It’s October, which means the seasons are changing! To celebrate, let’s listen to some classical music inspired by autumn. (Click here for part 1.)
Comes Autumn Time by Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
Sowerby wrote this shimmering piece for organ in 1916 before orchestrating it a year later. The work was inspired by a poem called Autumn by Bliss Carman:
| NOW when the time of fruit and grain When apples hang above the orchard wall, And from the tangle by the roadside stream Comes Autumn with her sunburnt caravan, Like a long gypsy train with trappings gay And tattered colors of the Orient, Moving slow-footed through the dreamy hills. The woods of Wilton at her coming wear Tints of Bokhara and of Samarcand; The maples glow with their Pompeian red, The hickories with burnt Etruscan gold; And while the crickets fife along her march, Behind her banners burn the crimson sun. |
This piece emulates the vibrancy of youth and the changing season. (After all, Sowerby was only 21 when he composed it!) Comes Autumn Time transitions from lively to thoughtful and pensive before the opening ideas finish out the composition.
Do you prefer the organ or the orchestral version?
Symphony No. 10: To Autumntime by Joachim Raff (1822-1882)
Even though Raff was one of the most well-known German composers during the Romantic era, his music has since fallen into obscurity. He wrote 11 symphonies, each with a descriptive title attached (and 4 of which are named after the seasons). He composed his 10th Symphony in F minor, Op. 213, in 1879.
This symphony wasn’t particularly loved at the time of its premiere – both by audiences and the composer – but it is a beautiful creation of sound and atmosphere. The first movement (called Impressions and Feelings) perfectly captures the crisp feeling of autumn through song-like themes and repeated horn calls in the muted climaxes. The eerie second movement, Ghostly rounds, utilizes a waltz and a chorale to paint an image of dancing ghosts. The third movement (Elegie) is calm and subdued, and the final movement (appropriately titled The Hunt of Men) is an energetic hunting call; listen for it in the horns.
There is a bit of history behind the Elegie. Raff completely rewrote the movement after the symphony’s premiere, and he later published the original movement as a stand-alone orchestral piece:
Raff’s daughter said of the original movement:
In the Elegie, [Raff] had wanted to portray the intensely colored splendor of the Autumn combining with the last ardent flaring up of the soul.
Autumn Gardens by Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016)
Finnish composer Rautavaara composed Autumn Gardens in 1998, and it’s one of his most well-known orchestral works. The swirling energy and rising melodies capture the season’s magical spirit. Rautavaara believed his music was very much like nature:
I have often compared composing to gardening. In both processes, one observes and controls organic growth rather than constructing or assembling existing components and elements. I would also like to think that my compositions are rather like ‘English gardens’, freely growing and organic, as opposed to those that are pruned to geometric precision and severity.
Rautavaara said of Autumn Gardens:
The title is derived from a passage in the libretto of my opera ‘The House of the Sun’: ‘…like a butterfly in the garden of black autumn…’ The motif to which these words are sung [in the opera] is used as the theme for the variations of the first movement [in Autumn Gardens]. It’s texture grows and becomes denser by degrees. The second slow movement, rhythmically and dynamically placid, follows without a pause. The third movement starts off vivacious and brisk, but autumn is a time of leaves falling, of colours, and death, and so soon becomes a solemn dance, perhaps a sarabande in honour of the dying splendour of summer, or as T.S. Eliot said, ‘late roses filled with early snow’.
What other classical music inspired by autumn would you add to this list? I’m planning on writing another post, so leave me your suggestions!
