Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Tone Poem Tuesday

No days start with "R", so I can't have "Rhapsody R-day". Thus I fold rhapsodies in with tone poems.

This work is pretty straight-forward, and it's one of my favorite pieces of all time. Emmanuel Chabrier composed this work after a visit with his wife to Spain in 1882 during which he became entranced with the rhythms of that country's folk dances. And the work is pure dance, alternating with ease between lyricism and rhythmic punch (and sometimes both), in the span of about seven minutes.

Here is Espana.

1 comment:

fillyjonk said...

Thursday?

My campus uses "R" to indicate Thursday on class schedules - they need a one-letter abbreviation and T is already taken for Tuesday.

It causes a lot of consternation among new students (freshman and transfers); at least once in the first week of every semester I get asked "What day is R?!?!?!"