Classical Music Top 100: Light, Popular, Classical Music Works for Children, Students, Teenagers and Parents, Teachers, Pedagogues, Music Teachers, Classical Beginners and Classical Music Fans 

Classical Music is not only cool for older folks. However ... it must be "easily digestible" for younger people in the beginning. Finding exactly this kind of Classical Music ... compiled ... has not yet been possible until today, not even on the internet. After all, what should the keywords be to find such a list? By the way, the Bach family in Rochester, Minnesota, in the USA, is shown above. Reinhold Bach was the ancestor of one of two US branches of the largest family of musicians in the world and of all time.

Classical Music: Where is the List? Which Are the 100 Most Popular Classical Works? 

Classical music: The collection of 300 popular Classical Works starts right below my very long text and the 23 pictures and below a little bit of advertising ... or just click here and now. Again the keyword "Classical Music": Following the alphabet of the composers' last names, this page lists a total of 300 musical works by very famous, famous, well-known, lesser-known, and almost unknown composers, through whose works you can get to the enthusiasm for this music genre. Of course, you can find "Bach" almost at the very top of this list, but not because the author of this website is a member of this largest family of musicians of all time or because "Johann Sebastian Bach" is his hobby ... with a smile. And why is this collection called the "Classical Music Top 100", when there are 300 works? I will leave this question open here. But ... there is a substantial reason!

If You Want to Find Classical Music Cool

By Peter Bach Jr.

Three composers, three styles of pictures, however, please ... who is the gentleman in the middle?

That's how it went for me: I wanted to discover music by Johann Sebastian Bach about 15 years ago and Classical Music for about 50 years, and I wanted to find it cool. Until 2005 it was just a wish. So now and then. In 2005, just before I started my Bach project, I finally bought a CD Best of Bach. So, how did I find what I was listening to? Mostly lousy, three pieces were okay, and I liked two very much. But to explore more pieces of Bach (... so, beyond those on the CD) ... I didn't want that anymore. Why was that? They weren't the best known, most beautiful, most popular, or coolest works of the master from the Baroque era, but they were, what the music publisher "still had at hand", what he had published before, or what for other reasons just "fit". This experience was exactly the reason to publish something that really paves a "way to Johann Sebastian Bach" and above all to his music, a selection that makes you want to hear more. And since that time I wanted – later at some point and especially for children – to also offer a way to Classical Music in general. At that time it was supposed to take 15 more years.

Surely you, as a student or as a teenager, and you as a grown-up, too, once upon a time, noticed that you have to listen to some completely new songs only two or even three times to get enthusiastic about them. And that is also – to the point – the key to liking Classical Music. So listen to every piece of music in my collection twice or three times, maybe even five times. After that, I promise: You can't get many of them out of your head and that's no different from it was with a Beatles song, a work by Elvis, a super hit by Abba or, much later, the number 1 in the charts of today: by Taylor Swift, Rihanna or Lady Gaga. No pressure, no ambition, just keep coming back to this website and listen to some of the works. That's how it works with Classical Music. And from here you can then – much, much later – also explore whether you want to listen to more by one or the other composer. But perhaps, quite possibly, you will stick with these suggested 300 cool works of "light" Popular Classical Music.

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The Bachs again. Did you know: Johann Sebastian Bach had five musical sons? Four of them were famous, two of them were even more famous than their father in their days. Today ... almost nobody knows this. Above is an illustration for my website Johann Sebastian Bach for Children. It addresses all ages, from young kids to parents and teachers.© Info.

For your introduction to this music division "Classical Music", I have chosen only relatively short works: three minutes long, six minutes, maximum of 20 minutes in length, and a few exceptions. And this premise results in enough examples of beautiful melodies. Of course, the work Messiah by Handel is phenomenal, or Johann Sebastian Bach's world-famous Mass in B minor, or his world-unbelievable St. Matthew Passion. But to listen to such masterpieces with lengths of far, far more than half an hour ... this is certainly nothing for the beginning and – as dreamlike as these works are – they are turning most starters ... at the beginning ... rather off.

In addition, I also "sorted out" pieces that start too soft for too long. Of course, the collection also includes pieces of music that also I myself have heard more often in my life. On the radio, by chance ... or in TV commercials or movies. And of course, my personal taste is also reflected in the selection, but it's the music that tends to be the most popular on the internet and the one that gets the highest rankings on Google and YouTube search results. But those which are not listed in all other standard Classical Music Top 100 Collections.  Plus... in the end, one blogger or editor copies from the others and simply weighs the ranking a little differently. Or, arranges everything alphabetically. These collections out there were not and are not at all suitable for beginners!

Of course, I apologize to all Classical Music fans who wince at the "admission criteria to my list" and who are infinitely angry with me for not performing their favorite Classical Music hit. "Failed" are also compositions that certainly frustrate a Classical Music beginner. Plus, when it comes to singing, namely from a certain constant "squeaking of the girls" (... now you know what a cultural banausos is: You can recognize it by such sentences!), I have to pass when it's the most extreme performance, comparable to a two-minute electric guitar solo. There are also no Christmas carols in my offer, and there are also hundreds of other really, really great Classical Works missing. If I offered you more works (... for example, more than "only" the 33 works of 1,128 by Bach, which Bach fans would certainly want to see performed here. There are by far not 33 of his works in my Top 300), it then is no longer a selection. And of course, dozens of modern Classical Music works are missing. In general, Classical Music fans may complain that not even their favorite composer is listed, not to mention his most popular piece. Finally – very specifically – all works that are too quiet and all works that are too slow are, therefore – as mentioned – not included, so that – adapted to our current consumption habits – all "my selected favorite" Classical Works for you can be "consumed" on your smartphone and your tablet while you are on the move. And last but not least, you don't have to like every piece I've chosen. But, at this point mentioned again ... give each one a chance: Listen to it several times ... if you have decided to find out if Classical Music is something you might enjoy all your life. I ... never had this chance in this way. That's why this, my website, came into being. And after I – knowing how – found all 300 titles in a few weeks, I was looking forward to compiling my own play list with many of the titles from my Classical Music Top 100 for listening to myself.  With this, I now have found my way to Classical Music as a gift for my 39th wedding anniversary. And I am thrilled. That is ... how I like Classical Music.

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Without question, practically all organ music is Classical Music. Did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach is considered the greatest and best organ player of all time? He has been elected by countless musicians and celebrities from all epochs. His son reported that his father, when his feet and hands were "busy" with other things, has put a little stick in his mouth to play a key that was otherwise out of reach. © Info.

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Quite deliberately, this website is not a "great find" for all those who are already beyond this stage of getting to know the topic or even far beyond ... and certainly not for real Classical Music fans. Although: With this website, you might be able to convince some young people better than if you "provide" them with your favorite pieces "as a sample". And very important: There are so many works missing here that you surely would find worth mentioning. But ... I am an "out of the box" thinker ... and so the pieces here on my portal have to meet completely different criteria that are important to me: The piece must reach the essential recognizable area early, it must be popular, it must not be "too classical" (... what is that?!!!) and it is like this: With many kids, I have at most two chances. If I have chosen the right pieces, as a first offer it can result in a love for life. If both are my wrong choice, it happens, unfortunately, like with me: First half a century had to pass until my interest was big enough again. However, it is clear that I had other reasons as well. Also, important: With my selection, I want to achieve that beginners and children have heard as many pieces as possible "somehow once" and recognize what they liked before: on TV, in grandma's radio in the kitchen, or commercials as well as in cinema productions or TV productions. Because to recognize now that this or that other work has already been heard and in the best case also liked in the past, is "half the battle" for my project!

Get To Know Classical Music for the First Time: Please Not on the Radio

There are special offers of classical music on the radio. Isn't that a cool option? On the contrary: Radio stations like Classic FM in London, Great Britain, on "my" side of the Atlantic Ocean, The New Classical 96.3 FM in Toronto, Canada, that would be the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and ... on the Pacific coast KUSC Classical FM 91.5 in Los Angeles, California, USA plus some others are "poison for Classical Music beginners". Because if they were playing mainly the hits in my list, people who prefer to listen exclusively to classical music would switch off very quickly. This quality offer is recommended to you, if you have decided that Classical Music is your "thing". And if you are far beyond the status of a Classical Music beginner. But for kids, students, and classical music starters, is what you hear there by chance, usually too "hard to digest". And after only two minutes, you click on to the next station with today's cool music or a specific genre. So once again very clearly: These music offers on the radio are absolute quality! But just not for "Classical Music starters"!

