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From: karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Tone poems
Message-ID: <478@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 18:18:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.478
Posted: Fri Aug 23 18:18:08 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 06:25:51 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 25

I would like to start a discussion on a new topic. I've long been fascinated
by the ability of music to evoke vivid images without words, and would like
to see what people consider as the best examples. I'm not referring to
images based on prior association; I suspect that not many people thought of
shuttles and space stations in earth orbit upon hearing An Der Shoen Blauen
Danau until after the movie 2001.  On the other hand, it is hard to mistake
the opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra as anything other than a sunrise, or
the Allegro of Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony as anything other than a
summer thunderstorm. (The fact that these were the composers' deliberate
intentions didn't hurt.)

Other examples include The Planets, although the names Holst gave to each
movement give it away.  Ideally, the kind of music I'm talking about would
evoke the same images in almost anyone hearing it for the first time,
without being told the name of the piece or the composer's intentions.

I'm not sure if Shostakovitch would qualify; in my mind his middle
symphonies conjure up vividly effective images of the horrors of a nuclear
war, but knowing ahead of time that he wrote them during The Great Patriotic
War tends to color my interpretation.

Anybody have any personal favorites?

Phil
bellcore!karn