# Composers with the most hit works



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

If you were to list the “hits”of composers, including single movements or even shorter pieces, who would have the longest list?


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Lennon and McCartney!  For those who love to compare apples and oranges. I’d rather not myself.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Interesting question.

Beethoven? Tchaikovsky? Prokofieff?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Hits for what audience? The general public? General music lovers? Casual classical music listeners? Classical music lovers? The answers would probably differ from one to the other (going in that line from Johann Strauss to probably Beethoven).


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Forgoing so many pieces for concision, some "hits":

*(1) Tchaikovsky*
_1812 Overture
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Waltz of the Flowers
Dance of the Mirlitons
Nutcracker - Trepak
Piano Concerto 1
Nutcracker - Tea
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Nutcracker - March
Swan Lake - Scene_

*(2) Mozart*
_Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - I
Magic Flute - Queen of the Night
Piano Sonata 11 - Rondo Alla Turca
Marriage of Figaro Overture
Piano Sonata 16
Requiem - Dies Irae
Symphony 40 - I
Requiem - Lacrimosa
Piano Concerto 21
Magic Flute Overture_

*(3) Beethoven*
_Symphony 5 - I
Symphony 9 - Ode To Joy
Moonlight Sonata
Fur Elise 
Minuet in G
Symphony 9 - II
Symphony 7 - II_

*(4) Bach*
_Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Air on the G String
Cantata 147- Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Cello Suite 1
Minuet in G
Brandenburg Concerto 3 - I
Bourree in E Minor_

*(5) Rossini*
_William Tell Overture
Barber of Seville - Largo Al Factotum
Thieving Magpie Overture
Barber of Seville Overture_

*(6) Verdi*
_Rigoletto - La Donna E Mobile
Il Trovatore - Anvil Chorus
Dies Irae - Requiem_

*(7) Williams*
_Star Wars - Main Titles
Imperial March
Raiders March_

*(8) Grieg*
_Peer Gynt - In the Hall of the Mountain King
Peer Gynt - Morning Mood
Piano Concerto_

*(9) Handel*
_Messiah - Hallelujah Chorus
Solomon - Arrival of Queen Sheeba
Water Music_

*Mendelssohn*
_Spring Song_
_Midsummer Night's Dream - Wedding March_

*Liszt*
_Hungarian Rhapsody 2
Liebestraum_

*Wagner*
_Die Walkure - Ride of the Valkyries
Lohengrin - Bridal Chorus_

*Bizet*
_Carmen - Les Toradores
Carmen - Habanera_

*Saint-Saens*
_Carnival - Finale
Carnival - Aquarium_

*J Strauss*
_Blue Danube
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka_

*Vivaldi*
_Four Seasons - Spring
Four Seasons - Winter_

*Sousa*
_Stars and Stripes Forever
Washington Post_

*Brahms*
_Lullaby
Hungarian Dance 5_

*Copland*
_Rodeo - Hoedown
Fanfare for the Common Man_

*Prokofiev*
_Peter and the Wolf - The Story Begins
Dance of the Knights_

*Chopin*
_Funeral March_
_Grande Valse Brilliante_

*Delibes*
_Lamke - Flower Duet
Sylvia Pizzacato_

*Offenbach*
_Orpheus in the Underworld - Infernal Gallop_

*Elgar*
_Pomp and Circumstance_

*Rimsky-Korsakov*
_Flight of the Bumblebee_


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Hit works? As in: very widely known, the way rock or pop songs would be?

from the 18th century---Mozart
from the 19th century---Tchaikovsky
from the 20th century---Williams

Hit works, as in: highly regarded by music critics?

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

If you mean in our time I think the list is probably smaller than you think. Most Protestants that attend church service have probably heard or sung Handel's Hallelujah chorus and many people march at high school graduation to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance march. Outside that I'm not sure what classical music hits may invade the minds of 21st century people.

There used to be more presence of classical music in popular culture and in schools when music classes were commonplace. 

Mahler's symphonies are definitely hits with the classical music public now. They get played in concert everywhere all the time, a big change from when I started listening to classical music and he was a relative unknown and thought of in many quarters as strange and unplayable.

When I look around at favorites on classical music radio station polls I find stuff like Beethoven symphonies, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Bach's Brandenburg concertos regularly atop them. Not sure if that qualifies them as hits -- and that is with publics that listen to classical music on the radio.

When Kubrick made "2001 A Space Odyssey" in 1968 (a lifetime ago) it made a hit out of the sunrise theme from Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra which has stayed in popular culture and gets redone now and again in advertising and elsewhere. It also made hits of the other Strauss's Blue Danube waltz and put Ligeti on the map; those haven't shown so well over time in American culture.

There may be more recent examples of this.


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