Top 10 Instrumental Works & Opera Favorites

Music is found in every known culture, past and present.  It has been in existence for at least 50,000 years and has evolved to become a fundamental aspect of human life.  A country’s music is influenced by all areas of that culture, including social and economic organization and experience, climate, and access to technology.  Some of the most influential people in history have contributed to the landscape of music.  Composers have been around for generations, creating rhythm, sound, and happiness.  I have collected a list of 10 of the most influential compositions and opera favorites.

Nessun dorma (none shall sleep) is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot.  It is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera.  Giacomo Puccini was a famous Italian composer who wrote many operas in the early 20th century.  In Turandot the song is performed by Calaf, who falls in love with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. However, any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles.  If he fails, he will be beheaded.  In 1990, Nessun dorma was recorded by Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Pavarotti’s version of the song was used as the theme song of BBC television’s coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.  It subsequently reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart, the highest placing ever for a classical recording.  Nessun dorma has been featured in many motion pictures, including The Killing Fields, The Sum of All Fears, and Bend It Like Beckham.

Adagio for Strings is a composed work arranged by American Samuel Barber.  The piece was developed for a string orchestra.  It originated as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, composed in 1936. Barber’s composition follows a violently contrasting first movement, and is succeeded by a brief reprise.  Adagio for Strings is performed in the key of B-flat minor.  In 2004, listeners of the BBC’s Today program voted Adagio the “saddest classical” work ever.  In the United States the song is often played in mourning of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  It has been sampled by the British rock band Muse and appeared in feature films Platoon and Amélie.

7. Piano Concerto No. 2 (1900)
Composed By: Sergei Rachmaninoff

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901.  Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian-American composer, pianist, and conductor.  He was one of the finest pianists of his day.  As a composer Rachmaninoff was one of the last great representations of late Russian Romantic classical music.  The piano plays a prominent role in Rachmaninoff’s compositional output, either as a solo instrument or as part of an ensemble.

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is written in a three-movement concerto form.  It uses 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 4 horns, 3 trombones (2 tenor, bass), tuba, bass drum, solo piano, strings, and many more instruments. The opening movement begins with a series of bell-like tolling on the piano, eventually climaxing in the introduction of the main theme.

The Nocturnes, Op. 9 are a set of three nocturnes written by Frédéric Chopin between 1830 and 1832.  They were dedicated to Madame Camille Pleyel. Frédéric Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist.  He was one of the great masters of Romantic music.  Chopin’s compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument.  He was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prélude.  Chopin composed Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 when he was only 20-years-old.  Like much of Chopin’s music, this nocturne is tinged with melancholy.  It is reflective until it suddenly becomes passionate near the conclusion.  Frédéric Chopin died in Paris when he was only 39-years- old.  He suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis.

5. Time to Say Goodbye (1997)
Performed By: Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman

Con te partirò is an Italian song written by Francesco Sartori (music) and Lucio Quarantotto (lyrics).  It was first sung by Andrea Bocelli at the 1995 San Remo Festival and recorded on his album.  In 1997, Bocelli and soprano Sarah Brightman collaborated on the song and renamed it Time to Say Goodbye.  Time to Say Goodbye was an international success and reached #1 all over the world.  It is the best selling single in the history of opera music and has sold an astounding 11 million copies.

The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are acclaimed as some of the greatest works ever written for solo cello.  They were most likely composed during the period 1717–1723, when Bach served as a Kapellmeister in Köthen, Germany.  Johann Sebastian Bach’s contributions to choir, orchestra, and solo instruments helped identify the strands of the Baroque period of music.

The suites contain a great variety of technical devices, a wide range of emotionally soothing content, and some of Bach’s most compelling voice interactions and conversations.  It is their intimacy that has made the suites amongst Bach’s most popular works today.  The Prelude to Suite No. 1 is probably the best known movement from the entire set and is regularly heard on television and films.

3. The Music of the Night (1986)

Composed By: Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Music of the Night is a song from the musical The Phantom of the  Opera.  The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by  Charles Hart.  The composition was made famous by Michael Crawford, the  actor who originated the role of the Phantom both in London and on  Broadway.  The Music of the Night has sold millions of copies worldwide  and has been translated into many different languages.   

In the musical, it is sung after the Phantom lures Christine Daaé down to his  lair beneath the Opera House.  He seduces Christine with “his music” of the  night, with his voice putting her into a trance.  The Phantom of the Opera is  the most successful entertainment project in history, grossing more than US  $5 billion worldwide by 2007.

The Requiem Mass in D minor was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus   Mozart in 1791, during the last year of his life.  The requiem was Mozart’s   last composition and is one of his most popular and respected works.  It is   scored for 2 basset-horns, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (alto, tenor   & bass), timpani (2 drums), violins, viola, and basso continuo.   In his life   Mozart wrote over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of   symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music.  He is   among the most popular of all classical composers.  Sadly, Mozart died of a   sudden and mysterious sickness in 1791.  He was only 35-years-old.

Piano Concerto No. 21

The Piano Concerto No. 21 was completed on March 9, 1785 by Wolfgang    Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous D minor    concerto.  It contains three movements and is one of Mozart’s most prized    works.

The Piano Sonata No. 14 is a work by German composer Ludwig van     Beethoven.  It is popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata and is rumored to     be dedicated to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.  Beethoven was a     crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic     eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed     and influential composers of all time.  His hearing began to deteriorate in the     late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after     becoming completely deaf.  The Moonlight Sonata possesses an end-     weighted trajectory, so the climax is not reached until the third movement.  It     remains one of Beethoven’s most cherished creations.

Honorable Mentions

Pomp and Circumstance March Number 1 (1901)
Composed By: Edward Elgar

The Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Op. 39 are a series of marches for      orchestra composed by Sir Edward Elgar.  Elgar was a famous English      composer during the early 19th century.  He composed many works,      including oratorios, chamber music, songs, and symphonies.  Elgar was      appointed Master of the King’s Musick in 1924.  March No. 1 was composed      in 1901 and dedicated “To my friend Alfred E. Rodewald and the members      of the Liverpool Orchestral Society.”          

It is the best known piece of Elgar’s collection and uses a wide variety of      musical instruments.  In the United States, the Trio section “Land of Hope      and Glory” of March No. 1 is played as the processional tune at virtually all    high school and college graduation ceremonies.  It was first played at such a      ceremony on 28 June 1905, at Yale University.

Lux Aeterna (2000)
Composed By: Clint Mansell

Lux Aeterna (the eternal light) is a composition by Clint Mansell.  It was       created for the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream.  Clint Mansell is a British       musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop       Will Eat Itself.  Mansell broke into the world of film scoring in 1996 with the       movie π.  The popularity of Lux Aeterna has led to its use in popular culture,       mostly in film trailers and commercials.  It has been used for the movies       Avatar, I Am Legend, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lord of the Rings.