Pastoral

[Sylph]

I'm looking for pastoral orchestral music, something evoking the idyll of Arcadian shepherds and nymphs, villages, herds of cows...

It can, but absolutely does not have to include instruments such as the English horn or the flute, it only has to evoke a pastoral mood or scenery in your opinion.

There are several symphonies, for example, that have the (sub)title pastoral: Beethoven's Sixth, Vaughan Williams's Third, Rawsthorne's Third, Glazunov's Seventh and there is a movement from Messiah that's sometimes known as Pastoral Symphony.

It can be from any epoch and it can also be just a movement or a part of another, larger work.

Thanks!

[springrite]

I find Josef Suk's Serenade for Strings to be very pastoral. Same goes with Dvorak's 8th. While many people think English music is most pastoral, I think Czech. Also, have you heard Janacek's Idyll, as well as the Lachian dances?

[Opus106]

While many people think English music is most pastoral, I think Czech.

I agree with you. Dvořák almost invariably reminds of pastures and idyllic scenes. There's also Smetana.

I love me this 2-CD set of RVW -- perhaps you're already familiar with the works? I'd also put in the name of Zoltan Kodaly. Hungarian Folk melodies are more easily discernible in his music than in Bartók's.

[Antoine Marchand]

I'm looking for pastoral orchestral music, something evoking the idyll of Arcadian shepherds and nymphs, villages, herds of cows...

Dvořák almost invariably reminds of pastures and idyllic scenes.

But Arcadia is not just that, my young friend...

Les Bergers d'Arcadie
Nicolas Poussin

[Opus106]

But Arcadia is not just that, my young friend...

Les Bergers d'Arcadie
Nicolas Poussin

But all that music lets you me temporarily set aside that aspect of Arcadia and enjoy the plush orchestrations.

[Elgarian]

For English 'pastoral' music, then Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings is as pastoral as it gets, whilst retaining the edge of darkness that Antoine Marchand reminds us of. One might add the lighter Serenade for Strings. You've already mentioned Vaughan Williams, where the obvious contenders are the 3rd and 5th symphonies, but also the stupendous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (on Springrite's CD recommendation), all of which retain an awareness of 'Et in Arcadia Ego'. 

If you're willing to edge over into some vocal music, then Handel's Acis and Galatea is the really real Arcadian thing - not forgetting his early Italian cantatas.

[Lethevich]

Bliss - Pastoral is a piece suitably in the Arcadian mood.

[knight66]

Suk, A Summer Tale, full of the sounds of nature.

Also try Delius, almost any of the miniatures.

Mike

[listener]

R. STRAUSS    Don Quixote    variation 2 has the unmistakable bleating of sheep  (flutter-tongue in in the horns)

There's a couple of masses by Czech composers - Ryba and Micha that I seem to remember as labeled "Pastorales" .   D'INDY  Symphony on a French Mountain Air  might  work
Lots of organ pieces - Lefebure-Wély in particular.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Brahms, orchestral serenade no. 1.

[Holden]

Dag Wiren's 'Serenade for Strings' certainly fits the bill for me. Mahler's 4th symphony is also very bucolic in its outlook.

[Grazioso]

The trios of Bruckner's scherzos often fit that mood, with their rustic Alpine, Schubertian charm. But for whole pieces, try things like Vaughan-Williams's The Lark Ascending, Finzi's A Severn Rhapsody, Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow, or just about any Delius piece chosen at random  The early 20th-century Brits excelled at that sort of thing. For something much earlier, try Vivaldi's buoyant "La Pastorella" chamber concerto. Or for something in between, listen to some of the pieces from Book I of Liszt's piano travelogue, Annees de Pelerinage, like "Au bord d'une source". Not orchestral, I know, but stylistically it certainly fits the bill.

[Brahmsian]

Do Mahler's 6th and 7th symphonies count as 'Pastoral', with the cow bells?

Or would that be 'Pastural' 

[Sylph]

But Arcadia is not just that, my young friend...

But all that music lets you me temporarily set aside that aspect of Arcadia and enjoy the plush orchestrations.

?

[Opus106]

?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego#Origin

[Sylph]

I know about the painting, I'm just not sure what you're aiming at, what else is there in Arcadia.

[Opus106]

I know about the painting, I'm just not sure... what else is there in Arcadia.

That seems to be a self-contradictory statement. As per what is given in the Wiki article, the painting is supposed to signify -- as far as my non-artistic brain is able grasp -- that life is not all "frolicking happily in the meadows," and that death is an inevitability.

[Todd]

Suk, A Summer Tale, full of the sounds of nature.

Seconded.  Also, some of the songs of Joseph Canteloube would surely count.  Why, they even are about sheperds and sheperdesses.

[Luke]

Enescu's Third Orchestral Suite 'Villageoise'  - an amazing, amazing piece, full of colourings and shadings and rhythms so fresh that orchestra seems to be breathing and alive - is full of evocations of the Romanian countryside - the movement titles are:

Renouveau champêtre
Gamins en plein air
La Vieille Maison de l'enfance, au soleil couchant
Pâtre
Oiseaux migrateurs et corbeaux
Cloches vespérales
Rivière sous la lune
Danses rustiques

and the music approaches these familiar themes in the most original and sparkling way imaginable.

The 'Spring' movement of Respighi's Botticelli Pictures also as fresh as a daisy (the whole piece is a brightly coloured marvel, really).

[Sylph]

That seems to be a self-contradictory statement. As per what is given in the Wiki article, the painting is supposed to signify -- as far as my non-artistic brain is able grasp -- that life is not all "frolicking happily in the meadows," and that death is an inevitability.

Oh, Lord, there's death in Arcadia. As if we didn't know. But that's not the point here, the focus is on other matters.

And music. So no more thread derailings.