#Bach Orchestral Suite

[mikrokosmos]

J.S. Bach - Orchestral Suite no.3 in D Major, BWV 1068 (c.1730)

I want to say I was listening to this one in my rocking chair next to my books on music. Or with wine and cheese at someone's party. No, I put this on while I washed the dishes. I thought I'd share my old post on this same piece but realized that I'd never written about this suite. And I don't have anything profound or introspective to say about it. It made taking down this mountain if dirty dishes feel like a grand accomplishment. It's a reminder that this music was written for the audience to enjoy. It doesn't have to be treated like music theory homework. That being said, I do like looking at the history of the orchestral suite, which would develop into the symphony. What can we hear from Bach's Proto-Symphony no.3? The Orchestral Suite was a carryover from France's Ouvertures. It would start with a slow section to draw in the audience, and then a lively counterpunctual exercise. After the "heavier" opening movement, the rest of the pieces are light dances, galanteries (minuets, bourrées, courantes, sarabandes, gavottes, allemandes, gigues, etc.). Because the German political elite had a taste for French art, they would have music played during their banquets and parties. Bach had no real interest in this kind of music (which would be a decent income source) because he was already dedicated to writing church music. But what few he did leave behind (we only have four Orchestral Suites attributed to him) sounds like great party music. The Suite in D Major is scored for 3 trumpets, timpani, oboes, violins, viola, basso continuo, giving it a louder sound than the others. The Ouverture starts with the slower grand statement announced by the trumpets and timpani. As you'd expect from Bach, this opens into a counterpunctual explorations of the melodies that developed out of the opening, but with the vibrancy of Vivaldi's fast paced concertos. The ending section cuts back and ends with a more subdued coda. The Air of this suite has stuck in our culture through films and TV, popular for its beautiful melodies. I remember first hearing it in the most ironic example I know; played during the library scene in Seven (or "Se7en") from the 1995 film. The ugliness and depraved misanthropy in the film is contrasted for a moment by the idealized "beautiful music" by an idealized "Great Composer". I thought it was showing the spectrum of human minds, that the "greatest" Baroque composer comes from the same human family as a lunatic serial killer using the Christian "Seven Deadly Sins" for gruesome punishments against his victims. Listening to it now I think it's fascinating that someone could have been touched or moved by the gorgeous Aria without words Bach wrote for whatever party or occasion, and she would have no idea that the same music would be heard again as so many of these festival pieces were back then. The latter dances show off the trumpets to make each one boisterous and lively. Two Gavottes with heavy emphasis on the beat, an upbeat Bourrée, and ending on the always fun and swaying Gigue. Of these dances I think I love Bach's gigues the most because they're always densely woven with his long waves of counterpoint across each instrument to create a dance that makes me think of old pub drinking songs or sailors dancing and drinking at sea. Another reminder that this music is supposed to be fun and enjoyable for anyone, and you can turn your own living room into an 18th century court for fun.

Movements:

Ouverture

Air

Gavotte I/II

Bourrée

Gigue

[gillianthecat]

a very soothing video from my biology lecture (audio not necessary, but it enhances the experience)

[kitschke]

AOTD 10/19: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 (Arr. Papalin for Recorder Ensemble) - Johann Sebastian Bach

did feel a little like i was in a fairy forest. recorders just have that quality

[cuddlytogas]

it's possible I made an extended playlist to give context to the classical (non-technically speaking) music in OFMD, with the pieces listed in historical/chronological order, and in the context of their full pieces (mostly - I'm not literally going to put entire operas on there, but symphonies and concertos have mostly been finished)

and it's possible that that playlist is ten hours long

and it's possible you can find it on spotify right now, and that below the cut is the full chronology

(edit: corrections welcome btw!!!! i am by no means a music historian, nor have any higher level music education, just a lifelong association and interest <3 if you know better than me, PLEASE let me know so it can be more accurate!)

