A wonderfully evocative orchestral Tone Poem! It –– like so much of Moussorgsky's, Rimsky-Kosakoff's, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin's music –– captures perfectly the essence of what life must have been like in nineteenth-century, pre-Revolutionary Russia.
The Soul of Russia is captured in the work of these composers:
Sad, filled with longing and the weight of centuries of suffering in a harsh, unforgiving climate, but still sweet and affectionate for what good may be found in such a life.
Borodin's haunting music is used as the backgrund for a late-nineteenth-century film of life in Moscow in the dead of winter c. 1890-1900 –– that blessed time before the grinding noise and air pollution of motorized transportation, and cheap, mass-produced factory-made goods took over the world.
Time does, indeed, pass, and change (often unwanted and unbidden) does occur, but the miracles of Art, Architecture, Poetry and Music CAN and DO capture and preserve the atmosphere and essence of the Past to savor and enjoy for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
In the Steppes of Central Asia is one of my very favorite tone poems. I became familiar with it in my 6th grade music appreciation course -- and studied it in more depth in college.
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A wonderfully evocative orchestral Tone Poem! It –– like so much of Moussorgsky's, Rimsky-Kosakoff's, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin's music –– captures perfectly the essence of what life must have been like in nineteenth-century, pre-Revolutionary Russia.
ReplyDeleteThe Soul of Russia is captured in the work of these composers:
Sad, filled with longing and the weight of centuries of suffering in a harsh, unforgiving climate, but still sweet and affectionate for what good may be found in such a life.
Borodin's haunting music is used as the backgrund for a late-nineteenth-century film of life in Moscow in the dead of winter c. 1890-1900 –– that blessed time before the grinding noise and air pollution of motorized transportation, and cheap, mass-produced factory-made goods took over the world.
Time does, indeed, pass, and change (often unwanted and unbidden) does occur, but the miracles of Art, Architecture, Poetry and Music CAN and DO capture and preserve the atmosphere and essence of the Past to savor and enjoy for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
In the Steppes of Central Asia is one of my very favorite tone poems. I became familiar with it in my 6th grade music appreciation course -- and studied it in more depth in college.
DeleteI love me,
ReplyDeleteI think I'm grand
I sit in the movies
And I hold my hand!
Lovely as usual. Portions seem very familiar. I wonder if some of it was used in a film score... thanks...
ReplyDeleteBunkerville,
DeletePortions were probably used in movies, but I don't know which ones.
A style widely imitated (appropriated?) by film composers.
DeleteFor instance we get ahealthy sampling of music from Moussorgsky's Boris Goudonov to help set the mood in Hitchocok's Dial M for Murder
Franco,
DeleteI remember that! It really did set the mood.