http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVpl-RNzdE4Saint-Saens "Aquarium" Movement from Le Carnaval Des Animaux in one of the most beautiful, yet mysterious piece ever to grace my ears. Picture, if you will. strings without the double-bass, a pair of pianos, a flute, and glass harmonica. It's one of the more musically rich movements. The melody is played by the flute, backed by the strings, on top of glissando runs in the piano. The first piano plays a descending ten-on-one ostinato, while the second plays a six-on-one. These figures, plus the occasional glissando from the glass harmonica, are evocative of a peaceful, dimly-lit aquarium. To me, it kind of sounds like something Tim Burton could easily slip into one of movies without you noticing it.
It was the opening theme to Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" film. Truly, one of the most beautifully filmed movies of the 70s, and living proof that powerful symbolic imagery can easily overtake conventional dialogue and plotting, especially since it won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and being included in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