N: most of the Vivaldi pieces don't really have any dates I could find, so they're just sort of scattered through the first few decades of the 18th century. and yes, technically the opening Corelli isn't in there, but I think putting another La Folia in is important for the context of s2!

1700 - Arcangelo Corelli, Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op 5 No 12 "La Follia"

1703-6 - George Frederic Handel, Keyboard Suite No 4 in D Minor, HWV 437

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Cello Concerto in G Minor, RV 416

1711 - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto No 11 in D Minor for Two Violins and Cello RV 565

1715 - Georg Philipp Telemann, Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in G Major TWV 41:G1

1718-20 - Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in G Minor Op 8

Early/mid C18 - Domenico Scarlatti, Keyboard Sonata in F Major, K 107

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerto in C, RV 452

1720s? - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, RV 531

1727 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156

1725-35 - Georg Philipp Telemann, Concerto for Recorder and Viola da Gamba in A Minor TWV 52:a1

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in G Minor, RV 576

1730 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestral Suite No 3 in D Major, BWV 1068

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Piccolo Concerto in A Minor, RV 445

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Trio Sonata in D Minor, RV 63, 'La Follia'

1738 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Harpsichord Concerto No 4 in A Major, BWV 1055

1738-9 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056

Early/mid C18 - Domenico Scarlatti, Keyboard Sonata in E Major, K 380

1741 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

1747 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Musical Offering, BWV 1079

1747-8 - George Frederic Handel, Concerto in F Major, No 16, HWV 305a

1773 - Mozart, Symphony No 25 in G Minor, K 183

1782 - Mozart, String Quartet No 14 in G Major, K 387

1795 - Beethoven, Piano Sonata No 2 in A Major, Op 2 No 2

1792 - Beethoven, Piano Sonata No 3 in C Major, Op 2 No 3

1780 - Mozart, Symphony No 34 in C Major, K 338

1786 - Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (excerpts)

1810? - Beethoven, Bagatelle in A Minor, WoO 59: Für Elise

1811-12 - Beethoven, Symphony No 7 in A Major, Op 92

1826 - Franz Schubert, Ständchen (Serenade) "Horch, horch, die Lerch!" D 889

1827 - Franz Schubert, 4 Impromptus, Op 90, D 899

1833-4 - Felix Mendelssohn, Lieder Ohne Worte, Book 2, Op 30

1835 - Frédéric Chopin, 12 Études, Op 25 (excerpts)

1838 - Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op 15 (excerpts)

1838 - Franz Liszt, arr., 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S 558, No 9

1842 - Frédéric Chopin, Waltz No 12 in F Minor, Op 70, No 2

1871 - August Wilhelmj, arr., Air on a G String

1874 - Giuseppi Verdi, Messa da Requiem (excerpts)

1878 - Antonín Dvořák, String Sextet in A Major Op 48

1888-91 - Claude Debussy, Two Arabesques, L 66

1890 - Claude Debussy, Rêverie, L 68

1888, 89, 90 - Erik Satie, Trois Gymnopédies, Gnossienne No 5, Trois Gnossiennes

[doshmanziari]

Two (relatively) recent and worthwhile considerations of FromSoftware soundtracks

As I mentioned a few months ago, I supplemented and republished an older essay on the music of Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls series, and Elden Ring, which you can read here. And I figure it's worth bringing up again, since I'm recommending two videos on the same general subject for a mini-post here.

To begin: Loopine, one of whose videos I've linked before, came out with a video, entitled "How Elden Ring Surpassed the Dark Souls OST", arguing that Elden Ring's clearer and deeper sound design puts it above Dark Souls 3's score. I find Loopine's analysis according to production unusual, appreciable, and clearly articulated; and, contrary to most media criticism solely being the self expelling thoughts, Loopine also conducts a small-scale experiment with other people regarding musical recognition — an experiment that, were it to be applied on a large scale, could yield very interesting results. Even so, the final thought I continue to have here is that the scores to Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 are so comparable in their aggressive roteness (or rote aggressiveness?) that sound design can't possibly make that large of a difference.

