Most epic piece of classic/romantic music ?

[krischan]

What gves you a feeling of grandeur ? What gives you goosebumps ?

My personal number 1: Siegfried's funeral march from Wagner, the King Kong of epic music. You will have to hear it twice and even though the sound quality isn't that good, turn the volume up !



I usually don't like operas. I don't like the singing, but I love a couple of the pure instrumental parts and Wagner's Ring operas are so full of mind-blowing stuff that these are an exception. This is the most epic piece of music I have ever heard ! The famous Valkyries's Ride and the Rheingold prelude are nearly as epic, but I'm going to mention just one piece per composer here.

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Number 2: The final of Les Preludes fom Liszt (skip to 8:45 of part two if you are impatient)

Part 1:


Part 2:


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Number 3: Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem



Mozart is the ultimate master of doing things perfectly right at the very first try... and this piece of music is perfect, period!

[Johnny]

Well that's an easy one

[krischan]

Admit it, you haven't heard even a single one of the videos

[Johnny]

I heard mine.

[krischan]

OK, as we are through with that: Any serious replies ?

[Qveasd]

Prokofyev, dance of the knights:

[krischan]

That's a nice one !

Next one: Beethoven, 9th symphony, first two minutes.



Holst, the planets: Saturn



The relentless passing of time !


Richard Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra:



I always see a Saturn V rocket launching before my imaginatory eye when hearing it, going to send Apollo 11 to the moon which is truly one of the greatest deeds of mankind ever ! With respect to epic deeds, maybe Europe has the best classical music, but the US sent a man to the moon. Nevertheless, Strauss provided the music !


To get the Norwegians on my side: Grieg, Mountain King

[AeroJonesy]

Across the Stars - the love theme from Star Wars Episode II. Movie may have sucked but John Williams is still a genius.

[llad12]

Handel's Messiah ... Hallelujah Chorus:

[HanShotFirst]

Well I wasn't sure if "neo-classical" (or whatever you wanted to call it) was allowed for consideration but, since AeroJonesy already nominated it, I'd second pretty much all of John Williams' work on the Star Wars prequels. I really liked the Anakin and Padme love theme as well, but probably find myself humming the "Battle of the Heroes" more often.

Also in the realm of "neo-classical", I found the entire soundtrack for "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992) to be really outstanding.