# Your Top 20 Favorite Tone Poems



## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

As in the title.

My Top 20 Favorite Tone Poems are:
(in alphabetical order)
1. Castelnuovo-Tedesco - A Midsummer Night's Dream
2. Delius - A Song of Summer
3. Delius - Florida Suite
4. Delius - On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
5. Delius - The Walk to the Paradise Garden
6. Howells - Elegy for Viola, String Quartet and String Orchestra
7. Karłowicz - A Sorrowful Tale
8. Karłowicz - Lithuanian Rhapsody
9. Respighi - Feste Romane
10. Respighi - Poema Autunnale
11. Respighi - Suite in Sol Maggiore
12. Respighi - Trittico Botticelliano
13. Respighi - Vetrate di Chiesa (Church Windows)
14. Sibelius - Finlandia
15. Sibelius - Lemminkäinen Suite
16. Sibelius - Night Ride And Sunrise
17. Sibelius - Rakastava for string orchestra, timpani and triangle
18. Sibelius - Spring Song
19. Sibelius - The Oceanides
20. Sibelius - Two Serious Melodies for cello and orchestra


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

How fun. I’m not sure if all these are tone poems, but here goes...
In no particular order:
Strauss Til Eulenspiegel
Strauss Don Juan
Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss Death and Transfiguration
Respighi Roman Festivals
Respighi The Pines of Rome
Respighi The Fountains of Rome
Bax Tintagel
Sibelius Night Ride and Sunrise
Sibelius The Oceansides
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Delius The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Vaughan Williams Flos Campi
Elgar In the South
Elgar Cockaigne
Smetana Ma Vlast
Dvorak The Golden Spinning Wheel
Dvorak The Water Goblin
Dvorak The Noonday Witch
Alwyn Blackdown
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Ooohhh...don’t know if I can come up with 20 but here goes...no particular order...my only personal criteria is being in one continuous movement, so that rules out Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Scheherazade, etc.

Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss - An Alpine Symphony
Strauss - Tod und Verklarung
Strauss - Don Quixote
Bax - Tintagel

Sibelius - Tapiola
Sibelius - The Oceanides
Sibelius - The Swan of Tuonela
Sibelius - Finlandia
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Schmitt - The Tragedy of Salome
Delius - Brigg Fair
Delius - On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead
Mendelssohn - The Hebrides

Borodin - In the Steppes of Central Asia
Ives - The Unanswered Question
Smetana - Ma Vlast (alright, cheating a bit but it’s a series of separate tone poems and not a unified work)
Wagner - Siegfried Idyll
Ravel - La Valse


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

I’m not really clear on how to define a tone poem, but for present purposes I like ACB’s idea of limiting the form to one-movement pieces even though that cuts out some of my favorite works like Respighi’s Pines and Fountains, R-K’s Scheherazade, Bloch’s Schelomo, and so on. I’m also assuming that a tone poem is orchestral without voice or prominent solo instrument, and not ballet, film, or incidental music. However, I am counting some pieces usually referred to as “idyll,” “fantasy,” and “rhapsody” as tone poems when they conform to the other criteria. All of these are works I have in my CD collection. I have more examples tone poems, especially by Delius, Sibelius, and Strauss, but I’m citing my favorites and trying to cover as many composers as I can. In alphabetical order by composer:

Arnold Bax – Tintagel
Arnold Bax – November Woods
Alexander Borodin – In the Steppes of Central Asia
George Butterworth – The Banks of Green Willow
Claude Debussy – Prélude à l’apès-midi d’un faune
Frederick Delius – Summer Evening
Frederick Delius – On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Gerald Finzi – A Severn Rhapsody
Charles Ives – Central Park in the Dark
Zoltán Kodály – Summer Evening
Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Isle of the Dead
Maurice Ravel – La valse (conceived as a ballet but realized as an orchestral work)
Jean Sibelius – Finlandia
Jean Sibelius – The Swan of Tuonela
Richard Strauss – Don Juan
Richard Strauss – Sinfonia Domestica
Igor Stravinsky – Feu d’artifice
Ralph Vaughan Williams – In the Fen Country
Richard Wagner – Siegfried Idyll


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

*A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source.* (Wiki)

:tiphat:


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Novák - Slovak Suite
Novák - Eternal Longing
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherezade
Rimsky-Korsakov - Night on Mount Triglav 
Strauss - Eine Alpensinfonie
Strauss - Ein Heldenleben
Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Debussy – Prélude à l’apès-midi d’un faune
Dvořák - The Water Goblin
Sibelius - Tapiola
Sibelius - En Saga
Smetana - Ma Vlast
Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead
Respighi - The Pines of Rome
Janáček - Taras Bulba
Martinů - The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca
Bax - Tintagel
Ives - The Unanswered Question
Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre 
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My top 20 in chronological order:

