Back in March of 2021 I published my 1st list of fave classical music pieces (you may wish to read that one as well). It was so hard to choose simply 25 that another post to cover 25 more seemed in order. Again, these are all pretty well-known, but I am sure that a large number of folk don’t have a clue who the composer or what the name of the songs are when they hear them which is the reason for this post. Hopefully there will be a few, “oh I know that song – didn’t have a clue it was written by…” moments in this list. As in the last posting about this music, we will limit it to no more than 2 songs by any given composer. The 3 pictured masters are Dvorak, Bizet and Chabrier. As we go along it will become obvious how important movies and TV have been to establishing my classical musical tastes.
1.Prokofiev – Peter & The Wolf
This is more of a ‘pops’ piece than straight classical, but it still contains some memorable musical lines behind the jaunty story of little Peter and his animal friends hunting for the bad old wolf. It was written in 1936 by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev to introduce young folk to the instruments of the orchestra. The narrator is perhaps the most important part of the presentation and to us boomers, Sterling Holloway on the 1946 Disney version of this song is most cherished. Holloway was the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Stork in Dumbo and Winnie the Pooh among many others. Happily in Disney’s version, Sonia the duck survives the wolf attack. We saw it on Walt’s TV show plus all had the record as kids.
2. (Bach) – Musette in D Major
While found in the 1725 notebook of music Johann Sebastian Bach gave to his 2nd wife Anna Magdalena, this was likely not composed by him. This was the 2nd notebook of music Bach gave to her reflecting the household music of the era. As a playful little tune, this has appeal to children with the young Dentist being one of them back in the ’50s. The prolific German composer lived for 65 years passing away in July of 1750.
3.von Suppe – Light Cavalry Overture
How many cartoons used this song back in the day? Admittedly the 2 1/2 minute excerpt presented here is the best part of the 7 minute overture. One would doubt that very many fans of Saturday morning kids cartoons knew that this stirring piece was written by the Austrian composer Franz von Suppe and is the overture to his operetta Light Cavalry. It was first performed in 1866. Animation also often used the middle segment of his Poet & Peasant (1846) in frenzied scenes. He lived from April 18, 1819 to May 21, 1895.
4.Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake
Watching this dance makes your Dentist’s toes and ankles ache, but the music is great. In the full 2+ hour ballet, there are some wonderful themes that are instantly recognizable so feel free to check out the whole piece on your own. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, a Russian, completed the score in 1876 and amazingly when 1st performed in Moscow (March of 1877) it received negative reviews. He lived from May 7, 1840 to November 6, 1893.
5.Dvorak – Symphony #9 (From The New World)
Your Dentist is most fond of the 2nd movement (known as “Largo”) and the 4th “Allegro con fuoco” which is here presented as our clip. Czech composer Antonín Dvorak wrote this in 1893 during his 3 year run as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. It premiered at Carnegie Hall and drew on American music forms. His life spanned the years 1841 to 1904. In 1922 William Arms Fisher added words to “Largo” and called it “Going Home”.
6.Beethoven – Minuet in G
A delicate piece like this shows the versatility of Ludwig van Beethoven when compared to his more bombastic compositions. This is the 2nd of his 6 minuets written for orchestra, however only his piano arrangement survived. It has since been adapted for strings, but we are here presenting the Muppet Rowlf the dog pawing his way through it during the 1976/77 show hosted by Twiggy. Beethoven celebrated his 250th birthday in Dec. of 2020.
7.Bizet – Carmen
There are several very memorable songs in the opera Carmen so this is a bit of a cheating way to get “March Of The Toreadors”, “Habanera” and “Danse Boheme” in to the list. French composer Georges Bizet died only a few months after it premiered in March of 1875 aged 36 and only knew his best work as a critical failure. Own up time – I blame my Uncle Bill for making me hear the words “toreador-ay, don’t spit on the floor – use the cuspidor – that’s what it’s for” every time I hear the part a little after 1 minute in. Now that is quality entertainment!
