music that made you cry

[Count Duckula]

I fell in love with (Bach's?) Pachelbel's Canon while on a search for sound for last fall's theater production. I found a nice 8-minute version done by Issac somebody, variations on a theme.

Yesterday at work, while shelving CDs, I came across a CD with no booklet. Usually we pages send those up to cataloguing to try and reunite the missing parts. But this CD had Pachelbel's Canon too. The version I found for the play was missing the last 20 seconds or so. I wanted a full version for myself.

I popped it into the CD player of my car. For the entire 12-minute drive home, I was literally sobbing. Beautiful! Like the piano melody passed right through my soul, mending tears and holes I didn't know I had. I don't know the last time anything, much less music, made me feel so overwhelmed with awe and joy.

Anybody have any similar experiences they want to share?




(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post was a clever ploy designed to let Lurkers know that Ducky--and more importantly, the Diablo History Project--are still alive. Ducky is hand-coding it with real HTML in her spare time! Gasp! While whining about her writing career and picking away at game guides and fanfic and coffeeshop poetry and who knows what else, she still works on the history. Double gasp. ;))

[ShadowHM]

Anybody have any similar experiences they want to share?

Hi Ducky :)

Glad to know you are still alive and well.

There is one piece of music that brings me to tears every single time I hear it.

"The Green Fields of France" written by Eric Bogle and sung by John McDermott.

[Baylan]

Hail Ducky!

While I've never had an experience where I've ended up crying due to a piece of music I know the feeling when something spectacular is played and you are listening to it.

I'm a bit of a student of music from a rather musical family (My step-father plays every brass instrument known to man ;), my mother is a string player/singer, and I play the saxaphone at my local high school band). The Symphonic Band at my school recently played a piece at the district festival which was literally the most beautiful thing I've ever heard performed live, the name being... urg *bang head on wall* Midnight Cry, I believe. That may have been one of the movements, and I've no idea of the composer but it was fantastic to say the least. I am a music lover and although I've never truly listened to any of the great symphonic music created by the greats (Bach, Motzart, Beethoven)) I have played some of the more recent greats such as Percy Grainger.

I'm not sure what about music I love so much, perhaps it is the fact that it is an international language. Perhaps it is the fact that it is both scientific and creative. Perhaps it is the fact that the music created by the greats, and even the not so greats, can move the hearts of people across the world whether they are from the composer's time or not; whether they are from the composer's country or not; whether or not they love music in the first place.

From the slow agonizing beat of "Hymnsong of Philip Bliss" which was written by a man after his wife and children drowned after the ship they were riding sank, to the blistering beats of Karl King or Sousa. Music is something that can be felt by a baby, a grandmother, a mother, a brother, a friend, and an old rival and still change them in some magical way.

Baylan

[[wcip]Angel]

edit.

[Copadope]

I'm a guy, so I'm not allowed to cry, but I know exactly what you mean. I'm constantly amazed at how music can evoke emotion in the listener. Tears in your eyes or chills down your spine because of a certain arrangement of tones... Makes me wish I could write music capable of such a feat, but I have enough trouble just playing music that other people have written.

I have currently decided that the most beautiful song I know is the Carol of the Bells. I have an absolutely wonderful mp3 of someone (I don't know who) playing a piano arrangement of the song. Sitting in the dark listening to that song is like stopping time and stepping outside of my life for four minutes of beauty.

[bobby]

craig armstrong - the space between us

found out about this song coz it was on BT's alltime top 10. so sweeet

[[wcip]Angel]

I'm a guy, so I'm not allowed to cry,

That's a stereotype. You don't want to be a stereotype, do you?

[Rhydderch Hael]

"All I Want is You" —U2

You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want
Your story to remain untold

But all the promises we made
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You say you'll give me
A highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night

You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest

But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You say you want
Your love to work out right
To last with me through the night

You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold

All the promises we break
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You...all I want is...
You...all I want is...
You...all I want is...
You...

[yangman]

Ahh, so you've discovered the one of the many that is Canon.

Now that you've heard one piano version, I suggest you have a listen to a string version as well. They may be the same harmonics, but have distinctly different feels to them.

Of course, there's different variations of the string version as well. Duet, triplet, quartet, quintet, symphonic, etc, etc.

Then, there's Jazz variations, big band variations, orchastral variations, choral variations, and also on almost every single instrument currently existing.

There's a all percussion (not including piano) version as well.


As far as a special "musical experience" goes, I've never been moved to tears by a song. However, there have been many that would send shivers up my spine, and really really move me.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

U2's "Bad". Several years earlier release on the Unforgettable Fire.

The song is pain, grief and remorse incarnate.

