Not in any order:
Kevin Puts: Symphony 2 (9/11 USA)
Shostakovich: Symphony 11 'The Year 1905' ('Bloody Sunday' massacre in Tsarist Russia - even though Shostakovich may have had the Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1956 in mind)
Shostakovich: Symphony 13 'Babi Yar' (Massacre of the Jews in Nazi occupied Ukraine)
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 7 'Sinfonia Antartica' (Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole)
Arkadi Mazaev: The Krasnodonians - Symphonic Poem (commemorates the ill-fated heroic resistance to Nazi occupation by the 'Young Guard' in the coal-mining city of Krasnodonians, South-East Ukraine on Valentine's Day 1943 - most were, betrayed, executed and thrown down a mine-shaft).
Over to you!
Poulenc: Dialogue of the Carmelites
Shostakovich Symphony #11 (1905)
Janacek Sonata 1905
Adam: Nixon in China
Fazil Say: Troy Sonata (Well, I consider the trojan war a historical event!)
Quote from: springrite on April 14, 2019, 06:25:01 AM
Poulenc: Dialogue of the Carmelites
Shostakovich Symphony #11 (1905)
Janacek Sonata 1905
Adam: Nixon in China
Fazil Say: Troy Sonata (Well, I consider the trojan war a historical event!)
Excellent! Thank you Paul.
:)
I guess it raises an interesting question about what constitutes a 'historical event'.
Also, if anyone wants to contribute a historical person that is fine with me.
Copland's 'Lincoln Portrait' and Honegger's 'Joan of Arc' come to mind.
Quote from: vandermolen on April 14, 2019, 06:43:38 AM
Copland's 'Lincoln Portrait' and Honegger's 'Joan of Arc' come to mind.
Wow someone actually dig that work? To me it is just hot air. The best version I have heard is the PDQ Bach version.
Shostakovich 7
malcolm arnold peterloo overture
Michael Daugherty To the New World (50th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing)
Oliver Messiaen Quartet for the end of time
Britten War Requiem
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on April 14, 2019, 06:49:24 AM
Wow someone actually dig that work? To me it is just hot air. The best version I have heard is the PDQ Bach version.
Always liked it. I know that, in a way, it's a piece of kitsch full of non-sequiturs but I still like it. Favourite version: Ormandy/Adlai Stevenson. I even heard it live at the proms last year with Charles Dance narrating in a fake Amerivan accent; terrible.
Husa: Music for Prague 1968
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky
Quote from: vandermolen on April 14, 2019, 06:53:31 AM
Always liked it. I know that, in a way, it's a piece of kitsch full of non-sequiturs but I still like it. Favourite version: Ormandy/Adlai Stevenson.
I agree if I have to listen to one version it would be that one, much less histrionics than others.
This one has me stumped, I am sure there are plenty of operas inspired by historical events (at least in part) but they are stubbornly refusing to come to mind or they are travesties of history. Otherwise, the works to come to mind, some already mentioned, aren't really favourites.
Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia antartica - already mentioned and derived from music for a film that was a whitewash
Two that are semi-historical, verging on legendary -
Shostakovich: The Execution of Stepan Razin
Jancek: Taras Bulba
Potboilers like the 1812 Overture and Wellington's Victory? The former I have a sneaking affection for, the latter is truly awful, an embarrassment.
Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea is a favourite work but it is questionable whether it has enough real history in it to qualify; Monteverdi and his team were probably more inspired by the rather sordid story than actual historical events.
Recently listened to the new recording of Elgar's Caractacus - potboiler rather than history and unlikely to become a favourite with me.
John Adams Dr Atomic.
Glier Symphony No. 3.
Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky
Copland Billy the Kid
Haydn The Creation ( ;) )
Bax In Memoriam 1916
Anthony Ritchie - Symphony No.4 "Stations" (written in response to the Christchurch New Zealand earthquake)
Quote from: Roasted Swan on April 14, 2019, 08:47:16 AM
Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky
Copland Billy the Kid
Haydn The Creation ( ;) )
Bax In Memoriam 1916
Anthony Ritchie - Symphony No.4 "Stations" (written in response to the Christchurch New Zealand earthquake)
Quite logical, actually. Someone mentioned the Quartet for the End of Time... 8)
Handel: Dettingen Te Deum, Music for the Royal Fireworks
Kraus: Funeral Symphony for King Gustav of Sweden
Beethoven: Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph
Bach, St John Passion
Bach, St Matthew Passion
8)
Strauss Salome
Vaughan Williams Sinfonia antartica
Haydn Missa in tempore belli
Berg Violin Concerto (inspired by the death of Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler's daughter)
Walton Spitfire Prelude and Fugue
Sarge
Quote from: relm1 on April 14, 2019, 06:52:14 AM
Oliver Messiaen Quartet for the end of time
The end of time has already happened?
Quote from: relm1 on April 14, 2019, 06:52:14 AM
Shostakovich 7
malcolm arnold peterloo overture
Michael Daugherty To the New World (50th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing)
Oliver Messiaen Quartet for the end of time
Britten War Requiem
Interesting selection Kerim. Don't know the Daugherty but sounds of interest. I like the Peterloo Overture, I must see the recent film about Peterloo and a thumbs up for DSCH and the War Requiem - a good choice.
