Are there any program symphonies among Beethoven's symphonies? Musical works about nature: a selection of good music with a story about it
This term has other meanings, see Symphony No. 5. Beethoven in 1804. Fragment of a portrait by W. Mahler. Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67, written by Ludwig van Beethow ... Wikipedia
Beethoven, Ludwig van The request "Beethoven" redirects here; see also other meanings. Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven in a portrait by Karl Stieler ... Wikipedia
BEETHOVEN Ludwig van (baptized December 17, 1770, Bonn March 26, 1827, Vienna), German composer, representative of the Viennese classical school (see VIENNA CLASSICAL SCHOOL). Created a heroic dramatic type of symphonism (see SYMPHONISM) (3rd... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Beethoven Ludwig van (baptized 12/17/1770, Bonn, ‒ 3/26/1827, Vienna), German composer. Born into a family of Flemish origin. B.'s grandfather was the leader of the Bonn court chapel, his father was a court singer. B. learned to play early... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (Ludwig van Beethoven) the greatest composer of the 19th century, born December 16. 1770 in Bonn, where his grandfather Ludwig fan B. was a bandmaster, and his father Johann fan B. was a tenor in the Electoral Chapel.V. showed very early an amazing musical gift, but heavy...
BEETHOVEN Ludwig van (1770 1827), German. composer. In the post-December years in Russia, attention to B.’s music increased. The drama of his rebellious creativity, which awakened hope and faith in people, calling for struggle, responded... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia
- (from the Greek symphonia consonance) a piece of music for a symphony orchestra, written in a cyclic sonata form; the highest form of instrumental music. Usually consists of 4 parts. The classical type of symphony developed at the end. 18 start 19th century... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Greek consonance) the name of an orchestral composition in several parts. S. the most extensive form in the field of concert orchestral music. Due to the similarity, in its construction, with the sonata. S. can be called a grand sonata for orchestra. How in… … Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
- (Greek symphonia - consonance) a piece of music for a symphony orchestra, written in sonata-cyclic form, the highest form of instrumental music. Usually consists of 4 parts. The classical type of symphony developed in the XVIII - early stages. XIX... ... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. Portrait by J. K. Stieler (1781 1858). (Beethoven, Ludwig van) (1770 1827), German composer, often considered the greatest composer of all time. His work is classified as both classicism and romanticism; on the… … Collier's Encyclopedia
- (Beethoven) Ludwig van (16 XII (?), baptized 17 XII 1770, Bonn 26 III 1827, Vienna) German. composer, pianist and conductor. The son of a singer and the grandson of the bandmaster of the Bonn Pridv. chapel, B. became involved in music at an early age. Music activities (game... ... Music Encyclopedia
Books
- Symphony no. 9, op. 125, L.V. Beethoven. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. L. W. Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, op. 125, Score, For orchestra Publication type: Score Instruments:…
- Symphony no. 6, op. 68, L.V. Beethoven. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. L. V. Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, op. 68, Score, For orchestra Publication type: Score Instruments:…
Pictures of the changing seasons, the rustling of leaves, bird voices, the splashing of waves, the murmur of a stream, thunderclaps - all this can be conveyed in music. Many famous people were able to do this brilliantly: their musical works about nature became classics of the musical landscape.
Natural phenomena and musical sketches of flora and fauna appear in instrumental and piano works, vocal and choral works, and sometimes even in the form of program cycles.
“The Seasons” by A. Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Vivaldi's four three-movement violin concertos dedicated to the seasons are without a doubt the most famous nature music works of the Baroque era. The poetic sonnets for the concerts are believed to have been written by the composer himself and express the musical meaning of each part.
Vivaldi conveys with his music the rumble of thunder, the sound of rain, the rustling of leaves, the trills of birds, the barking of dogs, the howling of the wind, and even the silence of an autumn night. Many of the composer's remarks in the score directly indicate one or another natural phenomenon that should be depicted.
Vivaldi “The Seasons” – “Winter”
"The Seasons" by J. Haydn
Joseph Haydn
The monumental oratorio “The Seasons” was a unique result of the composer’s creative activity and became a true masterpiece of classicism in music.
Four seasons are sequentially presented to the listener in 44 films. The heroes of the oratorio are rural residents (peasants, hunters). They know how to work and have fun, they have no time to indulge in despondency. People here are part of nature, they are involved in its annual cycle.
