# The Inspiration Behind Your Favorite Piece of Music



## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

Here you name the piece and then explain the inspiration behind it. It does not need to be as explicit as this example. Beethoven's Pastoral or Shostakovich's Leningrad could be an example. Here is my example.

Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 ("Transfigured Night", 1899), a string sextet in one movement, is regarded as the earliest important work of Arnold Schoenberg. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem of the same name — along with great inspiration upon meeting the sister of Schoenberg's teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky (Mathilde von Zemlinsky, whom Schoenberg would later marry). Schoenberg composed this very complex, passionate string sextet within three weeks of meeting Mathilde.

Here is the Poem... You don't need to be this detailed. But you can see the relationship between an Art Form and a specific piece of music.

Dehmel's powerful poem is about a man and a woman walking through a dark forest on a moonlit night, wherein the woman shares a dark secret with her new lover; she bears the child of a stranger. The mood of Dehmel's poem is reflected throughout the composition in five sections, beginning with the sadness of the woman's confession; a neutral interlude wherein the man reflects upon the confession; and a finale, the man's bright acceptance (and forgiveness) of the woman: O sieh, wie klar das Weltall schimmert! Es ist ein Glanz um Alles her (see how brightly the universe gleams! There is a radiance on everything).
Two people are walking through a bare, cold wood;
the moon keeps pace with them and draws their gaze.
The moon moves along above tall oak trees,
there is no wisp of cloud to obscure the radiance
to which the black, jagged tips reach up.
A woman's voice speaks:

"I am carrying a child, and not by you.
I am walking here with you in a state of sin.
I have offended grievously against myself.
I despaired of happiness,
and yet I still felt a grievous longing
for life's fullness, for a mother's joys
and duties; and so I sinned,
and so I yielded, shuddering, my sex
to the embrace of a stranger,
and even thought myself blessed.
Now life has taken its revenge,
and I have met you, met you."

She walks on, stumbling.
She looks up; the moon keeps pace.
Her dark gaze drowns in light.
A man's voice speaks:

"Do not let the child you have conceived
be a burden on your soul.
Look, how brightly the universe shines!
Splendour falls on everything around,
you are voyaging with me on a cold sea,
but there is the glow of an inner warmth
from you in me, from me in you.
That warmth will transfigure the stranger's child,
and you bear it me, begot by me.
You have transfused me with splendour,
you have made a child of me."

He puts an arm about her strong hips.
Their breath embraces in the air.
Two people walk on through the high, bright night.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I haven't a clue what the inspiration was for Vaughan-Williams Tallis Fantasia other than a 16th century hymn in a modern setting. I have my own very personal interpretation that likely has nothing to do with the real inspiration. I think of the two string orchestras as a pair of would be lovers approaching gingerly and with great reticence to reveal their feelings. The solo string quartet represents the isolation of the two within their own minds. The full orchestral climax with the theme in unison represents the revelation of the couple's mutual feelings for each other and their first coming together in an embrace. Silly hopeless romantic cliches, I know, but that is what it means to me.


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## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

*Tallis Fantasia - Some Thoughts....*

Tallis Fantasia

Sometimes we really do not exactly know what the specific inspiration is for a piece. We can assume a little.

Vaughan Williams took much inspiration from music of the English Renaissance and many of his works are associated with or inspired by the music of this period. Vaughan Williams was already familiar with Tallis's Third Tune and had included it the English Hymnal, which he edited in 1906, as the melody for the hymn When Rising from the Bed of Death by Joseph Addison. The tune is in Double Common Meter.

Vaughan Williams had been thoroughly trained as a composer under Parry and Stanford (he also read history at Cambridge). His name, especially as a song writer, had begun to become known when he was asked to assume the musical editorship of The English Hymnal (he had previously edited the Welcome Odes for the Purcell Society). Under his editorship, the hymnal became the single most influential musical force not only in the English church, but in several American ones. Later hymnals routinely plunder the tunes found, arranged, composed, and commissioned by Vaughan Williams. Interestingly, he hesitated before accepting the position, since he knew that he would have no time for his own composition. It turned out, however, that years' immersion in some of the greatest tunes in the world had salutary effects on the composer. One of them was his acquaintance with the 'Third Psalter Tune', associated with Addison's hymn "When, rising from the bed of death" (No. 92 in the English Hymnal). This became the basis of the Fantasia.

