Your choice. The most outstanding single piece of music ever written? Any style. Chuckles... Sandy B

This would be easier if I could choose a complete work with many pieces, such as Bach's German Organ Mass. Beethoven's Diabelli Variations might fit the bill. Or perhaps one of his late string quartets... Something under the five minute category, something that is strictly one piece of music: Bach's Chorale Prelude "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ".

For me, its gotta be Beethoven's Ninth.

Sandra, obviously this is a subjective thread, and everyone's entitled to their opinion, but how can you claim Unchained Melody as the greatest single piece of music ever written? I have always found that song to be extremely boring and trite, following pretty much the same simple chord progression over and over. I also find it ironic, that it is called "Unchained" melody, given that it is firmly shackled in the I-vi-IV-V... progression. To me it doesn't seem particularly original or imaginative... But again, its totally an opinion thing, I just have to respectfully disagree with you on that one...

8ude... Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini 18th Variation ,written by Rachmaninoff. This the second most requested here where I live and my very favorite selection of all time. Not testing you this time. I am serious too this time. Cheers, Sandy B

Well, the Rach Rhapsody's one I can live with...

Ones favorite - or the public's favorite - is hardly a criterion by which to judge a works "greatness."

Unless the terms of "greatness" are established, I find the question absolutely meaningless.

Regards,

Hello Bruce D... Good to hear from you. To be more specific I will ask you this:" The greatest composition for whatever your level of music education." For my humble level it is what I stated. Educate me Bruce as I love learning. I am an information hound. Cheers Sandy B

I too think the term "greatest" is mostly pointless since it implies comparison with other pieces of music. I usually don't think of one piece being better than another, but I do find myself listening to pieces and thinking that the composer could not have done any better. In other words, in a particular piece, every note is exactly where it should be. None are extraneous and none are missing. Some works that fall into this category for me are:

Symphony #40 in g minor - Mozart
"Wanderers Nachtlied", Op. 96#1 - Schumann
"Blackbird" - Lennon/McCartney
"Ubi Caritas" - Durufle


Runners-up:
Beethoven's Heiliger Dankgesang (3rd movement of the Op. 132 string quartet)
Brahms Op. 116#4 and 118#2
Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time
The postlude Keith Jarrett plays on "Dedicated to You" from the Standards in Norway album (interestingly enough, "Dedicated to You" was co-written by Hy Zaret, the man who wrote the lyrics to "Unchained Melody")

Shall we move on and not nag the word great? OUTSTANDING NOT GREAT... The Beatles are very outstanding indeed. The Boston Pops arrangement of Yesterday I heard years ago was very outstanding. Very great to me in my world. Sandy B

I saw the movie Vitus today and when I came out of the theater I got in my car and got to hear the last 10 minutes of Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Vitus was an outstanding movie, but Mahler 2 is a great piece of music.

Outstanding music to me is anything played by a great jazz artist. Oscar Peterson for one. Too young to know him? Does anyone here compose jazz? Too boring gentlemen? Has anyone ever studied the From Hanon to Jazz method book with CD by Dr. Bert Konowitz? Looks excellent. I bought this several years ago and will take this on very soon. I had basic jazz studies with two jazz pro's for a year after classical studies. Scales, scales and more scales. Sandy B

Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Pachelbel Canon in D, Hampton's Airmail Special, Bach/Gounod - Ave Maria...It is a fun topic!

Laurel Jean, Welcome to Piano World. Please stay with me and us as we need more women composers as you know. One step at a time to become as strong as the men composers more and more though the years. We are a start. Others visit but do not stay in general. Tell us about yourself. Hope you have many years with us as a member. Please feel free to start a topic of your own. Our Piano World Teachers Forum, they are so caring, supportive of new members, they are very mature and extremely capable and kind members. They will answer any questions you have concerning music or related topics. Always polite and not condescending ever. We are blessed to have all of them. I go there quite often to chat with them. What an inspiration they are to me. Hampton's Airmail Special...What is this please? Most of these you listed Laurel Jean I perform where I live on piano, for the other residents, assisted living, with a CD of a concert level pianist and I play along. The other residents so appreciate the music. They are very excellent choices in our, other residents here, etc, world too. I will introduce myself to you. I am 68 years old, 70 next year in November. Strokes and a brain operation and divorced, no one to help me at home so I live in assisted living with memory problems. Long term memory fine though in general. So I can still perform at the piano, etc. Just new info gives me problems at times. I am a retired decorator and I was an understudy to my classical piano teacher with a Master's Degree in Music Ed. I am also a retired private classical piano teacher for years too, part time. I was also a volunteer to teach children of lower income families free appx 70 students, children, ages 5 to 11 mostly, in the 1990's before the strokes. So rewarding to help low income families children and they are grateful, No one in their communities could afford piano lessons and they became little stars to the other children. They taught their friends in their community, they told me this, to play keyboard too. Rewarding work with these children. A blessing to me... the memories are beautiful. Piano is my world as an elder. Again we care and the teachers are very caring and would enjoy chats with you too. Take Care, Sandy B

