.

The Ravel piece is different. Here there's no scenery or story that I picture when I hear the music. Here it's only the music that could affect me that way. The music is sentimental and almost a little sad, but comes to one of the most beautiful conclusions I've ever heard. I don't really know what the music is supposed to be about (a "fairy garden" doesn't seem like something that should make someone cry), but it's highly emotional for me.


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## rrudolph

I can't say that I've actually cried, but Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, some parts of the Brahms German Requiem and Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima certainly move me in that direction.

On a related note, I have never attended a performance of Madama Butterfly with a woman who did not end up crying at the end. I once went with my mother and (then future) wife and sat with them on either side of me. I was treated to stereo sobbing...pointing out that it was just an opera and that not only was Cho Cho San not actually dead but was at that moment taking a bow right in front of us did not seem to make any difference...


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## cwarchc

Sure we've done this before?
But here goes
I know it's a little cliche, however I have family history here
It's the personal emotional context that does it


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## aleazk

Tristan said:


> Two pieces of music that have made me cry in the past are the _*Finale*_* to *_*Swan Lake*_ by Tchaikovsky, and _*Le jardin feerique*_ from _Ma Mère L'Oye_ by Ravel.
> 
> The reasons for it are complicated. With Swan Lake, the live ballet plays a role in my reaction to it. Seeing the story and the scenes that go along with the finale music is what brought me to tears--it's the combination of it all. But it is most of all the music. I think it's one of the most spectacular finales in all of classical music.
> 
> The Ravel piece is different. Here there's no scenery or story that I picture when I hear the music. Here it's only the music that could affect me that way. The music is sentimental and almost a little sad, but comes to one of the most beautiful conclusions I've ever heard. I don't really know what the music is supposed to be about (a "fairy garden" doesn't seem like something that should make someone cry), but it's highly emotional for me.


That little Ravel piece is definitely one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever heard.


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## jdkeyes

Perhaps not instantly, but pieces that have had that type of emotional effect on me include:

Purcell: "When I am laid in earth," "With drooping wings"
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia
Ravel: Pavane por une infante defunte

For a long time I struggled with Tchaikovsky's 6th, as its seeming symbolism of life would lead me to extreme nostalgia and reflection on missed opportunities and too many days already gone. For the first time the other day, however, listening to it filled me with a sense of contentment and hope, clearly a development of my psyche.

I will also get emotional with some pieces due to their sheer...awesomeness? epicness? or the incredible enjoyment or exhilaration I will get from listening to them at that specific time. The Tallis Fantasia, for instance, while more mournful sounding early on, builds to a climax that leaves me affected for the very opposite reason.


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## Skilmarilion

The closest I have come to crying with music is the _adagio lamentoso_ from Tchaikovsky's 6th. As the music fades out into silence, I am always overwhelmed by emotion.


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## SiegendesLicht

The Adagio of Bruckner's 7th.
The Urlicht movement from Mahler's 2nd.
Brahms - "Herr, lehre doch mich..." from the German Requiem. 
The finale of Parsifal.
The finale of Götterdämmerung.
Richard Strauss - "Im Abendrot".


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## mstar

Well, if I really could cry, then.... 

III. SEQUENCE: REX TREMENDAE of Mozart's Requiem. I can hardly bear it.... I try not to hear it or I am really bothered. 
Tchaikovsky's Pathetique, probably only the whole thing, though. 
Tchaikovsky's third concerto (original, only the first movement). Unusual, I know, but only if right after the Pathetique. 

But I seriously cannot hear the Rex Tremendae. I mean, if somebody says "T. Rex," my heart will honestly leap into my throat. I am Not joking. It made me shiver just to write it. Perhaps it's because I heard it after I lost someone certain.... But it keeps me up at nights sometimes.... If I want to listen to Mozart's Requiem, which in itself is rare, I try to skip it. Anyone have similar experience with some work of music?


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## Weston

I only skip music when I can't wallow in it due to social constraints. 

I just thought of another -- Wagner's "Seigfried's Death and Funeral March," but only when it is "borrowed" for the ending of John Boorman's "Ex caliber."

(Sorry, folks. I'm travelling and the tablet I am using is auto correcting me to the point of unintelligibility.)


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## mstar

Weston said:


> I only skip music when I can't wallow in it due to social constraints.


Hmmm... Interesting! I usually don't skip either, but I do listen to certain movements of works sometimes.... Doesn't have to be the whole thing. E.g., I will listen to the second movement of Schumann's piano concerto willingly without feeling obliged to first listen to the first movement.

But I simply cannot stand re-ordering the movements of a work, such as putting them in a different order, e.g. First movement, Second movement, Fourth movement, then Third movement.


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## Oreb

It doesn't get me crying (not much does), but one piece (and it's not classical) consistently brings a lump to my throat: track 1/1 from Brian Eno's Music for Airports. It's been in my life for over thirty years - one of those pieces I have carried with me and which I can't listen to without so many times and faces and dreams and happiness and disappointment almost overwhelming me, for better and worse!

