Frisson: a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill. Described better on Wikipedia here.

What songs or passages of music cause you to experience this?

For me, such passages create a ‘tingle’ in my brain, or something to that effect. It’s hard to describe, but very noticeable.

I was just listening to the song Wayne by Chantal Kreviazuk, which causes that very sensation for me around 2:35 into the video (2:55 into song on iTunes oddly enough) with the little piano riff and the strings kicking in (after the “under these rocks and stones” line). That’s what prompted me to ask this question.

Another instance is with the song M79 by Vampire Weekend, which happens at about 3:50 of the song when the strings kick into overdrive for the last few lines of the song. It’s strings again, which is maybe a theme for me, hmm.

There are other songs that don’t immediately leap to mind, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to both make a post and find out what causes this for other people. So please feel free to comment if you feel like sharing. 🙂