Pachelbel’s canon is exquisite. I think it’s a piece in four parts in which they start at intervals and basically follow the same tune building to the crescendo and then gradually simplifying and fading back out again. Exquisite.
As a moment in a song, I love the ‘breaking glass’ in Lou Reed / The Velvet Undergound’s ‘Caroline Says’. 3:23
and also the Cure – Plainsong; which is so bleak but right at the end (and you have to strain to hear it) a depressing minor chord just suddenly starts to warm, like the first bit of warmth of sun coming up after a night of rain at Mayhem
[edit] listening hard I’m not even sure it does on this clip, but you can tell it wants to.