Classical Music That Brings Joy Or Sorrow

[Carolyn Marie]

This is a variation on a question I posed last year.

What piece of classical music makes you cry, and which one brings you joy and/or inspiration?

Two sides of the same coin.

My choices: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings; and Tchaikolvsky's Violin Concerto in D.

What are yours?

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General, Pirates of Penzance (FUN)

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desires (Inspirational)

Air on a G Sring (Mozart in the Mountains - personal thing)

Bohemian Rapsody by Queen (SPECTACULAR)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra [Also sprach Zarathustra] (my SCIFI fix)

An American in Paris (Abstract and delightful)

Most all of The Nut Cracker - especially Arabesque (sp) (hate the closure music)

The double aria used in the movie, Shawshank Redemption (cannot recall that name) beauty beyond imagining - Looked it up - "Letter Duet" ("Canzonetta sull'aria") from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.

Midnight on Witch Mountain (the Disney FANTASIA verson) with Ava Maria following

oh so many...

Lizzy

[Guest Donna Jean]

I love classical music, but, the piece that holds the most emotion for me is the theme from "Exodus"...

I used to be first chair cello in school...

We were playing it that day ..November 22, 1963 when the loudspeaker came on and announced that Kennedy had been assassinated....

I can't separate the two anymore....

Donna Jean

[Sally]

There are so many but for sadness and a feeling of emptiness Barber's Adagio is right up there along with Ravel's Pavane For A Dead Princess and the empty feeling left by the cello solo from Gayane's Adagio from Aram Khachaturian's Gayane ballet suite.

Then for joy how can we overlook the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony with the poem Ode To Joy sung along with it - it is so much more than the theme from Die Hard.

Remember Dvorak's Symphony For the New World?

And for indescribable feelings but always accompanied with a chill up my spine there is Sigfried's Death and Funeral Procession from Wagner's Gottrdamerung.

For inspiration try Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral, also by Wagner from Lohengrin (yes that is the same opera that has the wedding march in it), it's simple melodies and beautiful chord structure building ever so slowly but always building.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest RachaelAnn]

I have to go with Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata, both by Beethoven.

Rachael

[Guest Pól]

First one I thought of was Barber's Adagio and then the Ravel Pavane, which have already been said. But also, Debussy's "Claire de lune" from the Suite Bergamasque.

For inspiring:

"O Magnum Mysterium" by Lauridsen (very new composition, relatively speaking, but gorgeous if you can find a good recording) and "Finlandia" by Sibelius.

I also love Weber's "Invitation to the Dance," which is sort of in both of your categories and neither at the same time. Just saying. The cello solo at the beginning and again at the end are brill.

[Guest NatashaJade]

The Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem Mass never fails to bring me to tears. Beethoven's 9th takes me the other way.

Pachabel's Canon in D Major makes me cry for

...

luv

Gin

[Guest ChloëC]

I'm partial to most compositions by Mozart, and I like Vivaldi's Four Seasons. And Pachobel's Canon in D. Oh, and DeBussy's Clair de lune and Arabesques.

Sally, I also like Dvorak's Symphany for the New World (mostly because I also like true, traditional American folk music like from the Shakers, music by Copeland, and the modified Scotch/Irish Ballads of the Appalachians)

Hugs

Chloë

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Theme for the Common Man (but why do I suddenly want to watch the news?)

Lizzy

[Guest Tess]

Well, off the top of my head:

Joy: Dvorak's fifth symphony, Beethoven's sixth symphony, Messiaen's Turangalila symphony, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Brahms second string sextet, Bruckner ninth symphony, Shostakovich- first piano concerto

Sorrow: Purcell- Dido's Lament, R. Strauss- Metamorphosen, Elgar Cello concerto, Schubert string quintet, Shostakovich- sixth string quartet, Schnittke piano quintet, Wagner Tristan und Isolde

Tess

[Sally]

Now we have quite the little band of classical music aficionados here don't we?

I thought of one that makes you feel happy at times and a bit melancholy at others within the same small section of a larger work, Smetana's My Vlast (my homeland) the Moldau - beautiful.

It is stirring and yet shows a touch of almost being homesick at the same time.

You can find it on you tube if you are unfamiliar.

Love ya,

Sally

[Carolyn Marie]

I thought of one that makes you feel happy at times and a bit melancholy at others within the same small section of a larger work, Smetana's My Vlast (my homeland) the Moldau - beautiful.

Love ya,

Sally

Thanks, Sally. I've learned of a number of unfamiliar pieces that I now want to hear.

Another that has both sad and joyful movements is one of the best known of all modern works: Appalachian Spring by Copland. While the Shaker hymn is full of joy, the beginning and final movements are pensive and sad. I do so love that piece of music.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Tess]

I can't believe I forgot Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs- beautifully melancholic.

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

Ode To Joy.....Uncle B.

Donna Jean

[Guest JaniceW]

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony!

[Carolyn Marie]

Toccata in fugue in d minor - Bach

Sends shivers down my spine every time.

Cindy -

Oh, yeah! I crank the sound way up when that comes on. Someday I want to hear it played live - have those organ pipes

make the rafters shake.

Carolyn Marie

[Cyndee]

Oh, yeah! I crank the sound way up when that comes on. Someday I want to hear it played live - have those organ pipes

make the rafters shake.

Carolyn Marie

They just had a performance of this wonderful piece here in Seattle a few days ago @ Benaroya hall. My daughter and wife went, I sadly missed this performance as had band practice that night.

Just about anything Organ is just so spiritual.

Peace

Cindy -

[Guest Lily B]

All three Gymnopedies by Erik Satie make me incredibly melancholic.

[Guest Micha]

Pachabel's Canon is my all time favorite. It's both melancholy and uplifting, and it sends a tingle of warmth throughout my body.

There's no peace that's made me cry, but plenty that have put me in a melancholy sort of peace. Dunno what most of them are called, but I know Wagner wrote one. It was used in the movie Excalibur? Chopin's nocturnes do it to me too.