Fur Elise.
Für. It’s German, For Elise. She’s not furry 😉
A lot of mobile keyboards will let you pick the umlaut version if you long-press a letter.
Will you Fürgive me?
4’33"
A moment of silence, for those that don’t get the reference.
laughs silently
Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky), The Planets (Holst), and Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) are all pretty badass but often get used in movies, game trailers, even ads without being named.
EDIT: Everyone likes links, ja?
Don’t forget Flight of the Bumblebee too!
Ill add Pachelbel’s Cannon in D as well.
Love it, but I feel like most people actually do know that one by name.
Canon in D, used constantly in modern music and people usually don’t recognize it. If you don’t believe me go listen to Maroon 5’s Memories. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to though…
Written by Pachelbel. Aka Pachelbel’s Canon
Yup came here to add this thanks
I also like the rock version
Everyone recognizes Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie no 1.
I feel like it was just used all over the place, subtly, all our lives. People can rarely name it. Everyone knows it.
Here’s a piano version as well
I was looking for someone to mention this. It’s used so often in movies and television. I’m not surprised that people are saying they’ve never heard it. It’s always just some background music played in a scene, it’s never the focal point.
Not everyone. Where am I supposed to have heard this before?
It’s in Minecraft?
But it’s been in indie films since forever, and big films too.
E.g. https://youtu.be/X5fhZomlWb4?si=TlY0RwrYJDcELL3i
This from the same musical trilogy, Queens Gambit.
So it’s not quite the version you played and it seems to be from older films. If I’ve heard it, I don’t recognize it and wouldn’t be able to point it out but I also didn’t play Minecraft that much.
I’ve heard it in random YT videos since at least 2013. Down The Rabbit Hole used it as a background track.
Funny I was just thinking about that song. Satie’s work is kind of wild, although I was just reading about him and when he wrote it, he was a nobody and generally, even after fame, I don’t think he even played it himself so much as other people did because he already moved on. Dude even worked with Picasso once, who everyone seems to know.
Guy was a nut, though, highly recommend reading up on him.
Also Sprach Zarathustra. (Thus Spake Zarathustra) very overused, but one of the greatest pieces of music in all of history.
Features heavily in the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That movie has some other greats like Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.
William Tell Overture - An entire generation of people came up knowing a portion of the song as the Lone Ranger Theme.
Also, I suspect very few people know The Blue Danube by name, but almost everyone could hum the entire thing if prompted.
This was gonna be my addition and you beat me to it.
Aquarium from Carnival des Animaux, Camile Saint-Saëns
https://youtu.be/YVpl-RNzdE4?si=tfZu_ItXehzanh2k
Can-Can, Offenbach
https://youtu.be/4Diu2N8TGKA?si=C3venw8SQQx0vYMF
Russian Dance - Tschaikovsky
Tchaikovsky came to mind right away - the Nutcracker is filled with these sound clips you hear everywhere this time of year.
The flower duet. Used in countless movies: https://youtu.be/8Qx2lMaMsl8?feature=shared
Not necessarily classical since it came out in the 1940s, but Aram Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance (when things go off the rails)
Air on the G String. Although as I said in another comment Bach is technically baroque not classical.
I assume they meant Classical Music, in the broader sense, versus the Classical Period exemplified by composers like Mozart and Haydn. I was under the impression, as well, that the Classical period really referred to Greek and Roman times and the period you reference was the Neo-Classical. But I see it is referred to as Classical in at least a couple of articles on Wikipedia.
This one is a bit newer but you’ll recognize it immediately.
Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Well, most people probably know it, but its melody is also hugely overused in pop, and turns up way more than most people realise. If you’ve got five minutes and haven’t seen it already, go watch Rob Paravonian’s Pachelbel Rant.
That’s amazing. I feel for the cellists now. I started on Violin, but I wasn’t big enough for a full sized violin till I was 9 or 10 years old. I was very happy to get rid of my 3/4 sized violin.
Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. Usually the “The Hero Dies Tragically” theme.
Used in Platoon at Elias’ death for example.
“Kharak is burning…”