Let me kinda diverge for a moment to remark on the trend Loopine mentions of "REAL CLASSICAL GAME COMPOSER CONDUCTOR REACTS TO DARK SOULS/ELDEN RING MUSIC" videos, just to say: first, how weird that videogame culture at large continues to suffer from this sort of media envy, awaiting the representatives of "real" art-forms to recognize an Undertale theme, or whatever. There seems to be the presumption that a certain kind of professional occupation necessarily yields novel insights; and that such professional appreciation somehow enforces an objective qualitative status upon the art. Did Bach admire the work of Vivaldi? Sure. Does that mean that I have to "admit" that Vivaldi's music is great? Uh... no. But, more than that, I find these videos confusing, given their emphasis on the quality of effectiveness — because a large part of my critical argument is that most tracks for the Dark Souls sequels and Elden Ring are highly ineffective.

A possible reason for this stark divergence of opinion is that, perhaps, most of the people featured on these videos haven't spent much time with the games, and so they miss the more particular details; and they also do not examine the soundtracks as a whole, both internally and according to FromSoftware's relevant catalogue, and lose sight of a bigger picture which reveals the tracks' interchangeable identities. On its own, Yuka Kitamura's theme for Lady Maria might seem extraordinary, and specially suited to that confrontation; when played right after the two-dozen others like it from Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring... well.

From here, then, I'm going to recommend Crunchy's comparison of the original Demon's Souls soundtrack to the remake's. Being almost 3.5 hours long, and having no script prepared, it is, in a sense, the opposite to Loopine's. The length is not necessarily to the comparison's benefit. I think the video's maker would admit that, eventually, it becomes difficult to sustain the fresh particularities of criticisms made earlier on, because the offenses are fairly consistent. Since I left a comment on the video, I'm going to just quote that comment here:

This is a good musical analysis. Most of the comparative critiques I've come across couch the difference in terms of "taste", meaning that they tend to miss the contextual dimension. I think that it can be argued that the remake's music even fails on its own terms: the elaborateness of the reimaginings suggests that you're battling highly complex bosses with multiple phases, and that's not the case at all. With some of these tracks, I feel like half of the respective boss fight might have gone by during the intro. Given the general orchestral approach, I have the impression that the composer was probably drawing on Bloodborne's OST as the standard, since that was the last FromSoftware title prior to the remake which utilized an actual orchestra for pretty much its entire score; but, of course, Bloodborne's OST is communicating something very different from the world of Demon's Souls. Shrieking, slamming, grotesquely dark horror is definitively out of line, just as the needless graphical elaborations turn a brutal and austere world into a series of decked-out theme parks. I continue to be confused by most of FromSoftware's musical decisions for these games. For instance: why hire Motoi Sakuraba as your composer for Dark Souls? Nothing about Sakuraba's résumé recommends him as a composer of any sort of orchestral music. Was he just an affordable, "reliable" option? [Crunchy provided his own response to this: "I think Sakuraba was hired mainly because he had a relationship with Bandai, who published DS1."] How so much of a game like Elden Ring can be particularly crafted, while 85% of the music is a bundle of atmospheric non-events and "epic" slop, is baffling. Miyazaki's role here seems strangely incompetent, and out of line with the image of the man who pushes these teams to exceed aesthetically generic impulses.

(Parenthetically, I'd call readers' attention to Crunchy's videos on Elden Ring. I've explored just a few, but each stands among the most interesting and informed analyses of the game's esoterica I've come across so far) — OK. That's all for now. Bye!

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I am by far your superior, but my notorious modesty prevents me from saying so.

- Erik Satie

To his contemporaries and peers Erik Satie was something of an enigma. Just a few of his quirks included claiming he only ate white foods, carrying a hammer wherever he went, founding his own religion, eating 150 oysters in one sitting, and writing a piece with the instruction to repeat 840 times! As a composer, Satie paved the way for the avant-garde in music and became a very influential figure in the classical music of the 20th century whose works still sound fresh today.

