# Musical storms



## Comistra (Feb 27, 2010)

The other day I was listening to a piece that had a movement representing a storm, which got me thinking that a number of composers have tried their hand at this. A quick list I came up with is:

Atterberg - Movement 2 from Symphony No. 3
Beethoven - Movement 4 from Symphony No. 6
Liszt - No. 5 from the first year of Years of Pilgrimage
Strauss - "Thunder and Tempest, Descent" from An Alpine Symphony
Vivaldi - Movement 3 from the Four Seasons' Summer
What are some others? I'd be interested in hearing how storms are interpreted by different composers.


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

Debussy's Gardens in the Rain with its whipping high register glissandos.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

One famous and one unknown, both amazing: Sibelius' Tapiola and Enescu's Vox Maris.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Well, speaking of Sibelius, how can we forget the overture to The Tempest? If you want a rollicking recording of that, may I suggest the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Michael Stern on Reference. It's pretty fierce stuff!

Bax's November Woods also has sections evocative of a storm, but I don't think his storminess really packs much of a punch.

Now that I think about it, there is also a brief "storm" in Sibelius's Oceanides. And probably the most obscure Sibelian storm is to be found in his piano literature. Five Characteristic Impressions (opus 103) has a section called Myrsky, which is Finnish for 'storm.' It's a rather genteel storm, however, and is probably not of any interest to those seeking music that really gives you the feeling of inclement weather.

One of my favorite musical storms, certainly, is a cue from Wojciech Kilar's music to the film Bram Stokers Dracula. It's a driving, percussive affair complete with a chorus ominously chanting 'sanguis vitam est' (the blood is the life.) You can find a good (and inexpensive) recording of Kilar's film music (including this cue) on Naxos.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

There's the storm in Strauss's _Alpine symphony_.

And Havergal Brian has an extended passage in his tenth symphony which, while I don't think he publicly described it as a thunderstorm, is so realistic that it can't be anything else. Check out Martyn Brabbins's new recording on Dutton.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Ferde Grofè - Cloudburst


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

The last movement of Mahler's 1st symphony is called "Stormy" (stürmisch) and it is just so.
In Glazunov's tone poem The Sea he also depicts a storm.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

There is also the 'Storm' movement from Britten's Four Sea Interludes...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Tchaikovsky has a storm, funnily enough, in _The Storm_, as well as the amazing hellish tempest in _Francesca da Rimini_ (do storms in non-Earth realms count?  )


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

In Opera: Der Fliegende Holländer (Wagner), Porgy and Bess (Gerschwin), The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny (Weill). 
Tchaikovsky has a Tempest too: listen to Pletnev and your Hifi-system either shines or dies because of unrelenting bass sounds.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

TxllxT said:


> Tchaikovsky has a Tempest too


Ah yes, of course, as in _The_ Tempest (Shakespeare).


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

There are the storms in La cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini that happen sometime during the second acts. They might not be as dramatic as the other examples listed here, but they are musical storms nevertheless.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Ah yes, of course, as in _The_ Tempest (Shakespeare).


Just curious: who is the composer in your avatar?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Vivaldi also did La Tempsta di Mare, RV 570.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

There's a spectacularly violent storm in the middle of the overture to _William Tell_ as well.
GG


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

TxllxT said:


> Just curious: who is the composer in your avatar?


Are you asking about my previous Brahms avatar, or my current vampire pig avatar?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

tdc said:


> There is also the 'Storm' movement from Britten's Four Sea Interludes...


Yes indeed, and a picture is normally worth a few words.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Are you asking about my previous Brahms avatar, or my current vampire pig avatar?


Ah, it's a vampire pig! (no composer  )


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Description of storm is such a hackeneyed, unoriginal idea that every composer who attempted to do it just for it's own sake (without putting it into more original concept) after 1850 had to be as original and uninteresting chap as this idea itself.

If you ever will hear about modern composer who wrote piece of music that is meant to describe storm, sea, morning (!) or sunset don't even remember his name, it's not worth of being remembered.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Liszt inserted a storm at sea in the middle of his oratorario Christus (Das Wunder).


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

TxllxT said:


> Ah, it's a vampire pig! (no composer  )


Even I'm disappointed now! I'm staring at it trying to find the likeness of a composer in it...


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## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

Polednice said:


> Even I'm disappointed now! I'm staring at it trying to find the likeness of a composer in it...


What? I thought it was Schoenberg... at least from the stories I heard about his music, I imagined him like that


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Pieck said:


> What? I thought it was Schoenberg... at least from the stories I heard about his music, I imagined him like that


Well, he was bald anyway...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Back to storms...

Canadian composer John Estacio's 2003 opera "Filumena" has a recurring aria "There will be a storm tonight" which is quite catchy. More about the opera at http://filumena.johnestacio.com/default.htm

I have a version of the aria on a podcats I put together last month. Please visit http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/197-itywltmts-tchaikovsky-festival.html for the link.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

There's a brief storm in Dvorak's 5th.


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Two more:

"Hurricane" from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (happens to be one of the movements from "Catfish Row")
Johann Strauss II. - Unter Donner und Blitz (Polka, op. 324) - Thunder and lightning polka

(How could we all have missed that one...)


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

... and the storm that opens Verdi's _Otello_


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