a dose of music: a classical injection - part 2

For my next “dose,” I’d like to suggest listening to Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, or An Alpine Symphony, which is one of his great tone poems. Tone poems are typically one-movement pieces written around a story, or some sort of imagery which is “programmatic,” meaning it follows a story line of sorts. This one is somewhat autobiographical in that Strauss recalls climbing the Alps when he was 14. I would suggest listening to a recording of this piece that has individual tracks for each segment of the piece (since it doesn’t have movements and each scene melds into the next). There should be 21 or 22 depending if they group the ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Visual Feature’ movements together or not. Each segment of the piece is a scene during his journey up and down the mountain. In case the recording you get has the movements in German, here are the English translations: Night, Sunrise, the Ascent, Entry into the Woods, Wandering by the Stream, by the Waterfall, a Visual Feature, on Flowery Meadows, an Alpine Pasture, In thicket and undergrowth on the Wrong Path, on the Glacier, Dangerous Moments, at the Summit, Vision, the Fog Rises, the Sun is Gradually Obscured, Elegy, Calm before the Storm, Thunderstorm and Descent, Sunset, the Waning tones (the journey ends), Night. Listening in this way will allow the music to make more sense and you can follow why Strauss wrote the music the way he did for each “scene.” For example, in the Alpine Pasture scene, listen for birds (flutes) and cow bells (cow bells), and before the Thunderstorm scene you’ll hear raindrops begin, and quickly develop into a thunderstorm of wind, thunder and lightning, all clearly portrayed in the music. Two major recurring themes which you’ll want to listen for are the Night and Sunrise themes. You’ll hear the Night theme in the low brass in the beginning, and the Sunrise theme in trumpets in the beginning of the second scene; both reoccur throughout the whole piece. Enjoy.