# Classical Music That is "Timeless"



## Jacob Brooks (Feb 21, 2017)

I thought of a category recently while listening to a few different pieces, that of the "timeless" work. This isn't in the sense that people mean when they are just saying it is very good, but that the piece literally sounds like it could have been written in almost any of the post-renaissance periods of classical music (300 years ago or 3 years ago, who knows which?). Some pieces that come to mind are:

Vivaldi's Summer, 3rd movement. And Spring, 1st movement.
Bach's Chaconne for solo violin from Partita 2
Bach's Art of Fugue
Beethoven's Grosse Fuge

Do you know any other pieces that seem to fall within this category? Is this a sign that a composer has "ascended beyond their era?" Do eras even exist? What is the meaning of life?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Jacob Brooks said:


> I thought of a category recently while listening to a few different pieces, that of the "timeless" work. This isn't in the sense that people mean when they are just saying it is very good, but that the piece literally sounds like it could have been written in almost any of the post-renaissance periods of classical music (300 years ago or 3 years ago, who knows which?). Some pieces that come to mind are:
> 
> Vivaldi's Summer, 3rd movement. And Spring, 1st movement.
> Bach's Chaconne for solo violin from Partita 2
> ...


I came in to give a lecture on the meaning of "Timeless" and how it associates to music, but what you are asking for is completely acceptable.

First movement of Moonlight & Fur Elise must be mentioned.
Mozart's Fantasia in D.

Era's are a man-made concept to classify the passing of time. It's not black and white in it's stereotyping of a period, but it does help us make sense of history and it's a useful concept. But a wise man can look beneath the stereotypes and see what is beyond the black and white nature of Eras.

So as to whether Eras exist or not, they do, but only in the mind of the humans who created the concept, but not in physical reality.

The meaning of life is to carve out your philosophy towards life, your values and ethics, tastes and preferences, and etc, and to live it out with grand pride and enjoyment.

We need to raise our children to think beyond society and for themselves, from within, so they aren't so confused when they come to adulthood about who they are.


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

3rd movement of Beethoven's op 135 String Quartet in F major. Something so beautiful going on with this piece especially as it starts to come to an end with a slow and dignified sequence. Emotionally it is off the scale.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The Pastorale by Bernard Storace


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

_Adagio for Strings_, Samuel Barber


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Yup, agree the 4 Seasons is timeless. Maybe Bach's Prelude #1 in WTC too.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I interpret your question perhaps slightly differently - works that simply seem to be part of the universe, not ever having been composed. Mozart is the first composer who comes to my mind. I named the Adagio in the Clarinet Concerto as my favorite melody, and I would include it here (along with several other works of his - if I took the time to pick and choose). The Adagio in Schubert's Quintet is another. I agree about the Barber (lots of Adagios on my list, which I don't think is by chance), and might add Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia (which starts by looking back several centuries for inspiration). More hesitantly, I would nominate several works by Arvo Part (Spiegel Im Spiegel and the second part of Tabula Rasa), which recall music from an even earlier time. While these have a transcendent element, I don't think they have the musical weight of the other pieces I mentioned.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Phil loves classical said:


> Yup, agree the 4 Seasons is timeless. Maybe Bach's Prelude #1 in WTC too.


Don't really agree with 4 Seasons, but do agree with the Prelude #1 in WTC (and Prelude of the first Cello Suite)


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ned Rorem said Satie's Socrate was in time and outside of time.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

In the words of Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the others . . ." As a species we like to find similarities and group things together. All the more so because much human endeavor is linked to fashion, which is a product of the times and the zeitgheist. Thus the grouping of musical styles into named periods and schools is not uncalled for. Most of your examples come out of the times they were written, but there are some that seem _sui generis_. Beethoven's Grosse Fuge may be one; Liszt's Sonata another; maybe a bunch of things by Ives. Der Kunst der Fuge is a "mere" summing up. Vivaldi is and will always be Vivaldi. There are still quantum leaps that serve to bridge eras -- Monteverdi's Vespers, the Eroica, Le Sacre... -- but they are evolutionary and every bit a product of their time.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> We need to raise our children to think beyond society and for themselves, from within, so they aren't so confused when they come to adulthood about who they are.


