Tone Poems

[karlhenning]

Nielsen
Helios Overture, Opus 17 / FS 32
En Fantasirejse til Faeroerne (An Imaginary Trip to the Faroe Islands), FS 123
Saga-drom (A Saga Dream), Opus 39 / FS 46

Saint-Saëns
Le rouet d'Omphale, Opus 31
Phaéton, Opus 39

Shostakovich
October, Opus 131

[jochanaan]

The orchestral repertoire is well-spiced with such symphonic poems.  There was a move in this direction as early as Telemann (some pieces in Tafelmusik are very programmatic), but the first well-known composer to work extensively in one-movement orchestral tone poems was Liszt (Les Preludes, the Mephisto Waltzes, and many others.)  (It should also be said that Liszt tended to work in single movements; his Second Piano Concerto and B minor Piano Sonata are each in one multifaceted movement.)  Others include Smetana, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Chabrier, Chausson, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvorak, Glazunov, Kodaly and of course Sibelius; but the composer best-known for this form is, of course, Richard Strauss.

I observe that most of this form's early development happened outside the Austro-German environment.  Liszt himself, although strongly allied with this environment, was originally Hungarian; his birth name was Ferenc, not Franz.  (I still have to laugh at comedian Victor Borge's routine on Liszt's name: "Franz L--Fran--F.L.I.S--nope!  Too hard to spell." )

[Brian]

(I still have to laugh at comedian Victor Borge's routine on Liszt's name: "Franz L--Fran--F.L.I.S--nope!  Too hard to spell." )

That's not the only one - Fliszt! It's not F. Liszt, it's Fliszt! Would you say M. Ozart? 

[DavidRoss]

A huge array of wonderful choices out there! Some that I've been enjoying (again) of late are those of Vitezslav Novak (Lady Godiva, In the Tatra Mountains, etc.) and Douglas Lilburn (Aoteroa, Drysdale Overture, etc.). Bax has some really evocative beauties like Tintagel, November Woods, and On the Sea-Shore. There's of course Smetana's Ma Vlast tone poem cycle, suite/poems like Debussy's La Mer and Bridge's The Sea, Strauss's famous Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben, Also Sprach Zarathustra, and other very descriptive tone poems for large orchestra. Romeo and Juliet of Tchaikovsky, Les Preludes by Liszt, or for something recent, Rautavaara's On the Last Frontier (inspired by EA Poe).

Strauss's glitzy programmatic works don't generally float my boat, but Till EulenSpiegel's Merry Pranks is an exception.  Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun gets high marks from me, and I'll second Lilburn, Bax, and Bridge (don't know Novak--maybe I should!).  In addition to Bridge's The Sea, I like the others included here:


There's a lot of 20th Century stuff that sort of defies easy categorization but that works as tone poem or symphonic poem for me.  Copland's Quiet City and Appalachian Spring, and Gershwin's An American in Paris are perennial favorites.  Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy gets a lot of press around these parts.   More Rautavaara: I would add Isle of Bliss and Angels and Visitations, and I would include Book of Visions as a suite of tone poems (like Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Legends and the aforementioned Ma Vlast).  And I would also include some of John Adams's works like Naive and Sentimental Music, The Chairman Dances, or (as a suite) My Father Knew Charles Ives, which naturally and intentionally calls to mind Ives's Three Places in New England (and then Piston's Three New England Sketches)--and mention of Ives calls to mind Central Park in the Dark, thence to Jennifer Higdon's CityScape and Blue Cathedral, and should we include works like Pärt's Tabula Rasa or most anything by Varèse?

Hey--just what the heck is a tone poem, anyway? 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Let's not forget the immortal Frederick Delius, with works like Brigg Fair, A Song of Summer, Paris - Song of a Great City, North Country Sketches, Over The Hills And Far Away... And his orchestral miniatures, like On hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, could count as mini tone-poems...

[jochanaan]

...Hey--just what the heck is a tone poem, anyway? 

An assonance, for one thing.

[M forever]

Rachmaninoff also known as Rakhmaninov - Isle of the Dead

Actually only the first spelling is the correct one as used by the composer himself.