He may have gotten the idea from Elgar's masterful Introduction and Allegro for string orchestra and string quartet (1905), a work Vaughan Williams certainly knew. However, the two works sound nothing alike, and they take from different sets of procedures. Elgar embraces the language of the late nineteenth century--deriving from Wagnerian and Brahmsian chromaticism. Vaughan Williams finds in the old church modes (also found in folk and Elizabethan music) an escape from what he considered a harmonic cul-de-sac. Elgar uses the forms of the Classical and Romantic Central European tradition: sonata-allegro, overture with two episodes, and fugue. Vaughan Williams bases his piece on the Elizabethan fantasy -- an instrumental form which develops, primarily contrapuntally, several related themes in independent sections. Despite its instrumental incarnation, the fantasy derives from the sectional and contrapuntal nature of madrigal. Basically, what we will hear are the announcement of themes and then their elaboration in more or less independent sections. The kicker and the stroke of genius lies in the difference between the sound of Elgar's and Vaughan Williams's string orchestra. It comes down to Vaughan Williams's second group, which generally provides a dying echo to the first group or acts as the "halo" of the sound. The richness and intense sweetness of the strings carries over into other works of this time -- the Phantasy Quintet, the Five Mystical Songs, and the Symphony No. 2 "London." As Vaughan Williams's career proceeded, the string sound became leaner, more athletic, mainly because the music had changed. I wouldn't wish his compositional journey to have been any different, but I must admit an especial fondness for this sound -- a fondness mixed with the regret that he had to move on.

Many people regard the work as grave or emotionally cool, and I must confess I find myself in the opposite camp. The score is full of directions like animato, animando, cantabile, espressivo, and molto espressivo. In fact, I'm surprised there's no appassionato. It may begin small and fall back, but only to provide a place where it can turn up the intensity a notch or two. To me, it shares the structure of a great sermon, starting with daily life and leading you to heaven by degrees.

The Fantasia consists of the following large sections:

An introduction, where VW hints at 3 major themes (0:00) 
Full statement of all themes (1:15), repeated at 2:31 
First Episode (3:57) 
Second episode (6:10) 
Third episode (8:46) -- the major climax of the work occurs here 
Transition -- or fourth episode -- (12:15), leading to 
Restatement of all themes (13:05) 
Coda (14:50 to the end)

The Musical Material
The Fantasia uses two main themes:

The Tallis hymn

A "swaying" subject (Michael Kennedy's phrase), first heard at 0:37. This generates many of the subsidiary themes in the work. 
The swaying subject initially doesn't sound all that promising. Essentially, it centers around one note. But Vaughan Williams finds remarkable uses for it. The subject functions in several ways:

As a response to the "call" of another theme

As a transition from one theme to another, or as an approach to or departure from a climax

As a theme in its own right 
Vaughan Williams also breaks up the hymn into its constituent phrases, so that we really have a set of subthemes:

A1. A rising theme beginning with an identifying minor-third interval, first heard plucked by the lower strings at the beginning of the work (0:27)

A2. An answering phrase in the same rhythm as A1, first heard at 0:48, again plucked in the lower strings

A3. A dotted rhythm in triple time, on a rising, yearning phrase in Phrygian mode (on the piano, play e-f-g-a-g-f-e), heard in its full form at 1:49. This phrase apparently meant a great deal to Vaughan Williams. It stays with him throughout his career and culminates in his opera The Pilgrim's Progress, in the entrance into the Celestial City, where it is set to glorious alleluias.

A4. Yet another dotted rhythm in triple time (2:07), which moves like a galliard and usually is reserved for climaxes and backing off to quieter levels. It generally moves down in pitch.

Introduction 
The Fantasia begins with a series of descending 'magic chords' (the melodic outline resembles that of VW's song, "Bright is the ring of words," from Songs of Travel) (0:00). At the time, VW was interested in unusual chord changes. You find the same thing introducing the slow movements to the Symphony No. 1 ("Sea") and Symphony No.2 ("A London Symphony"). In the low strings, we hear an adumbration of A1 plucked out softly (0:27). This is answered by the sway (0:37) under a held note from the high strings. The low strings now pluck out A2 (0:48). The sway rises to a shortened A3 (1:05), which abruptly cuts both itself and the introductory section off.

