When it comes to heavenly bodies, none has provided more musical inspiration than the moon. The most frequently celebrated element of the earth’s satellite is its light, an aspect captured by composers as diverse as Beethoven and Debussy.
Numerous selections evoke the calm of night, while others imagine fanciful travel to the moon, and the wonders that await there. The phases of the moon stir the musical imagination in some of these works, as do the places from where we see it.
Most striking about this list is the number of romantic songs, from opera arias and choruses, to lieder and vintage Americana. We’re pleased to offer this contemplative sampling to observe the anniversary of the adventurous lunar landing fifty years ago.
- Beethoven – “Moonlight” Sonata
- Daniel Elder – “Ballade to the Moon”
- Elgar – In Moonlight
- R. Strauss – Moonlight Music from “Capriccio”
- Otto Nicolai – Moon Chorus from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”
- Debussy – Claire de lune
- Stella Sung – Dance of the White Lotus under the Silver Moon
- Lu Wencheng – Autumn Moon on a Calm Lake
- Dvorak – “Song to the Moon,” from “Rusalka”
- Frank Bridge – “Moonlight,” from “The Sea”
- Offenbach – Overture from “Voyage to the Moon”
- Haydn – “What a Delightful World,” from “The World on the Moon”
- John Williams – “Over the Moon,” from “E.T.”
- Schubert – “An den Mond” (“To the Moon”)
- Joe Burke/Benny Davis – “Carolina Moon”
- Mili Balakirev – “The Crescent Moon”
- Richard Rodgers (arr. André Previn) – “Blue Moon”
- Eric Whitacre – “Goodnight Moon”
- J. Strauss, Jr. – “From Earth to Moon: Blue Danube Waltz,” from “2001: A Space Odyssey”
- Brahms – “The Moon Veils Its Face”
- William Walton – “Moonlight,” from “As You Like It”
- Nico Muhly – “Moondrunk,” from “Three Moon Songs”
- Alexandre Desplat – “New Moon,” from “The Twilight Trilogy”