Top Ten Pieces of Music Written Before 1900

Me ^ | 12-05-01 | Pharmboy

[Pharmboy]

Ask the question this way: If you were stranded on a desert island with a CD player and a good sound system, what ten pieces would you take with you that were written before the 20th Century?

My list:
1) Beethoven's Appassionata sonata for piano
2) Bach's Partita Number 2 for solo violin
3) Mozart's Symphony Number 41
4) Wagner's Overture to Tristan und Isolde
5) Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 131
6) Chopin's Ballade Number 4
7) Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (IMO the only worthwhile thing he ever wrote)
8) Schubert's Impromptus (all of them)
9) Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata
and 10) Bach's Mass in B Minor

[johnboy]

wait a sec ... all of puccini versus, uh, others, on a top ten list?

au contraire, sir, au contraire. i already nominated puccini with o mio babino caro, but after that? compared with some of the above? schuberts ave maria? jesu, joy of man's desiring? c'mon, man. time to break out the vinyl and give it a fresh listen.

[Looking4Truth]

Whuuut??? Ya mean there was music back then? Roooock nnnn rooollll, maaaaan!!!

Kidding....heh...heh..

[Nogbad]

The greatest composer of all time : Thyagaraja

(Contemporary of Mozart)

[johnboy]

Whuuut??? Ya mean there was music back then? Roooock nnnn rooollll, maaaaan!!!

for what it's worth, i got into a respectful disagreement with someone last night about whether benefit or stand represented jethro tull's crowning achievement.

zz top and zamfir are next to each other in my collection. ugh.

[Savage Beast]

Well Pharmboy's planning to take all of Schubert's impromptus.

Anyway, I like bambino caro and Ave Maria as much as the next guy does, but they're gonna wear thin after a few months, and something long, like La Boheme or something's gonna come in handy.

I'm not just crazy about Salome, but I fugure a year or so with it, and I might figure out what the hell Strauss was going on and on about.

By the way, I think I'll take Richard Strauss's complete works instead of Franz Liszt's.

P.S. I know I'm greedy. But there are worse things to be. And anyway, my mother always praised that as a virtue.

If you haven't heard Leontyne Price singing O Holy Night you're missing something. It's available at Amazon.com on an album entitled Christmas Adagios. Leontyne rocks!!

Merry Christmas, johnboy!
--The Savage--and easily soothed--Beast

[ohioWfan]

Mozart Requiem
Brahms Requiem
Beethoven 7th Symphony, Second Movement
Bach, B minor Mass, 'Crucifixus'
Any Palestrina Mass
Purcell, Queen Anne Funeral Music
Tchaikowsky, 5th Symphony
Brahms Intermezzi
Schubert Mass in G
Beethoven 'Pathetique' Sonata

I sound like I like the sad stuff, don't I? Maybe I could throw in a little Gilbert and Sullivan to keep my spirits up! LOL!

[ohioWfan]

Oh dear, I forgot to mention Dvorak's Stabat Mater! That one's a must!!!

[ohioWfan]

Mahler died in 1911, insane, because of all that gloriously emotional music he wrote, and the fact that he thought his 'Kindertoten Lieder' caused the death of his children.

He definitely belongs in the 19th century, musically, and I should have added his Resurrection Symphony to my list. It's a killer!

[Wm Bach]

what ten pieces would you take with you that were written before the 20th Century?

Well, since you said ten pieces, I'm going to label entire masses, operas, volumes, etc. as a "pieces".

1)Bach - Mass in b moll
2)Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier
3)Bach - Goldberg Variations
4)Bach - Magnificat
5)Mozart - Mass in c moll
6)Mozart - Requiem
7)Beethoven - Mass
8)Schumann - Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 9)Brahms - Deutche Requiem
10)Chopin - Concerto in e moll

[Puppage]

Che Gelida Manina-Puccini (La Boheme)

[Pharmboy]

ME: I have heard that also...the prelims, the foreplay and then...and then...the BRASS COMES IN!

YOU: Translation: It's Ravel's fault that we call being sexually aroused being horny?

Brilliant!

[Pharmboy]

Your suggestions were especially helpful to me since we agree on a few that you've listed, so I would imagine I would also enjoy the ones you've listed that I am unfamiliar with. (And, I'm a Bearcat, FWIW, in case you're from southern Ohio).

[Pharmboy]

I had a premonition that Berg would show up on your 20th century list. LOL!

Glad you jumped in the pool...

[martin gibson]

All right, ya PANSIES....

Lets not forget any of the transcribed tunes published in O'Neill's Music of Ireland.

[jammer]

Assume you meant the cantata for Jesu. I don't think Myra Hess transcribed it until the 20th century.

[Publius6961]

It's remarkable how provincial and "center-of-the-universe" some classical music enthusiasts become.
The comments attached to the list are a humorous "my taste is more sophisticated than your taste" aside to this pompous exercise.

Gheeeeeez.

[yawningotter]

Beethoven's Ninth

Mozart Requiem

Handel's Messiah

Rachmaninoff"s 2nd Piano Concerto(no, wait, it premiered in 1901. Rats!)

Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis(There's one you won't hear every day.)

Carnival Overture by Dvorak

I can't pick just 10, so I think I will just bring my whole collection. It isn't very large(yet), only about 250 titles. When I get up to the thousands, then I will make a desert island list. Nyah!

[Old Fud]

1. Bach: B Minor Mass (any challengers?)

2. Beethoven: Missa solemnis

3. Brahms: Motet, Es ist das heil uns kommen herr(sp?)

4.Mendelssohn: Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

5. Henry Purcell: "Hear my prayer, O Lord"

6. Bach: Fugue in D Major, Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

7. Beethoven: Symphony #9

8. Gabriel Faure: Requiem

9. Claude Debussy: Suite Bergamasque

10. Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele: Prologue

One doesn't really need to go past Bach to receive all the enrichment to the soul that music can provide.

[tom paine 2]

Mozarts Symphonia Concertante is pure heaven.