History Main / PublicDomainSoundtrack

** Music/FranzLiszt's second Hungarian Rhapsody just might be the most used work in WesternAnimation. WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes used it in "WesternAnimation/RhapsodyRabbit", ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' used it in "Cat Concerto" (these two were so similar, each studio accused the other of plagiarism), ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' used it, and it was used in the DonaldDuck/Daffy Dueling Pianos skit at the Ink & Paint Club in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.

* ''VideoGame/GameAndMatch'': The panoramic games ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Donkey Kong Circus'' open with "Pop Goes the Weasel".

* The founder of anime as we know it, Creator/OsamuTezuka, based two animated works on this trope. His 1966 ''Music/PicturesAtAnExhibition'' is an animated interpretation of Musorgsky's suite of the same name. And his last (and unfinished) animated work, "Legend of the forest'', is a TearJerker story (coupled with a history of animation itself) set to Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony (Tezuka apparently intended to animate the entire symphony, but only the First and Fourth Movements were completed before AuthorExistenceFailure).

* Episode 6 of ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', the field day episode, has a [[IncrediblyLamePun field day]] with this trope: "Csikos Post," "Camptown Races," Offenbach's "Infernal Gallop" ("Music/TheCancanSong"), "Clarinet Polka," Kabalevsky's ''Comedians'', and "Turkey in the Straw" are all featured as background music.
** Aren't they typical tunes played at Japanese school athletic festivals? Turkey in the Straw is anyway.

** One episode of the third season has Sailor Uranus searching for Sailor Neptune and ending up getting damaged, and to the tune of Bach's ''Music/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor'', no less.

* Done wonderfully in the R-18 rated ''Shoujo Sect'', in which Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", Debussy's "Clair de Lune", Bach's "Little Fugue in G Minor" were used.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' Episode 86 very appropriately uses Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria".

** Another official track, "Rakuen no Tou", is actually a shortened version of Music/SergeiRachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2".

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' uses "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" as the theme for the character of Siegfried von Scrhader who fittingly uses as a Valkrie themed deck.

* Creator/StanleyKubrick, a lover of classical music, used this trope frequently and masterfully.

** ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' was renowned for its use of classical music in its soundtrack, and most Anglophones will automatically identify the song "Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra" with the movie (You could say that the Blue Danube Waltz is also related to 2001 due to the use of it in the space station and Moon Station Docking sequences too see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyjOjT8d8RI this video]]) -- with one exception (see below).

*** Originally the classical pieces were merely used to set the general pace for an original score by Alex North, but Kubrick obviously knew awesome when he heard it.

** And the radio series ''Radio/TheGreenHornet'' used Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Flight of the Bumblebee'' for its opening theme, and a number of classical works as regular soundtrack bits. Both series were created by WXYZ's George W. Trendle, a notorious cheapskate, who was well known in the radio broadcast business for pinching his pennies in the production of his radio dramas. The film serials also used a classical soundtrack, unless the action on-screen demanded something else.
*** It worked ''beautifully'', though, especially in ''Radio/TheLoneRanger''. Who can forget Liszt's "Prelude to a Silver Bullet", and Mendelssohn's "Rustler's Cave Overture"? The damn thing was ''perfect''. Few people can listen to "March of the Swiss Soldiers" without at least thinking "Hi-yo Silver!"

* Did anyone know that iconic Spanish guitar solo in the beginning cutscene in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'', titled "Prelude", is actually Agustin Barrios Mangore's "La Catedral, 1st Movement" (hence "Prelude")? Some of his works are also featured in the cutscenes, such as "Una Limosnita Por (el) Amor de Dios" ("An Alm for the Love of God").

* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie,'' Grunty's theme (and thus, the music heard everywhere through her lair, the HubLevel) is actually a minor-key version of "Teddy Bears' Picnic". Since both TheHero, Banjo, and the DamselInDistress, Tootie, are bears, it's actually fitting... if not rather odd.

