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Your 10 Favorite Tunes


Fabulin

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Ooh, fun! Here are my 10 that I can think of right now, in no particular order:

  • Ode to Joy theme (Beethoven)
  • Journey to the Island
  • Here They Come!
  • Do you Hear the People Sing? (Les Miserables)
  • Mickey (Toni Basil)
  • Movie Studio (Iris) (Danny Elfman)
  • All Through the Night (Cyndi Lauper)
  • The Merchandisers (Chess)
  • Joseph's Coat (~Dreamcoat
  • The Ride (The Mask of Zorro)

(For the two pop songs, it's really the chorus that makes the earworm for me.)

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A great topic! My ranking right now is

    1. One Jump Reprise by Menken
    2. Che Gelida Manina by Puccini
    3. Movement in Green by Uematsu
    4. Aika by Wada
    5. We Three Kings
    6. The Legend of Ashitaka by Hisaishi (0:53 to end)
    7. Dance by the Brook by Beethoven (p.1 and p. 2)
    8. Hakuna Matata by Elton John & Tim Rice
    9. Saria's Song by Kondo
    10. Princess Leia by Williams
    11. Journey to the West by Hisaishi (1:24 to end)
    12. Peaceful Easy Feeling by Eagles
    13. America The Beautiful
    14. Dance of the Bridesmaids by Tchaikovsky
    15. Moon River
    16. Somewhere Out There by Horner, Mann & Weil
    17. Rose of May by Uematsu
    18. Ode to Joy by Beethoven
    19. Can Can by Offenbach
    20. Spring Song by Mendelssohn
    21. Bonds of Sea and Fire by Mitsuda
    22. Greensleeves
    23. Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev
    24. When You Wish Upon a Star
    25. Polovtsian Dances by Borodin
    26. Take Me Home, Country Roads by Denver
    27. Journey to the Island by Williams
    28. Romeo and Juliet: The Kiss by Tchaikovsky
    29. O Holy Night by Adam
    30. Miroirs Melody by Ravel
    31. Nerevar Rising
    32. Christmas Time is Here
    33. When Johnny Comes Marching Home
    34. Baby Baby by Amy Grant (cheesy and annoying, yet somehow a very well-written melody)
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    First ten I thought of that made me smile

     

    Over the Rainbow - Arlen

    Super Mario Bros - Kondo

    Born on the Fourth of July - Williams

    Yesterday - McCartney

    Lady Caliph - Morricone

    Hedwig’s Theme - Williams

    The Way You Look Tonight - Kern

    Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon

    Village Green - Davies

    Jarabe Tapatio (Mexican Hat Dance) - Rubio

     

    Oh I gotta throw in Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring too. Etc etc. 

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    Some which I can think of right now:

    1. Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) Link
    2. Largo from Dvorak's New World Symphony (i.e. the English Horn theme) Link
    3. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas) Link
    4. "Main" theme from Ballade No.1 (Chopin)  Link
    5. Morgenröte from Lohengrin (Wagner) Link
    6. Main theme from Symphony No.7, 1st movement (Beethoven) Link
    7. Second Tableau from The Firebird (Stravinsky, though it is actually a Russian folk tune "The Larch Tree") Link
    8. Act 2 Finale from Norma (Bellini) as presented in Liszt's Reminiscences de Norma Link
    9. David's Theme from A.I. (John Williams) Link
    10. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Ernest Gold) Link
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    29 minutes ago, Loert said:

    Largo from Dvorak's New World Symphony (i.e. the English Horn theme) Link

     

    Interesting. I always thought the tune starting at 7:10 was significantly better. And then the tune at 6:41 is just epic. IMO. Although I don't include them in my top 10.

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    One of my favorite melodies is - 

     

     

    A beautiful and stirring melody that is variously used in many settings - military, patriotic, devotional, gospel, songs, such a maleable and beautiful melody. I first heard it in the form of a song melody in a Swedish film and was haunted by it. And when I looked it up, I realized how famous it is.

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    • 3 weeks later...
    12 hours ago, Fabulin said:

    To log-in in the morning and learn a beautiful melody one has never heard before

     

    :lovethis: Perfection.

     

    Thanks, Boro

     

    Excellent. That diminished at 0:46 and 1:42! I often try to incorporate diminished harmony into my compositions, especially with the kind of ethereal fairy tale style this has. Diminished is my favorite (the name is Borodin after all.)

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    • 6 months later...
    On 4/25/2019 at 4:21 PM, Bayesian said:

    Journey to the Island

     

    Interesting! We both put this on our lists, though not in my Top 10. Perhaps it's Williams's greatest melody.

