The most beautiful composition of all time?

[chamelion]

It's a big call; there's a lot of wonderful music out there. But for me, the most perfect piece of music I've ever heard, in every sense of the word, would have to be 'Air on a G String' by JS Bach. I'm reminded of this each time I take my 16 month granddaughter for a ride in the car to get her sleepy when she has other ideas about going to bed. I have it on my iPod, and generally by the second time through the track she's sound asleep.

My favorite rendering of this masterpiece is the version by Dominic Miller (Sting's guitarist) on his sublime album, Shapes. You can hear a 30 second excerpt here, but do yourself a favor and get hold of the album.

Cheers,

Geoff

[James Steele]

Gee... that's a tough one. How can you choose something.

I will throw out there once though that when I was in college chorus, the girls performed a work by Brahms for women's chorus that was one of the most beautiful pieces I'd heard, and I never really associated Brahms with great choral works prior to that.

[James Steele]

Oh... but I would be remiss that I have no doubt that Bach did something better. Bach, to my mind, was the greatest of the greats.

[Jim]

Good idea for a thread!

I've felt for years that the Brandenburg Concertos are the most perfect compositions of all time.

One of the most beautiful compositions I can conjure is the adagio section from Concerto for Left Hand by Ravel, because I damn near tear up every time I hear it, but jeez, there's so much beautiful and perfect music to choose from.

No matter what I pick, there's other worthy compositions that are equally brilliant, but in different ways. For lush beauty, there's Ravel, Saint-Saens and Debussy, for power and motivation, there's Beethoven, Hindemith, Borodin... For creativity and imaginiation: Tchiakovsky, Copeland, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, and holy cow, so many other greats, I'm starting to feel that a list is going to dis-service somebody worthy.

[Spikey Horse]

I was listening to Gabriel Faure's Requiem the other day - that's quite beautiful.

- what else .... er...... no my mind's gone blank

[chamelion]

On reflection, there is one other contender for the top prize.

Cheers,

Geoff

[Mr_Clifford]

It's a big call; there's a lot of wonderful music out there. But for me, the most perfect piece of music I've ever heard, in every sense of the word, would have to be 'Air on a G String' by JS Bach. I'm reminded of this each time I take my 16 month granddaughter for a ride in the car to get her sleepy when she has other ideas about going to bed. I have it on my iPod, and generally by the second time through the track she's sound asleep.

My favorite rendering of this masterpiece is the version by Dominic Miller (Sting's guitarist) on his sublime album, Shapes. You can hear a 30 second excerpt here, but do yourself a favor and get hold of the album.

Cheers,

Geoff

Hey Geoff,

That was the piece that first jumped to mind when I read the title of the thread. I was just listening to the Dominic Miller album a couple of days ago. I agree, very tasty recording. 'Shape of my Heart' is also one of my all time favourite pieces of music.

Air on a 'G' string (Bach you kinky thing!!!) is one of those pieces that's pretty hard to make not sound good. I fell in love with that piece when I heard Vinnie Moore's guitar shredding version on his 'Time Odyssey' album (he played it very tastefully, to his credit).

The other piece that always jumps to mind is the 2nd movement from Beethoven's 7th symphony - Thank you Mr Holland for introducing me to that one.

[gregwhartley]

Coming from a partially classical guitar background, Fernando Sor's Variations on Mozart's Magic Flute, Op. 9 is one of my favorites (plus it's also a bitch to play). I had to put it on just now after thinking of it .

[gregwhartley]

I'd like to add: this is not my favorite of all time, just amongst the best and first to come to mind.

[Frodo]

The most--- always a tricky topic. There's just too much out there.

I was classically trained from day #1, but jazz, gospel, R&B, folk, rock, and world music were always in my face, whether I wanted it or not. It was just "there".

Beethoven is my favorite composer, and that conclusion was arrived after many years of debate. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Liszt, Wagner, Mahler, R. Strauss-- were all geniuses...