This is my actual "target group". Because teachers, parents and classical music beginners come "only second". Kids have to be introduced to classical music very, very carefully. The risk of spoiling something for life is huge. © Info.

The 300 Most Favorable Pieces of Classical Music of All Time: Which Ones Belong to that Collection Without a Doubt? I Am Really Happy to Guide You Through It!

Classical Music pieces tend to be classified with "no clue" – without even knowing it – in the category of the music of the old and famous masters of composition. Who knows the name Bach and can write Beethoven correctly, knows that there are a few more. And that is in the first, second, third, and even fourth league. But they all seem to be persons who somehow don't live anymore.

Okay, so my way of explaining it here comes from the fact that no one in the whole world gently introduces someone interested in this subject to this new hobby, in our case indeed Classical Music. It is as if one is interested in the subject of sculpture for the first time at a young age and his or her dad buys a marble block and a set of tools and explains to his or her son or daughter: "Now you chop away everything that doesn't look like a lion ... and you have already accomplished your first "work". After that, you really shouldn't be surprised if this "instruction" rules out sculpting as a lifelong hobby after just two minutes of working.

So, to the question and the headline above: Of course, many more works of the "old masters" could – theoretically – be included in my list "Classical Top 100", because there are not only 300 popular Classical Works. However, are they then really popular? So, then should O Sole Mio also be included? Well, you can argue. For some perhaps "yes", others shake at the thought. Does this then also mean that no more Classical Music is created today? Never again? Yes, yes. It is still being created today. Even if the names of the current composers are not nearly as well known as those in the first, second, third, and fourth leagues of the icons who once lived. And who decides whether a work is classical?

Well ... I do ( ! ) ... but only for my list. Granted, there are many borderline decisions. And why is that? Well, some songs and pieces of music somehow never go out of fashion. For people with a very specific taste in music. If a piece of music is so good that it is timelessly good, then it often becomes an evergreen (... in Germany, an old-fashioned expression here for such a music work, hardly used today; that may be the same in English, or it is maybe a "classic"; no "al" at the end!) or it is covered by Rihanna and colleagues, that is sung or performed in today's style. If a work qualifies after many, many years, better decades, more and more, becomes almost timeless and is perceived by more and more generations as cool and enjoyable, and has also fulfilled some other conditions, then ... yes, then it can be assigned more and more to Classical Music.

Whether one or the other of these pieces which I selected, is a Classical Work of music ... who would judge it? Because: Nowhere on the internet is it specifically mentioned, with examples. More precisely, to be clearly defined for individual pieces: This is a classical work and that is not a Classical Work. Plus, people who listen mainly to Classical Music are overqualified. But, what about people who only like Swift, Mars, Lady Gaga, Bieber, Adele, Sheeran, Lipa, Grande, Madonna & Co. ... you know it. But why can't people who are particularly well-educated in Classical Music put together a cool list of the best classical works? Because their choice – a Classical Music Top 10, Top 25, Top 50 or just the Classical Music Top 100 – is made very subjectively according to their personal taste. The knowledge of a particularly well-informed person about a broad spectrum of works by the best Classical Composers is, therefore, a handicap. It was different with me: I was ultimately unqualified! I had no real idea a few days before I started this website. Well ... Bach ... by that time is what I was familiar with, but otherwise ... I only knew which classical melody I really liked, if I heard it by chance somewhere. But by whom the piece was composed? How should I find that out for many pieces? On the other hand, it worked "in the opposite direction": If you search in many sources and really "crisscross" for the most popular pieces by as many masters as possible in many genres of the "quality levels" 1 to 5, then you will find many pieces "just like that", which you could not assign until then. And so I personally fulfilled my dream and discovered that the "Classical Music Top 100" – my "Classical Music Top 100" – might not only be exciting for children (... as originally thought), but also for all people of all ages, who otherwise would never find out how and where there is an exciting, practicable, "easily digestible" way to find out whether you might enjoy Classical Music. So please meet my small collection of historical and modern, young, popular classical music: 300 pieces to get to know the "World of Classical Music".

Three times Bach. two times Johann Sebastian, one time me.

Johann Sebastian Bach alone probably composed 11,000 classical works, of which only 1,128 have survived today. There are three dozen very well-known to famous classical composers in the first three leagues and hundreds in the fourth and fifth league. Even today, there are still many ( ! ) composers who compose Classical Music completely fresh. What, please, is the first league? Well, relatively clear, according to the international ( ! ) level of fame: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven are the first league. And the second league? Brahms, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and similar superstars. And the third? Well, Reger for example (... Max Reger fans simply have to be brave now), Telemann, Ravel, and finally also one ( 1 ! ) woman: Clara Schumann. Of course, you are cordially invited to be of a completely different opinion.

Bach vs. Schubert vs. Cohen

So, what was my approach to creating my list? Well, I wanted to find the best pieces of many, many composers and after that decide whether piece number 12 of composer A is "better" than the best piece of composer Q. There is no doubt that Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famous composers in the first league and George Frideric Handel is one of the famous musicians in the second division of Classical Music composers (... for me and many more people on the planet, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart are simply the premium league ...). Plus there is Gounod, maybe in the third, maybe in the fourth league, when it comes to fame.

Three celebrities – Bach, Gounod, and Schubert – are associated with the work Ave Maria. Did you know that there are two Ave Maria, composed by three famous masters? Okay, now we want to compare their work to find out, whether this is so much better than what musicians composed later. Listen here to Bach's foundation of the first Ave Maria. The result is dreamlike, no question. Next, Gounod comes into play, and he added his skills on top of Bach's work. The once "Prelude" in the "Well-Tempered Clavier" became the "Ave Maria", how we know it today. Maybe it was one of the first works, which you could announce "Gounod feat. Bach". Listen to this combination, which is correctly titled "Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod" here. Breathtaking, but, when it comes to skills, not that extraordinary like many, many more classical compositions. Now it's the time to introduce a composer's work that was created some 200 years later: It is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Again my hint: In this paragraph, it is not about the awareness level of a work and not about its fame. It is about whether a music piece is a Classical Music piece only because of age, or because its composer is considered a Classical composer in the sense in which folks today do. And what do I mean, there are two famous "Ave Maria(s)"? There is one more by Schubert. Listen to it with a click here.

One more example: Let us compare Mozart's "For Elise" with the old Scottish masterpiece "Auld Lang Syne" by Burns. Why, precisely, is Wolfgang Amadeus' work definitely Classical Music, but it's not so sure with Robert Burn's masterpiece? Probably because there is a "gray zone", when it comes to judging, whether a piece – no matter when it was composed and by whom – made it to the Olympus of all music categories.

Finally, let us compare Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", which is, no doubt, one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, with an outstanding composition of a today living super musician. So many folks don't know his name – compared to Bach– and probably that will remain forever: It is Master John Williams, and one of his greatest pieces is the "Star Wars Main Theme"! Compare the complexity and the hearable result. There is no reason, at all, to consider Johann Sebastian's work a real Classical Music piece ... but John's work not.

Last but least: Please consider, if you don't agree in general with my approach to creating my list, that many of those which we, no doubt, consider Classical Composers of long-gone times, composed for back then leisure time events, such as operas, ballet, and for fun, and entertainment. So even with that, there is no difference between a hundred-year-old work and "brand-new compositions", but the fact, that Bach's Peasant Cantata and the Austrian so called waltz king, the No. twoof two Johanns, Johann Strauss' many waltzes are without any doubt considered Classical Music, and "Adiemus" by Karl Jenkins is not yet, maybe never officially, is curious. Only the compositional achievement should be used for comparison. Of course, "pi times thumb"! And afterwards? After that you can of course and with pleasure stick to your opinion. At least, that's my opinion.

The first "popular-scientific investigation": Is Bach's and Gounod's Ave Maria or Mozart's "Kleine Nachtmusik" (... "Little Night Music") a more musically sophisticated work than John Williams' "Star Wars Main Theme"? © Info. 

The second "popular-scientific investigation": Did Handel, Verdi, and Beethoven really achieve qualitatively more than Andrew Lloyd Webber? © Info.

