Symphonic poem

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A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, in one movement, in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. This programme could come from a poem, a novel, a painting or some other source. Music based on extra-musical sources is often known as program music, while music which has no other associations is known as absolute music. A series of tone poems may be combined in a suite, in the romantic rather than the baroque sense: "The Swan of Tuonela" (1895) is a tone poem from Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite.

Franz Liszt largely invented the symphonic poem, in a series of single-movement orchestral works composed in the 1840s and 1850s. The immediate predecessors of the Lisztian tone poem were concert overtures, theatrical, colorful and evocative orchestral movements that were created for performance independent of any opera or theater-piece: for example, Felix Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave or Hector Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture. An early such independent overture is Carl Maria von Weber's Der Beherrscher der Geister ("The Ruler of the Spirits", 1811), a highly atmospheric overture without an opera. These concert pieces in turn sprang from the overtures by Ludwig van Beethoven such as those for Egmont, Coriolan, and the Leonore No. 3, which in their musical content anticipates the story of the stage work which they introduce (plays in the case of Egmont and Coriolanus, the opera Fidelio in the case of Leonore). Even earlier orchestral mood pieces are exemplified by the 'storm' set-pieces that were an established genre that went back to the summer storm in Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and some moody entr'actes between scenes of Baroque French operas.

Other composers who took up the symphonic poem:

From the above one can understand that the freedom of the genre of the symphonic poem allows other appellations, such as "musical picture," "overture," "fantasy," etc.

Richard Strauss (who preferred the term "tone poem" to "symphonic poem") was one of the most prolific late Romantic composers in the genre, with his works including Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quichote, and Ein Heldenleben. Strauss subtitled Don Quichote 'Introduction, Theme with Variations, and Finale' and 'Fantastic Variations for Large Orchestra on a Theme of Knightly Character.' The work could as easily be called a rhapsody as a tone poem.

William Lloyd Webber, the father of theatrical composer/impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, composed a symphonic poem Aurora, which has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent years. However, some of this interest can be attributed to his association with the popularity of his son's works.

Frank Sinatra commissioned and conducted a 1956 album Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color. The album featured tone poems by eight contemporary composers: André Previn, Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Victor Young, Jeff Alexander, Alec Wilder, and Elmer Bernstein.

Isao Tomita reworked the incidental music he composed for Osamu Tezuka's animated TV series Jangaru Taitei (Jungle Emperor), aka Kimba the White Lion, into a tone poem enetitled Jangaru Taitei: Symphonic Poem. It was incorporated into an animated film by Tezuka Productions in 1991, with the orchestral score performed by the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ishimaru Tora. [1]

There are also a number of one-movement works not written for orchestra, but for some chamber ensemble or solo instrument, based on some extra-musical source. Because of their non-orchestral nature, these are not considered to be "symphonic poems", although in all aspects other than instrumentation, they resemble one. One of the best known such pieces is Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht ("Transfigured Night"), based on a poem, originally written for string sextet (though later arranged for a larger ensemble).

[edit] See also

[edit] List of Tone Poems by Composer

Claude Debussy

Franz Liszt

  • Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, (1848-9) (after Victor Hugo)
  • Tasso: lamento e trionfo, (1849) (after Byron)
  • Les préludes, after Lamartine (1848, rev. before 1854)
  • Orpheus, (1853-4)
  • Prometheus, (1850)
  • Mazeppa, (1851)
  • Festklänge, (1853)
  • Héroïde funèbre, (1849-50)
  • Hungaria, (1854)
  • Hamlet, (1858)
  • Hunnenschlacht, (1857)
  • Die Ideale (1857) (after Schiller)

Sergei Rachmaninoff

  • Prince Rostislav (1891)
  • The Rock, op. 7 (1893)
  • Caprice Bohémien, op.12 (1894)
  • The Isle of the Dead, op.29 (1909)

Ottorino Respighi

Camille Saint-Saëns

  • Le Rouet d'Omphale, op. 31
  • Phaéton, op. 39
  • Danse macabre, op. 40
  • La Jeunesse d'Hercule, op. 50

Mieczysław Karłowicz

  • Returning Waves, op.9 (1904)
  • Eternal Songs, op.10 (1906)
  • Lithuanian Rhapsody, op.11 (1906)
  • Stanisław i Anna Ošwiecimovie, op.12 (1906)
  • Sorrowful Tale, op.13 (1908)
  • An Episode during Masquerade, op.14 (1908-09)

Alexander Scriabin

  • The Poem of Ecstasy, op. 54 (1905)
  • Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, op.60 (1910)

Dmitri Shostakovich

  • October, op. 131 (1967)

Jean Sibelius

  • Kullervo, Symphony for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra Op.7 (1892)
  • En Saga, Tone Poem for orchestra Op.9 (1892)
  • Rakastava (The Lover) for male voices and strings or strings and percussion Op.14 (1893/1911)
  • Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the Kalevala) for orchestra Op.22 (1893)
  • Skogsrået (The Wood Nymph), Tone Poem for orchestra Op.15 (1894)
  • Vårsång for orchestra Op.16 (1894)
  • Kung Kristian (King Christian), Suite from the incidental music for orchestra Op.27 (1898)
  • Sandels, Improvisation for chorus and orchestra Op.28 (1898)
  • Finlandia for orchestra and chorus (optional) Op.26 (1899)
  • Snöfrid for reciter, chorus and orchestra Op.29 (1899)
  • Tulen synty (The Origin of Fire) Op.32 (1902)
  • Kuolema ("Valse Triste" and "Scene with Cranes") for orchestra Op.44 (1904/1906)
  • Pohjolan tytär (Pohjola's Daughter), Tone Poem for orchestra Op.49 (1906)
  • Svanevit (Swan-white), Suite from the incidental music for orchestra Op.54 (1908)
  • Nightride and Sunrise, Tone Poem for orchestra Op.55 (1909)
  • Dryadi (The Dryad) for orchestra Op.45/1 (1910)
  • Barden (The Bard), Tone Poem for orchestra and harp Op.64 (1913/1914)
  • Luonnotar, Tone Poem for soprano and orchestra Op.70 (1913)
  • Aallottaret (The Oceanides), Tone Poem for orchestra Op.73 (1914)
  • Oma Maa (Our Fatherland) for chorus and orchestra Op.92 (1918)
  • Jordens sång (Song of the Earth) for chorus and orchestra Op.93 (1919)
  • Väinön virsi (Väinö's song) for chorus and orchestra Op.110 (1926)
  • Tapiola, Tone Poem for orchestra Op.112 (1926)

Kaikhosru Sorabji

  • Chaleur (1917)

Anton Webern

  • Im Sommerwind (1904)
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