Besides, it's one of the best.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 03, 1999

Answers

I nominate Bach's "Kunst der Fuge". Play the entire composition and time it so that the last fugue, the one uncompleted, trails off into silence just as the Y2K rollover starts.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 03, 1999.

I nominate Mozarts "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and Handels "Water Music"

But if it need be a symphony then only Beethovens 6th - Pastoral will do. No, no the 5th, but what about the 9th?

Can we have mulitple nominations from one person. No best not. I'd be here for a hour.

-- Breybear, who wonders how you really do decide which you like best, he can't even come close.

- Got Bach?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 03, 1999.

The significance of Bach's last fugue is the breaking off, the unexpected silence, the entire complicated web of contrapuntal voices increasing in intensity with his own name added as a new subject only to be severed by the unexpected (that is, Bach's ill health). No one knows exactly how he would have completed it. Likewise, no one knows exactly what will happen with the Y2K rollover.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 03, 1999.

Music! Classical music. Towering genius music. Music to captivate and uplift the spirit. Music so pure and gorgeous and moving the soul rejoices in it. Nothing as gripping as the great classical Requiems.

The most beautiful awesome music: the Dvorak Requiem. Mozart Requiem. Faure Requiem.

For starters.

Music is such a personal subject. Everyone's vibration is unique and their tastes reflect that.

An eerie other-worldly powerful Requiem with trembling suspense and heart-rendering climatic passages, melodically arresting, emotionally gripping, perfectly constructed: The DVORAK REQUIEM.

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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 03, 1999.

The Beatles - "A Day In The Life"

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), March 03, 1999.

For requiems I nominate Camile Saint Saenn.

I participated in a preformance of his Requiem once. Some of the lines come back. Nice.. until I get to ....Dias Irea

-- Greybear, shudders

For our Society: Requiem In Perpeteum

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 04, 1999.

Handel's 'Messiah'

Oh, GB, not more Latin! (At least this I understand :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 04, 1999.

Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sibylla.

Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus!

Day of wrath and doom impending,
David's word with Sibyl's blending!
Heaven and earth in ashes ending!

Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth!

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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.

Well, in regards to the actual code remediation efforts, the official music should be Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, aka "Le Pathetique".

Lotsa drama, and minor chords. But ultimately, pathetic.

Jolly likes music.

-- Jollyprez (Jolly@prez.com), March 04, 1999.

Giuseppe Verdi

Otello,

The Force of Destiny - Overture

-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 04, 1999.

I still prefer "thus spake Garynorthstra" by Strauss. And Carmina Burana by F. Orff. "A day in the life" is certainly a modern classic, and it ends appropriately to be a y2k theme.

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 04, 1999.

And Mozart's Requiem......Oooohmygod!!! If you've heard it, you've lived to the full, no need to fret about imminent catastrophees. Make it the theme.

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 04, 1999.

Ludwig Van's 9th......... naturlich.

-- The Tall Man (mortuary@phantasm.com), March 04, 1999.

How about Beet.'s Emperor Concerto - in honour of the new emperor?

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 04, 1999.

Agreed, humptydumpty, the Mozart Requiem is about as sublime an experience as one can have thru the senses. A rather energetic, stirring Requiem.

Listen to the Dvorak, which actually captures the rhythms and atmosphere of Death, and is exceedingly beautiful and powerful.

On Deutsche Grammophon, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ancerl: a superb CD. Ahhh

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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.

A & L thanks for the recommendation, I'm going through my penguin guide and starting to make a "one last run" to create a CD library. My main collection is in LP's, I was an importer of LPs from Europe and have hundreds (thousands!) of classical LPs that I kept when the business tanked. "Got styluses?" I need to put that list on the internet and sell some of those, I really don't need 20 copies of Sinfonia Antarctica.

[turn off gratitude mode]

Requiems, and you didn't mention Berlioz!! I spit on your DiscWasher [tm] considering the shape most DiscWasher brushes get into, that might be an improvement. ;)

[gratitude mode back on]

A yes Mozart's Requiem, sang that in high school, nice 77 voice a cappella choir, the solo piano accompianment was pretty sickly though.

[rant mode on, double forte]

THE! song for Y2K is {insert a very grand trumpet florish here that makes Copelands's Fanfare for the Common Man sound like a bunch of kazoos} Wagner's Overture to The Miestersinger von Nurnenburg. I play that weekly. If anybody listens to that and can not be moved to the splender of greatness and sorrow of failure, their soul is dead.

[rant mode off]

I do need to post those records now or forever hold my piece (of vinyl). sorry, couldn't resist....

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.

I'd also like to nominate Orff's "Carmina Burana". It was even remade into a techno-dance song by a group called Apotheosis.

http://www.tunes.com/tunes-cgi2/tunes/release/32661/1/4

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 04, 1999.

Ken, do get the Dvorak. Listening to it now, we realize it may be too frightening for many people to endure. It is gorgeous but really does capture the labor and war of struggling breath during the death process. It is very evocative of death and at the same time uplifting, soaring, touching the Hem of God.

