Classical music is something, I feel, helps man to refine his thoughts and feelings. I believe it is one of the most expressive types of music -- oftentimes without lyrics. In fact, that proves its power -- the melodic messages transcend words to connect man's heart to God, to heaven, and certainly to all those "larger-than-life" thoughts and feelings we all experience. For helping man to define the world around him, I love classical music.
Johann Sebastian Bach:
"[Music is] For the glory of the most high God alone, And for my neighbour to learn from."
"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul."
Here are 80 of my favorite pieces and something I have learned/experienced from each one. They are in no particular order:
- Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)
The sound of peril in gluttony & lust - Swan Lake Suite (Tchaikovsky)
The very essence of grace, beauty & elegance - Peer Gynt: In The Hall of the Mountain King
(Edvard Greig)
Rising action of any good story sounds like this… - Brandenburg Concertos (J. S. Bach)
Extravagance and richness! - Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight Sonata” (Beethoven)
Melancholic purge power! - Eine Klein Nachtmusic (Mozart)
Childhood memory of standing in front of the Hi-Fi conducting my own orchestra - Ave Maria (Schubert)
Such an expression of respect & devotion - Für Elise (Beethoven)
Some of my earliest piano memories - Cantata BWV 208 “Sheep May Safely Graze” (J. S. Bach)
All things gentle and pure - The Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner)
Bugs Bunny & friends! - Vocalise No. 14 for Cello & Piano (Rachmaninoff)
Sings the song of the aching heart - Entry of the Nobles from Mlada (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Fanfare for the truly important people in life - Largo Al Factorum--Barber of Seville (Rossini)
How to prep an audience for the truly unbelievable - Lohengrin (Wagner)
What a story heard here - March of the Toreadors--Carmen (Bizet)
Thank you Sesame Street for exposing me to great opera! - La Traviata (Verdi)
Although tragic, has it’s colorful and live moments - Waltzes (Strauss)
Sum up all my daydreams of being swept away in a beautiful gown by my handsome prince - La Boheme (Puccini)
What tragedy in love sounds like - Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo)
Reminds me of the sounds from within the walls of the Alhambra with all it’s Moorish influence - 1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky)
What is a firework show without this piece complete with cannons? - Nessun Dorma--Turandot (Puccini)
Summarizes my life-long love affair with Italian and the exquisite tenor voice - Piano Sonata No. 8 “Pathétique” (Beethoven)
Permission to daydream - Suite No. 1 BWV for Cello (J. S. Bach)
The cello hits the frequency of my own beating heart - On the Beautiful Blue Danube (Strauss)
Now that is party music! - Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp (Mahler)
A grown-up’s lullaby - Concerto Grosso in G Minor--Christmas Concert (Handel)
Every Christmas is made more lovely with the musical genius of Handel - Boléro (Ravel)
This paints a picture of the mounting intensity of the bullfighters dance OR the Roman Legions marching before the Emperor - Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 “Morning Mood” (Edvard Greig)
Good morning to the world…reminds me I am thankful for each brand new day! - Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major (Mozart)
It’s o.k. for adults to skip down the street, isn’t it? - Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (Rachmaninoff)
This is the song my heart wants to sing when I find the love of my life. I don’t think there is a more romantic piece - Trois Gymnopedies No. 1 (Satie)
The rain that is falling on my window; very relaxing - Concerto for Piano & Orchestra in A Minor (Edvard Grieg)
A surprise around every corner, just as in life - Adagio for Strings (Barber)
The tragedy of a love that can never be - Water Music (Handel)
The summation of all things Baroque - Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin)
An American in Paris – need I say more? - Fanfare for the Common Man (Copeland)
And so should great men be announced… - Appalachian Spring (Copeland)
I can feel the air and see the sky - Rodeo (Copeland)
“Beef, it’s what’s for dinner!” - Claire de Lune (Debussy)
Floating, weightlessness - The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
All the forces of Nature at work: brute chill & gale of Winter, flirtatiousness of Spring, the warm caress of Summer, and the wistfulness of Fall - Cello Concerto in B Minor (Dvorak)
Musical genius - Carnival of the Animals--Swan (Saint-Saëns)
The grace and beauty of the ballerina - Requiem Mass in D Minor (Mozart)
An intense choral response to grief - Concerto for Mandolin, Strings & Brass in C Major (J. S. Bach) Bach could persuade the atheist to believe...
