Tag Archives: Tone Poem Tuesday

Oops! I had a piece selected and had started writing the post to go with it, when I realized…that piece is better presented next Tuesday, and not today. It’ll all be clear then. Meanwhile, here is an old favorite of mine, … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned this many times, but for several days after 9-11, I was unable to listen to music at all. I am constantly surrounded by music, but for those three or four days, I just couldn’t. Finally I found my way back … Continue reading →

First, a quote from Evenings with the Orchestra by Hector Berlioz: In a certain opera house of northern Europe, it is the custom among the members of the orchestra, several of whom are cultivated men, to spend their time reading books–or … Continue reading →

The things you learn on the radio! This morning I heard this piece, and after it was done I learned why they played it: on this date in 1962, the lower deck of the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan … Continue reading →

Our local classical station, WNED, tends to be a bit heavy on the Dvorak. They play a ton of him. Like, a whole lot. Sometimes I think they need to tone down the Dvorak a little. Other times I choose to listen … Continue reading →

Sometimes I need to go back to the beginning of my classical music roots. I had heard a lot of classical music as a kid, thanks to my parents’ music-listening habits and my sister’s piano lessons, and then later my horn, … Continue reading →

It’s August! I think August would count at “Midsummer”, right? Thus, here is some Mendelssohn: the overture to his suite of incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  

Technically, this isn’t a tone poem; it’s right up-front about being a concerto. But what a concerto it is, and it’s a masterpiece of tone painting as well. It is also a programmatic work, intended to tell a story. The … Continue reading →

John Adams’s first orchestral work, written in 1979, came well before the operatic work that made him well-known in the 1980s. It’s an interesting listen: solemn and meditative, and yet shot through with an odd kind of mystical optimism. On … Continue reading →