There are a lot of pieces of classical music that seem to be used over and over as background music, so I made a flowchart to keep track of them. It’s best viewed on a full-size computer screen; on small screens the links might not line up correctly. For a hi-res pdf, click here.
Cliché or not, these are beautiful pieces of music, and I hope you get the chance to enjoy the full works, and not just the overused snippets. Happy listening!
Owen Biesel 
Very cool use of flow chart in a lot of ways — all the details are right.
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Thanks, Katy—it’s a fun medium!
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Nice!
How about: Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary
Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain
Beethoven Symphony No.2, Allegretto (bonus points if there’s a voice-over in the beginning)
Chopin Prelude in E minor, Op.28 no.4 (bonus points if weeping)
BTW, Flight of the Bumblebee is by Rimsky-Korsakov, not Rachmaninoff. Although my go-to music for comically sped up is Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph.
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Somehow my witty descriptions were omitted. Trying again:
How about: (Prolonged closeup on the eyes) Purcell Funeral Music for Queen Mary
(Invasion) Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain
(Determinedly, methodically writing a fateful letter) Beethoven Symphony No.2, Allegretto (bonus points if there’s a voice-over in the beginning)
(Fatalistically, sadly writing a fateful letter) Chopin Prelude in E minor, Op.28 no.4 (bonus points if weeping)
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Thanks for the correction (it should be fixed now) and the suggestions! I’m keeping a list for future versions.
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A couple of evenings watching PBS Masterpiece should provide an ample supply.
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Great diagram!
In the movies, every church always has a full choir present singing Allegri’s “Miserere” as well.
Is there an underlying map of human emotions? And should it be discrete or continuous?
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So much fun! my favorite part is the way you did the arrow to In the Hall of the Mountain King. Thinking the kids and I will be listening to this piece today and letting their imaginations run wild 🙂
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Thanks, it was fun to make! I hope you had a good time. 🙂
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Does anyone have a suggestion for a circumstance warranting Dvorak’s Symphony #9 in E-minor, the New World Symphony?
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That’s a symphony I love! I feel like it would work nicely for the team of super-special astronauts when they arrive on a new planet. (I do kind of love the ocean-between-continents / space-between-planets metaphor.)
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