[eyeresist]

Good stuff mentioned so far, particularly Smetana, Saint Saens, Liszt (father of the form (Berlioz was granddaddy)), Sibelius.

In the South (Alassio) by Elgar is less known but very good.

[The new erato]

Zemlinskys Seejungrau (Chailly, Decca)
Reger Bøcklin suite (Jærvi, Chandos)

Superb works and recordings. The first movement of the Reger is a thing of outstanding beauty.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Thanks for all your answers so far, I'll bookmark this thread for future reference...

Yes yes yes! He wrote six, and they all have their beauties. I have the Noseda/Tortelier series on Chandos. And some Polish readings.

OK, I've bought the Naxos release now at http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=479227&affid=5
But only as an EXCEPTION. I first saw the 6.99$ and was lucky because of the weak $. I did not realize I paid 7 EUR as well
7 EUR for a lossy album is too much in my opinion. Also the bitrate difference to lossless formats is not that much from 320kbps.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks for all your answers so far, I'll bookmark this thread for future reference...
OK, I've bought the Naxos release now at http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=479227&affid=5
But only as an EXCEPTION. I first saw the 6.99$ and was lucky because of the weak $. I did not realize I paid 7 EUR as well

Cheer up, Wurstwasser - you now own three first-rate symphonic poems:

Stanislaw and Anna of Oswiecim (a place-name they never translate because of the infernal assocations: Auschwitz) - a very dramatic and colourful work where Tchaikovsky meets Richard Strauss

Lithuanian Rhapsody - a wonderfully spare and atmospheric piece

Episode at a Masquerade - all Brian says it is, and a personal favourite of mine too, tragedy mixed with Carnival

[Grazioso]

Strauss's glitzy programmatic works don't generally float my boat, but Till EulenSpiegel's Merry Pranks is an exception.  Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun gets high marks from me, and I'll second Lilburn, Bax, and Bridge (don't know Novak--maybe I should!).  In addition to Bridge's The Sea, I like the others included here:

Or get it as part of this wonderful disc:



As for Novak, I'd highly recommend him to fans of Suk, Strauss, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and the like. One of his works I forgot to recommend is Pan, an hour-long, multi-movement tone poem that's quite beautiful.

[Ten thumbs]

Do not forget that the tone poem began as the stand alone 'overture'. I strongly recommend Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, a true tone poem of the best kind.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Do not forget that the tone poem began as the stand alone 'overture'. I strongly recommend Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, a true tone poem of the best kind.

Very true!

Let's bring in Beethoven, too, shall we? Egmont, Coriolan... And Schumann's Manfred (if it hasn't been mentioned already).

[Lethevich]

Do not forget that the tone poem began as the stand alone 'overture'. I strongly recommend Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, a true tone poem of the best kind.

In that game we can also include Rhapsodies, of which there are many So much good music out there

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

In that game we can also include Rhapsodies, of which there are many So much good music out there

Also very true! And Sinfoniettas...

I think we'll end up with 'orchestral music apart from symphonies'... !

[karlhenning]

In that game we can also include Rhapsodies, of which there are many

You certainly get points for enthusiasm, Sara, but we cannot just call everything that is in one movement, and is not a symphony, a tone-poem.

One clue may be, that Liszt wrote both.  So why didn't he just call Orpheus a rhapsody?  Or call them Hungarian Tone-Poems? 

[karlhenning]

Also very true! And Sinfoniettas...

Now, Johan, you're losing your grip!    A tone-poem is specifically meant to be allied to some extra-musical idea;  the name Sinfonietta directly implies the abstaction of a symphony, onoy on a smaller scale.

[Christo]

Now, Johan, you're losing your grip!    A tone-poem is specifically meant to be allied to some extra-musical idea;  the name Sinfonietta directly implies the abstaction of a symphony, onoy on a smaller scale.

What about Boléros? 

[karlhenning]

What about Boléros? 

Well, it's obviously a dance-form, isn't it? Are Dvořák's Slavonic Dances 16 tone-poems?