It’s freezing. Oh yea it is, like all over, all the way down through to your bones. But I’m still trying to find the charm about the lady in white, lady Winter. Everyone’s got their own ways of keeping warm in winter, warm clothes, hugs, hot tea, and so on. I have my ways too, and in addition to the above mentioned I love to just get wrapped in granny’s woolen hand-made cover with a huge mug of lemon tea and turn on my collection of “winter pieces”. I’d like to share some with you if one day you may find yourself willing to use the same method.
I’ll start with probably one of my favourites – Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Daydreams” (Symphony No.1). The symphony that almost drove the famous composer out of his mind (literally!) – so much effort he put in its composing. Doctors were insisting he have a rest and some sleep. But the obsession seemed to take over him. Despite that much labor contributed, the work wasn’t met with much of a welcome by either music critics or composer’s teachers and friends (Rubinstein, Zaremba). Edited, partially recomposed and renewed, with time the symphony gained its acknowledgement and was named the first of composer’s early notable music works. For a person not digging too deep in history to learn about the author’s sufferings over this work, “Winter Dreams” is a wonderful vigorous piece with a folk motive of the amazing Russian winter scenery.
The most ‘winter’ winter would go to Vivaldi’s “Winter” from “Four Seasons”. So recognizable and memorable this violin concerto has already become. Like the previous concertos (presumably), the 4th one is based on a sonnet (again presumably) written by Vivaldi himself. The good thing about program music like that is that it is meant to evoke the extra-musical in our perception – close your eyes, take a listen and you will hear the beautiful snowblasts howling out there.
Next comes Chopin’s “Winter Wind” (Etude No.11). That is actually not an entertaining piece but a music study for solo piano. It is aimed at training a musician’s left hand flexibility and right hand dexterity, to make brain hemispheres work neatly together. But to a common listener it’s a very easy-listening soft music piece. A bit gloomy but mesmerizing.
I was also planning to talk a bit about Schubert’s “Winterreise” (ger. ‘winter journey’), a song cycle on the basis of Muller’s poems, but decided to skip it and rather focus on a contemporary music work that is on my list of winter music. I’m referring to the “Winter Etude” for classical guitar by a Russian composer Kirill Voljanin. I ran across his video on YouTube where the author is performing the piece himself:
Maybe that’s because of the successful combination of the soothing ‘warm’ melody and the beautiful visuals (I love sand art!) that made me stick to the screen for a few minutes and grab my mug firmer.
Stay warm!
I’ll start with probably one of my favourites – Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Daydreams” (Symphony No.1). The symphony that almost drove the famous composer out of his mind (literally!) – so much effort he put in its composing. Doctors were insisting he have a rest and some sleep. But the obsession seemed to take over him. Despite that much labor contributed, the work wasn’t met with much of a welcome by either music critics or composer’s teachers and friends (Rubinstein, Zaremba). Edited, partially recomposed and renewed, with time the symphony gained its acknowledgement and was named the first of composer’s early notable music works. For a person not digging too deep in history to learn about the author’s sufferings over this work, “Winter Dreams” is a wonderful vigorous piece with a folk motive of the amazing Russian winter scenery.
The most ‘winter’ winter would go to Vivaldi’s “Winter” from “Four Seasons”. So recognizable and memorable this violin concerto has already become. Like the previous concertos (presumably), the 4th one is based on a sonnet (again presumably) written by Vivaldi himself. The good thing about program music like that is that it is meant to evoke the extra-musical in our perception – close your eyes, take a listen and you will hear the beautiful snowblasts howling out there.
Next comes Chopin’s “Winter Wind” (Etude No.11). That is actually not an entertaining piece but a music study for solo piano. It is aimed at training a musician’s left hand flexibility and right hand dexterity, to make brain hemispheres work neatly together. But to a common listener it’s a very easy-listening soft music piece. A bit gloomy but mesmerizing.
I was also planning to talk a bit about Schubert’s “Winterreise” (ger. ‘winter journey’), a song cycle on the basis of Muller’s poems, but decided to skip it and rather focus on a contemporary music work that is on my list of winter music. I’m referring to the “Winter Etude” for classical guitar by a Russian composer Kirill Voljanin. I ran across his video on YouTube where the author is performing the piece himself:
Maybe that’s because of the successful combination of the soothing ‘warm’ melody and the beautiful visuals (I love sand art!) that made me stick to the screen for a few minutes and grab my mug firmer.
Stay warm!
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