Would anyone here like to participate in this?

[Florestan]

You don't know Chopsticks?

Never heard about it, although it's quite possible that I might have heard it without knowing what it was.

[Madiel]

Never heard about it, although it's quite possible that I might have heard it without knowing what it was.

Perhaps Romania is spared this particular bit of culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopsticks_(waltz)

Although quite why anyone would recommend it as something to listen to, I've no idea. It's something you learn to play as a kid. The only reason it would qualify as 'classical' music is because of how old it is.

[steve ridgway]

Anyway, the problem still remains. If a beginner, especially a mature person, is given the list and starts from Tier One downward, there is a high probability that he'll give up on the bloody effing classical music long before getting to the Black Angels's tier. 

Exactly, I had given up on classical music for a good fifty years before stumbling across stuff like Black Angels. This list would not have encouraged me to look further.

[Cato]

Anyway, if (George Crumb's) Black Angels is appropriate for turning kids into classical music afficionados, then any piece in the 26th Tier should do the trick, right? I mean, their being in that tier means they have a lot in common. And indeed, lo and behold!

I used Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Tempus Omnia Habent in my 8th-Grade Latin courses and found that many of the kids were really intrigued by it.

One girl stopped by two years after graduation to ask what "the name of that one classical work was, with the wild singer."      She had been talking about our "Latin music" with some of her friends in high school, had liked Zimmermann's work, but had lost her notes about it.


https://www.youtube.com/v/6y5kUbVufAs

[Florestan]

Perhaps Romania is spared this particular bit of culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopsticks_(waltz)

Although quite why anyone would recommend it as something to listen to, I've no idea. It's something you learn to play as a kid. The only reason it would qualify as 'classical' music is because of how old it is.

Definitely never heard it nor about it until today. Imagine my bewilderment when I saw it ranked higher than WTC, D960 and Appassionata.

[Gurn Blanston]

Definitely never heard it nor about it until today. Imagine my bewilderment when I saw it ranked higher than WTC, D960 and Appassionata.

Discounting your own personal experience,  my speculation is that far, far more people  have heard it than any of those supposed more famous works.

🤠😎

[coffee]

I used Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Tempus Omnia Habent in my 8th-Grade Latin courses and found that many of the kids were really intrigued by it.

One girl stopped by two years after graduation to ask what "the name of that one classical work was, with the wild singer."      She had been talking about our "Latin music" with some of her friends in high school, had liked Zimmermann's work, but had lost her notes about it.

Very nice!

[Florestan]

Discounting your own personal experience,  my speculation is that far, far more people  have heard it than any of those supposed more famous works.

🤠😎

That's quite possible. Actually, save for this oddity, the list is a rather good one. Judge for yourself:

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/archive/search/?year=2004-piano

[Karl Henning]

I used Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Tempus Omnia Habent in my 8th-Grade Latin courses and found that many of the kids were really intrigued by it.

One girl stopped by two years after graduation to ask what "the name of that one classical work was, with the wild singer."      She had been talking about our "Latin music" with some of her friends in high school, had liked Zimmermann's work, but had lost her notes about it.


https://www.youtube.com/v/6y5kUbVufAs

I must give it a listen. Thus far B.A.Z. has not draw me in. I don't mind giving another piece a shot.

[Gurn Blanston]

That's quite possible. Actually, save for this oddity, the list is a rather good one. Judge for yourself:

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/archive/search/?year=2004-piano

In the Top 30 I find a great percentage of  pieces that deserve to be there,  most of which I really like,  so who am I to argue?

🤠😎

[Florestan]

In the Top 30 I find a great percentage of  pieces that deserve to be there,  most of which I really like

Yes, exactly. That Chopstick ditty is really the odd man out.

[DavidW]

Definitely never heard it nor about it until today.

This is a joke right?  Chopsticks is pretty standard repertoire for people learning how to play the piano.

[Florestan]

This is a joke right? 

No, it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Until today I've never heard it nor about it,

Chopsticks is pretty standard repertoire for people learning how to play the piano.

I've never learned how to play the piano, or any other instrument for that matter --- which is actually my greatest frustration.

[Karl Henning]

Repertoire is kind of over-selling "Chopsticks," but that's not a serious quarrel. 

[Szykneij]

Repertoire is kind of over-selling "Chopsticks," but that's not a serious quarrel. 

I used to (not seriously) tell any student that sat down at the rehearsal room piano and played either "Chopticks" or "Heart and Soul" that I was taking half a letter grade off of their average.

[Brahmsian]

Saying "Chopsticks" is standard classical music repertoire is not something I ever thought I would hear, to be honest.

[Karl Henning]

I used to (not seriously) tell any student that sat down at the rehearsal room piano and played either "Chopticks" or "Heart and Soul" that I was taking half a letter grade off of their average.

Quite right!

[prémont]

In the Top 30 I find a great percentage of  pieces that deserve to be there,  most of which I really like,  so who am I to argue?

🤠😎

Well, I recall one of my playmates playing Chopsticks sometimes, because it was the only piece he could play. Since then I haven't heard it. It ranks in the same category as "frikadellens flugt over plankeværket", a piece (written by the conductor Ole Schmidt) every child is able to play, even if it is in the unfriendly mode of F-sharp major..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7LGGA0u0oA

[Brian]

Saying "Chopsticks" is standard classical music repertoire is not something I ever thought I would hear, to be honest.

The more depressing way of looking at this is that "Chopsticks" may be the most famous classical musical composition by a woman. Both because it is probably one of the most recognizable tunes in the world, and because of the general organizational failure of the classical industry to promote anything else (or for that matter to encourage women as composers until the last 20 years).

[Karl Henning]

The more depressing way of looking at this is that "Chopsticks" may be the most famous classical musical composition by a woman. Both because it is probably one of the most recognizable tunes in the world, and because of the general organizational failure of the classical industry to promote anything else (or for that matter to encourage women as composers until the last 20 years).

We know the composer of "Chopsticks?"  How'd I miss that?!