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Comment by fcatalan | Hacker News Reader

I get chills from music here and there. The piece that most reliably will produce the strongest effect on me is "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Looking at the article there seems to be a genetic component, but no one in my family has ever mentioned them, I should go ask.

We are not a "musical" family. No one plays competently any instruments or goes to concerts. I have an ukulele that I use mostly as a noisy version of a fidget spinner.

From the article I see that the openmindedness trait fits, at least musically: I sometimes go on YouTube musical late night binges and they can easily range from Renaissance guitar pieces to KPop via Mozart, Slipknot or some obscure Latvian folklore.

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Here is a wonderful recording of "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" played in Gloucester Cathedral:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY&list=RDihx5LCF1y...

You should listen to Classic FM. You can switch it on at random and this tune is often playing. If it isn't, then it's usually Saint Saens' Organ Symphony finale (as featured in "Babe".) :)

I non-ironically got them chills just by hearing a few bars while checking your link.

I tend to go for this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIhZbvlCjY0 because although I can´t read music I can kind of vibe-read the score by looking at the waves of notes following the music. For me it adds to the experience.

Also the almost organ-like effects of the two separate orchestras seem stronger in this recording than in any other I've tried.

Beautiful, within the first 3 seconds for me too, incredible

My wife just said she wasn't getting any chills, but definitely some yawns :)

It makes me dream of traveling between planets using wormholes for some reason

I'm going to chime in with some more examples of (for me) chills inducing classical music pieces:

- Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor (very dark)

- Rossinis Barber of Seville Overture

- Mozarts "The Magic Flute" Overture (helps if you know the opera)

- Mozarts Symphony No. 39 in E, as soon as the allegro starts

- Schuberts Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished", the whole thing makes me want to burst with excitement

Thank you for sharing the track: I got chills within the first few seconds... could it be a matter of the high-harmonic frequencies of the strings, and the crescendo combined with the spacious reverb of the place where the music is performed?

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