# Stories Behind the Symphonies



## Evelina (Sep 30, 2011)

Personally I love to hear about the significance of certain symphonies to their composers. For instance, I've lately been doing online searches trying to learn more about Tchaikovsky's 6th, which seems to come up here a lot. And I've been hearing Mendelssohn on the radio, with comments about how he wrote string symphonies when he was a preteen?!

Does anyone want to share the stories behind their favorite symphonies? I find works much more moving (or just plain interesting) when I know a little about why or how they were composed. And I'm always looking for new symphonies to get into!


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Stravinsky's symphony in C must be the ultimate work disproving the idea that what's going on in the composer's private life shows up in his or her music. To quote Wikipedia:

_The Symphony was written between 1938 and 1940 on a commission from American philanthropist Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. It was a turbulent period of the composer's life, marked by illness and deaths in his immediate family. In 1937, Stravinsky was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which had already forced his wife and two daughters to a sanatorium in Switzerland. Stravinsky's daughter Ludmilla and wife Catherine died of their illnesses in November 1938 and March 1939, followed by Stravinsky's own quarantine and the death of his mother Anna in June 1939...
The Symphony in C is entirely abstract and seems a retreat into the 'pure music' styles of Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn._


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Mozart wrote his symphony #36 in C, _Linz_, in four days flat when he stopped over in the Austrian town. No fuss, no illness, no nothing but just sheer concentrated burst of creativity.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Mozart wrote his symphony #36 in C, _Linz_, in four days flat when he stopped over in the Austrian town. No fuss, no illness, no nothing but just sheer concentrated burst of creativity.


Man, I remember my trip through Austria and had my cd's ready for when I drove though there...it was '96 and I must've got the last rental Renault in history with a tape deck...arrrggh,. I had to buy at least a couple of tapes after that so, none of what I took was heard. Ahh, but such a beautiful place in the world it is.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

The story behind Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony is pretty good. Tchaikovsky wrote some program notes for his patroness, von Meck. Can anyone find it on the Internet to share here?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Some of Vaughan Williams' symphonies were pure music - no agenda. He used to get pretty narked when 'experts' used to see things in the works in which there were none. When a number of critics assumed that his 6th was a response to the aftermath of WWII he muttered 'I suppose it never occurs to these people that a man might just want to write a piece of music'. Way to go, VW...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Stravinsky's symphony in C must be the ultimate work disproving the idea that what's going on in the composer's private life shows up in his or her music. To quote Wikipedia:
> 
> _The Symphony was written between 1938 and 1940 on a commission from American philanthropist Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. It was a turbulent period of the composer's life, marked by illness and deaths in his immediate family. In 1937, Stravinsky was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which had already forced his wife and two daughters to a sanatorium in Switzerland. Stravinsky's daughter Ludmilla and wife Catherine died of their illnesses in November 1938 and March 1939, followed by Stravinsky's own quarantine and the death of his mother Anna in June 1939...
> The Symphony in C is entirely abstract and seems a retreat into the 'pure music' styles of Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn._


Wow. Heavy emotional blows. But the symphony's abstraction actually could be a reaction to the beating he took.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

One of the most interesting stories is the story behind Joseph Suk's Asrael Symphony. Apparently he started it with the grand program idea, and then, I forget the order, but his wife died and his father in law Dvorak died, who he was very close with. After this happened, the drama of the piece seems to intensify. I think this is a great counter example to the case made for Stravinsky.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Until today I didn't know of Stravinsky's tribulations leading to the composition of his symphony in C. Catharsis obviously takes different forms - I certainly couldn't imagine Mahler reacting with a symphony such as that if his no. 6 and the Kindertotenlieder cycle are anything to go by.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

In 1804 Napoleon sent his composition to Beethoven asking him to comment the piece. The Beethoven was so amazed with greatness of Napoleon's work that he got mad from jelaousy, he always wanted to compose like this himself, so in fury and rage he started to wipe his name from the score. Ries misinterpreted this situation and thought that he is removing the dedication for Napoleon from his own work. Beethoven didn't dare to tell him the truth and so for over two centuries people thought that Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies and didn't realize that Napoleon was also great composer.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Heh, would a fictional account (of my own) of the creation of Shostakovich's 1st symphony count?  I used several biographies to piece together what was true, and then filled things in with extra drama. 

I can post it up in my blog if interested.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Heh, would a fictional account (of my own) of the creation of Shostakovich's 1st symphony count?  I used several biographies to piece together what was true, and then filled things in with extra drama.
> 
> I can post it up in my blog if interested.


