# What single work do you recommend me?



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

[Get ready for another one of these threads that have popped up here in one version or another]

Let's say I'm a Martian trying to understand Earth culture. You can only recommend one single work for me to listen to.
"Oh, but there are thousands! I can barely narrow my list down to top 10 greatest works of all time!"
Too bad, my time is limited. You can only choose one that you will submit as your "great work" for me to listen to. What do you choose?

*~ Or*, if this is easier: Pick the first work that comes to mind if a newcomer to classical were to ask, "What would you recommend?"


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

This is for the Martian, not for the human: Aaron Copland's Old American Songs, the Columbia version with William Warfield.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Turangalila symphony by Messiaen


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

For the Martian trying to understand Earth culture it would be the new Rihanna album, but I don't think that's really what you're asking.

For the newcomer to classical music, Mozart's clarinet quintet.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A with Artur Rubinstein as soloist.

If the Martian doesn't "get it", then he is fully worthy of assimilating into the world culture of planet earth, but he will NEVER be invited to the hpowders château to help me polish off a bottle of Jack Daniels.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

There's no such thing as "earth culture".


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A with Artur Rubinstein as soloist.
> 
> If the Martian doesn't "get it", then he is fully worthy of assimilating into the world culture of planet earth, but he will NEVER be invited to the hpowders château to help me polish off a bottle of Jack Daniels.


Well, I have to agree with the choice of the Mozart PC No. 23
But, it was a mighty close call for me with 'I want a Hippopatamus for Christmas' running a close second


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

There are no Martians, of course. However, the Golden Record is currently in interstellar space.

Only Mozart is the Queen of the Night aria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden_Record#Music


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

hpowders said:


> Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A ...


I would choose this for the "best of which humans are capable", and would direct a beginner to it, as it's very approachable for beginners.

To give an impression of the whole of modern culture to a learned Martian I'd choose a Mahler symphony (number 2, Klemperer, is the first that springs to mind...). Not for a beginner though! (Too scary...)


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

A single work that encompasses all of Earth's culture? There can be only one answer of course. 4'33".


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

D Smith said:


> A single work that encompasses all of Earth's culture? There can be only one answer of course. 4'33".


Insulting aliens is not a good idea.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Turangalila symphony by Messiaen


That would send him packing straight back to Mars! :lol:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Stockhausen Opus 1970


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Something with drums and sounds already alien-ish. Like this...

Schwantner: From a Dark Millenium


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Here you go, Martian...


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Karl-Birger Blomdahl - _Aniara_ ("A revue/review about Man in Time and Space")

_"The score of Aniara is varied and makes full use of a range of musical idioms, including jazz, serial writing and an electronic tape. The narrative is sung primarily by Mimaroben, a bass-baritone, who operates the electronic tape, Mima, the computer, and by the chorus. In essence the opera deals with the relationship between the individual and the group through time."_


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

On a more serious note, and while realizing that this is just a game, the majority of pieces suggested so far represent a narrow part of the human cultural spectrum. I would suggest that (e.g.) Mozart and the like are a narrow part of a narrow part therefore a choice should be something that shows cross-cultural influences particularly Indo-Asian. I am only vaguely familiar with such works ... wasnt there a group active on the US west coast who did a lot of that?


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Bach's _Mass in B Minor_.


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## dsphipps100 (Jan 10, 2016)

Cosmos said:


> Let's say I'm a Martian trying to understand Earth culture. You can only recommend one single work for me to listen to.


Leith Stevens' War of the Worlds soundtrack. Earth wins, Mars loses. Martians be warned, stay home.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

ok, I think maybe the alien scenario was a mistake :lol: I mean to ask for one work that you would say is the greatest that someone has to hear at least once, doesn't have to represent all of human history of music


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## kartikeys (Mar 16, 2013)

First movement of this:





Enjoy your stay on earth, martian. Have a cup of tea with me sometime. I'd like to discuss gender issues.
Regards.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Gustav Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War," perhaps, to make him feel at home--though I worry about giving him ideas.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> Stockhausen Opus 1970


Better still the parent work, _Kurzwellen_. That could contain snippets of any sort of "earth culture", depending on what's on the radio at the time


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## nbergeron (Dec 30, 2015)

_Das Lied von Der Erde_ of course.


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## dsphipps100 (Jan 10, 2016)

Seriously, I can't believe nobody has mentioned Beethoven's 9th, which is arguably the single most iconic musical work in the history of the planet. Just ask everybody in Germany in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 might be my pick. "New World" has a different connotation with this question, though.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Schoenberg String Quartet 2.