Haydn, like his predecessor, makes extensive use of the capabilities of different instruments to convey the sounds of nature, such as a summer thunderstorm, the chirping of grasshoppers and a chorus of frogs.
Haydn associates musical works about nature with the lives of people - they are almost always present in his “paintings”. So, for example, in the finale of the 103rd symphony, we seem to be in the forest and hear the signals of hunters, to depict which the composer resorts to a well-known means - . Listen:
Haydn Symphony No. 103 – finale
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“Seasons” by P. I. Tchaikovsky
The composer chose the genre of piano miniatures for his twelve months. But the piano alone is capable of conveying the colors of nature no worse than the choir and orchestra.
Here is the spring rejoicing of the lark, and the joyful awakening of the snowdrop, and the dreamy romance of white nights, and the song of a boatman rocking on the river waves, and the field work of peasants, and hound hunting, and the alarmingly sad autumn fading of nature.
Tchaikovsky “Seasons” – March – “Song of the Lark”
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“Carnival of Animals” by C. Saint-Saens
Among musical works about nature, Saint-Saëns’ “grand zoological fantasy” for chamber ensemble stands out. The frivolity of the idea determined the fate of the work: “Carnival,” the score of which Saint-Saëns even forbade publication during his lifetime, was performed in its entirety only among the composer’s friends.
The instrumental composition is original: in addition to strings and several wind instruments, it includes two pianos, a celesta and such a rare instrument in our time as a glass harmonica.
The cycle has 13 parts describing different animals, and a final part that combines all the numbers into a single piece. It’s funny that the composer also included novice pianists who diligently play scales among the animals.
The comic nature of “Carnival” is emphasized by numerous musical allusions and quotes. For example, “Turtles” perform Offenbach’s cancan, only slowed down several times, and the double bass in “Elephant” develops the theme of Berlioz’s “Ballet of the Sylphs”.
Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” – Swan
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Sea elements by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov
The Russian composer knew about the sea firsthand. As a midshipman, and then as a midshipman on the Almaz clipper, he made a long journey to the North American coast. His favorite sea images appear in many of his creations.
This is, for example, the theme of the “blue ocean-sea” in the opera “Sadko”. In just a few sounds the author conveys the hidden power of the ocean, and this motif permeates the entire opera.
The sea reigns both in the symphonic musical film “Sadko” and in the first part of the suite “Scheherazade” - “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship”, in which calm gives way to storm.
Rimsky-Korsakov “Sadko” – introduction “Ocean-sea blue”
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“The east was covered with a ruddy dawn...”
Another favorite theme of nature music is sunrise. Here two of the most famous morning themes immediately come to mind, having something in common with each other. Each in its own way accurately conveys the awakening of nature. This is the romantic “Morning” by E. Grieg and the solemn “Dawn on the Moscow River” by M. P. Mussorgsky.
In Grieg, the imitation of a shepherd's horn is picked up by string instruments, and then by the entire orchestra: the sun rises over the harsh fjords, and the murmur of a stream and the singing of birds are clearly heard in the music.
Mussorgsky's Dawn also begins with a shepherd's melody, the ringing of bells seems to be woven into the growing orchestral sound, and the sun rises higher and higher above the river, covering the water with golden ripples.
Mussorgsky – “Khovanshchina” – introduction “Dawn on the Moscow River”
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It is almost impossible to list everything in which the theme of nature is developed - this list will be too long. Here you can include concertos by Vivaldi (“Nightingale”, “Cuckoo”, “Night”), “Bird Trio” from Beethoven’s sixth symphony, “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov, “Goldfish” by Debussy, “Spring and Autumn” and “Winter road" by Sviridov and many other musical pictures of nature.
Sixth, Pastoral Symphony
At the same time as the Fifth, Beethoven completed the Sixth, “Pastoral Symphony.” This is the only Beethoven symphonic work published with the author's program. The title page of the manuscript bore the following inscription:
"Pastoral Symphony"
or
Memories of rural life.
More an expression of mood than sound painting.”
The sixth, Pastoral Symphony occupies a special place in Beethoven’s work. It was from this symphony that representatives of romantic program symphony largely took their cues. Berlioz was an enthusiastic fan of the Sixth Symphony.