... all were German, so nods to the Russian, French, Italian, and English schools of composition must be mentioned just to be fair.... and there's so much more besides.

American composers-- Samuel Barber is an easy standout-- and the 'Adagio for Strings' is almost a no-brainer candidate for most beautiful...

Trying to compare my favorite compositions by each remains inconclusive-- and it does nothing to address how much I enjoy such timeless works of Sting, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Yes, etc...

"The Most Beautiful... of all time"? It's almost an existential question.

Discussing "some of the most beautiful music" I've ever heard is easier for me, and some of the best I've ever heard was in opera, which for a lot of musicians is just not a "cool" topic. Since the day I first heard Strauss' "Salome" and "Elektra" 30+ years ago, these works have always topped my list of some of the most beautiful-- but most of the musicians I know lack the patience to really dig into why these works are so great-- from the perspective of Strauss' works as well as the context of historical innovation.

Then there are the works of Puccini-- "Tosca" being a standout. Verdi's "Requiem" is a longstanding favorite-- yet, Mozart's "Requiem" as well as his piano concertos are among my favorites of his works.

Beethoven overall is my hero-- just watching how classical music changed in his hands across his life remains a matter of awe for me. His later compositions strike me as being practically transcendental-- the late string quartets and piano sonatas and concertos in particular-- but his opera "Fidelio" is a gratifying powerhouse as well. It's a tough call.

Then, I can't belittle the impact of hearing "The White Album" or "Close To The Edge" for the first time-- even if I dare mention these collections in the context of classical music. For this reason, it's even dangerous to draw any comparisons between composers of rock and classical music, but to ignore their respective greatness would be dishonest.

This is such a hard topic!!!! and a great one, btw.

All of the composers and compositions others have mentioned so far have, at one time or another, slain me to the core. Singling out one work is impossible for me to do fairly. It's just amazing what a blessing it is to be a musician or even to have any sort of appreciation for any kind of music at all.

Imagine a life without a deep love for music.

On the other hand, perish the thought and just enjoy!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I am torn as are the others here. On the one hand, John Cage's "4' 33"" is truly 'perfect' with Lennon's version running a close second except for surface noise.

As far as actually sequenced notes, there are simply too many choices.

Barber's Adagio for Strings
2nd movement of Beethoven's Second Symphony
Bach's C#m Fugue (Book 1 WTC)
Brahms 1st Symphony
Mozart (Pick a work, any work)
Gershwin's Prelude in C#m

*The Moonlight Sonata

OK, if I HAD TO decide, I am thinking the last work* may well be the best.

Why are you doing this to me???

[cuttime]

I need to suggest to the Bach-o-philes: The six part ricercar from "A Musical Offering", and "Kommt ihr Tochter" from the St. Matthew Passion. Harmonies that will clog your arteries , topped with a sense of tragedy and melancholy that spans all of humanity. Don't play these for the kids, though.

[Spikey Horse]

*The Moonlight Sonata

I heard (I wish I could remember where) that the Moonlight Sonata was originally intended (by LVB) to be played much faster than the speed it is usually played and less meloncolic.... and that the slow tempo and even the title 'Moonlight' was added some time later by a publisher, someone other than LVB himself anyway..... no idea if that's true!

I have some very old Ravi Shankar records and tapes which are quite hauntingly beautiful - the ancientness of the recordings does lend a certain other worldlyness (not that the music needs it!) ... I must dig them out! ..Rag Todi I think is the one.

Also Rag Bhimpalasri I have on surbahar and then sitar and tabla is an astoundingly beautiful piece of music - played by Irshad Khan and I have another version by the awsome Nikhil Banerjee. .... all desert island stuff!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You are correct in that LVB did not name nor intend the C#m sonata to be associated with Moonlight over Lake Lucern. [sic] ?

But now that you mention it, so much ancient music for the shakuhachi also would qualify for "most beautiful." And let's not forget Sandy Nelson's drumming from the 1960's!!! (Seriously!)

[monkey man]

It's all about melody, for me at least.
Therefore it must be Mozart.