About Clothing, Instruments,  Singing, and My Way "Across the Ice"

Classical Music is very difficult to explain, but you can learn to recognize it when you meet it. The clothing of the performers becomes less festive and less formal and less conservative when artists are offering non-classical entertainment, and more conservative when it comes to Classical Music. The more the music moves away from entertainment via the "popular classic" to serious and famous Classical Works like the "St. Matthew Passion" to the rather less well-known but still "serious" Classical Music of the masters, you can also discover a tendency in the used musical instruments. Visitors who read here after they "consumed" my first page of this website may forgive me for the "double mop" of content, but I'll keep it short here. Classical Music is more likely to be played with a grand piano, with (several) violins, oboes, clarinets, flutes, cellos, a harp, and horns. All other kinds of music are rather "related" to a drum set, a keyboard, a guitar, and especially an electric guitar. But for heaven's sake: That's a crude, superficial classification. All musical instruments can also be found on "the other side": Of course there is pop with trumpets and horns and, of course, you can find a drum set in every philharmonic orchestra. Perhaps a proportional comparison will help: 100 violinists play rather classical music. If only one violinist is playing the violin, then classical music approaches all "other music" and you can't tell without listening. And on top of that: In the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra the drums are only one instrument out of – let's say –100. With all other music, this goes down to a ratio of 3 to 1.

Finally, the singing: Classical Music stands for comparatively exceptional trained and professional singing. With all other music, the singing criteria are different: Very special voices beat usual voices. Small peculiarities become a sign of quality, a grater voice does not have to be negative and besides the hearable result, with most pieces of "other music" also additional disciplines count, like cool dance choreography (... for that you even get a second example) in the last 50 years, and a more than cool, perfect or even artistically very high quality and sometimes real wicked video. You want one more example regarding the dance factor in the video coming with the music work? Here you are.

Nevertheless, again the hint for you as a student. I'm quite comfortable with that opinion. But it is not advisable that you refer to my website in your next test and say or write that many violins always produce Classical Music and that Classical Music can also be performed also in a sweater and jeans or a sloppy look. Although, when I think about it while proofreading ...

Effort, Effort, and More Effort ... And It Is Now Also the Chapter Devoted to André Rieu

First of all: Do you reject André Rieu? His whole personality, him, his way of entertaining with jokes and fun, clapping of the audience and swaying? Then absolutely please read on here first.

Yes, that's how it is: Start of Advertisement. Three and a half decades (= 35 years) Renate (... my wife ... and because you get to her publishing house website with your click, you might understand the link as promotion!) and I, Peter (... attention, this could also be classified as promotion! Because the page about me is on Renate's Publishing House page, too). Here now it's the End of Advertisement ... we found André Rieu simply "just goofy". Maybe it was his friendly laugh and smile while he "only fiddled", maybe it was his facial expressions, which we only saw for 10 seconds and then continued zapping, or maybe it was because we were not yet "calibrated" for Classical Music. Who knows? Today, while writing these lines, I conclude: We just weren't mature enough for this quality offering this super long time. Today it is different. Today we appreciate his whole way, his performance, his ability, and his style of making entertainment. We really were too immature for half a lifetime. Sorry, Maestro!

Today, we have one thing in common with the cool Dutchman: We offer an "easy to digest" music genre. With entertainment, with fun, for pleasure, for relaxation, for enthusiasm. That's what André Rieu also does with his Johann Strauss Orchestra, and that's what I do with my Bach portal and this website that you are reading at this moment. Clearly, we do not play in the same league, he is in the first, I am in the seventh, but nevertheless, we are walking on the same path to our common goal: to inspire you and make you enthusiastic.

And because his performance and that of his orchestra and his artists fit so perfectly to our overall goal, that's why I offer you a few  YouTube videos with his performance. Sure, you have to like his humor (... we do) and you have to be open to his whole performance. Otherwise, it doesn't work with the "wanting to like Classical Music" either. You have to give Rieu's and my "universe of entertainment" a chance. You have to want to! And that works for grown-ups, too. More serious, that's possible still later, but your path should begin with getting to know Classical Music, performed by André Rieu, and then move on to the performances of the greatest symphony orchestras in the world, which of course serve a slightly different audience. Of course, both offers overlap.

But there are also other artists in my Classical Music offering (... so in my Classical Music Top 100 List): excellent orchestras, but sometimes also those artists who made the composition famous with their performance. This often applies to young, Popular Classical Titles like the one by Elvis Presley (P.S. ... not anymore, I decided to cancel his participation in the list ... and P.P.S. ... now it's back in after I got to know the playlists of "WDR 4 Klassik Populär".). After all, the most daring decision is certainly to present Freddy Mercury as well, as he is a complete work of art with his videos and his band "Queen". Here is my tribute to him, I only learned to appreciate his skills 30 years after his death. Plus I finally added the masterpiece "Diva Dance" from the science fiction movie with Bruce Willis (The 5th Element) to my list, absolutely "out of the box", however it is ... Classical Music. The musical "making of" without extraterrestrials? Yes, please enjoy.

And last but not least, you will also get a selection of simply beautiful videos and cool (... Popular Classical) performances from me – in my Top 100 –  if there are any with the classical highlights in my Classic Top 100.

There is no other composer to whom more monuments all over the world are dedicated than to Johann Sebastian Bach. There are 33 and the tribute above is at the Opera in Paris, France. Since we " tinkered " with the calendar about Luther, this is no longer entirely true. Because there are many more monuments dedicated to Martin Luther. But the reformer is not such a real composer after all.

This Is Really Going Too Far

I give an asterisk ( * ) to all those Classical Music works that are so young and so present that you might ask yourself whether they are really a classical piece of music. First of all, because the piece is not as "historical" as, say, The Magic Flute or some Bach hits. But then also because you do not (yet) immediately "freeze in respect" for the artist. And finally thirdly, because – at least apparently – it hasn't even "lived through" the quality level of an evergreen (... a very old-fashioned word in Germany, you read about it above) and finally, because this doesn't fit your level of knowledge and expectation of getting to know Classical Music on this website at all.

So everyone does what he or she likes best: You can listen to the works with asterisks and decide for yourself whether they will still be so touching and beautiful in 100 years. Then, they will be (... even today) Classical Music. Some of Bach's works have already been doing this for over 300 years. Or you think that this "light classical works thing" is a great idea, but Simon and Garfunkel, Ennio Morricone, or Whitney Houston (... well the composer of the mega-successful song "Bodyguard" was Alan Silvestri) ... and Classical Music? That really doesn't work, that is your opinion? As I mentioned: It does work because there is a "gray area", a transition, a personal classification: When becomes or is music Classical Music? And when is it or will never be? For 99 percent of all titles outside this middle, this does not apply: Nobody will deny that every symphony is Classical Music ... and the opposite is true for the title Happy by Pharrell Williams. And finally? You can find my entire collection of Classical Works without asterisks very good and disagree with the ennoblement of the "Asterisk songs". Anyway, and again: Have fun with my selection of Classical Music for you.

My ■■■ hints are a tool to avoid too challenging pieces in the beginning and suggest "anti frustration titles".

Oh, and because I like to be silly myself: Kids! Just listening to three or five songs with asterisks and then claiming that you love Classical Music is definitely uncool. Plus, to all musicians and Classical Music connoisseurs: I know, Sinatra, Faltermeyer, Piaf, Presley, Lennon, Mercury, Last, and Co. are borderline, but who knows, maybe in 150 years their works might be definitely Classical Music. So bear with me, please ... and my approach was then perfect if only one child in 100 years discovers Classical Music for himself or herself with my website and list.

There are around 150 stamps on the subject of Johann Sebastian Bach. How likable: The artist of the work above was so taken with the master from Thuringia and his name that he quickly reworded the entire birthplace of Bach from "Eisenach" to "Eisenbach". How cool.

Was Mozart Really a Rock Star and the First King of Pop?

Of course, I do face the criticism, even the accusation, that Bye Bye My Little Guard Officer by Robert Stolz and My Heart Will Go On ("Titanic") by James Horner and also A Dream Comes True from the Disney movie "Aladdin" are not only not – and this is the opinion of many Classical Music experts – Classical Music, but no Classical Music at all. Okay, but with one objection: We could agree to use the term "not yet Classical Music ". But probably in 100 years or so? And today, and in my list, works are already allowed that have this potential. About Mozart: The Austrian Falco made Mozart the first rock star in history, if not the very first. And he is also considered the first King of Pop. By the way, here you can read exciting things about the content of Falco's Rock Me Amadeus super hit: That's how wrong you can "build your opinion". Or is that then artistic freedom? To read it, if you are interested, I suggest, you use DeepL, the best translation software on the planet. And why are we interested in that today? Because both Mozart and all the Strausses composed popular music in their time, which was then what Madonna and colleagues present today. Only much later, and with a completely different from the current taste, do will recognize – and of course, this was already the case 50 years ago – the timelessness and quality of these creations. Because my website has first and foremost the mission to lead you towards Classical Music, (almost) all means to an end are sacred to me. Even a good fight is suitable for this. Search and choose the titles from the 300 Classical Works offered in my Classical Music Top 100 List, on which we might agree. In general, if you read here and classify this website as "trash", then you actually do not belong to my "target group". Alone, because one or the other young visitor will deal more intensively with whether the offer is 100 percent classical or not, results in an approach to a topic that is colossally difficult to digest in its entirety.

