{"id":44881,"date":"2024-07-04T19:21:21","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T17:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/795484c8-b299-4671-a952-5b64475bbfc1"},"modified":"2024-07-04T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T17:36:07","slug":"haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Haven of peaceful stillness, or omen of disaster? The most evocative music inspired by the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 04 July 2024 at 17:21 PM<\/p>

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Four and a half billion years old and over a quarter of a million miles from Earth, the Moon is our oldest and closest solar friend. Viewed from Earth, by a stroke of celestial magic, it appears as large as the distant Sun, constantly shapeshifting under the changing stellar light \u2013 the four lunar phases lasting barely seven days each. <\/p>

‘When it comes to mythologising the Moon, composers got there first’<\/h2>
While the Moon\u2019s gravitational pull stirs the ocean tides, and its regular phases shaped our earliest calendars (and still set the date for Easter), the greatest impact on Man has been its enduring sense of mystery. For millennia we\u2019ve mythologised the Moon, poeticised its light, traced its movements, before satisfying our\u00a0curiosity and exploring its surface in 1969. But composers got there first: artistic astronomers, travellers in the boundless space of imagination, their small, pioneering steps a giant leap forward for music.<\/p>
So, which composers have been inspired by our celestial near neighbour?<\/p>

Schubert: songs bathed in moonlight<\/h2>
Franz Schubert<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s songs are bathed in moonlight. Captivated by the nocturnal imagery of his poets, Schubert sought to illustrate the fleeting beauty of lunar light in the \u2018flowing\u2019, \u2018shimmering\u2019 and \u2018flickering\u2019 of his musical brush strokes. His songs also \u2018walk\u2019. \u2018Gute Nacht\u2019, from his bleakly beautiful song cycle Winterreise<\/a><\/strong>,<\/em> takes the kind of night-time stroll beloved of Romantic poets: an introspective journey with the Moon as the lonely traveller\u2019s sole companion. <\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p>In \u2018Nacht und Tr\u00e4ume\u2019 (D827), the brilliance of the moonbeams stirs Schubert\u2019s piano to a glittering stream of shimmering semiquavers, their slow <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-harmony-in-music\">harmonic<\/a><\/strong> rhythm and undulating figuration creating a sense of altered, frozen time. It was a technique which later composers exploited to create intense moonlit moods of wonder and delight which could easily tip over into mystery and madness (Giles Swayne captivates us like this in the middle movement of <em>Cry<\/em>, heard at the Proms in 1983 and 1994).\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/five-essential-works-schubert\">Five great works to kick off your Schubert journey<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Capturing moonlight has generally led composers to sequences of gently flowing ideas, just as if they were depicting a stream of running water. It was a common poetic association which Schubert exploited to the full in Goethe\u2019s \u2018An den Mond\u2019 (D296), where his rippling accompaniment neatly serves a dual purpose. There\u2019s even more of this in his 1815 setting of Ludwig H\u00f6lty\u2019s \u2018An den Mond\u2019 (D193), where the continuous flow of quavers in the piano apparently recalls <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/ludwig-van-beethoven\">Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Piano Sonata in C sharp minor Op. 27 No. 2 of 1801 \u2013 perhaps the most famous invocation of moonlight in music.\u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-beethoven-a-magical-evocation-of-moonlight\">Beethoven: a magical evocation of moonlight<\/h2><p>The sonata\u2019s \u2018Moonlight\u2019 nickname was not coined until 1836 \u2013 after Beethoven\u2019s death \u2013 when one of Schubert\u2019s poets, Ludwig Rellstab, linked Beethoven\u2019s lilting twilit opening with the image of \u2018a boat visiting, by moonlight, the primitive landscapes of Lake Lucerne\u2019. Perhaps he knew Schubert\u2019s setting of H\u00f6lty\u2019s poem and unconsciously made the connection. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-beethovens-moonlight-sonata\">The best recordings of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Beethoven\u2019s pupil <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/czerny-carl\">Carl Czerny<\/a><\/strong> also heard something of the night in the music, imagining \u2018a nocturnal scene\u00a0in which a mournful ghostly voice sounds from the distance\u2019. A vision made all the more atmospheric by Beethoven\u2019s direction that \u2018This whole piece is to be played with the greatest delicacy and without the dampers\u2019 (ie with the sustaining pedal constantly down).\u00a0<\/p><p>This evocative smearing of harmonies, coupled with the sense of suppressed drama and icy calm, worked their magic on later generations of composers brought up in the belief that this was indeed a true Beethovenian evocation of moonlight. <\/p><p>Whether the impressionistic mist of sound reached as far as Debussy is arguable, though the much-loved <em>Clair de lune<\/em> from his <em>Suite bergamasque<\/em> for piano (1890) uses several similar techniques \u2013 slow-moving harmonies, step-wise motion and plenty of rippling. But it was Paul Verlaine\u2019s <em>Clair de lune<\/em> (1869) which provided the poetic inspiration, which Debussy expanded in a pair of songs: the last, a timeless evocation of Verlaine\u2019s vision of the lovers\u2019 sad song \u2018mingling with the calm moonlight\u2019.