Pieces inspired by months and seasons

[Ciel_Rouge]

Apart from the Four Seasons, there is a significantly less known and less overplayed cycle by Tchaikovsky called Seasons, where each piece is inspired by a month. I was wondering if there are more pieces directly inspired by seasonal changes - maybe not entire cycles as these may be rare, but maybe certain sonatas or concertos that I am not yet aware of (I already moved beyond the "overplayed" but I am still relatively new to the classical and enjoy the state of still having a lot to discover).

[hornteacher]

Haydn's Oratorio "The Seasons" is a great work, and Haydn's last if I'm not mistaken.

[Ciel_Rouge]

I noticed the "Spring Symphony" by Schumann in another thread. Single seasons or months still qualify. I suppose the Four Seasons has become so prevalent and overplayed that we rarely think about the possibility of other pieces with such references. I'm looking forward to an interesting thread.

[Novi]

Roussel's Symphony No. 1, Le poème de la forêt, has four movements based on the seasons: Forêt d'hiver; Renouveau; Soir d'été; and Faunes et Dryades.

[Dundonnell]

Let me see...

Glazunov's delightful Ballet "The Seasons"(my favourite piece of Glazunov!)
Henry Hadley's Symphony No.2 "The Four Seasons"
Henri Sauguet's Symphony No.2 "The Seasons"

Frederic Austin Symphonic Rhapsody "Spring"
Sir Arnold Bax "Spring Fire"
Frank Bridge Rhapsody "Enter Spring"
Benjamin Britten Spring Symphony
Aaron Copland Ballet "Appalachian Spring"
Frederick Delius "Spring Morning"
Josef Bohuslav Foerster Symphonic Poem "Springtime"
Glazunov Musical Picture "Spring"
Ludvig Irgens Jensen 'Japanischer Fruhling"
Dmitri Kabalevsky Symphonic Poem "Spring"
Charles Koechlin Symphonic Poem "The Spring Running"
Laszlo Lajtha Symphony No.4 "Spring"
Rued Langgaard Symphony No.2 "Break of Spring"
Joseph Marx Spring Music
Anthony Milner Cantata "Roman Spring"
Carl Nielsen "Springtime in Funen"
Serge Rachmaninov Cantata "Spring"
Joachim Raff "Fruhlingsklange"
Ture Rangstrom Spring Hymn
Jean Sibelius "Spring Song"
Christian Sinding Symphony No.4 "Winter and Spring"
Igor Stravinsky Ballet "Rite of Spring"
Felix Weingartner Symphonic Poem "Fruhling"
Egon Wellesz Symphonic Poem "Vorfruhling"
Alexander Zemlinsky Cantata "Fruhlingsbegrabnis"

.....wonderful what a word search produces on one's cd list collection database

I might(!) try Summer, Autumn and Winter later

[Grazioso]

Bax--Summer Music, November Woods
Schubert--Frühlingsglaube
Locklair--Symphony of Seasons
Movement 1 of Mahler's 3rd symphony "Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In"

[CRCulver]

Takemitsu's Autumn and In an Autumn Garden are excellent works.

[Dundonnell]

Ok....

William Alwyn "Autumn Legend"
Sir Arnold Bax "Red Autumn"
Grieg Concert Overture "In Autumn"
David Matthews "Movement of Autumn"
Sir Andrzej Panufnik "Autumn Music"
Serge Prokofiev Symphonic Sketch "Autumn"
Einojuhani Rautavaara "Autumn Gardens"
Aulis Sallinen Symphony No.8 "Autumnal Fragments"
Leo Sowerby Overture "Comes Autumn Time"
Virgil Thomson Autumn Concertino
Janis Vitols Ballad "Autumn's Song"

Sir Arnold Bax "Winter Legends"
Ernest Bloch Symphonic Poem "Hiver"
Frederick Delius "Winter Night"
Gustav Holst "A Winter Idyll"
David Matthews "Winter Remembered"
Serge Prokofiev "Winter Bonfire"
Joachim Raff Symphony No.11 "Der Winter"
Josef Suk Overture "A Winter's Tale"
Peter Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 "Winter Daydreams"

[hildegard]

To repeat, Aaron Copland's beautiful and sometimes haunting  Appalachian Spring, originally a ballet score that won the Pulitzer in 1945.      

