# What is the Most Romantic Music **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2001, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271 "2001-04-17T11:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/21 "2001-04-24T21:03:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Trite, I tell you! Overdone. … Trite, trite, trite! Well, I was gonna get all harrumphy with you, and then i read your last sentence. So now i will just say: _thhhbbbt_ 😛 _Madama Butterfly_ is all luverly gooey and mushy (and, don’t tell me, TRITE). U2’s _Love is Blindness_ is nice too. (Just so everybody doesn’t think I spend ALL my time listening to music that’s older than my gramma.) ---
**Author:** ![blanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f04885/32.png) [@blanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blanx)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2001, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/22 "2001-04-24T21:56:49Z")
The first thing that came to mind was Tool’s “prisonsex”, or anything off of their first CD. Perhaps I have issues. after that, I’d settle for anything by Marvin Gaye, or for instrumental, I’d go with one of those crazy Marsalis’ boys… ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/23 "2001-04-26T11:32:03Z")
Now, should we send this list to The Straight Dope Marketing Dept.? It might help to fight ignorance. At least bring the percentage of “Smart People” up a little. Along with mugs and t-shirts, they could sell this compilation disk. The more they sell, the more Dopers get “lucky” (look at this stuff, if this doesn’t do it for you, you shouldn’t breed anyway). The more “lucky” Dopers, the more Dopelings. Smart people breeding with smart people, it’s a Eugenicist’s dream. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/24 "2001-04-26T13:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by arisu \* > **…_Madama Butterfly_ is all luverly gooey and mushy (and, don’t tell me, TRITE)…** Gooey and mushy and she commits suicide. Puccini is great and all that, but listening to someone die is not my idea of a romantic evening! Got any instrumental versions of _La Boheme_? (And yes, I sing. I appreciate opera, but words can get a little distracting during the mood: Mmmmmmmmmmm. Yessss. Nice. A little lower. Lower. Right ther… Ack, I could hit that E-flat blindfolded with laryngitis. God almighty eeeeew, who ever told her she could sing Carmen? She can’t even pronounce _moi_ right. Hasn’t she ever heard of consonants? Okay, back to the interlude. Ooooooh right there. _Etc._ Which is why I stick to instrumental music during romantic moods.) ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/25 "2001-04-27T03:25:47Z")
Well, **screech-owl** , not being a singer, I’m not so critical of vocal pieces. How 'bout:[ul][li]R. Strauss - Four Last Songs (yes, yes, I know he’s about to die when he wrote these, too…)[/li][li]Mozart - _Ruhe Sanft_ aria from Zaide[/ul]For instrumental pieces, Strauss shows up again:[ul]R. Strauss - Don Juan, esp. about 10:30 into the piece, with the nice French horn octave jump.[/li][li]Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, variation 18 (I think), where the orchestra and piano do the inversion and augmentation.[/li][li]Massenet - Meditations from Thaiis[/ul]For more modern stuff, Leonard Cohen’s good, if you don’t mind that voice.[/li] **Rue DeDay:** Hate to be a party-pooper, but people have done studies where the results show that children of beyond-average parents (in either direction), taken as a whole, are closer to the population average than their parents - in other words, Dopelings will be dumber than Dopers, no matter how hard we try. That’s mother nature (regression to the mean) for ya. Yes, a depressing thought for us all. This comes from Chapter 9 of _Against the Gods_ by Peter Bernstein, which is a statistics book disguised as an investment book disguised as fun reading. ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/26 "2001-04-27T11:26:30Z")
Huh. So you can’t take a really tall pea plant, and cross it with another really tall pea plant, and get a super tall pea plant? Now I need another plan to get the Giant’s gold. Gregor Mendel, I hate you. Has anyone seen an old cow? I need it to trade for some magic beans. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2001, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271/27 "2001-04-27T12:55:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rue DeDay \* > \*\*…Smart people breeding with smart people, it’s a Eugenicist’s dream. \*\* So find me a date. I already have the music. Mozart - “Ruhe Sanft” aria from Zaide - I forgot about that one (except I heard it in a laundry detergent commercial the other day. wt…? I can see it now: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That’s nice. Right there Ooooh. _Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Lieb…_ Aw, damn, wait right here, gotta add the fabric softener!) Add: Hindemith - “Mathis der Maler” Vaughan Williams - “The Lark Ascending” [Edited by Czarcasm on 04-27-2001 at 07:58 PM] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-romantic-music/62271.md?page=1)