Statement 
(1:15) The Tallis themes sound in their full forms: A1, sway, A2, sway, A3, and A4. All strings play in the first statement, with the second violins, violas, and first celli handling the melody in unison, for an incredibly rich string sound. Rising arpeggios from low to high in the upper strings (2:26) lead to a restatement of the theme (2:31) in the first violins and first violas (you shouldn't forget the theme). There's much octave double-stopping (each string player sounds two notes at once), a higher dynamic, and -- guess what? -- an appassionato marking after all! This reaches a climax, which dies in more magic chords, caught from the tail of A4.

First Episode 
A2 and A3 explored. A declamatory, abrupt statement of A2 (3:57) alternates with the sway (4:09). At 4:56, A3 alternates with the sway. We then return to the introductory "magic chords" (5:07) in the smaller orchestra II, alternating with the sway in orchestra I. The sway reaches a small peak in both choirs, then dims as it alternates between orchestra I and orchestra II.

Second Episode 
A3 explored. The solo viola leads off with a variant on A3 (6:10). This merges with the sway and an abrupt statement of A3, which the string quartet takes up (6:55). The sway begins again in the small choir and larger one joins in with another declaiming of A3. The string quartet continues its polyphonic meditation on the subtheme (8:11), and the full orchestra again declaims A3 (8:31) before it falls and dissolves into the sway of the string quartet (8:46).

Third Episode 
Explores the swaying subject. The small choir extends the quartet's sway and takes off down new melodic bypaths, with annotations provided by the quartet (8:55). At 9:15, large and small orchestras embark on "the chant of pleasant exploration," to borrow Whitman, and begin to build (9:57) to a huge climax, culminating in A3 (11:12). This dies down to an "afterglow" in the small choir (12:00).

Fourth Episode 
For me, this is the "deep heart's core" of the entire piece -- a miracle of the imagination. The sway tries to start again, but doesn't seem to be able to get beyond two notes (12:15). It begins with a huge push and dissolves into fragments of "magic chords." This leads to

Restatement 
(13:05) The lower strings begin to pluck out Tallis's hymn once more (A1). The orchestra provides a featherbed of sound, and the solo violin and viola duet on A2, A3, and more sway. Everybody joins in on A4 (14:08), which loses heat and leads to more "magic chords" at 14:34.

Coda 
At 14:50, the strings carry the sway to the end, with a short benediction.


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## Houshintida (Jun 3, 2009)

thanks for the info


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

kg4fxg said:


> . . .
> The Fantasia consists of the following large sections:
> . . .


An excellent set of annotations, kg4fxg. I will listen again tonight with these at hand. I can never get enough annotations and analyses.

My own fantasy program will always remain with me of course -- and that should be all right as long as I'm aware the program exists only within my head.

Thanks. I know that was a lot of work.

I'm ready for more works too. Anyone?


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## kg4fxg (May 24, 2009)

*Weston - Thanks*

Weston,

Thanks and I hope I did not offend you. I love to read about pieces, composers, and try to get into their head to figure out what may have influenced them. I realize most is speculation. So composers have stated what may have influenced a particular score, and then Shostakovich gave almost two different interpretations of his Lennigrad at two completed different times during his life. Of course in his case if he told the truth he could have ended up dead.

Like the other thread (about the Arts), I often wonder how did architecture, literture, paintings, sculptures, poetry effect the composers or aid or prompt a particular work? Everyone seems to be influenced by something.

Schumann jumping in the lake and going mad. Brahams early days in those Brothels, and so on. I guess I just find it fastinating that a composer was going through this trial and then wrote this piece.

I have been told to really understand a score, and the composer one needs to read their correspondence. So much to dig into, and I have not yet scratch the surface.

But it leads to puzzling therories, like what happened to Sibelius Symphony No.8 as it does not exist today but yet he spent some 30 years working on it?

Just call me the Sherlock Holmes of classical music.


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