[Ciel_Rouge]

Wow, I had no idea there were so many As you can see in another thread I am trying to reach beyond what I listened to so far and I usually try new composers or filling the gaps in one period but this way I may really discover more in a short time. I am not very much into the 20th century though (with the exception of Shostakovich, Holst etc.).

[Guido]

Actually Copland's piece is not about the season Spring but about a water spring.

I like Piazolla's homage to Vivaldi's Seasons which is called Cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) which is a suite of tango movements - amongst his best - which often quote the Vivaldi work. He also composed a piece called 8 Seasons, which I haven't heard.

[Lethevich]

Cage - The Seasons

[knight66]

Tchaikovsky's First Symphony is subtitled, Winter Dreams. It is a delightful work. I cannot just now track whether the composer gave it the subtitle, or perhaps the editor. I don't really hear anything particularly wintry about it though.

Mike

[CRCulver]

Per Nørgård has done quite a few. There's Året, Winter Hymn and Frostsalme, all settings of a calendarical poem by Ole Sarvig, Calendar Music, and Fugitive Summer.

[knight66]

Delius wrote some very atmospheric pieces, Summer Night on the River is a short gentle choral piece. Song of Summer is an orchestral minature. The First Cockoo of Spring is another of his works to look out for, all charming, none outstay their welcome.

Mike

[hildegard]

Actually Copland's piece is not about the season Spring but about a water spring.

Well any light you can shed on this topic is certainly appreciated.  

Martha Graham commissioned this ballet and, as understood by Copland, her vision was that of a story of early settlers in Pennsylvania, a young married couple beginning their life together, and in Copland's words "inner excitement of a new life." Sounds a bit like spring, I think. As with much of Graham's work, her vision of the ballet was laced with levels of complexity and metaphor.

Copland called the ballet "Martha's Ballet" because he had no better name for it. Graham, however, renamed it Appalachian Spring, using the beginning phrase of one of the stanza's of Hart Crane's poem The Bridge: The Dance, itself an epic poem about (in Crane's own words), "a synthesis of America and its structural identity."

One of the stanzas of the The Bridge starts with the phrase [/i] "Oh Appalachian Spring." It is believed that Graham was very familiar with the poem and actually based her concept of the ballet on it. Indeed the "Spring" in this one stanza may refer to a water spring, but in an artistic sense, the poem is no more about water than is Graham's ballet or Copland's music.

[Guido]

From Wikipedia:

Originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as Ballet for Martha. Shortly before the premiere, Graham suggested Appalachian Spring, a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, "The Bridge", even though it has no direct relation to the story of the ballet:

O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!

Copland was often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the Appalachians in his music, a fact he alluded to in an interview with NPR's Fred Caland. Furthermore, the word "spring", usually taken in the title to refer to a season of the year, denotes a source of water in the Crane poem.

You are right though... I was wrong in saying that the Appalaichian Spring is 'about' a water spring, but I merely meant to note that that was what the title was referring to.

[karlhenning]

From Wikipedia:

Originally, Copland did not have a title for the work, referring to it simply as Ballet for Martha. Shortly before the premiere, Graham suggested Appalachian Spring, a phrase from a Hart Crane poem, "The Bridge", even though it has no direct relation to the story of the ballet:

O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;
Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends
And northward reaches in that violet wedge
Of Adirondacks!

Copland was often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the Appalachians in his music, a fact he alluded to in an interview with NPR's Fred Caland. Furthermore, the word "spring", usually taken in the title to refer to a season of the year, denotes a source of water in the Crane poem.

You are right though... I was wrong in saying that the Appalaichian Spring is 'about' a water spring, but I merely meant to note that that was what the title was referring to.

Very interesting to learn that this piece does not belong in this thread!

[Dundonnell]

I grovel in abject apology

[hildegard]

Very interesting to learn that this piece does not belong in this thread!

Not sure what you mean Karl, but we are discussing whether this piece was or was not inspired by the season of Spring.