* The NES game ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic: Secret of the Inner Sanctum'' uses a surprisingly-long arrangement of Pachelbel's ''Canon in D'' on its title screen.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', while hailing from a series known for having [[AwesomeMusic/KingdomHearts its very own share of awesome tracks]] in the first place, has three pieces of classic music in its soundtrack because of one of its worlds representing ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}''[[note]] (for those curious, the name of the world is "Symphony of Sorcery")[[/note]]. [[note]] The tracks are ''Night On Bald Mountain'', returning from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' [[spoiler: as well as the boss associated with said song, Chernabog]], ''L'apprenti Sorcier'', the well-known theme used for the famous sequence featuring the army of brooms used as BGM for Sora's playthrough of the world, and finally, ''The Nutcracker Suite'', which does the same for Riku. In order to avoid abrupt changes in the BGM, there are no dinstinctions between "Field BGM" and "Battle BGM", and to keep the feeling of a "musical experience", in that world, [[SilenceIsGolden musical, silly sound effect replace the usual ones, including the characters' in-battle]] VoiceGrunting. [[/note]]

* Mr. Passion, a mid-boss in Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/Mother3'', is a ghostly composer, so, naturally, his battle theme comprises a medley of various classical music excerpts.[[note]]starting with the First Movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, moving into Etude for Ghosts (a battle theme in the game which seems to be based on the Third Movement of Piano Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saëns), then into Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and finally into Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor before looping[[/note]] [[GuideDangIt If you know]] when to come back and challenge him again as [[BonusBoss Lord Passion]], he'll have a brand new battle theme with different classical pieces.[[note]]starting again with Beethoven's 5th, it'll then move into ''Toccata and Fugue in D Minor'' by Bach, then into Handel's Messiah, and finally the First Movement of Music/AntonioVivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring[[/note]]
** In addition to that, there's also "Leder's Gymnopédie", which is actually Music/ErikSatie's Gymnopédie N*1, used to great effect when [[spoiler: Leder tells Lucas and his friends about the true history of the world]].

* The original ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' barely averts this trope, thus avoiding a ''Metal Gear Solid''-like situation. Originally, the plan was to have an arrangement of Ravel's "Bolero" play on the title screen, but on the day before the ROM was to be compiled, it was discovered the song wasn't out of copyright yet. An original theme based on the overworld music (which had already been composed) was whipped up in one night to replace it.

** Also, The German folk tune “Flohwalzer” plays when you knock a cat and send it flying. This is an in-joke as the Japanese actually had a song called “Neko Funjatta” (lit “I stepped on a cat”) that’s [[ToTheTuneOf set to the tune]].

* Web animation "WebAnimation/HalfFull" utilizes the 1911 song "Billy (She always dreams of Billy)for its end credits theme tune.

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic hilariously uses the "Storm" segment of the William Tell Overture while he's destroying the ''Film/TheNeverEndingStory III'' DVD and going berserk after playing the Blues Brothers SNES game.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' frequently used Romantic Era music in the background; Tchiakovsky's [[Theatre/TheNutcracker Nutcracker Suite]] and Music/AntoninDvorak's Symphony #9 "From the New World" were particularly popular.

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQDD52itP-s Symphony Hour]]'' (1942) is about Mickey conducting an orchestra that plays Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture. The rehearsal suits the trope fully. while for the main concert, the instruments become a problem and the soundtrack is a bit... strange.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' used "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" in a couple episodes, including "Maid of the Myth," which appropriately featured vikings as part of the plot, and Part 2 of "Super Ducktales."

** Also in the old space-sim-trader VideoGame/{{Elite}}.
* ...Y'know what? Just check out [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parodius_music&oldid=927660492 The Other Wiki's entry on the music in Parodius]].

* Not wanting ''Evangelion'''s reputation for SoundtrackDissonance to come into question, the second ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' film is sure to make soul-searing use of not [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnsKeAejgs0 one]], but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LpnOuuU08Y&feature=related two]] Japanese folk songs.

