The Nokia ringtone is a musical phrase from a piece of solo guitar music by Francisco Tárrega, called Gran Vals from 1902.
One time I was listening to classical music because I was in a mood. It was a Mozart piece. The piano player started playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. At first I was like, “if bro is such a genius, why did he rip off Twinkle, Twinkle, Litt- oh, he wrote it.”
Love it lol.
Unbeknownst to me until a moment ago, the piece is Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman”, based on a French folk song.
I’m pretty sure it was a common folk tune at the time. WA Mozart loved to do “variations on” stuff that people already knew and enjoyed. I don’t believe he originated the tune
Wow I grew around classical music as my dad is huge into it and also loves Mozart, still TIL. Lol I probably should pay more attention to my dad.
4’33"
A moment of silence, for those that don’t get the reference.
laughs silently
Fur Elise.
Für. It’s German, For Elise. She’s not furry 😉
A lot of mobile keyboards will let you pick the umlaut version if you long-press a letter.
Will you Fürgive me?
How do you know Elise wasn’t a Fürry?
Also: who the fuck is Elise?
Always makes me think of the Commodore 64, but surely that isn’t why we know it these days?
It was the tone the buzzer played in a lot of apartment buildings around the 00s.
O Fortuna, https://youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4
C’mon, post the definitive version!
That’s from the 1930s. The original was just a poem, not music.
Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky), The Planets (Holst), and Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) are all pretty badass but often get used in movies, game trailers, even ads without being named.
EDIT: Everyone likes links, ja?
Don’t forget Flight of the Bumblebee too!
Ill add Pachelbel’s Cannon in D as well.
Love it, but I feel like most people actually do know that one by name.
God, the planets inspired pretty much every goddamn sci fi soundtrack. Everyone gets the imperial march, but i’m talking right back before even Haskin’s War of the Worlds and Journey to the centre of the earth, past SW and wrath of khan and into Foundation.
Canon in D, used constantly in modern music and people usually don’t recognize it. If you don’t believe me go listen to Maroon 5’s Memories. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to though…
Written by Pachelbel. Aka Pachelbel’s Canon
Yup came here to add this thanks
I also like the rock version
“La Donna è mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto. Have you seen a pasta sauce commercial? Then you’ve heard this aria.
Another Verdi piece that comes up often is Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore
Also Sprach Zarathustra. (Thus Spake Zarathustra) very overused, but one of the greatest pieces of music in all of history.
Features heavily in the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That movie has some other greats like Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.
Mornin’ Ralph, mornin’ Sam
You know Entry of the Gladiators, but you might not think of gladiators when you hear the song.
Everyone recognizes Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie no 1.
I feel like it was just used all over the place, subtly, all our lives. People can rarely name it. Everyone knows it.
Here’s a piano version as well
I was looking for someone to mention this. It’s used so often in movies and television. I’m not surprised that people are saying they’ve never heard it. It’s always just some background music played in a scene, it’s never the focal point.
Not everyone. Where am I supposed to have heard this before?
It’s in Minecraft?
But it’s been in indie films since forever, and big films too.
E.g. https://youtu.be/X5fhZomlWb4?si=TlY0RwrYJDcELL3i
This from the same musical trilogy, Queens Gambit.
So yeah, I’ve never actually played Minecraft before, it’s a few generations after I would have been the prime age to play it.
Well then you’re of a generation that heard it in films.
Royal Tenenbaums, man on a wire…
So it’s not quite the version you played and it seems to be from older films. If I’ve heard it, I don’t recognize it and wouldn’t be able to point it out but I also didn’t play Minecraft that much.
I’ve heard it in random YT videos since at least 2013. Down The Rabbit Hole used it as a background track.
I’ve also never heard this song before.
Yeah… it’s not even that good, imo.
Funny I was just thinking about that song. Satie’s work is kind of wild, although I was just reading about him and when he wrote it, he was a nobody and generally, even after fame, I don’t think he even played it himself so much as other people did because he already moved on. Dude even worked with Picasso once, who everyone seems to know.
Guy was a nut, though, highly recommend reading up on him.
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons has some pretty recognizable parts in it, such as the first Allegro for Spring, which is popular for fancy receptions, or the Allegro for Winter, which is a great theme for a descent into madness.
Also, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, a classic “something evil is about to go down” piece.
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No, you’re correct. It’s the same video but with different timestamps, although the first two are virtually identical because the Spring Allegro is the first piece.
It’s really like every mad aristocratic mad doctor with a pipe organ in a baltic castle knows that one piece.
Yes, it’s perfect for villainous activity of any kind.
William Tell Overture - An entire generation of people came up knowing a portion of the song as the Lone Ranger Theme.
Also, I suspect very few people know The Blue Danube by name, but almost everyone could hum the entire thing if prompted.
This was gonna be my addition and you beat me to it.