Great Unsung Tone Poems

[Gauk]

When did you last hear a recent broadcast work by a major contemporary composer subtitled "tone poem"? It's the same with concertos - it seems no-one writes a piece called "Violin Concerto No 1" any more - it gets called "Fractured Night" or something of that kind instead.

[Alan Howe]

True. Nowadays composers can give any piece they write any title they like. The days of (easy) categorisation are long gone - except in the case of certain composers who consciously write with an awareness of the historical tradition in which they stand.

[eschiss1]

I think I've almost never heard a broadcast premiere of a piece called Violin Concerto No.1. It's usually titled Violin Concerto - when it's _premiered_ - unless Violin Concerto No.2 already exists. Sometimes the "No.1" never gets added (Benjamin Frankel's "Symphony No.1" is still titled "Symphony" on its published score, despite its 7 successors.) As to major contemporary composers, define please. I didn't hear their premieres as is part of your condition (I think I did that of Blackwood's 5th symphony, but that's a bit offtopic), but I gather Pehr Nordgren wrote 4 violin concertos, Hans Werner Henze 3 (is he major enough?) (with Violin Concerto the main titles, though at least two of them had subtitles, if I recall), Vagn Holmboe had 3 - for starters...

[Alan Howe]

I think we're talking about composers active today.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Maxwell Davies Violin Concerto No.2 (has a subtitle, yes, premiered 2008); Yasuhide Ito: "Gloriosa : symphonic poem for orchestra" (also? for wind symphony, premiered ca.1996, pub.2007); Poème symphonique n° 6 : "Espaces-Fragmentations : pour orchestre : opus 87 : 2011 by Lebanese composer Bechara el-Khoury (*1957) (and 5 preceding and perhaps more since); etc.-- and quite a whole lot of "symphonies"/"sinfonien" etc etc etc. relatively. Not a ton compared to the 19th century, but didn't expect there to be.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, they're still around.
Anyway, back to the topic in hand...

[alan850627]

I'm sure someone else has mentioned this already, but I absolutely love William S. Lloyd Webber's Tone Poem "Aurora" (1948). I like the warm harmonies and the sweeping melodies in this short, but beautiful tone poem.

I'm not sure if this is a proper place to ask this, but I bought the full score from Decorum Books through AbeBooks almost a year ago; since then, I have been trying to decipher and identify what looks to be a signature on the front cover to no avail, so I thought I could ask here.

Images here: http://imgur.com/a/pb0Ek. The signature is located on the top right corner of the cover page, and it seems to be written using a marker(?) The only thing I can decipher is 1970, assuming it's a date - which is interesting because the first known performance/recording of this piece is made in 1986. Anyone has any ideas on what the signature might represent?

[sdtom]

Just got the opportunity (making spine labels) to revisit Vox Maris.

[Aramiarz]

Please, don't forget "Oithona ", the first mexican symphonic poem!

[Aramiarz]

By Ricardo Castro. 1864-1907.