Perhaps I am misreading this statement, but it seems to me that we need to raise our children to think beyond themselves and for a broader purpose, society being a perfectly valid one.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

It's "Judex" from Mors et Vita that instantly comes to mind for me. It's the swell of the rolling ocean I see in my mind's eye when I listen, but failing that, I'll more than settle for this poster's interpretation.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I don't think anything _literally_ sounds like it could have been written at any time, but I think I know what you mean.

I think a fair amount of late Beethoven hits this register.

Also Gesualdo.


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## Baccouri (May 30, 2017)

Seasons Of Vivaldi


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Haydn's "Clock" Symphony, No. 101.

I deserve a rousing drumroll for thinking of that one!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

JAS said:


> Perhaps I am misreading this statement, but it seems to me that we need to raise our children to think beyond themselves and for a broader purpose, society being a perfectly valid one.


The inner self must be founded from within but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be educated about the world.


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## aintsorry (Jun 7, 2017)

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor - has been in people's music boxes for ages. It's a timeless.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

To be "timeless" for me, it does not really matter if its music is very much founded in a particular time and place or style that is "outdated".

The greater the degree that a work accomplishes the following, tends to be how "timeless" it is for me:

_Exhibiting emotional or conceptual content with extraordinary conviction and a singular outstanding creative intelligence so as to permanently distinguish itself._


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Pachelbel's canon of course. That bass line never seems to end. And theoretically it could go on forever... therefore it's timeless!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto.
Any day of the week.....
One of Beethoven's finest


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

John Cage, "As Slow as Possible"


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

All classical music is timeless! I
Compositions are listened to centuries later where pop music pieces gets forgotten about after a bit!


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

Bach's Great Mass


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Blancrocher said:


> John Cage, "As Slow as Possible"


You beat me to it - my thoughts exactly!


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## jane D (Jun 9, 2017)

How difficult is it to "carve out your philosophy towards life, your values and ethics, tastes and preferences, and etc, and to live it out with grand pride and enjoyment?"


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

If there's a piece that actually could have been written any time in the last 300 years, it probably isn't worth hearing.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Wow! Great classical music is all timeless and never dated!


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

I'd say definitely Toccata and Fugue... it sounds so timeless, and even modern to my ears.
I think it's actually underrated as one of the "popular" pieces. If it's popular, it's for a VERY good reason.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I would say music that has not been composed yet................


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

I'd say Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Everytime I play the music, I am suprised at how modern sounding it is. (not the overplayed parts, but the whole composition). I recently played the music to my small nephew (5 years old) and he asked me what is the good music. Another timeless composition is the Brandenburg concertos, or Beethovens Für Elise or Moonlight Sonata.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2018)

Sorry Jacob, but I can't help hearing that soft, silky, soothing, "Tiimeless claassics...here on Claassic FMMMM......"


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I don't know if anything, especially man-made art forms, is "timeless", but I would suggest that Webern's Variations, Op 27 comes close. It's just _music_. Sounds in the air. It seems not to be of any place or era. Perhaps the only improvement to the music would be to have birds intoning it from the high trees.

Here is Glenn Gould intoning it from his low piano chair.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Bach Well-Tempered Clavier,Book 1, F Minor Fugue.


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## brahmsbender (Apr 12, 2018)

The first thing I think of is Beethoven's Late Quartets. I have always thought that someone could compose those today and they would still sound modern. Also, his Late Sonatas. Some really interesting and abstruse pieces.

I think, also, Bach's Cello Suites. Those pieces easily could be written today and no one would blink an eye. Arguably the greatest set of pieces for a solo instrument ever written. I believe, like no other, they expose the instrumentalist to his or her personality, their sensitivities, their gratitude and selfishness, their spirituality, their spontaneity and pragmatism, their skill and their flaws, their everything. Favorite recording, among many, Ralph Kirshbaum on Virgin Records.


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## Beet131 (Mar 24, 2018)

Eric Whitacre's "Alleluia" is a timeless piece. He has a strong individual style, yet this piece seems to synthesize hundreds of years of choral music.


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