Here's something you might be interested in.
I went up to the top of Cowles Mountain. It was, how shall I say this?
Hot?
Yes, it was hot. Furthermore, it's not much of a mountain but I'll take it since it comes with a San Diego climate.
I was thinking about other mountains when Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony came to mind. It's not amongst his most popular music but it is a worthy piece of mountain climbing.
By the time Strauss wrote Eine Alpensinfonie he was done with tone poems and had moved onto opera. He wrote Alpensinfonie to pass the time while his librettist reworked Die Frau ohne Schatten, The Woman Without a Shadow.
He said of writing Alpensinfonie, "...it gives me less pleasure than shaking maybugs off trees."
Who needs inspiration?
Strauss may have found some inspiration in going BIG with this one. The orchestra requires 125 players. The score calls for "re-doubled" woodwinds, 20 horns, and organ, along with thunder and wind machines--oh yes, it also needs a cowbell. I think it needs "more cowbell" but that's just me.
The story behind the music is clearly set up by Strauss in 22 musical chapters. He takes us along with group of climbers on an all day excursion in The Alps.
The music starts in the pre-dawn darkness, and climbs past forests, streams, a waterfall, a rainbow, and Alpine meadows. The group gets lost in the thickets and undergrowth before emerging onto a glacier and summiting. They get caught in a thunderstorm and rapidly descend the mountain. There is a sunset section before the organ and brass review the mountain one last time and darkness falls.
Strauss must have really loved shaking maybugs off tress because there is some high quality music here.
I've listed all 22 musical sections below the clip.
The clip I've included from YouTube is electrifying. It made the hair on my body stand on end. The section being played is the summit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK7z2NhUrsQ&feature=related
Night, Sunrise, The Ascent, Entering the Forest, Wandering by the Brook, By the Waterfall, Apparition (Rainbow), Flowery Meadows, In the Mountain Pasture, On the Wrong Track through Thickets and Undergrowth, On the Glacier, Precarious Moments, On the Summit, Vision, Rising Mists, The Sun Gradually Dims, Elegy, Calm before the Storm, Thunderstorm/Descent, Sunset, Epilogue, Night.
I went up to the top of Cowles Mountain. It was, how shall I say this?
Hot?
Yes, it was hot. Furthermore, it's not much of a mountain but I'll take it since it comes with a San Diego climate.
I was thinking about other mountains when Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony came to mind. It's not amongst his most popular music but it is a worthy piece of mountain climbing.
By the time Strauss wrote Eine Alpensinfonie he was done with tone poems and had moved onto opera. He wrote Alpensinfonie to pass the time while his librettist reworked Die Frau ohne Schatten, The Woman Without a Shadow.
He said of writing Alpensinfonie, "...it gives me less pleasure than shaking maybugs off trees."
Who needs inspiration?
Strauss may have found some inspiration in going BIG with this one. The orchestra requires 125 players. The score calls for "re-doubled" woodwinds, 20 horns, and organ, along with thunder and wind machines--oh yes, it also needs a cowbell. I think it needs "more cowbell" but that's just me.
The story behind the music is clearly set up by Strauss in 22 musical chapters. He takes us along with group of climbers on an all day excursion in The Alps.
The music starts in the pre-dawn darkness, and climbs past forests, streams, a waterfall, a rainbow, and Alpine meadows. The group gets lost in the thickets and undergrowth before emerging onto a glacier and summiting. They get caught in a thunderstorm and rapidly descend the mountain. There is a sunset section before the organ and brass review the mountain one last time and darkness falls.
Strauss must have really loved shaking maybugs off tress because there is some high quality music here.
I've listed all 22 musical sections below the clip.
The clip I've included from YouTube is electrifying. It made the hair on my body stand on end. The section being played is the summit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK7z2NhUrsQ&feature=related
Night, Sunrise, The Ascent, Entering the Forest, Wandering by the Brook, By the Waterfall, Apparition (Rainbow), Flowery Meadows, In the Mountain Pasture, On the Wrong Track through Thickets and Undergrowth, On the Glacier, Precarious Moments, On the Summit, Vision, Rising Mists, The Sun Gradually Dims, Elegy, Calm before the Storm, Thunderstorm/Descent, Sunset, Epilogue, Night.