The theme of nature receives wide philosophical embodiment in the music of Beethoven, one of the greatest poets of nature. In the Sixth Symphony, these images acquired their most complete expression, for the very theme of the symphony is nature and pictures of rural life. For Beethoven, nature was not only an object for creating picturesque paintings. She was for him an expression of a comprehensive, life-giving principle. It was in communion with nature that Beethoven found those hours of pure joy that he so craved. Statements from Beethoven's diaries and letters speak of his enthusiastic pantheistic attitude towards nature. More than once we come across statements in Beethoven’s notes that his ideal is “free,” that is, natural nature.
The theme of nature in Beethoven's work is connected with another theme in which he expresses himself as a follower of Rousseau - this is the poetry of a simple, natural life in communication with nature, the spiritual purity of the peasant. In the notes to the sketches of the Pastoral, Beethoven several times points to the “memory of life in the countryside” as the main motive of the content of the symphony. This idea was preserved in the full title of the symphony on the title page of the manuscript.
The Rousseauist idea of the Pastoral Symphony connects Beethoven with Haydn (oratorio “The Seasons”). But in Beethoven the touch of patriarchy that is observed in Haydn disappears. He interprets the theme of nature and rural life as one of the variants of his main theme about the “free man” - this makes him similar to the “sturmers”, who, following Rousseau, saw a liberating principle in nature and opposed it to the world of violence and coercion.
In the Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven turned to a plot that was encountered more than once in music. Among the programmatic works of the past, many are devoted to images of nature. But Beethoven solves the principle of programming in music in a new way. From naive illustrativeness he moves on to a poetic, spiritual embodiment of nature.
However, one should not think that Beethoven abandoned the pictorial, visual possibilities of musical language here. Beethoven's Sixth Symphony is an example of the fusion of expressive and pictorial principles. Her images are deep in mood, poetic, inspired by a great inner feeling, imbued with a generalizing philosophical thought and at the same time picturesque.
Seventh Symphony
The symphony genre in Beethoven's work was in constant development. Four years after the Pastoral, the Seventh and Eighth symphonies were created (1812), in which Beethoven's symphony is revealed from new sides, thanks to the strengthening of national features.
The fusion of heroic and genre principles in these symphonies determines the increased importance of song intonations and dance rhythms. The powerful simplicity of Beethoven's democratic language, with its energy of rhythms and relief of active intonations, is combined with the subtle development of melodic, timbre, and harmonic details. In harmony, the variety of shades and contrasts, the enhancement of colorfulness is to a large extent carried out by means of major-minor, various tertian ratios. In the structure of the cycle there is a well-known deviation from classical tempo contrasts (instead of the slow part - Allegretto).
All this allowed Serov to see in these symphonies the beginning of the late Beethoven style, although both of them, not only in time of creation, but also in style, are the final works of the central period. They carried out a synthesis of the principles of Beethoven's heroic and lyric-genre symphonism (which is especially clearly manifested in the Seventh Symphony). The nationality of Beethoven's images appears here in a new capacity; it is brighter in its national manifestation, although it does not lose its general heroic orientation.
Between the symphonies of 1812 and the previous Pastoral, such works as the Fifth Piano Concerto, Egmont, and music for the play King Stephen were published. Immediately after the Seventh and Eighth, the program symphony “Wellington's Victory, or the Battle of Vittoria” was written. All these works (with all the differences in their artistic significance) are in one way or another connected with the patriotic ideas of that time. Together with the Battle of Vittoria, the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies were performed in patriotic concerts in Vienna in 1813 and 1814 to celebrate the victory over Napoleon.
Created in the same year, united by a common actively joyful tone, the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, however, contrast with each other, complementing each other.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) The work of the brilliant German composer Beethoven is the greatest treasure of world culture, an entire era in the history of music. It had a huge influence on the development of art in the 19th century. In shaping the worldview of Beethoven the artist, the ideas of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789 played a decisive role. The brotherhood of man and heroic deeds in the name of freedom are the central themes of his work. Beethoven's music, strong-willed and indomitable in its depiction of struggle, courageous and restrained in its expression of suffering and sorrowful reflection, captivates with its optimism and high humanism. Beethoven intertwines heroic images with deep, concentrated lyricism and images of nature. His musical genius was most fully manifested in the field of instrumental music - in nine symphonies, five piano and violin concertos, thirty-two piano sonatas, and string quartets.
