Page 4 - The Score

Music That Tells a Story
October 29 - November 1, 2019
The Cleveland Orchestra Vinay Parameswaran, conductor Severance Hall
How do you tell a story without words? With music of course! Like an author, a composer of music can portray characters, places, actions, even emotions, by choosing specific instruments, notes, rhythms, and more, to tell a story in sound. You will ‘hear’ mythological warrior maidens on flying horses, dancing skeletons, trolls, evil witches, futuristic villains, and more, in Music That Tells a Story!
WAGNER SAINT-SAËNS MUSSORGSKY PROKOFIEV GRIEG GOUNOD WILLIAMS
“The Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre Danse macabre
Night on Bald Mountain
Midnight from Cinderella
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt
Funeral March of a Marionette
“The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s Theme) from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
RICHARD WAGNER
(1813-1883) (pronounced REE-card VAHG- ner) was the youngest of 9 children. His family was poor and could not afford music lessons so he taught himself about music, and went on to become one of the world’s greatest composers! Wagner loved music that tells a story and composed operas which he called “music dramas” combining music, story and words.
produced.
CHARLES-CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
(1835-1921) was born in Paris s raised by his widowed mother and her aunt who introduced him to the piano and gave him his first lessons. The boy was a true genius, demonstrating perfect pitch at the age of two! From The Swan in Carnival of the Animals to his Organ Symphony, Saint-Saëns was one of the greatest composers that France has ever
On this concert you will hear Ride of the Valkyries (which was once used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon!). It is from the second of four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung. Wagner’s music dramatically portrays the exciting ride of nine Valkyries, warrior maidens from Norse mythology, who guard Valhalla, the home of the gods. When brave soldiers on earth die in battle, the Valkyries swoop down on their winged horses to bring their bodies back to Valhalla where they become the gods’ immortal protectors.
On this concert you will hear Danse macabre. According to legend, “Death” appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their cemetery graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle ( represented by a solo violin). The skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year. The piece starts with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) along