\u00a0<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Debussy - Clair de Lune\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WNcsUNKlAKw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-place-of-peaceful-stillness\">A place of peaceful stillness<\/h2><p>Of all the Moon\u2019s musical moods it\u2019s this sense of peaceful stillness which has gained greatest currency, especially when reflected in water. The famous <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-aria\">aria<\/a><\/strong> \u2018Song to the Moon\u2019 from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/antonin-dvorak\">Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019<\/a><\/strong>s opera <em>Rusalka<\/em> is sung by the title character\u00a0from the solitude of a moonlit woodland lake, while Frank Bridge\u2019s orchestral suite <em>The Sea<\/em> (1912) devotes a whole movement to \u2018the sea shimmering in full moonlight\u2019. <\/p><p>Its lyrical romanticism made an impression on the ten-year-old <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/benjamin-britten-composer\">Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong> at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in 1924. But 20 years later, his own \u2018Moonlight\u2019 interlude from the opera <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/peter-grimes-britten\">Peter Grimes<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is more precisely observed: the sea-swell mirrored in heaving chords for low strings and wind, and the flickering moonlight illuminated by darting <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/what-is-a-harp\">harp<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/flute\">flute<\/a><\/strong> triplets. \u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-an-omen-of-disaster-and-evil\">An omen of disaster and evil<\/h2><p>Here the moonlight provides the unsettling calm before the storm \u2013 the young apprentice is dead and Grimes\u2019s own tragedy inevitable. Moonlight is often seen as an omen of disaster and evil, especially when it leads to an eclipse. In the sumptuous <em>Royal Ballet of the Night<\/em> staged at the court of Louis XIV in 1653, the normally frigid Moon is warmed by love for a handsome shepherd and deserts the heavens to pursue him; in the eerie darkness of the resulting eclipse \u2018Demons, Sorcerers and Werewolves\u2019 are unleashed to do their worst.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/four-composers-court-louis-xiv\">Four composers at the court of Louis XIV<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Julian Anderson\u2019s 1997 <em>The Crazed Moon<\/em>, commissioned for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, takes its cue from the disturbing lunar eclipse of March 1996 and a recent bereavement, weaving a funereal journey towards a central orchestral unison which, says Anderson, \u2018collapses dramatically \u2013 the moment of eclipse \u2013 greeted by baying fanfares on brass\u2019. And in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/alban-berg\">Alban Berg<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Wozzeck<\/em> (1922) another moonbeam unison accompanies Wozzeck\u2019s murder of Marie, just as the blood-red moon rises. The Mad Moon.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-moon-sickness-the-strange-dream-sequences-of-schoenbergs-pierrot-lunaire\">‘Moon-sickness’: the strange dream sequences of Schoenbergs’ <em>Pierrot Lunaire<\/em><\/h2><p>Insanity has long been blamed on moon-sickness \u2013 lunacy \u2013 a state of mind which inspired <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/arnold-schoenberg\">Arnold Schoenberg<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s melodrama <em>Pierrot Lunaire<\/em> in 1912. He selected 21 poems by Albert Giraud to form a dream sequence in which the moonstruck Pierrot confronts elements of his own troubled fantasy. Just like Schubert, the first song \u2018Mondestrunken\u2019 (Moondrunk) depicts cascades of moonbeams using traditional means: \u2018flowing\u2019 (piano figures), \u2018shimmering\u2019 (flute trills) and \u2018flickering\u2019 (violin <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-pizzicato\">pizzicatos<\/a><\/strong>). There are familiar poetic themes too, linking water and walking with the moonlight. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Complete performance: Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bd2cBUJmDr8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>But Giraud also introduces a potent new image, imagining moonbeams transformed into celestial wine drunk through the eyes, which Schoenberg paints by infusing the whole song with elements drawn from the opening bars \u2013 the intoxication of the first heady sip colouring our whole experience. In the 18th song, \u2018Der Mondfleck\u2019, Pierrot tries to rub a speck of moonlight off his back, but it won\u2019t disappear, just like the musical figures of Schoenberg\u2019s virtuoso counterpoint which keep on returning. \u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-enter-haydn-lunar-humour\">Enter Haydn: lunar humour<\/h2><p>The Moon has provoked much mirth \u2013 especially on stage. In Carlo Goldoni\u2019s libretto <em>Il Mondo della luna<\/em> (The World on the Moon), the cast themselves are transported to the Moon \u2013 well, the gullible ones. It tells the\u00a0story of a fake astrologer Ecclitico, who devises a cunning plan to trick the grumpy Buonafede into allowing his daughters to marry the lovers of their choice. <\/p><p><em>Il Mondo della luna<\/em> was first set to music by Galuppi (Venice, 1750) who brought the house down with Bonafede\u2019s aria describing the innumerable lunar wonders in astonished, gulped phrases, while walking with exaggerated steps on the Moon\u2019s supposedly springy surface.