We couldn’t let the season go by without having some kind of summer-related theme. For this August, the Classics a Day team chose to catch some rays. And, to find out how many classical composers did so with their music.
Of course, any summer-related topic is fair game, too. Here are my posts for the first week of #FunintheSun.
08/01/22 Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet Op. 20, No. 1
The six Op. 20 quartets are collectively known as the Sun Quartets. The name comes from the 1774 printing which featured a rising sun on the cover.
08/02/22 Carl Ruggles: Sun-treader
Ruggles based his 1926 work on Robert Browning’s poem “Pauline” In it, the poet writes, “Sun-treader, light and life be thine forever.”
08/03/22 Thomas Arne: ‘The Glitt’ring Sun’
This aria comes from Arne’s cantata, “The Morning.” Arne used a text based on John Milton’s writings for this 1755 work.
08/04/22 Carl Nielsen: Helios Overture Op. 17
Helios was the Greek sun god. He drove a horse-drawn chariot across the sky daily, from east to west. Nielsen’s 1903 score was inspired by Greek art he studied during a trip to Athens. Art that, of course, depicted Helios in flight.
08/05/22 Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 76, No. 4
This quartet is nicknamed the “Sunrise” quartet. But not by Haydn. The rising theme supported by sustained chords seemed to suggest the rising sun (to somebody).
