Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Your Choice. THE MOST OUTSTANDING PIECE OF MUSIC EVER WRITTEN ? ANY STYLE..

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.