Your Favorite Classical Compositions

What are your top three?

Just so you know, if you pick any of the most famous pieces (Beethoven's 5th) I will personally come over to your house and bludgeon you to within an inch of your life. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Captain Beefheart]

"Entering into this post-modern age we will witness the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture-Fredric Jameson

Classical elitism from your part Dennis, why am I not surprised? If I come across as a **** here, sorry. I just have a low tolerance for stating the blatantly obvious.

But i'm afraid you won't get any of the answers you're looking for. Simple, no one here listens to classical music for a start, most of them don't understand the values of classical music as tradition and probably most of them don't realize the effects on modern culture and music today(how releavant/irrelavant they are in a sense you could say). This thread is dangerous not because of popularity or lack thereof, but because everytime there is a thread like this it turns into a dispute about what is and what isn't classical music. People seem to forget that classical music is more than just music from the classical period (in other words, it's art music rather than entertainment music). Most layman's just hip themselves into the bastardations(*sp*) of popular movements like Beethovens "Moonlight Sonata", "Nutcracker Symphony", "Canon in D" and that's pretty much it. I think most people witha brain generally make an impenetrable distinction between what they consider "high art" (classical music and possibly jazz) and "popular art" (pop, rock, basically everything else). Frank Zappa was really one of the first people (that I know of) to remove that distinction. He believed that high art and popular art could coexist and intermingle; and he demonstrated this in many of his compositions. He wrote and performed everything from bop to pop to jazz to rock to classical and then some. And they somehow all worked together! He could apply his musical skills equally to both the classical and the popular sides of music; to the point that the border was blurred and it was all just Zappa. Over the years, other artists have also incorporated "popular art" into "high art", and vice versa. Let's just look at some recent examples in music and musique concrete(I'm don't know so much about other disciplines): Philp Glass, Peter Schaeffer, Frank Zappa(you got it), Steve Reich, John Cage, Edgard Varese, and most fusion artists like Miles Davis and Chick Corea in a different way. Well, the list goes on, and on.

Anyways in answer to your quesiton, my favorites are probably Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring", Mozart's "Jupiter Symphony", Bach's "Brandenberg Concerto", Dvorak's "Symphony #9", Chopin's "Marche Funebre", Debussy "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun", Debussy "Claire de Lune, Liszt "Transcendental Studies", Samuel L. Barber's "Adagio For Strings", Ravel's "Bolero", Wagner "Ride of the Valkyries", Holsts "The Planets"

[ January 25, 2004, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: Captain Beefheart ]

Bach - Toccata And Fugue in D Minor

Bach - Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor

Beethoven's 5th symphony.

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata

Debussy - Claire De Lune


and several more...but im done typing.

Grieg - Hall of the mountain King
Grieg - Peer Gynt
Beethoven - Fur Elise (not sure if it's Mozart or Beethoven)

I made this topic more with the intention to know if people listened to classical music at all - not only what kind. Your choices aren't too generic, UM. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Silje, Hall of the Mountain King is Peer Gynt. ;) You're right about Fur Elise, though.

I don't really have any favorite compositions at all.

Originally posted by Dennis::
Silje, Hall of the Mountain King is Peer Gynt. ;) You're right about Fur Elise, though.

Lol, there you see how much I listen to classical music [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Anything by Ludovico Einaudi

Greig's piano concerto in A minor

Mozart - Queen of the night Aria from the Magic Flute

Bach - solo cello concertos (all 6 of them)

John Williams - Duel of the Fates

John Cage - 4mins 33secs [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/upside.gif[/img]

'theme de camille' (casino soundtrack). dont know composer.

samuel barber - adagio for strings

john williams - ? (schindler's list theme)

Grieg - Piano Concerto in A Minor
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
Handel - Crap i can't remember what it's called, but it was used in a Levi's advert.


And although it's not classical, i recommend 8 song for a mad king for anyone who needs to be unhinged :D (I'll get the composer later)

^ Sarabande in some key or other for the Levis advert where they run thru the walls.

