Your Favourite Evocations of Visual Phenomena in Music

[JFLL]

Since music is all about movement, it’s more obviously easier to depict in music something visual which has moving elements, say a sunrise, e.g. ‘Dawn’ in Götterdämmerung, a forest where the leaves are in motion, e.g.‘Forest Murmurs’ in Siegfried, or a river, e.g. the Rhine in the opening of Das Rheingold or Smetana’s Vltava. But a bigger challenge seems to me to depict something more static, say moonlight (has anyone ever done this well?). Rob’s example of VW’s Sinfonia Antarctica depicting ice is a good one, I think, and would fall into that category. Another example might be the opening of Delius’s A Song of Summer, to my ears hugely evocative of a hot summer’s day. (In fact I think I’m thinking of playing it today as an antidote to all this wintry weather.) But you could say that there are ‘moving parts’ to the Antarctic (ice-sheets creaking, wind whistling over icy wastes) or summer (humming of insects, birdsong etc.).

P.S. Just thought of Strauss’s ‘Moonlight Music’ in Capriccio. I don’t include the Moonlight Sonata!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are great sunrises in the Gurrelieder, Bartok's Wooden Prince and Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen, but would I guess what they were if I didn't know?
I'm not so sure!

I remember seeing my first sunrise and thinking "Well! Strauss' were much better!"

[cloughie]

Beethoven's Pastoral storm is good but I like the beautifully understated storm in Berlioz Fantastique 'Scenes du Champs'. Another feature of nature I like is the waterfall in the 2nd movt of Tchaikovsky's Manfred.

[Pabmusic]

Falstaff getting progressively legless in Elgar's symphonic portrait is certainly 'visual' until he starts making a speech.

[Bryn]

The soaring Golden Eagle in Messiaen's Le Chocard des Alpes.

[Keraulophone]

Stravinsky's organ-grinder near the beginning of Petrushka.

[Ferretfancy]

RVW Sinfonia Antarctica,sounds like ice,especially the third movement.

It certainly does! I've been lucky enough to go there,and the music was often in my mind.

[doversoul1]

It is always easier for composers to represent phenomena which can be heard as well as seen, for instance the rippling of a stream, or birdsong, or a thunderstorm, or a hunt where the sound of the horses' hooves and the horns can be depicted. But purely visual phenomena, such as a still winter landscape or a sunrise - I'm not sure (Nielsen makes a good attempt at the latter in the Helios overture). But you never really know how much your response has been directed towards the idea of that phenomenon by what you know of the music, what you have read. The test would be if you were listening to a piece of music for the first time, knowing nothing about it beforehand, and conceived "innocently" of the visual phenomenon which the composer had intended to represent. I'm not sure how many works (if any) I can think of where that has happened to me.

I agree with this. Unless it is imitating the sound as distinct as the song/sound of a cuckoo, I don’t think music can represent natural phenomena in the way paintings can represent the scene of a natural phenomenon. We hear the sea and the sunrise in the music because we know the language of the music and also we usually know what the music is meant to represent.

The OP could be asking ‘which work do you think does best what it says it’s doing?’ I’d say Vivaldi’s Four Seasons does it well, but again, if I were living in a tropical county, it probably wouldn't make much sense.

[Sir Velo]

But you never really know how much your response has been directed towards the idea of that phenomenon by what you know of the music, what you have read. The test would be if you were listening to a piece of music for the first time, knowing nothing about it beforehand, and conceived "innocently" of the visual phenomenon which the composer had intended to represent.

Indeed. Debussy's Preludes come to mind. IIRC, the original programme notes contained the instructions that each piece's title should only be revealed at the end. Superbly evocative music, but is one more likely to think of the west wind or an avalanche, for example?

[Hornspieler]

I am surprised that nobody (not least salymap) has mentioned the babbling brook which becomes the expanse of the River Moldau in Smetana's "Ma Vlast".

In my thoughts, any music by the likes of Cage, Cardew, Birtwhistle or Maxwell Davis convey to me a vision of a rubbish dump - but each to his own.

HS

[JFLL]

I am surprised that nobody (not least salymap) has mentioned the babbling brook which becomes the expanse of the River Moldau in Smetana's "Ma Vlast".
HS

#16.

[Flay]

The oboe and flute duet in the 2nd movement of Tchaik's Winter Daydreams suggests to me two birds in flight over a misty lake, one soaring and graceful, the other fluttering and swooping. I do not know what he intended to evoke when he wrote it.

[Parry1912]

In my thoughts, any music by the likes of ... Cardew ... convey to me a vision of a rubbish dump - but each to his own.

Cardew conveys to me a perfect impression of a migraine. The only music that literally gives me a headache.

[Serial_Apologist]

For all the mentions of Antarctic ice breaking, no one's mentioned PM Davies's Antarctic Symphony!

For those with a spare 10 minutes, this early tone poem of Bridge conjures a blend of his influences of the time (Strauss, Delius, Debussy, Scriabin, Holst mainly) into a wonderfully evocative cocktail for this time of year, shimmering with summer scent and warmth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAWIeYtdxc0

After the departure of the English Pastoralists few managed to evoke that feeling; possibly Takemitsu got closest. Sadly Winter, the piece of his that got closest, has been removed from youtube.

[Bryn]

For all the mentions of Antarctic ice breaking, no one's mentioned PM Davies's Antarctic Symphony!

Careful, you might upset the poor midshipman who can't even spell PMD's fellow Manchester School member's name.