Yep, do it!


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Wow. Heavy emotional blows. But the symphony [in C]'s abstraction actually could be a reaction to the beating he took.


Not so much a reaction as an antidote, I think.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Stravinsky's symphony in C must be the ultimate work disproving the idea that what's going on in the composer's private life shows up in his or her music. To quote Wikipedia:
> 
> _The Symphony was written between 1938 and 1940 on a commission from American philanthropist Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. It was a turbulent period of the composer's life, marked by illness and deaths in his immediate family. In 1937, Stravinsky was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which had already forced his wife and two daughters to a sanatorium in Switzerland. Stravinsky's daughter Ludmilla and wife Catherine died of their illnesses in November 1938 and March 1939, followed by Stravinsky's own quarantine and the death of his mother Anna in June 1939...
> The Symphony in C is entirely abstract and seems a retreat into the 'pure music' styles of Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn._


He also had composed half of it in Europe, with all that going on, and finished it after immigrating to America, a cataclysmic turmoil of moving + culture shift. Nothing in the score reflects any of the personal loss or turmoil of his life at the time.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm afraid you'll find very little, altogether, which is not either apocryphal or second-hand hearsay, either of which no self-respecting historian or musicologist would report at all unless there is concrete evidence in the first person from the composer.

Berlioz' "Symphonie Fantastique," now always associated with 'a program,' originally was presented and failed: the composer made some revision, but there is nothing which shows us it was anywhere near 're-written.' On its second outing, Berlioz quite shrewdly attached 'the programmatic text' to this symphony because it was a growing popular trend. The piece was then, when presented with that programmatic accompanying text, a smashing success. There is no telling whether that program was made up after the fact of Berlioz having composed the piece, or whether it was part of what led him to compose what he did.

All nicknames for the Chopin Etudes and Preludes were assigned by Publishers and writers after the composer's death. We have documents where Chopin states he wanted absolutely no truck with any 'programmatic' content being associated with any of his music. He abhorred the idea and the fashion craze for it.

It is fairly certain a large percent of Debussy's piano music, was titled after the fact of its having been composed, the music only later giving him an idea for a title, ERGO, not the instigating / inspirational factor which generated the idea of the piece.

It is more than prudent to check sources when 'information' about why a piece was written or claims to 'what it is about' are present. There is a great deal in circulation which superficially looks believable: much of what is in print, books and online, is mere speculation, and undocumented.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

PetrB said:


> Nothing in the score reflects any of the personal loss or turmoil of his life at the time.


I should have written

_Stravinsky's symphony in C must be the ultimate work disproving the idea that what's going on in the composer's private life *necessarily *shows up in his or her music._


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

clavichorder said:


> Yep, do it!


It will be certain to end up cited as a source in some students paper for a music appreciation class, too


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> I should have written
> 
> _Stravinsky's symphony in C must be the ultimate work disproving the idea that what's going on in the composer's private life *necessarily *shows up in his or her music._


So a sudden change of style cannot be interpreted as an anomaly that could have been caused by dramatic changed in one's life?


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I know only a few stories. Wikipedia is a good source to read anyway.

Dvorak 7th, that is composed in sadness moments of him ... encouraged by 3rd symphony of Brahms, his friend. aLso Beethoven's 3rd composed for a great man 'Napoleon'

Other than that, I don't know about any symphonies.

Is Beethoven symphony No. 9, truly belongs to the Napoleon?!


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Nielsen's Symphony no. 2 came to be after he and and some friends had been drinking beer at a pub that had paintings on the wall symbolizing the four temperaments in exaggerated, comical figures. Even though they just laughed at the naivity of the pictures, eventually this wonderful symphony came out of the experience.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

My understanding of The Universe And Its Purpose occurred after a similar episode, involving a deer and a .30-40 Krag. Nielsen's experience must have been similar. Eh?


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

On April 21st of 1915 Sibelius saw 16 swans fly over that inspired the main theme of his 5th symphony and you can hear the swan theme no doubt. Check it out. It's one the best symphonies ever written in my opinion.

Kevin

EDIT:

In fact here is a link that gives a lot of detail:

http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/ork_sinf_05.htm

And another that gives a pretty decent documentary/commentary in video form:

http://beyondthescore.org/program_sibelius.html


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

The next symphony I will be hearing is Beethoven's 7th. Our orchestra has finally got some decent programming going and they are dropping the classic symphony for the next two weeks in favour of an orchestral piece other than a symphony. Long overdue.


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