Some of our hospice patients who are courageous and curious about what awaits them have listened to the Dvorak Requiem ahead of time, and it *has* amazingly helped to prepare them for what lies ahead. Only the truly brave can do this.

We do not play it, however, when our patients are actively dying; it is too intense. We have incredibly soothing, heavenly, peace-drenched, heart-opening music therapy for that crucial time.

For those on the Forum wanting a boost for preparation energy, we recommend listening to the Dvorak Requiem as you harden your "bunker." Then follow it directly with the Mozart Requiem!

The Berloiz is good listening but not as holy, sublime, soul stirring, or emblazoned with the Holy Ghost as the Mozart, Dvorak, Brahms, or Faure, or parts of the Verdi.

For a unique Requiem experience, buy the Webber, which is spooky, max eerie, has poignantly transluscent tracts, and ROCKS! Hosanna!

Hosanna in excelsis
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Hosana in excelsis. ...

Exaudi orationem meam;
ad te omnis caro veniet.

Hosanna in the highest
Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Hear my prayer,
to Thee all flesh shall come.

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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.

Well, it appears Dvorak's Ninth has lost out to the requiems. I guess it's definitionally challenged since it has no words it can't be an anthem anyway. So, it's official. The above-listed requiems are the official anthems of y2k. Meanwhile, Dvorak's uplifting music of the fresh new world he discovered is hereby crowned the "Mother of All y2k Tunes." Thanks for all the commentary. I've got a lot of listening to do.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 04, 1999.

My vote (one of many favorites): Quiet City by Aaron Copeland.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 04, 1999.

Puddintame, nothing has lost out to the Requiems. They are just very suitable Works. Keep posting your ideas and favorite pieces of music! Why stop at Y2K in case the Requiems are not the *most* appropriate works. There's always Y2+1K and plenty of time while harvesting beans to have music in the background to keep going dawn to dusk ;-)

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.

OK, Leska. If I wanted to be maudlin about the fact that I might not be able to sit in my recliner and watch Jerry Springer, Oprah, and Funniest Home Videos in y2k, then I'd nominate Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings as the official tune for Dec. 29. A couple glasses of wine and a few renditions of that will get the tears welling up in your eyes pretty good.

For the hardened criminals that aren't softened up by Barber, I'll nominate as the official tune of December 30 that eerily mournful music featured in Ken Burns' Civil War documentary. I do not know the name of the tune or the composer, but if you can listen to it while keeping a dry eye and remembering the Confederacy before Sherman burned us down, then you're either not human or not from around here. (You Union sympathizers supply your own poignant reminiscences) (Who is the composer?)

Finally, for the maudlin, 1999 shall close down with a version of Amazing Grace. Choose your artist. Willie Nelson? Loretta Lynn? Patsy Cline?

By the time of rollover you will be a useless mass of blubbering overimbibed humanity. After rollover, we'll start in with the requiems, which will seem like a Sousa march in comparison.

Finally,

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 04, 1999.

Why is Bach neglected while the common sonic trash is accepted? Who cares?

The importance of Bach's KUNST DER FUGE is not understood by the majority of intelligentsia. Do YOU care?

The very last fugue he composed was incomplete. The entire Y2K boondoggle is incomplete. NO ONE KNOWS THE PRECISE CONCLUSION!

If all else fails, then replay Beethoven's Ninth Symphony amidst sighs and cries. :(

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 05, 1999.

I am a pianist who for pleasure plays Bach fugues. I don' believe in platonically dividing music in "better or worse than" categories...I love Debussy...Ravel,...Rachmanioff...I play Bach, Ravel and Debussy...How about if we just compile a list of favorites...almost every piece of music I listen to relates to how I feel about the world changing before my eyes. It is foolishness to continue to forever "better than, worse than" garbage. If you like something, say you like it...told pretend you can make it better or worse by your endorsement. Get over yourself.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 05, 1999.

Bravo ! Donna

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 05, 1999.

Donna:

Bach's Goldberg Variations contain fantastic examples of inventive genius! I like them very much!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 06, 1999.

For the piece d'occasion, let's close the 20th century with the piece the defined it:

Igor Stravinksy - The Rite of Spring, May 29, 1913.

Lots of cross currents, wild convulsions, with an odd, unsatisfying ending.

-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), March 06, 1999.

Oh yeah, and you can dance to it!

-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), March 06, 1999.

o/... Runaway train never coming back
runaway on one way track
somehow I should be going somewhere
but I'm going neither here nor there...o/

-- Classicly Challenged (rockin'@rocktheworld.com), March 06, 1999.

There's got to be some creepy 19th century organ music out there to go on the soundtrack, such as something by Gabriel Faure'.

Then there's the minimalism of Phillip Glass' Koyaniquatsi. That's very y2kish, too.

Then there's Bach's Ricercar a 6 from the Musical Offering. It's a very eerie and dark sound that loops around and around, up and down. A delicate weave that seems to end up where it began, only slightly differently each time.

-- Coprolith (Coprolith@rocketship.com), March 07, 1999.