History AwesomeMusic / Classical

* ''[[{{LudwigVanBeethoven}} Beethoven's]] 9th Symphony, movement 4'' is one of many {{Standard Snippet}}s popular throughout fiction, but it is one that truly conveys ''majesty''. Or that humanity is [[NeonGenesisEvangelion really]], [[ReadOrDie truly]] ''[[http://palinsarmy.ytmnd.com/ fucked]].''

** How can anyone forget ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0YOPoj4t0 Zadok the Priest]]? Also doubles as [[IncrediblyLamePun Awesome Music of Crowning]] - it is played at every coronation of a British monarch.

** Hell, when Allegro con Fuoco takes up the final half of episode 126 of OnePiece (where Luffy finally defeats Sir Crocodile), and was remixed into [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L95MNCQzD-A&feature=related one of Rhapsody of Fire's most epic songs, Wizard's Last Rhymes,]] you know it's bound to be CrowningMusicOfAwesome.

* Rimsky-Korsakov's [[http://www.imeem.com/groups/atOdkKH8/music/A1uL4w4v/yuri-simonov-russian-easter-festival-overture-op-36/ Russian Easter Festival Overture]]. (Apologies to peoples who aren't members of Imeem, but the piece is just too epic to have to divide.) Part beautiful, part powerful and energetic, part takes your breath away... It's quite possibly one of the most epic overtures ever written.

* The "Dies Irae" part of the Requiem Mass has more than one crowningly awesome interpretation. Try [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARO7ZjsXSkE Mozart's]] or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY Verdi's]] or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnHJJgiaxDU Michael Haydn's (which is very under-appreciated and which, in a parallel with Mozart, was unfinished at Haydn's death in 1806)]]. There is also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlr90NLDp-0 the original chant.]]

* The "Dies Irae" part of the Requiem Mass has more than one crowningly awesome interpretation. Try [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARO7ZjsXSkE Mozart's]] or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY Verdi's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnHJJgiaxDU Michael Haydn's is also awesome, and very under-appreciated]]. There is also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlr90NLDp-0 the original chant.]]

* The "Dies Irae" part of the Requiem Mass has more than one crowningly awesome interpretation. Try [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARO7ZjsXSkE Mozart's]] or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY Verdi's]].

** Elgar's First Symphony also deserves a mention. Its opening is superb. It begins with muted timpani, and then branches into a glorious, stately theme, played pianissimo at first, but it starts increasing in volume, and then it gets taken up by the full orchestra, played fortissimo. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRzCVh-3OT0 The effect is glorious]]

** Elgar's First Symphony also deserves a mention. It's opening is superb. It begins with muted timpani, and then branches into a glorious, stately theme, played pianissimo at first, but it starts increasing in volume, and then it gets taken up by the full orchestra, played fortissimo. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRzCVh-3OT0 The effect is glorious]]

** His "Four Last Songs", for soprano and orchestra, written towards the end of his life, when Germany was devastated after World War 2, are among the most beautiful and grandest sad music ever written: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YD_8E4ZVxY ''"At Dawn"'']] (Turn up your speakers!)

** "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51oHwMiqslo Uranus, the Magician]]". Starts out bombastic, gets quiet, then ''epic'', then quiet again, then finally revs up to ''[[BeyondtheImpossible Fucking MEGA EPIC]]'' for the finale.

** The former was used to great effect in [[Film/{{X-Men}} X-2: X-Men United]] during Nightcrawler's attack on the White House.

* Henry Purcell's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWRcx9LHBJU Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary]]. It's mostly known as the [[SoundtrackDissonance unfitting]] opening theme in the film of ''AClockworkOrange''.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv67YkOWJNA Olivier Messiaen - 5th Movement of the ''Turangalîla Symphonie''.]]

*** It's also the first piece in music to be written with an intentional fadeout ending, even in a live performance setting. Holst ''nailed'' it.

* ''Carmen'', by Georges Bizet. One of the most well-known operas in popular culture. Try the Big Chorus Number [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tu4H1VnAgw "Les Voici"]] (a.k.a. "Entry of the Toreadors") from Act IV, or the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTuNUZEFBJk Habanera]], or the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEn57tVA1s Toreador Song]], which is possibly one of the most famous operatic songs for a man of all time! And there are all kinds of other gems sprinkled throughout the opera, all the way to the end. Don't believe us? Just listen to a recording from your local library. Yeah!

*** This troper in particular always manages to [[SandInMyEyes get sand in his eyes]], regardless of how many times he's listened to that ending.

* We don't have much in the way of confirmation, but it is quite possible that Anton Bruckner wrote the fourth movement of his Eighth Symphony [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVTemkkT0UI specifically to knock you on your ass.]]

* Mexican music is under appreciated so here's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vwZAkfLKK8 Danzon no.2]] by Arturo Márquez.

** How can no-one have mentioned the cello concerto? The whole thing, especially the first movement, is the crowning moment of awesome for concertos in general.

** No mention of his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexcMRKVMkk violin]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4W34SsreA&feature=related concerto]]?

* Shostakovich has many, many moments of awesome music. Several of the pieces in the Op. 87 set of 24 Preludes and Fugues for the piano are this for both composer and performner. The finale of Symphony #5 is brilliant and exciting, always climbing up by semitones and pushing the tension up further with each step. And Symphony #9, written at the behest of JosefStalin who commissioned it as a celebration of victory in WorldWarTwo, which completely mocks the idea of a grandiose celebratory symphony in favour of a more "folksy" style.

* "Wayfarin' Stranger," an Appalachian folk hymn. When the piano kicks into high gear . . . just, WOW. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TQgyDzhNM&feature=related Great choir, too.]]

* Mussorgsky's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE Night on Bald Mountain]]" and Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre".

** The overture from ''Swan Lake'' was used to NightmareFuel-riffic effect in the trailers for ''BlackSwan'', using that upswing in the middle to punctuate the ad.