Top 10 Favorite Tone Poems

not edward · January 12, 2015, 06:29:36 AM

The notes to the original recording of San Francisco Polyphony include Ligeti's tl:dr; explanation of the piece:

"The individual melodic lines are regular; their combination is chaotic; in the overall form [...] order is once again to be found - one might imagine individual objects which are all hurled in the greatest disarray into a drawer, and yet the drawer has a clearly defined form: chaos reigns inside it, but the drawer remains well-constructed."

Fagotterdämmerung · January 12, 2015, 10:33:44 AM

Quote from: edward on January 12, 2015, 06:29:36 AM
The notes to the original recording of San Francisco Polyphony include Ligeti's tl:dr; explanation of the piece:

"The individual melodic lines are regular; their combination is chaotic; in the overall form [...] order is once again to be found - one might imagine individual objects which are all hurled in the greatest disarray into a drawer, and yet the drawer has a clearly defined form: chaos reigns inside it, but the drawer remains well-constructed."

That's a good description. Boxed chaos is certainly evocative of the piece. It's manic, but the flurries of individual melodic fragments tend to be quite small.

André · January 12, 2015, 12:49:45 PM

It's hard to define a tone poem. Generally speaking I would imagine it tells a tale in music. Therefore, musical works that do not depict any specific action should not be considered tone poems: Metamorphosen, The Planets, Bolero, Fountains of Rome etc. do not qualify.

Among those that depict a story in musical terms, some are also designated as symphonies by their composer: Strauss' Sinfonia Domestica and Alpensinfonie, which does not exactly help to characterize the genre. I'd consider the latter among the generic term of symphony instead. Then there is the so-called Symphonic Suite (Schéhérazade), Symphonic Study (Falstaff) and many Overtures to nothing in particular that actually depict events or characters in music, v.g. Cockaigne, 1812, Coriolan, The Hebrides...

Liszt, Strauss, Smetana, Sibelius, Dvorak are notable Tone Poem composers.

Among my favourites (in no particular order):

- Rachmaninoff: Island of the Dead
- Smetana: Vltava
- Strauss: Don Quixote, Also Sprach Zarathustra
- Sibelius: En Saga, Tapiola, Pohjola's Daughter.
- Bax: Tintagel, and a few others.
- Franck: Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman)
- Liszt: Les Préludes
- Dvorak: The Water Goblin, The Noonday Witch
- Schoenberg: Pelléas et Mélisande.

OK, that's 13 already...but hey ! I love orchestral tone poems.

jochanaan · January 12, 2015, 05:19:44 PM

Quote from: André on January 12, 2015, 12:49:45 PM
It's hard to define a tone poem. Generally speaking I would imagine it tells a tale in music. Therefore, musical works that do not depict any specific action should not be considered tone poems: Metamorphosen, The Planets, Bolero, Fountains of Rome etc. do not qualify...

Actually, musical poetry does not have to tell a story any more than a Shakespeare sonnet. It can just as easily describe a mood, or a state of being. So all the aforementioned works actually do qualify.

Dancing Divertimentian · January 13, 2015, 10:17:01 AM

Is Jeux technically a tone poem? It was originally written for the Ballets Russes. Wiki calls it a "poème dansé" (danced poem).

Jo498 · January 13, 2015, 12:11:51 PM

Quote from: jochanaan on January 12, 2015, 05:19:44 PM
Actually, musical poetry does not have to tell a story any more than a Shakespeare sonnet. It can just as easily describe a mood, or a state of being. So all the aforementioned works actually do qualify.

I agree. Beethoven was (probably against his intentions) taken as godfather of the tone poem by Berlioz etc. and he famously commented "more feeling than painting" (mehr Empfindung als Malerei) on his pastoral symphony.

Fagotterdämmerung · January 13, 2015, 12:29:59 PM

I often wonder how small an ensemble has to be stop counting as tone poem material. There is a ton of program music for small ensembles, and especially, solo instruments. Endless volumes of keyboard music, to be sure.

Is Barber's Summer Music a tone poem? Are Biber's Mystery Sonatas a tone poem? And does a work containing singing preclude it from tone poem status?

Then again, derivative suites from preexisting ballets, operas, film, and incidental music often function as tone poems without being so in intent.

Karl Henning · January 13, 2015, 02:49:55 PM

Quote from: Fagotterdämmerung on January 13, 2015, 12:29:59 PM
I often wonder how small an ensemble has to be stop counting as tone poem material.

Probably no one will argue that Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht is a tone-poem, even as a string sextet.

André · January 13, 2015, 03:39:56 PM

Quote from: jochanaan on January 12, 2015, 05:19:44 PM
Actually, musical poetry does not have to tell a story any more than a Shakespeare sonnet. It can just as easily describe a mood, or a state of being. So all the aforementioned works actually do qualify.

Mileage varies. In its lengthy article Wikipedia stresses the litterary origin of the Tone Poem: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_poem

Description in music can be traced back to the origins of that art. Someone mentioned Biber, but another candidate could be Vivaldi, whose Four Seasons do use Sonnets to telling graphic effect. But in most cases, a TP tells a story. And of course, all symphonic ballets divorced from the stage action could be termed TP in a very broad sense (somenone mentioned Jeux - pourquoi pas ?)

