Tag: Tone Poem Tuesday

As I write this, it’s still Tuesday! Wow!

Romanian composer George Enescu is endlessly fascinating, straddling the line between Romanticism and Modernism. He is probably the greatest composer to ever spring from Romania, and much of his work is of nationalistic origin (particularly his ever-wonderful Romanian Rhapsodies, which are favorites. This piece, though, is pure Modernism through and through, with meditative passages and sharp dissonances and a pervading sense of mystery. Enescu wrote Vox Maris over more than twenty years, and apparently he did not live to hear its first performance. I haven’t been able to find a great deal of information about it, but it is indeed a fascinating listen and an amazing piece of orchestral and choral tone painting.

Here is Vox Maris by George Enescu.

Share This Post

I don’t believe I’ve heard this work before, or even of the composer, Silvestre Revueltas of Mexico. Revueltas lived 1899 to 1940, and was not only short-lived but also a late bloomer, so his output is not large. The work Sensemaya is based on a poem that is in turn inspired by religious cults in the Afro-Cuban culture, with a blend of African and Cuban chants. The work is strikingly rhythmic and redolent of spiritual dance and chant, with rattling percussion instruments and insistent drive. Its energy, constantly growing over the work’s roughly eight minutes, is compulsive. Here is Sensemaya by Silvestre Revueltas.

Share This Post

Yeah, I just straight-up lost track of my days yesterday. It happens!

Here’s a famous piece by Gustav Holst, probably his most famous work after The Planets. He wrote two Suites for Military Band, and both have become essential staples in the repertoire for the concert band or wind ensemble. This one is the First Suite, in E-flat. Enjoy!

Share This Post

It’s interesting how many of the great composers push others out of the limelight, isn’t it? If not for Antonin Dvorak, likely the greatest of Czech composers, the music of Bedrich Smetana might be better known today. Dvorak’s work is always more refined and frequently touched by genius, where Smetana’s is earthier, maybe just a bit less memorably melodic, and occasionally awkward. That doesn’t make it bad, though–not by a longshot. Here is one of the tone poems from Smetana’s symphonic cycle Ma Vlast (My Country), “From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields.”

Share This Post

Film music today: a symphonic suite comprising the music of Joe Hisaishi, written for the great Hayao Miyazaki film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Hisaishi is one of my favorite composers, and this suite is representative of why.

Share This Post

William Grant Still, who lived from 1895 to 1978, is one of the most prominent and important African-American composers. He was prolific, writing five symphonies and eight operas in addition to an impressive array of other works. His is an important voice from the time when jazz was emerging and when the American musical vernacular was starting to move beyond its European-dominated roots.

This suite, the Danzas de Panama, is a chamber work that is heard here performed by full string orchestra. The suite of four selections uses folk source material from Panama, and Still creates the appropriate air of folk dance here, albeit combined with the traditional sounds of the Western orchestra.

Here is Danzas de Panama by William Grant Still.

Share This Post

I know I’ve featured this work before, but it’s so good that it bears returning once in a while. Ottorino Resphigi was an Italian composer most active in the early 20th century, but he wasn’t much of a modernist: he preferred to cloak musical forms from the Baroque eras and before in the more modern sounds of the Romantic orchestra and harmonies. As such, Resphigi turned out music that sounds compulsively fresh no matter how many times I listen to it. His tone poem The Pines of Rome takes its genesis from the great pine trees to be found in that city, and the movements are of interesting character. The first is playful, while the second takes a solemn turn that suggests the orders of a Catholic monastery. In the third movement we have an atmospheric nocturne that features, towards its end, a bit of recorded birdsong; and then in the fourth movement there is dawn and powerful culminating triumph.

Resphigi’s music is atmospheric and impressionistic, and though it doesn’t quite abide with memorable melodies, it is full of what Wagner might call “melodic moments of feeling”. This is music of power and mystery and pure magic. Here is Ottorino Resphigi’s The Pines of Rome.

Share This Post

I know, I know, I know. Long time, not much content. In my defense, though:

This can only mean one thing: I’m writing my ass off, getting the first draft of Orion’s Huntress done. Above is a screenshot from the Session Statistics tool that Scrivener (my main writing program these days) gives. For me, anything over 2000 words is a big day, and I’ve been averaging 1500 or so a day for the last week and a half. I’m close, folks. I am so close!

So what does this mean for Tone Poem Tuesday? A piece of familiar music that doesn’t need a lot of introduction? Why, yes! So turn up your speakers and watch the pretty people in Egyptian dress as they perform the Triumphal March from Verdi’s Aida.

After this draft is done I won’t be doing any first-draft writing for a long time as I have a bunch of manuscripts that need first mark-ups, so hopefully I’ll settle into a more consistent schedule here. Meanwhile…Excelsior!

Share This Post

Sorry for the late posting, but geez, I’m having a busy bunch of days here. Wowza.

Anyway, here’s an old favorite of mine. I haven’t heard a lot of Edward Elgar’s music, but whenever I listen to him I come away thinking I need to listen to him a lot more. Elgar wrote this piece while spending several months in the Italian Riviera with his family. I don’t know the first thing about the Italian Riviera, but in this piece I hear adventure and wistful remembrance and drama and excitement. This concert overture reminds me of the very best film music from that form’s Golden Age, and for me, that is a compliment.

Here is “Alassio (In the South)”, by Sir Edward Elgar.

Share This Post