BY MADELINE ROYCROFT
It’s that time of year again.
If, like me, you spent almost every night of the Christmas break watching Netflix in bed until 3 o’clock in the morning, then the prospect of waking up and getting to work before 9am could be slightly alarming.
Perhaps you were able to spend some of your holiday time interstate or overseas, in which case you’re probably struggling to find the motivation required to get back into a normal routine.
If you are suffering from the ‘back to work’ blues, here are seven of our favourite classical masterworks that were inspired by taking some much needed time off.
7. Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26
After a brief and futile stint in the United States, Prokofiev moved to Paris in 1920. His third piano concerto was composed during the summer of the following year, which he spent in a coastal town of Brittany called St. Brevin-les-Pins. Procrastinators take note: Prokofiev’s first sketches of the concerto dated back to 1917, so remember, it’s never too late for a burst of productivity.
6. Schumann – Symphony No. 3 in Eb major, Op. 97 ‘Rhenish’
The Schumanns left Dresden in 1950, after Robert was appointed municipal music director of Dusseldorf. Initially, the city’s street noise prevented him from composing, but a relaxing trip to the Rhineland with Clara encouraged Robert to begin composing his third symphony. After sketching the first movement in less than a week, Robert took another trip to Cologne in search of further inspiration. The entire symphony was completed a month later, and he even included a descending two note ‘Clara motif’ in the third movement, which is nothing short of adorable.
5. Nielsen – ‘Hymnus amoris’ (1897)
The Danish composer’s earliest choral work was inspired by ‘Miracle of the Jealous Husband’, a fresco by Italian Renaissance painter Titian. Nielsen had seen the painting while honeymooning across Italy in 1891. After completing the work six years later, Nielsen outlined his compositional process: ‘I really worked with this idea for a year or two, but it was only in the summer that I managed to begin writing the music’. Who knew time off could be so fruitful?
4. Elgar – ‘In the South (Alassio)’
‘In the South’ was sketched in the winter of 1903/1904, while Elgar was holidaying in Italy with his wife, Alice. Although the elusive British symphony he had hoped to compose during this period never emerged, the picturesque surroundings inspired a lavish and spirited concert overture, equally evocative as a tone poem in the style of Elgar’s friend, Richard Strauss. The work’s subtitle ‘Alassio’ refers to the town on the Italian Riviera where Elgar found the initial inspiration for the work. “I was by the side of an old Roman way,” the composer remembered. “A peasant stood by an old ruin and in a flash it all came to me – the conflict of armies in that very spot long ago, where now I stood – the contrast of the ruin and the shepherd – and then all of a sudden, I came back to reality. In that time I had ‘composed’ the overture – the rest was merely writing it down.” There you go – concrete evidence that holidays can actually give you compositional superpowers.
3. Berlioz – ‘Harold in Italy’ (Symphony in four parts with solo viola)
As winner of the Prix de Rome in 1830, Berlioz was required to spend the subsequent two years studying in Italy. He was hardly inspired by the city’s musical life, writing that “Rome is the most stupid and prosaic city I know; it is no place for anyone with head or heart”. Berlioz channeled his hatred for the city into wanderlust, spending as much time in the surrounding countryside as possible, collecting impressions and experiences that would appear in his later work. ‘Harold in Italy’ was completed in 1834, two years after his return to Paris. The unconventional symphony features a solo viola and draws inspiration from the composer’s wanderings through the Abruzzi, a mountainous region east of Rome. If that doesn’t encourage you to plan your next trip to Italy, I don’t know what will.
2. Gershwin – ‘An American in Paris’
Intent on studying composition with Maurice Ravel, Gershwin made his first trip to Paris in 1926. The story goes that Ravel claimed rigorous classical training would become a blemish on Gershwin’s jazz-influenced style – “Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?” – thus, the young composer’s request for lessons was eloquently denied. While shopping for Parisian taxi horns to bring home as a souvenir, Gershwin found the inspiration for his next major work. In an interview for the magazine ‘Musical America’, Gershwin described ‘An American in Paris’ as capturing “the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere”. After finishing the tone poem back in New York, Gershwin said: “This new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is the most modern music I have ever attempted”. Refreshing, educational and fertile – what more could you want from a holiday?
1. Stravinsky – ‘Rite of Spring’
Even a music teacher’s school holidays aren’t long enough to compose a work of this magnitude, but Stravinsky was able to put the finishing touches on the ‘Rite of Spring’ while staying in Switzerland. In April 1912, he wrote: “Today, with a violent toothache, I completed the composition of Le Sacre du printemps. Clarens, Châtelard Hotel”. While this doesn’t sound like a particularly restorative experience, we can now safely say that it was one of the more productive vacations of the 20th Century.
Image: Lima Pix via Flickr, CC2.0.