\u00a0<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Scene from the opera Il Mondo della Luna, Vienna Chamber Opera, 1965. Pic: Imagno\/Getty Images – Imagno\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Goldoni\u2019s text was taken up by a wide range of composers including <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/joseph-haydn\">Haydn<\/a><\/strong>, who adapted it to provide some light-hearted entertainment during marriage celebrations at the Princely court of Eszterh\u00e1za in 1777. Haydn\u2019s music fully colludes in Ecclitico\u2019s elaborate deception, beginning with gravity-defying theatrics as Buonafede \u2013 fuelled by a \u2018flying elixir\u2019 (really a sleeping potion) \u2013 makes his hallucinatory voyage to the Moon. <\/p><p>Craftiest of all is Haydn\u2019s conjuration of the lunar landscape with a sequence of exotic ballet movements, including one for double orchestra with special effects for delicate strings and off-stage horns and bassoons. Ultimately Buonafede is furious to discover that the \u2018Moon\u2019 is actually Ecclitico\u2019s garden, but Goldoni assures us that even the shortest journeys can help provide a fresh perspective on life back home.\u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-janacek-s-drunken-landlord-sets-off-to-the-moon\">Jan\u00e1\u010dek’s drunken landlord sets off to the Moon<\/h2><p>A century and a half later, the Moon once again played host to a curmudgeonly operatic visitor from earth. This is the anti-hero of a novel by Czech nationalist Svatopluk \u010cech, adapted by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/leos-janacek\">Leos Jan\u00e1\u010dek<\/a><\/strong> for his comic opera <em>The Excursion of Mr Brou\u010dek to the Moon<\/em> (1920). <\/p><p>Mr Brou\u010dek \u2013 a drunken Prague landlord \u2013 dreams that life must surely be better on the Moon, only to find himself mysteriously borne aloft to see for himself. Something of a philistine, his delight in Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s ethereal soundscape, with its spectral theme for solo violin, is short-lived, as he discovers that the Moon is populated by pretentious artistic types who hang out at the Cathedral of All Arts. <\/p><p>Like Haydn, Jan\u00e1\u010dek writes a series of Moon dances (with a strong Czech flavour), and during the banquet of flower-scents Brou\u010dek is encouraged to sniff vigorously to the accompaniment of the Moon anthem, a parody of the Czech national song \u2018My homeland\u2019. But all this culture is too much for Brou\u010dek, who offends against lunar etiquette by mentioning his nose (prohibited on the Moon) and then outrages the vegetarian Moon-beings by snacking on sausages \u2013 cue a shocked \u2018meat\u2019 chorus. Brou\u010dek makes a swift return to Earth.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/the-ten-best-czech-composers\">The ten best Czech composers<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-clangers-bringing-moon-landing-excitement-to-younger-audiences\"><em>The Clangers<\/em>: bringing Moon-landing excitement to younger audiences<\/h2><p>So much for visitors. Without them, life and music can continue undisturbed for eons \u2013 as it has on one remote moon. Broadcast on BBC One between 1969 and \u201972 (and revived in 2015), <em>The Clangers<\/em> aimed to bring the excitement of NASA\u2019s Apollo missions to a younger audience. Written and narrated by Oliver Postgate, we meet a family of small, knitted space creatures who live on a vegetarian diet of green soup (cooked by the Soup Dragon) followed by blue string pudding. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CBeebies: Clangers Theme Song\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QJAyKCq-hYE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>The music \u2013 often central to the stories \u2013 was based on sketches and graphs drawn by Postage, turned into scores by the composer Vernon Elliott, and then recorded by their \u2018Clanger Ensemble\u2019 (harp, clarinet, glockenspiel and bells) with Elliott himself on bassoon. <\/p><p>But the most memorable sounds were those made by the Clangers themselves who spoke in their very own whistled language. Taking their lead from the rhythm and intonation of Postage\u2019s voice-overs, these witty intonations were performed on \u2018Swanee\u2019 whistles, their\u00a0rising and falling <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/discovering-music-glissando\">glissandos<\/a><\/strong> and sing-song phrases easily understood by children of all ages.<\/p><p>Perhaps this wasn\u2019t so wide of the mark. On 22 May 1969 the three astronauts of the Apollo 10 lunar-orbital mission reported strange noises while they were on the dark side of the moon: \u2018Do you hear that? That whistling sound?\u2019 \u2018Yes. It sounds like\u2026 outer space-type music\u2019.\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Thursday, 04 July 2024 at 17:21 PM Four and a half billion years old and over a quarter of a million miles from Earth, the Moon is our oldest and closest solar friend. Viewed from Earth, by a stroke of celestial magic, it appears as large as the distant Sun, constantly shapeshifting under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44882,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"9"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon.png",1266,1006,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon-300x238.png",300,238,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon-768x610.png",768,610,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon-1024x814.png",800,636,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon.png",1266,1006,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/07\/haven-of-peaceful-stillness-or-omen-of-disaster-the-most-evocative-music-inspired-by-the-moon.png",1266,1006,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Thursday, 04 July 2024 at 17:21 PM Four and a half billion years old and over a quarter of a million miles from Earth, the Moon is our oldest and closest solar friend. Viewed from Earth, by a stroke of celestial magic, it appears as large as the distant Sun, constantly shapeshifting under…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/44881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}