Piano music in outer space.

[Hmoll]

Imagine you were going to send a "probe" into outerspace in the hopes that it would be eventually  intercepted by intelligent life. In it you were to put images of life on earth including representative samples of culture - images of great paintings and sculptures, great literature, films, etc. Obviously, you would include great works of music.

Limiting your selections to piano music, what 5 to 10 works would you include that you think would be representative of the greatest classical pieces?

Of course other styles - Jazz, blues, etc. -  and music of other cultures would have their representative samples too, but for the purposes of this forum, what would your classical piano selections be?

[la_carrenio2003]

1. Bach: Italian concerto.
2. Beethoven: Sonata op. 109
3. Mozart: Sonata KV 331 (300i)
4. Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22
5. Liszt: Grandes Etudes de Paganini
6. Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel op.24
7. Debussy: Preludes, book 2
8. Prokofieff: 7th sonata op. 83
9. Shostakovich: 24 preludes and fugues
10. Rachmaninoff: Etudes op.39

You didn't write what your choices are...

[Hmoll]

You didn't write what your choices are...

I'll chime in later. Your choices are very interesting. Especially the Shostakovich and the Chopin.

[tph]

Very interesting scenario, Hmoll, and tough!

1. Bach Goldberg Variations
2. Mozart Concerto no. 21, K.467
3. Beethoven Sonata no. 32, Op.111
4. Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4
5. Chopin Preludes, Op. 28
6. Schubert Impromptus, D.899
7. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1
8. Debussy Images, Bks. I & II
9. Berg Sonata, Op.1
10. Shostakovich 24 Preludes & Fugues
(like la_carrenio2003's excellent choice)

tph

[allchopin]

if i remember right classical music explodes aliens' heads...   (anyone?)

Anyway, this has already been posted before (except in a more to-the-point way), as Favorite Piece of the Great Composers (and such....).

If you really mean what music should we send into space though, i dont think that we are ready for such ventures.  Our music is still primitive and in its initial stages.  We would only be giving the intelligent aliens something to laugh about.  
Less literally, Id say my favorite PIANO pieces are:
Shumanns Traumereie, Chopin's Ballade #4, Liszt's Paganini Etude #5, Brahms Intermezzo #2 in A major, Chopin's Nocturne #1 Op. 9

The best non-piano is Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Nocturne.

[Hmoll]

if i remember right classical music explodes aliens' heads...   (anyone?)

Anyway, this has already been posted before (except in a more to-the-point way), as Favorite Piece of the Great Composers (and such....).

If you really mean what music should we send into space though, i dont think that we are ready for such ventures.  Our music is still primitive and in its initial stages.  We would only be giving the intelligent aliens something to laugh about.  
Less literally, Id say my favorite PIANO pieces are:
Shumanns Traumereie, Chopin's Ballade #4, Liszt's Paganini Etude #5, Brahms Intermezzo #2 in A major, Chopin's Nocturne #1 Op. 9

The best non-piano is Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Nocturne.

If you think I'm asking what your favorite piano pieces are, you're wrong, and I would have simply asked it  were that the case.
What I was attempting to do was create an imaginative scenario where, without verbal or written description, you could communicate the essence of classical (piano) music through selecting a handful of 1) the greatest, and 2) the most representative works.

[la_carrenio2003]

Even when the pieces I listed I love very much, I was thinking about something representative of the entire history of the piano. You see, I love Bach's 4 Duets more than the Italian Concerto, but I listed it because I think that in it there's a more wide spectrum of what Bach's music is. Or in the case of Beethoven' sonatas, my favourite is the op.101, but the op. 109 sounds to me more as a message of peace and friendship because of the variations, and that's what I wanted the outsiders -if they would exist- felt about us. My favourite Mozart's sonata is the KV 281,but the first movement of the A major sounds more adequate for representing Mozart's music: I think about the variations the same that in the Beethoven's, and the Alla Turca is the 3rd movement.Could the aliens miss listening to such a beloved by the humans sonata movement? In the case of the romantics, I love more Schumann's music,and I didn't include it because I wanted my choices to be equilibrated between 3 centuries,and of course 19th century without Chopin is a  barbaric thing to sent out. The Shostakovich must sound REALLY cool in the outside space,in the absolute vacuum:it's a music plenty of philosophy and contains all the human emotions, in them you have melancholy and grotesque, as other emotions, and represents the state of mind of the world in the time during and after the 20th century world wars.

About the question about if we are ready for "such ventures", we already actually did that: I don't remember right now in which Apollo mission it was, but we sent a platinum disc with classical music-I'm not sure if this was the material- to the outside space,but it included  simphonic music,I think. If anyone could enlight us about exactly how it was, would be very interesting to read.

So, I didn't choose my "favourites",and I don't think any alien would dare making fun of something like the Goldberg variations...

[tph]

if i remember right classical music explodes aliens' heads...   (anyone?)

Ha!  If you're referring to Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!", then I think it was country music that blew up alien brains (how appropriate that would be!), but I haven't seen the movie in ages.

From la_carennio2003:

If anyone could enlight us about exactly how it was, would be very interesting to read.

It was a Voyager mission.  Here's a link with the included music.

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html

tph

[Hmoll]

Here's what I came up with:

- Bach - Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue

- Bach - Italian Concerto - concerto is an important Baroque form, so that's why the second Bach piece.

- Beethoven - Op 28.

- Schubert - Sonata in B flat - Op Posth.

- Chopin - Barcarolle

- Schumann - Fantasy

- Ravel - Jeux d'Eau

- Bartok Sonata

- Prokofiev - Sonata #8

- Boulez - 2nd Sonata

**Alternate choice: Mozart Rondo in D major.

La_Carrenio convinced me about the Bach Italian Concerto. Also, Shostakovich might  have been on my list,  had it not been picked twice.

The criteria I used was great piano pieces that were representative of classical music. It's difficult when you get the the 20th century because there is so much variation.  I probably should have at least one set of variations.

Anyway, any other takers?

[rachfan]

Some of these lists above are very interesting and tempting.  But it seems to me that Scriabin needs to figure into them, perhaps being represented by the 5th Sonata or the Eight Etudes Op.  42.

[allchopin]

My favourite Mozart's sonata is the KV

...
What is the "v" of KV?

Anyway, if we are talking about more variety and not just beauty/romanticism then id sadly have to throw in some Bach (possibly the Air in G) as well as modern music (Yanni?).  
But I cant help thinking that aliens dont have CD players....

[Hmoll2]

...
What is the "v" of KV?

Anyway, if we are talking about more variety and not just beauty/romanticism then id sadly have to throw in some Bach (possibly the Air in G) as well as modern music (Yanni?).  
But I cant help thinking that aliens dont have CD players....

Yanni probably does not figure among the one of the greatest piano composers. For "modern" I included Boulez, Prok., and Bartok.

While it isn't a requirement of musicians to have a bit of imagination, it doesn't hurt. The assumption in sending the music out would be that it is sent in a format that would be readily accessible to anyone who encounters it, not necessarily CD, vinyl, cassette, or even 8-track.

[la_carrenio2003]

To allchopin:
KV in german are the initials of "Köchel Verzeichnis" ,that means "Köchel´s catalogue". This same V you can read in the catalogue of Bach's works,BWV, Bach Werkes Verzeichnis, and it means "Catalogue of the Bach's Works". About the "CD", you should check the link that tph wrote above for us,so you'll see the NASA's scientists  approach to this subject. It's really interesting...