# Moments in music.



## Muddy (Feb 5, 2012)

I suppose we all have our favorite composers, favorite genres and favorite movements. But what about favorite moments? I am a traditional classical music listener. My top three are the usual top three (we know who they are) and my top ten are fairly traditional as well. But lately, I've been overwhelmed by moments in Sibelius. This is not to suggest that Sibelius is not in my top ten. It is to insist that there are Sibelius "moments" that spring him to the top of the list. 

I will list a few. Sibelius Symphony #5. The last movement. It begins with nervous agitation and momentum, leading up to the majestic swan theme. Up to this point, it seems like the music has been impatiently awaiting an important decision. With the swan theme, the decision is announced, and the music crescendos into a glorious fanfare. That moment, two minutes into the movement, is transcendent. It belongs with the angels.

Later in the movement, the same themes have become darker. Here, we are not jubilant, but uncertain, disturbed. The music approaches despair, when suddenly the horns play the swan theme again, this time quietly..and then the orchestra, so softly, out of nowhere, lovingly responds...and the music wraps its arms around you, and you cry, and you hope no one is watching.

One more. Sibelius Symphony #7. This symphony did nothing for me...until it did, out of nowhere. I was stunned. This music is so condensed, so rich. You're not listening to music. You are reading music's mind. And then the orchestra, as if it has been searching all the while, and then suddenly finds, not only the hallway, but some glorious trombones, crescendos into a climax that, for me, is like taking a leap of faith and softly falling into the arm's of God. 

Anyone else, nuts like me? Sometimes these moments help me through a rough night.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bach fugues:
From the Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas 2 & 3. Monumental.
Organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor ("Dorian")-specifically the fugue. Over-powering.
Well Tempered Clavier, Book One Fugue No. 19 in A Major. A "feel-good" moment.

Listening to any of the above works always makes me feel better.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Let's resurrect this thread. I feel it's a nice opportunity to not only recommend works, but to bookmark them, as it were, so that we give each other specific moments that can be listened to immediately.

There's this particular moment in Nielsen's 6th symphony which gives me chills. It comes after a short period of quite harsh, aggressive music and suddenly flows out of nowhere into a beautiful tonal stream, with the horns and strings playing with each other triumphantly (and slightly fugally). I love that sense of genuine forward progression Nielsen always maintains in his symphonies. It comes at the *5:04* mark in this video:






I could list loads of Bruckner moments, but there are a few from the 9th that always get me pumping a fist in the air or emitting a little yelp of admiration for Bruckner. The first is at *4:44*, when that first lilting theme comes through. It's nicer in some recordings when you get a sense of the staccato plucks at the lower end, but this is a good performance.

The second part comes at *14:22* and it's the little section that goes on until *15:09*. It's just this constant ascent into heaven, as each new step upwards is pure ecstasy. There is no question we are in the company of an absolute master composer, a hierophant, a deliverer of spiritual experience par excellence, whether Bruckner himself knew it or not. I can't think of anyone being able to listen to this and not recognising in it a supreme compositional skill or at least great aesthetic beauty. The way he integrates themes from earlier and brings in new sections of the orchestra so seamlessly into a crescendo or a steady buildup I find so impressive.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Just about every minute of Prokofiev's third piano concerto blows my mind.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

There's a majestic variation in the last movement of the Vaughan Williams Fifth that ends with a noble brass chord, in the middle of which the horns soften and the trombones jump out like the sun bursting from behind a cloud. Makes me shiver every time.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Here are a few of my favorite moments in classical music …

The vocal bell-tolling sequence (beginning at ~5'03" in The Clerks' Group video linked to below) in Heinrich Isaac's motet _Angeli, archangeli_.






* * *

When done just right, the almost-pause/almost-silence at the crux of the D-minor to D-major transition in Bach's Chaconne (from the D-minor Partita for violin solo), which occurs at the midpoint of the Chaconne (at ~6'49" in the Grumiaux video linked to below). The dynamic profile of Grumiaux's fade-out of the D minor and fade-in to the D major forms a perfect parabola that just barely touches (or does it?) the line of silence.