Beethoven's works are characterized by large-scale forms, richness and sculptural relief of images, expressiveness and clarity of musical language, rich in strong-willed rhythms and heroic melodies
Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in the Rhine town of Bonn in the family of a court singer. The childhood of the future composer, spent in constant material need, was joyless and harsh. The boy was taught to play the violin, piano and organ. He made rapid progress and already from 1784 he served in the court chapel.
Since 1792, Beethoven settled in Vienna. He soon gained fame as a wonderful pianist and improviser. Beethoven's playing amazed his contemporaries with its powerful impulse and emotional strength. In the first decade of Beethoven's stay in the Austrian capital, two of his symphonies, six quartets, seventeen piano sonatas and other works were created. However, the composer, who was in the prime of his life, was struck by a serious illness - Beethoven began to lose his hearing. Only an unbending will and faith in his high calling as a musician-citizen helped him endure this blow of fate. In 1804, the Third (“Heroic”) Symphony was completed, which marked the beginning of a new, even more fruitful stage in the composer’s work. Following the “Eroica,” Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio” (1805), the Fourth Symphony (1806), a year later the “Coriolanus” overture, and in 1808 the famous Fifth and Sixth (“Pastoral”) symphonies were written. The same period includes music for Goethe's tragedy "Egmont", the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, a number of piano sonatas, among which stand out No. 21 ("Aurora") and No. 23 ("Appassionata") and many other remarkable works.
In subsequent years, Beethoven's creative productivity declined noticeably. He completely lost his hearing. The composer perceived with bitterness the political reaction that came after the Congress of Vienna (1815). Only in 1818 did he again turn to creativity. Beethoven's late works are marked by features of philosophical depth and the search for new forms and means of expression. At the same time, the pathos of heroic struggle did not fade away in the work of the great composer. On May 7, 1824, the grandiose Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time, unparalleled in its power of thought, breadth of concept, and perfection of execution. Its main idea is the unity of millions; The choral finale of this brilliant work based on the text of F. Schiller’s ode “To Joy” is dedicated to the glorification of freedom, the chanting of boundless joy and an all-encompassing feeling of brotherly love.
The last years of Beethoven's life were overshadowed by severe hardships, illness and loneliness. He died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna.
Symphonic creativity
Beethoven's contribution to world culture is determined primarily by his symphonic works. He was the greatest symphonist, and it was in symphonic music that his worldview and basic artistic principles were most fully embodied.
Beethoven's path as a symphonist spanned almost a quarter of a century (1800 - 1824), but his influence spread throughout the entire 19th and even to a large extent into the 20th century. In the 19th century, every symphonic composer had to decide for himself whether he would continue one of the lines of Beethoven’s symphony or try to create something fundamentally different. One way or another, without Beethoven, symphonic music of the 19th century would have been completely different.
Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies (10 remained in sketches). Compared to 104 by Haydn or 41 by Mozart, this is not much, but each of them is an event. The conditions under which they were composed and performed were radically different from those under Haydn and Mozart. For Beethoven, a symphony is, firstly, a purely social genre, performed mainly in large halls by an orchestra that was quite respectable by the standards of that time; and secondly, the genre is ideologically very significant, which does not allow writing such essays at once in series of 6 pieces. Therefore, Beethoven's symphonies, as a rule, are much larger than even Mozart's (except for the 1st and 8th) and are fundamentally individual in concept. Every symphony gives only decision– both figurative and dramatic.
True, the sequence of Beethoven's symphonies reveals some patterns that have long been noticed by musicians. Thus, odd-numbered symphonies are more explosive, heroic or dramatic (except for the 1st), and even-numbered symphonies are more “peaceful”, genre-based (mostly the 4th, 6th and 8th). This may be explained by the fact that Beethoven often conceived symphonies in pairs and even wrote them simultaneously or immediately after each other (5 and 6 even “swapped” numbers at the premiere; 7 and 8 followed in a row).
Chamber instrumental
In addition to string quartets, Beethoven left many other chamber instrumental works: a septet, three string quintets, six piano trios, ten violin sonatas, five cello sonatas. Among them, in addition to the Septet described above, a string quintet (C major op, 29, 1801) stands out. This relatively early work by Beethoven is distinguished by a subtlety and freedom of expression reminiscent of Schubert's style.