Another candidate: Silvestre Revueltas' La Noche de los Mayas.

jochanaan · January 15, 2015, 07:29:51 AM

Quote from: Fagotterdämmerung on January 13, 2015, 12:29:59 PM
I often wonder how small an ensemble has to be stop counting as tone poem material....

Well, most of the "tone poems" we think of are for orchestra, but in fact, I've never heard that the size or type of instrumental ensemble makes any difference to a composition's "poetic" status.

kyjo · July 26, 2023, 08:45:29 PM

Time to resurrect this old thread!

Atterberg: Älven - från fjällen till havet (The River - from the Mountains to the Sea)
Bax: In Memoriam
Dvořák: Vodník (The Water Goblin)
Elgar: In the South (Alassio)
Melartin: Traumgesicht
Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead
Respighi: Pini di Roma
Sibelius: The Wood Nymph
Strauss: Don Quixote
Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau

Bonus choices:
Avshalomov: Hutongs of Peking, Balakirev: Tamara, Franck: Le Chasseur maudit, Harty: With the Wild Geese, Liszt: Les préludes, Merikanto: Lemminkainen (just discovered it today - wonderful!!), Sainton: Nadir, Saint-Saëns: Phaëton, Sculthorpe: Kakadu, Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Vaughan Williams: In the Fen Country...

Symphonic Addict · July 27, 2023, 02:23:42 PM

Some works are not titled symphonic/tone poems as such, but given that they describe or portray something, I mention them.

Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie
Tchaikovsky: The Voyevode
Franck: Le Chasseur maudit
Sibelius: Tapiola
Villa-Lobos: Amazonas
Respighi: Vetrate di Chiesa
Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel
Bax: Christmas Eve
Smetana: My Country
Bridge: Enter Spring

Then these

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote
Nielsen: Pan and Syrinx
Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter
Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead, Prince Rostislav
Glazunov: The Sea
Freitas Branco: Vathek
Eller: The Singing Fields
Fibich: Toman and the Wood Nymph
Ireland: Mai-Dun
Hausegger: Wieland der Schmied
Liszt: Tasso, Héroïde funèbre
Holst: Indra
Enescu: Vox Maris
Malipiero: Impressioni dal vero II
Chausson: Viviane
Koechlin: La course de printemps
Ivanovs: The Rainbow
Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna
B. Tchaikovsky: The Wind of Siberia
Bersa: Sunny Fields
Madetoja: Kullervo
Englund: Epinikia
Langgaard: Heltedød
Tveitt: Nykken
Rautavaara: Isle of Bliss
Delius: In a Summer Garden
Wolf: Penthesilea
Wagenaar: Saul and David
O. Lindberg: From the Great Forest
Lyapunov: Hashish
Scott: Neptune
Novák: In the Tatra Mountains
De Vocht: In Exile
Weingartner: König Lear
Glière: The Sirens
Saint-Saëns: Le rouet d'Omphale
Casella: Italia
Noskowski: The Steppe
Josten: Jungle
Harty: The Childfren of Lir
Herbert: Hero and Leander
Massenet: Visions

kyjo · July 27, 2023, 05:49:54 PM

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on July 27, 2023, 02:23:42 PMSome works are not titled symphonic/tone poems as such, but given that they describe or portray something, I mention them.

Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie
Tchaikovsky: The Voyevode
Franck: Le Chasseur maudit
Sibelius: Tapiola
Villa-Lobos: Amazonas
Respighi: Vetrate di Chiesa
Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel
Bax: Christmas Eve
Smetana: My Country
Bridge: Enter Spring

Then these

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote
Nielsen: Pan and Syrinx
Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter
Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead, Prince Rostislav
Glazunov: The Sea
Freitas Branco: Vathek
Eller: The Singing Fields
Fibich: Toman and the Wood Nymph
Ireland: Mai-Dun
Hausegger: Wieland der Schmied
Liszt: Tasso, Héroïde funèbre
Holst: Indra
Enescu: Vox Maris
Malipiero: Impressioni dal vero II
Chausson: Viviane
Koechlin: La course de printemps
Ivanovs: The Rainbow
Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna
B. Tchaikovsky: The Wind of Siberia
Bersa: Sunny Fields
Madetoja: Kullervo
Englund: Epinikia
Langgaard: Heltedød
Tveitt: Nykken
Rautavaara: Isle of Bliss
Delius: In a Summer Garden
Wolf: Penthesilea
Wagenaar: Saul and David
O. Lindberg: From the Great Forest
Lyapunov: Hashish
Scott: Neptune
Novák: In the Tatra Mountains
De Vocht: In Exile
Weingartner: König Lear
Glière: The Sirens
Saint-Saëns: Le rouet d'Omphale
Casella: Italia
Noskowski: The Steppe
Josten: Jungle
Harty: The Childfren of Lir
Herbert: Hero and Leander
Massenet: Visions

And I thought my list was long!

Seriously though, so many great pieces that you mentioned there, and quite a few that I don't yet know!

Symphonic Addict · July 27, 2023, 07:33:52 PM

Quote from: kyjo on July 27, 2023, 05:49:54 PMAnd I thought my list was long! Seriously though, so many great pieces that you mentioned there, and quite a few that I don't yet know!

Just a little, but then again, I'm not a symphonic/orchestral addict for nothing.