The Nokia ringtone is a musical phrase from a piece of solo guitar music by Francisco Tárrega, called Gran Vals from 1902.
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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
4'33"
A moment of silence, for those that don't get the reference.
laughs silently
One time I was listening to classical music because I was in a mood. It was a Mozart piece. The piano player started playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. At first I was like, "if bro is such a genius, why did he rip off Twinkle, Twinkle, Litt- oh, he wrote it."
Love it lol.
Unbeknownst to me until a moment ago, the piece is Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman", based on a French folk song.
Fur Elise.
Für. It's German, For Elise. She's not furry 😉
A lot of mobile keyboards will let you pick the umlaut version if you long-press a letter.
Will you Fürgive me?
Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky), The Planets (Holst), and Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) are all pretty badass but often get used in movies, game trailers, even ads without being named.
EDIT: Everyone likes links, ja?
Don't forget Flight of the Bumblebee too!
Ill add Pachelbel’s Cannon in D as well.
Canon in D, used constantly in modern music and people usually don't recognize it. If you don't believe me go listen to Maroon 5's Memories. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to though...
Written by Pachelbel. Aka Pachelbel's Canon
Yup came here to add this thanks
Also Sprach Zarathustra. (Thus Spake Zarathustra) very overused, but one of the greatest pieces of music in all of history.
Features heavily in the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That movie has some other greats like Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.
"La Donna è mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto. Have you seen a pasta sauce commercial? Then you've heard this aria.
Mornin' Ralph, mornin' Sam
Everyone recognizes Erik Satie's Gymnopedie no 1.
I feel like it was just used all over the place, subtly, all our lives. People can rarely name it. Everyone knows it.
Here's a piano version as well
I was looking for someone to mention this. It’s used so often in movies and television. I’m not surprised that people are saying they’ve never heard it. It’s always just some background music played in a scene, it’s never the focal point.
William Tell Overture - An entire generation of people came up knowing a portion of the song as the Lone Ranger Theme.
Also, I suspect very few people know The Blue Danube by name, but almost everyone could hum the entire thing if prompted.
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons has some pretty recognizable parts in it, such as the first Allegro for Spring, which is popular for fancy receptions, or the Allegro for Winter, which is a great theme for a descent into madness.
Also, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, a classic "something evil is about to go down" piece.
Aquarium from Carnival des Animaux, Camile Saint-Saëns
https://youtu.be/YVpl-RNzdE4?si=tfZu_ItXehzanh2k
Can-Can, Offenbach
https://youtu.be/4Diu2N8TGKA?si=C3venw8SQQx0vYMF
Russian Dance - Tschaikovsky
Pachelbel's Canon in D. Well, most people probably know it, but its melody is also hugely overused in pop, and turns up way more than most people realise. If you've got five minutes and haven't seen it already, go watch Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant.
Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. Usually the "The Hero Dies Tragically" theme.
Used in Platoon at Elias' death for example.
Not necessarily classical since it came out in the 1940s, but Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance (when things go off the rails)
IDK what is considered classical music, but the song that many people know as "Circus music" is actually an orchestral piece called Entry of the Gladiators composed for Czech military parades
This one is a bit newer but you'll recognize it immediately.
If you know the slogan, “Come fly the friendly skies, you probably know Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.
And it’s not classical, but the Wii store theme used to be a variation on Surfboard by Juan Garcia Esquivel
Air on the G String. Although as I said in another comment Bach is technically baroque not classical.
1812 overture is quite popular.
William tell overture is the theme to the lone ranger.
Queen of night aria, from the magic flute.
Clair de lune by Debussy.
Probably 20 different works by Chopin.
Most people probably know only a small fraction of the most popular classic songs and not the entire piece of music those popular sections are from. Four Seasons, Beethoven's 5th, the Moonlight Sonata, etc are all much longer than what is most commonly used in media.
In that vein, the score to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly counts among them. Everyone knows that one part, but not the rest of the song.
"The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky
I swear, even I'm not sure if this is the actual name of the composition, but it sure is hilarious. As for the piece itself, it's good. I remember hearing it in "There is no Game".
The Nutcracker Suite is a whole ballet with a running time of an hour and a half. People are familiar with almost every part of it, though. Because it's a Christmas confection.
Everybody should recognise Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Maybe Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (picturing Skinner composing it as always funny).
Lacrimosa “by Mozart” as well.