- Cannon in D (Pachelbel)
My earliest memory of classical music played by my parents - Also Spach Zarathustra (Strauss)
2001: Space Odyssey - Trumpet Voluntary--The Prince of Denmark (Clarke)
My memories of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London - Messiah (Handel)
Inspired of God; has there ever been a more inspiring piece of music written? - Symphony Fantastique (Berlioz)
A memory of Paris on a college trip - Symphony No. 9 in D Minor --Ode to Joy (Beethoven)
Happiness embodied in music! - Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (J. S. Bach)
Best heard inside some of the greatest cathedrals in Europe - Music for the death of Queen Mary (Purcell)
What a tragic story in history; reminds me of being inside Westminster Abbey - Hungarian Dances No. 5 in G Minor (Brahms)
Dizzying, frenetic pace – makes you want to jump into the culture - Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (Mozart)
Summation of Mozart’s musical genius - Stars & Stripes Forever (Sousa)
My father used to crank this up on the Hi-Fi every 4th of July and wake the dead! - Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky)
So very dark and mysterious…just the piece to play on Halloween Night! - The Planets (Holst)
Written for a “large” orchestra … what an understatement! - Habanera--Carmen (Bizet)
Again, Sesame Street brings the visual of the singing orange! - Variation on a Theme from Paganini (Rachmaninov)
‘Somewhere in Time’ and Christopher Reeve! *sigh* - The Nutcracker--Chinese, Russian, Russian, Arabian & Clown Dances (Tchaikovsky)
Christmas, going to see the Nutcracker with my grandmother and great-grandmother @ the Capitol Theater - Movie Themes for Superman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars (Williams)
Let's not forget the modern composer. It’s unbelievable how many times I listened to these LPs growing up. Such memories! - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Liszt)
I’m willing to bet this piece has appeared more often in soundtracks than we realize! - Royal Fireworks Music (Handel)
Title defines all… - Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (Edvard Grieg)
My cousin and I had this old record with wedding music on it, and we’d dress up and switch places marching down the isle to this piece - Pie Jesu (Faure)
Memories of the Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City - Air on the G String (J. S. Bach)
Soothing, calming, peaceful - Panis Angelicus (Franck)
The beauty of the harps make it sound like heaven - Concerto for Two Trumpets in B, Allegro (Vivaldi)
One of my Humanities professors favorites, we dissected it so many times, it's burned into my mind - Gaîté Parisienne: Baracolle--The Tales of Hoffman (Offenbach)
If you listen to this piece and don’t want to kiss someone all along the way, there is NO HOPE for you at all! - Can-can--Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach)
Oh this story blows Moulin Rouge clean out of the water! - Washington Post March (Sousa)
Oh, what a day for a parade! Yay! - He Is An Englishman--H.M.S Pinafore (Gilbert & Sullivan)
Reminds me of my crazy, singing family & our Perkins family reunions! - Three Little Maids From School--The Mikado(Gilbert & Sullivan)
Ditto… - The Very Model of a Modern-Major General--Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan)
Ditto… - Má Vlast (Smetana)
Listening to this, what’s not to love about Bohemia? - Chariots of Fire (Vangelis)
Again, in the spirit of modern composers, this is so very inspiring & my mission president's favorite - Radetsky March Op. 228 (Strauss)
As a 5 yr. old, listening to this piece, I led the march in my very own parade! - Polovetsian Dances--Prince Igor (Borodin)
Kismet, or if you prefer “Manifest Destiny" - Romeo & Juliet Suites No. 1 and 2 (Berlioz)
The perfect musical tribute to one of the greatest stories and playwrights of all time - Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev)
From one of my earliest story reading memories, I learned how the instruments tell the story
