This years theme 'Greatest of all time' is counting down live on ABC Classic FM if anyone is curious to tune in and get a sample of what the Australian ABC Classic FM audience considers to be 'greatest of all time'.
Thanks for the great chart! It's fascinating seeing what's fallen out of favour since I started listening to Classic FM - there's a few there I'll go listen to when they finish the countdown for today. Will you update it after this year's count?
Yes, I'm definitely thinking I'll update it with the 2026 - seems like there's quite a few pieces so far this year that didn't appear in the 3 years I chose.
I also thought I might be interesting to do a version with the film/screen specific years
Very cool. Small (almost so small as to be silly) suggestion. But my first instinct as a non-classical music listener was to copy the names of songs into youtube so I could see if I recognised them. But for whatever reason I can't select the text (on desktop, not sure if different elsewhere). Could be cool to allow the text to be selectable, or even better link directly to it if it's on yt or other platforms/places.
Good point, thanks for the suggestion - I made the svg non-selectable because of some quirks when tapping the dots on mobile, but I might see if I can override that for the text elements.
The YouTube link is a great idea too, might see if I can find some good recordings, although will probably take a little while
Yours looks cleaner and I love the way you handled the off chart samples with dashed lines, that's a great idea.
Also, using a central area below the chart to show which is highlighted is also great for those that in the past fell off and are no longer on the chart, but naturally people are curious and want to click to see what their names are.
Thank you! I really appreciate it. The eCharts bump charts look great.
I kind of rolled my own generated SVG paths. I wanted to learn a bit more about how Bezier curves worked, and this seemed like a good opportunity to figure it out.
Not 100% happy with my implementation, but I learned a lot from tinkering with it.
I wondered about that as well! I suspect it might have been different songs or movements from the opera, but it didn't specify on the ABC site so I thought it would be a fun Easter egg to include. Glad you found it!
I wonder if that was supposed to be the Goldberg Variations (currently listed as unranked in 2001). That’s what Wikipedia has, but I don’t see a good source for it.
1) It is a weird comparison. Some works (e.g: Brandenburg Concertos) can take hours to listen. Most take minutes.
2) Lord of the Rings, Out of Africa and Star War series? Seriously? Oh, I see: it is a list made by Australians.
3) I suspect that even Ennio Morricone wouldn't say that "The Mission" soundtrack is classical, although he made some classical music too.
4) I'd recommend some Latin American composers: Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri (Brazil), Ginastera (Argentina), Carlos Chavez and Arturo Marquéz (Mexico).
Interesting points around what can be categorised as classical music.
I took the data as a given from ABC Classic FM, and as you mentioned it's voted on by listeners in Australia so that might affect what shows up. I'm listening to the 2026 countdown right now, and it does seem like there's a broader range of less traditional pieces appearing this year.
Partly this might be because ABC Classic has expanded into a broader range of genres (e.g. There's a whole program dedicated to video game music) to increase their accessibility to a wider audience.
I personally don't mind this, as there are many pieces from screen music that I love and that I think hold up as great orchestral music (Lord of the Rings has wonderful music).
I also love some of the newer music they play - e.g. I strongly suspect Joseph Tawardros will be highly ranked this year, as they have been (rightfully) playing his pieces a lot over the last few years.
I'm not the biggest fan of video game music though, unless it's in the original context.
Would love it if some Latin American composers made it in this year! Will have to wait and see...
Beat me to it - but that's the voting public for you, Howard Shore – The Lord Of The Rings (The Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack) was 2003.
We (Australians) have heard of Villa-Lobos et al. if that soothes your soul, but hey, again, it's the ABC (national radio) regular listeners voting,. so <shrug> it is what it is.
If you're curious about the penetration of classical music in Australia . . . the opening remarks by Kev Carmody here are worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4
This years theme 'Greatest of all time' is counting down live on ABC Classic FM if anyone is curious to tune in and get a sample of what the Australian ABC Classic FM audience considers to be 'greatest of all time'.
Thanks for the great chart! It's fascinating seeing what's fallen out of favour since I started listening to Classic FM - there's a few there I'll go listen to when they finish the countdown for today. Will you update it after this year's count?
Works fine on the Firefox derivative I'm using.
Yes, I'm definitely thinking I'll update it with the 2026 - seems like there's quite a few pieces so far this year that didn't appear in the 3 years I chose.
