What Is the Greatest Musical Work of All Time?

3/1/2006 | Reaganesque

[Reaganesque]

I was sitting here tonight listening to Mozart's Requiem and I got to thinking: what do I consider to be the best work of music ever? For my part, Mozart's work really does the trick for me when I need to be re-energized. Therefore, I believe that his Requiem is the greatest work of all time. There just isn't another work that is as powerful and passionate. When the chorus sings the final "Amen" at the end of "Lacrimosa" I get the feeling that he knew it was the last thing he would ever write. It gives me chills at times.

Other favorites are:

Handel's Messiah

The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky

[F.J. Mitchell]

"The wildwood flower" written by A.P. Carter and performed by the Carter Family and everyone else who ever took up the guitar. Leastwise picking that tune well is what every wannabe guitar picker has aspired to do, over the past 70 years or so.

[Tunehead54]

Before I read the other nominations I'm pretty sure its "Cat Scratch Fever" By Ted Nugent. ;-)

[Revolting cat!]

My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling
My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling

[clio morrel]

Everyone has AIDS!
My grandma and my dog 'ol blue (AIDS AIDS AIDS)
The pope has got it and so do you (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
We gotta break down these baricades, everyone has AIDS!

[stig]

Beethoven's 9th, for me.

Hands down best!

[freedumb2003]

"On a Dark Desert Highway
Cool Whip in My Hair..."

[The Grim Freeper]

Oh, and I forgot...anything by Chopin and Tom Petty.

[Reaganesque]

How could we leave out the Nuge?! Cat Scratch Fever rules!

[flushed with pride]

Okay, I'll give you that. Had FM lived he would surely have been knighted. And we would be referring to him as Sir Freddy by now.

[sneakers]

Thomas Tallis' "Fantasia on a Theme"

[Luis Gonzalez]

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune - Claude Debussy

Le Sacre du printemps - Igor Stravinsky

El Salon Mexico - Aaron Copland

Lincolnshire Posy - Percy Grainger

Symphonie Fantastique - Hector Berlioz

Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (Lohengrin) - Richard Wagner

Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

[Revolting cat!]

[SaveTheChief]

Dude, like, all those guys are, like, dead.

Do you have any favorites that were, like, written after 1944?

Amahl and the Night Visitors, Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951.

And no, I am not going to humor you any further.

[Libertarian444]

R.E.M. - Nightswimming

[Tunehead54]

You are truly a treasure at FR! ;-)

[Cyclopean Squid]

Do you have any favorites that were, like, written after 1944?

You should check out Penderecki's symphonies. Don't be scared off by works like the Threnody for the Victim's of Hiroshima--he mellowed to become a top-shelf neo-Romantic. ;)

[Pyro7480]

The Third Brandenburg Concerto, J.S. Bach

Looks like you two agree on something.

[Reaganesque]

I once heard Tom Petty referred to as "the butt-ugliest man in rock and roll." ;-)

[Desdemona]

Mozart "Le Nozze di Figaro". There's NOTHING like it.

[beaver fever]

Thomas Tallis, Spem In Alium.

Composed for QE 1st's coronation and performed by the Clarkes of Oxenford in the early eighties.