I tried to steer clear of the really obvious choices (like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"). In the process, I managed to discover a few pieces and a composer that was new to me. Which, for me, is part of the fun of participating in the #ClassicsaDay feed. Here are my posts for the final week of #ClassicAutumn
10/28/ Edward MacDowell - "In Autumn"
From "Woodland Sketches" Op. 51
MacDowell's piece comes from his "Woodland Sketches." It depicts New England woods when the leaves turn from green to bright shades of red, orange, and yellow.
10/29/19 Franz Schubert - Herbst, D.945
Schubert's lieder sets a Ludwig Rellstab poem to music. The poem uses autumn as a metaphor for death. “Thus withers away the blossoms of life.”
10/30/19 Robert Schumann- Herbstlied, Op. 43, No. 2
Schumann's "Autumn Song" was part of "3 Zweistimmige Lieder" in 1840. It's most often heard arranged for SATB choir.
10/31/19 Cécile Chaminade - Automne Op. 35, No. 2
"Autumne" is part of Six Études de Concert. Chaminade published the collection in 1886. The movement proved so popular that she arranged it for two pianos.
I tried to steer clear of the really obvious choices (like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"). In the process, I managed to discover a few pieces and a composer that was new to me. Which, for me, is part of the fun of participating in the #ClassicsaDay feed. Here are my posts for the fourth week of #ClassicAutumn
10/21/19 Toru Takemitsu - Ceremonial, An Autumn Ode
Takemitsu wrote this work in 1992 for orchestra with sho. This Japanese reed instrument has several pipes and dates from the early 700s.
10/22/19 Jules Massenet - Pensée, D'Automne
Massenet's "Thoughts of Autumn" was based on a poem by Armand Silvestre. The narrator in the poem looks back to a lost love.
10/23/19 Oliver Knussen: Autumnal, Op. 14
This work for violin and piano is dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Britten. It takes its name from Britten's "Nocturne."
10/24/19 Darius Milhaud - Concertino D'Automne, Op. 309
Milhaud completed this work in 1951. It's written for two pianos and eight instruments. It was the second of four concertinos he wrote based on the seasons.
10/25/19 Thea Musgrave - The Seasons, "Autumn"
Musgrave's "The Seasons" are impressions of various paintings at the Metropolitan Musem of Art. The Autumn movement, with its wild hunt, was inspired by Picasso's "End of the Road."
I tried to steer clear of the really obvious choices (like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"). In the process, I managed to discover a few pieces and a composer that was new to me. Which, for me, is part of the fun of participating in the #ClassicsaDay feed. Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicAutumn
10/14/19 Arnold Bax - November Woods
Bax completed his tone poem in November 1917, and it was premiered in November 1920. Bax wrote the work represented "nature in the late autumn."
10/15/19 Joseph Marx -Eine Herbstsymphony
Marx's "Autumn Symphony" polarized the audience at its 1921 Vienna premiere. Fistfights broke out, delaying the performance.
10/16/19
Frederick Delius - "Autumn"
This is the first movement from his "North Country Sketches," depicting the Yorkshire Moorland countryside. It's subtitled "The Wind Soughs in the Trees."
10/17/19 Imogene Holst - Fall of the Leaf
Imogene was the daughter of Gustav Holst. Her 1962 "Fall of the Leaf" is a set of short pieces for solo cello.
10/18/19 Fabien Wallerand - Autumn for tuba and piano
Wallerand is a tuba virtuoso. He wrote "Autumn" for his first album of solo tuba music.
I tried to steer clear of the really obvious choices (like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"). In the process, I managed to discover a few pieces and a composer that was new to me. Which, for me, is part of the fun of participating in the #ClassicsaDay feed. Here are my posts for the second week of #ClassicAutumn
10/7/19 Joachim Raff - Symphony No. 10 in F minor, Zur Herbstzeit Op.213
Subtitled "In Autumn Time," this 1880 symphony was the last of four symphonies based on the seasons. Raff revised the work extensively years after its premiere.
10/8/19 Alexander Glazunov - Autumn from "The Seasons," Op. 67
Glazunov's "The Seasons" was written for an 1899 Russian ballet. The ballet represents an allegorical journey through the months of the year.
10/9/19 Roxanna Panufnik - Autumn in Albania from "Four World Seasons"
Each movement of Panufnik's work represents a season in a different part of the world. The autumn movement is her most personal, written in tribute to her father, Polish composer Andrej Panufnik, who loved the season.
10/10/18 Einojuhani Rautavaara - Autumn Gardens
Rautavaara characterized this 1999 work as, in part, being "a sarabande in honor of the dying splendor of summer."
10/11/19 Christopher Simpson - The Monthes - October
Simpson was a 17th Century viola da gamba player. He published a set of 12 fantasias for the instruments, "The Monthes."
I tried to steer clear of the really obvious choices (like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"). In the process, I managed to discover a few pieces and a composer that was new to me. Which, for me, is part of the fun of participating in the #ClassicsaDay feed. Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicAutumn
10/1/19 Leo Sowerby - Comes Autumn Time
Sowerby originally wrote this as an organ piece in 1916. He orchestrated it a year later, and it's become one of his most popular works both in the concert hall and organ loft.
10/2/19 Franz Joseph Haydn - The Seasons
Autumn is the third movement of Haydn's secular oratorio. In the course of its depiction of country life, it depicts a thrilling hunt over field and glen.
10/3/19 Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky "October" from "The Seasons," Op. 37a
Tchaikovsky wrote this set of 12 short pieces for a monthly magazine. The October movement is subtitled "Autumn Song."
10/4/19 Fanny Mendelssohn "October" from "Das Jahr"
Fanny's cycle of 12 short pieces was published in 1846. The first reviews -- all favorable -- were just going into print when she passed away in May 1847.