Born into a poor and difficult childhood in the Normandy harbour town of Honfleur on 17 May 1866, Satie would always be an outsider. The Paris Conservatoire to which he was enrolled by his stepmother, herself a pianist, became for him “a sort of local penitentiary” during his teens; he left with no qualifications and a reputation for being lazy. He signed up for military service in 1886 and dropped out within the same year. Immersing himself in the bohemian life of Montmartre, he became linked with the popular music scene and eked out a living as an accompanist, playing at the Chat Noir cabaret. Always on the periphery, and forever out of money, he later downgraded from the cramped room in which he lived to the less fashionable Parisian suburb of Arcueil, where he holed up in isolation and squalor – no visitors set foot in the room during the near-30 years he lived there.

Much has been made of the eccentricities of this flâneur, who was always seen in a grey velvet suit, and yet underlying Satie’s music is his serious desire to create something new. You can hear it in his popular piano pieces: the haunting scales and rhythms of the Trois Gnossiennes written under the spell of Romanian folk music, and the meditative world of Gymnopédies, where, as in a cubist painting, motifs are “seen” from all sides. At a time when French composers were looking to escape the shadows of Wagner’s epic Romanticism, the French composer’s stripped-back mechanical sound, inspired by the humble barrel organ, offered a radically simple approach.

Satie preferred originality to the mundane. The composer of the famous Gymnopedies, could never be accused of having an uninteresting personality. For one, his outgoing fashion statements always caused a stir. During his Montmartre years, he had 12 identical velvet corduroy suits hanging in his wardrobe, which earned him the nickname ‘The Velvet Gentleman’, and in his socialist years, he donned a bowler hat and carried an umbrella.

Debussy helped to draw public attention to Satie, orchestrating two of his Gymnopédies, yet Satie had to wait until much later in life to attain celebrity status. While still earning a living writing salon dances and popular cabaret songs, and after suffering a creative crisis, he enrolled himself at the Schola Cantorum in Paris at the age of 39. Rather than finding him validation, his studies seem to have fuelled his hatred of convention - it’s with more than a hint of bitterness that he claims to put “everything I know about Boredom” into the Bach chorale of his masterful Sports et Divertissements piano pieces. But notoriety led to a succès de scandale and when it came it came with a bang in Parade, his surreal, one-act circus ballet for Diaghilev. Into the orchestral score, which featured jazz and cabaret tunes, were thrown typewriters, sirens and a pistol - just the kind of noises a wartime audience would normally pay not to hear. With its rigid cubist costumes by Picasso - which restricted Massine’s choreography - and a promotional push from Cocteau, it was provocative enough to secure Satie’s position at the vanguard of modernism.

Yet Satie was continually frustrated in his attempts to be accepted as an artist in high society France - his failure to establish himself at the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts, to which Debussy had won a scholarship, only compounded his resentment. Was this treatment by the cultural elite fair? Certainly his determination to antagonise his audience in his late ballets did little to endear him to the critics, but the fierce criticism he received in Paris was also a sign of things to come. Pierre Boulez would later poke fun at Satie’s lack of craft, while composer Jean Barraqué - another proponent of 12-tone music - would deride Satie as “an accomplished musical illiterate … who found that his friendship with Debussy was an unhoped-for opportunity to loiter in the corridors of history”.

Satie is perhaps, to this day, the most audacious and original composer when it comes to naming his works e.g. Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies. With Satie you will not see symphonies, concertos or opus numbers. Satie possessed a wicked sense of humour and his mockery, both of himself and others, became an inspiration for many of his irony-tinged works. His Sonatine bureaucratique is a spoof of Muzio Clementi’s Sonatina Op. 36 and contained many witticisms in the score. For example, he writes Vivache (vache being French for cow) instead of the original Italian tempo marking Vivace.