The violin and cello sonatas are of great artistic value. All ten violin sonatas are essentially duets for piano and violin, so significant is the piano part in them. All of them push the previous boundaries of chamber music. This is especially noticeable in the Ninth Sonata in a minor (op. 44, 1803), dedicated to the Parisian violinist Rudolf Kreutzer, on the original of which Beethoven wrote: “Sonata for piano and obligate violin, written in concert style - like a concert”. The same age as the “Eroica Symphony” and “Appassionata,” the “Kreutzer Sonata” is related to them both in ideological concept, and in the novelty of expressive techniques, and in the symphonic development. Against the background of all Beethoven's sonata violin literature, it stands out for its drama, integrity of form and scale.
The Sixth Piano Trio in B major (Op. 97, 1811), which belongs to Beethoven’s most inspired works, gravitates towards the symphonic style. The images of deep reflection in the slow variation movement, the heightened contrasts between the movements, the tonal plan and the structure of the cycle anticipate the Ninth Symphony. Strict architectonics and purposeful thematic development are combined with a broad, flowing melody, saturated with diverse color shades.
Ludwig van Beethoven. Symphony No. 6, F major, Op. 68, "Pastoral"
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, "Pastoral"
Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, piccolo flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, strings.
History of creation
The birth of the Pastoral Symphony falls on the central period of Beethoven's work. Almost simultaneously, three symphonies came out of his pen, completely different in character: in 1805 he began writing a heroic symphony in C minor, now known as No. 5, in mid-November of the following year he completed the lyrical Fourth, in B-flat major, and in 1807 he began composing the Pastoral. Completed at the same time as the C minor in 1808, it differs sharply from it. Beethoven, having come to terms with an incurable illness - deafness - here does not fight a hostile fate, but glorifies the great power of nature, the simple joys of life.
Like the C minor, the Pastoral Symphony is dedicated to Beethoven’s patron, the Viennese philanthropist Prince F. I. Lobkowitz and the Russian envoy in Vienna, Count A. K. Razumovsky. Both of them were first performed in a large “academy” (that is, a concert in which the works of only one author were performed by himself as a virtuoso instrumentalist or by an orchestra under his direction) on December 22, 1808 at the Vienna Theater.
The first number of the program was “Symphony entitled “Memories of Rural Life”, F major, No. 5.” Only some time later she became Sixth. The concert, held in a cold hall where the audience sat in fur coats, was not a success. The orchestra was a mixed one, of a low level. Beethoven quarreled with the musicians during the rehearsal; conductor I. Seyfried worked with them, and the author only directed the premiere.
The pastoral symphony occupies a special place in his work. It is programmatic, and the only one of the nine has not only a general name, but also headings for each part. These parts are not four, as has long been established in the symphonic cycle, but five, which is connected specifically with the program: between the simple-minded village dance and the peaceful finale there is a dramatic picture of a thunderstorm.
Beethoven loved to spend the summer in quiet villages in the vicinity of Vienna, wandering through forests and meadows from dawn to dusk, rain or shine, and in this communication with nature the ideas for his compositions arose. “No person can love rural life as much as I do, for oak groves, trees, rocky mountains respond to the thoughts and experiences of man.” The pastoral, which, according to the composer himself, depicts the feelings born of contact with the natural world and rural life, became one of Beethoven's most romantic compositions. It is not without reason that many romantics saw her as a source of inspiration. This is evidenced by Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique, Schumann's Rhine Symphony, Mendelssohn's Scottish and Italian symphonies, the symphonic poem "Preludes" and many of Liszt's piano pieces.
The first part is called by the composer “Awakening joyful feelings while staying in the village.” The simple, repeated main theme heard by the violins is close to folk round dance melodies, and the accompaniment by violas and cellos is reminiscent of the hum of village bagpipes. Several side topics contrast little with the main one. The development is also idyllic, devoid of sharp contrasts. A long stay in one emotional state is diversified by colorful comparisons of tonalities, changes in orchestral timbres, increases and decreases in sonority, which anticipates the principles of development among the romantics.
