This is a takeoff on BruceD's earlier thread about composers who are known for one very well known piece that people without any classical training can identify and link to that particular composer.

I think a lot of things got mixed into that thread. One interesting offshoot was that several people pointed out familiar pieces by composers that in all likelihood the lay public could NOT name. Let's make that a formal question. Name pieces that just about anyone over a certain age and/or maturity level likely would know automatically, but if asked who wrote it they would be stuck for an answer. I'm not talking about pieces that a small number of afficionados of, say, choral music would know, but pieces that have managed to insinuate themselves into the cultural subconscious.

For starters, I would suggest a piece I just heard on my local classical station as I drove home today:


Funeral March for a Marionette........... Gounod.

Rondeau, by Mouret (more commonly known as "That piece from Masterpiece Theater")

Very good choice. I heard it a few days ago and I too had forgotten the composer.

For those of you old enough to remember - that's probably one person on this forum! - the "Funeral March of a Marionette" was the theme music for the Alfred Hitchcock television show.

Regards,

"On the Trail" from the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe. That used to be the theme music - on radio (Hey, remember radio when it was the only[/b] imported entertainment medium in the home?!?) for Philip Morris cigarettes, with Johnny shouting over the music "Call for Philip Morr.....rrrris!"

Regards,

Ahem, Bruce, I suspect there are a number of posters who remember that show!


And on a cigarette theme:


Elmer Bernstein: The theme from the Magnificent Seven ....and Marlboro.

Cool thread Piano*Dad.

Do these two count?

- Chopin Sonata No. 2 - March Funèbre movement. I play it for family and friends and no one has a clue it's Chopin.

- Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. You know, that piece that Tom played while Jerry messed with his piano hammers in their cartoon.

I say this one definitely counts, even though its from a movie:

Clint Mansell: Requiem for a Dream

Listen to it on youtube if you don't recognize the name. Chances are, you have heard it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Ma4BvMUwU

No, I don't recall ever having heard that one, but if we're going to talk about movie scores, surely the opening of Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" would qualify as a likely candidate in this thread.

Regards,

William Tell Overture by Rossini ("Lone Ranger" theme)

I think this is a big one.

Monica, you're right about the Rossini... but you beat me to it!

How about the Sabre Dance by Khachaturian? I think that's the one that's played a lot when there are jugglers, clowns and acrobats performing at the circus?

Sophia

Perhaps played in the mortgage department of some banks as "The Loan Arrangers Theme"?

Cheers!

Oh, groan. Bruce, you're really giving me competition in the pun-dit category.

The minuet in G Major by Bach that isn't really by Bach.

I know piano teachers who still don't know who really composed it.

There might be people on this board too... ... especially if they're using an old edition of the Notebook for Anna Magdelena Bach.

the Ode to Joy section in Beethoven

On a similar note (bad pun intended :p ), what about that Trumpet Voluntary by Purcell which is really by Jeremiah Clarke? I hear THAT often enough, especially during the wedding season.
A little OP to the Anna Magdalena Notebook for a moment, do we know for certain that "Bist du bei mir" is by Stölzel, or Bach? It's such a lovely little gem whoever composed it, and I did a (not terribly stylistic) realization of it years ago. The last time I checked the version in the notebook might be hybrid -- melody by Stölzel, bass line by Bach. And since Bach did not figure the bass, if you do a realization it becomes a triple hybrid: Stölzel-Bach-you!

I don't know if it has been 100% established that it is or is not by Bach. Doesn't really matter though - it's a lovely little piece whoever wrote it...

How about the Wedding Marches by Mendelssohn and Wagner?

We used to sing the Wagner tune when I was a kid... "Here comes the bride, big fat and wide! Now comes the groom, and he's skinny as a broom..."


(Incidentally, I don't remember seeing that Tom and Jerry episode until I got to college... but I've *always* remembered the 2nd HR as a big scene in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?")

The Flower Duet from Lakme. Written by... by all means.

British Airways recently used it in their adverts... it turned a lot of people on to that delectable moment in opera. And I think it's been used elsewhere too.

But quite why BA would use a French tune is beyond me. With occasional sniping in the press on both sides of the Channel, one would think the Hundred Years War was never properly resolved... which it wasn't.

When I was a child I learned it as "Here comes the bride, all dressed in white, ready to fight in the bedroom tonight." Not terribly sure how common that version is, but to be honest I didn't realize
the humor of it until I was much older.

Another that might fit the bill is the Pizzicato Polka by... Delibes

What about the "Dance of the Hours" from La Gioconda, by Ponchielli, subsequently made even more famous by the "Hello mother, hello father, I am here in Camp Grenada" lyrics...

"O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff?

Not to mention what Fantasia did to it...

Who can forget all those Bugs Bunny cartoons? Chopin's Funeral March and the "Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit" libretto set to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries....

Fond as I am of a few selections from Fantasia (and even the sequel, I admit), I can't even REMEMBER a single detail of what they did to it, or that it was even included, for that matter. Probably best that it remains that way...

20th century ok?

United Airlines underground walkway at Chicago O'Hare airport (Gershwin)

Beef... it's what's for dinner. (Copland)

Pee Wee Hermann's Breakfast Machine (Elfman) now heard in Christmas-shopping credit card commercials.

How about the opening on Liszt's Eb piano concerto. On numerous occasions I've heard people say "Oh, that's the Gargamel piece from the Smurfs..."