As well as those associations, it's the simplicity of the music, its repetitive melancholy that does this - it makes a space for ghosts.


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## Itullian

Slow movement of Beethoven's Emperor concerto.
Can't listen to it.


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## Huilunsoittaja

I get a chokey feeling and tear up to lots of music. Perhaps my latest tear-up episode was Glazunov's Seasons coming on the radio a few weeks ago. I've heard that piece like 20 times through, and individual movements countless more times. But somehow that one more time, it suddenly hit me really hard, for 20 minutes straight. It was hard to resist. But to my standard, that's not really crying.

When I heard the Firebird performed live in May by my University's Orchestra, I also started tearing up from the Finale. Live music does that a lot for me. But I'm not sure that was actually crying too. Just tearing up.

But I've actually _cried _to Glazunov's music. I kept count because it was so bizarre to me, and lost count at 20-something. He was one of the first composers I ever cried from. I had some horrible sobbing episodes with him in the past, notably 4-5 years ago. Literally _uncontrollable_ emotions. I never cried in front of anyone, except once with my mom in the car, I just couldn't control myself. And she had no comment. 

When I heard Prokofiev's Cinderella excerpts performed live 2 years, ago, that's about my best example of, no tears one moment, _instantaneous _tearing-up the next second. That Amoroso theme in the Introduction, also the Finale. I just need to hear that beginning chord, and I tear up, haha!


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## Huilunsoittaja

Skilmarilion said:


> The closest I have come to crying with music is the _adagio lamentoso_ from Tchaikovsky's 6th. As the music fades out into silence, I am always overwhelmed by emotion.


I know I will cry when my University's Symphony performs that Symphony this Fall, especially if I'm not performing in it (crying is off-limits in performance).


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## Ondine

The instrument, the touching, the moment, the melody, the man... Gary Peacock, his moment, his night, the lover and his beloved...






...exactly this special moment makes me shade tears of emotion... a secret admiration for this man.

Sorry if it is not Classical Music but this makes me 'cry' as it is happening right now.


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## jim prideaux

Ondine-as a long term Jarrett aficionado I am grateful for the fact that you posted a quite superb performance of Prism very unlike others I have heard-however I must apologise as my knowledge of what I am actually doing with these machines is limited and I appear to have messed it up somehow-could you put it right please?


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## PetrB

Vesteralen said:


> Reading PetrB's and aleazk's comments above brought me to a sudden realization:
> 
> People with square blocks of speckles for avatars don't cry.
> 
> I wonder what Frankie Valli could make of that?


Everyone's avatar here, including the unselected default avatar, is a square block _[add correct: or rectangle]_ of speckles. [Perhaps more 'points' should be given to one who has gone out of their way to hand-draw their avatar rather than simply copy and paste a ready-made image to represent themselves? -- I have dozens of lovely jpegs of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis.]

Your case is no good argument for the person behind that square _[or rectalinear]_ block of cumulative pixels not being able to, or not / ever crying. It strikes me as a rather smug and useless gauntlet in an undeclared contest, a war of attrition -- we could call that contest "more sensitive or emotionally deeper than thou."

It is also a prime example of judging the book by its cover 

Not that I'd see any point in entering or engaging in such a match.... 
Me, I think I'd win such a silly contest in a one on one with any number of people, and anyone is more the fool for assuming otherwise.


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## Neo Romanza

aleazk said:


> Your square block of speckles for avatar is very odd!.


Don't really know what you're talking about here, but okay?


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## Ondine

jim prideaux said:


> Ondine-as a long term Jarrett aficionado I am grateful for the fact that you posted a quite superb performance of Prism very unlike others I have heard-however I must apologise as my knowledge of what I am actually doing with these machines is limited and I appear to have messed it up somehow-could you put it right please?


Hi jim,

Thanks for your kind words. I am, too, an admirer of Jarrett's overall oeuvre; it is great to meet one here 

On the other hand, what do you mean for 'putting it right'? I didn't understood that.

My apologises.


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## DeepR

Scriabin - Sonata No. 3 - Andante






For a combination of personal reasons AND the beauty of the music.


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## Op.123

I have only ever cried when listening to
Schumann: Piano Concerto - 1st movement
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 - 1st movement
Mozart: Requiem - Rex Tremendae Majestatis
Beethoven?: - Farwell to the Piano


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## peeyaj

The 2nd movement of Schubert's D.960 sonata when played sloowww by Richter. One of my favorite pieces. *From darkness to light.*






The last song in Winterreise, Der Leiermann is haunting and will depress you after listening to it.


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## Sid James

appoggiatura said:


> Music moves us, obviously. The music itself can cause feelings of happiness, true sadness or just intensity. It can bring back memories or make us think of some things that happened in our lives.
> 
> *But are there pieces that make you cry instantly everytime you hear them? Like... the tears are just there?*
> 
> I think I cry because it's so extremely intense. I can't help it.
> 
> There are a lot more pieces that move me, but Tchaikovsky 4th 4th = tears guaranteed.
> 
> How about you?


