Welcome to Week 43 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores and other helpful information. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 43.

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 7 (Op. 59 No. 1) - score
     recommended recordings: Lindsay Quartet; Guarneri Quartet

Hector Berlioz
Requiem (Grande messe des morts) - score
     recommended recordings: conducted by Ozawa; Davis; Shaw; Munch

Erik Satie
Cinema - score
      This piece is the score to a silent film (available here with no score) entitled Entr'Acte because it was to be shown between the acts of Satie's ballet Relache.

Steve Reich
Piano Phase
Pendulum Music - score

Miles Davis
Two live sets recorded in Stockholm on March 22, 1960, later released on several compilations.

Welcome to Week 28 of The Works! This post is a little late again (the week goes from Jan. 5-11, 2026), and there may or may not be a podcast episode this week [update: there wasn't].

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores, text and translation. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 28.

Franz Josef Haydn
Symphony No. 16 - score
Symphony No. 22 - score
Symphony No. 26 - score

Felix Mendelssohn
St. Paul (Paulus) - score - text and translation

Erik Satie
Pieces froides ("cold pieces") - score
Trois morceaux en forme de poire ("three pear-shaped pieces") - score
Preludes flasques (pour un chien) ("flabby preludes (for a dog)") - score 
     — [these are the tracks with Japanese text on the playlist]
3 veritables preludes flasques, pour un chien ("3 true flabby preludes, for a dog") - score
Embryons desseches ("desiccated embryos") - score
Sports et divertissements ("sports and pastimes") - score

Thelonious Monk
Brilliant Corners (1957, recorded 1956)
Monk's Music (1957)
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (1961, recorded 1957)

Welcome to Week 25 of The Works! There may or may not be a podcast episode this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 25.

Here are this week's pieces:

Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo [aka Don Carlos] - score - synopsis, libretto and translation

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 13 - score

Gabriel Faure
Elegie for Cello and Piano - score
Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano - score
Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano - score

Erik Satie
Vexations - score (not in the public domain in the US)

Duke Ellington
The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
This One's for Blanton

It's Week 20 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode in which we briefly review last week's works and look ahead to this week's playlist.

Here is the Spotify playlist for week 20.

Here are this week's pieces, along with links to the scores where available and texts with translations:

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 5 - score
String Quartet No. 6 - score

Franz Peter Schubert
Schwanengesang - score - text

Arnold Schoenberg
Erwartung - score - synopsis
A Survivor from Warsaw - text - score (not public domain in US)

Erik Satie
Parade - score - information

Tim Buckley
Goodbye and Hello
Happy Sad
     bonus: Dream Letter (Live in London 1968)
 

Week 2 of The Works begins with the new podcast episode, in which I review last week's pieces, discuss Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and preview the works coming up this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist containing the recordings for Week 2.

Here are pieces on this week's list, including some links to the scores where available:

György Ligeti
Cello Concerto

Franz Schubert
Die Schöne Müllerin (find the song texts and translations here)

Agustín Barrios
Guitar Works (see Spotify playlist for specific pieces)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 9

Big Joe Turner
This link shows the compilation album Big, Bad, and Blue as a 3-CD set with 61 tracks, but on Spotify it only has 28 tracks, so I have included all of those plus 6 more of his most important singles.

Eubie Blake
This link shows an LP of piano rolls made from Blake's playing between 1917-1921, recorded in 1973 under Blake's supervision. My Spotify list includes all of these songs, but I can't be sure they're the same recordings. A few other Blake pieces, played by himself, are also on the list. Most of his scores are not yet public domain, but this one is (in the US only).

Other Ragtime Composers
James Scott: Grace and Beauty and Ragtime Oriole
Tom Turpin: Saint Louis Rag
Joseph Lamb: American Beauty and Nightingale Rag

I have embarked upon a new 10-year project: to listen to all the Great Music of the Western World (aka The Works)! Listen to my first podcast episode here to get some background on the project.

Here is the Spotify playlist containing most of the recordings for Week 1.

Here are links to the scores (and sometimes recordings) for this week's pieces:

Scott Joplin
Rags (list below)
Piano roll recordings

Erik Satie
3 Gymnopédies
3 Gnossiennes (just nos. 1-3)
Arrangements by John Hackett and Steve Hackett:

• Gymnopédie No. 1
• Gymnopédie No. 2
• Gymnopédie No. 3
• Gnossienne No. 1
• Gnossienne No. 2
• Gnossienne No. 3

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 1
String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 2

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 1

*Joplin rags: Maple Leaf Rag; Original Rags; The Favorite; The Easy Winners; The Entertainer; Elite Syncopations; A Breeze from Alabama; Palm Leaf Rag; Weeping Willow; The Cascades; The Chrysanthemum; The Ragtime Dance (2nd version); Reflection Rag; Gladiolus Rag; Searchlight Rag; Pine Apple Rag; Fig Leaf Rag; Paragon Rag; Wall Street Rag; Euphonic Sounds; Solace; Pleasant Moments; Scott Joplin's New Rag; Magnetic Rag