pieces with stories/images

[Tash]

i have a new kind of idea for art this semester inspired my mussorsky's pictures at an exhibition- how he's depiciting paintings- so i'm planning on just doing the opposite in some form, not highly original but i don't care, nobody else is going to do it in my class. i don't know if i want to focus on just piano pieces or make it more general. but if you can think just off the top of your head pieces that have stories that go with them, eg. berlioz symphonie fantastique, strauss till eulenspiegel's merry pranks, etc. that'd be interesting to depice, then please list them!! thanks heaps!

[bernhard]

I think a really interesting composer to do that would be Schumann (e.g. Carnival, Woodland scenes or Scenes from childhood) since all of these cycles have evocative titles and encrypted information (for instance Carnival has encrypted information about the town of Asch and about his then fiance Ernestina, besides it would be fun to paint a masked ball).

The other composer that comes to mind is Debussy, who also has interesting, evocative titles to most of his pieces (which he usually prints at the end, since he claimed that only after he finished the piece did the title occur to him).

Finally, if you look at Couperin’s “ordres”, they all have programmatic titles (mostly veiled references to his contemporaries who would understand what he was referring to). I have recently seen a book in a music shop that (tries to) explains what the mysterious titles are all about. I will look it up tomorrow and post it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

There are of course myriads of pieces that have stories that go with them, e.g. those based on poems. Then you have the entire slew of music that goes with "moving pictures" (film music, operas, ballets). Then you have all those collections like "Albums for the Young" that have very descrptive titles to start out with. Some people make a living making drawings for children's music (coloring books).

Personally, I find Sibelius' music fascinating from a programmatic point of view (e.g. Lemminkainen Suite, Peer Gynt). It evokes Tolkien-like pictures in me (simply because I am not very good in Nordic Mythology, so I don't really know what the "real" pictures are )

Another idea is to draw pictures according to the mood a piece or a section of it evokes. There you are getting into psychology (of the composer as well as your own). For example, think about creating "mood pictures" of Beethoven sonatas. That should be interesting.

Have you thought about animating a piece (a la Nutcracker)?

[ramseytheii]

Any Ballade is a story, though generally you don't know the source, you would have to make it up yourself.

Walter Ramsey

[steinwayguy]

The Mephisto Waltzes by Liszt are definitely based on stories, and there are even different versions, depending on who you talk to.

Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique is consistently thought of as THE example for programmatic music.

[thorn]

All 3 pieces of Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel are accompanied by a poem if that counts

[Tash]

cool thanks all. yeah i was thinking on a similar wavelength as xvimbi with the 'mood pictures'- i do like that idea. i tried actually depicting images that people imagined when i played them a few pieces, except tat drove me insane, so it'll probably end up being more about colour and texture rather than fully realistic paintings.
schumann carnaval that's good i've been listening to it recently that's a good idea...
animation- do you mean something like disney's fantasia? i'd like to try animation one day...

[pianote]

tchaikovsky's seasons might work.

[bernhard]

And let us not forget Grieg's Lyric pieces.

Villa-lobos "A prole do bebe" (The baby's family) is a collection of short pieces, each depicting a differnet kinf of doll (the rage doll, the porcelain doll, etc.)

And since you are interested in dance, there is also Shostakovitch's "Dances of the dolls" with a similar program as Villa Lobos.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[da jake]

Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, obviously.

[bernhard]

Saint Saens "Carnival of the Animals", naturally.

[abell88]

Villa-lobos "A prole do bebe" (The baby's family) is a collection of short pieces, each depicting a differnet kinf of doll (the rage doll, the porcelain doll, etc.)

Okay...the rage doll...that's a little scary for me (is it the one you use for voodoo?) 

[bernhard]

Okay...the rage doll...that's a little scary for me (is it the one you use for voodoo?) 

What did you expect from a "difernet kinf of doll?"

 

[bernhard]

Okay...the rage doll...that's a little scary for me (is it the one you use for voodoo?) 

Actually, when doing voodoo, I do not use dolls. I prefer to stick the pins in the real person.

[BoliverAllmon]

Actually, when doing voodoo, I do not use dolls. I prefer to stick the pins in the real person.

and that is why you live in the UK and I live in TX. Too stay away.

[bernhard]

and that is why you live in the UK and I live in TX. Too stay away.

Have you never heard of long (very long) pins? Or long arms?