What's the most gorgeous piece of music that's ever hit your ears?

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Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
10
81
Test pieces:

Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor - Allegro con fuoco (1st movement)
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 - 1st movement
Beethoven - Sonata no. 14 "Mondschein" - Adagio Sostenuto (Moonlight Sonata)
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,407
39
91
Originally posted by: shilala
Originally posted by: iwearnosox
Please tell me more about this klipsch/turtle beach/foobar combo.

Klipsch 5.1 Promedia Ultra/ Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound card/ Foobar with Kernel Streaming enabled.
The sound is unreal. Literally.

Nice placebo effect you got there with your kernel streaming ;)
 

Insomnium

Senior member
Aug 8, 2000
644
0
0
Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers (amazing piece of music, hard to find it performed in the proper way. The "100 Greatest Classical Masterpieces" album or something like that had an amazing rendition)

Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition - The Great Gate at Kiev (has an amazing violin piece that, to my surprise, I heard played at my local Apple store to show off the iPod + Bose combo)
 

sobriquet

Senior member
Sep 10, 2002
912
0
0
Originally posted by: preslove
Shoenberg's transfigured night in an orchestral performance is also fvcking incredible. It's really forceful and fast, but is very intricate.

His Gurrelieder is also fantastic. I get to go see it on Feb. 6th with the LA Phil. That's going to be sweet.
For some more "contemporary" music, there's:
Iron Foundry by Mosolov
Ionisation by Varese
The Banshee by Cowell
Symphony No. 3 by Gorecki
Idle Chatter by Lansky
Atmospheres by Ligeti
Des Canyons aux Etoiles by Messiaen
Fragmente-Stille by Nono
Summa by Part
Sensemaya by Revueltas
Khoom by Scelsi
Kreuzspiel by Stockhausen
Six Bagatelles by Webern
Metastaseis by Xenakis

The only piece on that list that would fit the traditional notion of gorgeous is probably Symphony 3 by Gorecki, but I am always blown away when I listen to them.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,932
1,113
126
Dvorak-Symphony From the New World Largo
Pachelbel-Canon in D
Bach-Fugue in G Minor

If you want exceptionally soft music, try:

Tourin-Snowy Wood or
William Zeitler-Saturn
 

thelanx

Diamond Member
Jul 3, 2000
3,299
0
0
There are plugin's for KS and ASIO for winamp, although I've only got ASIO working. You'll know if KS or ASIO is working if system sounds or other sounds interrupt the song such that the song still plays, but you don't hear it. This is due to KS and ASIO bypassing the window's mixer, which resamples the sound, but if you are playing another song the window's mixer jumps in and interrupts the KS or ASIO. The wave volume slider is bypassed, but the master volume slider is not. While the higher volume may produce the illusion of more and better detail, equalizing the volumes I still find the ASIO to sound different. ASIO sounds clearer yet fuller. Just my opinion of course, ymmv.
 

sobriquet

Senior member
Sep 10, 2002
912
0
0
Originally posted by: preslove
Originally posted by: sobriquet
Originally posted by: preslove
Shoenberg's transfigured night in an orchestral performance is also fvcking incredible. It's really forceful and fast, but is very intricate.

His Gurrelieder is also fantastic. I get to go see it on Feb. 6th with the LA Phil. That's going to be sweet.

What's a good recording of it?

My favorite so far is the Berlin Philharmonic under Simor Rattle. There are two more good recordings with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa and New York under Mehta.