Music that makes you cry

[rachmaninoff_forever]

What music do you play or listen to that makes you cry?   Or makes other people cry? or what works have you played that made other people cry?

It must feel awesome to play so well that you make someone cry right?  You must feel pretty boss.





Unless if they're crying at how bad your playing is...

[j_menz]

I've never made anyone cry with my music (except for the wrong reasons  )

My first experience of a real effect (other than "that's nice") was I put a baby to sleep playing Brahms' Lullaby about three years after I started (piano, not the lullaby). I was pretty chuffed!

Probably not a skill I'd like to fully develop, though. If there's anything worse than coughing and mobile phones at a concert, it's half the audience snoring.

[p2u_]

What music do you play or listen to that makes you cry?

Rachmaninov's 3d, especially in the Berman rendition makes me want to cry. His Elegy also, even the AMPICO version that is on YouTube. The great Schubert sonata in B flat in the Richter rendition. No use listing them all. The old school makes me want to cry because it's gone and that is an irreplacable loss.

Paul

[perfect_pitch]

I once made my grandmother and aunty cry... I played them Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, Op 9 No. 2 and it was the first time they'd ever heard me play piano in person. It was kind of emotional since I left Scotland when I was 8, and it was the first time I'd gotten to play for them in almost 20 years.

[49410enrique]

the theme is powerful in every well done iteration i've seen and heard, i have the score but have not found a violinist i connect with enough that is talented enought to pull it off so it continues to sit on my shelf until that day, in the meantime i have things like this to listen to. this is such an incredible rendition of this, the gentleman on the violin feels the piece so much that even without a completely formed hand he can still pull such emotion out his instrument. the pianist does such a great job to stay out of his way while heightening the impact of the performance. outstanding.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Ravels Kaddish!

It's used to accompany a Jewish Mourning song so it's sooooooooooooooooo sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ionian_tinnear]

Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

There are quite a few for me, but some that come to mind right now would be:

-Schumann's 'Thema in Es dur' with variations, or 'Geistervariationen' as well as his 'Fast zu ernst' from 'Kinderscenen'.
-Mendelssohn's 'Songs without words' Op.19 No.1 and Op.85 No.4.
-Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 No.3 (especially the first astoundingly poignant measures).
-Liszt's 'Un sospiro' étude.
-Dvorak's 'Sorrowful reverie' from his 'Poetic tone-pictures Op.85'.
-Strauss's 'Death and transfiguration'.
-Schubert's 'Kupelwieser waltz'.
And, definitely: The 'Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo' from Beethoven's String Quartet Op.135! It inevitably moves me to tears every time I listen to it and when I hear that passage towards the end (measures 43-46)...it's like the most absolute sadness and the most absolute calm had suddenly 'fused'.

Best,
Musikalischer Wirbelwind

[brianvds]

Thomas Tallis' "Spem in alium." Bits and pieces from Bach's motets. I seem to have a particular weakness for old choral music. :-)

[ferdinand_]

Maybe something from Coldplay? The song "trouble" is very good example for this. But I don't have to cry because of the song. But maybe others do.

[cadenza14224]

rach 2 second movement; haven't exactly burst out into tears or anything, but it swells me up with a ton of melancholic emotion.

[maczip]

-Brahms: Requiem: "Tod, wo ist dein Stachel, Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg" (Just thinking of the the music makes me shiver)
-Bach: a couple of pieces; Organ Fuge "The Wedge", especially: St. Matthew Passion: Aria "Erbarme Dich", Choral: "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß"

[m1469]

Ok, not a piece, but for whatever reason, sometimes (and actually fairly often) just the sound of a violin makes me want to seriously burst into tears. 

[p2u_]

Ok, not a piece, but for whatever reason, sometimes (and actually fairly often) just the sound of a violin makes me want to seriously burst into tears. 

If you're in the mood for crying, m1469, then listen to this:
Saint-Saens - Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso (Perlman)

Paul

[brianvds]

What I find interesting is this: music that moves us to tears does not actually make us sad. I mean, nobody would listen to it if it made him genuinely sad or depressed. Musical sadness lives in a universe of its own.

[p2u_]

What I find interesting is this: music that moves us to tears does not actually make us sad. I mean, nobody would listen to it if it made him genuinely sad or depressed. Musical sadness lives in a universe of its own.

That's right. In earthly terms, I think it's awe: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, etc., produced by what is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or just beautiful; contact with the Universe, God, the Truth, or whatever you want to call it. However, it takes a state of self-oblivion from the performer to make it all work. That's what makes great performers great.

Paul

[gspiel1232]

anyone else here?

What a  great pair of movements in a concerto (the first two movements)

[brianvds]

That's right. In earthly terms, I think it's awe: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, etc., produced by what is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or just beautiful; contact with the Universe, God, the Truth, or whatever you want to call it. However, it takes a state of self-oblivion from the performer to make it all work. That's what makes great performers great.

