Oh, melody! The melody is possiblythe most important element of a work.It’s the main voice in a piece, the partthat seemsnatural and intuitive,the line that we follow most easily. Technically, melody is “a sequence of single notes that is musically “satisfying.”
When we decided to write a joint post on the most beautiful classical melodies, we had no idea how hard it would be. It didn’t take us long to amass long lists of our favorite melodies; it was the elimination stage that was really difficult to get through. However, we are finally able to present you with 20 melodies, each and every one uniquely captivating. Since we obviously are incapable of ranking these treasures, we’ll have to settle for listing them alphabetically.
Adagio – Secret Garden
Air on the G String – Bach
Cello Suite No. 1 – Bach
Chaconne – Vitali
Czardas – Monti
Divertimento in D major – Mozart
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Mozart
Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3 – Schubert
Intermezzo Op. 118, No. 2 – Brahms
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso – Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto in G, Movement 2 – Ravel
For a lovely oboe duet with piano, see 5:52
Prelude in E minor Op. 28, No. 4 – Chopin
Quartet No. 14 (Death and the Maiden), 2nd Movement – Schubert
Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat, B Section – Chopin
Serenade Ständchen – Schubert
The Swan – Saint-Saëns
Theme from Schindler’s List – John Williams
Vocalise – Rachmaninoff
The truly exciting thing we realized when compiling this post is that while we love a lot of melodies and entire works right now, we’ve barely scratched the surface (relatively speaking). Thousands of other melodies await us in the boundless world of classical music.
Feel free to share any of your favorite melodies with us!
~ Cammi and Maggie
La Musica 