Hello to all of you! Today is Jan. 13th, 2021 (Wednesday). Everyone was wishing a better new year after 2020, and... ta-daah!! in Spain, we met a new "friend": Storm Filomena. It is said that this was the biggest snowfall in the last 50 years (or more!). Right now, and for the next few days, there will be snow everywhere you look.
Winter should be cold. But, this cold? Well, in Madrid city, I haven't seen this much snow never ever. Even though not everyone enjoys the cold, I believe that most of us appreciate what is so special about this nature event, this very time.
I am going to take advantage of this situation to introduce you to the world of "winter music".
First of all: A. Vivaldi's famous "Winter", from a collection called "The Seasons". Then, F. J. Haydn (1732-1809), P. I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), and A. Glauzunov (1865-1936): all of them composed music under the name of "The Seasons".
Die Jahreszeiten is the name of Haydn's secular oratorio. It was intended to be bilingual English-German. It is divided into four sections, one under the name of each season.
In Tchaikovsky's seasons, we will find 12 short character pieces for piano solo. December is for Christmas time in Russia. Tchaikovsky didn't take special interest in the work, it was commissioned and even the subtitles were suggested. First symphony (op. 13) of the same composer has the name of "Winter Daydreams".
And finally, Glauzunov's ballet "The Seasons" features several characters related to winter time: "Winter", "Frost", "Ice" , "Snow", "Hail"...
American composer George Winston (1949) wrote symphonic piece "December". This is another example of how a season can serve as an inspiration.
Inspired by a winter sport we can listen to Slalom, a piece composed by C. Pann (1972). Can you tell me what famous piece comes to your mind, when the piece starts? Answer in the next line, but don't read it until you have listen to the link and try to find out by yourself.
(True! It is Beethoven's ninth symphony, like a tribute to the opening of the fourth movement)
The Skater's Waltz op. 183 was written by E. Waldteufel (1837-1915). It is a charming orchestral work, I like how my body starts dancing as I listen to the waltz. Does this happen to you also?
Another activity we can engage these days is... building snowmen, right? We went yesterday and built ours! It was so much fun. Among the artistic products, we can find too several works that have the title of a snowman:
- Der Schneemann of E. W. Korngold (1897-1957) was premiered in Vienna in 1910. It is not a popular piece nowadays, but in that moment, it helped Korngold to gain some fame.
- A delightful short film titled "The Snowman" (1982). It is based on a book of Raymond Briggs (1934). Music was composed by Howard Blake (1938). A song in this film is "Walking in the Air". There is a recording made by the Finish music band Nightwish.
The cartoons are silent (no dialogue), but the soundtrack in the background is enough to illuminate the story. I'd suggest you to watch the whole of it (specially if you have kids at home). In 2012, a sequel of the 1982 short film was released, with the title of "The Snowman and the Snowdog", also highly recommended!
*There are also two films named "Der Schneemann". One is from 1944 and it is an animation, while the other was shot during mid 80s and has music composed by Paul Vicent Gunia (1950-2016). And there is a modern horror film (from 2017) but this is not my cup of tea.
Pursuing in the music+story line, we can name another two interesting musical works:
- One is The Snow Maiden, of N. Rimsky-Korsakoff (1844-1908). It is based in a Russian folk tale. There is a play also inspired in this character, written by A. N. Ostrovsky (1823-1886), for which Tchaikovsky composed music.
- The second is based in H. C. Andersen's "The Little Match Girl". David Lang (1857) is the composer of "The Little Match Girl". This choral work won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. It deserves our attention, doesn't it?
F. Schubert (1797-1828) was ill when he wrote Winterreise op. 89, D. 911, during the year before his death. 24 songs for voice and piano, with poems of W. Müller (1794-1827). In this set, music not only entwines with literature, but also with painting, philosophy, etc. We can trace a connection between Schubert's musical language and the landscapes of C. D. Friedrich (1774-1840), since both were influenced by the ideas of L. G. Kosegarten (1758-1818). Kosegarten used to assert that nature was divine revelation. Also, we could link Schubert to A. Schopenhauer (1788-1860).
For piano solo, I am going to point out two short pieces composed by French C. Debussy (1862-1918): Des pas sur la neige, that belongs to the first book of Preludes. Maybe he got inspiration in the paintings of C. Monet (1840-1926) and A. Sisley (1839-1899). And The Snow is dancing, that belongs to the set Children's Corner.
To finish this post, again two short pieces:
- From "Le voyague dans la Lune"*, composed by also French J. Offenbach (1819-1880): the
*Do not confuse with homonym film, directed by G. Méliès (1861-1938) in 1902. Although both are vaguely inspired in the work of J. Verne (1828-1905) De la Terre à la Lune, there is not direct relationship. About Méliès, I would like to talk more eventually (hopefully in a future post).
- The amusing and enjoyable Winterlust Polka of J. Strauss (1827-1870) is our last composition of today. In 2-3 minutes, the music gives off joy and liveliness. It was written for the Masquerade Ball of 1862, which topic was The Wilder.
There are many other pieces about winter. I would like to write soon about them, in a second post.
Meanwhile, if you liked this one, please share and press the heart!
Comentarios