The following are guaranteed to bring the tears...and the kleenex!

*Shostakovich's* Piano Trio #2 (esp. the final movement), Cello Concerto #1 (the slow movement and cadenza)

*Tchaikovsky's* Piano Trio - the coda, when the theme from the beginning comes back

*Mahler* Kindertotenlieder (the whole thing) and bits of Songs of a Wayfarer

*Elgar* Cello Concerto (the beginning and the reprise of the theme at the end tends to get me strongly)

*Bach's* Chaconne from Partita for solo violin #2
*
Kodaly's* Psalums Hungaricus

Many of *Edith Piaf's *songs - esp. Mon Dieu, composed after the death of her husband Marcel Cedan, this is one of her most emotional and gut wrenching songs.

*Puccini's *Liu's aria from Turandot (Act 3) "Tu che di gel sei cinta" (it was not in the original story, but Giacomo killed Liu off with suicide, thus providing the biggest weepie moment in this opera, again it gets me every time!)

I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that always bring on the tears - so I don't listen to them all the time, it can be draining, but as you say a kinnd of catharsis comes from these as well. Its can be a big release of emotion.


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## Rapide

*Wagner* _Tristan und Isolde_ final duet/scene.


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## Klavierspieler

PetrB said:


> Everyone's avatar here, including the unselected default avatar, is a square block _[add correct: or rectangle]_ of speckles. [Perhaps more 'points' should be given to one who has gone out of their way to hand-draw their avatar rather than simply copy and paste a ready-made image to represent themselves? -- I have dozens of lovely jpegs of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis.]
> 
> Your case is no good argument for the person behind that square _[or rectalinear]_ block of cumulative pixels not being able to, or not / ever crying. It strikes me as a rather smug and useless gauntlet in an undeclared contest, a war of attrition -- we could call that contest "more sensitive or emotionally deeper than thou."
> 
> It is also a prime example of judging the book by its cover
> 
> Not that I'd see any point in entering or engaging in such a match....
> Me, I think I'd win such a silly contest in a one on one with any number of people, and anyone is more the fool for assuming otherwise.


Errrr.... I'm pretty darn certain that Vesteralen was only joking....


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## Tristan

Oh yeah, another one I neglected to mention is the second movement of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, Op. 102. Not sure if anyone's mentioned it yet, but it's a perfect example


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## nannerl

pavane pour une infante defunte always speaks to my soul


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## kv466

I don't know about instantly but I know I have shed many a tear while listening to Chopin's e-flat etude no.3, op.10.


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## Celloman

I never *sniff* cry when I *sniff* listen to *sniff* music. *sniff, sniff*


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## Tristan

Another nomination: Intermezzo, from _Cavalleria Rusticana_ by Mascagni.


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## TresPicos

Shostakovich's second piano trio has made me cry once or twice. As has the Air from Grieg's Holberg Suite.


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## Forte

I lost someone close to me not long before I heard the cavatina (fifth movement) from Beethoven's Op. 130 string quartet.

I was moved to tears and I kind of just stared at the night sky for a while after. For some reason that night, music made me feel really quite lonely and I felt almost a sort of desperation listening to it, longing for the past, and good memories that are gone forever.

But maybe I was suffering more from a personal standpoint than from anything musical. I don't usually have a terribly strong emotional reaction to music unless I'm in that particular mood very strongly.


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## Andolink

Most recently I was brought to tears by Schubert's Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 in the performance on this disc:


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## violadude

I'm a little bit self-conscious about crying, because my tear ducts are extremely sensitive for some reason. I cry at a lot of things and some people think it's weird. I'll be watching a movie or a show with someone and there will just be a little tiny part that hits me for reasons I don't even know then I'll start crying and everyone will be like DUDE what the heck are you crying about, and I won't even know how to answer because I don't even know why I'm crying at that point. Just a weird thing with the tear duct part of my nervous system. The really weird thing about crying for me though is that, while I cry very easily to movies, music ect. It's a lot harder for real life situations to make me cry. I don't know why that is :/ I didn't cry for months and months for the fact that my dog died.

But anyway, back when I listened to Mahler obsessively, most of his finales made me cry, especially the 2nd and 4th. The first and the last movement of the 9th made me cry. I never got to very end of the 9th back in those days though because I wasn't old enough to appreciate the stillness of the end. 

I'm sure the finale of the Pathetique symphony made me cry at some point.

Candide has made me cry before O.O

I'm sure there is more that I'm not thinking of right now.


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## Huilunsoittaja

violadude;519742
But anyway said:


> 2nd[/B] and 4th. The first and the last movement of the 9th made me cry. I never got to very end of the 9th back in those days though because I wasn't old enough to appreciate the stillness of the end.
> 
> I'm sure the finale of the Pathetique symphony made me cry at some point.
> 
> Candide has made me cry before O.O
> 
> I'm sure there is more that I'm not thinking of right now.


