Title: The Elements
Display Case
March 2024
The Elements
Books
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (the Song of the Earth)_ by Call Number: MT121.M34 H44 2000
Beethoven by Call Number: ML410.B4 W96 1995
Earth
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, or the “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life” is one of the two symphonies titled by himself and is based on his love of nature. He wrote in the score that this symphony should be “More the Expression of Feeling than Tone Painting.”
Air
Fun Fact: The Italian word aria, a solo vocal work in a longer piece, comes from the Latin word “aer” which translates to air!
Other compositions related to air are:
Debussy’s Nuages
Burritt’s Scirocco
Liszt's Nuages gris
Bach's Air on the G string
Water
La Mer is one of Debussy’s most frequently performed orchestral works. He described it as a “symphonic sketch”.
The first edition of this piece featured the Great Wave of Kanawaga painting as its cover.
A Sea Symphony has four movements:
- A Song for All Seas, All Ships
- On the Beach at Night, Alone
- Scherzo: The Waves
- The Explorers
Fire
The Firebird is a ballet and orchestra work by Stravinsky based on the Russian legend. The firebird is a spirit with magical feathers who helps Prince Ivan rescue his true love.
Richmond Ballet
This is an aria from Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortileges. In this aria, the fire in the fireplace comes alive to scold a little boy and tell him he deserves punishment. The main lyrics of this aria translate to “Beware! I warm the good ones and I burn the bad ones!”.