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Cycle of Symphonic Poems from Czech History (1915–17) Heikki Suolahti. Hades, Op. 10 (1932) Evgeny Svetlanov. Daybreak in the Field (Symphonic Picture, 1949) Daugava (1952) Azov Mountain, Op.10; The Red Guelder-Rose; Sergei Taneyev. Oresteia (labeled as an "overture", but really a symphonic poem based on themes from his opera of the same name)
- Prélude à L’Après Midi d’un Faune, Debussy
- An Oxford Elegy, Vaughan Williams
- The Tempest, Tchaikovsky
- The Isle of Dead, Rachmaninoff
- The Fountains of Rome, Respighi
- Le Rouet D’Omphale, Saint Saëns
- Scheherazade, Rimsky Korsakov
- Finlandia, Sibelius
- The Noon Witch, Dvorak
- The Dante Symphony, Liszt
In 1876, Stéphane Mallarmé wrote the poem Prélude à l’Après Midi d’un Faune, which became a seminal work in symbolist poetry. 17 years later, Debussyset it to music, and the result was a symphonic poem of the same name: the opening flute solo, with a chromatic descent to a tritone below the original pitch and a subsequent ascent, is a very well-kno...
Ralph Vaughan Williams used two poems by M. Arnold, The Scholar Gypsy, and Thyrsis, as an inspiration for this symphonic poem and, despite the title “elegy”, the work is more pastoral than melancholic. This is actually consistent with the literary sources he drew upon: The Scholar Gypsy relates the deeds of a former Oxford student who joined a band...
Tchaikovsky loved Shakespeare: he also composed an Overture to Romeo and Julietand incidental music to Hamlet. This symphonic poem, written in 1875, reenacts the main themes in Bard’s last play, and the music evokes the stillness of the ship at sea, the grotesque nature of the monster Caliban and the love between Ferdinand and Miranda, which shares...
Between 1880 and 1886, Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin painted the Isle of the Dead, which depicts a desolate islet emerging from an expanse of dark water, with a rowboat arriving on the shore. The painter himself described it as “a dream picture: it must produce such a stillness that one would be awed by a knock on the door. In 1907, Rachmaninoff s...
Four Roman fountains at four different times of day constitute the four movements of this symphonic poem by Ottorino Respighi: the first is the fountain of Villa Giulia at dawn, set in a pastoral landscape; the second is the Triton fountain in the morning, and Respighi’s music evokes Naiads and tritons dance; then comes the Trevi fountain at noon, ...
In Saint Saëns’s le Rouet D’Omphale, following the original Greek myth, Apollo condemns Hercules to serve the Lydian queen Omphale while disguised as a woman, and, for the next three years, the Greek demigod finds himself spinning wool while wearing womanly dresses. The violins recreate the sound of the spinning wheel, while a more somber melody mi...
Rimsky Korsakov was aiming for “oriental-themed symphonic music that evokes a sense of the fairy-tale adventures.” A symphonic suite in four movements and a unified theme, Scheherazade contains references to Sinbad’s ship, The Kalendar Prince, The Young Prince and the Young Princess, and a festival in Baghdad. A violin solo accompanied by a harp re...
As a symphonic poem, Finlandia aimed to protest against the increasing censorship of the Russian empire, and, when performed, it was accompanied by a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. This symphonic poem has turbulent melodies, which depict the struggle of the Finnish people, while, towards the end, we hear the Finlandia Hymn: words ...
One of the creepiest folk tales serves as a backdrop to this symphonic poem by Dvorak: A distressed mother tells his child to behave properly, lest the Noon witch comes for him. When the hour strikes, the mother frantically heaps the child up and runs for her life and then faints. We then see (or hear) her husband coming home, where he finds his wi...
Don’t let the word Symphony fool you: the Dante symphony actually consists of two separate symphonic poems, one set in the Inferno, the other in the purgatory, both being orchestral. We know that Liszt wanted to compose a third choral movement to depict Dante’s Paradise, but Wagner, to whom the Dante Symphony was dedicated, dissuaded Liszt from giv...
People also ask
What is an example of a symphonic poem?
What is an example of a jazz influenced symphonic poem?
What is the difference between a symphonic poem and a tone poem?
Who wrote a symphonic poem?
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source.
- Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead. One of symphony poems from Russia comes from composer Sergei Rachmaninoff under the title “The Isle of the Dead, Op.
- Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. One of Claude Debussy’s most famous works and is considered a turning point in the history of music, composed in 1894.
- Sibelius: Finlandia. “Finlandia, Op. 26” is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, one of the great late-Romantic composers, who single handedly placed Finland on the musical map.
- Franz Liszt: Mazeppa. Symphonic poem music “Mazeppa, S. 100” was composed by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 1851. It is the sixth in the cycle of thirteen tone poems written during his time in Weimar and one of the most technically difficult pieces in the repertoire for piano.
Symphonic poem, musical composition for orchestra inspired by an extra-musical idea, story, or “program,” to which the title typically refers or alludes. The characteristic single-movement symphonic poem evolved from the concert-overture, an overture not attached to an opera or play yet suggestive.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
However, the term symphonic poem is generally accepted to refer to orchestral works. A symphonic poem may stand on its own, or it can be part of a series combined into a symphonic suite. For example, The Swan of Tuonela (1895) is a tone poem from Jean Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite.
Feb 19, 2024 · Tapiola (1926) is one such example: ‘ Tapiola ‘ by Jean Sibelius. The English composers Arnold Bax and Frederick Delius wrote tone poems during the early part of the 20th Century, while George Gershwin’s An American In Paris (1928) is an example of an American, jazz-influenced symphonic poem.