Yes, hearing my University's Symphony perform the Mahler 2 almost two years ago, my favorite part was the ending, I got teary-eyed.


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## CypressWillow

Not Classical, but so achingly poignant that I sob every time. As a tribute to Van Gogh, with such understanding and empathy, this piece strikes straight to my heart. (If you click on this, I recommend watching it on YouTube for the effect of this piece on mentally ill patients.)






At the end, that, "...perhaps they never will." Great gasping sobs each time. Truly, "This world was never made for one as beautiful as you."


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## Sid James

nannerl said:


> pavane pour une infante defunte always speaks to my soul


They played that when Princess Diana died back in 1997, after announcing her death on radio. I got pretty emotional then and I think that was a pretty apt choice music wise.



TresPicos said:


> Shostakovich's second piano trio has made me cry once or twice. ....


The last movement always makes me cry, as the original Russian folk theme comes back on the violin, soaring higher and higher. This is after that crazy Jewish wedding dance tune, which in Shostakovich's hands becomes a grim dance of death. When it was premiered during the final months of the war, a lot of the audience left the hall in shock and in tears. It was also performed at Shosty's funeral service in the 1970's. I find it always brings on the tears, but I tend to avoid it as it is depressing, but also as I said earlier very cathartic, letting out these emotions that I often don't want to confront. Its just full on, basically.


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## Crudblud

I initially read the thread title as "What piece makes you cringe instantly?"


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## Forte

Crudblud said:


> I initially read the thread title as "What piece makes you cringe instantly?"


Most things by John Cage make me cringe instantly, although usually I find more about them later


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## Alydon

appoggiatura said:


> Music moves us, obviously. The music itself can cause feelings of happiness, true sadness or just intensity. It can bring back memories or make us think of some things that happened in our lives.
> 
> But are there pieces that make you cry instantly everytime you hear them? Like... the tears are just there?
> Maybe it's strange, but I have this with _Tchaikovsky 4th symphony 4th movement._
> 
> 
> 
> I think I cry because it's so extremely intense. I can't help it.
> 
> There are a lot more pieces that move me, but Tchaikovsky 4th 4th = tears guaranteed.
> 
> How about you?


I don't know about 'cry' but one piece which makes me go into a deep reflective mood is the 1st movement of Schubert's sonata in A minor D. 784. It seems such a concentrated fusion of sadness and deep personal hurt - in fact, I'm off to play it now!


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## DaveS

Albinoni Adagio & Ravel's Pavane


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## schuberkovich

Alydon said:


> I don't know about 'cry' but one piece which makes me go into a deep reflective mood is the 1st movement of Schubert's sonata in A minor D. 784. It seems such a concentrated fusion of sadness and deep personal hurt - in fact, I'm off to play it now!


I agree about the Schubert - it is a criminally underrated sonata, especially the first movement. It is so bleak and rough, with major chords not joyful but forced into the music, also with parts of lyrical passages of resignation. One thing that stands out for me is the chord at 10:24, full of anguish and pain:


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## violadude

Crudblud said:


> I initially read the thread title as "What piece makes you cringe instantly?"


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## nightscape

I'm not really a cryer, but Ravel's _*"Le jardin féerique"*_from *Ma mère l'oye* comes close. Barber's *Adagio for Strings* is another, and of course the finale to Mahler's _*Symphony No. 2*_


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## Picander




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## cagerty

R. Strauss - 4 Last Songs.

Has me weeping every time, especially Beim Schlafengehen.


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## worov

This one makes me cry every time I hear it (as many Barber pieces do) :


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## asiago12

Intermezzo, from Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni


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## CrunchyFr0g

Nimrod. Just can't help myself.


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## flamencosketches

nightscape said:


> I'm not really a cryer, but Ravel's _*"Le jardin féerique"*_from *Ma mère l'oye* comes close. Barber's *Adagio for Strings* is another, and of course the finale to Mahler's _*Symphony No. 2*_


All three of these came to mind too. It's rare that I actually cry listening to music these days. I'm a little more stable than I was a couple years ago. When I was 18 just about any Sun Kil Moon song would do the trick. I don't know if I've ever cried to classical music.


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## eljr

appoggiatura said:


> What piece makes you cry instantly?


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## Dorsetmike

Purcell Dido's lament


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## Guest

There's one piece of music that I've been haunted by for many years.

It's a short piano solo piece by Robert Schumann, his "Romance No 2", Op 28/2. I gather it was Clara Schumann' s favourite piano piece by her husband, and she often performed it during her concert tours, after his death. I recall reading somewhere that she asked for it to be played to her when she herself was on her death bed in 1896, and it may have been the last piece of music she ever heard.

Here's a version by Vladimir Ashkenazy.


