Music inspired by travelling abroad

[JimL]

Well, if you're going to pepper these responses with sung composers such as Elgar and Saint-Saëns, maybe I should remind everybody of R. Strauss' Aus Italien and the amusing tale of the plagiarism lawsuit that caused it to be withdrawn by the composer until after he died.

[eschiss1]

Ah right, because he thought wrongly that the tune he used in it was a folksong (Funiculi, funicula). Had heard of that. I agree, was stretching the point.

[Alan Howe]

I think we need to stop a minute and consider whether a particular piece was in fact inspired by a visit abroad. For example, did Holst actually visit Japan? I think not! So, let's not turn this into a thread about music inspired by foreign lands which the composer involved didn't actually visit!

[JimL]

Ah right, because he thought wrongly that the tune he used in it was a folksong (Funiculi, funicula). Had heard of that. I agree, was stretching the point.

Not only was it not a folksong, but it had been composed so recently prior to Strauss' visit to Italy that its tunesmith (one Luigi Denza) was able to successfully litigate!

[alberto]

Holst didn't visit Japan (so I was dobtful about the "rightness" of including the Japanese Suite). On the contrary he visited Algeria and his "Beni Mora" suite is said to reflect impressions from this voyage.
I had doubt about Bax "Russian Suite" because that was not prompted by a travel to Russia.
Similarly, Szymanowsky visited and quite a lot appreciated Sicily (where "King Roger" takes place) but I don't know if "The Fountain of Arethusa" was inspired by the myth or (also) by the actual "Fountain of Arethusa" in the town of Siracusa.
Certainly qualify the "Impressions d'Italie" by Gustave Charpentier.
I would say (but I am not sure) that Jacques Ibert "Escales" (in the past quite recorded by great conductors, today much less, and  seldom performed) qualify and remain within the scope of the forum.
(Just a curiousness off-topic. Alfredo Casella quoted and used the Denza's song "Funiculì, funiculà" -several years after R.Strauss- in his Rhapsody "Italia", but he not was sued).   

[eschiss1]

alberto: you say that Bax's Russian Suite was not inspired by travel to Russia. It's an arrangement of piano pieces from the 1910s, when he had recently been in Russia, so I'm not quite sure what you mean.

[TerraEpon]

Well if you're going to mention sung composers, this thread cannot be complete without mention of Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien, and of course Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, which is what I thought of immediately upon first reading the topic.

[Mark Thomas]

Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, which is what I thought of immediately upon first reading the topic.

Me too. In fact I'd already written my post mentioning them before regaining my senses and deleting it

[Peter1953]

Actually, I meant for this topic unsung composers only, and the music must have been inspired by travelling abroad. Another example is Moscheles, who went to Ireland in January 1826. Didn't he included Irish melodies in his Recollections of Ireland ?

[JimL]

As for Moscheles, Scotland too, I believe.  And although generically titled, wasn't his 4th Piano Concerto composed for an English tour, and its use of The British Grenadiers as the rondo theme in the finale a tip of the hat to his hosts?

[Peter1953]

What I understand from the booklet notes is that Moscheles had never visited Scotland, but used Scottish songs. However, his Anticipations of Scotland: A Grand Fantasia was first performed in Edinburgh on 2 January 1828.

[alberto]

For Eric and for anyone interested (about Bax's Russian Suite).
My source is the booklet to the Chandos Cd 8669 (Russian Suite and Fifth Symphony). On reading, maybe at first superficially and quickly, I have understood that  the three pieces are  orchestrations  of three previous piano works (dating 1910-1915).
The orchestrated pieces were object of a (some years later) Diaghilev commission for "orchestral interludes" (extended to, among others, Howells, Goossens and Lord Berners). Two (of the three pieces) , " Gopak" and "In a Vodka Shop", were actually orchestrated by Bax and conducted by Ansermet in 1919  in London, Alhambra Theatre, on different occasions. There is no evidence that the third piece ("Nocturne") was actually performed (in orchestral dress) and that Bax completed the scoring (anyway lost).
Therefore the "Nocturne" was scored by Graham Parlett for the Chandos recording.
About the "Nocturne" (subtitled "May Night in the Ukraine") the booklet says "evokes Bax's own experience of the warm Ukrainian the spring night"). 

[Ilja]

Ah right, because he thought wrongly that the tune he used in it was a folksong (Funiculi, funicula). Had heard of that. I agree, was stretching the point.

Not a visit abroad, but an unsung: I noticed that Alfredo Casella used exactly the same song in the second and final part of his orchestral rhapsody Italia (1909). And one might successfully argue that for someone from Turin a visit to the Mezzogiorno constitutes a visit abroad.

[eschiss1]

alberto - yes, those piano pieces have mostly been recorded separately (on Naxos for instance by Ashley Wass).

Now Bax's incidental music/ballet GP 220 for J M Barrie, The Truth about the Russian Dancers (1920)- I'd agree the connection is maybe too indirect...