#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 1
By Ralph Graves
For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December’s theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme.
Here are my Classical Winter posts for the first week of January.
Giacomo Puccini – “Che gelida manina” (What a cold little hand) – La Boheme
In the first act of “La Boheme” takes place in the middle of winter. Mimi visits her neighbor Rudolfo to get a light for her candle. Both are freezing in the poorly heating garret.
Claude Debussy – The Snow is Dancing
This is the fourth movement of “The Children’s Corner.” Debussy’s friend and colleague André Caplet orchestrated the suite in 1911.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 “Winter Dreams”
The title comes from the first movement, marked “Dreams of a Winter Journey.” The themes outlined in G minor in this movement return in the final movement, now in G major, suggesting arrival.
Franz Joseph Haydn – “Der Winter” from “Die Jahreszeiten,” Hob.XXI:3
Haydn’s massive 1801 oratorio is in four sections, one for each season. “Der Winter” is the final part. It represents the year’s end, and life’s’ end as well.