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## Rubens

The slow movement of Brahms 2nd piano concerto. Makes me think of my mother who passed away many years ago.


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## millionrainbows

Muddy said:


> I bought a "best of opera" set a while back, when I was on an opera kick. I listened to the music without knowing what I was listening too, just getting a feel for the genre, doing other things on my computer, drinking coffee and getting ready to face another day. A very dramatic selection interrupted the other things that I was doing, and I listened again. I burst into tears! I just lost it. I had to get ready for work, so I jumped in the shower. Damn if I didn't spend the whole shower sobbing! It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. When I finally composed myself (and dried off) I went back to the computer to determine what I had listened to:
> 
> Wagner's Liebestod.
> 
> It remains for me the most emotionally wrenching piece of music I have ever heard (challenged by Vissi d'arte), and it is why I continue to explore Wagner.


Oh, you poor thing! all naked and wet and sobbing! Here, let me help you dry off....


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## millionrainbows

ptr said:


> Kathleen Ferrier singing "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen" brings a big gulp in my throat every time I hear it!
> 
> /ptr


Is that the Kindertotenlieder? Seriously, I cry at that one too, but only with Janet Baker.


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## millionrainbows

This is a guilty admission, but this, by Jerry Goldsmith:


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## millionrainbows

More guilty admissions:


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## DeepR

For a time it was Scriabin's Sonata No. 3, movement 3. 





I got to know this piece during the time when I was deeply in love with the love of my life and things got so intertwined that each and every time I played this movement I couldn't keep it dry. 
It sounds a bit silly in hindsight, but at the time it was extremely powerful. I was in a different, heightened emotional state from being so madly in love, which has been a once in a lifetime experience for me. 
Everything I felt back then, from endless longing, to this perfect sweet spot between deep melancholy and pure happiness, it was all there or brought up by this piece of music. I can't possibly "reproduce" that feeling now, but it's still a great piece of music regardless.


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## 13hm13

Sometimes it's just one touching note that puts a tickle in the eye ... in the 1st mvt. of Walton's VC, can you guess WHEN it happens? (HINT: listen and watch maestro Nelsons)


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## Rogerx

Régine Crespin singing "Absence" from "Les Nuits d'Été"
I can hear the whole piece without crying, but just this song.....


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## Open Book

This, from the opening bars ...It's meltingly beautiful.


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## millionrainbows

Rogerx said:


> Régine Crespin singing "Absence" from "Les Nuits d'Été"
> I can hear the whole piece without crying, but just this song.....


This is based all on her singing, not the harmonic progression of the music, which is rather straightforward.
WHEREAS the "Poltergeist" example is more based on harmonic progression and melody, although those children's voices are touching.

So, what kind of a "cryer" are you? Are you more affected by, say, a single element such as a voice or violin, or more affected by the overall harmonic/melodic information?

Also, I noticed that after my mother died, I was more easily affected by the female voice. Is this generally true of all opera fans? Did their mothers die?


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## Open Book

13hm13 said:


> Sometimes it's just one touching note that puts a tickle in the eye ... in the 1st mvt. of Walton's VC, can you guess WHEN it happens? (HINT: listen and watch maestro Nelsons)


Is Maestro Nelsons crying when it happens?

Please give us a clue, a time stamp.


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## Open Book

millionrainbows said:


> This is based all on her singing, not the harmonic progression of the music, which is rather straightforward.
> WHEREAS the "Poltergeist" example is more based on harmonic progression and melody, although those children's voices are touching.
> 
> So, what kind of a "cryer" are you? Are you more affected by, say, a single element such as a voice or violin, or more affected by the overall harmonic/melodic information?


I sure would like to know if there is anything common among all the music that brings on the tears or the feeling of tears. I'm not musically literate so I can't say, It's this key or that chord, or whatever construct was employed. It would be interesting if they were related in some way.

Sometimes it'a a phrase that gets you going. Sometimes it happens when a piece finally ends and you realize how moved you've been by the whole experience and have trouble letting it go.


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## CypressWillow

Dorsetmike said:


> Purcell Dido's lament


Wow! Piercingly gorgeous. Thank you for this.
I went to Warsaw for the first time in October 1985 (the International Chopin Competition.) It was my first time behind the "Iron Curtain" and I was mildly freaked by the presence of police/military types with enormous rifles on the tarmac as we deplaned. It distracted me from a celebrity who was walking to the terminal at the same time: a tall lady, glamorous, with a flowing cape and a regal presence. It was only inside the terminal that I realized it was Jessye Norman! Good thing she was gone by then, whisked away for VIP treatment, or I'd have begged for an autograph in the most fawning manner imaginable.


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## tdc

There are many pieces (too many to name) that affect me in a most powerful way, sometimes it is more of an uplifting stimulated effect, and sometimes it is something else (perhaps awe, empathy or nostalgia) and a little wetness might form in my eyes, but there are no pieces of music that make me instantly start crying.


