Search results
symphonic poem. Meaning of symphonic poem A symphonic poem is a piece of orchestral music that evokes a non-musical idea, story, or image through different themes and their transformation. Symphonic poems are characterized by their single continuous movement and freedom of form in contrast to more structured musical forms like sonata form.
Oct 19, 2023 · symphonic poem: [noun] an extended programmatic composition for symphony orchestra usually freer in form than a symphony.
Jul 16, 2023 · Introduction. A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral or concert band music, usually in a single continuous section (a movement) that illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt first applied the term to his 13 works in this vein.
- 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 a symphonic poem?
What is a music symphony?
How did a symphonic poem contribute to the development of music?
Why is a symphonic poem important?
Symphonic poem definition: a form of tone poem, scored for a symphony orchestra, in which a literary or pictorial “plot” is treated with considerable program detail.
Jan 4, 2021 · Symphonic poem definition. The symphonic poem, also called a tone poem, has really precise peculiarities. Firstly, it is an orchestral work in one movement, but it contains many sections which differ in tempo, pace and character. The symphonic poem is a programmatic genre: this means that, at least in the title, there is an extra-musical idea.
Nov 19, 2019 · Discover one of the more colorful genres of classical music, the Symphonic Poem, which can depict animals, landscape, literature, and even football players! Download the Free PBS App 3939 Campbell Avenue