I also thought I might be interesting to do a version with the film/screen specific years
Very cool. Small (almost so small as to be silly) suggestion. But my first instinct as a non-classical music listener was to copy the names of songs into youtube so I could see if I recognised them. But for whatever reason I can't select the text (on desktop, not sure if different elsewhere). Could be cool to allow the text to be selectable, or even better link directly to it if it's on yt or other platforms/places.
Good point, thanks for the suggestion - I made the svg non-selectable because of some quirks when tapping the dots on mobile, but I might see if I can override that for the text elements.
The YouTube link is a great idea too, might see if I can find some good recordings, although will probably take a little while
There's already a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUvvqf3A2l68yA...
And one for Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KIn8OI51LuyXvDmNL9FxQ?si=...
What did you use to make the bump chart? I've used eCharts https://echarts.apache.org/examples/en/editor.html?c=bump-ch...
Yours looks cleaner and I love the way you handled the off chart samples with dashed lines, that's a great idea.
Also, using a central area below the chart to show which is highlighted is also great for those that in the past fell off and are no longer on the chart, but naturally people are curious and want to click to see what their names are.
Here's the eCharts BumpChart on AppGoblin, showing the latest Google Play Store rankings: https://appgoblin.info/rankings/store/1/collection/1/categor...
But you can see that doing it that way there it's not really clear where / to the apps that just popped into the top 10 came or went.
I'll try adding the selection area like you have, eg:
Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 (Fauré, Gabriel)
2001: Ranked 100th
2010: No Rank
2021: No Rank
Great little chart, thanks!
Thank you! I really appreciate it. The eCharts bump charts look great.
I kind of rolled my own generated SVG paths. I wanted to learn a bit more about how Bezier curves worked, and this seemed like a good opportunity to figure it out.
Not 100% happy with my implementation, but I learned a lot from tinkering with it.
Apple Playlists
- [Classic 100 The Music You Can't Live Without](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-music-yo...)
- [The Best Classical of All Time](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-best-classical-music...)
- [Classic 100 Music in the Movies](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-music-in-the...)
And a bonus:
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-original...
What happened in 2001 that Marriage of Figaro was listed twice?
This was really neat to explore! Thanks!
I wondered about that as well! I suspect it might have been different songs or movements from the opera, but it didn't specify on the ABC site so I thought it would be a fun Easter egg to include. Glad you found it!
I wonder if that was supposed to be the Goldberg Variations (currently listed as unranked in 2001). That’s what Wikipedia has, but I don’t see a good source for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Original_(ABC)
Ooh nice pickup, might have to track down the original playlists on Archive.org and see if I can verify if it was indeed Goldberg.
I did think it was odd that Goldberg didn't show up in 2001.
Some observations:
1) It is a weird comparison. Some works (e.g: Brandenburg Concertos) can take hours to listen. Most take minutes.
2) Lord of the Rings, Out of Africa and Star War series? Seriously? Oh, I see: it is a list made by Australians.
3) I suspect that even Ennio Morricone wouldn't say that "The Mission" soundtrack is classical, although he made some classical music too.
4) I'd recommend some Latin American composers: Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri (Brazil), Ginastera (Argentina), Carlos Chavez and Arturo Marquéz (Mexico).
Interesting points around what can be categorised as classical music.
I took the data as a given from ABC Classic FM, and as you mentioned it's voted on by listeners in Australia so that might affect what shows up. I'm listening to the 2026 countdown right now, and it does seem like there's a broader range of less traditional pieces appearing this year.
Partly this might be because ABC Classic has expanded into a broader range of genres (e.g. There's a whole program dedicated to video game music) to increase their accessibility to a wider audience.
I personally don't mind this, as there are many pieces from screen music that I love and that I think hold up as great orchestral music (Lord of the Rings has wonderful music).
I also love some of the newer music they play - e.g. I strongly suspect Joseph Tawardros will be highly ranked this year, as they have been (rightfully) playing his pieces a lot over the last few years.
I'm not the biggest fan of video game music though, unless it's in the original context.
Would love it if some Latin American composers made it in this year! Will have to wait and see...
Sorry if my comment above sounds pedantic.
I actually listened to some of the works I didn't know (Elgar, Vaughn Williams, Kats-Chernin) and loved them, thank you.
All good! So glad to hear that you've listened to them, they're some of my favorites
Beat me to it - but that's the voting public for you, Howard Shore – The Lord Of The Rings (The Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack) was 2003.
We (Australians) have heard of Villa-Lobos et al. if that soothes your soul, but hey, again, it's the ABC (national radio) regular listeners voting,. so <shrug> it is what it is.
If you're curious about the penetration of classical music in Australia . . . the opening remarks by Kev Carmody here are worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4
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