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## Bigbang

Sometimes just thinking of Beethoven's struggles and his desire to get out all of his art no matter what will move me when I listen to various works. But, the last movement of the 5th symphony when the final hammer blows to drive out the minor keys (triumphant over whatever) and I will be so moved to hear this passage...just another Beethoven stamp on this inner struggle it seems to me. I always sample this when hearing new 5th or one not heard before.


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## flamencosketches

millionrainbows said:


> This is based all on her singing, not the harmonic progression of the music, which is rather straightforward.
> WHEREAS the "Poltergeist" example is more based on harmonic progression and melody, although those children's voices are touching.
> 
> So, what kind of a "cryer" are you? Are you more affected by, say, a single element such as a voice or violin, or more affected by the overall harmonic/melodic information?
> 
> Also, I noticed that after my mother died, I was more easily affected by the female voice. Is this generally true of all opera fans? Did their mothers die?


My mother died when I was young and I'm still working on finding some real appreciation for opera. Though I certainly love the female voice. Especially the mezzo and contralto ranges, but all of them, really.

Many of her favorite songs still make me cry, but she was not one for classical music, more blues, folk, and rock.


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## Aleksandr Rachkofiev

Unabashed romanticism is the perfect thing to evoke tearful reactions in emotionally confused teens with identity crises...

Though some pieces in particular I've lately been driven to emotional lows/highs while listening to (not quite tears every time though) are

Brahms - 10 Intermezzi





Shostakovich - Piano Concerto no.2 (Andante)





Faure - Elegie





Gliere - Romance (I think this theme was also used in the Red Poppy)





Atterberg - Suite no.3 for Strings





Honorable mentions go to Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (especially the 3rd movement), Tchaikovsky's Hymn of the Cherubim (orthodox choral music seems the closer to the divine than any other religious music I've heard), the second movement of Scriabin's piano concerto, and of course the finale to Mahler's 2nd symphony.

The most surprising thing as of late to drive me to tears has been the opening melody of Prokofiev's 9th Piano Sonata. I've always considered him one of the greatest melodists (perhaps THE greatest) but this one just really stands out to me - it seems so simple compared to the 3 preceding war sonatas, but it just offers up a gorgeous and satisfying, even mature conclusion to the whole set. There's just such a sense of acceptance and finality after all the conflict in 6,7, and 8.


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## flamencosketches

^I forgot about Górecki. Yep, I have cried to that one in the past. 3rd movement.


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## Cadenza

Furtwangler and Kirsten Flagsted in a 1952 recording of Prelude and Liebestod. 
Every time.


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## Open Book

The sudden fortissimo near the end of the third movement (adagio) of the Mahler 4th symphony. And those devastating drum beats. What has gone before has set the mood, and that surprising fortissimo and the way it winds down to the movement's end powerfully releases pent up emotions. Gets me every time.

At around 18:00 in this clip.


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## Open Book

Dvořák - String Quartet no. 13 op. 106.
Especially the slow movement (starts around 10:00 as played here by the Janacek Quartet)


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## Allegro Con Brio

I'm insanely emotional when it comes to music and art in general (which is funny considering I'm generally a "cold, hard logic" oriented personality). Classical music's ability to make me shed tears, I quickly discovered, is one of the reasons why I connect with it so much. The very first piece I ever cried physically at was the "Heiliger Dankgesang" of Beethoven's 15th Quartet. It just hit me in such a celestial way that I felt I had no other option but to melt into the music and let it affect me as it would. After that came the Adagio of Bruckner 7, which literally made me break down. It was pure ecstasy. Then of course, the grand final climax of Mahler 2. No matter who performs it, I _always_ shed at least one tear at this. And then Bach: _Erbarme dich_ and _Mache dich_ from the St. Matthew Passion, the Goldbergs, many of the organ preludes and fugues, some fugues in the WTC and AoF have inspired a very strong emotional reaction from me. And sometimes, crying isn't even necessarily an emotional thing for me- I've found myself welling up at such music as Schubert's Trout Quintet and Mozart's Clarinet Concerto just because I find it so vital and life-enhancing. Most recently, I was moved to tears by _Questia reggia_ and _Nessun dorma_ of Puccini's Turandot.


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## MusicSybarite

Allegro Con Brio said:


> I'm insanely emotional when it comes to music and art in general (which is funny considering I'm generally a "cold, hard logic" oriented personality). Classical music's ability to make me shed tears, I quickly discovered, is one of the reasons why I connect with it so much. The very first piece I ever cried physically at was the "Heiliger Dankgesang" of Beethoven's 15th Quartet. It just hit me in such a celestial way that I felt I had no other option but to melt into the music and let it affect me as it would. After that came the Adagio of Bruckner 7, which literally made me break down. It was pure ecstasy. Then of course, the grand final climax of Mahler 2. No matter who performs it, I _always_ shed at least one tear at this. And then Bach: _Erbarme dich_ and _Mache dich_ from the St. Matthew Passion, the Goldbergs, some fugues in the WTC and AoF have inspired a very strong emotional reaction from me. And sometimes, crying isn't even necessarily an emotional thing for me- I've found myself welling up at such music as Schubert's Trout Quintet and Mozart's Clarinet Concerto just because I find it so vital and life-enhancing. Most recently, I was moved to tears by _Questia reggia_ and _Nessun dorma_ of Puccini's Turandot.


