Can anyone recomend me some good epic classical?
 

As the title says, I'm a classical music fan, and I've been trying to track down the epic stuff. Unfortunately, 'epic' isn't a genre of its own, so I've been having some problems with that. Any suggestions wll be appreciated.

A few questions, what composers do you like the most? What songs have you already listened to? And what exactly is your definition of Epic?

A Prelude to War by Bear McCreary I think...

Well, I can't really describe 'epic,' its just...well, epic. A couple examples of what I would call epic are 'O Fortuna' by Carl Orff, and 'Toccata E Fuga' by Bach. Of course, if you think it counts as epic feel free to suggest it.

I'd recommend Mozart's Piano Sonata #11, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Duel of the Fates, E Nomine's Das Omen, or the Escaflowne theme.

The first two aren't really considered epic by any means, but the other three are great.

The Planets, by Holst. Specifically, Mars.

What he said. But add Jupiter, which is actually the melody for several songs.

Damn you, Clevinger! I was going to suggest that. And curse you! I was going to suggest Jupiter!

But anyway, try Aaron Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man.

If you don't mind repetitiveness ala In the Hall of the Mountain King then you might want to check out Bolero.

Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz, especially the 4th and 5th movement is really out there. I suggest finding the program notes that go with the movements as its makes the whole experience like 3 times better.

Anything by Beethoven is essentially guaranteed to be Epic.

If you know anything at all about the difficulties of piano music Lizst and Chopin, mainly their Etudes, will blow you away.

I'd also suggest looking up Romantic composers in general.

Neoclassical composers will give you that Beethoven like experience but with much greater variety in style in emotion. The impressionists will completely destroy you conceptions of classical music with their utter disregard for tonality. Finally Expressionist composers take everything that was different, and good, about Beethoven and push it to its very limits.

Oh and just about anything by Wagner is pretty Epic though I suggest finding instrumental only versions unless you like Opera.

Edit: We seem to have quite the community of classical music lovers around about these parts.

Throwing in some music from LoTR might be good.

So I guess I'll fufill the sacred Internets requirement of linking to this whenever Holst is mentioned.

Rachmonanov's Piano Concerto #3 (aka The Rach 3) is an awesome classical piece...I don't remember if it's "epic" per se, but my Humanities Professor described it as the Free Bird of classical piano.

Anything Glenn Gould? I don't know much about classical music, but I don't see why his work wouldn't be considered "epic," so...

Thanks for all the suggestions. Also, I must add that while I enjoy the sound of most classical music, I'm not very knowledgable about the subject, which I guess is the main reason why I had to ask for suggestions. Anyways, I'll have to check those suggestions out, although it'll probably have to wait until next week...stupid final research paper.