Some of you are probably already familiar with Classical Music: Recommended Works, Prioritized! (https://docs.google.com/document/d/18t_9MHZTENbmYdezAAj4LRM0-Eak_MYO1HssZW2FX1U/edit?usp=sharing)
This has been constructed by participants of other classical music fora, one now sadly defunct, and for years I've been tempted to try to engage people here as well. Turns out I can no longer resist this temptation. (If you are active on multiple fora, feel free to participate on all of them.)
To be clear, I do not anticipate everyone loving the fact that this exists. However, if any of you would like to help make it a better list, your contributions will definitely be appreciated.
Naturally, our recommendations represent the knowledge and tastes of the people who have helped build it. No one should claim that it is anything like the official canon of art music or an objective ranking of the greatness of the works!
However, to the best of my knowledge, nothing else like this exists: no other list of prioritized recommendations including all genres of classical music, no other list as helpful to an old veteran looking for a surprise as to a newbie just familiarizing herself with the canon.
You can also view the list alphabetized and unranked on this Google sheet. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EPwekrowPbv88Vw6FKukLvrISQv1nZ-L1FQHiwCEdqQ/edit?usp=sharing)
You can change our list in three ways:
1. The main way is to participate in threads with titles like, "The first tier," "The second tier," and so on.
2. The second way is to add new works to the list. If you want to recommend a work that is not already on our list, just post the title in this thread. All newly added works begin on the lowest tier, but they can move them up from there.
One final way to contribute is simply to let me know if you see errors such as incorrect dates, misspellings, and so on. You can do that in this thread, or if you prefer you can DM me.
Please be polite. Obviously we have different tastes and we don't all know the same things; we do not all agree about how strongly various works should be recommended, how great or important they are, or anything else.
The point is to learn from each other and help each other, to have a good time exploring music together.
Here are some details that probably won't interest most people.
How do we choose which tiers to vote on?
We'll usually do them as cycles, starting with the lowest tier, then the next-lowest, and so on, slowly ascending all the way up to the highest tier.
However, anytime that a tier gets "too big," we might just randomly vote on it.
How many works should each tier have?
We aim for the highest tiers (with the most strongly recommended works) to be smaller than the lowest tiers. We also aim for most tiers to have fewer than 25 works so that they can be viewed in their entirety.
Who decides whether to group works such as Chopin's Nocturnes together rather than divide them into individual works?
The main principle is that if individual works can stand well on their own (i.e. are frequently recorded alone rather than as a set) then we'll break them into individual works. Ordinarily making this decision is the prerogative of the person who first adds them to our list, but we can always discuss it.
How has this list been constructed?
It originally began ~2010 on the Amazon classical music forum. We got it up to about a thousand works there. Everything has been done collaboratively with the help of hundreds of participants.
How come stuff hasn't been updated?
Sometimes I'm busy; sometimes I'm lazy. I'll try to get to it soon! Feel free to remind me. Also, sometimes I get cross-eyed looking at these things. Please let me know if you catch a mistake!
What is the point?
To help me and others discover new music and decide what we want to explore next.
The further you get on this list, the more interesting the pieces. So a sort of reverse qualification -- thanks all! :)
As an example of how to add new works, I'll add this one (it'll appear on the bottom tier):
Reger: String Trio #1 in A minor, op. 77b [1904]
OK, I get the idea now I've seen The List. I guess you split the tiers and renumber when too large, so those below move down a tier?
The main objection I have is that I was put off classical for decades due to not liking the popular stuff, eventually stumbling onto 1950s electroacoustic music and then 20th century avant garde via Varèse and Ligeti. As these begin in Tier 30+ someone with similar tastes could give up before working that far down the list. The beginning listener might therefore be helped more by sampling a few of the top rated pieces from a number of different styles / sub genres.
I might have a go though at listening from the top. Sampling a composers three most highly rated works should be enough to determine whether I want to explore them further or write them off.
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 01, 2025, 08:52:52 AMThe main objection I have is that I was put off classical for decades due to not liking the popular stuff ....
In spite of the mindset of the consensus and of (say) them what determine programming for orchestras, a mindset which wilfully ignores this fact, there are plenty of people who like "post-normative" Music and for whom that supposedly "inartistic" segment of the literature is in fact the entrée to Classical Music. There are potential enthusiasts who do not find the "to love Classical Music, you
must start with
Chopin and
Mozart" attitude appealing. It's high time this fact was recognized.
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 01, 2025, 08:52:52 AMOK, I get the idea now I've seen The List. I guess you split the tiers and renumber when too large, so those below move down a tier?
The main objection I have is that I was put off classical for decades due to not liking the popular stuff, eventually stumbling onto 1950s electroacoustic music and then 20th century avant garde via Varèse and Ligeti. As these begin in Tier 30+ someone with similar tastes could give up before working that far down the list. The beginning listener might therefore be helped more by sampling a few of the top rated pieces from a number of different styles / sub genres.
I might have a go though at listening from the top. Sampling a composers three most highly rated works should be enough to determine whether I want to explore them further or write them off.
The first works of classical music that I loved were Takemitsu's From Me Flows What You Call Time and Crumb's Black Angels (the Kronos recording). Back in my late teens. All the "relaxing" stuff came later LOL
That said, coming from a working-class background and working my way into the upper-middle class, I felt ashamed of how little I knew about highbrow culture well into my late twenties. I wish I'd had a list like this when I was 19. To me, everyone who looks down on stuff designed to help someone pursue an accelerated self-education is looking down on who I was then.
Which is fine with me, really. In the end I've won for having risen by luck and effort rather than for having been born to it by luck alone. I've enjoyed an almost uniquely privileged life in that sense. Creating this list has been in some ways a love letter to my younger self, which is why I'm so grateful to the people who've helped me create it. I wish I had one for world literature too!
I soon found Takemitsu and Crumb when I decided to explore further and bought Masterworks Of The 20th Century.
(https://i.discogs.com/pYW7cc11CnEBBXbUFVrqxkmGa4jNiRE0i3qGBya0Yjs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTc1NzUz/MDEtMTQ0NDM2Nzk2/NS00ODgyLmpwZWc.jpeg)
I see where you are coming from; my own lower-middle class education didn't push upper class culture at me seriously and my own self-education was more in science and factual areas, wanting to understand the world. The lack of background definitely put me off applying to Oxford or Cambridge University.
Quote from: steve ridgway on April 01, 2025, 09:23:10 PMI soon found Takemitsu and Crumb when I decided to explore further and bought Masterworks Of The 20th Century.
(https://i.discogs.com/pYW7cc11CnEBBXbUFVrqxkmGa4jNiRE0i3qGBya0Yjs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTc1NzUz/MDEtMTQ0NDM2Nzk2/NS00ODgyLmpwZWc.jpeg)
I see where you are coming from; my own lower-middle class education didn't push upper class culture at me seriously and my own self-education was more in science and factual areas, wanting to understand the world. The lack of background definitely put me off applying to Oxford or Cambridge University.
That cultural capital will catch up with you. Fortunately the game's not too difficult if you have a bit of leisure to play it.
That is a great box, man. I picked it up used for like four bucks a long time ago. But I haven't listened to it in so long I've forgotten most of what's in it.... Maybe I'll dip into that a bit in the coming days....