Nicole Erin

From contributors to TheConversation.com, illuminating essays on how and why working in the twenty-first century is rapidly changing.

The Classic 100 is a highly anticipated annual musical phenomenon on ABC Classic FM. Each year Australians are asked to vote for their favourite pieces within a given theme, and in 2017 they were eager to champion their top classical music of ‘love’. The Classic 100: Love was broadcast on ABC Classic FM over one weekend extravaganza in June 2017, revealing a brilliant selection of favourites alongside some great surprises. Listeners were treated to the drama of opera and the grace of the ballet, the tenderness of a love song and the soundtracks from our favorite romantic movies, and the countdown culminated with the announcement of Australia’s favourite music of love: ‘Au fond du temple saint’ from The Pearl Fishers, which received the most votes by a mile.

Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities - famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old - on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives.

At number one was Beethoven’s triumphant Choral Symphony, featuring the ‘Ode to Joy’, closely followed by Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers, with its famous duet ‘Au fond du temple saint’, and in third place Handel’s beloved oratorio Messiah. This highlights from The Classic 100: Voice, including the complete top ten as well as selections from throughout the countdown. From the divine choral works of Bach to the passionate operas of Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, and from the majestic grandeur of Handel’s Zadok the Priest to the pure serenity of Tallis’ Spem in Alium, this is the ultimate celebration of the musical instrument with which we are all born: the human voice.