# Greatest short pieces you know



## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

I'm listining a lot to Schnittke's 3 Sacred Hymns recently, especially the second hymn, so I though, what a great short piece of music.

How about a thread where we exchange the greatest short pieces of music we know. Feel free to put here your recommendations.:tiphat:


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Arvo Pärt's _Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten_ comes to mind immediately


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Does the minute waltz from Chopin count?


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Since I'm listening to Bach's organ works right now, what about the first movement of his organ sonata No. 4? I just love it, although the _Andante_ is my favorite movement of the piece (and of the whole set of organ sonatas by the way):


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

"Greatest" is inevitably going to be "favorite". I think you could pick any number of chorales from Bach's Orgelbüchlein or the Schübler chorales. Or Chopin's preludes and nocturnes. One of the works that I think packs the most ingenuity in the smallest space is Bach's Canonic Variations, BWV 769.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

I'm not sure how to link to a specific time in a video. I tried linking to 'Aquarium', which is listed at 9:24. 
It probably doesn't count as "great", but it's a lovely 2 minutes 40 seconds anyway!

PS. Don't listen to the pianists at 17:04 if you know what's good for you!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> I'm not sure how to link to a specific time in a video. I tried linking to 'Aquarium', which is listed at 9:24.
> It probably doesn't count as "great", but it's a lovely 2 minutes 40 seconds anyway!


Don't be shy. It's easily a great piece of music. Also, it was a perfect match for the Richard Gore movie "Days of Heaven".


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Schubert - Ave Maria


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Barbara Strozzi. "Che si può fare"


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Biber - Passacaglia in G minor


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## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 108
Jean Sibelius - Two Serious Melodies for cello and orchestra, Op.77
Jean Sibelius: Two pieces for organ, Op.111
Henryk Wieniawski - Legende in G minor, Op. 17
Frédéric Chopin - Berceuse in D flat major Op.57
Mieczysław Karłowicz - A Sorrowful Tale (Preludes to Eternity), Op. 13
Frederick Delius - The walk to the Paradise Garden


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> I'm not sure how to link to a specific time in a video. I tried linking to 'Aquarium', which is listed at 9:24.
> It probably doesn't count as "great", but it's a lovely 2 minutes 40 seconds anyway!
> 
> PS. Don't listen to the pianists at 17:04 if you know what's good for you!


Pause the video at the point you want - right click and select 'Copy video URL at current time'.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

janxharris said:


> Pause the video at the point you want - right click and select 'Copy video URL at current time'.


I did that. The URL in the original post ended ...v=wBGEf4urGNo&t=564s.... and I think the t=546 is the relevant time marker?

And yet it always plays from the beginning for me.

But thanks for the tip anyway. Here goes for a second suggestion, then:






That's supposed to start at t=427, or 7:07. But I think it just plays from the beginning anyway.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Richard Strauss *Serenade in E Op. 7*.


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> I did that. The URL in the original post ended ...v=wBGEf4urGNo&t=564s.... and I think the t=546 is the relevant time marker?
> 
> And yet it always plays from the beginning for me.
> 
> ...


It doesn't work if you post it as a video - but does if you make it a link.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

janxharris said:


> It doesn't work if you post it as a video - but does if you make it a link.


Ah-ha! Thank you. So it's one or the other. Embedded video or a link to a specific time. Lesson learned...


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

I like Stravinsky's _Fireworks_, Op. 4:


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Two of the most blissful, ethereal choral works I know:


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

And I would agree....some of the short choral works of Arvo Part are real gems.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

I shall just put this one here as the greatest piece of hypnotic repetition I can think of:


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

A lot of the lieder from Ives 114 Songs


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"An admiration for J. S. Bach remained with Mozart until his final years and is reflected in one of his last independent piano pieces, the masterly contrapuntal Gigue, K. 574, in three voices, composed at Leipzig on 16 May 1789. The piece was written into the family album of the court organist Carl Immanuel Engel, evidently as a tribute the Leipzig master, but it remains stylistically quite independent of Bach and, indeed, unlike anything else Mozart ever wrote. Particularly distinctive are the twisting angularity of the melodic lines, whose registral disparities enrich the polyphony, the bold dissonances, and the unusual pedal effects heard against shifting harmonies."
( Mozart's Piano Music, By William Kinderman, Page 36 )

"Schoenberg now proudly described himself as Mozart's pupil - and the final movement of the Suite, the 'Gigue', comes close to explicit homage to the G major Gigue, KV 574, in which Mozart at his most neo-Baroque and most harmonically chromatic seems almost to anticipate elements of Schoenberg's serial method."
( Arnold Schoenberg, By Mark Berry, Page 135 )


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

One of my favorites for < 2 minutes:


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I love this suite of short pieces for piano by Rodrigo.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Overtures to Figaro and Magic Flute (I think I answered this on another post.)