And as for Mozart and his then not-so-Classical Music, you can read more about it here with a click. For Mozart and Beethoven, the composers Pachelbel, Handel, and, of course, also Johann Sebastian Bach composed certainly Classical Music at their time, although it was definitively not yet called "Classical Music" back then. But also here, as elsewhere, kids, to you again a very clear hint, and now also quite seriously: All titles with one asterisk are borderline. And all titles with even three asterisks ( * * * ) are decidedly borderline. But for me is valid, and only for me: Via my website hardly ever heavy contradiction against my own opinion meet directly. In your music education, this will be completely different. So that at least a small portion is "pedagogically valuable" for all and generates first-class results in an exam, I have marked the 100 percent sure classical pieces for you with a DCM (DCM is "Definitely Classical Music"). This will get you through any test. But ...but, now, there are still a few left between the DCMs, the titles with one asterisk and those with three asterisks and I leave that to professionals of all sorts. They are welcome to assign the works in my list, and you know, not only around the topic "Bach", but also here I am a "Lustigmacher", a "funny maker" (... long before J.S. Bach's times a "Lustigmacher" was a "fun maker", but not a comedian, and not fun as a noun, but "funny", the old grammar back then). And for them, these experts, there are – if necessary – the little warnings (see below). By the way: It was those titles I marked with DCM, whose composers are actually undoubtedly (... definitely) considered Classical Composers. And again top-important: Very few Classical Music experts believe that Classical Music was "produced" only by three super-composers in the epoch ( ! ) of Classical Music: by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and far more unknown composers. In addition, there are Classical Music fans who think that Tchaikovsky's ballet works, the waltzes of the Strausses and generally, opera hits and similar works are not Classical Music because they were composed for entertainment. That's why many DCM notes warn you with the following sign:

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Finally... The World of Classical Music: My Collection of the 300 Most Popular  and for That Reason Most Beautiful Classical Works From 350 Years  ... My Classical Music Top 100

For me and my approach, there are exactly four criteria for my "evaluation" of Classical Music pieces: First, pieces must fit exactly to my philosophy, and thus my absolute recommendation to start with these. Then, in addition, there are beautiful melodies that I was almost tempted to include in my list of Classic Top 100 (... actually Classical Music Top 300) and I had to call myself to order not to do exactly that. This list does not include the pieces I like, but only the most Popular Classical Works. Third, then there are – beyond that – those pieces that all kind of rank the same for me. To put it flippantly: That is the "usual Classical Music". Then there is also "my" fourth category ... and my cultural barbarian assessment: They are such oeuvres that – at least for me – go mighty "on my mind": too slow, too annoying, too much squeaking of the "ladies", boring without end, not suitable for humming along, Classical Music just as I have switched it off for 50 years over and over again.

It is very important to me that you also know that the collection below is not the "300 Best Classical Works" and it is also not my favorite 300 Classical Music pieces. These pieces are the 300 Classical Works that are best suited to present you classical music from around 350 years of music history. It is a mixture of the most popular and at the same time most famous classical works, based on a selection of the "best of the best" on Google and YouTube, mixed – of course – also with a small portion of my own taste. And that's exactly why your favorite piece of music might not be included at all. The explanation for the hints (... * and * * * and * * * * * * * * * * * and ... DCM) is at the end of the collection below. For those interested who "land" directly, from other pages, at the first piece, the "operating instructions" are listed again between different pieces. For you, this seems consequently to be a kind of "double mop".

■   Bach   Prelude in C Major (The Well-Tempered Clavier)   2:14   DCM

■   Bach   Air   5:38   DCM

■   Bach   Air (Alternative)   3:36   DCM

It's all about the "easy digestibility" of the works if this is your first or second contact with classical music ever. Please inform yourself about the meaning of the colors of the squares at the beginning of each title below the list before you "get started" listening. This list is in alphabetical order, except for the letters A and B. Because several works of composers with names starting with an A are borderline, very borderline and young classical music pieces, I had the concern that this might trigger a powerful, wrong ( ! ) signal regarding my whole "Top 100", when a classical music fan or a teacher shows up here!

■■ !   Bach   Toccata and Fugue in D Minor   9:20   DCM

■   Bach / Gounod   Ave Maria ( 1 ... also see Schubert)   3:00   DCM

■   Bach / Gounod   Ave Maria (Alternative)   5:49   DCM          > 0:17

■   Bach   Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring   3:07   DCM

■   Bach   Badinerie   1:25   DCM

■   Bach   Cello Suite   3:16   DCM

■   Bach   Suite No. 2: Rondeau (Overture)   1:34   DCM

■   Bach   Praise the Lord, the Mighty King of Honor   2:49   DCM

■   Bach   Awake, the Voice Is Calling Us   4:00   DCM

■   Bach   Sheep May Safely Graze   4:00   DCM

■   Bach   Harpsichord Concert No. 1 in D Minor   7:27   DCM

■   Bach    Brandenburg Concert No. 2   11:42   DCM

■   Bach    Brandenburg Concert No. 3   11:42   DCM

■   Bach   Minuet in G Major   1:40   DCM

Why are there alternatives? Rarely, I could simply not decide. But with most alternative offerings, you clearly notice how a second interpretation, for example by a famous symphony orchestra, clearly shifts the boundary between "other music" and "classic" for that piece: This is how the next young, cool, light, popular classical music is always created over a period of many decades! 

■   Bacharach / Sager   That’s What Friends Are For* * *   3:58   

■   Beethoven  Symphony No. 5   7:04   DCM

■   Beethoven   For Elise   2:55   DCM

You don't like André Rieu? Actually, you hate his style, his entertainment, him as a person? Please then ... definitely, click here for important information, because some of my now following 300 masterpieces of classical music are presented by him and his orchestra.

■   Beethoven   Symphony No. 9: Ode to Joy   4:19   DCM          > 0:35

■   Beethoven   Symphony No. 9: Ode to Joy (Alternative: Flash Mob)   6:31   DCM          > 0:35

 " > 0:35 " ... is a hint for the impatient among you. This note appears when the best-known passage does not start at the beginning of the musical work. From this point, many people recognize the piece.

■   Beethoven   Moonlight Sonata   16:08   DCM

■   Beethoven   Symphony No. 6: Awakening of Cheerful Feelings at the Arrival in the Countryside   39:14   DCM

■   Beethoven   Symphony No. 9: Choral   11:41   DCM

■   Bellamy   Take a Bow* * *   4:35   

■   Benatzky   The White Horse Inn* * *   1:30    

■   Berlin   God Bless America   2:37   DCM          > 0:32

■   Berlioz   La Marseillaise (French National Anthem)   4:13   DCM

■   Bernstein (Elmer)   The Magnificent Seven Main Theme   3:35

■   Bernstein (Elmer)   The Ten Commandments   14:47          > 0:25  

■   Bernstein (Leonhard)   America (West Side Story)   3:02          > 1:01

■   Binge   Elisabeth Serenade   3:28   DCM

■   Bizet   Habanera (Opera Carmen)   3:19   DCM ⚠

■   Bizet   Habanera (Opera Carmen) (Alternative)   5:28   DCM ⚠

DCM, by the way, is "... Definitely Classical Music!" It is the hint for students in a class test. As a student, however, check if your teacher does not ask about composers in the epoch ( ! ) of classical music. This would be the "ultimate" definition of classical music ... then only Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart would have composed classical music. And more unknown composers. However, this extreme view is rare even among specialists. In addition, I have contacted seven music experts and classical music connoisseurs and asked whether, for example, Strauss (son) and Tchaikovsky composed classical music, and I received seven different answers. Including several times a clear "yes" and also one "no" as well as one "... tricky"! Plus, there are classical music fans who do not recognize cheerful and entertaining music as classical, for example in operas, operettas, ballets, and musicals. In this case, however, "The Nutcracker", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake", for example, and also Mozart's " The Magic Flute" are not classical music: Can you believe it?! To point out to this mindset, there is the ...

