real locations depicted in music?

[Bob]

I was thinking about this the other day.

Strauss did his Alpine Symphony.  Then there's Beethoven with the pastorale.

Smetana, Moldau, a river.


What other composer's and pieces used actual locations like that?  (Hopefully the Moldau is really a river.  I think it is.)


Grand Canyon Suite


I suppose some of them are describing culture generally.  Chopin, mazurkas.  Strauss, Viennesse Waltzes.  Do they all have their 'hometown' flavor that way?  Does their hometown/area influence their style?

[retrouvailles]

Arnold Bax did this quite a bit in his tone poems. His most famous, Tintagel, is about a castle.

[thalbergmad]

I have been to Tintagel and it is remarkably beautiful, albeit it has made a lot of money on the back of totally unsupported claims that it was King Arthurs Castle. Must listen to the Bax now.

Mendellsohn did a few, ie Fingals Cave, Scottish Symphony....etc

Thal

[camstrings]

Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega for guitar. There are versions for violin(yikes!) & harp.
Albeniz wrote those piano evocations of Spanish cities: Granada, Seville etc.....more often heard on guitar.

I recently heard a recording of Moldau arranged for harp, played by Catrin Finch & it's quite amazing.

[Bob]

Anything for Debussy?  The Pagodas ones... three...  But is that about a specific place?  Somewhere you could actually visit?

Or I suppose you could visit the places where they composed these pieces.  That might have some effect on their style for that piece.

[richard black]

'Dawn over the Moskva River', the overture to Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky.

Not to mention the end of Glinka's opera, 'A life for the tsar', which depicts the church bells of Moscow.

Vaughan Williams, 'A London Symphony'.

Alan Bush, 'Nottingham Symphony'.

Respighi, 'The Pines of Rome', 'Feste Romane'.

John Ireland, 'Chelsea Reach'.

EJ Moeran, 'Stalham River'

[daro]

Dvorak - New World Symphony

Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien

Respighi - Pines & Fountains of Rome

Gershwin - An American in Paris

And in the category of real places that no-one's actually managed to visit - Holst's 'The Planets.'

yd

[communist]

Strauss Beautiful Danube 

[0range]

Grieg - Wedding Day at Troldhaugen
Ornstein - Tales from the Moon (Hey, that counts, right?)