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Why not a thread where we put our favorite moments <10 minutes from all pieces no matter the length. Well anyway...


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Ethereality said:


> Why not a thread where we put our favorite moments from all pieces <10 minutes. Well anyway...


That one ran off the rails when people started including movements from larger works. That is, almost immediately. And then of course "the greatest piece under ten minutes HAS to be Hugo Schankerstein's Etude no. 8 for octobass..."


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Bartok - _Sonatine_


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

These are the two works that immediately spring to mind whenever the subject of short masterpieces or favorites or whatever comes up …

Thomas TALLIS: _Miserere nostri_
:: Skinner/Alamire [Obsidian]




"Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri" ("Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us")-that's the complete text of this deceptively simple seven-voice motet, which is actually a contrapuntal _tour de force_ and one of the finest examples of art concealing art from the Renaissance. The intricate system of canons is so ingeniously derived and insidiously contrived that it calls no attention to itself even as the music naturally emerges out of it; then, almost before you know it, it's over. The ardent Alamire performance ramps up decisively and doesn't let up until the last possible moment. The group is recorded in a closer, less blended way than usual that allows you to better hear the inner workings should you decide to focus on them (even if vocal balances aren't ideally even).

Johannes BRAHMS: Geistliches Lied, Op. 30
:: Det Norske Solistkor [BIS]
http://www.classicalm.com/en/disk/7...ks-by-Brahms--Schubert---Det-Norske-Solistkor (track 21)
This is a deceptive work of great beauty that conceals a structure of unexpected complexity-a rather ingenious double canon as it turns out. In that regard, it might be thought of as the Romantic counterpart to Tallis's _Miserere nostri_. The exceedingly well-matched and balanced Norwegians sing in as pure and flawless a manner as humanly possible while managing not to sound neutral/generic/faceless-no mean trick. It's all very sublime.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

I can't believe no one has mentioned Webern yet! He was an absolute master of profound and concise musical statements.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Portamento said:


> I can't believe no one has mentioned Webern yet! He was an absolute master of profound and concise musical statements.


Seconded, all of them.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

_"There is more music in Chopin's tiny C-minor Prélude than in the four hours of the trumpeting in Les Huguenots."_ -George Sand


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## leonsm (Jan 15, 2011)

Finzi's Romance in E-flat major is amazing, a very evocative work.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

If I were to put together a list of approx. 5-min. pieces to convert someone with a low attention span and whose preferences style-wise I am unaware of, this would be it (yes, I know I'm "cheating" on the thread concept by including "bleeding chunks"):

Webern - Symphony, 2nd movement
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in B major, WTC Book I
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in F minor, WTC Book II
Chopin - Prelude No. 16 in B flat minor
Chopin - 5 assorted mazurkas
Mozart - Ave verum corpus
Faure - Cantique de Jean Racine
Schubert - "Standchen" from _Schwanengesang_
Strauss - "Fruhling" from Four Last Songs
Puccini - "Nessun dorma" from _Turandot_
Shostakovich - 2nd movement, from Symphony No. 10

That should be enough for a single disc


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Quite a few candidates for this post amongst Grieg's Lyric Pieces?


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Chopin's Etude in A flat, Op.25 no.1. So much beauty and subtlety distilled into such a short piece.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

OK, I didn't get any traction with Stravinsky's _Fireworks_, so I would like to offer this favorite: Grofe's "Gallodoro's Serenade for Saxophone and Piano," which comes in at under 5 minutes. Pianists, wouldn't you like to play this? Wind players, wouldn't you like to play this?


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

For me this is an easy question: the _Klavierstücke_ of Brahms (Op.76, 116, 117, 118 and 119). Almost every single one of them is a masterpiece.

Some examples:


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