OK, we’ve had the “One Hundred Books, bold the ones you’ve read” meme (which I punted), and the “One Hundred Movies, bold the ones you’ve seen” meme (which I didn’t). So it seems obvious to me that what’s needed now is a “One Hundred Classical Music Works, bold the ones you’ve heard” meme. (Although that’s a misnomer. There are more than a hundred here.)
I’ve culled the following list from sampling through David Dubal’s book The Essential Canon of Classical Music. I was basically looking for pretty representative works that strike me as being works that a person at least moderately attuned to classical music has probably heard. I am not making any claim for the greatness of these works (except for the Berlioz ones, obviously), nor am I implying any lesser stature to the thousands of works I didn’t pick. So don’t write me any nasty e-mails because I didn’t list Max Wienerschnitzel’s Concerto Grosso for Eight Cellos and a Glockenspiel, op. 46b. OK? Likewise, don’t flame me for including a handful of film scores. Always remember my Rule of Film Music: Good film music must be good music first, and good music by definition can stand alone.
(I do think that this hastily-gathered list would be a good starting point for people interested in classical music, though. Even if it is heavily skewed to orchestral music, which by far constitutes the bulk of my listening. And by the way, this isn’t an attempt to make myself seem “well-listened”. Thumbing through Dubal’s book, I am astonished at the amount of classical music — much of it quite famous indeed — that I have never heard.)
And for the purposes of this list, I take “having heard” a work pretty liberally. If I know that I have heard it at some point in the past, whether or not I own a recording of it currently or if I can even hum a tune from it, I bold it.
(And “bold” as a verb seems wrong. Better to say “embolden”, I suppose.)
Now, the List, arranged roughly in order of when the composers lived.
1. Handel, Messiah
2. Handel, Water Music
3. J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos (any of them would count, I guess)
4. J.S. Bach, The Passion According to St. Matthew
5. J.S. Bach, Toccata and fugue in D-minor
6. Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (any would count)
7. Pergolesi, Stabat Mater
8. Haydn, Symphony No. 104 in D “London”
9. Haydn, The Creation
10. Mozart, Requiem
11. Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro
12. Mozart, Die Zauberflote
13. Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G-minor
14. Mozart, Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra
15. Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat “Eroica”
16. Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C-minor
17. Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D-minor
18. Beethoven, Piano sonata No. 8 in C-minor “Pathetique”
19. Beethoven, Piano sonata No. 29 in B-flat “Hammerklavier”
20. Rossini, Overture to “Guillaume Tell”
21. Schubert, Symphony no. 9 in C-major “The Great”
22. Schubert, Quintet in A for Piano and Strings “Trout”
23. Weber, Der Freischutz
24. Donizetti, Norma
25. Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique
26. Berlioz, Harold in Italy
27. Berlioz, Romeo et Juliet
28. Berlioz, Grande messe des mortes
29. Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust
30. Mendelssohn, Concerto in E-minor for violin and orchestra
31. Mendelssohn, Symphony no. 4 in A “Italian”
32. Mendelssohn, Symphony no. 5 in D “Reformation”
33. Mendelssohn, Overture and incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
34. Schumann, Concerto in A-minor for piano and orchestra
35. Schumann, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat “Rhenish”
36. Schumann, Symphony No. 4 in D-minor
37. Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
38. Liszt, Les Preludes for orchestra
39. Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C-minor
40. Brahms, Symphony No. 2 in D
41. Brahms, Academic Festival Overture
42. Brahms, A German Requiem
43. Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (part of it does NOT count!)
44. Wagner, Lohengrin
45. Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
46. Verdi, La Traviata
47. Verdi, Rigoletto
48. Verdi, Aida
49. Offenbach, The Tales of Hoffman
50. Franck, Symphony in D-minor
51. Smetana, The Moldau (Symphonic poem No. 2 from “Ma Vlast”)
52. Bruckner, Symphony No. 4 in E-flat “Romantic”
53. J. Strauss II, Tales of the Vienna Woods
54. J. Strauss II, On the Beautiful Blue Danube
55. Saint-Saens, Symphony No. 3 in C-minor “Organ”
56. Saint-Saens, The Carnival of the Animals
57. Bizet, Carmen
58. Mussorgsky, A Night on Bald Mountain
59. Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition
60. Tchaikovsky, Romeo And Juliet Festival Overture
61. Tchaikovsky, Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor for piano and orchestra
62. Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker (the entire ballet, not the suite)
63. Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 in E-minor
64. Sullivan, The Mikado
65. Sullivan, HMS Pinafore
66. Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 in E-minor “From the New World”
67. Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade
68. Faure, Requiem
69. Puccini, La Boheme
70. Puccini, Tosca
71. Puccini, Madama Butterfly
72. Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C-minor “Resurrection”
73. Mahler, Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor
74. Debussy, Prelude on the Afternoon of a Faun
75. Debussy, La Mer
76. Strauss, Death and Transfiguration
77. Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra
78. Strauss, Don Quixote
79. Sibelius, Finlandia
80. Dukas, The Sorceror’s Apprentice
81. Scriabin, Symphony No. 4 “La Poeme de l’extase”
82. Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending
83. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 2 “London”
84. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5 in D-Major
85. Holst, The Planets
86. Rachmaninov, Concerto No. 2 in C-minor for piano and orchestra
87. Rachmaninov, Symphony No. 2 in E-minor
88. Rachmaninov, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
89. Schoenberg, Transfigured Night
90. Schoenberg, Five pieces for orchestra
91. Ravel, Daphnis et Chloe
92. Ravel, Concerto in D-Major for piano (left hand) and orchestra
93. Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra
94. Respighi, The Pines of Rome
95. Stravinsky, Petrouchka
96. Stravinsky, The Firebird
97. Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring
98. Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms
99. Berg, Wozzeck
100. Berg, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
101. Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet
102. Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat
103. Ives, The Unanswered Question
104. Milhaud, The Creation of the World
105. Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
106. Gershwin, An American in Paris
107. Copland, A Lincoln Portrait
108. Copland, Appalachian Spring
109. Hanson, Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”
110. Korngold, Concerto in D-Major for violin and orchestra
111. Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5 in D-minor
112. Shostakovich, Symphony No. 8 in C-minor
113. Shostakovich, King Lear (film score)
114. Finzi, Concerto in C-minor for clarinet and strings
115. Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time
116. Messiaen, Turangalila Symphony
117. Williams, Star Wars (film score)
118. Herrmann, Vertigo (film score)
119. Rozsa, Ben Hur (film score)
120. Goldsmith, The Wind and the Lion (film score)
121. Shore, The Lord of the Rings (film score) (all of it)
There you go. Let the meme spread throughout all Blogistan, and let there be milk and bagels throughout all the land!