Whether in the collage-like miniature piano parodies he wrote during the World War I, his creation of a theatre format that has endured over the years, or in his collaboration with Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso y Sergei Diaghilev, there is a liveliness of imagination and a hunger for innovation that made Erik Satie In the torch bearer of the vanguard in his work. Satie would influence so many so strongly that years later some of his closest friends became radical artists, for example. ManRay, the sculptor Constantin Brâncusi, and Marcel Duchamp, or a much younger group of Paris-based composers like Les Six.

Satie, a known drinker of absinthe, and apparently every other alcohol available, died of cirrhosis at the age of 59 in Arcueil, France in July 1925. But his compositions, especially those deceptively simple-sounding solo piano works, find life today through recitals, concerts, and great movie scores. Although he died in poverty with little success to his name, today Erik Satie is acknowledged as a founder of 20th-century modernism, who changed the face of music.

Personally I do find Satie's music enriching, But I also find that his calculated wackiness is culturally apt. Pieces like ‘3 Pieces in the Shape of a Pear’, ‘Flabby Preludes for a Dog’ and ‘Desiccated Embryos’ rewardingly deflate Wagnerism's excesses in a characteristically French way.

[lady-of-oorid]

[reg1ment]

the boston crusaders have announced their show for 2024, glitch!

music featured under the cut:

Shaker Loops: Jon Anderson/John Adams

G-Spot Tornado: Frank Zappa

Orchestral Suite No.2: J.S. Bach

Take-Five: Dave Brubeck

True Colors: Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg/ Saunder Choi

State of Independence: Jon Anderson

Worm Hole: Ryan George, Colin McNutt, Iain Moyer, Mike Zellers

[edge-oftheworld]

orchestral teeth/twl/nitsw/ /lom/goy/lonely heart

draft 2 of the first two movements is up <3

hope you enjoy!! there's a bit of layering of parts that may or may not clash in some places (don't mind the end of the first movement)

enjoy a lot of cello melody (bc luke's voice), unpolished danceableness, a bunch of key changes in teeth (because i'm trying to mimc 4 versions of that song in 2 different keys) and me trying to convince you ghost of you is on calm so that the violas get a solo in calum's verse :)

link to movement 3's first draft and older versions of these

inspired by (other than 5sos):

-the moldau by bedrich smetana -little threepenny opera suite by weill -wine, women and song by strauss -viola concerto in g by telemann -viola concerto in c minor by jc bach

no timestamps sorry. each movement blurs the 3 songs together you just gotta hear it through. anyway go listen to the inspo too if you feel like more classical music!

this is a demo made using musescore, not recorded with live instruments (yet)

[fairyhaos]

Hi Yena! How are you?? Can I have some orchestral music recs please? I've been wanting to get listen to more classic music, but I have no idea where to start. I hope your exams (and revision!) goes well!!

hi oh my god!!!!!! id love to give you orchestral recs!!!!!! it really depends on ur music taste tbh but classical music is sooo so versatile so im gonna go thru a list of semi popular pieces and just give a few words-vibe explanation of them too

Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 - 20th cent dramatic romance movie soundtrack (specifically focused in the 3rd mvt)

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite - exhilarating storytelling with dramatic climax

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 - the epitome of 18th century stuffy wigs and aristocratic balls

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor - the dark theme of the anti-hero in a vigilante/dystopian movie

Beethoven Spring Sonata - if the imagery of petals floating down a fast-flowing stream was fit into a melody

Elgar Salut d'Amor - cream silk and pink ribbons in pigtails

Beethoven Romance No. 2 - swiss royalty ballroom dancing music. specifically switzerland, for reasons unknown to my brain

Monti Czardas - if spanish yearning was a violin piece

Dvorak Serenade for Strings in E Major - imagine the colour dark yellow spinning around super fast amongst the falling autumn leaves

if anyone wants more orchestral music recs then I'm always happy to provide!!!!! just send in an ask w the vibes of music that you'll want and im do my best to find something 😎

[gasparodasalo]

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Orchestral Suite No. 1 for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, Strings and Basso continuo in C-Major, BWV 1066, I. Ouverture. Performed by Siegbert Rampe/Nova Stravaganza on period instruments.

