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Chapter 8: Duetto

Romantic, opera & pop-classical

I first heard some of these 19th and 20th century classical favorites in commercials, parades and Sega Genesis games. They’ve been used in cinema everywhere from animated crowd pleasers to cosmically scaled art films. (Try to imagine how Strauss would feel watching “The Blue Danube” soundtrack the docking of a spacecraft, nearly a century after its composition.) Music like this feels like it’s been around forever and will be around forever. They are more than compositions, they’re signifiers with time-tested power.
1. Aaron Copland

Rodeo: Hoe-Down

2. John Phillip Sousa

The Stars and Stripes Forever

3. Camille Saint-Saëns

Carnival Of The Animals: Aquarium

4. Jean Sibelius

The Swan Of Tuonela

5. Edvard Grieg

In the Hall of the Mountain King

6. Leo Delibes

Lakmé: Duetto (Flower Duet)

7. Johann Strauss II

The Blue Danube

8. Aram Khachaturian

Gayane: Sabre Dance

9. Giacomo Puccini

Turandot, Act III: "Nessun Dorma!"

10. Claude Debussy

Clair de Lune