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From: asente@Cascade.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Tone poems (Holst's "Mars")
Message-ID: <1109@Cascade.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 15:39:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: Cascade.1109
Posted: Wed Aug 28 15:39:46 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 06:33:30 EDT
References: <478@petrus.UUCP> <472@olivee.UUCP> <1950@amdahl.UUCP>
Reply-To: asente@Cascade.UUCP (Paul Asente)
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University CIS Apple Orchard
Lines: 22
Summary: 

In article <1950@amdahl.UUCP> gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) writes:
>Holst's "Mars" (from "The Planets") has brought to my mind visions of
>war (surprise!), but in particular, the final "blast" being that of
>a nuclear bomb.  I also associate some of the discordant tones with
>drawings by Goya of mutilated victims of war.  And there is of course
>the mindless marching of soldiers on both sides committing these
>attrocities.

In addition to the marching soldiers, I always get images of tanks
rolling forward and relentlessly crushing everything and everyone in
their paths.  I think it's interesting that virtually everyone
"sees" marching in that piece, especially since it's written in 5/4!

I find Wagner's "Venusberg" music from "Tannheuser" (I think that's spelled
wrong but every spelling I tried looked equally bad) almost pornographic
in its depiction of sexual activity.  And "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by
Shostakovich has the most descriptive orchestral passage I've ever heard:
immediately after the seduction scene, there's a series of irregularly
spaced downward trombone slides.

	-paul asente
	    asente@Cascade.ARPA		decwrl!Glacier!Cascade!asente