# Music with an Equine theme



## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

In honor of the 150th anniversary of Saratoga NY racetrack, the Philadelphia Orchestra is holding a one-evening concert featuring music with an equine theme. I'm looking forward to it. Here's their lineup:

Gould - Flourishes and Gallop
Suppé - Overture to Light Cavalry
Newman - Selections from Seabiscuit
Williams - "Dartmoor 1912", from War Horse
Copland - Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo
Danielpour - SERENADE
Williams - The Horse (with film)
Gould - "Saratoga Quick-Step," from American Ballads
Rossini - Overture to William Tell

Can you think of anything they might have left out?

My only suggestion would have been the Jerome Moross' film score of the 1958 movie The Big Country. That's the music they made the cigarette commercial out of. BTW if you haven't seen The Big Country in widescreen/High Def/Bluray, you should.

Any other horsey music you think would have been appropriate?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

LOL.

Frank Loesser's _Fugue for Tinhorns_, from _Guys and Dolls._


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

PetrB said:


> LOL.
> 
> Frank Loesser's _Fugue for Tinhorns_, from _Guys and Dolls._


mmmm, Paul Revere,....... I'll remember that.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Sibelius: Nightride and Sunrise. I don't know. Is that equine? It sounds galloping. 

A bit of a stretch, but, Copland's The Red Pony Suite also comes to mind. You'd never get much equine in nature from the music itself though.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Equus by Eric Whitacre


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Ride of the Valkyries, assuming the ladies rode horses.
As humourous aside, the donkey from Saint-Saens' Carnival.

And while officially having nothing to do with horses, it has always seemed to me that the first theme from Beethoven's seventh symphony has the same rhythm as a galloping horse.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

brianvds said:


> Ride of the Valkyries, assuming the ladies rode horses.
> As humourous aside, the donkey from Saint-Saens' Carnival.
> 
> And while officially having nothing to do with horses, it has always seemed to me that the first theme from Beethoven's seventh symphony has the same rhythm as a galloping horse.


Sir Thomas Beecham will tell you it's more of a yak.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Schubert - Der Erlkönig (orchestrated by Berlioz).


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Surely the theme music to Black Beauty is a must.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

ahammel said:


> Sir Thomas Beecham will tell you it's more of a yak.


I don't know Beecham. I may have stepped in some once though. :devil:


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Verdi's Dies irae from his Requiem could evoke image of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Satie's En Habit de Cheval (in riding gear) isn't so much about horses, but the title is equine.

The opening theme of the last movement of Bruckner's 8th sounds like charging horses. Lots of them.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

The 4th movement of Great C major symphony by Schubert where the strings are like "hoofing".. It's the symphony with horses.


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

The ghostly Wild Hunt of the Summer Wind (Der Sommerwindes wilde Jagd from Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Some people are making it up as they feel fit! I've always thought that the Lark Ascending is really about a horse!!
But I KNOW that the last movement of Raff's "Lenore" symphony is : "Then comes the incessant rhythm of the galloping horse speeding Lenore to her doom".


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Just remembered Dussek's "La Chasse" (The Hunt).
Mind you,I've always had a sneaky suspicion that Daquin's "Le Coucou" is really about a donkey.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

harold farberman - the great american cowboy suite




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_American_Cowboy


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Weston said:


> Sibelius: Nightride and Sunrise. I don't know. Is that equine? It sounds galloping.
> 
> I thought of this, and it could be a horse piece sure. But I always see JS on a train. And the motoric pull is a horsepower engine. It's a modern man in 1908, and his spiritual experience leans into the century, not looking back.
> 
> ...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Pyotr said:


> mmmm, Paul Revere,....... I'll remember that.


With the endless repeats of a very comparatively brief national history as presented to us in American schooling, from primary school through eighth grade at least, hard to not forget


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> Any other horsey music you think would have been appropriate?


Sure.....Cage's 4 33" comes to mind. That is one crock of horse manure :lol:

Okkk...maybe manure is not that part of the equine experience is mostly lauded by horselovers. What about grass which they eat? Enescu's Symphonie Villageoise might fit the equine theme (with a long shoehorn stretch) since there is usually grass and horses in villages.

Well, perhaps I should stick to chamber string quartets since I'm out of my death. Err, depth. Bohuslav Martinu's string quartet 'The Three Horsemen' is a must hear string quartet. The eponymous Martinu Quartet have done a brilliant cycle on the cheap Naxos. Perhaps their PR agent failed to get a high brow release, but they play as well as the Panocha Quartet or the Prager Streichquartett.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

I have a WIP waltz based on the characters from My Little Pony :3


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Head_case said:


> Sure.....Cage's 4 33" comes to mind. That is one crock of horse manure :lol:
> 
> Okkk...maybe manure is not that part of the equine experience is mostly lauded by horselovers. What about grass which they eat? Enescu's Symphonie Villageoise might fit the equine theme (with a long shoehorn stretch) since there is usually grass and horses in villages.
> 
> Well, perhaps I should stick to chamber string quartets since I'm out of my death. Err, depth. Bohuslav Martinu's string quartet 'The Three Horsemen' is a must hear string quartet. The eponymous Martinu Quartet have done a brilliant cycle on the cheap Naxos. Perhaps their PR agent failed to get a high brow release, but they play as well as the Panocha Quartet or the Prager Streichquartett.