That's the one :D

Tchaikovsky's (did I spell that right?) Romeo and Juliet theme ohhhhh.

Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca.

Bach's Minuet in G Minor bahahhaha. [img]smile.gif[/img] \

Edit: I hate Fur Elise with a passion. That piece is so damn repetitive.

[ February 23, 2004, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: Lobby ]

^I'm pretty sure thats right. Although I have seen it with a 'w' instead of the 'v.' I am going to see Romeo and Juliet (the Ballet) next month.

no particular order:

Chopin - Nocturne C sharp minor; Polonaise Brilliante for Violoncello and Piano
Smetana - Vitava (from "Mà Vlast")
Mussorgsky - Pictures At An Exhibition
Beethoven - Violin Concerto Op. 61; Für Elise
Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 "From The New World"
Debussy - La Mer
Ives - The Unanswered Question
Sibelius - Violin Concerto Op. 47
Hindemith - Mathis der Maler (don't know the English title, sorry... [img]graemlins/ohwell.gif[/img] )


...more to come!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ February 23, 2004, 08:56 AM: Message edited by: rosalie ]

Originally posted by Scoobie:
John Cage - 4mins 33secs [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/upside.gif[/img]

I can play that flawlessly.

i play the piano so i have too many to list..

Originally posted by Dennis 2:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Scoobie:
John Cage - 4mins 33secs [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/upside.gif[/img]

I can play that flawlessly. </font>[/quote]Really?? .....cos I've been having real problems, I think I might be playing it in the wrong key [img]tongue.gif[/img] lol

And to the poster above I know what you mean. I play both piano and cello and there are just too many to list. I thoroughly recommend Ludovico Einaudi though! His work is piano based and I can't put it into a category. It's just amazing!

Originally posted by Captain Beefheart:
"Entering into this post-modern age we will witness the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture-Fredric Jameson

Classical elitism from your part Dennis, why am I not surprised? If I come across as a **** here, sorry. I just have a low tolerance for stating the blatantly obvious.

But i'm afraid you won't get any of the answers you're looking for. Simple, no one here listens to classical music for a start, most of them don't understand the values of classical music as tradition and probably most of them don't realize the effects on modern culture and music today(how releavant/irrelavant they are in a sense you could say). This thread is dangerous not because of popularity or lack thereof, but because everytime there is a thread like this it turns into a dispute about what is and what isn't classical music. People seem to forget that classical music is more than just music from the classical period (in other words, it's art music rather than entertainment music). Most layman's just hip themselves into the bastardations(*sp*) of popular movements like Beethovens "Moonlight Sonata", "Nutcracker Symphony", "Canon in D" and that's pretty much it. I think most people witha brain generally make an impenetrable distinction between what they consider "high art" (classical music and possibly jazz) and "popular art" (pop, rock, basically everything else). Frank Zappa was really one of the first people (that I know of) to remove that distinction. He believed that high art and popular art could coexist and intermingle; and he demonstrated this in many of his compositions. He wrote and performed everything from bop to pop to jazz to rock to classical and then some. And they somehow all worked together! He could apply his musical skills equally to both the classical and the popular sides of music; to the point that the border was blurred and it was all just Zappa. Over the years, other artists have also incorporated "popular art" into "high art", and vice versa. Let's just look at some recent examples in music and musique concrete(I'm don't know so much about other disciplines): Philp Glass, Peter Schaeffer, Frank Zappa(you got it), Steve Reich, John Cage, Edgard Varese, and most fusion artists like Miles Davis and Chick Corea in a different way. Well, the list goes on, and on.

Anyways in answer to your quesiton, my favorites are probably Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring", Mozart's "Jupiter Symphony", Bach's "Brandenberg Concerto", Dvorak's "Symphony #9", Chopin's "Marche Funebre", Debussy "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun", Debussy "Claire de Lune, Liszt "Transcendental Studies", Samuel L. Barber's "Adagio For Strings", Ravel's "Bolero", Wagner "Ride of the Valkyries", Holsts "The Planets"

Your a *** dude...if you were in front of me..and I had a gun...I'd shoot you, hands down... :(