I am not kidding, I am being 100% dead serious. It has a similar "triumph of the heart over the head" that Beethoven's 9th does, but it is much more emotional, singing, personal, intense, troubled, and yet hopeful. Is the final movement of Schoenberg 2 not God?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Beethoven's string quartet in E-flat, Opus 127. We cannot assume that a Martian's cognitive system would have any approximation of the human emotional make-up, so we can't assume its being "moved" by a piece of music in the way we take for granted. But the E-flat quartet both gives an alien a sense of some of the abstract structures employed by the best of human tonal music (sonata form, variations, binary), while being quirky and imaginative enough to show that human music was far from a rote thing. This is also the piece I would send out across the galaxy in a fleet of Pioneer-type space probes to let aliens know we were once here.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

*J.S. Bach* _Mass in B. Minor_


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

4'33'' 

Earth culture = noise pollution.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Prokofiev, piano concerto 2


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## Martyn Harper (Jan 27, 2016)

The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

Martyn Harper said:


> The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives


Oh bloody hell you beat me to it! In it they'll understand perfectly the oddly nervous self-questioning of man.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

_Art of Fugue_ to fool them into thinking we are superior beings.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Carl Nielsen Symphony 6(sinfonia semplice). This will give the Martian a most vivid musical impression of the nature of the prevalent bitter irony in the lives of modern humans.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I think Beethoven's Fifth Symphony conducted by Carlos Kleiber would proudly represent the best of what planet Earth is about (but rarely lives up to).


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## poconoron (Oct 26, 2011)

Mozart's Don Giovanni or Marriage of Figaro. That'll teach em about our "culture"............:kiss:


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor: Arr. for Orchestra by Stokowski


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Klassic said:


> Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor: Arr. for Orchestra by Stokowski


Kudos to you for sharing a vid from my old youtube channel :lol:


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## Boldertism (May 21, 2015)

I'd show him Beethoven Symphony 5, or Mozart's Jupiter Symphony (maybe the Martian knows someone from there.)


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## Biwa (Aug 3, 2015)

poconoron said:


> Mozart's Don Giovanni or Marriage of Figaro. That'll teach em about our "culture"............:kiss:


I was just thinking the same thing. Opera has got it all!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

jegreenwood said:


> _Art of Fugue_ to fool them into thinking we are superior beings.


I was thinking along these lines, but I think I'd go with something less ambitious so as not to wear out my welcome. Bach's Prelude in Eb Major, WTK I, No. 7, if performed with enough restraint is among the most majestic and intellectual of the lot. Its simple two note motif is bewilderingly dense throughout the work once it gets going and never fails to send goose bumps up my arms.

I'd probably use Wendy Carlos' synthesized version though as it comes across more expressive and profound than any piano version I've yet heard.


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## Aldarion (Feb 9, 2016)

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Copland's Rodeo might put them in a good mood, assuming they didn't come here to eat us.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

La Traviata , hear it once and you never forget it :tiphat:


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

Ravel's Piano Trio


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## Machiavel (Apr 12, 2010)

I'm not much into opera, songs and so forth but in this case I think the human voice has to be a part of the music as communication with others is essential to humans. So I will propose Das lied Von der erde. I think it mirrors quite well humanity with it's beauty and struggles and what and what not makes us human with it's aspirations and doubts and the ephemeral nature of life.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

_Carmina Burana_ offers a whole hodgepodge of musical styles, instrumentations, subjects both sacred (not so much) and profane. You have solo voice, chorus, loud, soft, rough, smooth......


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

To a Martian: Wagner: _Der Ring des Nibelungen._ Culture = the constant re-telling and re-interpretation of myth.

To a human newcomer: Mussorgsky orch. Ravel: _Pictures in an Expedition._ First you have to draw pictures with music. Clear, simple, wonderful pictures. Then you can do something else as well.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Because in this recording one may be able to hear Einstein's gravitational waves, when the Roman legions comes marching in.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I would pick Mozart Symphony 40 for the visiting Martians. It is coherent, refined, and delightful music. It might dissuade them from destroying or doing rectal probes on us.


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## Adair (Feb 9, 2016)

Schwarzkopf singing Strauss's Four Last Songs...


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

To a human newcomer: Mussorgsky orch. Ravel: [I said:


> Pictures in an Expedition.[/I] First you have to draw pictures with music. Clear, simple, wonderful pictures. Then you can do something else as well.


No, Mussorgsky's original. Much as I love Ravel's music, he emasculated 'Pictures'.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Bach's the well tempered clavier Book 1 or Beethoven's Op. 130 with Große Fuge subbed in for that other last movement, depending if the alien had a preference for strings or piano.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Pat Fairlea said:


> No, Mussorgsky's original. Much as I love Ravel's music, he emasculated 'Pictures'.


I'm not thinking which one is musically better in the end, I'm thinking all those wonderful orchestral colours that will open new worlds for newbies.


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## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

If I wanted to drive the aliens away, I'd recommend this:


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