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■   Bizet  Overture (Carmen)   2:20   DCM

■   Bizet   Les voici! Voici la Quadrille! (Opera Carmen)   3:57   DCM ⚠

■   Bizet   The Pearl Fishers Aria (Opera)   3:56   DCM ⚠

■   Boccherini   Minuetto   3:34   DCM

■   Böttcher   Winnetou   3:20          > 0:18

■   Borodin   Polovtsian Dance No. 17 (Opera Prince Igor)   3:45   DCM ⚠          > 0:45

■   Brahms   Hungarian Dance No. 1   3:46   DCM ⚠

■   Brahms   Hungarian Dance No. 5   2:31   DCM ⚠

■   Brahms   Lullaby / Cradle Song   3:01   DCM

■   Brahms   Waltz in As Major   1:42   DCM ⚠

■   Britain   Amazing Grace*   4:43          > 0:20

■   Bummerl   The Clarinet Muckl* * *   2:36          > 0:20  

■   Burns   Auld Lang Syne*   2:43 

Classical music experts and classical music lovers: Of all things, there are now several borderline and very borderline works listed here at the beginning of the alphabet. And anyway: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is classical music?! You are horrified? And you love classical music, "real" classical music for many years? Please give my "approach" a chance anyway. Read about my philosophy. Please click here (PS 2). All hints are explained at the end of the list. 

■   Abreu   Tico Tico*   4:21

■   Alexandro   Russian National Anthem   3:32 

■   Anderson   The Typewriter*   2:20

■   Arnaud   Bugler's Dream Olympic Fanfare *   3:32

■   Arne   Rule, Britannia!   4:22

■   Arlen   Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Wizard of Oz)*   2:42

■   Arlen   Somewhere Over the Rainbow* * * (Alternative)   5:11

■   Arnold   Independence Day* * *   6:12

■   Chabrier   Espana (Rhapsody for Orchestra)   6:25   DCM          > 0:23   

■   Charpentier   Te Deum   2:02   DCM

■   Clarke   Trumpet Voluntary   3:08   DCM

■   Chopin   Polonaise   9:38   DCM

■   Chopin   Tristesse   4:11   DCM

■   Claydermann   Ballade pour Adeline*   3:07   

■   Cohen (Leonard)   Halellujah   3:45 

■   Cohen (Samuel)   Hatikvah (Israeli National Anthem)   2:20     

■   Copland   Fanfare for the Common Man   4:16          > 0:52

■   Copland   Hoe-Down From Rodeo*   3:43          > 0:55

■   Delibes   Pizzicato   2:41   DCM ⚠          > 0:18

■   Delibes   Coppélia-Waltz (Ballett)   2:27   DCM ⚠

■   Delibes   Lakmé, Duo des Fleurs   4:50   DCM ⚠

■   Denza   Funiculi Funicula   3:29    

■   Di Capua   O Sole Mio* * *   3:13 

■   Di Capua   Vieni Sul Mar* * *   3:25

■   Dostal   Aviators March   3:13   

■   Dumont   Non, je ne regrette rien* * *   2:22 

■   Dvořák   Humoresque   2:48   DCM

■   Dvořák   Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony)   2:46   DCM

■   Edward   When You Wish Upon a Star (Walt Disney Intro)*   0:45

■   Eisler   Risen from Ruins (Former Eastern German National Anthem)*   2:53   DCM          > 0:16

■   Elfman   Mission Impossible Theme Song*   3:27

■   Elgar   God Save the King (British National Anthem)   2:19          > 0:40

■   Elgar   Pomp and Circumstances March No. 1   6:11 

■   Ellington   Take the A Train   3:13          > 0:18

■   Enya   Only Time 9/11 Version*   3:37 

■   Faltermeyer   Top Gun Opening Theme*   2:39

■   Faltermeyer   Axel F*   2:59

■   Fauré   Pavane   2:59   DCM ⚠

■   Fauré   Sicilienne (Opera Pellèas Mélisande)   3:30   DCM ⚠

■   Francois / Revaux / Thilbaut   I Did It My Way* * *   5:29   

■   Freed   Singing in the Rain* * *   3:46   

■   Frühbeis   Farewell My Little Guard Officer* * *   3:06 

■   Fučík   Entry March   0:56

■   Fučík   Entry of the Gladiators   3:53

■   Garfunkel   The Sounds of Silence*   4:35

■   Gershwin   Summertime*   3:43

■   Gershwin   Rhapsody in Blue*   16:26   DCM

■   Gounod   Faust Waltz / Margarethe Waltz   3:42   DCM ⚠          > 0:20

■   Grieg   Morning Mood (Peer Gynt Suite)   3:53   DCM

■   Grieg   In the Hall of the Lion King (Peer Gynt Suite)   2:33   DCM

■   Grieg   Solveigh's Song (Peer Gynt Suite)   4:57   DCM          > 0:39

■   Grieg   Norwegian Dance No. 2   2:20   DCM

■   Hammer   Crocett's Theme (Miami Vice)*   5:52  

■   Hanson   Symphony No. 2 “The Romantic"   2:49    

■   Handel   Arrival of the Queen of Saba   3:08   DCM

■   Handel   Overture Music for the Royal Fireworks   12:53   DCM

■   Handel   Water Music Suite No. 2: Allegro   9:43   DCM

■   Handel   Hallelujah   4:06   DCM

■   Handel   Trumpet Concert in D Major   9:58   DCM

■   Haydn   Song of the Germans (German National Anthem)   1:15   DCM

■   Haydn   Trumpet Concert in E-Flat Major (Allegro)    6:55   DCM

■   Haydn   Trumpet Concert in E-Flat Major (Finale)   4:37   DCM

■   Haydn   Serenade from Strings   4:35   DCM 

■   Holzmann   Blaze Away   2:21 

■   Horner   My Heart Will Go On* * *   3:46  

■   Jackson   Heal the World* * *   5:31

■   Jarre (Jean-Michel)   Oxygen Part 2*   7:52          > 1:48

■   Jarre (Jean-Michel)   Oxygene Part 4*   3:27          > 0:25  

■   Jarre (Maurice)   Doctor Zhivago   3:27 

■   Jenkins   Adieumus*   4:00          > 0:27

■   Jenkins   Palladio*   3:55          > 0:20 

■   John   Goodby England's Rose* * *   3:57

■   Johnston   Amazing Grace*   4:01

■   Joplin   Maple Leaf Rag*   2:45

■   Joplin   The Entertainer*  3:19

■   Kálmán   I Want to Dance (Operetta The Csárdás Princess)   3:57  

■   Karas   The Third Man* * *   4:33 

■   Khatschaturjan   Sabre Dance   2:35   DCM ⚠      

■   Kersten   Stroll Petrus* * *   5:34 

■   Lai   Where Do I Begin? (Love Story)* * *   4:12   

■   Lara   Granada   5:18   DCM          > 2:05

■   Last   The Lonely Shepard*   5:39          > 0:21

■   Last   Dream Boat Melody * (TV Series in Germany)   2:38

■   Last   Mornings at Seven   4:16

■   Lauder   Scotland the Brave   5:41  

■   Lehár   Yours Is My Heart Alone (Operetta The Land of Smiles)*   3:34          > 0:25

■   Lehár   Lips Are Silent (Operetta The Merry Widow)*   5:06          > 0:35

■   Lehár   Ball Sirens Waltz (Operetta The Merry Widow)*   5:10   DCM ⚠ 

■   Lennon   Imagine* * *   3:14     

■   Lennon / McCartney   Yesterday* * *   2:05   

■   Lennon / McCartney   Let It Be* * *   4:03    

■   Liszt   Dream of Love No. 3   3:57   DCM

■   Liszt   La Campanella   5:07   DCM          > 0:16

■   Livingston   Que Sera Sera* * *   2:40  

■   Loewe   I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady)*   3:00          > 0:22   