[mishalikessoundsandcolours]

One of my classmates has been getting into classical music recently, so I'm thinking if I could introduce him to the Atom Heart Mother Suite (I mean it's not classical, but orchestral instruments are used and it's very epic overall) and then maybe get him to listen to Pink Floyd somehow. I don't know, I just think that there's a chance that some classical music lovers (especially ones who like Bach and Tchaikovsky, like my classmate) might have the potential to like progressive rock. I dunno why, I just feel like they might. Also I just need someone in my class to yap about Pink Floyd with (my other classmate who's also our band's drummer likes them, but I don't think she's as obsessed with them as I am)

This idea actually came to me after I heard that guy saying that he loves the organ and immediately thought about Autumn '68 from The Endless River album, maybe I could actually show this one to him first since it's short but also very nice

[fiammee]

Hello, how are you? Hope the playing session in the last week was good!

So, for the question for this weekend since I got to listen to Jon's composition... What are you top 5 of his solo compositions and why?

Heyyyy my dear and welcome❤️ finally finished school, waiting for the final exam :)

Actually I didnt get to play on last sunday bc our teacher got sick like 30 mins before the show😭😭 hopefully hes good now and tomorrow we might play again, crazy story😵‍💫

Lets start (its always so difficult to do a good placing but lets try🥲):

5) Before I Forget

A good mix of pure rock 'n' roll, ballads and english folk/medieval music. Also his arrangement of the Bach Toccata and Fugue "Bach onto this" with Cozy Powell on drums (fantastic work of his) is so nice to listen to.

4) Gemini Suite

The "sequel" of the Concerto, with each movement based on a different member of the deeps. You can clearly see his interest in the zodiac (Gemini being his sign, and every musician that participated had their sign and birthday too!). This work stands out from the previous one obv bc Its orchestral, but also because you can feel that his music is mostly not melodic or follows an harmony, but it's "organized noise", bizarre jingles, sound effects (like percussion parts) and sound walls that are so fascinating and unconventional to me. Also his collaboration on the 3rd movement with Yvonne Elliman (really nice singer, you should check her work!). My favourite movements are Piano, Drums and Organs.

3) Sarabande

Another tribute of his love to Bach and Baroque dances (every piece maintains the name of the specific dance) where he kept the original time signatures but experimented more with the electric-acoustic interaction between instruments. Sarabande (track) is hypnotic and captivating, and Gigue has a beautiful continuous piano part that sets the rythm :)

2) Boom Of The Tingling Strings

One of his later and first orchestral-only works. If I remember correctly he got this title from a poem about a childs experience with being under a grand piano, and the thing that stands out for him is that "unexpectedly violent" sound, recalling his childhood (so cute☺️). He wrote a piano part so complex compared to his skills that got played only by a concert pianist (Nelson Goerner), so I consider this work to be also one of his most challenging, both in technique and expression; very atmospheric piece, with melancholic inspirations from the 900' revolutionary composers (take this personal view with a grain of salt: im no professional in judging correctly this kind of music😭 but the piano solo part in the middle of Allegro Giusto reminds me of the Prokofiev's War Sonatas, more precisely the 6° in A Major: again this was composed during the middle of a the 2° world war and the sovietic dictatorship, and the music perfectly shows the chaos that took place in people's minds: I've got the same "out of place" feeling with Jons music and its mindblowing for me). Altough I wrote an essay here its still too little to describe this incredible piano concerto 😌

1) Concerto For Group And Orchestra

I want to put the Concerto still on no. 1 bc of the huge impact it had both musically and socially aswell. A first approach of combining popular and élite music in 1969, a revolutionary period where the younger generations wanted to change the old post-war sistem that moved everything, so the union of young-old was visionary enough. He made this work with a strict deadline and in basically no time, probably going burnout after burnout: but he still managed to kick asses and showed his early genius to the world, making Ritchie mad enough (I bet to this very day) ❤️❤️❤️