What an extremely interesting and thought-provoking selection, if I say so myself. Thanks very much and do keep them coming. 'Alexander Nevsky' didn't occur to me but it is a great choice. I could have chosen 'Ivan the Terrible' by Prokofiev which I prefer to Alexander Nevsky.
As I mentioned in my second post this thread has raised some interesting questions on what constitutes a 'historical event' but I'm grateful for all contributions.
PS a thumbs up to Sarge's Walton 'Spitfire Prelude and Fugue' entry. I guess that this commemorates an aircraft and its designer but also clearly the 'Battle of Britain' as well. Didn't Martinu write a piece commemorating an aircraft? (Thunderbolt?)
Quote from: vandermolen on April 14, 2019, 12:35:15 PM
Didn't Martinu write a piece commemorating an aircraft? (Thunderbolt?)
Yeah, the
Thunderbolt P-47 - scherzo for orchestra (1945)
Sarge
Which of course brings to mind Martinu's Memorial to Lidice
Shostakovich's 2nd and 12th Symphony are both linked to the 1917 Revolution.
Henning: Thoreau in Concord Jail
Liszt: Funérailles (Octobre 1849) (crushed Hungarian revolution)
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin (in memory of his friends who died in WWI)
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (Pinochet's coup d'état)
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Sibelius: Luonnotar (Finnish creation myth :D)
Stravinsky: Elegy for J.F.K.
I'm gonna try with these ones:
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 (definitely this must be here!)
Prokofiev: Cantata for the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution
Hausegger: Barbarossa
Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 (partly based on the Holocaust)
Walton: Belshazzar's Feast
A trio ov Ives works.
Based on specific dates, but not on actual events, A Symphony: New England Holidays (Washington's Birthday; Decoration Day; The Fourth of July; Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day).
Based on characters: Concord Sonata (Emerson; Hawthorne; The Alcotts; Thoreau).
Based on a tragic event, the third orchestral piece from the Orchestral Set no 2, From Hanover Square North, at the End of a Tragic Day, the Voice of the People Again Arose. On May 7, 1915 the news arrived of the sinking of the Lusitania. Ives witnessed the crowd breaking into the hymn In the Sweet By and By.
They are my favourite Ives works, before the symphonies.
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on April 14, 2019, 06:49:24 AM
Wow someone actually dig that work? To me it is just hot air. The best version I have heard is the PDQ Bach version.
The PDQ Bach version is a masterpiece!
Quote from: relm1 on April 14, 2019, 07:25:14 AM
Glier Symphony No. 3.
AKA
Ilya Murometzhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Muromets
I'll add:
Dvorak: Hussite Overture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussites
Mendelssohn: Reformation Symphony
Arnold: Symphony No. 4 (Notting Hill race riots of 1958)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._4_(Arnold)
Quote from: North Star on April 14, 2019, 04:31:03 PM
Henning: Thoreau in Concord Jail
Liszt: Funérailles (Octobre 1849) (crushed Hungarian revolution)
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin (in memory of his friends who died in WWI)
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (Pinochet's coup d'état)
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Sibelius: Luonnotar (Finnish creation myth :D)
Stravinsky: Elegy for J.F.K.
Can't count, Karlo? :-\ ;D
Here's my five and are all in some way related to WWII or events surrounding this war:
(In no particular order):
Honegger: Symphony No. 3, "Symphonie Liturgique"
Schuman: Prayer in a Time of War
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 (I don't care what anyone says this music written almost immediately following WWII is steeped in anguish and despair)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
Copland: Symphony No. 3
Joseph Martin Kraus – Sorgemusik Över Gustaf III
Beethoven - Wellington's Victory
Chopin - Etude op. 10 No. 12 "Revolutionary"
Liszt - Funerailles
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
Quote from: JBS on April 14, 2019, 02:14:12 PM
Which of course brings to mind Martinu's Memorial to Lidice
Shostakovich's 2nd and 12th Symphony are both linked to the 1917 Revolution.
All works that I admire - well, maybe not so much Shostakovich's Second Symphony. I like the 12th 'The Year 1917' more than most seem to.
Quote from: North Star on April 14, 2019, 04:31:03 PM
Henning: Thoreau in Concord Jail
Liszt: Funérailles (Octobre 1849) (crushed Hungarian revolution)
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin (in memory of his friends who died in WWI)
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (Pinochet's coup d'état)
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Sibelius: Luonnotar (Finnish creation myth :D)
Stravinsky: Elegy for J.F.K.
Fascinating selection Karlo. Good to see Henning included - must hear that one. I could also add the 'Elegy for a Young American' a tribute to President Kennedy for orchestral band by Ronald Lo Presti.
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 14, 2019, 07:37:38 PM
Here's my five and are all in some way related to WWII or events surrounding this war:
(In no particular order):
Honegger: Symphony No. 3, "Symphonie Liturgique"
Schuman: Prayer in a Time of War
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 (I don't care what anyone says this music written almost immediately following WWII is steeped in anguish and despair)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
Copland: Symphony No. 3
I enjoy all of those and the Schuman is a comparatively recent discovery. I'm inclined to agree with your comments on the Sixth Symphony by Vaughan Williams as well. The conductor Malcolm Sargent thought that it related most specifically to the events of World War Two, notwithstanding VW's Prospero/Tempest comment.
I just thought of the excellent 'March of the Hussites' from Novak's South Bohemian Suite, which is very moving in the context of Czechoslovakia in 1938.