Music inspired by travelling abroad

[Peter1953]

We all know of composers who made journeys to other countries than their homeland (BTW, can you imagine how tiring and long travelling in the 19th century must have been, without planes and cars...). They heard local (folk) music which was used in own compositions. An example is Julian Fontana (1810-69) from Poland who made a trip to Cuba in 1844 in his piano works La Havana. Fantaisie sur des motifs Américains et Espagnols and Souvenirs de l'Ile de Cuba.
We also come across composers who gave some works titles referring to other countries. The Belgian August de Boeck (1865-1937) springs to mind with his Dahomeyan Rhapsody of 1893, although De Boeck never visited that West African country (today's Benin).

A question to members: do you know other examples (not from sung composers like Mendelssohn)?

[Alan Howe]

Rheinberger - Florentine Symphony. See my post here:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3667.0.html

[TerraEpon]

Gottschalk who wrote a number of 'Souvenir' pieces would certainly apply here.

[Mark Thomas]

As I am in Munich at present, perhaps my musical diet should consist of Rheinberger, Franz Lachner and, I suppose, Richard Wagner. Well, I shall be going to see Lachner's Catarina Cornaro tomorrow night at any rate!

[Mark Thomas]

Raff's Italian Suite, which was originally to be called "In the South", was the direct result of a family touring holiday in Italy. Röntgen wrote several pieces inspired by Norway and his friendship with Grieg, didn't he? Félicien David's Le Désert and his other orientalist pieces were inspired by travels in the Middle East and Ernest Reyer's rather similar Le Sélam by his time in Algeria. Pardon the detour, but I didn't realise until i just read it that Reyer was Louise Farrenc's nephew. We badly need an adequate recording of his rather fine opera Sigurd, and I wouldn't mind hearing some of the others, either.

[chill319]

Not sure if Albert Roussel's music falls within the penumbra of the current site, but he, like Saint-Saens, was one who traveled before writing exotic music. The opera "Padmavati" was written after a visit to India, and the orchestral work "Evocations" was written after a visit to Angkor Wat.

[Alan Howe]

Evocations is a splendid, exotic piece. Well worth pursuing.

[Peter1953]

Julius Röntgen, who was always very interested in folk music, travelled several times to Norway to visit one of his best friends, Edvard Grieg.
For the 25th wedding anniversary of Edvard and Nina Grieg in 1892 he composed the Suite Aus Jotunheim (originally for piano and violin), in the Norwegian mythology one of the nine worlds and the homelands of the Mountain Giants.
Röntgen also wrote a Ballad on a Norwegian Folk Song (1892) which he dedicated to another friend, Johannes Brahms. A Fantasy for piano on a Norwegian Theme was written in 1896 and in the year of his death, 1932, followed by the Variations on a Norwegian Folk Melody, the orchestral version of the piano fantasy.

[chill319]

Delius went to Florida for work, not travel per se, but that sojourn certainly preceded the creation of the "Florida Suite" and "Appalachia."

[alberto]

For me an unjustly underrated work is d'Indy's "Tableaux de voyage" inspired by travels in Germany (two versions: fuller piano version, orchestral version of some pieces).
Florent Schmitt "Reflets d'Allemagne" (piano-four hands or orchestra).
Alberto Franchetti's "Nella Foresta Nera" ("In the black forest") is on a Bongiovanni record and apparently was performed at the Proms in 1905.
Chabrier Souvenir de Bayreuth was certainly inspired by Wagner music, more than by a travel.
There is also Faurè-Merssager Souvenir de Munich.

[Jimfin]

Elgar's 'In the South' was inspired by a holiday in Italy, and Sullivan's symphony by a trip to Ireland (though he didn't actually use the title 'Irish Symphony' except informally)

[eschiss1]

Didn't a 1906 trip to Italy by Stenhammar help produce his 1907 "Midvinter" and later on his Serenade? (Hrm. The former may have been less a matter of inspired-by as written-there, so poor example, but the latter I gather was inspired by.)
I'd love to bring up Sorabji's "Villa Tasca" except (1) forum rules (2) I gather its history is a tad more complicated.
With Elgar there's not just "In the South" but in a broader and more vague way the 2nd symphony and some terrific part-songs (and a text for a part-song, "Owls"- undersung Elgar, no pun intended) that he wrote around that time- though maybe inspired by the trip only in the sense that I gather it lifted his spirits and helped him compose again (memory-serves, as usual...)

[Jimfin]

And I forgot Elgar's "From the Bavarian Highlands" written on holidays there with his wife, who wrote the words

[alberto]

Some other titles spring to mind:
-Saint Saens has been quoted as a name. His "Afrique" and "Suite Algerienne" are (seldom) recorded, not actually performed (while I would consider his "Egyptian" Piano Concerto n.5 almost a sung piece (I heard it three times in actual concerts).
d'Indy Italian Symphony (twice revived on record, I would say unsung)
            Poeme des Rivages (inspired by Italy and Spain, besides France)
Glinka ( a long time traveller for its time) Summer Night in Madrid
           Jota Aragonesa
Massenet Scenes Hongroises
                 Scenes Napolitaines
                 Scenes Alsaciennes (Alsace, formerly France, was Germany when Massenet composed the work)
Svendsen Carnival in Paris
Respighi Brazilian Impressions (recorded, but absent from the concerts)
Bizet "Roma"
Moskowsky Hungarian Scenes
Humperdinck Moorish Rhapsody
Delius Paris- the Song of a Great City (I believe not prompted by a single travel)
Karlowicz Lithuanian Rhapsody
Bax Russian Suite
Holst Japanese Suite
Szymanowsky The Fountain of Arethusa
(I don't know if, for various reasons, the last four can qualify)

[eschiss1]

Don't know why the Bax shouldn't- he spent enough time in his earlier years in Russia, and described himself as a "brazen Romantic". (The tolling bells of his first published-and-so-numbered piano sonata sound Russia-inspired to more ears than mine )