Oh yay, another person making fun of 4'33''  Its only been like 10 minutes since we've seen one of those!


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I know they are supposed to be pack mules, but the clip-clops in Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite put me in mind of being in the saddle.

Then there's the trumpet naaaay at the end of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride".


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Complete within the tradition of Hunt / La Chasse music, replete with the horn, to boot:

Brahms ~ The finale from the Brahms Horn Trio op.40


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Cavaradossi said:


> I know they are supposed to be pack mules, but the clip-clops in Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite put me in mind of being in the saddle.
> 
> Then there's the trumpet naaaay at the end of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride".


Well pack mules are equine.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

And what about Mozart's "Schlittenfahrt" (Sleighride) then?


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

This is probably one I'm just making up as I see fit, but the second movement of Beethoven's 9th strikes me as having an Equine quality to it.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Rameau's Overture to "Les Paladins":






And I hesitate to mention this, but I will do so: _equine_ only inasmuch as the rhythm resembles [and is named after] the gallop of a horse.

Liszt: Bulhakov: Galop Par Constantin Bulhakow Arrangé Par Liszt, S 478i
Liszt: Soirées Italiennes After Mercadante, S 411 - 2. Il Galop
Liszt: Grand Galop Chromatique, S 219
Liszt: Galop in A Minor, S 218
Liszt: Galop De Bal, S 220


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

tdc said:


> This is probably one I'm just making up as I see fit, but the second movement of Beethoven's 9th strikes me as having an Equine quality to it.


Well ,it takes all sorts and I suppose making it up as one sees fit beats actually doing some research.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Liszt - Mazeppa


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

moody said:


> Well ,it takes all sorts and I suppose making it up as one sees fit beats actually doing some research.


Well if a piece of music just strikes a person a certain way, it strikes them a certain way. I don't need to do any research to tell me about impressions I get from a piece. I wasn't suggesting anything Equine was purposely put in there by Beethoven, or that the piece would have been appropriate for the concert mentioned in the OP. 'My making it up as I see fit' comment was just a gentle poke at your comment. Just pointing something out about my personal listening experience that was just _slightly_ off-topic. I do research music a lot by the way.


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

There's some great galloping music in part IV of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust as Mephistopholes tricks Faust into riding with him down to Hell.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

tdc said:


> Well if a piece of music just strikes a person a certain way, it strikes them a certain way. I don't need to do any research to tell me about impressions I get from a piece. I wasn't suggesting anything Equine was purposely put in there by Beethoven, or that the piece would have been appropriate for the concert mentioned in the OP. 'My making it up as I see fit' comment was just a gentle poke at your comment. Just pointing something out about my personal listening experience that was just _slightly_ off-topic. I do research music a lot by the way.


I do not disagree with you and pieces of music can certainly suggest things to you that are not actually there.
But the subject was Music With An EQUINE THEME and I see nothing wrong with answering that properly.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)




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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Dans mon coeur retentit sa voix from La Damnation de Faust.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

The theme of the last movement of Mozart's Musical Joke was used as the theme tune to The Horse of the Year Show for many years.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

Pyotr said:


> In honor of the 150th anniversary of Saratoga NY racetrack, the Philadelphia Orchestra is holding a one-evening concert featuring music with an equine theme. I'm looking forward to it. Here's their lineup:
> 
> Gould - Flourishes and Gallop
> Suppé - Overture to Light Cavalry
> ...


Here's a review of this performance, which I saw last week.
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the Philadelphia Orchestra treated Thursday's audience at SPAC to a once-in-a lifetime performance. It featured today's best known pops conductor, a world premiere by a Grammy-winning composer, with narration by a long-time track announcer and a program filled with equestrian-themed music.
The unparalleled creative musical treat began with Morton Gould's "Flourishes and Gallop," sounding exactly as the title indicates, and ended two horsy and enjoyable hours later with Rossini's Overture to "William Tell," the trumpets sending a giggle through the crowd when the gallop came from the score, through the trumpets and across the stage, as if a herd of runaways……………………….The packed program was filled with light classics and recent show music such as Randy Newman's wonderful work from "Seabiscuit," which made me want to rent the film again just to hear Newman's score…. All this was led decisively by Keith Lockhart, best known as conductor for the world-famous Boston Pops. Lockhart was charming, comfortable addressing the audience and not overly wordy. His body language was understated but strong and direct. Who knows if he likes horses whatsoever - his smile was ever present, and he owned the stage from the moment he set foot there…………Best on this unique program, to my ear, was Four Dance Episodes from Aaron Copland's "Rodeo," and the clever pastiche of works accompanying a short film titled "The Horse," narrated by no other than Tom Durkin, now in his 23rd season as the deep-voiced announcer at Saratoga Race Course…… the audience seemed to miss the wonderful cello duet by Hai-Ye Ni and John Koen that introduced The Overture to "William Tell." There were no galloping hoof beats there, but plenty of musical heart…..And all that clapping? That came from the heart, too.

The entire review is here: 
http://saratogian.com/articles/2013/08/09/news/doc52058a7891af9846716859.txt?viewmode=fullstory


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