60 Greatest Classical Music Tone Poems

Criteria: Tone Poems are ranked for their innovation and influence, as well as their aesthetic importance, historical significance and lasting popularity.
(Tone Poem: Orchestral music based on an extra musical idea.)
Classical Tone Poems
1. Pictures at an Exhibition
• Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel
2. Prelude a L'apres Midi D'un Faune
• Claude Debussy
3. Scheherezade
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
4. La Mer
• Claude Debussy
5. Till Eulenspiegels
• Richard Strauss
6. Finlandia
• Jean Sibelius
7. Midsummer Night's Dream Incidental Music
• Felix Mendelssohn
8. Les Preludes
• Franz Liszt
9. Also Sprach Zarathustra
• Richard Strauss
10. American in Paris
• George Gershwin
11. Night on Bald Mountain
• Modest Mussorgsky
12. The Moldau (from Ma Vlast)
• Bedrick Smetana
13. Carnival of the Animals
• Camille Saint-Saëns
14. Ein Heldenleben
• Richard Strauss
15. Sinfonietta
• Leos Janácek
16. Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
• Edvard Grieg
17. The Planets
• Gustav Holst
18. Don Juan
• Richard Strauss
19. La Valse
• Maurice Ravel
20. Siegfried Idyll
• Richard Wagner
21. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Paul Dukas
22. Peter & the Wolf
• Serge Prokofiev
23. Nocturnes
• Claude Debussy
24. Death and Transfiguration
• Richard Strauss
25. Swan of Tuonela
• Jean Sibelius
26. The Pines of Rome
• Ottorino Respighi
27. Fountains of Rome
• Ottorino Respighi
28. Lieutenant Kije Suite
• Serge Prokofiev
29. Don Quixote
• Richard Strauss
30. El Salon Mexico
• Aaron Copland
31. The Lark Ascending
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
32. Iberia (from Images)
• Claude Debussy
33. Three Places in New England
• Charles Ives
34. Danse Macabre
• Camille Saint-Saëns
35. L'Arlesienne Suites
• Georges Bizet
36. Tapiola
• Jean Sibelius
37. On Hearing the 1st Cuckoo in Spring
• Frederick Delius
38. Isle of the Dead
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
39. The Unanswered Question
• Charles Ives
40. Pelleas et Melisande Suite
• Gabriel Faure
41. In the Steppes of Central Asia
• Alexander Borodin
42. Francesca da Rimini
• Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
43. In a Summer Garden
• Frederick Delius
44. Taras Bulba
• Leos Janacek
45. Rosamunde Incidental Music
• Franz Schubert
46. Pacific 231
• Arthur Honegger
47. En Saga
• Jean Sibelius
48. Tasso
• Franz Liszt
49. Ein Alpine Sinfonie
• Richard Strauss
50. Roman Festivals
• Ottorino Respighi
51. From Bohemia's Woods and Fields (from Ma Vlast)
• Bedrick Smetana
52. Summer Night on a River
• Frederick Delius
53. Les Eolides
• Cesar Franck
54. The Comedians
• Dmitri Kabalevsky
55. Mazeppa
• Franz Liszt
56. Karelia Suite
• Jean Sibelius
57. Falstaff
• Edward Elgar
58. Tintagel
• Arnold Bax
59. Divertissement
• Jacques Ibert
60. Chasseur Maudit
• Cesar Franck

Last Updated: 2017-10-29