Spectral Sounds is a series of livestream performances exploring the sounds from outside in the real world that inspired composers to adapt and emulate in their music inside the concert hall. Through both archival New World Symphony performances and new recordings, you’ll learn how composers throughout history approached this goal and see how they fit nature’s music into their own style. But throughout the 20th century, new developments in technology allowed composers to analyze the full audio spectrum of these sounds and orchestrate birdsongs, crashing waves and acoustic phenomena with ever-increasing fidelity. From the early baroque to the most modern compositions, these spectral sounds have always been present.
Playlist
Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides, “Fingal’s Cave”
Inspired by a trip to the Scottish island of Staff and its famous ‘Fingal’s Cave’, Mendelssohn depicts the rugged beauty in this one movement musical tone-poem, with soaring and swirling string lines representing surging waves and stormy seas.
Bedrich Smetana: Má vlast, No.2, “Die Moldau”
Die Moldau depicts the course of the river Vltava, starting from two small springs (flutes) to the unification of both streams in a single, broad current (full orchestra). Farther downstream, the river passes a group of hunters portrayed by a horn melody, followed by a lively village wedding represented by a polka rhythm.
Claude Debussy: Images II, 3. ‘Poisson d’or’
It is believed that the painting of two small goldfish on a Japanese lacquer panel provided Debussy with the inspiration for this evocative work.
Frederick Delius: Summer Night on the River
A musical vignette of the river Loing, near Delius’ home in the French town of Grez. The chromatic harmony evokes a feeling of gentle calm, one can visualize moonlight shimmering on the water’s surface
Toru Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch II
A dreamy meditation on the flow of life, Rain Tree Sketch II was written in memory of Olivier Messiaen, the work captures water and wind, blowing through a tree, a whisper of sound, a drop of water.
Claude Debussy: Preludes Book 1 – 10. “La Cathédrale engloutie”
Based upon an ancient Breton in which a cathedral, submerged underwater, rises up from the sea. Sounds can be heard of priests chanting, bells chiming, and the organ playing, from across the sea.
Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes: 4 Sea Interludes, Op. 33a, No. 4. Storm
The opera ‘Peter Grimes’ tells the story of a community struggling to make their living by the sea. The thunderous timpani and raging brass at the beginning as the storm swells. Listen for when the harp plays representing the sun shining through the storm clouds.
Camille Saint-Saens: The Carnival of the Animals, XIII “The Swan”
The slow-moving cello melody represents the swan gliding elegantly over the water’s surface, whilst rippling notes in the piano depict the swan’s paddling feet, hidden from view, propelling it along.
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold, Scene 1: Prelude
Over four minutes of one harmony, E flat major – the undulating arpeggios and overlapping horn entries depict the majesty of the Rhine river
Maurice Ravel: ‘Jeau d’eaux’
Often translated as “Fountains” or literally “Water Games”, Ravel says the piece was “inspired by the splashing of water and by the musical sounds of fountains, cascades and rivulets”.
Maurice Ravel: Miroirs, 3. ‘Une barque sur l’océan’
Recounts a boat as it sails upon the ocean waves, arpeggiated sections and sweeping melodies imitate the flow of ocean currents.
Tan Dun: Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra, 1. Prelude
Inspired by the sounds of everyday life growing up by the river in Hunan, China. Basins are filled with water, and the contents are manipulated with bowls, bottles, hands, and other devices.
Valerie Coleman: Red Clay & Mississippi Delta
An homage to Coleman’s mother’s family and the delta region from which they hail.
Joan Tower: String Quartet No. 5, ‘White Water’
Inspired by the power of water, the many glissandos create a “fluid” environment that connects the various ideas and registers together, while “white water” somehow implies more rapid “cascading” types of action which occur throughout the piece.
Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water
Based on “Wade in the Water”, one of several spirituals believed to be used as secret code for the Underground Railroad, warning refugee slaves to flee dry land and escape into the waters to avoid capture by the hounds.
Amy Beach: By the Still Waters, Op. 114
Evokes a scene of moving water with a sustained melody in the left hand accompanied by flowing arpeggios and scales.
Playlist music and descriptions were curated and written by James Churchill.