# Hi! I need help creating a list of classical music about animals



## patinosorio (11 mo ago)

I'm creating with some friends in Colombia a book of short stories about animals and I want to create a list of classical music about animals. Could you help me? especially with the obscure sugestions. 
Thanks


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Shooting this to the main forum, as this is not about identifying a specific piece of music.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The swan (le cygne) by Saint-Saëns is an obvious choice. 
The birds (Gli Uccelli) by Ottorino Respighi

and of course

Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev....


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

As Youtube videos may disappear from one day to the next, it would be helpful for the OP to post the titles and composers.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

More obscure:

The Curlew by Peter Warlock
Overture The Birds (De Vogels) by Alphons Diepenbrock


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Lifted from a website:

Saint-Saëns – “Carnival of the Animals”
Prokofiev – “Peter and the Wolf”
Poulenc – “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant”
Copland – “The Red Pony”
Messaien – “The Blackbird”
Schubert – “Trout Quintet”
Vaughan Williams – “The Lark Ascending”
Vaughan Williams – “The Wasps”
Mussorgsky – “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks”
Telemann – “The Frogs” (Violin Concerto in A Major)
Sibelius – “The Swan of Tuonela”
Chopin – “Butterfly Etude”
Handel – “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale”
Stravinsky – “The Firebird”
Gershwin – “Walking the Dog” (Promenade)
Rossini – “Cat Duet”
Rimsky-Korsakov – “Flight of the Bumblebee”
Ravel – “Mother Goose Suite”
Blumer – “Aus der Tierwelt” (From the Animal Kingdom)
Lucas Richman – “Behold the Bold Umprellaphant”
John Lanchberry – “The Tales of Beatrix Potter”
Debussy – “Children’s Corner II. Jimbo’s Lullaby”


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Janacek - The Cunning Little Vixen


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## Xenophiliu (Jan 2, 2022)

Rossini: Duetto buffo di due gatti
Mikhail Glinka: The Lark
Grieg: Schmetterling
Ravel: Histories Naturelles
Ravel: Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis
Prokofiev: The Ugly Duckling
Francis Poulenc: Les Animaux modèles
Samuel Barber: The Monk and his Cat
Benjamin Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb
Igor Stravinsky: Renard the Fox
Igor Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale
Malcolm Arnold: Carnival of the Animals
Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Aaron Copland: I Bought Me a Cat
Daniel Pinkham: Company at the Creche
Hovhaness: And God Created Great Whales
Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux & Oiseaux exotiques
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus, Concerto for Birds and Orchestra
James McMillan: The Scotch Bestiary
John Rutter: Donkey Carol & Brother Heinrich's Christmas
Blackford: Great Animal Orchestra Symphony
Debbie Wiseman: Carnival of the Endangered Animals
Dan Brown: Wild Symphony


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

Clara Iannotta : dead wasps in the jam-jar (string quartet)


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

Carl Orff : Olim lacus colueram (from Carmina Burana)


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## AaronSF (Sep 5, 2021)

Granados: La Maja y el ruiseñor (The Girl and the Nightingale)...one of the most beautiful animal pieces, here played by Benjamin Grosvenor:


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Elliott Carter - Minotaur


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Sensemayá, composed by Silvestre Revueltas. Music about a snake. Probably a big snake.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Vogel als Prophet from Waldszenen by Robert Schumann:






Night's Black Bird by Harrison Birtwistle:






Birds Fragments III by Toshio Hosokawa:


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Lutosławski's song cycle Chantefleurs et Chantefables (1991) includes The Tortoise and The Alligator. Olga Pasichnyk's Naxos recording is wonderful.

Wuorinen: On Alligators (1972) for fl,ob,cl,bsn,2vn,va,vc


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

patinosorio said:


> I'm creating with some friends in Colombia a book of short stories about animals and I want to create a list of classical music about animals. Could you help me? especially with the obscure sugestions.
> Thanks


This thread may be useful for some obscure suggestions

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,30587.0.html


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Even though I tend like more thorny sounding classical music, this 'approachable' piece checks off enough boxes for me. It has a pretty playful feel to it. And Anne Akiko Meyers violin performance is very good, and expressive.

Mason Bates - Violin Concerto (2012)

I. Archaeopteryx
II. Lakebed Memories
III. Rise of the Birds


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## bfBrian (Aug 12, 2018)

Two of the pieces in Mussorgsky's pictures at an exhibition are about animals:

Bydlo is presumably about an Ox drawn cart.





There's also the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

The kids love this - the music of author Dan Brown's best-selling children's book, _Wild Symphony_ with twenty-one musical portraits drawn from the animal kingdom.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Anthony Philip Heinrich, Ornithological Combat of Kings (1847) Condors.






Ned Rorem, Eagles.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Andrew Kenneth said:


> Clara Iannotta : dead wasps in the jam-jar (string quartet)


Something about dead wasps? How could one not love a work about that?

My suggestion:

Francis Poulenc's song cycle for voice and piano _Le Bestiaire, ou le Cortège d'Orphée_ (texts by Guillaume Apollinaire)

p.s. - _Two Insect Pieces_. An early work for oboe and piano by Benjamin Britten


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

The braying donkey in Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture, and Elgar's Wild Bears from his second 'Wand of Youth Suite'.


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## Doublestring (Sep 3, 2014)

Several guitar pieces come to mind - and they're quite fun!


Emilio Pujol - El Abejorro
Agustin Barrios - Las Abejas
Julio Sagreras - El Colibri


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## Doublestring (Sep 3, 2014)

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake
F. Couperin - Les Abeilles
F. Couperin - Le Dodo


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Vivaldi: "Il Gardellino" (the Bulfinch), Op. 10 n. 3 - Concerto for flute in D major






Telemann: Canary Cantata


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel not to be forgotten.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

It always astounds me that people can't do their own research anymore.  Google is your friend.


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