List of clichéd classical pieces

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some pieces of classical music are so widely used or recognized that they have become clichés. One of the most common ways for a piece of classical music to become a cliché is its use in a television show or a movie: for example, the use of the Rossini overture (below) in the TV show The Lone Ranger, or of the Wagner Ride of the Valkyries in the movie Apocalypse Now. Other times a melody of the piece is used in a popular song or a hymn, such as the use of the Beethoven "Ode to Joy" theme in the hymn "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," or the Ponchielli melody in the song "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah."

• Johann Sebastian Bach

Toccata and Fugue in D minor

• Ludwig Van Beethoven:

Für Elise

Opening bars of Symphony No. 5

"Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. 9

• Johannes Brahms

Hungarian Dance No. 5 in F-sharp minor

• Georges Bizet

"Habanera" and "Toréador Song" from the opera Carmen

• Frederic Chopin

"Funeral March" from Piano Sonata No. 2

• Julius Fučík

Entrance of the Gladiators

• Edvard Grieg

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Morning Mood" from Peer Gynt

• Aram Khachaturian

Sabre Dance from the ballet Gayane

• Felix Mendelssohn

"Wedding March" from incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (first movement)

Symphony No. 40 (first movement)

• Carl Orff

"O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana

• Johann Pachelbel

Canon in D

• Amilcare Ponchielli

"Dance of the Hours" from the opera La Gioconda

• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Flight of the Bumblebee from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan

• Gioacchino Rossini

Overture to the opera William Tell

• Johann Strauss II

The Beautiful Blue Danube

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Romeo and Juliet (love theme)

1812 Overture

"Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker

• Antonio Vivaldi

"Spring" from The Four Seasons

• Richard Wagner

"Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin

"Ride of the Valkyries" from the opera Die Walküre