I've always been interested in depictions of storms in music. Of course the storm can be either physical or metaphorical.
Three of my favourites are:
Novak's: 'The Storm' - one of the greatest 20th Century choral works in my opinion. Novak's 'In the Tatras' has a fine storm section as well.
Sibelius: 'Tapiola' - has a wonderful storm sequence towards the end (echoed in Moeran's Symphony).
Sibelius: 'The Tempest' Prelude
I realise that I've mentioned five works here, so let's say that you can choose up to five works.
A few favourite storms -
Berlioz: Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens
Weber: Storm from Oberon; Wolf's Glenn Scene from Der Freischutz
Britten: Storm Interlude from Peter Grimes
Mahler: Symphony No 5, Second Movement - Sturmisch bewegt (Mit grosster Vehemenz)
Verdi's Otello opens with an impressive storm
Probably lots of others, mainly operatic.
Cheating slightly - +1 for Tapiola
Off he top of my head:
- Wagner: Prelude to Act 1 of Die Walküre
- Beethoven: Gewitter. Sturm (allegro) from Symphony No. 6
- Debussy: Images oubliées No. 3, "Quelques aspects de Nous n'irons plus au bois parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable"
Honourable mention (and off the beaten track):
Haydn: Storm scene at the beginning of Act 1 of La vera costanza.
Mother Nature, Shakespeare, war & violence... I do like musical storms.
Arthur Honegger: Prélude pour La tempête
Also by Honegger: "Orage" from the orchestral suite 'l'Impératrice aux rochers".
https://www.youtube.com/v/gh6T-sRohhs
https://www.youtube.com/v/yIq9JJm_4Gs
Ernst Herman Meyer's Konzert für Orchester mit obligatem Klavier has an excellent stormy first movement.
https://www.youtube.com/v/cu1Oqci_KGE
Many "allegro tempestuoso" movements (Prokofiev pianoconcerto 2; Peter Mennin symphony 5, Malcolm Arnold symph. 5, Julian Carillo symphony 3...) are musical"Storms".
I almost forgot this romantic gem by Burgmüller: https://youtu.be/KRHy8S5IzJs
And for the organ lovers Jean Langlais: https://youtu.be/8RVL1baOeec
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Winter, mvt. 3
Rossini - Guillaume Tell Overture, storm section
Grieg - Peer Gynt's Homecoming
Great choice of works - thank you! :)
I thought this could be one of my famous 'zero response' threads.
Of the ones I know I totally agree about the Britten Peter Grimes Storm music and Honegger's Prelude to the Tempest. Why didn't I think of those? ::)
Thanks again.
PS I should also have mentioned the fabulously atmospheric (IMO anyway) 'approaching storm' opening of Dag Wiren's Fourth Symphony.
Bax - November Woods
Walton - Troilus & Cressida (Storm scene and love music - where does one begin and the other end...... ;)
Arnold - Tam O'Shanter (the ride through the storm section)
Strauss - Alpine Symphony - thunderstorm
Grofe - Cloudburst
Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 02, 2019, 05:15:28 AM
Bax - November Woods
Walton - Troilus & Cressida (Storm scene and love music - where does one begin and the other end...... ;)
Arnold - Tam O'Shanter (the ride through the storm section)
Strauss - Alpine Symphony - thunderstorm
Grofe - Cloudburst
That really is a blast from the past. My older brother had the Grand Canyon Suite on LP and I nearly played it to death. I have it on a Naxos CD but somehow it lacks the magic of that long lost LP.
Quote from: ritter on April 02, 2019, 12:39:08 AM
Off he top of my head:
- Wagner: Prelude to Act 1 of Die Walküre
- Beethoven: Gewitter. Sturm (allegro) from Symphony No. 6
- Debussy: Images oubliées No. 3, "Quelques aspects de Nous n'irons plus au bois parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable"
Honourable mention (and off the beaten track):
Haydn: Storm scene at the beginning of Act 1 of La vera costanza.
Some fine choices, Rafael. 8) That storm from Beethoven's
Pastoral is something else.
Atterberg's Symphony No. 3 "Storm" movement
Wagner Flying Dutchman overture
Sibelius Symphony No. 7 (the middle part)
Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 02, 2019, 05:15:28 AM
Bax - November Woods
Walton - Troilus & Cressida (Storm scene and love music - where does one begin and the other end...... ;)
Arnold - Tam O'Shanter (the ride through the storm section)
Strauss - Alpine Symphony - thunderstorm
Grofe - Cloudburst
How could I forget November Woods!? ???
