Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site petrus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!karn 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