Robert Peters <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>What are some of your magic moments of music? I am very interested
>in hearing from you.

 - The opening theme of the slow movement in Beethoven's Hammerklavier
   sonata, where the melody reaches up to a B as the harmony moves to a
   sunny G major, then sinks back to F# minor.

 - The seventh bar of the last movement of Brahms' 4th Symphony, where
   on the way down to the tonic E, the bass line moves not to F#, as
   you'd expect, but an F natural, creating a gloriously nasty
   augmented sixth chord.  Oh, to be a contrabassonist.

 - While we're on Brahms, the spine-chilling "Denn alles Fleisch, es
   ist wie Gras" refrain in the Deutches Requiem.

 - The chorus entering with "Watchmen tell us of the night" at the end
   of the first movement of Ives' 4th.

 - The trombones blaring out the 'statue theme' in thirds while the
   strings and winds (not to mention the ghostly Ondes Martenot) swoop
   and shimmer, in Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony.

 - The last few minutes of Steve Reich's "The Four Sections": a giant
   inhuman machine in five walking over our heads.

 - Robert Fripp spending around five minutes to ascend a chromatic
   scale in King Crimson's "Starless".

 - Black Francis wailing, "Come on pilgrim, you KNOW he LOVES you!" as
   the rest of the band holds their breath in the Pixies' "Levitate
   Me".

Dan Schmidt | http://www.dfan.org
Honest Bob CD now available! | http://www.dfan.org/honestbob/cd.html