I have been searching for the answer to this question for what feels like "all my life". The album version of the 1998 classic, "All My Life" by K-Ci and JoJo begins with a 30-second introduction featuring a hauntingly beautiful violin. Is this little bit of classical music part of a larger work? Was it created solely to be a 30-second introduction for a song on a 90s R&B album? What is this angelic melody that haunts my soul???

Thank you.

Update:

Thank you all for your help with this mystery! I certainly wasn't expecting such a big response. This subreddit definitely has a new member. :) I guess that maybe this little piece of music touched others as well. Thank you especially to u/BingeWatcherBot who sent me down a path of locating the composer, Randy Waldman.

Last night I submitted a message to Mr. Waldman via the contact form on his web site, and he already got back to me this morning! Here is his response:

Hi [delugetheory],

Thanks for your music appreciation! There is no secret mystery to that intro. Anytime I had an orchestra at my disposal, I always would try to write something harmonically and orchestrally interesting to add something special to the project. I’ve written hundreds of orchestral intros for various pop and R&B songs for many different artists.

That’s the whole story!

Best,

Randy

I'm a bit sad as I was really hoping that there was more to this tiny bit of beautiful music, but this was a fun mystery and will make a great little story about how I searched for years for an answer, posted to an online forum of private investigators, and ended up exchanging e-mails with the composer himself.

(u/wtfisapluot, before receiving Mr. Waldman's response, I listened to the entirety of Mendelssohn's Ejiah, not once but twice, and didn't hear anything quite like this piece. I'm pretty sure that you just tricked me, someone who is not a fan of opera, into listening to four hours of opera. You're an evil genius.)