This was a bit long, ooops🤣 but you gave me the right occasion to talk about it in a free manner, so thanksss dear💋 (I know that I have to still make a review abt your fic gal, I wish to find the proper time soon😭)

[classical-music-suites-bracket]

I am now no longer accepting submissions as I need time to set up the tournament to start on the 1st of December (first poll will be scheduled for midnight GMT that day). I will have a little more information about the tournament structure soon when I release the bracket. Thank you so much everyone for your submissions, the following 58 suites will be included:

Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger)

First Suite in E-flat for Military Band (Gustav Holst)

Second Suite in F for Military Band (Gustav Holst)

The Planets (Gustav Holst)

The Firebird Suite (Igor Stravinsky)

English Folk Song Suite (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

Children’s Corner Suite (Claude Debussy)

Le tombeau de Couperin (Maurice Ravel)

Jazz Suite no. 2 (Dmitri Shostakovich)

Daphnis et Chloe Suite no. 2 (Maurice Ravel)

Peer Gynt Suite no. 1 (Edvard Grieg)

The Nutcracker Suite (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

The Carnival of the Animals (Camille Saint-Saens)

Cello Suite in G Major (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Lieutenant Kije Suite (Sergei Prokofiev)

Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 (Sergei Prokofiev)

Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 (Sergei Prokofiev)

Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky orch. Maurice Ravel)

Capriccio Espagnol (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)

Swan Lake Suite (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Sleeping Beauty Suite (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Giselle Ballet Suite (Adolphe Adams)

Masquerade Suite (Aram Khachaturian)

Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Suites for Solo Viola, op.131d (Max Reger)

Dances Suite (Béla Bartók)

L’Arlésienne Suite no. 2 (Georges Bizet)

Appalachian Spring (Aaron Copland)

Der Rosenklavier Suite (Richard Strauss)

Suite Española no. 1 op. 47 (arr. for guitar) (Isaac Albéniz)

Carmen Suite no. 2 (Georges Bizet)

Papillons Suite (Robert Schumann)

Mother Goose Suite (Maurice Ravel)

Holberg Suite (Edvard Grieg)

Scheherezade (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)

Má Vlast (Bedřich Smetana)

Magnificant in Bb Major (Francesco Durante)

Suite for Recorder and Strings (Gordon Jacob)

Symphonic Dances (Sergei Rachmaninoff)

Suite in Old Style (Nikolai Kapustin)

Livre de Guitarre dédie au roy, Suite no. 3 in D Minor (Robert de Viseé)

American Suite (Antonín Dvořák)

Caucasian Sketches Suite no. 1 (Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov)

Petrushka Suite (Igor Stravinsky)

Peter and the Wolf (Sergei Prokofiev)

A Time There Was… (Benjamin Britten)

Suite from Incidental Music from the Film “The Golden Mountains” (Dmitri Shostakovich)

Suite from Hamlet (Dmitri Shostakovich)

Violin Partita no. 2 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Violin Partita no. 3 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Keyboard Partita no. 2 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Keyboard Partita no. 6 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Dances in the Canebrakes (Florence Price)

Mountain Roads (David Maslanka)

A Moorside Suite (Gustav Holst)

Lemminkäinen Suite (Jean Sibelius)

Danish Folk Music Suite (Percy Grainger)

St Paul’s Suite (Gustav Holst)

This number does mean that some suites will have a bye in the first round, however the draw (including byes) will be drawn randomly to make it fair.

[jonjermey]

An orchestration of two movements from the first Bach Cello Suite

[aoi-424]

Classical Music in La Corda (Part 2)

Related Links: An Introduction to La Corda Classical Music in La Corda (Part 1)

(Article also available on Medium)

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La Corda d’Oro (Kiniro no Corda, 金色のコルダ), published by KOEI in 2003

The below list of pieces appeared in the game La Corda d’Oro that was first released on September 19, 2003.