     

    On 4/26/2019 at 1:17 PM, Modest Expectations said:

    It would make my Top 25 or Top 30. Not before When Johnny Comes Marching Home, but it is quite close.

     

    A great tune!

     

     

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    • 3 months later...

    Added Can-can to my list. The first 20 seconds are so catchy.

     

    On 4/25/2019 at 4:21 PM, Bayesian said:

    Ode to Joy theme (Beethoven)

     

    I think this is more in the performance than the melody personally. There are better "melodic performances" imo, this whole minute makes my throat dry up if I sing along.

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    • 5 months later...

    Non-Williams list

     

    Bach, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (already mentioned)

    Handel, Hallelujah chorus

    Prokofiev, Troika

    Ave Maria, both the Schubert and Bach/Gounad

    Beethoven, Seven Symphony, (all of it, but especially the Fourth Movement melody).

    Horner, The Rocketeer Main theme

    Goldsmith, First Contact Main Theme

    O Holy Night

    Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto, first movement.

    Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata, second movement

    Bonus: Holst, The Planets, Jupiter.  

     

     

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    • 1 month later...

    Had to add to my list above, what I'd call, Dance by the Brook by Beethoven. Such a hauntingly perfect melody.

     

      A F E  Bb D  F - A G

     

    I've said he's the best melodist of the main composers. I don't get the Mozart-melody correlation as much. Mozart seems more thematic.

     

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    • 6 months later...
    • 3 weeks later...

    Non film music

     

    Beethoven - 9th Symphony

    Gorecki - 3th Symphony

    Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

    Tallis - Spem in alium

    Glass - Tirol Concerto 

     

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    On 10/4/2020 at 7:41 PM, Oomoog the Ecstatic said:

    Had to add to my list above, what I'd call, Dance by the Brook by Beethoven. Such a hauntingly perfect melody.

     

      A F E  Bb D  F - A G

     

    I've said he's the best melodist of the main composers. I don't get the Mozart-melody correlation as much. Mozart seems more thematic.

     


    what would you say is the major difference between a theme and a melody?

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    Quote

    It's a major faux pas to mix genres in music rankings. It's simply not done in polite society.

     

    Common noob statement :D You need to cross-reference more, ex. from Bach, to totally different genres like Mozart.

     

    On 5/12/2021 at 5:28 AM, TheUlyssesian said:

    what would you say is the major difference between a theme and a melody?

     

    A theme is one thing that can occur throughout an infinite amount of time. A melody can be many things that occur during one definite time. A theme is usually an underlying concept, whereas a melody is an overall concept that can be simplified to its essential sequence.

     

    An example, a theme in Beethoven's Fifth is he most always ends his triplet patterns late throughout the symphony, ie. 1-2-3, 1.

    A melody in Beethoven's Fifth is everything you hear here, for example:

     

    All instruments from 0:28-0:40 come together fairly clearly to form a predetermined set melody

     

    So melody usually refers to the literal simplification of a sequence, rather than themes (or associations) understood within it.

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    • 3 months later...
    • 8 months later...

    A milestone. I added The Legend of Ashitaka to the list and to the top 10 and I now feel so proud to have this excellent and coherent Top 10, as per the thread. It feels complete!

     

    Still probably missing a lot of Uematsu and other composers, but working in progress...

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    Okay, okay, at the general demand here are my 20 greatest whistle hits:

    • Theme from Hook (Finding Neverland like, or the right tune)
    • Willows Theme (Horner) (particularly since 2 days, I don't know why?)
    • Batman's Theme (Danny Elfman)
    • That one note from Psycho's Shower scene (Herrmann)
    • Theme from Back To The Future (Silvestri)
    • Gremlin's Rag (Goldsmith)
    • Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter and the Clumsy Author
    • The Battle Droid Motive from TPM
    • Parade of the slaves Children from TOD
    • The Indiana Jones Theme
    • Battle of Heroes from TROS
    • Duel of the Fates from TPM
    • Across the Stars from AOTC
    • Rey's Theme from TFA
    • The Star Wars Main Theme
    • The Force Theme from ANH
    • The Throne Room and finale from ANH
    • Training of a Jedi Knight from ESB
    • Han Solo and the princess from ESB
    • and MY GREATEST HIT: The first 9 seconds of "Tales from a Jedi Knigh" from ANH (Windows plays this tune when we insert/remove an USB device on a computer!!!)

     

    :whistle:

    https://www.goplanete.com/video/video-1653836529.mp4

     

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    8 hours ago, Jay said:

    That's Yoda's Theme!

     

    Yes, that's the "action" version of it!

     

    Hey jwfans, if you want Encores, you have to show more reactions! :P

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