| For anyone studying popular classical music, it can be | | | | Other instruments must be able to play in the bass |
| a daunting task to know where to begin. There are so | | | | register, such as a cello. Canon in D is often played at |
| many great pieces that a beginner can get | | | | weddings. |
| overwhelmed. Here are 10 of the most popular | | | | The Hallelujah Chorus is part of George Frideric |
| classical pieces with a brief background of each. | | | | Handel's Messiah. The text is from a libretto by |
| There are many others, of course, but these 10 are | | | | Charles Jennens, who adapted parts of the Old and |
| certainly among the most popular classical pieces of all | | | | New Testaments for his composition. The Hallelujah |
| time. | | | | Chorus is taken from the book of Revelation, and it is |
| Clair de Lune is a piece by Claude Debussy, a French | | | | customary for audiences to stand during this |
| composer. It is the third and most popular movement | | | | movement of the Messiah. |
| of the larger Suite bergamasque. It is played pianissimo | | | | George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is a piece that |
| and is largely in D-flat major, with a shift to E major | | | | combines the elements of popular classical music with |
| toward the end. Clair de Lune has been taught to | | | | the popular jazz music of the era. It was |
| students of popular classical piano for years and is | | | | commissioned as a classical element in an all-jazz |
| prominently featured in movies and television shows. | | | | concert to be presented by band leader Paul |
| Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly called the | | | | Whiteman. Known as Al Capone's favorite song, |
| Moonlight Sonata, was completed in 1801. Beethoven | | | | Rhapsody in Blue has been featured in numerous films |
| had begun to suffer from hearing loss prior to this and | | | | and advertisements. |
| used a special rod attached to the piano's soundboard | | | | The Piano Sonata in B minor is one of Franz Listz's |
| in order to feel the vibrations and enhance his sense | | | | most popular classical solo piano works. It is a piece in |
| of the music. It was given the name Moonlight Sonata | | | | the Romantic style and consists of small movements |
| by a music critic who compared it to the moonlight | | | | woven into a larger whole. Thematic elements are |
| shining on a lake. | | | | presented in each movement, although the different |
| Canon in D is the most well known piece by Johann | | | | setting of the movements make the elements sound |
| Pachelbel. Originally written for three violins and basso | | | | differently each time. In one section the melody may |
| continuo, it has since been given many different | | | | seem violent, yet later in the piece it becomes |
| arrangements. Basso continuo refers to a group of | | | | something beautiful in a different context. |
| instruments, one of which must be able to play chords. | | | | |