Classical Music you primarily associate with a movie

Movies
1

So, here are 3 pieces of classical music that if I hear them, I think of the movie long before the composer:

  1. Tchaikovski’s 1812 Overture - the end of Caddyshack
  2. Bizet’s Carmen - the original Bad News Bears

The last one is kind of funny - my wife wanted Beethoven’s Ode to Joy to be her “here comes the bride” piece as she walked down the aisle. I’m all “sure hon - whatever you want”. Then we looked it up and she played it for me, and I said - “oh, the Die Hard music”.

We had a flamenco guitarist play instead ;)

2

2001: A Space Odyssey. I always thought those iconic pieces of music were from that movie. I only found out later that they were classical pieces just used in the movie.

3

Rhapsody in Blue at the opening of Manhattan, obviously.

The haunting opening of Melancholia with Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde.

Bach’s Goldberg Variation over Hannibal Lecter murdering cops.

4
5

A Clockwork Orange. Yeah, low-hanging fruit, but fuck that old music for old people.

6

To be honest, when I hear that song (Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings) I always think first of Homeworld. Then Platoon. Then I remember the guy who wrote it. :-)

7

Wasn’t Ode to Joy used briefly in Ghostbusters or some other 80s movie?

8

There’s a few songs I now associate with Fantasia

And Apocalypse Now:

Although I might actually associate that more with King Arthur’s World (SNES game): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-2We-k8yk

9

Ride of the Valkyries for me is forever tied to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhQ2BDt4VE

10

Karl Orff’s Carmina Burana, one of the most enduring elements of movie trailers.

11

Well, it’s a soundtrack itself, but the Cinema Paradiso music is beautiful.

12

Carmina Burana and Wagner from Excalibur.

13

Was gonna post Also Sprach Zarathustra, but you got it here.

So then I was gonna post Apocalypse Now but…

So that was out.

So here’s two

14

Carmina Burana in movies is a such a cliche…it must be all but unusable by now. It’s gotta be up there with Adagio in G Minor as overused classical music cue.

15

Or Canon in D

16

I was going to post about Canon in D. The first time I can remember hearing it and being like, “Hey, that’s an awesome song” was when I was pretty durn young and heard it in the movie Father of the Bride (brainfart about naming it Parenthood briefly there):

And I went out and bought the CD and listened to it a million times. Back when I listened to classical music. On CD. Actually it may have been a tape.

And now it’s super-cliched and I don’t like it in movies much. But yet, if I’d been born 10 years earlier I’m sure I’d have the same story but about a totally different movie.

17

Yeah, I definitely thought of Ordinary People, which kind of made that song a hit in the early 80s, in the guise of “Theme from Ordinary People”.

18

For our wedding my wife was largely in charge of colors, decorations, etc. Music was my domain, the area where I had (near) absolute control.

Instructions were explicit, play Canon in D, get trouble.

19

What about the chicken dance?!?

20

Also under strict orders. As was anything remotely rap, even if specifically requested by a guest.

The playlist I created for dinner though? Superb. Yngwie Malmsteen was a prominent figure, as was Joe Satriani ;)