Mac'nClassicalCheese - Aug 10, 2023

Criss-cross applesauce on the carpet b/c it's story time! Nearly all these pieces are from operas, ballets, or movie scores. For some context about opera and ballet music: usually a story exists already and then someone writes a score (the music) for that opera or ballet. So in turn, music for operas and ballets are story-driven works – they are not just random melodies with random ups and downs in tempo or feeling, each part of these pieces corresponds to what is going on in the story. Other than this, there are 3 pieces that I'll call out because they aren't self-explanatory: the Prayer of St. Gregory which is based on a Biblical story, Elgar's Serenade for Strings which is included because a "serenade" is actually a specific term that means music played in the evening, outdoors, and usually meant to invoke the image/feeling of one lover serenading another "in the moonlight". I cannot make this up. It is apparently that specific, so I counted it as a story-related song. And then the last piece, the 1st movt. of Tchaik's Symphony 3. I really wanted to play this because there is a beautiful, dark melody hidden in it, AND there is actually a crazy backstory that has to do with this guy named Vladimir Shilovsky if you're interested in some *tea.