I likes all kinds of music but I love this: Clair de lune by Debussy
Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield, The Exorcist)
I think there are several categories of songs/music that do this to me. First, the ones with poignant lyrics
Cat’s Cradle by Harry Chapin, as noted
In My Life by the Beatles
The Things We’ve Handed Down by Marc Cohn
Almost Home by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Fire and Rain by James Taylor
When We Were Young by Adele
I’ve Loved These Days by Billy Joel
Country songs are good for this:
Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw
I Was Here by Lady Antebellum (fabulous song!!)
Don’t Blink by Kenny Chesney
And of course Broadway has made a few of these types of songs:
I Know Where I’ve Been - Hairspray
Used To Be Mine - Waitress
It’s Quiet Uptown - Hamilton
Sunrise Sunset - Fiddler (as mentioned earlier)
Somewhere - West Side Story
For Good - Wicked
And many pieces of classical and choral music can give me chills. That is more about the overall experience of good music washing over me, as opposed to lyrics that may mean something to me or a song that was part of my life in some way.
Lots of music can give me chills.
Most recently Let My Love Be Heard by Jake Runestad at one of my son’s choir concerts. I almost can’t describe what it was like to hear this piece. It was beautiful.
I love to watch the video of Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill singing “How Great Thou Art”. It makes me so emotional every time
@surfcity:
OMG to “Sunrise Sunset”…I never understood why my folks got choked up at it, until now that I am at an age where my S is an adult and I get choked up, especially the line “when did he grow so tall?”. It probably catches the passing of time better than any written word or song I can think of.
@whatisyourquest :
There is an interesting piece in the NY Times from a couple of days ago, Hans Zimmer was talking about the music to “Dunkirk” which rather than the typical lush orchestral music with the rising fanfare and so forth, was designed to give the feelings of those trapped on the beach there, done through a lot of different things and ways, it is kind of what you are talking about. In music, certain chord structures and tonal sequences trigger emotional responses, it is why I don’t subscribe to the notion that the way we react to music is conditioned, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue was chosen for horror movies because it evoked the right kind of responses, and the dawn sequence in the Pier Gynt Suite and the WIlliam Tell opening would give the feelings they evoke without being conditioned to it…
In addition to many already listed, The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert and recently Ed Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill both instantly get to me. Oh, there are so many! Kelly Clarkson’s version of I Know You Won’t and also Piece by Piece.
“Killing me Softly” by Roberta Flack, still gives me chills listening to it, very eerie and beautiful.
I posted this last year. It is still the only violin concerto I have been to where the crowd spontaneously gave standing ovations between movements. Normally we are trying our best to be dead silent. Hearing that music played by anyone brings so much emotion and I do not normally react like this.
The only other music I react to like that is Somewhere Over the Rainbow by the big Hawaiian guy, Israel K., but that is from a funeral I attended.
DH wants me to add the theme to The Godfather movies to this list.
Augustin Hadelich is amazing, have seen him do more than a few concerts now, his tchaikovsky is great but go see him do the beethoven, it is simply sublime:).
One of the more touching pieces I heard was not long after 9/11, Mark O’Connor did a concert and he played the solo violin version of “Appalachian Waltz”, it hit the mood of the moment perfectly.
Take a listen to “Bring Him Home” by Voctave (acapella group) on youtube and see if that doesn’t send some shivers up your spine!. It gives me chills every time.
Honestly everything they sing gives me chills.
Bring Him Home is very emotional. Also, I think other songs from Les Miserables like I Dreamed a Dream, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables are as well.