The second part - “Scene by the Stream” - is imbued with the same serene feelings. The melodious violin melody slowly unfolds against a murmuring background of other strings, which persists throughout the entire movement. Only at the very end does the stream fall silent and the roll call of birds becomes audible: the trill of a nightingale (flute), the cry of a quail (oboe), the cuckoo’s cuckoo (clarinet). Listening to this music, it is impossible to imagine that it was written by a deaf composer who has not heard birdsong for a long time!
The third part - “A cheerful pastime of peasants” - is the most cheerful and carefree. It combines the sly simplicity of peasant dances, introduced into the symphony by Beethoven's teacher Haydn, and the sharp humor of typically Beethovenian scherzos. The initial section is based on the repeated juxtaposition of two themes - abrupt, with persistent stubborn repetitions, and lyrical melodious, but not without humor: the bassoon accompaniment sounds out of time, as if from inexperienced village musicians. The next theme, flexible and graceful, in the transparent timbre of the oboe accompanied by the violins, is also not without a comical touch, which is given to it by the syncopated rhythm and the sudden entry of the bassoon bass. In the faster trio, a rough chant with sharp accents is persistently repeated, in a very loud sound - as if the village musicians were playing with all their might, sparing no effort. In repeating the opening section, Beethoven breaks with classical tradition: instead of going through all the themes in full, there is only a brief reminder of the first two.
The fourth part - “Thunderstorm. Storm " - begins immediately, without interruption. It forms a sharp contrast to everything that preceded it and is the only dramatic episode of the symphony. Painting a majestic picture of the raging elements, the composer resorts to visual techniques, expanding the composition of the orchestra, including, as in the finale of the Fifth, the piccolo flute and trombones, which had not previously been used in symphonic music. The contrast is especially sharply emphasized by the fact that this part is not separated by a pause from the neighboring ones: starting suddenly, it also passes without a pause into the finale, where the mood of the first parts returns.
Final - “Shepherd's tunes. Joyful and grateful feelings after the storm.” The calm melody of the clarinet, to which the horn responds, resembles the roll call of shepherd's horns against the background of bagpipes - they are imitated by the sustained sounds of violas and cellos. The roll call of instruments gradually fades into the distance - the last one to carry out the melody is the horn with a mute against the background of light passages of strings. This is how this unique Beethoven symphony ends in an unusual way.
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Beethoven Symphony No 6 in F Major Op 68 "The Pastoral" Mvt. 1 Allegro ma non troppo. Performed by the Peter Seymour Orchestra PSO led by the legendary John Ockwell at the Sydney Youth Orchestra SYO concert, December 4, 2010.
01 Allegro ma non troppo, Beethoven, Symphony 6/1, F major, Op 68, "Pastoral", Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Pastoral (derived from the French pastorale, pastoral, rural) is a genre that poetizes peaceful and simple rural life.
Pastoral is a genre in literature, painting, music and theater that poetizes peaceful and simple rural life. Pastoral can be called:
Pastoral music, which can include both large and small works, dedicated to the depiction of nature or rural life. Musical pastoral is characterized by 6/8, 12/8 time signatures, a smooth, calm movement of the melody, often doubled in thirds. There are examples of pastorals in the works of A. Vivaldi, D. Scarlatti, F. Couperin, J. S. Bach and other composers. Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony" is also famous.
A pastoral can also be called a symphonic episode in a musical stage work that paints pictures of nature (for example, a pastoral in the music of J. Bizet to A. Daudet's Le d'Arlesienne).
Small opera, pantomime, ballet, written on idealized scenes from rural life. The first pastorals, which arose in the 14th and 15th centuries. are the predecessors of classical opera (for example, the French “performance with songs” The Tale of Robin and Marion). In musical theater, pastoralism survived into the 18th and 19th centuries. (Mozart's opera The Shepherd King, 1775; Delibes' ballet Sylvia, 1876; etc.). Pastoral operas were written by K. V. Gluck, W. A. Mozart, J. B. Lully, J. F. Rameau.
Bucolic (from the Greek “shepherd”) poetry of antiquity, dedicated to depicting the life of shepherds. Synonyms are eclogue and idyll.
A type of European literature that emulates a bucolic worldview.
A genre of court theater that arose in Italy in the 16th century. and became widespread in Western European countries. The pastoral was a short play, often included in the program of court festivities. It depicted the rural life of gallant shepherds and shepherdesses, endowed with the manners, feelings and vocabulary of the aristocracy.
Quiart Pierre-Antoine - Pastoral. 