I thought up this idea for a thread while listening to Sheherezade.
I like two of the titles in the piece, "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship," and especially:

"The Ship goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior"

Here are a few other ones I think are good:

"The Perilous Night" by John Cage
"These Premises are Alarmed" by Thomas Ades
"Fanfare for the New Atlantis" by Alan Hovhaness

There must be loads of other ones out there.

Some of Satie's compositions have interesting titles. Some of my favourites are:

Dessicated Embryos
2 Preludes for a Dog
Flabby Preludes (for a dog)
Things seen to right and left (without glasses)
Ringtone to wake the big fat monkey king
3 Pieces in the form of a Pear

These are probably quite bad translations from the original French titles. Also, Dessicated Embryos is a perfect name for a low quality death metal band.

A few others of the top of my head:

Hungarian Rock by Ligeti
Pieces from Debussy's Children's Corner suite

Leck mich im Arsch and Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber by Mozart
give an interesting insight into the mentality of the maestro.

Sorabji - Tantrik Symphony

Symphony in C by Bizet.

Beat me to it.

I wish more pieces had more memorable titles than "Concerto Grosso for violin, viola da gamba, lute, theorbo and kazoo in Q minor, Op. 794a." That's an awful mess to type into your catalog and is difficult to bring up in casual conversation. I think we should have a big musical summit meeting to determine brand new memorable names for all our classical favorites

My personal favorite may be "The Enemy God dances with the dark Spirits" or whatever from the Scythian Suite.

Yeah, perhaps that's one reason why classical music is not as popular as it could be. People hear some of these sterile and functunal titles and then they assume the music is as sterile and fuctional itself.

That might be true. However, I still usually prefer that composer just offers me pure music and lets me attribute whatever "meaning" to it I wish. I think it's usually better when we let the music speak for itself, without the aid of words.

Scriabin's Poemes of Ecstasy, Aspiration, Promethee, and Wings would go under evocative pieces and titles.

His Guirlandes and Flammes Sombres, and Vers La Flamme (Moving into the flame) are very evocative titles.

Alkan's Funeral on the Death of A Parrot definitely takes the cake, though.

Indeed; and further to that point, if every piece of music were to have a suggestive title, then we devalue the very nature of absolute music, even if a title in itself doesn't make it programme music.

Spanish composer Leonardo Balada has a piece called "No-res (Nothing) - An Agnostic Requiem." I haven't heard it, but it's on my to-get list, mainly because the title is so wierd...

I remember a recent thread suggesting works by composer Iiro Rantala. Researching him I came across this piece:

Concerto for Piano and Concerto in G♯ΔA♭ (pronounced Gis-Maj-As according to Wikipedia.)



I think he is considered more of a jazz pianist however.

I also just got through watching a DVD of Peter Schickele's "Unbegun Symphony" (it has only a third and fourth movement) which is quite a hoot.

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 recorders, 2 violins, bassoon, strings in C major, RV 556 (Per la solennita di S. Lorenzo)

Just rolls off your tongue, eh?

Any of John Adams'. I particularly like On The Transmigration of Souls (about 9/11), Lollapalooza, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, My Father Knew Charles Ives, Fearful Symmetries and I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky.

I'm not saying music needs fancy titles to be interesting. I have nothing against so-called functional titles. But I think I still have a point that uninteresting titles have the potential to turn off potential "uninitiated" listeners. Titles like "Poeme de l'extase" do sound more tempting than "Symphony in F major" or something like that. Not that titles should be artificially be made more interesting, JUST a thought.

Perhaps this leads to the perception that classical music is a clinical look-but-don't-touch affair.

__________________
"Music is not philosophy." --Akira Ifukube

I have been known to buy a CD if it has an interesting title.

Here are some more I like:

The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (MacMillan)

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (Penderecki)

A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (Takemitsu)

The Devil's Trill Sonata (Tartini)

The Assault on Beautiful Gorky (Shostakovich)

The Night of the Mayas (Revueltas)

And best of all, Quartet for the End of Time (Messaien)

(The French title for it doesn't have the same ring)