Your Favourite Evocations of Visual Phenomena in Music

[Serial_Apologist]

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

I saw that, Bryn. Whistle - or, rather,

[Hornspieler]

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

I was going to check the spelling by consulting the relevant Birtwistle's Minotaur going cheap at ROH thread but, frankly, I simply didn't bother.

As for going cheap:

" ... let he who is without sin, cast ..." etcetera.

HS

[Hornspieler]

#16.

Posted by 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".

Yes, I missed that JFLL. My apologies.

HS

[salymap]

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.

Couldn'tget the link - was it Bridge Summer, Enter Spring or another piece with summer in the title that I can't remember ?

[Serial_Apologist]

Couldn'tget the link - was it Bridge Summer, Enter Spring or another piece with summer in the title that I can't remember ?

Bridge's "Summer", composed 1914, saly.

[salymap]

Bridge's "Summer", composed 1914, saly.

We had those at Augener S-A. Sadly they weren't hired out much but Faber Music, presumably at BB's request, took several of his works from us.

We still don't hear enough Frank Bridge on R3 imo.

[Serial_Apologist]

We had those at Augener S-A. Sadly they weren't hired out much but Faber Music, presumably at BB's request, took several of his works from us.

We still don't hear enough Frank Bridge on R3 imo.

Agree! He makes a relatively easy "bridge" (ahem) in the later music he composed between English composers such as Ireland and Moeran, and Schoenberg and Berg, even though for Bridge that was catch-up time, stylistically speaking. Listen to his Third String Quartet, for a good example of how much its idiom owes to Alban Berg's string quartet of 1910. The Bridge was composed in 1926 - a good illustration of English music's isolation and retardation from taking on radical Continental trends between the wars.

[Thropplenoggin]

Great thread, Sir Velo.

Another string-stirring dawn is, of course, Mahler's 1st. When it's done well (Bernstein, NYPO), it really works. Another Mahler "visualisation" that only got me recently was the first movement of his 3rd Symphony. Jonathan Nott's version really brought home the immensity of peaks and precipices, of vast structures and awe. I've spent a fair bit of time hiking in some pretty impressive mountainous regions (Munroes in Scotland, Tryfan in North Wales, and doing half the GR20 in Corsica), in both sun and snow. This performance really spoke to me of the silence and sense of the sublime in these regions.

The recorded sound is absolutely sensational. A must-buy for Mahlerites.

[David-G]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the "Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes. Very evocative.

[Ferretfancy]

How about Ravel's Une barque sur l'Ocean with it's wonderful breaking waves ? The original piano version is also great, in fact what about the whole of Miroirs ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not exactly pictorial, but evocative nevertheless: The Towing Path by John Ireland.

[salymap]

How about Ravel's Une barque sur l'Ocean with it's wonderful breaking waves ? The original piano version is also great, in fact what about the whole of Miroirs ?

Or Poulenc L'Embarquement pour Cythere for 2 pianos - if you can stop laughing ...

[LeMartinPecheur]

Another good piece for musical sun-worshippers: Nielsen's Helios overture.

[Petrushka]

I like the evocation of falling snow in the first of Berg's Altenberg-Lieder.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not exactly pictorial, but evocative nevertheless: The Towing Path by John Ireland.

The ONE piece in my small collection of Ireland pieces I can actually PLAY!