Great choice.
chronologically
Vivaldi - from "Summer" concerto
Berlioz - Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens
Mahler - from Symphony No. 3 first movement
Quote from: Brian on April 02, 2019, 07:43:33 AM
Mahler - from Symphony No. 3 first movement
I wasn't aware of a storm there...?
(There is a "storm" in the last of Kindertotenlieder "In diesem Wetter")
Vivaldi has been mentioned but not his Flute Concerto in F major La tempesta di mare RV 433
Verdi: Rigoletto (last act). So spooky.
Wagner: Die Walküre, beginning of the first act.
Die Zauberflöte: thunder and lightning effects that introduce the Queen of the Night. No music there, just 10 seconds of magical "nature sounds".
Excellent topic! Count me as another fan of these stirring moments.
Favorites (already mentioned):
Strauss - Thunderstorm from the An Alpine Symphony
Atterberg - 2nd movement from the 3rd Symphony (curiously I played it again a couple of days ago, what epic melodies!)
Novak - The Storm
Others:
Gilson - Storm from The Sea
Bridge - The Sea (4th mov.)
Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 02, 2019, 05:15:28 AM
...
Walton - Troilus & Cressida (Storm scene and love music - where does one begin and the other end...... ;)
....
A good choice there...the music depicts the storm
and what the characters are up to while it rages... :)
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Summer, mvt. 3
Rossini - William Tell Overture, storm section
Beethoven - Storm from Pastoral Symphony
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on April 02, 2019, 01:23:51 PM
Excellent topic! Count me as another fan of these stirring moments.
Favorites (already mentioned):
Strauss - Thunderstorm from the An Alpine Symphony
Atterberg - 2nd movement from the 3rd Symphony (curiously I played it again a couple of days ago, what epic melodies!)
Novak - The Storm
Others:
Gilson - Storm from The Sea
Bridge - The Sea (4th mov.)
Great choices Cesar - of course the Frank Bridge score which influenced Britten's storm music in Peter Grimes.
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Bax: November Woods
Britten: Four Sea Interludes
Quote from: Biffo on April 02, 2019, 05:32:05 AM
That really is a blast from the past. My older brother had the Grand Canyon Suite on LP and I nearly played it to death. I have it on a Naxos CD but somehow it lacks the magic of that long lost LP.
There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain. This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....
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Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 02, 2019, 11:11:56 PM
There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain. This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....
[asin]B000003CT1[/asin]
Sounds fun!
A Technicolor storm :
Miklos Rozsa:
https://www.youtube.com/v/9AnjYRbEUeA
Don't forget the thunder sheet:
Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
Notable orchestral works in which the musical instrument has been used include the following:
Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie and the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten
Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Symphony in B minor "Polonia" (1903–08)
Alan Hovhaness: "Invocation to Vahakn No. 3"
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
(source : Wiki)
https://www.youtube.com/v/wmmNOau9ASg
And a violent, expressionist storm with a political twist:
https://www.youtube.com/v/jbwDHpY5Ctk
Paying a musical tribute to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967 was a matter of course for Paul Dessau. The news that the second Russian moon probe had landed in the "Sea of Tempests" on 24 December 1966 provided him not only with a title, but also with a "programme". ...
The work culminates in a high E, maintained by thirty violins throughout an intensive crescendo, to symbolize what Dessau described as the "luminosity of a very bright star"
(Source Brillant)
Atterberg - Symphony no. 3, mvt. 2
Grofé - "Cloudburst" from Grand Canyon Suite
Sibelius - Tapiola (middle section)
(+Gershwin: "Hurricane" from Porgy and Bess, Bax: November Woods, etc.)
Quote from: Holden on April 02, 2019, 02:11:08 PM
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Summer, mvt. 3
Rossini - William Tell Overture, storm section
Great minds etc. 8)
Quote from: Jo498 on April 02, 2019, 07:59:40 AM
I wasn't aware of a storm there...?
(There is a "storm" in the last of Kindertotenlieder "In diesem Wetter")
The loud, boisterous passage immediately before the military-style snare drum tapping and recapitulation was originally called a "Southern Storm" in Mahler's notes. I see from Utah Symphony program notes available online that he went back and forth over whether to describe it as a storm or a purely metaphorical battle fought between the forces of spring and summer. I think it's a pretty convincing storm!
I love the finale of Atterberg's Third Symphony, but I don't like the storm movement at all - it's just too long.