8.Smetana – The Moldau
From the series of 6 symphonic poems Ma Vlast, this salutes the Czech river Vlatava which is also the name of this piece in that language. It premiered in 1875 with a main melody borrowed from La Mantovana which is a 16th century Italian tune by tenor Giuseppe Cenci. This was on one of the earliest records the young me purchased with his own money (at the Broomfield drug store). Bedřich Smetana was born east of Prague in 1824 and passed in that city in 1884 perhaps of syphilis.
9.Offenbach – Can Can (from Orpheus In The Underworld)
Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer who lived from June 20, 1819 to October 5, 1880. I am sure that most folk know this song without realizing it came from a comic opera 1st performed in 1858. The opera was a thinly veiled lampoon of the reign in France of Napoleon III who was the nephew of the famous one. In the story, Orpheus is pushed by folk to rescue his wife Eurydice even though he was happy to see her kidnapped by the god of the underworld. The story is that the “Galop infernal” near the end of the opera was adopted in about 1895 by the Folies Bergere to dance the can-can to and that is how we all know it.
10.Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
Including this is such a cliche – sorry, but it is a wonderful piece of music. Likely if it wasn’t so overplayed, it would likely have been far higher on the list. The 1st movement (“Allegro con brio”) is the part we all identify with Ludwig van Beethoven. In total there are 4 movements and it takes between a half hour to 40 minutes to perform. Beethoven was struggling with increasing deafness by 1808 when this was completed. He passed away in Vienna, on March 26, 1827 aged 56 after years of poor health. Walter Murphy’s disco version (“A Fifth Of Beethoven”) was at #1 hit Oct. 9, 1976 plus was on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in ’77. ELO also used this song during their version of the old Chuck Berry tune “Roll Over Beethoven”. The 1999 Disney movie Fantasia 2000 begins with an edit of the 1st movement as well.
11.Khachaturian – Sabre Dance from the Gayane Suite No. 3
Well here is another severely overplayed piece of orchestral music, but that isn’t the fault of the song. One has to blame all the various performers on ’50s/’60s variety shows for putting visions of spinning plates on sticks in to us boomers’ heads when hear this. It has also been used a lot by ice skaters. Russian composer Aram Khachaturian included this in his 1942 ballet Gayane. He lived from 1903 to 1978. The “Adagio” section was used by Kubrick in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the more frenzied “Sabre Dance” is the part we remember. It stormed the charts in 1948. My fave performer Dave Edmunds had a #5 U.K. hit with his band Love Sculpture in 1968 playing a electric guitar-based version.
12.Chabrier – Espana, rhapsody for orchestra
French composer Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894) is not terribly well-known aside from this tribute to his trip to Spain in 1883. He came to composing fairly late in his life having worked as a civil servant till age 39. The melody became popular when it was ‘borrowed’ for the 1956 Perry Como #1 hit “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)”.
13.Bach – Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (Little Fugue)
To distinguish this from his other “Fugue in G minor”, it is called “Little Fugue”. This organ piece is said to date from between 1703 to 1707. It begins with a simple passage which gets repeated by 1 of the hands while the other goes all over the place. The repeating passage goes through variations as played by hands and feet flying about till 4 minutes later it crashes to an end. Johann Sebastian Bach was a German baroque composer who passed away at age 65 in Leipzig on July 28, 1750.
14.Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545
There are 3 movements to this piece with the 1st (the “Allegro”) being the memorable one your Dentist associates with gentility. In the summer of 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart added this to his musical canon. Oddly at the time of his death (Dec. 5, 1791 aged 35), the song had not been published. Not till 1805 did it premier to eventually become one of his most well-known compositions.
15.Gounod – Funeral March Of A Marionette
When at 36 seconds the familiar macabre tune starts in earnest, old folk like me are transported to the latter part of the ’50s. This was used as the theme song to the anthology TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This song and the line drawing of Hitch’s outline in sideview are forever linked. French composer Charles Gounod wrote this originally for piano in 1872 then it was arranged for orchestra 7 years later. The original section is D minor is the part we remember though it moves to D major in the middle. In his 75 years (1818 – 1893), Gounod also composed 12 operas including Faust, his most popular.
16.Dvorak – Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 – No. 1 (Presto)
Czech composer Anton Dvorak composed 16 total pieces titled “Slavonic Dances” in 2 sets – Opus 46 and Opus 72 originally as 4-handed piano songs. Composed in 1878 and 1886, they were inspired by Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances”.