* * *

The awakening of the third/final movement's six-note sequence in the horns (at ~2'10" in the Ancerl/CzPO video linked to below) in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms.






* * *

The transition from the Invocation to the Dance (at ~4'18" in the Pepe Romero video linked to below) in Rodrigo's Invocación y danza. The tension that's built up gradually throughout the Invocation is beautifully released at the onset of the Dance.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Moments never have the same effect taken out of context, but

Scriabin - Sonata No. 3 - Andante 
When the main theme returns in the left hand at 3:48. A moment of sublime beauty.





Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia
The entire climax starting at 11:18 for over a minute long until it becomes quiet. A sacred moment. Especially with that full sound, reverb and in this setting, the cathedral where it was meant to be performed.





Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 - Adagio




Ah well, the whole thing. But let's start playing at 18:40. How one of te main themes comes in at 19:34 after that dramatic outburst, it's amazing. Then a similarly gorgeous moment at exactly 20:28, goosebumps. Keep going, because the best is yet to come: the radiant climax which starts at 22:29 and you better brace for impact because that's one of the greatest moments in all of music.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

J S Bach's unfinished fugue, ascribed to the Art of Fugue, in particular the climax just before the abrupt end of the piece, where the three subjects are combined for the first (and last) time.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

For me, my "moment" is in Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye, the last section, "Le Jardin Feerique", at the last 12 bars, when it begins a gradual, glorious crescendo to the end. It always gets me, and I invariably stop whatever I'm doing to listen to those 12 bars. It's triumphant and life-affirming.


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2018)

Scriabin
Sonata no 6

My favourite sonata by my favourite composer, so a "moment" is nigh on impossible for me. So, for the purposes of the thread, the final part from 10.00 ; some kind of resolution to an unstable, brooding masterpiece. Here performed by Askenazy.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Heck, I'm doing more Bruckner.

Just check out the moment at *4:10 * when after a very stormy introduction, the sweetest, most ravishing little theme breaks through and the way Bruckner just eases it along, slowly building it up, higher and higher... oh my. It threatens a moment of darkness at *4:26* and then comes back into sweetness at *4:33*. Mastery. Something Mahler could 'ave writ.

And then the beginning of the glorious crescendo at 6:05, that just lilts into the heavens only to frighteningly drop back down again.






And then his wonderful motets, of which Ave Maria is one of the jewels. Beginning at 00:47, they sing Je-sus with increasing numbers and then drop into 'Sancta Maria' at 1:09 and that section up until 1:39 seconds sends shivers up my spine every time.


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## Guest (Jan 17, 2018)

Dirge said:


> Here are a few of my favorite moments in classical music …
> 
> The vocal bell-tolling sequence (beginning at ~5'03" in The Clerks' Group video linked to below) in Heinrich Isaac's motet _Angeli, archangeli_.
> 
> ...


For the Bach, I get "video not available."


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Muddy said:


> One more. Sibelius Symphony #7. This symphony did nothing for me...until it did, out of nowhere. I was stunned. This music is so condensed, so rich. You're not listening to music. You are reading music's mind. And then the orchestra, as if it has been searching all the while, and then suddenly finds, not only the hallway, but some glorious trombones, crescendos into a climax that, for me, is like taking a leap of faith and softly falling into the arm's of God.
> 
> Anyone else, nuts like me? Sometimes these moments help me through a rough night.


Are you talking about that beautiful moment in the 7th that is the Sibelius 7 start up music? At times I can't stop listening to that, listen rewind, listen rewind, etc. It could be the most perfect moment in music. Goosebumps ain't the word, I sometimes spontaneously cry at that beautiful passage as it rises out of nowhere. It is up there with Bach's Erbarme dich, and various moments out of Beethoven's late string quartets.