African Choral works seem to have an unbalancing affect on my emotions as well. Go figure. 1992's "The Power of One" had a fairly well-marketed soundtrack. There were several on there that fit the bill nicely.

*tips helm*

[Vandiablo]

Don't laugh, but, for me, it's ... it's ... THE 1812 OVERTURE!

ya, ya, bombastic, martial, blah blah blah, but listen me out--

There's one part, about 2/3 of the way in, that's a kind of "pre-finale". It's the finale that everyone remembers. Well, before you get to the finale, there's a long "descent", and then suddenly bells are pealing! At this point, to me, this song is not a song about winning an earthly war, but an overwhelming triumph of good over evil, as if all evil had just been washed away forever, and yet we still existed, ready to start an eternity of joy. (Surprisingly, I am not at all a religious person, not yet anyway.) Then the trumpets join in to announce this Beginning, and then the overture's finale comes with its cannons and it's as if the universe makes sense, we all know how to use it for the benefit and happiness of everyone and ... and ... well, it's just a very positive emotion.

no, i swear i'm not smoking anything!

Whenever I listen to 1812, without distractions, at the point with the bells I get so giddily optimistic and joyful that I am on the verge of tears.

as for sad tears ... hmmm... that would be U2's New Year's Day, i think, the song with "I .. will be with you again" makes me think of family members who have died and meeting them again someday (am i in denial about being religious??)

also, i used to hate, really hate, Eric Clapton's song, the one asking if we met in heaven would you know my name. I thought it was really stupid-- I thought it was about lovers and i never really listened to it. Then I heard that the song was written after EC lost his 2(?) year old son, then I actually listened to it, and now it makes me cry. What happened to him (and the poor son) is my worst fear, not only for the loss itself, but for the unbearable pain of permanent separation.

there's also a movie which will do it to me, but movies can do it so much easier, so never mind!

-V

ps I too really enjoy the Carol of the Bells.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

there's also a movie which will do it to me, but movies can do it so much easier, so never mind!

A League of Their Own. The scene at the Hall of Fame, near the end, where all the elderly former players start singing? Yeah.

...every... god...damn... time. <_<

My wife finds this hilarious, of course. This from a woman that finds emotional sincerity in Hugh Grant movies. pfft. :blink:

[TaiDaishar]

"My Heart Calling" By Eric Serre (beats me who sings the thing), first heard it from the credits of the 90's movie of Joan of Arc, then spent 3 full days trying to find it without even knowing the song's name.

[Vandiablo]

A League of Their Own.

a BASEBALL movie? sheesh, get real. My cry-movie is much more high-brow than that!!

Mine is... a DOG movie...

okay, it's a KID's movie... (NO not Old Yeller sheesh)

... and ... it's animated .... OH THE SHAME! *sob* ... if it hadn't *sniff* if it hadn't been a German Shepherd, maybe i'd have been okay, but WAAAAAAHHHHH!

[wakim]

"...with (Bach's?) Pachelbel's Canon ..."

Pachelbel's Canon was written by... Pachelbel. Although it may be heartening to know that Johann Pachelbel taught music to J. C. Bach who in turn taught his (not yet world famous) little brother J. S. Bach; so there is a tangible connection between Pachelbel and Bach. I hope this doesn't ruin the fun of trying to determine who wrote Ravel's Bolero.

[kandrathe]

According to the guy handbook, we are only supposed to cry when our mothers die, and during especially heroic, and/or poignant scenes in John Wayne movies. Other than that we are supposed to just cry on the inside. :-) I broke the rules during the births of my sons. For along time after watching "The Mission", I became a bit misty when I heard the soundtrack. I also have a bit of a weakness for Segovia, and anything Beethoven on classical guitar.

[kandrathe]

I just learned that there is a statue to Balto in Central Park, New York.

[smegged]

My sister cried her eyes out when she first heard "Farewell and Goodnight" by the Smashing Pumpkins. It's the last song on disk II of "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" album. She really related to the lyrics at the time. Other emotional and powerful pumpkins songs are "Soma", "Disarm", "Blank Page", "To Forgive" and "For Martha".

Also some Cat Power stuff has been known to pull a few heartstrings.

[Kryn]

Well, I haven't cried in quite a few years, but one song does stir some emotion: A Long Winter - If Everything Ends, Please Don't Leave Me. You probably won't want to check it out unless you like hardcore music, though.

A movie that really makes me sad? The Shawshank Redemption...

[pakman]

I love Pachabel's Canon. However, one of my other favorite pieces that is incredibly sad an depressing sounding, but a great piece of music is Adagio for Strings. I can't remember the artist right now..but look for it. It's about 10 minutes long.