[caption id="attachment_14465" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Bruno Monginoux_www.landscape-photo.net"][/caption] [video is dead] Just as in pop music, in the world of classical music there are the "one-hit-wonders," composers who are known for only one piece of music. In terms of music heard frequently on classical music radio stations, topping the list has to be the eternally fresh and delightful, or mind-numbingly repetitive, depending on your point of view, Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, the German Baroque composer forever associated with this piece, even though he wrote much other music. Also high on the list would be The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas. One wonders, had he lived another five years, what this French composer would have thought of his music inspired by an ancient legend as told by Wolfgang von Goethe now being so closely associated in the minds of many with a small American rodent named Mickey Mouse. When it was used in that famous segment of Walt Disney's 1940 animated film, Fantasia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice got a huge boost in it's popularity that has never waned. Another composer in the French Romantic vein who wrote only one piece that's remembered today is Vincent d'Indy, and the music is his Symphony on a French Mountain Air. But I really shouldn't call him a "one-hit-wonder" because this music isn't played on the radio (or in concert halls) all that often, but when it is, it's a treat. I could just call d'Indy a one work composer instead (even though he wrote a lot more music, too). The Symphony on a French Mountain Air (from 1886) isn't exactly a "hit" either, but it is pleasant enough to keep popping up on the radio every so often. Come to think of it, it isn't exactly a symphony, either. It's been called a Fantasie for piano and orchestra, a symphonic poem based on a set of variations, a sinfonia concertante, or just a piano concerto. It's hard to categorize because it's such a smooth blending of symphony, concerto, and fantasia forms. It's called a symphony, but it has a very prominent piano part throughout. It's in three movements, common for a concerto, rather than the more usual four in a symphony, and there's such a unified feeling to the musical ideas it seems like a single movement fantasia. The origins of and inspiration for this music may have something to do with it. The inspiration came while d'Indy was on vacation in the summer of 1886, overlooking the Cevennes Mountains in Southern France (hence its alternate title, Symphonie cevenole). He heard a folksong which he noted down at the time, and by the end of summer what was intended to be a fantasia for piano and orchestra turned into a three movement symphony with a fully integrated piano part. It begins with the evocative folk tune played by the cor anglais, and the main themes for each movement are developed from this melody. As the work progresses toward its conclusion, the variations on the melody return ever nearer to the original folksong, thus giving the Symphony on a French Mountain Air a cozy feeling of unity. I can't help but think this is a musical expression of the composer's feeling of being in harmony with nature in that beautiful setting overlooking the mountains in the distance. I have always liked this piece every time I heard it on the radio. There is also something autumnal about the plaintive sound of that opening melody that evokes, for me, late summer and early fall, in fact right where we are now in the cycle of the seasons. So, while Vincent d'Indy is not as well known as some of the other "one work composers," the delicate and subtle beauties of his Symphony on a French Mountain Air are well worth hearing if you have a chance to go on a half hour musical travelogue to the south of France in late summer, early fall. You will have that opportunity on my afternoon music program coming up on October 13th between one and four p.m. I hope you can join me. In the meantime, here is part of the first movement: [youtube 490 344] --John Rittmeyer
Another One Work Composer: Vincent d'Indy