■   Loewe   Un Paeso por Cuenca (My Fair Lady)*   3:00

■   Lotzing   Clog Dance (Tsar and Carpenter)   4:02    

■   Loveland   You Raise Me Up*   4:37 

■   Macklemore   Glorious*   3:20   

■   Mancini   Moon River*   2:44 

■   Mancini   The Pink Panther Theme*   2:38 

■   McCartney   Woman* * *   3:53

■   McCartney   Yesterday* * *   2:32          > 0:26

■   May   Who Wants to Live Forever?   4:11          > 0:41  

■   Mendelssohn Bartholdy   Wedding March   2:08   DCM     

■   Mercury   Bohemian Rhapsody   5:49   

■   Mercury   Barcelona   5:51    

■   Morricone   Once Upon a Time in the West*   3:51 

■   Morricone   Once Upon a Time in the West* (Alternative)   3:04

■   Morricone   Gabriel's Oboe*   3:46

■   Morricone   La Califfa*   2:40

■   Mouret   Rondeau (Symphony de Fanfares)   2:21

■   Modugno   Volare   4:17    

■   Mozart   Symphony No. 40   3:06   DCM

■   Mozart   A Little Night Music   5:18   DCM

■   Mozart   Figaro Cavatina   4:51   DCM

■   Mozart   Overture of the Marriage of Figaro   4:13   DCM ⚠

■   Mozart   Rondo Alla Turca   3:48   DCM

■   Mozart   Piano Concert No. 21   6:41   DCM

■   Mozart   Piano Sonata No. 16   3:32   DCM

■   Mozart   Concert for Horn and Orchestra No. 4   4:07   DCM

■   Mozart   Sonata for Piano No. 11   14:30   DCM

■   Mozart   I Am the Bird Catcher (Opera The Magic Flute)   2:33   DCM ⚠

■   Mozart   A Girl or a Female (Opera The Magic Flute)   3:06   DCM ⚠

■   Mozart   Moonlight Sonata   4:07   DCM

■   Mozart   Romance, Andante (A Little Night Music)   5:33   DCM

■   Mozart   Serenade No. 13 (A Little Night Music)   5:58   DCM

■   Mozart   Rondo: Allegro (A Little Night Music)   6:22   DCM

■   Mussorgski   Pictures of an Exhibition: Promenade   1:39   DCM

■   Nathanson   Nava Hagila* * *   2:12

■   Newman   Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare*   0:31

■   North   Unchained Melody (Ghost)* * *   4:18

■   Novaro   Fratelli d‘Italie (Italian National Anthem)   1:57   DCM          > 0:24   

■   Offenbach   Barcarolle   3:47   DCM ⚠          > 1:00   

■   Offenbach   Hell Cancan   2:16   DCM ⚠   

■   Orff   O Fortuna   3:38     GSKM          > 0:26

■   Ortelli   La Montanara* * *   3:49  

■   Pachelbel   Canon in D Major   3:13   DCM

■   Parks  Somethin' Stupid* * *   3:13   

■   Ponciello   Dance of the Hours (La Gioconda)   9:32          > 2:02 ! ! !   

■   Parton   I Will Always Love You* * *   4:34

■   Poulenc   Tango*   1:47

■   Pourcel   I Will Follow Him*   5:19 

■   Pourcel   I Will Follow Him* (Alternative)   4:18          > 1:20    

■   Presley   Can't Help Falling in Love With You* * *   2:49    

■   Prokofiev   Peter and the Wolf March   4:10   DCM ⚠

■   Puccini   Nessun Dorma   4:17   DCM          > 1:11

■   Puccini   O Mio Babbino Caro   5:31   DCM          > 0:38

■   Rachmaninoff   Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini   2:46   DCM

■   Ravel   Boléro   6:56   DCM

■   Richie   Three Times a Lady* * *   3:24

■   Rimski-Korsakow   Flight of the Bumblebee   1:10   DCM

■   Rodgers   You’ll Never Walk Alone*   5:01   

■   Rodgers   You’ll Never Walk Alone* (Alternative)   4:15   

■   Rodrigo   Concierto de Aranjuez   3:57

■   Roever   Highland Cathedral   4:33

■   Rosas   Sobre las Olas   6:01          > 0:41   

■   Rossini   Figaro Cavatina   4:51   DCM

■   Rossini   Largo al factotum (Opera The Barber of Seville)   1:58   DCM

■   Rossini   Wilhelm Tell Overture Finale (Opera)   3:25   DCM ⚠

■   Rossini   The Thieving Magpie (Overture)   9:38   DCM ⚠          > 0:17

■   Rosso   Il Silenzio*   4:05  

■   Rotas   The Godfather* * *   3:29

■   Rubinstein   Melody in F Major   4:05

■   Rubinstein   Melody in F Major (Alternative, 1964, back then "modern")   5:35

■   Sanderson   Hail to the Chief   1:40          > 0:09    

■   Saint-Saëns   The Swan (The Carnival of the Animals)   3:41   DCM ⚠    

■   Saint-Saëns   Gymnopédie No. 1   4:04   DCM    

■   Schönberg   On My Own (Les Misérables)*   3:39    

■   Schmidt   Tiritomba   2:50

■   Schubert   Ave Maria "No. 2" (... see also Bach / Gounod)   5:27   DCM          > 0:43

■   Schubert   Military March   5:30   DCM

■   Schubert   From Foreign Countries and People (Scenes from Childhood)   1:41   DCM

■   Schubert   Trout Quintet   7:30   DCM

■■ !   Serra   The Diva Dance (The Fifth Element)* * * * * * * * * *   4:59 

■   Sherman   Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins) *   2:46   

■   Sherman Brothers   Chim Cim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins)*   3:32  

■   Shostakovitsch   Waltz No. 2   4:09   DCM ⚠

■   Silvestri   Back to the Future Main Theme* * *   3:15

■   Silvestri   Forrest Gump Soundtrack*   8:50    

■   Simon   Bridge Over Troubled Water* * *   4:53   

■   Sinatra   My Wa * * *   4:36   

■   Smetana   The Moldau   3:05   DCM

■   Smith   The Star Spangled Banner (National Anthem of the USA)   1:52

■   Steffe   Battle Hymne of the Republic   5:18          > 0:30   

■   Sousa   The Liberty Bell March   3:49   DCM

■   Sousa   The Washington Post March   2:37   DCM

■   Sousa   The Stars and Stripes Forever   3:29   DCM

■   Steiner   Gone With the Wind (Tara’s Theme)*   4:22          > 0:18  

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   The Blue Danube   8:13   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Voices of Spring Waltz   5:34   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Vienna Blood   7:17   DCM ⚠          > 0:53

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   You and You Waltz   5:08   DCM ⚠          > 0:22

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Emperor Waltz   11:55   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Annen Polka   2:49   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Entry March (The Gipsy Baron)   2:55   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Treasure Waltz (The Gipsy Baron)   7:57   DCM ⚠          > 1:05

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   Tales From the Vienna Woods   7:49   DCM ⚠          > 0:17

■   Strauss (Johann, Son / II)   The Bat Overture (Operetta)   9:19   DCM ⚠     

■   Strauss (Johann, Father / I)   Radetzky March   3:17   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Johann, Father / I)   Tritsch Tratsch Polka   2:41   DCM ⚠

■   Strauss (Richard)   Thus Spoke Zarathustra   1:42   DCM          > 0:14

■   Suppé   Light Cavalry Overture   6:51   DCM ⚠     > 2:22 ! ! !   

■   Suppé   The Beautiful Galatea Overture (Operetta)   7:45   DCM ⚠

■   Teike   Old Comrades   4:31  

■   Tranlateur / Habisch   Vienna Prater Life   7:15   DCM ⚠

■   Trenet   La Mer* * *   4:12 

■   Tchaikovsky   Flower Waltz (The Nutcracker)   7:56   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Chinese Dance (The Nutcracker)   1:34   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Dance of the Reed Flutes (The Nutcracker)   2:41   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker)   21:34   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovskyi   Russian Dance (The Nutcracker)   1:17   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Pas de Deux (The Nutcracker)   5:03   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovskyi   March of the Tin Soldiers (The Nutcracker)   2:39   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Swan Lake Suite   2:50   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Dance of the Young Swans (Swan Lake)   3:26   DCM ⚠ 

■   Tchaikovsky   Eugene Onegin Polonaise (Opera)   4:11   DCM ⚠          > 0:25

■   Tchaikovsky   1812 Ouvertüre   4:11   DCM ⚠

■   Tchaikovsky   Piano Concert No. 1   21:06   DCM

■   Tchaikovsky   Sleeping Beauty Waltz   21:06   DCM ⚠          > 0:34

■   Unknown Composer   Greensleeves* * *   4:11

■   Ulvaeus / Andersson   Fernando* * *   4:06

■   Ulvaeus / Andersson   Fernando* * * (Alternative)   3:22

■   Ulvaeus / Andersson   I Have a Dream* * *   4:06

■   Vangelis   Conquest of Paradise*   4:40          > 1:01

■   Vangelis   Chariots of Fire*   7:14          > 0:35

■   Velazquez   Besame Mucho*   3:58   

■   Verdi   La Donna è Mobile   2:34   DCM ⚠

■   Verdi   Libiamo (La Triviata)   4:05   DCM ⚠

■   Verdi   Nabucco (Opera)   1:57   DCM ⚠

■   Verdi   Rigoletto   5:56   DC ⚠

■   Verdi   Marcia Trionfale (Opera Aida)   1:43   DCM ⚠

■   Verdi   Aida Gloria all'Egitto Triumphal March (Opera Aida)   12:04   DCM ⚠

■   Vivaldi   Spring (The Four Seasons)   11:02   DCM

■   Vivaldi   Autumn (The Four Seasons)   11:12   DCM

■   Vivaldi   Concert for Two Trumpets in C Major   8:18   DCM

■   Vivaldi   Gloria in Excelsis Deo   2:52   DCM

■   Vivaldi   Concert for Mandolin   9:23   DCM

■   Wagner   Ride of the Valkyries (Opera The Valkkyrie)   5:05   DCM ⚠

■   Wagner   Helmsman, Let the Watch (Opera The Flying Dutchman)   2:59   DCM ⚠

■   Wagner   Bridal Choir (Lohengrin)   2:16   DCM

■   Waldteufel   Skater's Waltz   6:13   DCM ⚠          > 0:38

■   Waldteufel   Estudiantina (Waltz)   6:49   DCM ⚠ 

■   Ward   America the Beautiful   4:08   

■   Warren   That’s Amore* * *   3:09          > 0:22 

■   Weber   Hunters Choir: What Resembles on Earth (Opera The Freeshooter)   2:34   DCM ⚠    

