Greatest Tone Poems!!!

[vandermolen]

Ciurlionis 'The Sea' - great tone poem.

[abidoful]

Weird list--Janacek's SINFONIETTA and so much incidental music And, is Strauss's Don Juan relly that great? Better than Tapiola?!?

[vandermolen]

I'd have removed everything by Richard Strauss and relaced them with 'Tintagel' and 'November Woods' by Bax 

[Mirror Image]

Delius seems to be a love him or hate him kind of composer.

That's an obvious statement. Every composer is a love him/hate him composer. It all depends on the listener. You should change your name to Dr. Obvious.

[Mirror Image]

Weird list--Janacek's SINFONIETTA and so much incidental music And, is Strauss's Don Juan relly that great? Better than Tapiola?!?

I wouldn't really call it strange list, I'm not that nice, I would call this list simply moronic. The person who compiled it doesn't understand the definition of a tone poem. Many of them ARE NOT tone poems.

[Brahmsian]

You should change your name to Dr. Obvious.

He cannot.  He's reached the maximum number of user name changes. 

[karlhenning]

MN Obvious? . . .

[Mirror Image]

He cannot.  He's reached the maximum number of user name changes. 

Hmmm...sounds like a personal problem.

[karlhenning]

Personal, but not a problem ; )

[jhar26]

Hmmm, I don't like this list too much.

I've never seen a best composers/singers/musicians/symphonies/operas/concertos or whatever list at this forum or any other of which most members said that it was a great list - never. If you were to post your top 50's or top 100's or whatever most posters wouldn't agree and the same goes for mine or any other person's lists.

[jhar26]

And, is Strauss's Don Juan relly that great?

Yes - it is.

[drogulus]

     The fellow who rates Tapiola 35th best should be encouraged to reconsider his puzzling decision.

     

     

And, is Strauss's Don Juan relly that great?

     

Yes - it is.

     Yes - it is.

[DavidRoss]

More support for the old adage,

"The poorer the taste, the greater the compulsion to publish it on The Internet!"

[karlhenning]

More support for the old adage,

"The poorer the taste, the greater the compulsion to publish it on The Internet!"

Oh, I have seen it! ; )

[DavidRoss]

Oh, I have seen it! ; )

  Yes.  Which reminds me, I've not seen Teresa's list for some time. 

I was tempted to publish a corrected ranking of Tone Poems (i.e. Sibelius, Debussy, Sibelius, Bridge, Sibelius, Bax, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, etc.), but saw no need to lend further support to the adage. 

[Mirror Image]

I've never seen a best composers/singers/musicians/symphonies/operas/concertos or whatever list at this forum or any other of which most members said that it was a great list - never. If you were to post your top 50's or top 100's or whatever most posters wouldn't agree and the same goes for mine or any other person's lists.

Which is exactly why people shouldn't create lists with the word greatest in the title. Substitute greatest with favorite and there shouldn't be much of a problem.

The real problem with this list is the fact that the poster doesn't understand what a symphonic poem actually is:

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section (a movement) in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another (non-musical) source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein. A symphonic poem is different from a concert overture, (a form from which it may be regarded as an evolution), which may also be illustrative in nature, in that it aims at an enlarged musical and emotional range and scope. As musicologistHugh Macdonald wrote of Liszt's works in this genre, the intent was "to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought;"[1] that is, to display a comparable complexity in the interplay of musical themes and tonal 'landscape' to those of the Romantic symphony. In its aesthetic objectives, the symphonic poem is in some ways related to opera; whilst it does not use a sung text, it seeks like opera a union of music and drama.[2][3]

While many symphonic poems may compare in size and scale to symphonic movements, (or even reach the length of an entire symphony), they are unlike traditional classical symphonic movements, in that their music is intended to inspire listeners to imagine or consider scenes, images, specific ideas or moods, and not to focus on following traditional patterns of musical form (e.g. sonata form). This intention to inspire listeners was a direct consequence of Romanticism which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. Musical works which attempt to inspire listeners in this way are often referred to as program music, while music which has no such associations may be called absolute music.

Some piano and chamber works, such as Arnold Schoenberg's string sextet Verklärte Nacht, have similarities with symphonic poems in their overall intent and effect. 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 suite (in the Romantic rather than the Baroque sense). For example, The Swan of Tuonela (1895) is a tone poem from Jean Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Suite. A symphonic poem can also be part of a cycle of interrelated works, such as Vltava (The Moldau) as part of the six-work cycle Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana. Also, while the terms "symphonic poem" and "tone poem" have often been used interchangeably, some composers such as Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius have preferred the latter term for pieces which were less symphonic in design and in which there is no special emphasis on thematic or tonal contrast.[4].

According to Macdonald, the symphonic poem met three 19th century aesthetic goals: it related music to outside sources; it often combined or compressed multiple movements into a single principal section; and it elevated instrumental program music to an aesthetic level which could be regarded as equivalent to, or higher than opera.[3] The symphonic poem remained popular from the 1840s until the 1920s, when the genre suffered a severe decline in popularity.

[Taken from Wikipedia article]

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Oh, Dvoraks "Wood Dove" - I've listened to it about a million times last week. A rather funeral march approach, for the Autumn lovers like me it's a gift. Järvi on Chandos.

Tapiola as #35?

[Xenophanes]

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best-classic-topo.html

Like others, I would remove some works, change the order, and add some other works. However, it is sort of useless to mess with someone's favorites, so I'll just suggest a few others.

Mayuzumi, Samsara
Sibelius, Lemminkainen Suites
Ravel, Rapsodie espagnole
Mendelssohn, The Hebrides
Deems Taylor, Through the Looking Glass
Grofe, Grand Canyon Suite
Bizet, Carmen Suites
Mussorgsky-Stokowski, Boris Godunov: Symphonic Synthesis
Lilburn, Forest, A Song of Islands
Bax, Tintangel, The Garden of Fand, November Woods
Chabrier, Espana

[DavidRoss]

Like others, I would remove some works, change the order, and add some other works. However, it is sort of useless to mess with someone's favorites, so I'll just suggest a few others.

Mayuzumi, Samsara
Sibelius, Lemminkainen Suites
Ravel, Rapsodie espagnole
Mendelssohn, The Hebrides
Deems Taylor, Through the Looking Glass
Grofe, Grand Canyon Suite
Bizet, Carmen Suites
Mussorgsky-Stokowski, Boris Godunov: Symphonic Synthesis
Lilburn, Forest, A Song of Islands
Bax, Tintangel, The Garden of Fand, November Woods
Chabrier, Espana

Cool.  I don't know the Mayuzumi or Deems Taylor, but the rest are good to great, so I look forward to getting to know them.  Thanks! 

[Octo_Russ]

Ciurlionis 'The Sea' - great tone poem.

Thanks for this, i just listened to it on YouTube, it's a wonderful seascape, i'll have to get it on disc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0av7HfAP00