Excellent examples. I definitely share the Beethoven and the Bruckner. Moving to the bone. And good you mention Turandot too. The whole opera is goose-bump inducing. It's clearly one of the most majestic works I've ever heard. Ecstasy galore.


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## Open Book

Allegro Con Brio said:


> The very first piece I ever cried physically at was the "Heiliger Dankgesang" of Beethoven's 15th Quartet. It just hit me in such a celestial way that I felt I had no other option but to melt into the music and let it affect me as it would.


I played that over and over for a long time after my parent's death. I was too numb to cry then but it helped me sort things out about existence. Hearing it again now I want to cry.


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## Jayden Fung

The second movement from Vivaldi's "Il Grosso Mogul" is definitely worthy of tears. The melody is haunting.






On a side note, the second movement's tempo marking is "Grave-recitativo". Vivaldi presumably wanted a lot of rubato; it needed, hence the instruction, to sound like speech's rhythm, causing it to sound extraordinarily intimate; it's as if the soloist is sending their darkest thoughts to you. It's the only instrumental piece I know by Vivaldi that uses this instruction, so this work holds a special place in my heart.


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## flamencosketches

Schubert's D960 sonata slow movement


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## Enthusiast

Crying seems a strange reaction to listening to music to me. I can imagine crying at music that has certain associations for me (and have probably done so) but then I am crying at the associations rather than the music. So I ask about all the examples given in this thread: are you sure it is not an association that you have attached to the music that is making you cry?

I can cry during films and books and dramas and poetry ... and sometimes this can be something deep and satisfying. Often, though, those tears seem to result from my having been successfully manipulated so my tears are almost a detection that maudlin sentimentality has been substituted for something more "true" and powerful. The very suggestion of crying at pure music makes me a little suspicious, I'm afraid. I can imagine some people being moved to tears by opera - after all this is drama with the emotional content heightened - but you don't hear about that happening very often.


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## Littlephrase

flamencosketches said:


> Schubert's D960 sonata slow movement


That and the Adagio of the String Quintet.


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## Open Book

Jayden Fung said:


> The second movement from Vivaldi's "Il Grosso Mogul" is definitely worthy of tears. The melody is haunting.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On a side note, the second movement's tempo marking is "Grave-recitativo". Vivaldi presumably wanted a lot of rubato; it needed, hence the instruction, to sound like speech's rhythm, causing it to sound extraordinarily intimate; it's as if the soloist is sending their darkest thoughts to you. It's the only instrumental piece I know by Vivaldi that uses this instruction, so this work holds a special place in my heart.


People are different in their responses. There aren't too many baroque works that move me to tears, although I do like baroque music a lot. This is an excellent concerto though, glad you posted it.


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## Jacck

Rameau - Les Boréades - Entrée de Polymnie


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## Jayden Fung

Open Book said:


> People are different in their responses. There aren't too many baroque works that move me to tears, although I do like baroque music a lot. This is an excellent concerto though, glad you posted it.


It is indeed an excellent concerto. And the virtuosity in each movement is astonishing. The poor violinist...


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## Jacck

Rameau - Boréades (Entrée pour les Muses...)


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## txtrnl341

Richard Strauss' Tod und Verklarung. Sometimes you just want a good cry (I'm female if that matters).


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## Azol

*Verdi - Requiem: Lacrimosa*

This (hasn't been mentioned yet, I think).
Especially when you arrive at this piece having experienced all that happened before. The climax (coming at 3:00-3:30) is truly devastating. And the profound ending as well.

Definitely *Adagio of Bruckner's Ninth*.

*Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending*


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## marijke

Nadir's aria from Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles does it for me.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

I'm actually pretty sensitive when I hear music from my youth these days. It can be Mozart, Beethoven or Queen and even Sepultura! (with a cool live video of Roots Bloody Roots). WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME? Wait! All is well actually, for real! 
One moment I usually cry is in Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia. Go find out


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## Open Book

Enthusiast said:


> Crying seems a strange reaction to listening to music to me. I can imagine crying at music that has certain associations for me (and have probably done so) but then I am crying at the associations rather than the music. So I ask about all the examples given in this thread: are you sure it is not an association that you have attached to the music that is making you cry?
> 
> I can cry during films and books and dramas and poetry ... and sometimes this can be something deep and satisfying. Often, though, those tears seem to result from my having been successfully manipulated so my tears are almost a detection that maudlin sentimentality has been substituted for something more "true" and powerful. The very suggestion of crying at pure music makes me a little suspicious, I'm afraid. I can imagine some people being moved to tears by opera - after all this is drama with the emotional content heightened - but you don't hear about that happening very often.