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Air on the G String (Ｇ線上のアリア)

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (バッハ) Category: elegant (清麗) Keywords: passion, compliment, determination, reputation, aura, people, confidence, flower, life

This piece originates from Bach’s Orchestral Suite №3 that is called “Air”. In the arrangement by August Wilhelmj (in 1871), the violin melody is transposed such that the entire piece can be played on the violin’s lowest string (i.e. the G string). While the original key of Bach’s version is in D major, Wilhelmj’s version is in C major.

Romanze (ロマンスト長調)

Composer: Max Reger (レーガー) Category: vivid (彩華) Keywords: resonance, creation, bride, student, education, passion, hometown, youth, home

Romance (Romanze in German) generally refers to any vocal or instrumental piece that has a tender, lyrical quality. This piece, originally for violin and piano (original version), was first published in the magazine Neue Musikzeitung in 1901. It now has multiple different versions, including for flute, clarinet and cello.

Valse Sentimentale (感傷的なワルツ)

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (チャイコフスキー) Category: gloomy (愁情) Keywords: despair, dream, admiration, dedication, goddess, love, encounter, suffocation, marriage

Valse Sentimentale is one of the “Six Pieces (Six morceaux) for solo piano”, Op. 51 that Tchaikovsky wrote for the bourgeois salons in 1882. Each of the piece is dedicated to a different person, and the final movement Valse Sentimentale is dedicated to Emma Genton — an important woman in Tchaikovsky’s life. The melancholic melody gives a sense of romance while vividly depicts the image of a beautiful woman. My personal favourite is this version arranged for violin.

Sicilienne (シチリアーノ)

Composer: Anonymous Category: elegant (清麗) Keywords: family, children, goal, passion, promise, prospect, career

According to the official fanbook or the game, Sicilienne is composed by the blind Austrian Maria Theresia von Paradis (パラディス). Say even in this online video, the piece is attributed to Paradis. However, latest research revealed that it is very likely a musical hoax by violinist Samuel Dushkin, who published the piece in 1924.

Sicilienne (also known as siciliano or siciliana), is a form of dance music for Sicilian folk dance in Italy, which was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. The genre is often characterised by dotted rhythms and gives a pastoral feel.

Humoresques (ユーモレスク)

Composer: Antonín Dvořák (ドヴォルザーク) Category: vivid (彩華) Keywords: childhood, celebration, resonation, desire, heart

This piece was written when Dvořák returned to his homeland Czechoslovakia (now The Czech Republic) during the summer of 1984. He had been working as the director of the Conservatory in New York in the United States between 1892 and 1895. The piece was originally composed for the piano, comprised of both Czech and American style melodies.

Later, Dvořák’s Humoresque №7 became the tune that can be heard on passenger train toilets in the United States — the singing begins with “Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing…” (full song here).

Après un rêve (夢のあとに)

Composer: Gabriel Fauré (フォーレ) Category: gloomy (愁情) Keywords: sentiment, unrequited love, reputation, farewell, self, dream, quietude, reputation, longing

Après un rêve (After a dream in English) is one of the pieces from Trois mélodies that Fauré wrote for solo voice and piano between 1870 and 1877. The lyrics originates from an Italian poem that recounts a dream where one’s beloved can be seen. The following shows the translation in English by Richard Stokes:

In sleep made sweet by a vision of you I dreamed of happiness, fervent illusion, Your eyes were softer, your voice pure and ringing, You shone like a sky that was lit by the dawn; You called me and I departed the earth To flee with you toward the light, The heavens parted their clouds for us, We glimpsed unknown splendours, celestial fires. Alas, alas, sad awakening from dreams! I summon you, O night, give me back your delusions; Return, return in radiance, Return, O mysterious night!

In the game you could play this piece with a violin duet, and I really like the arrangement. Unfortunately I cannot find anything similar online, but this is another arrangement for 2 violins and piano.

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Thank you for reading!

Reference: 金色のコルダ コンプリートガイド