Franz Liszt - Les preludes [1848]
Modest Mussorgsky - Night on a bald mountain [1867]
Bedřich Smetana - Vltava (Moldau) [1874]
Richard Strauss - Don Juan [1888]
Claude Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune [1894]
Richard Strauss - Till Eulenspiegel's lustige Streiche [1895]
Jean Sibelius - The swan of Tuonela [1895]
Antonin Dvořák - The wild dove [1896]
Sergej Rachmaninoff - Isle of the dead [1909]
Hamilton Harty - With the wild geese [1910]
Emil von Reznicek - Schlemihl: Ein Lebensbild [1912]
Jean Sibelius - The Oceanides [1914]
Ottorino Respighi - Fontane di Roma [1916]
Arnold Bax - The garden of Fand [1916]
Arnold Bax - November woods [1917]
Arnold Bax - Tintagel [1917]
Maurice Ravel - La valse [1920]
Ottorino Respighi - Pini di Roma [1924]
Jean Sibelius - Tapiola [1926]
Aaron Avshalomov - Hutongs of Peking [1931]


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

1. Converse: The Mystic Trumpeter
2. Liszt: Les Preludes
3. Rimsky-Korsakov: A Night on Mt Triglav
4. Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead
5.Balakirev: Thamar
6. Bax: November Woods
7. Glazunov: The Sea
8. Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre
9. Kalinnikov: The Cedar and the Palm
10. Herbert: Hero and Leander
11. Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande
12. Sibelius: Finlandia
13. Sibelius: En Saga
14. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
15. Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
16. Mahler: Todtenfeier
17. Rachmaninoff: Prince Rostislav
18. Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko
19. Elgar: In the South
20. Elgar: Cockaigne


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

I'm taking some like descriptive music:

Atterberg - The River
Balakirev - Tamara
Bantock - Thalaba the Destroyer
Bax - November Woods
Ciurlionis - The Sea
Dvorak - The Noon Witch
Franck - Le chasseur maudit
Hausegger - Barbarossa
Koechlin - La Course de Printemps
Malipiero - Impressioni dal Vero II
Novák - In the Tatra Mountains
Respighi - Vetrate di Chiesa
Sibelius - Tapiola, The Wood Nymph
Smetana - Ma Vlast
Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra, Eine Alpensinfonie
Vaughan Williams - In the Fen Country
Villa-Lobos - Amazonas
Wolf - Penthesilea


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I'll mention a few that I like which were not mentioned yet, including my two favorites (seriously?):

*Scriabin - The Poem of Ecstasy
Scriabin - Prometheus: The Poem of Fire*

Roslavets - Komsomoliya (probably my third favorite)
Roslavets - In The Hours of the New Moon
Glière - The Sirens (this one is way up there as well, it's just fabulous)
Liadov - The Enchanted Lake
Hausegger - Wieland der Schmied


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*My Top Twenty:
*

 Glazunov: The Sea
Glazunov: The Forest
Glazunov: Stenka Razin
Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead
Rachmaninoff: Prince Rostislav
Balakirev: Tamara
Lyapunov: Hashish
Lyatoshynsky: Grazyna
Taktakishvili: Mtsyri
Goldmark: Sakuntala (a pseudo symphonic poem)
Goldmark: Penthesilea (a pseudo symphonic poem)
Bax: November Woods
Sainton: The Island
Novak: Eternal Longing
Sibelius: Tapiola
Dvorak: The Noon Witch

Strauss: Don Quixote
Bartok: Kossuth
Chausson: Viviane
*Honorable Mentions:
*

Franck: Le chasseur maudit
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Ivanovs, Janis: Rainbow
Skulte, Adolfs: Waves
Barisons, Peteris: Tragic Poem
Karlowicz: Eternal Songs
Kabalevsky: Spring
Dvorak: The Water Goblin
Suk: A Summer's Tale
Novak: In the Tatra Mountains
Kalinnikov: The Cedar and the Palm
Ippolitov-Ivanov: From the Songs of Ossian
Elgar: In the South
Bridge: Isabella 
Scott, Cyril: Neptune
Rubinstein: Ivan the Terrible
Liszt: Mazeppa


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

DeepR said:


> I'll mention a few that I like which were not mentioned yet, including my two favorites (seriously?):
> 
> *Scriabin - The Poem of Ecstasy
> Scriabin - Prometheus: The Poem of Fire*
> ...


I like all of these, but I've never come to terms with Scriabin. My fault, I guess.


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