Paul

I.e. music can be something of a religious experience, and perhaps the closest a heathen like me will come to religious ecstasy. I am told that when Frank Zappa once had to fill in a form in which he had to state his religion, he wrote "music." He may well actually have had a point. :-)

[jimf]

Some pieces that move me if not make me cry are:
Rachamninoff Piano Concerto 2 (all of it)
Rachmaninoff 18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Smetana The Moldau from My Country
Cassidy Funeral March
Respighi Siciliana from Ancient Dances and Airs
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade
Dvorak Symphony 9 second movement
Dvorak Symphony 7 fourth movement
Dvorak Humoresques
Almost everything by Dvorak
Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss Don Quixote
Orff Carmina Burana
Lyapunov Transcedental Etude 10
Pachelbel Canon
Mozart Requiem
Beethoven Symphony 7 second movement
Beethoven Fur Elise
Almost everything by Chopin (for example Funeral March from his Sonata)
Reger Humoresque 2
Camille Saint-Saens Danse Macabre
Camille Saint-Saens Samson and Delilah Bacchanale and finale
Vivaldi Concerto for Strings in G Major, Presto (Alla Rustica)
Vivaldi the Seasons
Most of Puccini operas
Heller 25 Melodic Studies
Holst The Planets Suite
Holst St Paul Suite
Holst Brook Green Suite
Copland Appalachian Spring
Copland some parts of Billy the Kid and Rodeo
Sullivan Willow, tit-willow from the Mikado
Bizet Carmen
Bizet L' Arlesienne Suites 1 and 2
Gounod Faust
Massenet Manon
Gottschalk Morte!! (She is dead)
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Ballet
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1
Shostakovich Piano Concerto 2 second movement
Shostakovich Gadfly Suite
Shostakovich Waltz 2 from Suite for Variety Orchestra
Shostakovich Symphony 5
Grieg Piano Concerto
Grieg some parts of the Peer Gynt Suites 1 and 2
Grieg Sonata
Liszt Liebestraum 2
Liszt Piano Concerto 1
Rakoczy March (from Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody 15 and Berlioz The Damnation of Faust)
Brahms Hungarian Dance 5
Brahms Academic Festival Overture
Mendelssohn Fingal's Cave Overture
Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin and Piano
Sibelius Finlandia
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Borodin Symphony 2 third movement
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (especially The Great Gate of Kiev)
Khachaturian Waltz from Masquerade Suite
Almost everything by Wagner (especially The Ring Cycle)
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Ballet
Ives some parts of Symphony 2
Stravinsky Firebird Suite
Moszkowski Piano Concerto
Verdi's most operas
Some pieces by Janacek (e.g. Sinfonietta and Suite for Strings)
Some pieces by Glass (e.g. Metamorphosis)
Karl Jenkins Palladio
Barber Adagio for Strings
Albinoni Adagio in G minor
MacDowell To A Wild Rose from Woodland Sketches
Debussy Clair De Lune

I am sure I have forgotten maaaaaaaaany a piece, I will add some when I remember anything!  

[jimf]

Sorry I double posted! 

[p2u_]

Some pieces that move me if not make me cry are: [...]

Strange, jimf, that you did not indicate the performers. This determines to a great extent whether you're gonna cry or not and for what reason...

Paul

[ahinton]

Karl Jenkins Palladio

If that ever made me cry it would be a case of crying "foul"...

Still, it takes all sorts...

Best,

Alistair

[perfect_pitch]

Some pieces that move me if not make me cry are:
Rachamninoff Piano Concerto 2 (all of it)

etc... etc... etc...

Karl Jenkins Palladio

Wow... you must be a mess in shopping malls and concert halls.    

Sorry... but I have never cried from listening to a piece of music... except when I was 5, and I cried to the ending of 'The Snowman'... but that could have been because he melted. The music was really lovely however.

[iansinclair]

There are a lot of pieces which really move me... wouldn't be a musician, I suppose, if there weren't.

Top of the list -- "Pie Jesu" from the Faure Requiem.  But there are some very strong personal connections to that, from many years ago, which we needn't go into here...

[gauden942000]

I only cried once when i was listening to the Schubert Sonata D 959 the 2nd mov. I think it's the most haunted thing for me.

[sphince]

wow jimf it seems you have cried a lot jk

[sphince]

and by the way I have made my teacher cry endless times when she hears my gustly interpretation of chopins etude op.10 no.4

[krajcher]

I wish I will never hear a music which makes me cry.

But in fact, Mozart's lacrimosa is a piece which makes me very, very sad.