What kind of associations? Do you mean for example maybe the Mahler 4th makes someone cry because it was music their beloved dead husband liked and they think of him when they hear it, that type of thing?

No, it's nothing like that for me, I'm certain. As least not anything as obvious as that. Pure non-programmatic music can just evoke emotions for some reason. Sometimes it's just because the music is so beautiful. Sometimes it does seem that a story is being told or a long journey being undertaken by music, but it's abstract. It's not like in opera where there is an actual story. And at the end of the story or journey I feel worn out and emotionally spent and tears come. Other times there are just certain uncanny sounds that can do it, just the right notes played by the right instrument(s).


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## Rogerx

Eleanor Steber singing "Absence" from "Les Nuits d'Été"
Posting this with sound out. 
Not a dry eye anytime


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## hammeredklavier




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## violadude

Definitely Rachmaninoff's Vocalise is a piece that has this effect on me. My favorite iteration is Orchestra + Wordless singer. I appreciate the ones with Cello, violin etc. but the melody has such a haunting effect when done by the voice and is somewhat lost in the instrumental versions.


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## Taplow

I wouldn't say instantly, but this one is so devastatingly beautiful (words chosen carefully) that it does make me tear up a little bit every time:

"Batter my heart" from John Adams's *Doctor Atomic*, interpreted by Gerald Finley. Definitely belongs in the _5 minutes to make you love opera_ category.


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## elgar's ghost

I can't say I've ever actually shed tears because of music. That's not a macho thing - I suppose it's because my brain instinctively internalises that kind of emotional response despite how touching the music may be.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Enthusiast said:


> Crying seems a strange reaction to listening to music to me. I can imagine crying at music that has certain associations for me (and have probably done so) but then I am crying at the associations rather than the music. So I ask about all the examples given in this thread: are you sure it is not an association that you have attached to the music that is making you cry?
> 
> I can cry during films and books and dramas and poetry ... and sometimes this can be something deep and satisfying. Often, though, those tears seem to result from my having been successfully manipulated so my tears are almost a detection that maudlin sentimentality has been substituted for something more "true" and powerful. The very suggestion of crying at pure music makes me a little suspicious, I'm afraid. I can imagine some people being moved to tears by opera - after all this is drama with the emotional content heightened - but you don't hear about that happening very often.


I have very few outside associations with music, but am still frequently moved to tears by the inherent qualities of it: order, symmetry, purity, wholesomeness, sublimity. I know this is hard to explain, but it's what I experience. Yes, I cry at the finale of Mahler's 2nd, the St. Matthew Passion, and some other programmatic stuff because of the association built into the program. But if that's the case for all music, why do I break down when I hear Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor and Goldberg Variations; and Schubert's Trout Quintet? It's pure music whose beauty consists in the perfection (to my tastes) of its form. Sometimes Shakespeare makes me cry not because of the dramatic pathos, but simply due to the arrangement and use of the language.


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## Azol

Ohh, how could I forget this one!

Beverly Sills magic!


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## Rogerx

Azol said:


> Ohh, how could I forget this one!
> 
> Beverly Sills magic!


I heard this once at a cremation , not one dry eye in the house.


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## DeepR




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## 20centrfuge

I'd say that the ones that have been most likely to make me breakdown are Elgar's Enigma Variations: Nimrod, and the slow movement of Barber's Symphony 1


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## Fredrikalansson

1. Berlioz: _Les Nuits D'etes_ - any of the inner songs, it usually builds up slowly and where the sob bursts out just depends. Frederica von Stade tugs at my heart strings best.

2. Wagner: Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music at end of _Die Walkure_, especially if I've been listening to the whole opera.

3. Beethoven: Violin solo in the Benedictus of the _Missa Solemnis_

4. Martinu: End of Act II of _Julietta_ where Michel loses his memory and boards the ship that will take him away from the small village where he found true love (or not).

5. Elgar: "Praise to the Holiest" from the _The Dream of Gerontius_. This is a strange one, but as the music builds to the entry of the full choir, my heart just gets fuller and fuller until I make a fool of myself.

6. Vaughan Williams: This is a three-for-one. Ashamed to say it, but I'm a sucker for _The Lark Ascending_, but let's throw the _Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis_ on the pile. Also, in _Hodie_, I love the transition from the angel's annunciation to the setting of Milton's "It was the Winter Wild". One minute the heavens are ablaze with the prophecy of Christ's coming, and then all the brass fanfares and roars of percussion melt away to gentle woodwinds, strings and the voice of Janet Baker. Gets a sob every time. Amazing!

7. Tallis: The great man himself. I love _Spem in Alium_, but there's something in the gentle, luminous simplicity of his anthem _O Nata Lux_ that unmans me.

Other than these examples, I only listen to music with a cold, cruel and analytical heart.


----------