Although I don't adopt a God simile I do see the transcendence aspect of music. I see a collection of atoms questioning how another collection of atoms can dictate to another collection of atoms how to vibrate air molecules in a certain manner, but why do we like certain variations of certain vibrations of colour timbre and mood? Just think that there could be a atom or two in my body right now that used to make up Sibelius. If I drink some water some of the water molecules will have passed through his bladder. That's a tangent.

I think that is correct.


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## Forss (May 12, 2017)

There are so many(!) great moments, and it all depends on one's current state of mind, of course, but as of right now: the bassoon solo from the fourth movement of Beethoven's _Symphony No. 9_. The melody is so full of sweetness and light (and love for humanity), and it really captures the unique timbre of the bassoon.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Forss said:


> There are so many(!) great moments, and it all depends on one's current state of mind, of course, but as of right now: the bassoon solo from the fourth movement of Beethoven's _Symphony No. 9_. The melody is so full of sweetness and light (and love for humanity), and it really captures the unique timbre of the bassoon.


I assume you are referring to the delicious counter melody to the "ode to joy" tune in the strings?? Yes, beautiful solo that just begs for "molto espressivo" and lovely phrasing....L. Sharrow [Reiner/CSO] plays this most beautifully, really exquisite.


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## Forss (May 12, 2017)

Heck148 said:


> I assume you are referring to the delicious counter melody to the "ode to joy" tune in the strings?? Yes, beautiful solo that just begs for "molto espressivo" and lovely phrasing....L. Sharrow [Reiner/CSO] plays this most beautifully, really exquisite.


Precisely! I am constantly moved to tears by that lovely passage.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Forss said:


> Precisely! I am constantly moved to tears by that lovely passage.


It's a wonderful solo, great to play, it "lays quite nicely" for the bassoon.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Another three moments:

Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim




The bass starting around 5:40 to the end of the piece, especially that crescendo at 5:55. Amazing.

Mozart - Symphony No. 41, 4th movement
I think I don't have to say which moment.

Rachmaninoff - Prelude Op. 32 No. 10




3:28-3:50


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Another moment for me is the beginning of Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand where the opening theme struggles upwards, ever upwards, arising out of the primordial premonitory inchoate rumblings that open the piece. Vaguely reminiscent of the opening mutterings of Beethoven's 9th, first movement (also very fine!).


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

A moment for me that always blows me away at an emotional level is the 4th movement, Largamente e pesante, from Howard Hanson's Symphony #3. Even thinking about it elicits an emotional response. If you're not familiar with this piece, give a listen from 5:00 to the end (a total of 1:48).






This theme is introduced and developed in the 2nd movement, but like most of Hanson's music, he doesn't let it resolve itself until it is re-introduced at the end of the piece. There are certainly others I could list as well, but this is the moment of moments for me.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I may have mentioned this moment before on TC:
Rachmaninov, 3rd Symphony, 3rd movement. The strings have introduced the ritornello theme and quietened down, then that wistful, lonely clarinet comes in with a long melodic line....gets me every time.

And several posters so far have mentioned Sibelius. How about that glorious passage in Night Ride and Sunrise where the sun comes up in the brass section, in a wonderful chorale of layered brass tones? Lovely.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

The end of Bruckner's 5th symphony from the coda in the final movement. There is power, a sense of inevitability and resolution that is stunning. I saw/heard this piece played over a parade for Hitler's 50th birthday celebration in the 1930s on the opening part of 1974 "The World At War" documentary called "A New Germany." It's sad to say but the music fit the moment perfectly.


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## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

This moment from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6: 13:40-15:40


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## Iaeda (Jan 16, 2018)

More from Sibelius: about 7 minutes into the first movement of his 3rd Symphony the woodwind is, as always, perfect. Lever du jour from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, about 5 minutes in, is the finest sunrise in music. Whenever we hear the 'Hero' leitmotif in the first movement of Gotterdammerung is always a good moment too


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

The (last) ritardando in Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 (37:21).
It's a few seconds before the end of the symphony.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Here is my favorite moment in music. Edit: also check out What is the greatest ~5 minutes of music?


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