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

[GunRunner]

Laaa da deeeeee da da da doooooooooo....

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

Tchaikovsky & Mozart are excellent composers. But most classical piano music is pleasant...

[miloklancy]

There are so many great works of music, but here a couple worthy of the history books.

Frank Zappa-Joes Garage
Bruford-One Of A Kind

[PalestrinaGal0317]

How could I forget Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma?
(A: I gave up coffee for Lent).
BEST love song of all time. I pretty much never cry, but it always brings tears to my eyes.

[Revolting cat!]

The late great Robert Bartley once quipped that anyone who likes merlot must not like wine. I think that something similar applies to Ravel's Bolero. The merlot of classical music.

[Argh]

Interesting, ecurbh. For decades my favourite piece has been Mahler's 9th. All that death stuff suits me right down to the ground. :^) Alban Berg was nuts about it too, not that that is necessarily a good advertisement.

[rfp1234]

The Lumberjack Song from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

[Argh]

I thought it ironic that the Threnody sounds like a radiation burn must feel. I believe he gave it that name only after he wrote it, like Debussy and his Preludes.

[BlueLancer]

Pachebel's Canon in D-Major

[Argh]

That's exactly why.

[TheLion]

Beethoven's ninth for me also....followed by the 3rd and 5th symphonies.

Mozart is great but a little to cutsie for me sometimes.

[Argh]

Yes, Otto the conductor was Werner's dad. They came over to the U.S. in the 30's to get away from Hitler (Werner was 15 at the time).

[Argh]

I still prefer Klemperer's Brahms' German Requiem to all the others I've heard (especially as remastered for EMI's Great Recordings of the Century, MUCH more detail comes through). And I've heard most of the recordings ever made of it (or so it seems). :^)

[silent_jonny]

I've been thinking about this today and, IMHO, I can't recall a better song than "Amazing Grace".

It's the only song that will reduce me to tears in seconds, whether I hear the lyrics sung in a choir or just the song itself played on bagpipes.

[JavaTheHutt]

It's particularly poignant when you learn that its author, John Newton, was the captain of a slave ship... and the hymn is autobiographical.

yeah, I know. gives even more meaning to the song.

[MeekMom]

Frankenstien? What is that supposed to mean?

[JavaTheHutt]

and raise you "It's a small, small, world"

nana nana nana nana nana nana BATMAN! nana nana nana nana nana nana BATMAN! nana nana nana nana nana nana BATMAN!

[JavaTheHutt]

Some notes: No popular contemporary piece can possibly make the list. They are just too short. The constraints of radio make that necessary, and no piece that lasts only three or four or five minutes can possibly measure up.

I guess that would depend on who is making the list, because nothing you mentioned would make it on my list anywhere in the top 500.

[Wolfstar]

I love 'Amazing Grace' also. Like I said, how can anyone reduce all of the music created by human kind down to a selection of one piece and claim it's the greatest ever?

The underlying premise of the thread is that only European classical symphonic music is worthy of being on a list of the greatest music of all time. I think that takes too narrow a view of the subject. There are so many different kinds of music, and probably as many different tastes in music as there are people on the planet.

[Wolfstar]

And, yes, fellow freepers, there is a right answer.

Was the selection made by some committee somewhere, or is this "right answer" yours?