It's not a real question, of course, but of the pieces I find most evocative I'd have to put several by Duke Ellington near the top -- In a Sentimental Mood, Prelude to a Kiss, etc.

Good answer for not a real question? Another fun one. Anything by Oscar Peterson is my answer to not a real question? Chuckles... You made my day. Sandy B

Any style? That question make no sense but (nothing can be best, only differently well made)

According to the time it was written in I would say thoses:

Late Beethoven (15th string quartet / 9th symphony / 32th piano sonata)

Late J.S. Bach (Musical offering, Art of fugue)

Brahms 4th Symphony

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

Mozart late operas

Monteverdi's Madrigaux

Wagner's Tristan and The Ring

Stravinsky's Rite of spring

Debussy's Prélude à L'après midi d'un faune

Scriabin late piano sonatas, Poem of ecstasy

Mahler 9th Symphony

Schoenberg 5 pieces for orchestra, Transfigured night

Berg Violin concerto

Webern Symphony op.21

Penderecki's St-Luc Passion

Messiaen's quartet for the end of times

Ligeti's String Quartet 1-2, Requiem, violin concerto

Xenakis's Kraanerg

Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, Vortex Temporum

Ferneyhough latest string quartets

Wolfgang Rihm Image-Echo, Jagden und formen, late string quartets

Richard Strauss 4 last songs

Varese's Ionisation/Amerique

Berio's sinfonia

"I like New York in June How About You?
I like a Gershwin tune, How About You?
I like a fireside when a storm is due,
I like potato chips, moonlight and motor trips,
How About You".

The Great American Masterpiece is "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin according to many, myself included. I am working on the original now as my 80's piano teacher too. He will play for me next month. I will then play for him. All 31 pages next month you will perform Sandy you ask? You know the answer to this question. Chuckles, Sandy B

Hmmm, favorite in terms of the way it makes me feel is Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto. Not as dazzling as the 3rd, but for me the melodies are some of the most hauntingly beatiful ever penned. I have so many different recordings of it, and yet I never tire of listening to it.....it's one of those timeless pieces that you can listen to and completely lose yourself in the moment.

There's also a lot of non-classical music that I really enjoy, however will not mention it here for fear of ridicule

Now that I am working on the original score of Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin this is very high on my list of favorites. I would love to hear your list of songs you enjoy as your favorites. This is educational to those of us who are not ego driven and do not smart off to put others down to elevate ourselves... we are here in the numbers for you. By the way always, "Ignor the idiots and proceed." Most are very young and immature to say the least and clowns at this stage of their life. They will grow up one day. Just silly personalities at this time. Many of us are caring and mature people at Piano World Forums. Mistreating people, verbal abuse, is not a standard here at Piano World Forums. Cheers and PROCEED PLEASE... Sandy B

its so hard for me to put one single piece for the greatest cause im like getting new classical music and each one just sounds better than the other...
but the top ones are

rachmaninoffs c sharp minor prelude (also his improv on theme.. paganini)
chopins revolutionary etude
liszt love dream, and Hungarian rhapsody nr 2

Bach's Mass in B Minor is the pinnacle of Western civilization.

Hi Sandy, if you mean personally I would have to go for a Scriabin prelude - I love miniatures in general but Scriabin's above all. A pieve doesn't have to be long to be great...

It would be impossible for me to pick anything from 1600 onwards because there are so many masterpieces from which to choose.

So I'll select Greensleeves. It was the first song in recognizable modern format that achieved tremendous popularity, leading to sets of variations, numerous renditions with different words, and even Shakespeare had Falstaff make a reference to it.

IMO music changed mightily after Greensleeves.

Ummm New World Symphony 4th Mov. and Bach/Busoni Chaconne are pretty great

Prokofiev's Sonata in Bb.

For starters.

See my screen name. A pretty good candidate, I think. (by Bach)

Just to be different, let me put in a vote for "Autumn in Warsaw" (no. 6 in book 1 of Etudes) by Ligeti.

