Beethoven’s Eroica and Ninth Symphony are perhaps his most famous pieces amongst all of his compositions. The Eroica is considered to be the first “Romantic” piece of music, and the ninth is the full realization of Beethoven as a romantic composer. Listen to just a few minutes of both and you can hear the major differences between the two symphonies.

In my Video Lesson library, you can find a tutorial and play-alongs for an easy arrangement of the most famous part of the Ninth Symphony – Ode to Joy. Here is the sheet music for you:

Paganini’s 24 Caprices, as beautiful as they are, have loomed over violinists as technically challenging and seemingly impossible to play. The most alluring of them all is No. 24 in A minor. The last caprice displays a wide range of virtuosity and brilliance, a relatively new concept for the music scene, a concept which contributed to the Italian composer’s international fame and recognition.

You can download the sheet music for free below and see for yourself how difficult the 24 Caprices are. Can you play one of them in full or a short snippet?

Der Freischütz is an opera that was one of the most successful in its time and heavily influenced composers, especially Richard Wagner. It is a musical rendition taken from the Gespensterbuch, a collection of German folklore and myths that was published in 1811-1815. People not only loved this opera because they already knew the story, but because it included many German folksongs and could sing along with the opera as they watched.

Der Erlkönig is another German fairytale written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is a supernatural tale of the Elf King who successfully snatches a child from his father as they are escaping on a horse. When you listen to this piece, listen closely for the hooves of the horse and how Schubert musically depicts the Elf King.

Italian composer Gioachino Rossini was the most famous, most successful, and richest composer during his time. He was so successful that he retired at only 37 years of age, almost 40 years before he would actually die. The William Tell Overture is his last major composition before retirement, and embodies the essence of what his music was: fun and party-like!

Vincenzo Bellini was a part of the Italian Bel-Canto composers (which literally translates to beautiful singing). Casta Diva is from Bellini’s opera Norma which exemplifies the beautiful and slow melodies unique to Italian Romantic opera. It is literally a prayer in the form of a melody and filled with subdued drama, a calling out to God to protect their people.

Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz is the pioneer of what we call “programmatic” music. This type of music is a sort of narrative or story composed into the music. In this case, the story for this program symphony is auto-biographical. Berlioz took opium and composed his heartbreak into this work after falling in love with an actress from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. He provides program notes, the narrative or story, before each movement.

The Radetzky March is a symbol of Nationalism, a common trope in Romantic classical music. It is a celebratory march and was dedicated to the Battle of Custoza for Field Marshall Radetzky von Radetz.

Shakespeare’s play had a great influence on many artists, and the young Mendelssohn was no exception. He originally wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a stand-alone overture before including another work 16 years later, his so-called Incidental Music, Op. 61.

German composer Robert Schumann wrote Carnaval as a depiction of himself, his friends, and the Italian traditional Commedia del’Arte, the improvised comedy-skits which are comprised of generic, stock characters. (For example, the Father and the Mother, or the Son and the Daughter) It is comprised of 21 short movements and refers to the Christian festival before Lent, Carnaval.

Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld was and still is considered to be a risque opera. Originally, because the piece made a joke of mythology, and now because of the sexual content of the piece. Even so, this piece is fun all around and quite enjoyable.

If you’re one of my students in Julia’s Violin Academy, click here to access the Can Can tutorial, play-alongs, and the accompaniment for this piece.

Chopin was one of the first salon piano virtuosos who gained international fame as a performing artist.

He redefined patronage for the artist and became one of the first to be funded solely by private funding. How so? He was quite talented, and his Nocturne, Op. 27 is a piece that he not only performed frequently but which only he could perform. Chopin became a celebrity and was in high demand during his time!

Franz Liszt is most recognized for being the greatest piano virtuoso of all times, and his Concert Etude No. 3 is an excellent example of why that held true. He is also the creator of the Symphonic Tone Poem which is most often associated with Johann Strauss II.

The Messa da Requiem is a concert piece that dramatizes a Catholic liturgical Mass. The second section of the piece, the Dies Irae, is one of the scariest and most thrilling pieces I have ever heard! This piece is surprisingly dark, yet so magnificent.

Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 From My Life is another Programmatic piece of music that depicts scenes from the composer’s life beginning in his youth, until old age. Smetana describes the first theme from the viola as being “fate” knocking at the door, an omen that he will become deaf. In the final moments of this piece, the “fate” motif returns and brings along loud, ringing harmonics, symbolizing the composers’ tinnitus and impeding deafness.

Brahms’ Fourth Symphony in E minor is also his last symphony. Brahms had great anxiety when it came to composing, and he once wrote in a letter “I will never write a symphony! You can’t have any idea what it’s like always to hear such a giant marching behind you!.” Each of his symphonies is important not only for the audience but for the composer’s life whose existential angst was imposed by the long-deceased Beethoven.

Brahms also composed Lullaby, which is an easy tune suitable for all beginners. You can learn this tune from my tutorial. Make sure to download the sheet music:

This list would not be complete without Brahms, nor Tchaikovsky. This symphony is Tchaikovsky’s last and embodies the pain and abandonment he felt his entire life. Though he also composed the happier Nutcracker Ballet, Tchaikovsky’s last symphony is about his internal melancholy. Tragically, after the premiere of this symphony, the composer would die only 9 days later.

You may be familiar with some melodies from the Nutracker. One of them is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. You will find an easy tutorial on this link and you can download my beginner-level arrangement of this tune here:

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World” is a piece he composed while living in the United States. The piece depicts images and sounds of industrial America, and the sound of the “New World” can be heard very clearly in many ways. You can hear the sound of the train tracks, and you can also hear the sound of African-American spirituals, which Dvořák once commented that “the roots of American music were not European, but they were African-American.”

With the students at Julia’s Violin Academy, we made a project called Virtual Orchestra. The piece we played was the theme from Dvořák’s “From the New World”. Below you can watch the final result. If you’d like to be a part of such an amazing group of students, click here and request your invite to the Academy.

The Flying Dutchman Overture continues the tradition of German mythology making its way into music which carries an important lesson, there is redemption through love. This piece uses leitmotivs which are “themes” which represent specific characters. This innovative technique is still used today, primarily in film – think of John William’s music from Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Don Quixote is a piece of music that redefines what a symphony is. Romantic music was forever changed with Strauss’ idea of the Tone Poem, a piece of music that tells a narrative story and evokes images, much like the image of Don Quixote in this work.

The first and final movements of the Peer Gynt suite are the most recognizable of all of Grieg’s works. This piece is sort of like a Tone Poem, as it evokes images for the imagination, but it does not tell a story, per se. It is rather a set of pieces that depict an image, like the first movement, The Morning.

Puccini is from the Italian Bel Canto tradition, and the Nessun Dorma aria from his opera Turandot is a great example of what the late Romantics were capable of. This work is incredibly passionate and incredibly touching.

Mahler’s first symphony, the Titan, is a work that again, redefines the symphony. He pays homage to Beethoven in this symphony, but totally surpasses the artistic capabilities of his predecessor to great lengths. This piece is no doubt a symphony, but a magnificent and inventive piece that evokes the image of a “Titan.”

Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 4 captures the quiet and loneliness the composer felt in his heart. It is a testament to his trials and tribulations and is one of the darkest pieces in his compositional output. This symphony is nonetheless, an important part of the orchestral repertoire.

Russian Composer Sergei Rachmaninov was a leading virtuoso pianist of the 19th century. Many of his compositions feature the piano, and any virtuoso pianist from today can tell you how difficult his pieces are to play. He changed what the player was able to do, and created challenging music that was filled with drama and elegance.