[j_menz]

A few surprise omissions so far:

Shostakovitch's 13th Symphony
Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Albinoni's Miserere
Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus

Nothing by Mahler 

[pytheamateur]

Chopin's Nocturne in Db Major, Op 27 No2.
Rachmaninov's Prelude in D, Op 23 No4.

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Forgot to mention Brahm's Adagio from his Violin Concerto Op.77 and the Andantino from Bériot's Violin Concerto Op.32 No.2.

Musikalischer Wirbelwind

[littletune]

Well this will probably sound really weird but on Tuesday, while I was practicing just a few minutes before my piano exam, I made myself cry when I was playing Tchaikovsky Sweet Dreams...  I don't even know why, I mean I was feeling a little like crying for two days already, but then when I was playing that piece (on a grand piano!  ) I just felt like I really understood it and like i knew why the title was Sweet dreams, cause i felt like it's when you really wish for something really really a lot and you can only dream about it... (or something like that) and so I just started crying... and it wasn't like sad sad tears but more like happy sad, but the bad thing was that just when I finished playing with my face full of tears someone walked in!!  and I tried to wipe my face as fast as i could and so it wouldn't be noticable but i couldn't wipe all of my tears so that person probably thought I was crazy or something... fortunately it was just some person (probably a teacher from that school) that I don't know and I'll probably never see again... she just asked if I knew where the professor was... I didn't even hear exactly what she said, I just said NO... and tried not to look too weird.   

[steviesteps]

The only time I've ever started genuinely sobbing was listening to "I was glad" by Parry and it was amazing, but I imagine it depended to some extent on the circumstances.

Some other stuff which gets me emotional:
Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt.."
The opening chorus from "Wachet Auf" and any Bach aria with an oboe obligato
Some carols like "In the Bleak midwinter"
The Messiah

Piano music just doesn't have the same visceral effect on me as singing does, despite the fact I am obsessed with it.
Probably the closest it gets is the Well Tempered Clavier (F# major and B minor book 1?), Beethoven's Emperor concerto or even Couperin's Les Barricades Mysterieuses

[argerichfan]

The only time I've ever started genuinely sobbing was listening to "I was glad" by Parry and it was amazing, but I imagine it depended to some extent on the circumstances.

I never expected to encounter this on a piano forum, but I quite agree with you. It is a very moving and powerful setting of Psalm 122. IMO it is most effective when the 'Vivat Regina!' section is NOT cut. Of Brit composers, only Elgar's 'Coronation Ode' exceeds it for sheer grandeur.

[hfmadopter]

What music do you play or listen to that makes you cry?   Or makes other people cry? or what works have you played that made other people cry?

It must feel awesome to play so well that you make someone cry right?  You must feel pretty boss.





Unless if they're crying at how bad your playing is...

I'll let you know ! My wife say's that the way I am arranging the cords and fill notes in the Beauty and the Beast Theme some is going to make my 16 yo grand daughter Amanda cry. If nothing else just because I've chosen to do that piece might make her cry ( Amanda and I are very close and that by far is her favorite movie ). My grand kids have never heard me play the piano, Amanda I think will be in shock, though she has been told about grampa and his piano from other family members. I've chosen to play the intro with just a hint of the theme that runs through the song to see if I hear any oohs or aahs before it actually breaks into the full melody line . This is really fun stuff !! The goal, a nice piece of music but I'll take the spill off if it comes. I enjoy working on and reworking movie or broadway themes.

My oldest child, my daughter Laura says that several pieces I have played over the years have given her goose bumps, that's about as high a compliment as I can boast about though. My youngest daughter has said that she grew up hearing melodic music in the morning down stairs as if Beethoven was in the living room playing the piano. But then we don't call her affectionately the ding bat for nothing ! I'll take my oldests daughters compliment more seriously but I am glad she enjoyed the music in her childhood. Just with my youngest it could be mary had a little lamb I was playing and she would think the same way.

Working on some music the cords go to my marrow and I feel like I could cry, it's very very moving to me as I work on a new piece. Sometimes I have to stop and collect myself. They may be strong block cords or light arpeggiated cords. The Key of F major gives me a nice feeling every time I work in it. That B flat melds with my system I guess. It's been that way since I was a kid playing the accordian ( I'm 62 now).. Always once I get a piece fully worked up I'm too busy to get over emotional about it, my emotions are driven into the dynamics instead.. If I get over emotional I'll flub up.

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Massenet's 'Sous les tilleuls' from his 'Scènes Alsaciennes' is definitely another tear-jerker for me.

[moovingroovin]

Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto, the last movement in two or three different places, but mainly the huge romantic section at the very end.
That's actually made me cry in excess of 10 times i'm sure, its too beautiful for words.

Also, Chopin's Ballade no. 1, again the Fuoco ending. I think the film 'The Pianist' probably had something to do with this.

[austinarg]

Rach 2, when well played, makes me cry. When it is badly played I weep for the future of humanity.