Hi, I'm new here, and am another female composer/pianist.

There are so many different kinds of music that it would be impossible for me to say that any one piece is the greatest. We all have our favorites, but for me, it is easier to note those works, or composers who have been the bridges connecting innovations in music. Composers like Bach who took counterpoint to a whole new level; Beethoven who expanded the musical language and scope of an instrument's ability with his symphonies, etc.; Liszt, Wagner and Stravinsky who moved us into a whole new era in music. The Beatles, as someone already mentioned, who took popular music to another realm. All these composers (and their music) and many more...how can I pick just one?
--Kat

Chopin's opus 25.

Chopin Etudes, both sets

Chopin created a ballet of pianistic motion for the keyboard. Each one is a gem that requires it's own distinctive pattern of waves of synergistic motion in order to play them effortlessly. Once these piano mechanism "katas" (dances, yes, like martial art motions) become ingrained and innate, the carryover effect to all other pianistic challenges is tremendous.

To play these correctly, you don't play them, you "dance" them, with your entire playing mechanism, from the floor up in a perfectly coordinated, completely relaxed, reflex-movement state. Chopin was more of a genius than most can even begin to suspect.

I have been listening to Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" op. 133. My only complaint so far is that Beethoven did not write it as a quadruple fugue of twice the length. The first subject is one the finest fugue subjects ever devised.

Busoni's "Fantasia Contrappuntistica" deserves a mention as well.

-Colin

IMO Sorabji's Pastiche #2 on Carmen is the single most outstanding short piece written for the piano:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FEnTEY-XQXw

Very interesting responses so far. You can tell that the responders are as varied as types of music available. Since this is a piano site I'm not surprised that many of the selections were for piano. I don't think my slection has ever been transcribed to a piano solo. VIA DOLOROSA written by Billy Sprague & Niles Borop. I stumbled onto it just before Thanksgiving and forgot about it until I saw this thread. If you ever get a chance to listen to it you'll understand.

Brahms - Piano Concerto # 2 - first movement
Chopin - Piano Concerto #2 - middle movement
Beethoven - Pathetique sonata, middle movement
Beethoven - Appasionata - last two movements
Mozart - Jupiter symphony
Bach - Brandenburg Concerto #5, last movement

Just one?

brr... hmmm... ahem...

I give up! What's the right answer?

"Adagio for Strings' Samuel Barber

rada
www.pianopassions.com

Interesting thread.

It would be hard to go against Mozarts "Marriage of Figaro". Da Ponte libretto that is one of the greatest ever written. Many, many recognizable brilliant melodies composed. Countless human emotions musically described and reflected. Seamless musical transitions harmonically, rhythmically, and emotionally. Terrific humor and clever political meaning to top everything off!

Can't think of a better summation of western music.

My thoughts...

BC

Double post

Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony is also a fine piece, according to some, the grandest thing ever created. I agree with them.

Mine...hmmmm

Probably Funeral March by Chopin
Funeral for a Friend by Elton John
Prelude Op.28 No.4 by Rachmaninoff
Nocturne in E flat by Chopin
Edward Ballad by Brahms
Prelude in B minor by Chopin
Concerto No.3 Rachmaninoff
Fur Elise by Beethoven
Mahler: Jupiter for the Piano from Planets
Wedding March by Mendelssohn the original non abridged version
Moonlight Sonata is pretty good
There are probably more I really like but can't think of

I'll say two.
Scriabin Etude Op. 8 No. 12 (where my screen name comes from).
This is an absolutely beautiful piece of music. A haunting melody, amazing harmonies, absolutely brilliant.
Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 12 ("Revolutionary")
What can I say? It's Chopin.

"Mahler: Jupiter for the Piano from Planets"

Which Mahler would that be? Gustav was dead before the Planets was written.

Austin, I assume you meant Jupiter by the other Gustav - Holst that is...

I'm in absolute love with Rachmaninoff's Elegie, Op3 No1

I agree with Numerian; Greensleeves set the scene for modern music!

OK, to be sincerely different:

Unchained Melody, by The Righteous Brothers

This entree from the fourth act of Les Boreades by Rameau is one of my personal favorites. Here is a clip:

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/music/clipserve/B000009INY003002/1/ref=mu_sam_ra003_002

Rach 2...
...because I'm practicing it...
...and it's stuck in my head...
...and it's been stuck in my head for a long time...
...and I feel it will be stuck in my head for a long time.