Inspired by Tom Waits’ album selection, I downloaded and listened to the Nessun Dorma aria from Turandot by Puccini. I know the tune, but I’ve never listened to this piece of music closely. I’d challenge you to have a listen to it at a decent volume and not get goosebumps.
So this got me to thinking: what pieces of music are powerful enough to invoke a physical reaction for me? Here’s what I can think of. I’ll build the list as more come to me.
- Nessun Dorma aria from Turandot by Puccini (also on lots of compilation albums like this one)
- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, blending into the opening bars of Tonight, both from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins.
- Hallelujah. Originally by Leonard Cohen, but I particularly like Jeff Buckley’s version.
- Any Day Now from The Sound of White by Missy Higgins. I’m a sucker for piano-pop.
- Hurt as covered by Johnny Cash
(originally Nine Inch Nails).
Updates:
- Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) by Antonin Dvorak, in particular the 4th movement (Allegro con fuoco). Fantastic stuff.
Do you get that feeling when you’re listening to a song and you happent o play through your head the next part of the song, and when it actually plays a shiver runs through all your body?
No idea why, but it happens to me most on slow-melodic Nine Inch Nails songs
Santa Monica by Everclear and Nameless Girl by the Exponents give me that tingle. i think it’s mostly to do with my state of mind and emotions when I first heard them, or something that was going on around the time they came out.
Oh yeah, I should have said Under The Milky Way by The Church, or The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen. Ever since Donny Darko, anyway.