■   Webber   Don’t Cry for Me Argentina*   6:17          > 2:28 ! ! !    

■   Webber   Memory (Cats)   4:29

■   Webber   Phantom of the Opera Theme Song   3:31

■   Webber   Phantom of the Opera Theme Song  (Alternative)   6:35     

■   Webber   Think of Me (Phantom of the Opera)   4:50 

■   Webber   Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)   5:09  

■   Webber   Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life) (Alternative)   4:30 

■   Weiss   What a Wonderful World* * *   3:00   

■   Williams   E.T.*   3:46   

■   Williams   Indiana Jones Main Theme*   2:25   

■   Williams   Star Wars Main Theme*   5:51 

■   Williams   Jurassic Park Main Theme*   3:27          > 1:10   

■   Ziehrer   Come In (The Treasurer)   5:51  

■   Zimmer   Madagascar   2:35 

 Hints in the list:

My attribution of asterisks ( * ) and DCM hints happened in a first production step. It was only afterward that I discovered the German radio station "WDR 4 Klassik Populär". This encouraged me in my opinion to "consider" some of my chosen works as Young Classical Music and to allow even a few more such, previously borderline, pieces. However, I kept these references (... the asterisks and the DCMs) and now they address particularly very conservative Classical Music connoisseurs, experts, and lovers of Classical Music.

* ... is okay as a Popular Classical Work ..., but tends to be quite borderline (... already before the discovery of "WDR 4 Klassik Populär").

* * * ... with these, (Commercial Beginning) my wife Renate and I (Commercial End), disagreed absolutely (... again only before the discovery of "WDR 4 Klassik Populär").

* * * * * * * * * * ... is indeed very daring but ... it is ... Classical Music! Classical Music connoisseurs and Classical Music experts plus all musicians and professional musicians must be very brave with that!

DCM ... is ... officially "school safe and test safe" ... absolutely... Definitely  Classical Music! However, one hint warns against such extreme Classical Music fans who think that waltzes and ballet works were composed for entertainment and therefore are not Classical Music! Or ... who just think that there are only three super famous Classical Composers at all, namely those who lived and composed in the epoch ( ! ) of Classical Music. Watch for this sign:

⚠

The color hints as squares at the beginning of each line: Green is mainly short or very popular classic pieces of all epochs. You should start with these. Perfect for day 1 with Classical Music. Gray are Classical Pieces of music that require a little more patience until the part of the piece that is known to so many is hearable. Plus those works which are a little more demanding are gray as well. Red are works that could turn off still very young, very cool, and hip kids, as well as absolute Classical Music beginners at the beginning of their encounter with Classical Music.  And whole passages in these works could also "get on your nerves". The color-coding is my very personal recommendation to discover "Classical Music for life" this way: actually sorted by color. I believe that the path towards Classical Music must ( ! ) be made on the strange premise of not being frustrated by the first offerings. For example, it matters how long it "takes" for the melody to get to the familiar refrain (... the cool, familiar part in the piece), how much the refrain dominates the whole piece, how long passages are "reasonable" for a beginner, and how much longer he or she "must" listen to claim to know the piece. Imagine – as a conservative Classical Music fan – you would have to listen to a heavy metal piece for 10 minutes. Or better not! Now seriously: the first time here? Then start with my green suggestions, which result in the least frustration!!! I cordially invite you to this, my experiment.

How Does It Work? A Manual Proposal for You as a Teacher and You as a Student:  How Does the Musical Background Work at School and at Home?

For you as a teacher, the cheapest and most convenient way is to start with my Best Popular Bach Works MP3. Click on the link and test listen. And don't forget: It's about listening to popular pieces twice, three times, or even more. The main point is to remember them. My MP3 is then optimally usable when the subject should be processed with as little effort as possible: one cheap speaker to your smartphone, tablet, or laptop ... and there you go. In class and for your kids at home. My reminder: The accompanying background music is important!

The hits on YouTube, in my collection, are great for exploring what popular works are out there. For classroom use, you can use the tracks directly if there is a "moderation". From a DJane or DJ among your kids or if you choose the titles during the test or test lessons. Since YouTube will insert ads at the beginning on a random basis, "someone" has to take care of those ads by muting them. You can put together a playlist, but the challenge remains. Better for your classes is a playlist on "Amazon Prime" or on "Spotify". However, if you don't already use this service, or then not otherwise (... for example, you don't pay postage on Amazon purchases) it's not cheap over the years. But you could benefit from a combination that comes with a subscription. The same goes for your work with a Spotify playlist. A fourth option is to buy the songs via "Amazon Downloads" or Advertising Start – the "good old" analog way – you decide to buy the songs you need on a CD or several CDs. Just have a look here. With that, you present the music – after ripping the tracks – with your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, each plus speaker. Before that, you can even remove the songs that are "harmful" to the philosophy. Or you can go even more analog with a "boombox," which is available for as little as € 40. Depending on how often and how intensively you want to expand your project, the different options make sense. To test how it works, a trial subscription to a streaming service would be perfect and free. But your work will have been in vain if you don't then stick with that service for the next few years. If you plan to make this path to Classical Music a part of your teaching curriculum for the next two decades, buying these songs may be the most affordable option. However, all of this is only true if you would be subscribing just for this purpose. If you've been thinking about subscribing for a long time anyway, things are quite different. Advertising End.

The same applies to you as a student: If you want to learn about popular music while working on this topic, use my Classical Music Top 300 on YouTube and just skip the commercials one by one. You can start right away with the pieces with green squares in front of them. If you realize you like this genre of music, stick to the proposals I suggested in the paragraph above for your teacher, except to buy CDs. If you think popular Classical Music might become "your thing", the only option that will spoil the fun is to make a playlist on YouTube. If Classical Music is more likely not "your cup of tea," then at least please turn on the Bach MP3 when you're "struggling" with the subject!

 It's important to me that you know, that my YouTube Top 300 was once ad-free. I tried to keep it that way by exchanging appropriate videos, but after many months I found out, that YouTube was inserting ads so "irregularly and unreliably", that I had to drop this demanding part of my offer.

Did You Like My 300 Suggestions? If so, Here You Will Get Much More Popular Classic

There are three options after you discovered my list ... and maybe after listening to many of these titles (... if you are in the mood to read about "behind the scenes", click here, please). So ... 1) ... you find my list and my theory is stupid and search for "real" Classical Music. 2) ... you like these 300 works, and you click to my list again, when you are in the mood for classic. Plus, 3) ... You like the pieces in the list much, and you want even more Popular Classical Music. If so, click below. "WDR 4 Klassik Populär" is a three-hour weekly program offered by a German Classical Music radio station. Don't care, if you don't speak German, you don't need it for two coming options.

  © WDR, Cologne... thank you! 

The copyright for this logo belongs to the radio station "WDR" with its offer "WDR 4" and there the format "WDR 4 Klassik Populär". We thank WDR for the permission to use the illustration. © WDR, Cologne, Germany, with thanks.

A long, long time after I compiled – for me and for you – my list of the "Popular Classical Music Top 300", I found a super cool (... actually two *...) offering(s) from a German classical music radio station. Completely hidden – and you have to know how to google it – there is a broadcast format that could hardly be better for a very small group of people. For 3 hours, you can listen to popular classical music that real experts have put together. Namely, such experts who are "ticking like me".To offer such a thing, you have to be perfectly familiar with the world of conservative Classical Music fans and know what is good as popular classical music. * You get more info on the second one below.