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Rach 2, when well played, makes me cry. When it is badly played I weep for the future of humanity.

By the way, that's also one of my favorite sections of the whole Rach 3, moovingroovin I just absolutely adore the way it goes all up towards the highest note in the keyboard (well, unless you're playing on one of those pianos that go beyond that last C, bien sûr ), and so dramatically!

[pianotrio]

Music often makes me cry - or at least get very emotional. It's not about sadness at all.

In earthly terms, I think it's awe: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, etc., produced by what is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or just beautiful; contact with the Universe, God, the Truth, or whatever you want to call it.

Paul

You said it.  Though sometimes it's a more earthy 'gut' reaction.

Your post made me think about this a bit. Although I play the piano, piano music doesn't normally make me cry. Singing does, and the sound of solo string instruments - probably because of their affinity to the human voice. Not all voices are equal though: Callas's rendition of "La mamma morta" always but always makes me cry, but any other singer's does not.

Other than the voice it seems to be particular harmonies or progressions that provoke an intense reaction.

Just a (very) few examples of pieces that have a very powerful effect of the "sublime" on me: the chorale at the very end of the Matthaeus Passion (after listening to the whole thing through); "Erbarme dich mein Gott"; the first bars of Mozart's Mass in c minor. Schostakovich I always feel extremely strongly, especially the cello sonata and the viola sonata. Beethoven feels sublime and exalted somehow.

(possibly interesting anecdote: Schubert's string quartet no. 15 when I listened to it recently, made me feel awful, really emotionally drained, and not in a good way. I think I was in a bad place generally on that day and I got a lot of violent emotion from that piece. I love Schubert and the quartet, but I never had that happen before.)   

Now, Italian opera - I adore it! Goes right to the gut. This is the more earthy type of music to me, even though it's also sublime in its own way. The end bit of the great Aida-Amonasro scene, that culminates in her "o patria, quanto mi costi!" always reduces me to tears. And Puccini is a shameless manipulator of the heart strings! 
 
(I'm a new member btw, this is my first post. What a fun forum!)

[pytheamateur]

I once made a little girl cried when I played Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganinni in a school concert.  It was actually such a poor performance that I should have been ashamed of myself. 

[moovingroovin]

By the way, that's also one of my favorite sections of the whole Rach 3, moovingroovin I just absolutely adore the way it goes all up towards the highest note in the keyboard (well, unless you're playing on one of those pianos that go beyond that last C, bien sûr ), and so dramatically!

Exactly, my favourite few bars of any piece of music Pure beauty transcribed into sound.

[p2u_]

Other than the voice it seems to be particular harmonies or progressions that provoke an intense reaction.

Exactly right. A good singer can even suggest the accompaniment with his/her voice, even when there is none. Are you familiar with the "Mondschein factor" in the rendering of Panis Angelicus by Luciano Pavarotti and Sting?

P.S.: Welcome!

Paul

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Schumann's No.2 'Langsam' from his 'Fünf Stücke im Volkston Op.102', is another of those pieces that can easily move me to tears

[pies]

a

[cmg]

Ferneyhough

:-)

But seriously, Mahler Sixth Adagio movement.  Durufle Requiem, from beginning to end.  Sublime.

[mingusmonk]

Cage 4'33"

[0llum]

A song that makes me cry is one of my own:

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Cage 4'33"

Lol

Chopin prelude op. 28 no. 4!  Except when I learned it, I didn't like it anymore.  I was kinda disappointed.  

But then there's Rachmaninoff's vocalize by Richardson's version and Wild's version!

AND THEN there's this passage of the second movement of Rachmaninoff's third!  I don't know if all editions are the same, but for me it starts on page 45.  There's the number 36 with the box around it at the beginning.  Whatever that means...  It's like right after the Poco pui mosso tocatta part.  But ANYWAYS, from there to the very end it's soooooooooooooooooo sad!!!!!!!!!!!!  Cause it starts off with this c# major scale thing, and it's like, 'oh yeah I'm so cool' then all of the sudden there's a Meno mosso and the first four chords are like 'dude prepare yourself, something bad is gonna happen!' and then the orchestra comes in and it's like 'daaaaang!!!  You feel extra salty!!!!!!!!'  Then after that's over, the orchestra takes over and it's soooooooooooooooooooo sad!!!!!!!!!  I have a more romantic image of how I interpret it but it's too long to explain.  I think Lazar Berman the best job at this.  

From 9:22 till the end

[pytheamateur]

Lol

But then there's Rachmaninoff's vocalize by Richardson's version and Wild's version!

Which version do you prefer?  I've got both and want to start learning it soon.  Wild's version seems a lot more difficult.  I think it's in the Lisztian tradition in that he varied the texture when the theme appears the second time.  The climax is very effective.