Quote from: pjme on April 03, 2019, 12:19:22 AM
Don't forget the thunder sheet:
Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
Notable orchestral works in which the musical instrument has been used include the following:
Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie and the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten
Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Symphony in B minor "Polonia" (1903–08)
Alan Hovhaness: "Invocation to Vahakn No. 3"
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
(source : Wiki)
I realize I'm going off on a tangent here, but a few other pieces that deploy the thunder sheet to great effect are Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 10 and the three works that make up James MacMillan's Triduum: The World's Ransoming, Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1 ("Vigil").
Quote from: Maestro267 on April 04, 2019, 05:15:30 AM
I realize I'm going off on a tangent here, but a few other pieces that deploy the thunder sheet to great effect are Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 10 and the three works that make up James MacMillan's Triduum: The World's Ransoming, Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1 ("Vigil").
Thanks and also a vote for HB Symphony 10.
Quote from: Florestan on April 03, 2019, 09:57:12 AM
Great minds etc. 8)
Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.
Quote from: Holden on April 06, 2019, 12:33:28 PM
Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.
Easily the most frightening on disc, with a final gallop to end them all.
Quote from: Holden on April 06, 2019, 12:33:28 PM
Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.
Quote from: André on April 06, 2019, 01:40:33 PM
Easily the most frightening on disc, with a final gallop to end them all.
Which one? 1939 or 1952?
People have already mentioned most of the ones I could think of, except...
Thomas Linley the Younger, in his short life, did some music for The Tempest. And Arise ye spirits of the storm is a knockout.
In Walter Braunfels' opera Die Vögel (The Birds), an angry Jupiter unelashes the might of the Northern and Southern winds over the flock of rebelling birds. A quite effective scene.
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in Prokofiev's War and Peace. It's so vivid it hurts. You wouldn't want to be there.
Most of my favourite storms are present and correct. But I am surprised that so far no one has mentioned the Overture of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. There is also a terrific storm within the opera with the sailors stamping and making a superb din.
Mike
Quote from: Hattoff on April 08, 2019, 07:15:20 AM
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in Prokofiev's War and Peace. It's so vivid it hurts. You wouldn't want to be there.
Of course! The evocative 'Snowstorm' when Prince Andrei arrives back home is also one that I should have remembered. Thank you.
Also, Sviridov's 'The Snowstorm' is worth inclusion.
Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 02, 2019, 11:11:56 PM
There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain. This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....
[asin]B000003CT1[/asin]
Yes, I remember their recording of the 1812 overture, on LP. So much boasting about the canons, and the groove had visible squiggles. Never had a phono cartridge that could track it. Every recording was like a bass drum concerto. It was years before I could take Telarc seriously.
Quote from: knight66 on April 08, 2019, 08:29:56 AM
Most of my favourite storms are present and correct. But I am surprised that so far no one has mentioned the Overture of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. There is also a terrific storm within the opera with the sailors stamping and making a superb din.
Mike
See reply no 9 :)
Not described as a storm as such, but the first movement of Mendelssohn's Scottish symphony whips the music into quite a lather. One of my favourite symphony movements.
I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:
https://www.youtube.com/v/Bq-FKP-8ZV0
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 19, 2020, 04:43:01 PM
I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:
https://www.youtube.com/v/Bq-FKP-8ZV0
This sounds terrific Cesar. I must find my CD of the work. I was listening the other day to the 'Snowstorm' from Prokofiev's opera 'War and Peace' which has been mentioned above - a wonderfully evocative section.
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 19, 2020, 04:43:01 PM
I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:
A really good storm! The chorus adds greatly to the spectacular effect.
Thanks!
Quote from: vandermolen on April 20, 2020, 03:08:43 AM
This sounds terrific Cesar. I must find my CD of the work. I was listening the other day to the 'Snowstorm' from Prokofiev's opera 'War and Peace' which has been mentioned above - a wonderfully evocative section.
I do know that Suite, Jeffrey. It's Prokofiev at his most lyrical and not too harsh as in other works of his.
Quote from: pjme on April 20, 2020, 03:39:23 AM
A really good storm! The chorus adds greatly to the spectacular effect.
Thanks!
My pleasure. Indeed, the female chorus was a touch of genius here.
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on April 19, 2020, 04:43:01 PM
I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:
https://www.youtube.com/v/Bq-FKP-8ZV0
That was rather good!
Nystroem is already on my list of composers to explore. I checked.
Quote from: Madiel on April 20, 2020, 04:41:12 PM
That was rather good!
Nystroem is already on my list of composers to explore. I checked.
Try Sinfonia del Mare