Three hours a week are, out of 168 hours – that's how many hours a complete week has – some two percent of the complete weekly broadcasting time. Elsewhere, I even assumed the number of people interested in popular music to be only one percent of all Classical Music fans. But ... that was just my estimate. This WDR option is not ideal for beginners at the very beginning of their contact with Classical Music. Because at this time it is important that it really has to be the best of the best among the popular Classical Works that a beginner, especially children, should listen to. Because, of course, the number 20 of the popular Classical Hits is certainly more popular than the number 530. But it looks quite different when the very person who finds my "Top 300" great would now like to have more works of "that kind", but I can't "deliver" that. And why can't I? Because we – Renate and I – know too little Classical Music and nothing at all indicates, starting with the titles "around the number 300", whether they are also popular. For that, you have to know a lot of classical music works. And that's what the experts at "WDR 4 Klassik Populär" do. Once again the hint: As an introduction, this offer differs from all other Classical Music offers by "light years", but: It is not suitable for beginners and children, because too much "Young Classical Music" and "borderline Classical Music" is presented. About both segments (... young and borderline) I am more than enthusiastic, but just after enjoying my suggestions (... my Popular Classic Top 300).

  © WDR, Cologne

The spot-on logo regarding the program "WDR 4 Klassik Populär" ... WDR 4 Classic Popular). WDR, Cologne, Germany owns the copyright (©), and we are happy to be permitted to use it. Do you want to get directly to this offer there? You can do that via this link. But better read the following sections first. © Info.

How do you use "WDR 4 Klassik Populär"? First of all, you can listen live on Sundays. That was my only option at first, in fact, I think WDR only changed it after I asked them at that time. Because I asked them if my American website visitors would be able to listen to the program without having to get up at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., or 4 a.m. – depending on the U.S. time zone ... and the answer was – as I seem to remember – no, that's not possible! Meanwhile, I found two far cooler options. On Sundays, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (... in Germany and in Europe), you can listen by clicking the " > Live " button. But ... why would you do that, when you can do it at any other time?! For German and European future Classical Music fans the permanent access is already an advantage, but for everyone else and worldwide it is the crucial option. After all, who listens to popular Classical Music at 2 o'clock in the morning?! On this page of the website of the WDR in Cologne, you can scroll down a little at any other time of the week and the day. There you will find the playlist of the current program via the first music offer a little further down: You learn about the music title, the artist, and – via the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the list – also about the composer. With this list you can implement two options: Either you listen to the complete program and determine, through the moderation and/or the playlist, the name of which beautiful popular title and by whom it is. With less time and much more effectively, you search via YouTube – to the point – via this list, the corresponding work, by copying – with your mouse (... how else?!) – the title and paste it to YouTube. Immediately the title is offered, possibly even by several artists (... with the YouTube suggestions on the right). Now you can choose one of four options: 1) ... "add" the work to the 300 tracks on my YouTube list ... of course in a different file. Alternatively, you can add it to your playlist via Amazon Prime (2) or to your Spotify playlist (3). Or you buy the title at "Amazon Downloads" (4). This is how it works every day with three WDR 4 playlists, for exactly 21 days. Exciting is the new live stream appointment only then and for the purpose, if you would like to evaluate and save all the titles of this format for yourself. Because always the list of the week before the last disappears, of course.

A second exciting option – and also discovered by me quite late – is the Audiothek in the Mediathek of WDR 4: As strange as this term sounds, via the keywords "WDR 4 Mediathek Audiothek Klassik Populär" you can find it again and again and so much later, and you don't have to remember where to look up my hint. Here is the link ... and there, hundreds of more Popular Classical Works are waiting for you. No longer with the matching playlist, but if you're really that interested in more hits of this kind, you'll certainly enjoy listening to show after show and noting what you particularly like. There are a whole 52 shows from 12 months provided for you. I counted 45 pieces in a current playlist. Accordingly, there would be around 2,340 pieces there ... and yes, I know how much this calculation "limps"!

Something else is important: For a long, really long time, I was actually not sure whether I was not overdoing it with my inclusion or admission – so to speak – of Young Classical Music and borderline classical music in my collection. With the titles of Morricone and the main themes of the really big cinema hits like Star Wars and Independence Day it already started. But with the "permission" of Queen super hits, the Diva Dance, Let it Be, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and some more ... I had a very, very, very hard time. One day I tended to "invite" even more borderline titles, the next day I wasn't sure if one or the other was already too much of a good thing. With the find of WDR 4 "Klassik Populär" however, I am 100 percent sure in the meantime: I "am fine"! And at WDR 4, some of the editors and presenters "tick" just like me. Thank you WDR 4, I am excited, relaxed, and happy ... to get the confirmation from such a quality institution that I "hit the mark" ... with my approach regarding Popular Classical Music. 

Your Use of Copyrighted Music in Your Classes as a Teacher

According to my research, you as a teacher are ( ! ) permitted to use copyrighted music in your lessons at school. But because I am not allowed to give legal advice and this is not legal advice for that reason, you get the hint where you can check it yourself... and that in only a few seconds: Here, the National Association for Music Education lists that – in my opinion – clearly. However, attention with any ( ! ) other use, so – for example – your passing on of playlists to your students. Please inform yourself about this additionally!. Because of this legal situation, I am also not permitted to compile a playlist for you.

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And Finally, Here You Get the Best  Five Websites on the Topic "Classical Music Top ..."

Well... I'm not worried about other cool collections – namely those of specialists and classic connoisseurs – and if you're absolutely not happy with my selection, here are a few alternatives. DigitalDreamWorld offers a collection with a similar title 100 Greatest Classical Music Works: Actually, I don't know what criteria these editors used as a basis. They state, that the criteria is ... ranked for innovation and influence, aesthetic importance, historical significance, and lasting popularity. How funny is this?! They just copied other sources, put it in a bucket, closed the bucked, and shook it for a while. Read these five criteria above slowly and loudly. How funny!

Classical Music Only has such a collection, too, and it is the 100 Greatest Classical Music Works. I checked it out for you: Okay, I am impressed, it's really not that bad. Way better than the number one above. Many of those match my results, however many, many cool, great melodies are missing because they sorted out several genres, and it's definitely not matching the "easy to digest rule" rule for my collection of the "Top 100 Classical Music Works". Anyway my compliment: This list is not at all disappointing and finding so many works that both lists share, that actually makes me happy and proud.

Classic FM shows up with a list, too. Of course. Classical 100: The Complete List. They state in their first sentence that it's developed in particular for teachers. They actually manage to introduce their list to their readers with a female composer, which actually doesn't represent all Classical Music "that much": Hildegard von Bingen. It is a little bit disappointing, that all works are just listed with any possibility to click on and listen to the title. For classical music starters and kids, the epoch hints make no sense at all. So I recommend not to visit this website for fun reasons.

Wikipedia lists only 50 of these famous Classical Music Works, however, it's okay, as many of them are listed in my "Top 100" too. But why would you hop there and listen to only 25 percent of The Best of the Best on my list? Okay, there are many more "99 pieces lists" at the bottom of this page. But to be frank, it's left to you to find the best pieces out of hundreds. And does it make sense to listen to the best works of the No. 50 or No. 100 artist against the best works of the top league composers, who are Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart?! What's really not that cool is, that this whole article is nothing but an advertisement for one CD offer.

Kickassclassical is the name of an offer, which I like most as it is the closest to how I address my visitors – you – and I will research for you, as "Kickassclassical" states to list the 100 most Popular Classical Works ...hm ... that is actually what I "invented". Many pieces are on my list, too. However, listen to their offer, when you're finished with mine. That is what I will do right now and here. Hey guys, I am impressed. Although the most important criteria were not, to collect light, popular music, this list is the closest to my offer. It's even closer than all German collections. It's so close, that I checked on every single piece to find even more to enlarge my "300 Top Classical Music Works List", plus to upgrade the quality that way. Some 60 percent is the same choice. Six works are what I adopted. 15 percent of their selection are such works, that I would avoid presenting to folks meeting Classical Music for the first time. My deepest respect! The only bad thing? Why would you click on them, if you can get all of their content plus my 200 more suggestions here?!

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More Bach Figures, Bach Busts, and Bach Statues Are what You Probably Won't Find Anywhere Else on the Internet

Our favorite is the little wooden Bach figure from the Ore Mountains in the front left (... next to the "Bach Drehkastl" which is  ... the "Little Bach Turning Box"): It's just cute! So, now really for the very final time, you get to the shop here.

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