17.Strauss II – On The Beautiful Blue Danube
Here is another piece that has become a cliche over the years, but is etched in the brains of us Boomers with drifting space vehicles in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The waltz was composed in 1866 with the tune becoming a hit with new lyrics in 1854 as “How Blue?” for the Mills Brothers. Johann Strauss II was known as “The Waltz King” during his lifetime (October 25, 1825 – June 23 1899).
18.Orff – O Fortuna
Carmina Burana is a set of 254 poems and prose from the 11th through 13th centuries. In 1936 Carl Orff set 24 of these poems to music including “O Fortuna” in Latin from the early 1200’s. The dramatic nature of the music lends itself to movies and TV. Orff, a German, lived from 1895 to 1982.
19.Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C sharp minor
From the 1st dramatic piano notes, you know this song. At least those of us Bugs Bunny fans know this song as the cotton-tailed pest nailed a pretty nice version of this song while cavorting up and down the keyboard, answering the phone and eating a carrot (1946 Rhapsody Rabbit). Lesser known, but still memorable is the following year’s dramatic attempt to upstage Bugs with a new version by Tom of Tom and Jerry fame in The Cat Concerto. Of course that rascal Jerry gets in the way, but doesn’t take over the playing unlike the mouse in the Bugs cartoon who plays the fast ending in lieu of BBunny. This was the 2nd of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies written by Franz Liszt (1847). Liszt during his lifetime (October 22, 1811 to 31 July 21, 1886) was known as a virtuoso pianist.
20.Rossini – The Thieving Magpie
A 2 act opera, The Thieving Magpie was 1st performed in 1817 in Milan. It is the “Overture” that we mostly remember. It is hard to imagine Italian composer Gioachino Rossini approving of his music being used in such a violent context as Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. Rossini is known mostly for opera and retired from composing in his 30s. Spanning the years 1792 to 1868, he passed away in Paris suffering from colorectal cancer.
21.Brahms – Hungarian Dance No. 5
As we discussed earlier, Dvorak was inspired by this set of 21 dances completed in 1879. This is by far the most memorable of the tunes conjuring visions of stern Cossacks with flying feet and crossed arms. German composer Johannes Brahms is most remembered for his “Wiegenlied” (or “Lullaby”) which has been used to lull to sleep countless babes in their cradles. He lived from May 7, 1833 to April 3, 1897 passing away in Vienna of likely liver cancer.
22.Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor – 1st Movement
In 1868 Edvard Grieg completed his only piano concerto which is one of his most recognized compositions. The 24 year old was in Denmark when he wrote this (a Norwegian, he lived till 1907). The theme has been used in several movies and became a hit for Kokomo in a rocked up version as “Asia Minor” in 1961. It is said that Jethro Tull played a short bit of this on their Thick As A Brick Tour in 1972 which I stupidly didn’t go to with my pal Mr. D.
23.Strauss II – Tales From The Vienna Woods
The theme you are all looking for doesn’t get rolling till about 2:40 so be patient (or move the little dot over) then you will say ‘oh yeah, I know that’. Johann Strauss II wrote this in 1868 and is about the only classical piece I know of that has a zither solo. Mr. Strauss, Jr. was a dancing fool composing over 500 pieces for waltz, polka, ballet and quadrille (look it up – I had to).
24.Bizet – L’Arlesienne Suite No. 1
Georges Bizet originally composed L’Arlesienne as incidental music to accompany a 3 act play of that name by Daudet in 1872. The play wasn’t successful so Bizet put together 2 suites of music with the 1st one containing the most memorable bits. Dave Edmunds in his band Love Sculpture took the initial section and rocked it up releasing “Farandole” as a guitar instrumental on the Forms & Feelings LP in 1970.
25.Mozart – Symphony #40 in G Minor, K 550
We are playing the “Molto allegro” movement here of the 4 movements. It was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1788 and is 1 of only 2 known minor key compositions by him. He was born in Salzberg and was a prodigious talent at a young age already composing at age 5. Only 2 of his 6 children survived to adulthood and neither had offspring so thus endth the Mozart family line.
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