** The Japanese version of ''VideoGame/CrashBash'' (retitled ''Crash Bandicoot Carnival'') used a techno remix in the Dot Dash and Splash Dash minigames (the Western versions use a remix of Dingodile's theme from ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'').

* The UsefulNotes/DSiWare downloadable ''Soul Of Darkness'', Gameloft's ''Castlevania'' clone, uses the "Dies Irae" from Mozart's Requiem Mass for its credits music.
* Space shooter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXQO0ibclm4 ''Phoenix'']] should be counted as one of the earliest examples, with its short excerpts of ''Romance de Amor'' and [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven's]] ''Für Elise''.

** and of course, in the video game called, you guessed it, ''VideoGame/MountainKing''.

* For ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', composer Tappi Iwadere tried to do this to "The Winter Road" by Georgey Syridov, using it as the games' main theme. After ten years of Metal Gear Solid games, the song turned out to be not as public domain as the composer thought...
* Along the years, the ''Taiko no Tatsujin'' games have featured a lot of music from the Classic music genre repertoire, ranging from accurate renditions to original remixes as well. So much songs, in fact, that are all grouped into a dedicated 'Classic' music genre folder in the games!

** It's also the theme song of the first two ''VideoGame/KingsQuest games''.

For music that ''is'' copyrighted but still used in a work it didn't originate from, see RecycledSoundtrack or RealSongThemeSong.

For music that ''is'' copyrighted but still used in a work it didn't originate from, see RecycledSoundtrack.

* The NES version of ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' used Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"... and, on the victory screen, the Soldiers' Chorus from Bizet's ''Carmen''. The Game Boy version, on the other hand, used the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" (and another Tchiakovsky piece, "Trepak" from ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' as victory music). In fact, the Tetris Company has [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope trademarked the use of "Korobeiniki."]] Also, Type C in the Game Boy version is a Minuet in B Minor from one of J.S. Bach's French Suites, and the Atari's 1988 arcade version (the basis for the unlicensed Tengen NES port) features several Russian folk songs, such as "Kalinka" and "Troika".

* The NES version of ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' used Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"... and, on the victory screen, the Soldiers' Chorus from Bizet's ''Carmen''. The Game Boy version, on the other hand, used the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" (and another Tchiakovsky piece, "Trepak" from ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' as victory music). In fact, the Tetris Company has [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope trademarked the use of "Korobeiniki."]] Also, Type C in the Game Boy version is a Minuet in B Minor from one of J.S. Bach's French Suites.

See the SubTrope: AmazingFreakingGrace.

* ''Manga/TegamiBachi'' frequently features Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air in D Major" from Orchestral Suite No. 3 as background music, as well as his Sonata for "Solo Violin No. 1 in G Minor".

* The songs that play when you are chased in ''VideoGame/GOHOME'' are variations of "Csikós Post".

* Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}: A {{Vaudeville}}-era song by Eddie Morton, "I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew," is sampled in "Black" and later covered in Volume 8.

* Doink the Clown entering to "Entry of the Gladiators".

* ''VideoGame/GranTurismo 4'' plays the first five notes of Richard Strauss's AlsoSprachZarathustra when you earn the Gold Prize in a License Test. The background score also includes a variety of classical works.

* ''LightNovel/MariaSamaGaMiteru'' features Charles Gounod's Ave Maria, a piece played in piano by Sachiko (In episode 3 of the 1st season), and later sung by Shizuka (In episode 13). Fitting enough, ''[[VideoGame/{{Maribato}} Maribato!]]'' also features a rendition of this piece in the character selection screen, as well as the Greenhouse stage.

* ''VisualNovel/CrescendoEienDatoOmotteItaAnoKoro'' features well-known pieces in the public domain from Chopin, Handel, Scott Joplin, and others.

** Many of the music cues and background songs from ''Ren and Stimpy'' are stock music library tracks that have been used in many other cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''and ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and even in several live-action shows like ''Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy''.

* Not quite background music, but still: The use of Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" in the fourth ''Ranma 1/2'' opening.